AZ v ADO Den Haag

Eredivisie Matchweek 1 · Saturday 8 August 2026, 21:00 · AFAS Stadion, Alkmaar

The opener, and where it sits

AZ start the league six days after beating PSV 4-0 to win the Johan Cruijff Schaal — a match PSV played from the ninth minute with ten men — with nothing else in their calendar until 15 August. ADO Den Haag are promoted, and lost a first-choice forward to surgery in the week before this game.

The obvious reading is trophy winner against promoted side, and both clubs' own evidence argues with it: the attacking pattern AZ are best documented for belonged to a player who has left, and ADO are not a side anyone has described as sitting deep.

Analysis as of Friday 7 August; updated on matchday with both clubs' starting elevens.

A note on how those elevens are sourced. Both are recorded here on strong, cross-checked evidence — the same starting names confirmed across multiple independent lineup sources — but the data provider's own official confirmation marker had not switched to confirmed at the time this was written. That is disclosed here deliberately rather than glossed over.

Where the two teams stand

AZ finished seventh but won the cup, which is why they enter the Europa League league phase directly, with no qualifying rounds, and why their August is empty. Four players are out — Jordy Clasie, Denso Kasius, Matěj Šín and Andrea Natali — named by the club with no reason given for any of them, so none is described here as injured, only as unavailable.

The fixture's single biggest question is answered. Mexx Meerdink, the named first-choice striker who scored in the Supercup and took a bad facial wound in the same match — he said afterwards he thought he had lost his ear — is confirmed starting. Kees Smit, fit again after a lighter week of training, is confirmed alongside him in midfield. Troy Parrott, reported close to leaving, is not among the confirmed starters — worth noting as exactly that and nothing more: not ruled out of the squad, not confirmed injured, not confirmed sold, simply not chosen to start.

ADO are dealing with something more definite. Cameron Peupion had knee surgery and is out for months; Donát Bárány, the marquee summer signing, has not played a minute of pre-season and was still described as injured on 6 August, and this lineup does not address him either way. In his place, 20-year-old loanee Yannick Eduardo — 12 goals and 5 assists in 23 second-tier games last season, no senior top-flight minutes of his own — is confirmed starting up front. Milan Hokke, a natural centre-back, is confirmed at right-back, exactly as reported all summer. Daryl van Mieghem, named captain on Friday, is confirmed starting too.

How they line up

Nobody has to guess anymore, though not everything about the shape is settled.

AZ start: Boy de Busser; a back four of Sam Dijkstra, Wouter Goes, Sam Schouten and Bruno Chávez; a midfield of Ivar Koopmeiners, Ernest Kwakman and Kees Smit; a front three of Ruben Patati, Mexx Meerdink and Wouter Daal. No source commits to a formation label for this selection, and none is claimed here — the same caution that applied when AZ carried no lineup at all now applies to naming a shape for the one they do have.

ADO Den Haag start: Kilian Nikièma; a defensive and midfield group of Sékou Oumar Sylla, Matteo Waem, Pascal Mulder, Finn de Bruin, Milan Hokke and Juho Kilo, whose individual slots are not separately established beyond that group of six; and an attacking group of Illaijh Hawkins, Evan Rottier, Yannick Eduardo and Daryl van Mieghem. As with AZ, no formation label is claimed.

One build-up trait is documented for AZ, and it cuts against what the trophy implies: their coach has said his side's style last season demanded a lot of long distribution, blaming a goalkeeper's injury setback partly on it — one strand of evidence from a coach who has since talked of wanting the team to play more freely, so whether it survived the summer is untested.

The other documented thing is what AZ lost. Their clearest attacking mechanism used one player narrowing in from wide into midfield, creating a central overload and space behind him for a defender to advance into. He joined PSV, and the replacements pull against each other: pick a winger and the midfield count goes, pick a midfielder and the width does.

ADO are not described as a low block. On record is an intention to press aggressively and play positional football — from a single outlet, and nobody has said how they intend to set up away at the Supercup winners.

How the match could be decided

Both centre-forward positions are resolved, and in the same direction. Meerdink starts for AZ; Eduardo starts for ADO. The question is no longer which forward is available — it is how each performs: Meerdink returning to a level he has already scored at for AZ, Eduardo making his first senior top-flight start of any kind. Favours AZ. High confidence in the mechanism, now the personnel are named rather than projected.

A non-specialist at right-back, confirmed. Hokke starts there exactly as reported all summer, in the position ADO's own record calls its clearest weakness. What is still not established is AZ's route to it — no source assigns any of AZ's confirmed front three to a flank. Favours AZ, but only if a route to that side actually exists. Low confidence on the exploitation half.

Whether ADO actually play out. If they build from the back here, their first phase is where this is decided. Favours AZ, neutralised if they go long instead, or by AZ's press being as undocumented in practice as on paper. Low confidence.

A press aimed at the one thing AZ are documented as doing. The mirror of that: if ADO press and AZ go long, ADO's pressing is skipped rather than tested, and the game moves to second balls in midfield. Favours AZ, neutralised if AZ build shorter as their coach has said he wants, or if ADO press selectively. Low confidence.

The trophy proves less than it looks. Four goals against ten men, three after the interval, from a side whose best-documented attacking pattern left in the summer — and no source independently establishes a formation for the eleven fielding it today. The strongest argument available to ADO — and it is about AZ, not them. Favours ADO, neutralised if AZ are simply better regardless of structure, or if an early goal settles it. Medium confidence.

Players and duels to watch

Mexx Meerdink, confirmed starting after five days of silence about the wound he took winning the Supercup, is the reference point AZ's whole attack was built around waiting for. Yannick Eduardo, 20 and without a senior top-flight appearance to his name, leads ADO's line on the strength of 12 goals and 5 assists in 23 second-tier games on loan last season. Milan Hokke, a non-specialist, is confirmed at right-back. Daryl van Mieghem, captain since Friday, is one of only three ADO players who have played at this level before.

The first duel is still a zone rather than a pairing — AZ's front three against Milan Hokke — because only one half of it is confirmed. Hokke's side is now settled; no source assigns Patati, Meerdink or Daal to the flank that would actually meet him. The second, AZ's front three against ADO's defensive and midfield group, only happens if ADO do what they say.

How this could go

ADO play out and AZ win the ball high. Turnovers close to the ADO goal, repeatedly. ADO respond by going longer and conceding territory. Changes if they set up deep, or if AZ do not press.

AZ's attack turns out to be the unresolved thing. ADO defend competently and AZ must break down an organised side without the mechanism they lost, and without an independently established shape of their own. AZ answer through individual quality. Changes if they score early through a repeatable route.

Both confirmed forwards cancel each other out. Meerdink and Eduardo are both real, but a debutant finisher against an experienced defence, or vice versa, does not guarantee either side's attacking reference point actually functions on the day. Whichever forward finds space first tilts the game. Changes if either side's midfield dominates first.

What we think

AZ are still better placed to impose a game state: at home, fully rested, against a promoted side without its established centre-forward — except that AZ's own biggest uncertainty has now resolved in their favour, since Mexx Meerdink is confirmed starting. The counterargument is not about ADO at all — it is that AZ's attack is unproven, and no source independently establishes what shape they actually use. So AZ should control this match; whether control becomes goals is still the part nobody can evidence yet. The largest open question is no longer whether Meerdink plays — it is whether AZ's attacking structure, whatever it turns out to be, can create enough against a side whose own weakness is now a confirmed, named player rather than an abstract gap.