Roda JC

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roda JC
Roda JC logo
Full name Sport Vereniging Roda
Juliana Combinatie
Nickname(s) The Pride of the South
De Koempels
De Limburgers
Founded June 27, 1962
merger of Roda Sport (1954)
and Rapid JC (1954)
Ground Parkstad Limburg Stadion
Kerkrade
(Capacity 19,979)
Chairman Flag of the Netherlands Servé Kuijer
Manager Flag of the Netherlands Raymond Atteveld
League Eredivisie
2007/2008 Eredivisie, 9th
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
 
Home colours
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
 
Away colours

Roda JC is a Dutch football club located in Kerkrade, Netherlands. Roda JC plays in the Dutch Eredivisie.

Contents

[edit] History

Roda JC came into being by the merger of several football clubs from Kerkrade. In 1954, SV Kerkrade (of 1926) and SV Bleijerheide (of 1914) merged to form Roda Sport. That same year, Rapid '54 (of 1954) and amateur club Juliana (of 1910) merged to form Rapid JC, which would go on to win the Dutch league in 1956. On June 27, 1962, Rapid JC and Roda Sport merged to form Roda JC. The current club is the result of the merger history involving no less than five clubs. Since being promoted to the Eredivisie in 1973, Roda JC hasn't been relegated. The club has reached the KNVB Cup final 5 times, winning it twice, in 1997 and 2000. The average attendance in 2004/05 was 12,700 people.

The last Dutch coal-mines were closed in the 1960s, but the Netherlands' most southern province, Limburg, is still referred to as the Mijnstreek ('mine district') today. The coal-mines are still industrious in folk songs in the regional dialect and in the stories of old miners, reminiscing of an era that will never return. Southern Limburg will always be their home. Their team, in most cases, is Roda JC.

Roda are known as a 'coal-miner's club'. Fans of MVV, from the mundane provincial capital of Maastricht, pronounce those words condescendingly. In Kerkrade and surroundings they are pronounced with pride. Roda JC are Limburg's number one club, now that Limburg rivals VVV Venlo, MVV and Fortuna Sittard are relegated from the Eredivisie. Roda's club honors include seven European campaigns and five KNVB cup finals, of which the latter two were won. One of the predecessors in Roda's 'family tree' of mergers, Rapid JC, were champions of the Netherlands in 1956. Ten out of eleven players on that Rapid JC team were coal-miners.

Few Dutch football clubs have such a complex history of mergers as Roda JC (full name: Roda Juliana Combinatie). The story in short: Kerkrade football club (of 1926) and Bleyerheide (of 1914) became Roda Sport in 1954. In the same year Juliana (of 1910) and Rapid (of 1954) became Rapid JC. The two mergers, Roda Sport and Rapid JC, existed for only eight years, forming Roda JC in 1962. The newly born club got promoted to the Eredivisie in 1973 and did not get relegated since. Today, the club play in Parkstad Limburg Stadium.

Since their promotion to the highest level in 1973, Roda finished in the top ten of the Eredivisie more than twenty times. It is one of the select handful of clubs that regularly qualify for 'Europe' and manifest themselves as tough opposition for the 'Big Three'. Roda, for one, reached their all-time high in the 1994-1995 season: the yellow and black side were the only team in the country not to lose to unbeaten national and European champions Ajax. Both league confrontations ended in 1-1 (the final score of surprisingly many recent editions of Ajax vs Roda, by the way, especially in Kerkrade) and Roda JC finished second in the Eredivisie, their best league achievement ever.

The history of the forming of Roda JC
The history of the forming of Roda JC

The club's most memorable European campaign was in 1988-1989, when Roda made it through the winter in the European Cup Winners Cup before succumbing to the superb strikers of Bulgarian PFC CSKA Sofia: Hristo Stoichkov and Emil Kostadinov, who were soon to become superstars in Europe's major football leagues. Roda's most memorable European game, however, was played thirteen years later on 28 February 2002: after a 0-1 defeat to AC Milan in Kerkrade, Roda caused panic at the San Siro by winning the return leg by the same score. Roda even took the lead in the penalty shoot-out, but ended up losing the series. One penalty away from eliminating AC Milan.

