FC Twente take on neighbors De Graafschap on Saturday and the Tukkers will play their first match without Bryan Ruiz since the Costa Rican striker arrived at the club in the summer of 2009.
FC Twente won 4-2 at NEC last week, but they lost Bryan Ruiz with a severe knee injury in that match. He will be out until the winter break. The prolific Costa Rican striker never missed a match since he arrived at FC Twente at the beginning of the last season. The ‘Tukkers’ only lost four matches with Ruiz on the pitch. The match against De Graafschap may show how coach Michel Preud’homme and his squad are going to deal with his absence on Saturday.
IF PSV win their home match against Heracles Almelo on Saturday, they will be league leaders halfway the season for the first time since 2007/2008. The Eindhoven club were league leaders at the halfway point 18 times before and when they were, they grabbed the title 15 times.
Eredivisie top scorer Björn Vleminckx will try to help NEC to its first ever Eredivisie win at Ajax. The club from Nijmegen will visit Amsterdam for the 35th time in the Eredivisie and never won away at Ajax.
It is going to be cold when Groningen takes on Vitesse in Euroborg on Friday. The club even warned their supporters to wear good clothing because the temperature will probably be minus 5 to 10 degrees centigrade.
Petter Andersson won’t be cold. On Thursday coach Pieter Huistra revealed that the Swedish midfielder will be in the Groningen starting lineup for the first time in two years. After his knee injury he already played five matches as a substitute and he already scored once. Injured strikers Nicklas Pedersen and Gonzalo Garcia will not play.
If they win Groningen will post their best first half of the season in club history. After 16 matches they have 30 points. Groningen set their record first half of the season in 1984/1985, when they grabbed 32 points from 17 matches.
Vitesse are on a good streak as well. They are undefeated in their last five Eredivisie matches. The new Spanish coach Albert Ferrer was on the bench in the last two.
Ajax had a quiet week. For the first time since the season start the international players had no midweek obligations. “That was good. I actually started to feel a little tired”, Belgian defender Jan Vertonghen said.
Last week Ajax won their first league match after a non winning streak of three when they took three points away at VVV-Venlo (2-0). With that win Martin Jol’s team was back into the title race, only trailing PSV and FC Twente three points.
NEC will visit Amsterdam for the 35th time in the Eredivisie and the club from Nijmegen never won away at Ajax. They only grabbed three draws in the previous 34 encounters. This time the red-black-green brigade may have a good chance as they bring in Eredivisie top scorer Björn Vleminckx, who made 12 goals in 16 matches which is 44 percent of NEC’s total league production this season.
PSV regrouped well after their 4-2 loss at NAC Breda last week when they qualified for the last 32 of the Europa League with a 2-1 away win at Sampdoria on Wednesday.
IF PSV win their home match against Heracles they will be league leaders halfway the season for the first time since 2007/2008. The Eindhoven club were league leaders at the halfway point 18 times before and when they were, they grabbed the title 15 times.
Heracles does not seem to be too difficult an opponent. The Almelo team visited Eindhoven 10 times before in the Eredivisie and only won once. The last two editions of this match ended in a 4-0 win for the home team.
NAC Breda are doing well having beaten the league leaders twice in two weeks last month when they defeated FC Twente and PSV in Breda. The club are fifth on the table, but that’s not because of their away matches. If a table of only away matches would be drawn up, NAC would be dead last with only one point from seven matches.
Excelsior come from a 1-1 draw against bottom ranked Willem II. The Rotterdam team dropped to sixteenth place and will probably be fighting relegation for the rest of the season. They grabbed 12 of their 15 points at home.
The fixture between Excelsior and NAC was on the program 12 times before in Eredivisie history and the results are completely balanced with both clubs winning 5 times and drawing twice. NAC won the last three encounters in Rotterdam.
FC Twente won 4-2 at NEC last week, but they lost Bryan Ruiz with a severe knee injury in that match. The prolific Costa Rican striker never missed a match since he arrived at FC Twente at the beginning of the last season. The ‘Tukkers’ only lost four matches with Ruiz on the pitch.
Twente expect Ruiz to be back after the Winter break. Marc Janko was shocked when he saw the injury of his fellow striker. “I thought no not him, all our dangerous attacks start with Ruiz.” Michel Preud’homme was prepared. “We contract Arnold Bruggink and Anouar Diba on purpose”, the Twente coach said.
De Graafschap will meet another neighbor on Saturday after their 1-1 home draw in the derby against Vitesse last week. The Superboeren will try to grab their first away win at Twente in Eredivisie history. De Graafschap never won in 17 Eredivisie matches in Enschede and they only scored three times.
Feyenoord have a good chance to proof that they do not belong on their current position on the table. The Rotterdam club grabbed a 2-1 home win against ADO Den Haag last week, thus climbing out of the relegation zone. A win at rock bottom Willem II would confirm their upward trend.
