AZ Alkmaar sealed the club’s first Dutch championship in nearly 30 years without kicking a ball on Sunday after title rivals Ajax were routed 6-2 by PSV Eindhoven.
Ajax’s defeat means AZ, who have an 11-point lead over second-placed FC Twente, cannot now be caught with only three games remaining.
AZ had missed the chance to be crowned champions in front of their own fans when they lost 2-1 to Vitesse Arnhem on Saturday.
“I must say I wasn’t happy this morning but this makes everything nice,” said Alkmaar coach Louis Van Gaal, who picked up the fourth league title of his career after his years with Ajax. “The fans were ready to celebrate yesterday but it doesn’t matter now that we are champions.”
“The aim now is to turn AZ into a big national club and one that is known in Europe. The president wants to do things in stages which touches every domain and not merely results on the pitch,” he said.
AZ won their only other crown in 1981 and are the only side outside of the traditional Dutch powerhouses of Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven to have claimed the title since 1965.
Van Gaal, who is under contract until 2011, is key to the club situated 40km outside Amsterdam and which came into existence in 1967 with the amalgamation of Alkmaar’54 and FC Zaanstreek.
“He’s a teacher beyond compare,” said Alkmaar striker Moussa Dembele. “With him you learn something new every day.”
Ajax, the most successful side in Dutch history, have failed to win the title for five straight seasons.
Ajax coach Marco van Basten admitted on Sunday that “AZ deserve the title ... AZ were the best team over the past six months.”
AZ have have played in the Eredivisie since 1998 after a post-1981 decline and reached the UEFA Cup semi-finals in 2005, with van Gaal taking the helm later that year.
He considered quitting last summer and when they lost the opening two matches of the current campaign experts predicted that van Gaal would not to make it to the winter.
But AZ then turned the tide in dramatic fashion, starting the unbeaten run of 24 wins and four draws with a 1-0 over PSV on Sep. 20 which van Gaal and the team’s video analyst Max Reckers named the defining moment.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS