By Rachel Levy Apr 19, 2009, 16:41 GMT
Amsterdam - It was somethat fitting that two of the big three Dutch football clubs played to the result unheralded AZ Alkmaar required to clinch the League title on Sunday.
AZ had to postpone their celebrations on Saturday night when they lost for the first time in 29 games, 2-1 at home against Vitesse.
But the entire team then erupted in joy in front in front of a TV screen less than 24 hours later when Ajax Amsterdam crashed 6-2 at PSV Eindhoven which decided the championship.
AZ have 76 points and can not be caught by Twente Enschede (65) and Ajax (64) in the remaining three games. PSV are fourth with 58 points.
There were no celebrations planned for Sunday in Alkmaar, but AZ said on its website that 'this season a mental barrier was broken especially by winning the matches against the traditional big three teams' of Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord Rotterdam.
It was only the fourth time in the 53-year Eredivisie history that a different team than the big three took the title. The only other winners were DOS of Utrecht in 1958, Amsterdam's DWS in 1964 and AZ themselves in 1981.
AZ's latest title must also be attributed to problems engulfing the struggling big three.
At the same time it marks the culmination of the engagement and investment of local businessman Dirk Scheringa, the founder of the DSB bank, since 1993.
AZ have have played in the Eredivisie since 1998 after a post- 1981 decline and reached the UEFA Cup semi-finals in 2005, with former Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal taking the helm later that year.
AZ invested in new players including Brazilian youngster Ariclenes da Silva Ferreira, Morocco-born Mounir El Hamdaoui, Belgian Sebastien Pocognoli and Graziano Pelle, the latter coming from Italy's Lecce for a club record of around 5 million euros.
They nonetheless disappointed by finishing 11th and van Gaal even considered quitting last summer. When they lost the opening two matches of the current campaign as well 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 September 20 which van Gaal and the team's video analyst Max Reckers named the defining moment.
'The pressure was gone. And players learn better if they have no pressure,' Reckers told Saturday's edition of the Volkskrant daily.
The new players are not top stars, but El Hamdaoui is the league top scorer with 22 goals and Argentinian goalkeeper Sergio Romero is also highly influential, having kept a clean sheet for 955 minutes between November and February and conceded just 17 goals overall.
'We can't afford top stars. We must make players better,' said van Gaal.
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