SATURDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER 2014
AZ ALKMAAR 0 – 1 HEERENVEEN
AZ played host to coach Marco van Basten’s former club Heerenveen on Saturday with the Dutchman still unavailable on the touchline due to illness. Alex Pastoor once again barked out the orders as they fell to a 1-0 defeat writes Will Burns.
It was the first time that the home AZ fans inside the AFAS Stadion got to see summer signing Sergio Rochet and he impressed early on. The 21-year-old Uruguayan goalkeeper, arrived from Danubio in May, stopped early efforts from Mark Uth and Jordy Buijs inside a busy first half but seven minutes before the interval, his goal was breached.
Young midfielder Daley Sinkgraven has had a great and impressive start to the 2014/15 campaign and he was on hand to make it 1-0 after poor defending from AZ. Morten Thorsby found some space down the left-wing to find Uth on the edge of the area. Uth lost to the ball to Jeffrey Gouweleeuw who could not direct his clearance out of the path of Sinkgraven who hit a first time shot past Rochet, giving the young keeper no chance.
AZ barely threatened Kristoffer Nordfeldt at the other end but on 55 minutes they should have maybe had a spot kick awarded after Joost van Aken made a clumsy challenge in the area on Derrick Luckassen. Referee Bas Nijhuis waved away any appeals and Heerenveen rode the game out for the win that places them in second place, two points behind PSV.
TEAMS
AZ: Rochet, Luckassen (Elm 73), Gouweleeuw, Wuytens (Haps 54), Poulsen, Ortiz, Hupperts, Gudelj, Haye, Tankovic, Mühren (Johansson 64).
SUBS NOT USED: De Winter, Henriksen, Hoedt, Rosheuvel.
GOALS: None.
BOOKINGS: Johansson 67.
HEERENVEEN: Nordfeldt, Marzo, Van Aken, Buijs, Van Anholt, Van Den Berg, De Roon, Sinkgraven (Schmidt 90), Slagveer, Uth (Dalgaard 86), Thorsby (Otigba 81).
SUBS NOT USED: De Fockert, Raitala, Varga, Van Amersfoort.
GOALS: Sinkgraven 38.
BOOKINGS: Sinkgraven 58, De Roon 76.
MAN OF THE MATCH: Sergio Rochet (AZ Alkmaar)
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