Mario Been may hand Jhonny van Beukering a chance in Tilburg. The striker, who was without a club after NEC refused to hand him a new contract after last seasons, will probably sign at Feyenoord before the weekend. Been worked with Van Beukering at NEC in the past and the coach threw him out of his selection twice because of overweight.
Willem II are still looking for their first win of the season. The ‘Tricolores’, who have only 3 points from 16 matches, are on their way to set another negative Eredivisie record. The lowest amount of points of at the halfway point for a club in Eredivisie history was 4, by Helmond Sport (1983/1984), Cambuur Leeuwarden (1993/1994) and RBC Roosendaal (2005/2006). Willem II scored as many goals as they lost matches this season: 13.
VVV-Venlo have only won twice in 11 Eredivisie matches at home in the Limburg derby against Roda JC. The last VVV victory dates back to 1985: 2-1. In 2007 the home team seemed to be cruising to victory but Roda came back from 3-1 down to win 5-3.
VVV lost its last four home matches. If they lose the team will set a new negative club record in the Eredivisie. Roda are also not heading for a record, but they are doing fairly well this season. If they win, Roda will have 31 points from 17 matches. Only three times they had more points at the halfway point, in 1994/1995 (39), 1978/1979 (36) and 1993/1993 (33).
ADO Den Haag and AZ both defeated Ajax recently, but last week neither club were not able to win. ADO lost 2-1 at Feyenoord and AZ drew 2-2 at sc Heerenveen. ADO may try to take advantage of AZ’s midweek European duty.
The Alkmaar team was thrown out of the Europa League when they disappointingly drew 1-1 at Sheriff Tiraspol from Moldova. Goalkeeper Romero gave away a 1-0 advantage when he completely misjudged a long range shot.
Although ADO lost at Feyenoord last week, the club are doing very well this season, especially at home. John van den Brom’s squad are undefeated in their last 6 home games and the last time they managed to set a 7 league match unbeaten streak was between 1992 and 2003.
FC Utrecht was thrown out of the Europa League, but they gained confidence when they came back from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 at home against Napoli on Thursday. “We deserved more”, coach Ton du Chatinier said. “But we gave our crowd a good game and I’m proud that we have put up such a good performance against the number four of the Italian table.
Heerenveen come from a 2-2 draw against AZ last week. Ron Jans’ team are undefeated in their last 5 matches and they have 24 points from 16 matches. If Heerenveen win, they will have 10 points more than they had at the halfway point last season.
FC Utrecht and Heerenveen met 18 times before in The Galgenwaard. The home team won 6 times, the visitors 5 times and the match ended in a draw 7 times.
IF PSV win their home match against Heracles Almelo on Saturday, they will be league leaders halfway the season for the first time since 2007/2008. The Eindhoven club were league leaders at the halfway point 18 times before and when they were, they grabbed the title 15 times.
Eredivisie top scorer Björn Vleminckx will try to help NEC to its first ever Eredivisie win at Ajax. The club from Nijmegen will visit Amsterdam for the 35th time in the Eredivisie and never won away at Ajax.
It is going to be cold when Groningen takes on Vitesse in Euroborg on Friday. The club even warned their supporters to wear good clothing because the temperature will probably be minus 5 to 10 degrees centigrade.
Petter Andersson won’t be cold. On Thursday coach Pieter Huistra revealed that the Swedish midfielder will be in the Groningen starting lineup for the first time in two years. After his knee injury he already played five matches as a substitute and he already scored once. Injured strikers Nicklas Pedersen and Gonzalo Garcia will not play.
If they win Groningen will post their best first half of the season in club history. After 16 matches they have 30 points. Groningen set their record first half of the season in 1984/1985, when they grabbed 32 points from 17 matches.
Vitesse are on a good streak as well. They are undefeated in their last five Eredivisie matches. The new Spanish coach Albert Ferrer was on the bench in the last two.
Ajax had a quiet week. For the first time since the season start the international players had no midweek obligations. “That was good. I actually started to feel a little tired”, Belgian defender Jan Vertonghen said.
Last week Ajax won their first league match after a non winning streak of three when they took three points away at VVV-Venlo (2-0). With that win Martin Jol’s team was back into the title race, only trailing PSV and FC Twente three points.
NEC will visit Amsterdam for the 35th time in the Eredivisie and the club from Nijmegen never won away at Ajax. They only grabbed three draws in the previous 34 encounters. This time the red-black-green brigade may have a good chance as they bring in Eredivisie top scorer Björn Vleminckx, who made 12 goals in 16 matches which is 44 percent of NEC’s total league production this season.
PSV regrouped well after their 4-2 loss at NAC Breda last week when they qualified for the last 32 of the Europa League with a 2-1 away win at Sampdoria on Wednesday.
