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During the 2014–15 season, AZ competed in the Eredivisie for the 17th consecutive season and the KNVB CUP under new manager Marco van Basten, and then John van den Brom after Van Basten relinquished his role after health issues, becoming assistant to Van den Brom.[1] Under Gertjan Verbeek and Dick Advocaat the previous season, AZ lost their title of KNVB Cup to PEC Zwolle after being eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual league winners Ajax and finishing eighth in the league.

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AZ

Full name	Alkmaar Zaanstreek
Nickname(s)	The Cheese Farmers

2014–15 AZ Alkmaar season

2014/15 season
Chairman	René Neelissen
Manager	John van den Brom
Ground	AFAS Stadion capacity: 17,023
Eredivisie	3rd
KNVB Cup	Quarter-final
Top goalscorer	League: Nemanja Gudelj (11) All: Nemanja Gudelj (12)
Home colours
← 2013–14 2015–16 →

Background

Following the 2013–14 season in which AZ broke their record for most competitive games in a season (58) [2] which started in the KNVB Cup on 27 July 2013 (an extra time loss to Ajax) and ended in the Eredivisie UEFA Europa League play-offs (3–0 loss to Groningen).

During this run of 58 games, Gertjan Verbeek was sacked and Dick Advocaat was brought out of retirement to replace Verbeek until the end of the season.[3] The club finished in 8th and lost at the final stages of the play-offs for European football.

League results were inconsistent, although the club managed to make the quarter-finals of the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League, playing Atromitos,[4] PAOK, Maccabi Haifa, Shakhter Karagandy,[5] Slovan Liberec, Anzhi Makhachkala before being eliminated by Benfica.[6]

For the new season, Marco van Basten left Heerenveen to sign a two-year contract at AZ, expressing his desire for the new challenge.[7]

Transfers

Arrivals

• The following players moved to AZ.

	Name	Position	Previous club	Fee	Date
	Guus Hupperts[8][9]	RW	Roda JC	€1,000,000	Summer
	Robert Mühren[10][11]	CF	Volendam	€300,000	Summer
	Djavan Anderson[12][13]	RB	Ajax U19	€200,000	Summer
	Muamer Tanković[14][15][16]	FW	Fulham U21	Free (end of contract)	Summer
	Sergio Rochet[17][18]	GK	Danubio	Undiscolsed	Summer

Departures

• The following players moved from AZ.

	Name	Position	New club	Fee	Date
	Nick Viergever	CB/LB/CDM	Ajax[19]	€2,000,000	Summer
	Roy Beerens	RW	Hertha BSC[20]	€1,500,000	Summer
	Ruud Boymans	CF	Utrecht[21]	Undisclosed	Summer
	Thomas Lam	CB	PEC Zwolle[22]	Free (percentage of next sale)	Summer
	Johann Berg Guðmundsson	LW	Charlton Athletic[23]	Free (end of contract)	Summer
	Etiënne Reijnen	CB	Cambuur[24]	Free (end of contract)	Summer
	Erik Falkenburg	CM	NAC Breda[25]	Free (end of contract)	Summer
	Hobie Velhurst	GK	MVV Maastricht[26]	Free (end of contract)	Summer
	Erik Heijblok	GK	Volendam[27]	Free (end of contract)	Summer
	Paul Kok	LB	Oss[28]	Free (end of contract)	Summer
	Willie Overtoom	CAM	Zulte Waregem[29]	Contract terminated	Summer
	Dirk Marcellis	RB	NAC Breda[30]	Contract expired	Summer
	Mikhail Rosheuvel	RW	Cambuur	Undisclosed	January
	Viktor Elm	CM	Kalmar FF	Undisclosed	March

Loans

• The following players moved to new clubs whilst under contract at AZ.

	Name	Position	New club	Loan period
	Jonas Heymans	LB	Willem II[31]	Full season
	Joris van Overeem	CM	Dordrecht[32]	Full season
	Denni Avdić	ST	Heracles Almelo[33]	Full season
	Donny Gorter	LB/CM	Aalborg BK[34]	Full season
	Fernando Lewis	FW	Go Ahead Eagles[35]	August–January
	Fernando Lewis	FW	Dordrecht	January–May
	Eli Babalj	CF	PEC Zwolle	January–May
	Raymond Gyasi	FW	Roda JC	January–May

Pre-season friendlies

AZ's pre-season began on 30 June with their first training session[36] and consisted of seven official matches which started with an away friendly match on 5 July 2014 against Dutch amateurs SVW '27 from Heerhugowaard, just outside Alkmaar, and amateur club AFC '34 from Alkmaar.

Following the games against amateur opposition the club played a friendly with the full AZ squad, with two teams (blue and red) where both teams were mixed with regular first team players.

Then followed a weeks training camp in Epe, Netherlands where AZ played their first games against professional teams in the pre-season; they played reserves against NEC, newly relegated from the Eredivisie, on the Saturday and then on Sunday fielded a full strength team against Gabala FK of Azerbaijan on the final day of the training camp.

After the training camp in Epe, AZ had a specially arranged friendly against Eerste Divisie side VVV to celebrate exactly 60th year anniversary since the two teams first met in a competitive game.[37] This special fixture had silverware to be won in the form of the Herman Teeuwen Bokkal, a pre-season competition organised by VVV to play larger teams for the trophy named after the legendary VVV player and scout Herman Teeuwen. After VVV winning against OFI Crete last year on this occasion AZ were victorious and awarded the cup;here is the AZ captain, Nemanja Gudelj, with the trophy.[38]

After winning silverware, AZ agreed to play a friendly against German Bundesliga side 1899 Hoffenheim as part of their training camp in Switzerland. The final match of pre-season has been arranged for 1 August on the training field outside AFAS Stadion[39] and will once again feature players from just the AZ squad. This game featured the squad wearing their new kits for the forthcoming season.[40] The white (away) kit was worn by fringe members of the squad and black (away) kits were worn by the reserve and under-19 AZ players. This concluded the pre-season with only eight days remaining until the Eredivisie season opener against Heracles Almelo away.

