ALKMAAR PREVIEW

"No man is an island, entire of itself. He is a part of the main, and if a clod be washed away, he is the Less as well as if a manor of thine own were, therefore send not to ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." - John Donne

In the centre of Alkmaar there is an ice cream parlour which serves delicious banana splits and where one can turn the pages of "AZ - the Golden Years" - a club history which recounts the legendary exploits of the UEFA Cup campaign of 1981, in which AZ'76 (as they were known at the time) lost the Final dramatically 5-4 to Ipswich Town over two legs. A photo in the book has the teams coming out at Portman Road with playmaker and AZ-kryptonite Eric Gates among the Ipswich players emerging from the tunnel.

On the quiet edge of town, where the motorway arrives in a 10-kilometer straight line across nothing but flatironed fields which in springtime contain superb tulips, and a few bemused cows, stands the AFAS stadium - proudly bedecked with outsized images of famous players - and the motto "*The Future is Ours*" emblazoned in rather Scarface-like neon red.

AZ is not a hugely rich club, and it is not one of the "Big 3" - PSV, Ajax and Feyernoord - but it is like the Netherlands well-off, very commercially minded and has a relentless focus on the bottom of the pyramid, otherwise known as the grass roots which stretch from the tulip fields through the windmill-strewn Zaanland to the vast industrial Port of Amsterdam. People here, both rural and urban, are hardscrabble - Alkmaar pushed back Spanish invaders in the 17th century from the spot where the AFAS now stands and the fans are connoisseurs of football with a hatred for richer "aristocratic" rivals Ajax. What they lack in capital, they have made up for in hard work and leaning into strength of community, sports science and statistics.

Now regarded as perhaps the most exciting football club in the country and known further afield for its outstanding youth system (AZ U-21 beat Real Madrid to win the European title in 2025), the Club has demonstrated a prodigious ability to generate and replenish its talent with homegrown players, mixed with international imports from Portugal, Serbia and Scandinavia.

In recent years, AZ has become arguably the top developer of young talent in the Netherlands but it has also become, in parallel, the leading practitioner of data analytics coupled with the use of statistics in order to both uncover talent, analyse opponents and improve player performance. Billy Beane - he of Moneyball baseball fame- is a close friend of the Club and everywhere Billy goes, his statistician follows, laptop and Starlink in hand, ready to tease out tiny advantages and generate temporal and spatial models which can help the coaches and the players to take down larger opponents.

Unfortunately for some purists, and precisely because of its commitment to youth, the club maintains a long-standing policy of moving established talent on once players reach 26 or 28. The last two summers have seen the exit of players such as top scorer Evangelidis Pavlidis to Benfica, Ruben van Bommel to PSV and David Moeller-Wolfe to Wolves. This made the first half of last season a bit challenging but eventually the group turned it around on the pitch, and now the team are flying again. After Cup Final glory and this summer's exits (notably Troy Parrott to Real Betis and Sven Mijnans to PSV) a rejuvenated, even younger team thrashed PSV 4-1 in Eindhoven on front of their own fans at the Phillips Arena to win the Johan Cruyff Trophy (the Dutch Charity Shield) and have won their first four league games with potent displays of attacking football, and a new look teamsheet that prioritizes the "latest crop" of 18-19 year olds plus veterans like 20-year old Kaas Smit, Alkmaar's local lad and ginger equivalent of Chris Rigg. AZ are currently top of the Dutch Eredivisie and the fine balance between betting on youth, and generating sufficient profits to lubricate the machinery of future success may well earn them a first Dutch title in 18 years (they have only won two, the other being in 1981).

I was drawn to watch AZ over the last few years by virtue of living in Alkmaar and after my experiences in Turkey playing and coaching amateur sides I missed connection to the game and being unable to go to a Sunderland match with a young family, I opted for another team in red and white.

Their 20,000 capacity stadium has a decent atmosphere mainly in the Van der Ben stand behind the home goal where the Ultras make more noise than the whole of the Emirates. AZ play a brand of direct attacking football which prioritises pass completion and ball retention. They have regularly qualified for Europe and this led to a situation too hard to resist: European football! I duly forked out took my 5-year old son to his first ever football match there, under the floodlights, which was a raucous 1-0 win over a niggly latter-day Ange Postecoglu Spurs side. It would have been a lot more had anyone including my son been upfront instead of Troy Parrott (who is now with Real Betis).

For Sunderland to be drawn against AZ is a dream come true for me and my family, less for getting the school year off to a smooth start (no-one will ever know).

It's an outrageous manifestation of how football can serve up the surreal and magical and proof that dreams don’t always remain in the imagination - they can also walk tall. Coming home that night against Spurs, my boy asked me "Daddy, what if AZ play Sunderland? Who will you support?" Little did he know it, but my little lad had made a prophecy that would inspire his Dad and ultimately lead to a face-off in the Europa League 18 months later...

From that night on, though not consciously at first, I started taking more of an active interest in European football - following different leagues, looking at the trajectories of various clubs and eventually writing down my thoughts for ALS under the umbrella of a crazy thesis about "disruption" in which Sunderland returned to the heights of 1999-2001 in the Premier League. But I had no idea that we could also make it into Europe. Blessed are the meek, for they shall be allowed into Europe. Meanwhile, we just put our my son in charge of placing bets on the Grand National and buying lottery tickets.

HOW THEY PLAY

AZ love to play direct, attacking football and they have the talent in midfield, and down both wings, to create overloads. Typically their full backs will push up and form part of the attacks and they will not waste time going sideways, when there is a chance to move the ball forwards. Current coach Leeroy Echteld was the former youth team coach and there is a tight bond between players, coach and the hardcore fans.

WHO TO WATCH

Most of the plaudits go to local lad Kaas Smit, now 20 and a "senior" member of the team. Smit made his debut as a sub aged 17 in a home game I watched and he has skill, pace and trickery and is the engine in the heart of midfield. Smit is a street footballer, always playing with a smile on his face and it probably puzzles many that he was born in nearby Heilloo, a village instead of a barrio in Buenos Aires. Mateo Chavez, the Mexico International fullback provides pace and attacking quality down the left, while in front of him tricky right-footed winger (RLB: hint) Rio Zangelo Daal lurks dangerously on the left wing, ready to cut inside and "do a Talbi against Burnley". Jordy Clasie, once of Southampton, and Peer Koopmeiners, brother of my former neighbour Teun (now at Juventus) provide quality and stability in the midfield. Young guns such as Dave Kwakman have the potential to tear up any script, with box quality.

HOW TO BEAT THEM

Despite the often vocal atmosphere in Alkmaar, featuring some fun chants such as "Olé Olè Olè... AZ" and "We are the Ben Side Boys, Let's make some f**g noise!", I know that AZ fans and players will never have heard such an atmosphere as the one at the SOL

It's our first European night in more than a generation, and with the Ultras sure to be inbound from the "Ben", both sets of supporters will show anyone watching, including aliens in outer space, as well as a certain Geordie pundit whose name rhymes with Fear, er.

..what atmosphere is, what pride is, what Europe is and what Sunderland is.

Defensively AZ showed vulnerability last season, and one of their centre halves, the number 3 Wouter Goes, although very young, is known to be the top professional fouler in the Eredivisie and a standout Primadonna. As in previous derbies with Ajax, Goes will undoubtedly try to wind up Brian Brobbey and Sunderland must deal with this by exploiting the space in behind from turnovers, outpacing Goes and his back line with pace down the wings (Talbi, Talbi!) and burying the ball in the net at speed.

Other than this, have Gatesy do the half-time draw!