Eredivisie Feb 27-Mar 1

[Frankinho]

Alright guys, from now on I will be giving write ups for the Eredivisie plays every week. I follow many leagues, but this is for sure the league that I know best out of all. I'm on a 13-6 record for Eredivisie games since I joined this place.

Friday Feb 27:
PSV - Heerenveen (X and over)
PSV is part of the regular top 3 teams in the Netherlands, however just like the other two (Ajax and Feyenoord) they are struggling this season and they have a tough job of indeed finishing in this top 3. One of their main contenders in fact Heerenveen. Heerenveen is famous for their legend Abe Lenstra who could play for the big money in the Italian league so many years ago, but he rejected as he liked the club so much. Currently both teams are equal on points (45) at the 4th and 5th position of the league. The gap to third placed Ajax is three points. A win could bring either team closer to the top 3, specially with Ajax also having a tough game this weekend.

PSV recently saw their manager Huub Stevens leaving the club and since his assistent Dwight Lodeweges took over they have been performing pretty well with four wins and a draw in just five games. The only draw was against league leader AZ. Early in the season strikers Koevermans and Lazovic failed and lost confident from Stevens. They signed a new striker in Ola Toivonen, who started off really great, scoring a few goals and setting up a few others. However he also got a red card and was sidelined against AZ and Groningen. Exactly in those matches both Koevermans (2 goals against AZ) and Lazovic (winning goal against Groningen in the 94th minute) stood up. Now Lodeweges has a tough job in selecting his main striker. My thoughts will be that he will be playing with Koevermans and Toivonen behind him. In that case Afellay should be playing from the right side.

Heerenveen started 2009 with a 4-0 record, but then lost away to Vitesse that was ranked pretty low at that time, not yet knowing Vitesse was going to get on a winning streak from that moment too. Since then they won 2 games and drew one away at NEC. For some reason the atmosphere at Heerenveen is always great. The players like it, they play attacking football, meaning scoring a lot, but also conceding a lot. With a 10-2-3 record over the last 15 seasons PSV is normally the better team over Heerenveen while playing at home. The last five being 1-1, 3-1, 4-1, 4-0 and 2-0. This time they are also favorited to win the game, however I feel that Heerenveen is able to compete against this team. One of Heerenveen's goal scoring players is Roy Beerens, coming from the PSV youth a couple of years ago. He will be determined to play against his former team. For me this game will end in a draw and the game will go over. Both teams score over 2 goals on average and previous meetings have proven to be mostly overs as well.

 

[Frankinho]

Saturday Feb 28:
Willem II - Heracles Almelo (1 and under)
An interesting game between two teams in the lower part of the mid table. Both teams are struggling, trying to avoid the relegation zone. Currently Willem II has a seven point advantage on Roda JC that is the highest ranked team in the relegation zone, while Heracles only has a five point advantage.

Willem II started the season pretty well, specially at home beating Ajax 2-1, Feyenoord 1-0 and Groningen 3-0. Overall they had a 4-1-1 home record. However in 2009 time changed for the Red, white and blue army and they only got one point in seven games, away at also struggling Feyenoord. Willem II is now on a five game losing streak. Manager Andries Jonker recently resigned from his job and continues at the club as the director. He was doing both, but felt like the players needed a manager that could do the job for 100%. Assistant and former player Alphons Groenendijk took over for the remainder of the season.

Heracles does not much better and also did not win any game in 2009 yet. However they drew against ADO, Ajax and NEC, scoring two more points in 2009 than Willem II thus far. Two of those three points were held away, which gives Heracles a better perspective as Willem II lost their 3 last home games. You have to know that on the other hand the team only won four points on the road during the whole season, making them the only team in the Dutch league to not have won away yet. Actually it's more than a year since they last won on the road, at March 2, 2008 they won away against FC Groningen. Funnily enough both teams won their last game against Sparta Rotterdam.

Heracles Almelo only recently promoted to the Eredivisie, but was capable of staying in the league by finishing in save positions all the time. In the head to head meetings with Willem II in the last three seasons while Willem II was playing at home Heracles managed to win once, but lost two times. The scores being 2-1, 2-0 and 1-2.

With only 24 goals Heracles Almelo is among the worst scoring teams in the league. Just De Graafschap scored less goals (15). Ten of those 15 points were scored by Ricky van den Bergh and Vojtech Schulmeister. For both teams a win on Saturday is a must to gain self confidence and to stay away from the relegation zone. Willem II will miss midfielder Akgun while Heracles' team is fit except for long term injured Sebastiaan Steur and Karim Bridji.