Accurate as of 1 August

Statistics

Top goalscorers Rank Player (pen.) 1. Muamer Tanković 7(1) 2. Thom Haye 2 Denni Avdić 2 Markus Henriksen 2 Donny Gorter 2 (2) 6. Steven Berghuis 1 Jan Wuytens 1 Mattias Johansson 1 Viktor Elm 1 Mikhail Rosheuvel 1 Ridgeciano Haps 1 Djavan Anderson 1 Joris van Overeem 1 Jeffrey Gouweleeuw 1 Celso Ortiz 1 Total 25(3)

Goals conceded Against (pen.) Scorers 1899 Hoffenheim 3 Rudy Modeste Salihović AZ Rood 2(1) Tankovic Gorter (pen.) SVW’27 1 Bakker AFC '34 1 Ben Hamed AZ Blauw 1 van Overeem NEC 0 - Qabala 0 - VVV 0 - AZ Wit 0 - AZ Zwart 0 - Total 8(1)

Accurate as of 1 August

Eredivisie

The regular domestic league season began with an away fixture in the start of August 2015 to Heracles Almelo and finished away to Excelsior in mid-late May 2015.[41]

Statistics

Top goalscorers Rank Player (pen.) 1. Steven Berghuis 3 2= Guus Hupperts 2 Muamer Tanković 2 Total 7

Goals conceded Against Scorers Ajax 3 Davy Klaassen Lasse Schöne Anwar El Ghazi Willem II 3 Bruno Andrade Ali Messaoud Charlton Vicento Dordrecht 1 Mart Lieder Heracles Almelo 0 - Heerenveen - - PEC Zwolle - - ADO Den Haag - - Twente - - PSV - - Groningen - - Excelsior - - NAC - - Vitesse - - Cambuur - - Go Ahead Eagles - - Feyenoord - - Utrecht - - Total 7

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	PSV (C)	34	29	1	4	92	31	+61	88	Qualification to Champions League group stage
2	Ajax	34	21	8	5	69	29	+40	71	Qualification to Champions League third qualifying round
3	AZ	34	19	5	10	63	56	+7	62	Qualification to Europa League third qualifying round
4	Feyenoord	34	17	8	9	56	39	+17	59	Qualification to European competition play-offs[lower-alpha 1]
5	Vitesse (O)	34	16	10	8	66	43	+23	58

KNVB Cup

AZ were drawn against the winners of the first round match on 27 August 2014 between Limburg amateurs EVV and Spirit'30, amateurs from Hoogkarspel for the second round of the KNVB Cup.[42][43] EVV were victorious in the match, winning 4–0, and AZ will visit the 2,000 capacity Sportpark "In de Bandert" on 24 September 2014.[44]

Statistics

Top goalscorers Rank Player (pen.) 1. -(-) Total -(-)

Goals conceded Against (pen.) Scorers EVV - - Total -(-)

Squad Performance

Player	League starts	(pen.)			Unused sub.	Cup starts	(pen.)			Unused sub.
01. Esteban Alvarado	3	-6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
02. Mattias Johansson	3	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
03. Jeffrey Gouweleeuw	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
04. Jan Wuytens	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
06. Celso Ortiz	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
07. Guus Hupperts	4	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
08. Nemanja Gudelj (c)	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
09. Aron Jóhannsson	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
10. Markus Henriksen	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
11. Muamer Tanković	4	2	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
12. Viktor Elm	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	0	0	0
14. Wesley Hoedt	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	0
15. Simon Poulsen	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
17. Djavan Anderson	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
18. Mikhail Rosheuvel	1	0	1	2	1	0	0	0	0	0
19. Eli Babalj	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
20. Thom Haye	1	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	0
21. Robert Mühren	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
22. Steven Berghuis	3	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
23. Derrick Luckassen	1	0	1	0	3	0	0	0	0	0
24. Ridgeciano Haps	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	0
25. Sergio Rochet	1	-1	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0
16. Yves De Winter	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0

Squad Numbers

Loanees

Domestic

Player	Team	League starts	(pen.)			Unused sub.	Cup starts	(pen.)			Unused sub.
Joris van Overeem	Dordrecht	4	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Jonas Heymans	Willem II	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Denni Avdić	Heracles Almelo	3	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Fernando Lewis	Go Ahead Eagles	0	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	0

Foreign

Player	Team	League XI	(pen.)			Unused sub.	League Cup XI	(pen.)			Unused sub.	European Competition XI	(pen.)
Donny Gorter	Aalborg BK	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Accurate as of matchday four.

International appearances

The following first team players played for their respective nations during the 2014–15 season:

Player	National Team	Position	Time Played	Goals
-	-	-	-	-

UEFA current ranking

As of 04/07/2014[45]

Rank	Country	Team	Points
34		Galatasaray	47.980
35		Dynamo Kyiv	47.166
36		AZ	45.612
37		Lazio	45.568
38		Athletic Bilbao	43.299

Recent Eredivisie results

7	13	10	10	5	3	2	3	11	1	5	4	10	8
00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14

References

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