After winning the Eerste Divisie in 1960–61, it played one year in the Eredivisie. FC Zaanstreek had been playing since 1910 as the Kooger Football Club (KFC).
KFC had nearly become national champion in 1934 through a narrow loss to Ajax in the finals.
Alkmaar '54, and by extension AZ, played the very first professional match in the Netherlands: on 14 August 1954, they won 3–0 at home against Venlo '54, with Klaas Smit scoring the first (and third) goal.
Alkmaar '54 was founded as a professional team in April 1954 to play in the 10-team NBVB league, created because the KNVB refused to organize a professional league (the KNVB took over in 1955).
The team became professional in 1955.
After winning the Eerste Divisie in 1960–61, it played one year in the Eredivisie. FC Zaanstreek had been playing since 1910 as the Kooger Football Club (KFC).
In 1964 the professional part of KFC was renamed FC Zaanstreek, while the amateurs played on as KFC. Also in 1964, the brothers Cees and Klaas Molenaar, former players and trainers for KFC and owners of a growing appliance store chain, sought to create a powerful football team in Zaanstreek by merging the two local professional teams: KFC and Zaanlandsche Football Club.
FC Zaanstreek had finished 7th and Alkmaar '54 12th in 1966–67 Eerste Divisie.
In addition, the team has won the KNVB Cup on four occasions and one Johan Cruyff Shield. ==History== ===1910–1972: Foundation and first years=== AZ was founded on 10 May 1967 as AZ '67, the result of a merger of Alkmaar '54 and FC Zaanstreek.
After the ZFC leadership thwarted this attempt, the Molenaars successfully merged FC Zaanstreek with Alkmaar '54 in 1967.
Meanwhile, Danish forward Kristen Nygaard spent ten years at AZ, scoring 104 goals in 363 matches between 1972 and 1982. ===1985–1993: The interim years=== Co-owner Cees Molenaar died in 1979.
After the season, key players like Tim de Cler, Danny Koevermans and Shota Arveladze left the team. A remarkable run ended in the 2007–08 season: after AZ lost a group stage match against Everton (3–2) in the UEFA Cup, the club's unbeaten run of 32 home matches in European competitions – lasting from 1977 to 2007 – ended.
Meanwhile, Danish forward Kristen Nygaard spent ten years at AZ, scoring 104 goals in 363 matches between 1972 and 1982. ===1985–1993: The interim years=== Co-owner Cees Molenaar died in 1979.
The club plays in the Eredivisie, the highest professional football league in the Netherlands, and hosts home matches at the AFAS Stadion. AZ has won the Eredivisie twice, in 1980–81 and 2008–09.
Like Hovenkamp, Metgod was also included in the Dutch squad for Euro 1980.
Meanwhile, Danish forward Kristen Nygaard spent ten years at AZ, scoring 104 goals in 363 matches between 1972 and 1982. ===1985–1993: The interim years=== Co-owner Cees Molenaar died in 1979.
AZ's fortunes deteriorated after his brother, Klaas Molenaar, left the club in 1985.
After several mid-table finishes in previous seasons, AZ was relegated in 1988 from the Eredivisie, ending the season on 28 points from 34 matches and falling to the Eerste Divisie due to the superior goal difference of Roda JC.
Following this, AZ spent much of the next decade in the second tier, struggling to find a return to the top flight. ===1993–2009: The Scheringa years=== The involvement of businessman Dirk Scheringa in the mid-1990s marked the revival of the club as AZ returned to the Eredivisie, winning the 1997-98 Eerste Divisie title.
The club achieved consecutive finishes around the middle positions in the league until ending up in third place in the 2004-05 Eredivisie season, AZ's highest position for 23 years.
In the summer of 2006, the club moved to a new 17,000 capacity stadium, AZ Stadion. Despite playing strongly for the majority of the 2006–07 season, AZ's season ended in disappointment.
First, entering the last matchday of the 2006–07 Eredivisie season, AZ led PSV and Ajax on goal difference at the top of the league table, but ended up third after losing their last match against 16th placed team Excelsior, AZ played with ten men for 80 minutes.
The stadium, which is directly owned by the club, was opened in 2006 and replaced the old Alkmaarderhout venue as the DSB Stadion.
After the season, key players like Tim de Cler, Danny Koevermans and Shota Arveladze left the team. A remarkable run ended in the 2007–08 season: after AZ lost a group stage match against Everton (3–2) in the UEFA Cup, the club's unbeaten run of 32 home matches in European competitions – lasting from 1977 to 2007 – ended.
AZ had a poor season, suffering elimination in the first round of the KNVB Cup and the group stage of the UEFA Cup, as well as finishing the 2007–08 Eredivisie in a disappointing 11th place.
The club plays in the Eredivisie, the highest professional football league in the Netherlands, and hosts home matches at the AFAS Stadion. AZ has won the Eredivisie twice, in 1980–81 and 2008–09.