I expect an attacking Willem II squad, specially in the first half. If they manage to score early (before 30th minute) they will have a solid win. If they fail to score this match might end up in a draw. I fancy on Willem II and the under for this game.

 

[Frankinho]

Saturday Feb 28:
NAC Breda - Sparta Rotterdam (X and over)
This is a match between two mid table teams, of which NAC can reach the UEFA Cup play offs and of which Sparta still needs to stay away from the relegation zone. NAC is currently in 8th position, which is the lowest position that will qualify a team for the UEFA Cup play offs. They are only one point in front of NEC, so in case they want to stay in that position a win is necessary. Sparta on the other hand only have a six point advantage on Roda JC, located at place 16 and in the relegation zone. Until a few years ago Sparta was one out of four teams (the others being Feyenoord, Ajax and PSV) to have never relegated out of the Eredivisie. Unfortunately for them that record came to an end and after returning the next year the relegated again. Now that they are back for the 2nd season already they don't want to fall back to the Eerste Divisie again.

Both teams have been struggling in 2009 so far. NAC won against FC Groningen in the cup, but apart from that they only managed to win against Roda JC by 1-0. They had four draws and lost against Twente and Heerenveen away. Not that it's a shame to lose against these teams though. NAC is a pretty solid home team, however they lost 0-4 against ADO Den Haag earlier in the season. Normally they are the winning team at home, or they give away a draw, just occasionally they lose. At the end of January they were unable to beat lowest ranked Volendam at home, showing their lack of self confidence since the start of 2009. Fans of NAC Breda always prefer their team to play on a Saturday night. The "avondje NAC" (NAC night) is famous all over the Netherlands. Specially in the past the team performed much better when playing at Saturday evening compared to other time spells.

Sparta won only one game in 2009 so far, away against Roda JC and drew another three against Groningen, Utrecht and in form Vitesse. In the games they lost (AZ at home, Feyenoord away and Twente at home) they did not play that bad and perhaps should have deserved more than no points. This shows to me that Sparta is on the better side now and knows how to play relegation football at the end of the season. Normally if teams know how to play, the results will come at some point. Their last away game (against Roda JC) they won, but it was their only win in more than a year. It's very unlikely they will win again straight away.

A big reason for the struggling part of NAC are injuries. They have had a lot of them in the last couple of months. Now, slowly, players are recovering. Martijn Reuser, Tom van der Leegte and Matthew Amoah might be back in business next week against AZ, but won't play against Sparta. Above that Donny Gorter is suspended, but Ellery Cairo is 100% fit again and will probably start from the beginning. That means that either Nourdin Boukhari will play at left midfield or that Joonas Kolkka will play at right midfield. On Sparta's side Arne Slot is suspended, giving Yuri Rose the opportunity in the first eleven.

In the last 11 seasons NAC was able to beat Sparta at home six times, while they gave away three draws and two losses. The last five games of NAC playing at home ended in 3-0, 3-1, 0-0, 2-2 and 2-0. As you can see it's hard to predict an over/under for this game. I believe both teams will be playing for the win, NAC on it's Saturday night, Sparta with a team that is not made to play defensive. I expect a lot of goals and the game can go either way, however I sign in for a 2-2 draw here.

 

[Frankinho]

Saturday Feb 28:
Roda JC - De Graafschap (2 and under)
Alot of interesting games this weekend and this one is no exception. Both teams are to be found at the lowest part of the league table and both teams have been in the news lately. As for the league positions they are on the 17th (De Graafschap) and 16th (Roda JC) position, one point in favour of Roda JC. In case they want to close the gap of five and six points to Heracles Almelo in 15th position both teams need to win. More important is however to keep 18th ranked Volendam away from them, trailing only 2 points behind De Graafschap and performing pretty well recently. The 18th position is direct relegation, while the 16th and 17th ranked teams will play promotion/relegation matches at the end of the season.

Roda JC is no longer supported by their own fans, at least not the last couple of games. Will they return to support the team in this important game or will they stay away again? The reason for staying away is not the bad performances of the team, but mainly because of a possibility to merge with Eerste divisie side Fortuna Sittard in the near future to create a more solid team. Both the fans of Roda JC and Fortuna dislike this possibility due to rivalry between them. De Graafschap fired their manager Henk van Stee this week. In my opinion they better should have waited with that after this weekend or to let him stay until the end of the season in case of a win. Now they really demotived the squad that recently told the press that they were still supporting Van Stee.

