Almere City has lost its first game in the first division. At the debut of trainer Gertjan Verbeek, the club in Wijdewormer lost 2-1 against Jong AZ.
Maarten Martens, former AZ player, made his debut as head coach with the Alkmaarders. As a trainer of AZ, Verbeek had the Belgian under his wing for three years, but surprisingly enough, he did not know that Martens was the coach of Jong AZ.
Before the break, Almere, which competed for a promotion spot last year but sank considerably, showed a nice appearance. It came to 1-0 via AZ midfielder Peer Koopmeiners, who touched a bet by Lance Duijvestijn.
Almere City could not increase the lead in the second half and fell far back. Young AZ managed to take advantage of that. Richonell Margaret equalized on a pass from Koopmeiners and Yusuf Barasi headed in from a cross by Fedde de Jong.