IF PSV win their home match against Heracles they will be league leaders halfway the season for the first time since 2007/2008. The Eindhoven club were league leaders at the halfway point 18 times before and when they were, they grabbed the title 15 times.
Heracles does not seem to be too difficult an opponent. The Almelo team visited Eindhoven 10 times before in the Eredivisie and only won once. The last two editions of this match ended in a 4-0 win for the home team.
NAC Breda are doing well having beaten the league leaders twice in two weeks last month when they defeated FC Twente and PSV in Breda. The club are fifth on the table, but that’s not because of their away matches. If a table of only away matches would be drawn up, NAC would be dead last with only one point from seven matches.
Excelsior come from a 1-1 draw against bottom ranked Willem II. The Rotterdam team dropped to sixteenth place and will probably be fighting relegation for the rest of the season. They grabbed 12 of their 15 points at home.
The fixture between Excelsior and NAC was on the program 12 times before in Eredivisie history and the results are completely balanced with both clubs winning 5 times and drawing twice. NAC won the last three encounters in Rotterdam.
FC Twente won 4-2 at NEC last week, but they lost Bryan Ruiz with a severe knee injury in that match. The prolific Costa Rican striker never missed a match since he arrived at FC Twente at the beginning of the last season. The ‘Tukkers’ only lost four matches with Ruiz on the pitch.
Twente expect Ruiz to be back after the Winter break. Marc Janko was shocked when he saw the injury of his fellow striker. “I thought no not him, all our dangerous attacks start with Ruiz.” Michel Preud’homme was prepared. “We contract Arnold Bruggink and Anouar Diba on purpose”, the Twente coach said.
De Graafschap will meet another neighbor on Saturday after their 1-1 home draw in the derby against Vitesse last week. The Superboeren will try to grab their first away win at Twente in Eredivisie history. De Graafschap never won in 17 Eredivisie matches in Enschede and they only scored three times.
Feyenoord have a good chance to proof that they do not belong on their current position on the table. The Rotterdam club grabbed a 2-1 home win against ADO Den Haag last week, thus climbing out of the relegation zone. A win at rock bottom Willem II would confirm their upward trend.
Mario Been may hand Jhonny van Beukering a chance in Tilburg. The striker, who was without a club after NEC refused to hand him a new contract after last seasons, will probably sign at Feyenoord before the weekend. Been worked with Van Beukering at NEC in the past and the coach threw him out of his selection twice because of overweight.
Willem II are still looking for their first win of the season. The ‘Tricolores’, who have only 3 points from 16 matches, are on their way to set another negative Eredivisie record. The lowest amount of points of at the halfway point for a club in Eredivisie history was 4, by Helmond Sport (1983/1984), Cambuur Leeuwarden (1993/1994) and RBC Roosendaal (2005/2006). Willem II scored as many goals as they lost matches this season: 13.
VVV-Venlo have only won twice in 11 Eredivisie matches at home in the Limburg derby against Roda JC. The last VVV victory dates back to 1985: 2-1. In 2007 the home team seemed to be cruising to victory but Roda came back from 3-1 down to win 5-3.
VVV lost its last four home matches. If they lose the team will set a new negative club record in the Eredivisie. Roda are also not heading for a record, but they are doing fairly well this season. If they win, Roda will have 31 points from 17 matches. Only three times they had more points at the halfway point, in 1994/1995 (39), 1978/1979 (36) and 1993/1993 (33).
ADO Den Haag and AZ both defeated Ajax recently, but last week neither club were not able to win. ADO lost 2-1 at Feyenoord and AZ drew 2-2 at sc Heerenveen. ADO may try to take advantage of AZ’s midweek European duty.
The Alkmaar team was thrown out of the Europa League when they disappointingly drew 1-1 at Sheriff Tiraspol from Moldova. Goalkeeper Romero gave away a 1-0 advantage when he completely misjudged a long range shot.
Although ADO lost at Feyenoord last week, the club are doing very well this season, especially at home. John van den Brom’s squad are undefeated in their last 6 home games and the last time they managed to set a 7 league match unbeaten streak was between 1992 and 2003.
FC Utrecht was thrown out of the Europa League, but they gained confidence when they came back from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 at home against Napoli on Thursday. “We deserved more”, coach Ton du Chatinier said. “But we gave our crowd a good game and I’m proud that we have put up such a good performance against the number four of the Italian table.
Heerenveen come from a 2-2 draw against AZ last week. Ron Jans’ team are undefeated in their last 5 matches and they have 24 points from 16 matches. If Heerenveen win, they will have 10 points more than they had at the halfway point last season.
FC Utrecht and Heerenveen met 18 times before in The Galgenwaard. The home team won 6 times, the visitors 5 times and the match ended in a draw 7 times.