Roda JC used to be a very solid and steady Eredivisie team that even battled for European football and also managed to play in Europe from time to time. These days nothing from those days is to be found in the current team. Together with the terrible Eredivisie record of losing their last four games without scoring ANY goal they also had a hard time beating amateur side FC Lienden in the Dutch cup for instance. Still they win most of their home matches, some pretty solid (3-0 over NEC and Vitesse) and they also drew 1-1 against PSV. However they also lose big at home (0-4 against Feyenoord and 2-5 against Groningen) or they lose small against their biggest rivals, like the recent 0-1 loss against Sparta at home, while Sparta had not won away for more than a year. It's strange to see a side with some skilfull players like Marcel Meeuwis and Andres Oper to name a few was unable to score just one goal in their last four matches.

Despite losing most of their matches De Graafschap actually plays not that bad. For me it was strange to see they were sacking Henk van Stee as I do believe he did a good job and that it will only be a matter of time for them to score some points in the next couple of weeks until the end of the season. n their 0-3 home loss they played that well that they would have beaten a lot of teams that day, but their problem was that PSV was their opponent that day. A week later they proved to have the skills in a great 2-2 home draw against FC Twente and last week against Feyenoord they lost 0-2, but were not that much worse than the Rotterdam side.

I believe that De Graafschap and it's players are more used to and know better how to play relegation football in this fase of the season compared to Roda JC. For sure the players in the Roda JC squad have much better skills and technique, however in my opinion De Graafschap has a better team performance and the players are more inspired to perform well in the final stages of the season, like they always do. Roda JC will miss suspended Davy de Fauw, while Vincent Lachambre is still injured. Pah Modouh Kah is back with the team to support the defence. The team of De Graafschap is complete with the exception of Rogier Meijer who is suspended.

Normally Roda JC is the stronger team when they play at home against De Graafschap. In the last 11 seasons they won eight and lost three of their home games. This is not really a surprise as Roda JC's league performance is normally much higher than their current league position. The last five meetings ended in 2-2 (3-2 after extra time in the cup meeting), 1-0, 2-1, 5-0 and 0-1.

Both teams are not much goal scoring teams and I don't expect many goals in this crucial game either. As I see De Graafschap as the better side playing this kind of football I believe they will take the points with them back to Doetinchem, in that case it will most likely be a 0-1 or 0-2 win. In case Roda JC is capable of breaking their non goal scoring streak they might be able to accomplish a draw here.

 

[Icemantbi]

I'm liking the over 3 in the PSV game this afternoon... I'll probably be on it

 

[Frankinho]

Saturday Feb 28:
AZ - FC Groningen (1 and under)
Who still believes AZ won't win their second ever Eredivisie title? Of course they're going to win it, but to achieve that, they still need to win and one of these wins will be held Saturday against a well performing team like FC Groningen.

Well performing Groningen indeed in sixth position, but still 20 points already behind leaders AZ. AZ recently saw their 12 game winning streak being ended with a 2-2 draw against PSV away, however they are still on a 25 game unbeaten record (22 league games, while 24 is their current club record, held in 1981, when they won their only league title to date), with their last defeat being a 3-0 loss against ADO Den Haag, back in August 2008. Their current home winning streak is 14, with their last lost game against NAC, also in August 2008.

FC Groningen on the other hand has it's ups and downs. From time to time they play football like they can beat any team in the league, but then they also have games where they can easily lose against crappy teams against whom they should not lose. Their last game, at home against PSV they lost in the 94th minute 1-0, but they deserved at least a draw there. Before that, they had wins against Ajax, ADO, NEC and Heracles and played 0-0 away against Feyenoord. Groningen has nog lost in their last four games on the road. Their last away loss was 4-2 against PSV on December 8, 2008.

AZ will miss striker Ari against Groningen, but they are believed to have enough quality up front to perform well and score several goals. Niklas Moisander, Jeremain Lens and Sebastien Pocognoli all came back from injuries, but still won't play against Groningen. Also Hector Moreno, who is still injured will not be performing. Brett Holman was ill earlier this week, but is back at being 100% fit again. Stijn Schaars and Kew Jaliens return after being suspended. For Groningen Tom Hiariej will return to the squad, while Petter Andersson, Nicklas Pedersen, Sepp de Roover, Jeroen Veldmate, Koen van de Laak and Tim Matavz are still injured.

