Dutch EreDivision
2008-02-24 - NAC Breda vs Ajax Amsterdam
A Sports Betting Pick by Erik
Both teams collected 47 points in 25 games so far this season with NAC Breda being on a eight-game winning streak after the winter break!NAC Breda
NAC Breda currently occupies the fourth place in the ranking sharing the same amount of points with the number two Ajax only having a worse goal difference. NAC Breda is on a excellent roll after the winter break winning seven competition games in a row against Willem II (1-0), AZ (1-2), Roda JC (0-2), FC Twente (1-0), Sparta (0-1), FC Utrecht (1-0) and De Graafschap (0-1) and beating Ajax 4-2 in the Dutch Cup mid January.
The morale in the team is sky high at the moment and some strange things are going on in the club with team manager Brandts leaving at the end of the season with his contract not being renewed. This news seemes to have a very strange influence on the team with NAC Breda keeping on winning booking their fourth 1-0 win in a row last weekend on the road to De Graafschap.
NAC Breda will miss captain De Graaf (mid) on Sunday with the midfielder remaining sidelined after the winter break, breaking his leg during training while Tamerus (att) and Zoetebier (gk) are expected to remain sidelined for the rest of the season.
Ajax Amsterdam
Aax knew quite a turbulent week with Marco van Basten being appointed as new coach starting after Euro 2008 and Johan Cruijff returning to the club with the Dutch legend getting involved in the technical design of Ajax starting next season. The team currently sits on the second place in the ranking being nine points down on the leaders PSV with nine more games to play in the competition.
Ajax grabbed a 6-2 home win over Sparta Rotterdam last week thanks to two goals from Perez (mid) and Heitinga (def) and one from Huntelaar (att) and Lindgren (mid) with Huntelaar scoring his 23rd goal of the season in 25 games.
For the game against NAC Breda on Sunday Anita (def) and Van der Wiel (def) will remain sidelined with longterm injuries while Lindgren (mid) will be doubtful after picking up a hamstring injury during last week's training. With Davids (mid) taking place on the bench against Sparta last week the midfielder is expected to make his return on the midfield on Sunday replacing Lindgren (mid).
The Verdict
NAC Breda and Ajax met each other twice before this season with NAC Breda winning both meetings, 1-3 in Amsterdam back in December and 4-2 at home in the Dutch Cup last month. With the gap to the leaders PSV being nine points anything else than an Ajax win would rule them out for the title this year and Ajax will be looking for a win against NAC Breda.
However, this will not be an easy task with the hosts conceding only once in their last eight games with Ten Rouwelaer (gk) keeping his goal clean for 517 minutes in a row now.
Based on the above a home win is on the cards, but I will be opposing NAC Breda on Sunday because of the following:
Ajax holds an excellent record on the road to NAC Breda with nine wins in their last thirteen meetings and the team will be looking to avenge their two defeats earlier this season.
NAC Breda has won seven games in a row and streaks have to end sometime, especially with teams like NAC Breda who simply can not be consistent for an entire season.
NAC Breda has managed to grab the lead fourteen times this season and twelve times the team managed to leave the field as winners and drawing twice. If Ajax manages to score first NAC Breda will have to abandon their game tactic that has proven to be successful in their past eight games and the team simply will have a lot of trouble in making the play with Ajax being very efficient in counter strikes with fast wingers and an very eager Perez (att).
So...after giving this game quite some thought I will be taking Ajax on Sunday
BEST BETTING TIP :
Ajax to win $2.153/10 units staked on this one
Ajax not to lose $1.39 (Betfair)
7/10 units staked on this one
