After facing Vitesse Second Team, Ajax Second Team began their break, but the First Team still had one more match to play.
They hosted Zwolle.
The visitors were not particularly strong. Having narrowly avoided relegation last season, they remained one of the favorites to go down this season.
They had lost 0–1 away to Utrecht and 0–3 at home to Waalwijk in the first two league rounds. Now, after two straight defeats, they were traveling to Amsterdam Arena. Everyone believed Ajax should be able to finish all their August fixtures with a convincing victory.
Yet the result came as a shock.
Playing at home with their strongest lineup, Ajax performed terribly. Their defense was relatively well organized, but their attack offered little. The only bright spot came in the thirty-second minute, when Swedish Striker Ibrahimovic set up Pienaar for a goal.
It was the only goal of the match.
Afterward, Head Coach Ronald Koeman came under fire from the media. Everyone felt Ajax's performance this season had been disappointing. Although they had won three straight matches, neither their displays nor their results had been acceptable.
Koeman said that the team was still adjusting and building chemistry.
"The visiting side was extremely resilient in this match. Head Coach Piet Booy deployed a 5-4-1 formation: five defenders and three holding midfielders, with heavy numbers packed through the middle. That prevented our attack from getting going for a long time."
As for rumors that Ibrahimovic and Van der Vaart were incompatible, Ronald Koeman said they were baseless fabrications. There was no conflict between the two players.
"They are both outstanding players with tremendous potential. In any team and under any circumstances, there would be no such thing as incompatibility between them. The issue now is that they need to adjust their own tempo