AZ and Groningen will play each other for the 20th time in Alkmaar. From the previous 19 meetings AZ won 10 times, Groningen won twice and there were seven draws. In Groningen earlier this season AZ won with 0-2. Groningen striker Marcus Berg was suspended for that game, but he will be available this time and he scored 3 times in 2 games he played against AZ. The last five meetings ended in 2-2, 2-0, 2-1, 1-1 and 2-1

Both teams are teams with strong defensive lines. AZ already has 17 clean sheets this season, while FC Groningen has 11 of those. However, last season's 2-2 indicates that both teams can also play attractive games with a lot of goals. The Eredivisie record for clean sheets is currently 23 held by FC Twente (1971/72) and PSV (2004/05). FC Groningen only conceded two goals in their last seven games. To me, this game will end in a 1-0 or 2-0 AZ win.

A funny story is the story of Groningen player Paul Mathijs. Mathijs played one season for AZ back in 2001, in which he scored one single goal, against FC Groningen.

 

[Frankinho]

I'm liking the over 3 in the PSV game this afternoon... I'll probably be on it

Awesome, good luck !! <><>

Sunday games will follow later.

 

[Frankinho]

Congrats Iceman, an easy over here. I almost cashed in my 2-2 correct score, but a penalty in injury time gave Heerenveen the 2-3 win. I believe the pick of a draw with a lot of goals was a good pick though.

 

[chelseafan1]

they all went over today

 

[Frankinho]

Yup they did, looks like I was not on my best when reviewing this.

 

[Frankinho]

Sunday March 1:
FC Utrecht - Ajax (1 and under)
- Utrecht is 8th with 37 points, Ajax is 3rd with 48 points
- Both still need to win as Ajax wants to compete for 2nd, while Utrecht wants to claim a UEFA Cup ticket
- No other team than Feyenoord hates Ajax as much as Utrecht
- Fans will be loud in Utrecht favour, Utrecht players will be really motivated
- Ajax is on a cloud after their elimination of Fiorentina, good for morale, but bad for underestimating
- Utrecht only lost ones in their last 8 games, Ajax lost three times in their last 6 games
- Utrecht is 7-3-2 at home, Ajax is 5-1-5 in away games.
- In the last 15 seasons, Utrecht won 6 times, at home, Ajax 6 times away and three times it was a draw.
- Results of the last five games in Utrecht: 0-1, 2-3, 1-0, 0-2, 1-0
- Utrecht almost scores 2 goals on average at home, Ajax more than 2 on the road.
- Previous meetings have shown both overs and unders, but unders in case Utrecht wins.
- I expect Utrecht to win under 2.5 goals.

 

[Frankinho]

Sunday March 1:
Feyenoord - Vitesse (X and under)
- Feyenoord is 11th with 27 points, Vitesse is 10th with 29 points
- The winner of the game will be able to look up at the table and aim for the 8th position to play for UEFA Cup play offs.
- Feyenoord has a poor season, but is improving slightly with only one loss in their last 4 games, away to Ajax.
- Vitesse is on a roll in 2009, winning 4 of their last 6 matches, the others being draws.
- Feyenoord did not lose their last 3 home games, but only won one.
- Vitesse lost all but four of their away games, of which the last two being a win in January and a draw in February.
- In the last 15 seasons Feyenoord won 9 times at home, they drew four times and Vitesse won twice.
- Results of the last five games in Rotterdam: 1-0, 2-1, 0-0, 1-2, 3-0
- Feyenoord almost scores 2 goals on average at home, Vitesse scores half a goal on the road.
- Previous meetings have shown both overs and unders.
- I expect this to be a 0-0 or 1-1 draw.

