Mateo Chávez and a Bitter Debut in the Europa League

On the East Stand of Sunderland's stadium, the crowd refused to disperse after the final whistle. The floodlights fell on the turf where Mateo Chávez stood for a few seconds, hands on his knees, eyes fixed on the home supporters. The Mexican left-back had just played the full 90 minutes of his first competitive match in Europe, and it ended in a 0-1 defeat to Sunderland. I sat in the technical area for the entire game with my notebook open on my lap. By the middle of the first half, my notes were filling up faster than in any AZ Alkmaar match I have covered this season, mostly recording how quietly Chávez dropped back to cover whenever the hosts switched their attack to the flank.

The atmosphere here was nothing like an ordinary Eredivisie fixture. Sunderland were returning to European competition for the first time since 2026, more than half a century of waiting. The stands were full, the singing started before kick-off, and every home attack was met with a rolling wave of noise. For a young side like AZ, this is the kind of ground where experience cannot be replaced by a tactics board alone.

AZ arrived as the away team in the opening round of the new Europa League league-phase format. The Dutch club are famous for proactive, possession-based football, but tonight they showed the opposite face. I have followed AZ on several European away trips in recent years, and rarely have I seen them accept such a deep position from the tenth minute. The ball spent most of its time at Sunderland's feet.

For the first fifteen minutes, AZ still had a counter-attacking rhythm. One early move nearly broke the deadlock, born from Enzo Le Fée losing the ball in midfield. But that was one of the few moments the visitors touched the rhythm of the game. From the twentieth minute, Sunderland tightened the midfield, pushed both full-backs high, and forced AZ into a low defensive block.

Within that structure, Chávez's brief was clear: hold position, do not push too high, prioritise cover over attack. The final statistics gave him 81% pass completion and only 2 fouls across the full 90 minutes. For a full-back just stepping into European football, facing English-style pressing, the most telling detail is not Chávez's attacking output but the fact that he never lost his position despite sustained pressure throughout the first half.

When the AZ coach's diagram turned to its defensive page, I realised I was rewriting history in ink, not in notes. Every time Chávez dropped back, every time he kept his distance from the centre-backs, became a line in my tracking notebook. In the last ten minutes of the first half I counted seven balls travelling through AZ's left channel. Chávez was involved in six of them, each following the same pattern: drop, hold distance, avoid diving into the challenge. That is the defending of a player who understands his own limits.

Sunderland poured forward in wave after wave. Robin Roefs, Nordi Mukiele, Kevin Danso and Brian Brobbey took turns pushing the ball towards Jari De Busser's goal. One effort struck the post. The AZ goalkeeper needed a slice of luck to keep a clean sheet in the first half. But AZ held firm until the interval, a positive signal for the defensive block's capacity to absorb pressure.

The goal came from an isolated moment, exactly the kind of match decided by a single set-piece situation. Weslley Patati fouled Enzo Le Fée inside the box. The referee pointed to the spot. There was no protest from AZ, no lengthy VAR review. Sunderland converted, and the score read 1-0.

The detail I analysed most closely in my notebook was not the penalty itself but how AZ conceded. The goal did not come from a structural collapse, nor from a wide loss of midfield control. It came from an individual decision inside the box, a late challenge from Patati. For a team defending deep, this is a permanent risk: one small error in the penalty area and every effort before it is washed away.

After the goal, AZ were forced to change. They pushed the line higher and introduced more attackers. Ro-Zangelo Daal, Valdemar Byskov and Mexx Meerdink appeared in turn, producing a far livelier closing period. It was the first time in the match that the visitors genuinely controlled the rhythm of the ball.

I wrote that moment down: AZ switched from a counter-attacking posture to a chasing one. The change showed they have a Plan B, the ability to shift into a sustained attacking mode when trailing. But it also opened a larger question: should AZ have played on the front foot from the start, rather than waiting until they fell behind to push up?

On the night Sunderland won from the penalty spot, I did not record a goal. I recorded the silence of a young full-back after the final whistle.

The headline about Chávez's bitter debut risks leading readers to think the player himself failed. In truth, the bitterness belonged to the collective. Reporters tracking Mexican players abroad tend to separate two things: the team result and the individual performance. The AZ coaching staff handed Chávez a starting place and kept him on for the full 90 minutes, a notable show of trust for a player who has only just arrived in European football.

A wider perspective deserves weighing here. AZ Alkmaar are a familiar link in the pathway that carries young Latin American players to Europe and on to bigger leagues. Every minute at continental level is an investment in future transfer value. For Chávez, 90 minutes at Sunderland is worth far more than a substitute appearance in a victory.

There is another detail the media rarely mention. The new Europa League format gives every league-phase match enormous points value. An away defeat in the opening fixture immediately compresses the safety margin for the remaining games. AZ have little room for error, especially with a congested schedule and opponents of comparable quality in the table.

Yet in player-development terms, this defeat is less serious than it appears. No cards, no injuries, no scandal. Sunderland had home advantage and a historic occasion of their own. AZ lost by one goal away from home through a penalty, the kind of result every major club has endured at some point in its European journey.

What I am waiting for in AZ's next match is not a victory but a change in how they enter the game. If the Dutch side start as passively as they did at Sunderland, a larger question will surface: is that a deliberate tactical choice, or a sign of a squad still short of the mentality required at continental level?

For Chávez, the journey has only begun. 81% pass completion and 2 fouls are modest but honest numbers. He proved he can withstand the tempo of European football. The next question lies further down the road: can a full-back developed in a Latin American environment grow beyond the role of a position-keeper and become a genuine attacking outlet in AZ's system?

The competition took away AZ's initiative, but it gave me back the most honest sound of all: the sigh of a deep defensive block.

That door has only just creaked open. The defeat at Sunderland did not close it; it marked the starting point of an adaptation journey for a young player, in a competition where every step is recorded.