Towards the latter stages of the season, in March 2008, AZ manager Louis van Gaal had initially tendered his resignation, but after protests the players and directors, he rescinded his resignation. The 2008–09 season had an unpromising start after two opening defeats against NAC Breda and ADO Den Haag.
It was drawn into a group alongside Arsenal FC, Standard Liège and Olympiacos but only took four points from six matches and finished bottom of their group. ===2009–2014=== For the 2009–10 season, Ronald Koeman succeeded Louis van Gaal, who had departed to manage Bayern Munich after leading AZ to the championship.
Koeman was officially hired on 17 May 2009, but on 5 December, AZ announced he was no longer in charge of the club after losing 7 of his first 16 matches.
These plans, however, were put on hold after the DSB bankruptcy and there are no current plans to increase the capacity. In October 2009, sponsor DSB Bank was declared bankrupt.
Under Advocaat, AZ achieved solid results and secured European football for the next season. For the 2010–11 season, AZ appointed Gertjan Verbeek as its new manager.
They finished the 2010–11 Eredivisie in fourth place, thus securing Europa League football for the next season, while in the KNVB Cup, AZ reached the last eight, where they were beaten by rivals Ajax by a 1–0 scoreline.
In February 2010, a new main sponsor was found in construction works service provider BUKO, based in Beverwijk. A year later, in the 2010–11 season, took over as official stadium sponsor.
AZ also finished third in their Europa League group, thus failing to qualifying for the competition's knockout round. In the 2011–12 season, AZ finished fourth in the Eredivisie, though performed significantly better in cup competitions, reaching the semi-finals in the KNVB Cup (losing to Heracles after extra time) and the quarter-finals in the Europa League.
In the latter, the club ultimately lost to Valencia after having defeated Udinese, Anderlecht, Malmö FF, Austria Wien, Metalist Kharkiv, Aalesund and Baumit Jablonec to reach that stage. On 21 December 2011, during the quarter-finals of the 2011–12 KNVB Cup, a 19-year-old Ajax fan invaded the Amsterdam Arena pitch in the 36th minute with Ajax winning 1–0, attacking AZ goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado.
The match was later played on 19 January 2012, with Alvarado's red card rescinded; AZ won 3–2. The 2012–13 season started in the Europa League with a qualifying play-off round against Guus Hiddink's Anzhi Makhachkala.
Disappointingly, AZ finished tenth in the 2012–13 Eredivisie, although the club won the 2012–13 KNVB Cup after defeating PSV 2–1 in the final.
As cup winners, AZ automatically qualified for the 2013–14 Europa League. In September 2013, just one day after emphatically beating PSV, at the time the league leaders, Verbeek was dismissed as first team manager by the club due to "a lack of chemistry" between management and players.
Advocaat took AZ to the semi-finals of the KNVB Cup, the quarter-finals of the Europa League and eighth in the league, ultimately losing to Groningen in the Europa League play-off final round (their 58th match of the season, a club record). ===Since 2014=== The 2014–15 season began with a new manager, former Heerenveen manager and Ajax great Marco van Basten.
Under Van den Brom, AZ quickly rose up to the sub-top, eventually finished the season in third place, surpassing Feyenoord on the final season's matchday and qualifying for the 2015–16 Europa League. The 2015–16 Eredivisie started with AZ selling most of its first-team players from the previous season during the summer transfer period.
In the 2015–16 KNVB Cup, AZ made it to the semi-finals, losing 3–1 to Feyenoord.
AZ won the first two qualification rounds to qualify for the 2015–16 Europa League group stage, but finished last in their group. At the start of the 2016–17 Eredivisie, AZ sold last season's performer Vincent Janssen to Tottenham Hotspur and long-time midfielder Markus Henriksen to Hull City.
AZ won the first two qualification rounds to qualify for the 2015–16 Europa League group stage, but finished last in their group. At the start of the 2016–17 Eredivisie, AZ sold last season's performer Vincent Janssen to Tottenham Hotspur and long-time midfielder Markus Henriksen to Hull City.
In the 2016–17 Europa League, AZ finished second in Group D, surviving the group stage for the third time in five seasons. After an excellent 2019/20 season in which AZ beat league leaders Ajax home and away, the season was forced to end early due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the 2016–17 Europa League, AZ finished second in Group D, surviving the group stage for the third time in five seasons. After an excellent 2019/20 season in which AZ beat league leaders Ajax home and away, the season was forced to end early due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The current external name of the ground is the AFAS Stadion. On 10 August 2019, the roof of the stadium partially collapsed.
As the result AZ spent the rest of the year playing home matches at the Cars Jeans Stadion in The Hague whilst the damaged roof was being removed, before returning to the stadium on 15 December 2019, beating Ajax 1–0 in their first match back.
All text is taken from Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License .
Page generated on 2021-08-05