 

[Frankinho]

Sunday March 1:
FC Twente - ADO Den Haag (1 and over)
- FC Twente is 2nd with 51 points, ADO Den Haag is 15th with 23 points.
- Twente is aiming for Champions League preliminaries, while ADO Den Haag tries to stay away from the relegation zone.
- Twente lost in the UEFA Cup to Marseille on penalties and will be determined to win for their home crowd again.
- Twente is on a 10 game unbeaten run in the Eredivisie, however showed lack of form in their last 3 league games.
- These being a 2-2 draw against De Graafschap, 2-1 win against Volendam (home) and Sparta (away). Still wins, but with a lot of trouble.
- ADO did not lose twice now, but lost the three games before that.
- FC Twente beat ADO Den Haag 1-5 in Den Haag in January for the Dutch Cup.
- FC Twente is 6-2-0 in their last 8 home games, Den Haag is 2-1-7 in their last 10 away games.
- In the last 4 seasons these teams faced in Enschede, Twente won all four games, 3-1, 2-0, 2-1 and 4-0
- FC Twente almost scores 2.5 goals on average at home, while ADO scores more than 1 on the road.
- Previous meetings have shown mostly overs.
- I expect Twente to win 2-1, 3-1 or 4-1.

 

[Frankinho]

Sunday March 1:
FC Volendam - NEC (1 and under)
- FC Volendam is 18th and last with 15 points, NEC is 9th with 35 points.
- Volendam tries to get rid of the last place to avoid direct relegation. The gap to 17th place is only 2 points.
- NEC just got eliminated in Europe and tries to qualify for Europe again, but need to improve their ranking to do so.
- In their last 5 games Volendam showed they have what it takes to leave the last position.
- They drew 1-1 away at NAC, won on the road against Willem II and lost their last three games. However, the 3-5 at home against PSV and during the 2-1 away losses against Ajax and Twente they showed their skills, mentality and determination.
- NEC won their last game 0-2 against Groningen and drew against Heerenveen and Heracles to be at a 3 game non losing streak.
- FC Volendam is 3-1-7 at home for the season, while NEC is 3-4-5 in away games.
- In the last 5 meetings in Volendam they won 4 times and lost once, the scores being 2-3, 2-0, 1-0, 1-0 and 5-1
- Volendam almost scores 2 goals on average at home, while NEC almost scores one on the road..
- Previous meetings have shown mostly unders.
- I expect Volendam to win with under 2.5 goals.

 

[Frankinho]

Round up:

PSV - Heerenveen
Prediction: X and over
Result: 2-3
The game went exactly as planned, many chances, many goals and it looked like going to be a draw. However a goal in injury time gave Heerenveen the win.

Willem II - Heracles Almelo
Prediction: 1 and under
Result: 0-3
Totally missed this one. Willem II was unable to score in the first half and returned in the second half without striker Demouge. Since then their attacks did not produce any chances, while Everton scored two great goals. A penalty goal in the very last minute killed the under here as well.

NAC Breda - Sparta Rotterdam
Prediction: X and over
Result: 3-1
Easy hit on the over, but not a draw. After NAC took the lead Sparta was able to equalize, however in the second half NAC was the better team and deserved the win.

Roda JC - De Graafschap
Prediction: 2 and under
Result: 3-1
This game went totally opposite of what I expected. I still can't see how this happened and I didn't see the game, so I will just stay surprised about the outcome of this game. Roda JC not being able to score in 4 games and now suddenly they score 3.

AZ - FC Groningen
Prediction: 1 and under
Result: 3-0
AZ scored their first goal already after 2 minutes, making the under less logical. After the 2-0 was scored it looked like it was going to be an under anyways, but six minutes before time Dembele scored a third.

FC Utrecht - Ajax
Prediction: 1 and under
Result: 0-2
This one was a guess and it was a wrong one. Utrecht should have been the team trying to surprise Ajax, but they did not do anything during the whole match and after a quick Ajax goal this game was doomed. Still we hit the under though.

Feyenoord - Vitesse
Prediction: X and under
Result: 2-2
An exciting game for me and my team. Vitesse took the lead twice, while Feyenoord was actually making the plays. Feyenoord deserved the win, but didn't get it, cashing in our draw, however the under was unable to hit.

FC Twente - ADO Den Haag
Prediction: 1 and over
Result: 1-0
Twente continued to win, but to play without showing much flair, just like their last three league games. I expected them to do better this time, but they couldn't find the net more than once.

FC Volendam - NEC
Prediction: 1 and under
Result: 1-1
This game looked like going to be a total cash in as Volendam took the lead in the second half. I also placed a correct score bet of 1-0 on this game. 94 minutes were played and it was still 1-0, but then Milano Koenders scored his second 95th minute goal of the season to make it a 1-1 draw.

Games: 3-6
Under/overs: 4-5
Last minute kills: 3