Feyenoord Rotterdam v Roda JC
Football : Netherlands : Eredivisie
Saturday 13th August 2011 - Kickoff 20:45

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Feyenoord

After a victory on the opening day of the Eredivisie, Feyenoord were top of the table two whole days. A lot of optimism has come up already, and playing for the play-off places has been given as a reasonable goal.

Feyenoord were better in their first match, at least better than Excelsior. But there was no adequate finishing and they needed Excelsior’s help to score goals. First a defensive mistake where striker Fernandez took advantage and secondly an own goal of Excelsior.

It’s too early to say Feyenoord have solved their problems. Man of the match Leroy Fer is still wanted by FC Twente, who have seen another offer on Fer rejected lately.

In the Excelsior match Fer showed he is a key player and without him it will be tougher to win matches. For now he is still at Feyenoord, but I expect him to leave as I feel Feyenoord is just trying to raise the offers with their rejections.

Besides him the other midfielders Clasie and El Ahmadi are talented but I have serious doubts they have what it takes to win harder matches. The transfers of Wijnaldum to PSV and striker Castaignos to Internazionale are notable losses which haven’t been replaced properly. However, the situation now is Feyenoord already have won half the amount of away matches of last season.

Roda JC

A sort of miracle happened on Saturday evening where Roda JC were in lost position, but fought back with a man down to a 2-1 victory against Groningen.

Groningen started furious and created chance after chance, and when Roda midfielder Vormer was sent off after 11 minutes and the caused penalty was converted the match seemed over. Somehow the second Groningen goal didn’t follow, Roda stayed in the game and after some effective substitutions Roda JC scored the equaliser and winner in the final 15 minutes.

Roda tried to defend far away from their own goal, but the center tandem at the back gave away so many spaces Groningen should have scored more.

An explanation could be that defender Broekhof was not the first option to start, but Vukovic on loan of PSV was ineligible to play. Quite an amateurish situation as he has played the whole pre-season and was at the club for a month already. For this match he is eligible and will be paired up with Wielaert to keep it far more tight at the back. Midfielder Vormer is suspended after his red card.

For this match Roda will be playing as the underdog, and will return to their game that has brought them success. Roda is a team that performs at best when they can fall back a bit and lurk on their chance with quick breakaways. They lost some important players, especially Willem Janssen to Twente and defender de Fauw were important players, but it's not a catastrophe without them.

The Betting Verdict

A match where Feyenoord will play their first match at home this season. New manager Koeman has brought in a bit of optimism, just as the first win of the season brought back the hope. But still Feyenoord are not far enough to be considered favs under evens in my eyes.

Striker Fernandez is still adapting as he played as a counter-striker at Excelsior last season, and his qualities in possession are not great yet. Dominating a match and finding the openings will be harder here than last week, as I expect Roda to make less mistakes than last week.

Creativity will be important, and without Wijnaldum Feyenoord have less offensive impulses from midfield. I feel the odds are far too high for a team as Roda, that is comparable to Feyenoord, and who can play the game that is fitting them best.

Roda to stay unbeaten for me. I'll take the +0.75, where the 1-goal loss will only give a half stake loss, for some extra safety.

HANDICAP BETTING :

Take Roda JC +0.75 AH @ 1.83 Pinnacle