Alex Pastoor |

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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TotalDutchFootball.com WorldFootballWeekly.com

Just another Monday morning and Alex Pastoor is clearing his desk and will begin a new search work after he was fired as coach of NEC.

He arrived in Nijmegen in the summer of 2011, joining from Eerste Divisie side Excelsior. He had a successful period in his first year, in Rotterdam as leaded Excelsior to promotion to the Eredivisie.

The following year, on a tight budget he saved the clubs Eredivisie status and lead some great players in the team. Breakthroughs for Jordy Clasie, Geert Arend Roorda and Ryan Koolwijk came under Pastoor’s leadership.

He has been at NEC for two seasons now, and during the first things started slowly as he suffered six defeats in a row and NEC were in danger of relegation.

The turning point came during a winter training camp in Spain in 2012. After team bonding and finding a new tactical ways of attacking Eredivisie teams, NEC climbed to eighth position in the league that season. Although, Vitesse Arnhem were too strong for them in the play-offs for a place in the Europa League.

After failing to find a win so far this season, NEC management decided to call time on their relationship with Pastoor: “Due to recent results we see no future between Alex Pastor and NEC,” said technical director Edo Ophof.