|
AZ needn't always play beautiful
Monday 02 February 2009
Foeke Booy, coach of Sparta Rotterdam
knew enough after he had seen AZ Alkmaar beat
his team.
"I have seen a team that has
all the characteristics of a champion," Booy said.
Sparta gave AZ a hard time but
after 90 minutes they stood empty handed as do most
teams when they face the team of Louis van Gaal.
Booy didn't emphasize the surplus
of individual quality of AZ as he thinks that is clear
for all to see.
Most of all he admires the team
spirit and the discipline of the Alkmaarders.
"Champions are able to control
even the difficult games and are able to decide a game
in an instant."
It was a nice illustration of the
entertaining game Sparta-AZ had been and where the crowd
thought AZ would finally drop points.
On a hard and bumpy field the AZ
players had to fight more physical battles than they
liked but the best defence in the Eredivisie kept a
clean sheet again (the 11th in a row).
"They stumbled a few times
but AZ will not fall at the back," Booy said in
admiration.
It reminded him of his own championship
year as a player with Club Brugge in Belgium.
"We didn't always play very
pretty but we won most of the time."
Even the hardest of jobs are seemingly
done by AZ without any effort.
Since the introduction of the three
point-system in 1995 it has never happened that a club
having a nine point lead after 20 games did not win
the league.
On cold winter days in January
and February AZ don't necessarily need to win any prizes
for style.
Especially in this period when
PSV have dropped away and Ajax does not seem to be a
serious candidate despite millions of investments Van
Gaal is earning admiration for the professionalism of
his side.
Van Gaal denies that the way AZ
play now is less satisfying than the offensive game
he played with Ajax in the early 90's.
"I prefer to play on the opponents
half. But as a coach have to opt for a system that suits
the players the best. For that I don't have to make
any concessions to my own vision of football."
According to Van Gaal it is important
that the players can be who they are.
AZ are not stuffed with complicated
instructions.
When Mounir El Hamdaoui started
out with AZ he was having trouble with the amount of
information he had to stick in his head before the game.
It collided with his own creativity.
Now Van Gaal lets him fill in his
own role in the 4-4-2 system AZ play.
Sparta thought for 80 minutes they
had neutralized the AZ top scorer as they thought for
a long time that Moussa Dembélé was unable
to make much of a difference.
But deep into the second half both
Dembélé and El Hamdaoui once pulled the
trigger and in doing so rewarded the hard work of Luijckx,
Jaliens, Swerts, De Zeeuw and Schaars.
It's those guys that allow the
AZ forwards to star each week.
The result is that AZ now have
a nine point lead over Ajax and FC Twente.
Booy: "Do you know what is
perhaps AZ biggest strength? The knowledge they gave
away the championship two years ago on the last day
of the season. That will not happen to them again. They
now have that experience and that will turn out be very
valuable."
|
