For weeks, perhaps even months, people in Alkmaar and the surrounding area thought back with horror to the seasonal overture. On a sunny afternoon in August, AZ lost 1-0 to the Roman Catholic Combination in Waalwijk. Goal: Michael Kramer. What a sofa.
Despite a series in which AZ did not lose fourteen games in a row, the Alkmaar club went to Brabant in annoyance. After all, a warned person counts for two. That turned out to be completely unnecessary, since RKC coach Joseph Oosting considers the cup tournament completely subordinate to the competition, in which his team traditionally fights against relegation.
HARAKIRI
Take the starting position: of the eleven players who started in the starting line-up against Willem II last weekend, only two yellow-blue players found themselves in the starting line-up: striker Jens Odgaard and Melle Meulensteen. It turned out, as AZ wingback Yukinari Sugawara would say: harakirior sheer suicide.
AZ showed no mercy with RKC
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Issam El Maach accelerated that process by playing teammate Yassin Oukili on the edge of his own box. Jordy Clasie thoughtfully nicked the ball, let the ball pass through Owen Wijndal and Vangelis Pavlidis, after which Dani de Wit pushed the 0-1 into the ropes.
PAVLIDIS
The reserve goalkeeper also didn’t look happy with the 0-2, when he tapped a cross from Jesper Karlsson towards the incoming Pavlidis. The Greek striker ran the ball in with his left foot to his own surprise: 0-2.
The game seemed over, but precisely at the moment when the guests thought they could sit back, RKC players came face to face with Peter Vindahl twice. Using his right foot and the crossbar, the tall Dane worked the ball out of his goal, only to be relieved to see a pin from Iliass Bel Hassani bounce in front a minute later.
VAR-PINGEL
The home team’s brief revival was ‘undone’ by Serdar Gözübüyük. The ‘VAR’ on duty put the ball on the spot from a distance, after Saïd Bakari had walked in front of the broken through Owen Wijndal. Referee Edwin van de Graaf had missed the foul. Jesper Karlsson pinned the VAR knock in the intersection, good for his thirteenth season goal.
The match was over, especially after Pavlidis thought he had scored the 0-4 with a watched lob in the first minute after the break. Again Gözübüyük was on the line with Van de Graaf, but this time in favor of RKC. Pavlidis had been offside by a ‘knee’. Incidentally, Oosting had brought in veteran Vurnon Anita and cult hero Richard van der Venne, for Roy Kuijpers and Lennerd Daneels.
DREAM POSTER
After the big substitution had started, Jordy Clasie put the ball with great feeling on substitute Zakaria Aboukhlal, who outwitted El Maach with a bow (0-4). Clasie, who was involved in three Alkmaar goals, played a hell of a match. Hungarian left back Milos Kerkez, from the oldest youth team of AC Milan, made his debut for the club from Alkmaar in the final phase.
In any case, the victory results in a huge success in the cup adventure: AZ will either meet PSV, the team that was defeated on Saturday evening, or their hereditary enemy Ajax at the beginning of March. The team from Amsterdam was much too strong for AZ in the eighth finals last season, but this competition was 2-1 too strong in the Johan Cruijff Arena. Whichever team rolls out of the box on Saturday, AZ will at least play the cup smasher at home.