Roda's position in Dutch football is best illustrated by their history in the KNVB Cup. Roda were good enough to make it to five finals, but the first three times the opponent in the final was one of the 'Big Three' - and Roda went home with the silver medal: PSV won in 1976 and 1988, Feyenoord in 1992. In the club's latter two cup finals, however, a 'non-Big Three' side was the opponent. Both times the cup went to Kerkrade: Heerenveen were beaten in 1997, NEC in 2000.

Roda can keep up with the big ones, even in times of financial trouble (2002-2003), but without being unfaithful to the real Roda soul. Typically, the club's eternal fan hero was a scion of a local coal-miner's family. A history of Roda would be incomplete without his name: Eugène Hanssen, long-time Roda captain during the 1980s and early 1990s, and still a working-class hero of Limburg's 'mine district'.

[edit] Proposed merger

It has been proposed that Roda will merge with VVV-Venlo, MVV and Fortuna Sittard to create a new club, FC Limburg. [1]

[edit] Stadium

Since the establishment of the club, Roda JC played in "Sportpark Kaalheide" with a capacity of 21,500 people. The current stadium is called Parkstad Limburg Stadion and has a capacity of nearly 20,000 seats. It was opened on August 15, 2000 with a match against Real Zaragoza.

[edit] Achievements

1955/1956 (as Rapid JC)
1958/1959 (as Rapid JC), 1994/1995 (as Roda JC)
1972/1973 (as Roda JC)
1996-97, 1999-2000 (as Roda JC)
1975-76, 1987-88, 1991-92, 2007-08 (as Roda JC)
1997, 2000 (as Roda JC)

[edit] Current squad

No. Position Player
1 Flag of Belgium GK Bram Castro
2 Flag of the Netherlands DF Ger Senden
3 Flag of the Netherlands DF Jan-Paul Saeijs
4 Flag of Norway DF Pa Modou Kah
5 Flag of Belgium DF Vincent Lachambre
6 Flag of the Netherlands MF Marcel Meeuwis
8 Flag of the Netherlands MF Willem Janssen
9 Flag of Belgium FW Dieter Van Tornhout
10 Flag of Morocco FW Anouar Hadouir
11 Flag of Estonia FW Andres Oper
12 Flag of Belgium DF Davy De Fauw
14 Flag of the Netherlands DF Frank van Kouwen
No. Position Player
15 Flag of the Netherlands Antilles DF Nuelson Wau
16 Flag of Belgium FW Jamaïque Vandamme
17 Flag of Canada MF Marcel De Jong
18 Flag of Côte d'Ivoire MF Cheik Tioté (on loan from Anderlecht)
19 Flag of Côte d'Ivoire FW Sekou Cissé
20 Flag of Belgium MF Roland Lamah (on loan from Anderlecht)
22 Flag of Poland GK Przemysław Tytoń
24 Flag of Turkey DF Fatih Sonkaya (on loan from Porto)
27 Flag of Hungary DF Boldizsár Bodor
30 Flag of Belgium GK Cliff Mardulier
34 Flag of Belgium FW Jeanvion Yulu-Matondo

[edit] Wall of Fame

Netherlands

Australia

Belgium

Denmark

Gambia

Greece

Ivory Coast

Nigeria

Scotland

Turkey

[edit] Managers

RODA JC MANAGER FROM TO
Piet Thomas 1962 1963
Michel Pfeiffer 1963 1965
Wiel Coerver 1965 1966
Adam Fischer 1966 1968
Breur Weyzen 1969 1971
Jacques Koole 1971 November 1972
Hennie Hollink November 1972 February 1974
Fritz Pliska February 1974 1974
Bert Jacobs 1974 1980
Piet de Visser 1980 1983
Hans Eijkenbroek 1984 November 1984
Eugene Gerards November 1984 December 1984
Frans Körver December 1984 1986
Rob Baan 1986 October 1987
Rob Jacobs October 1987 1988
Jan Reker 1988 1991
Adrie Koster 1991 March 1993
Huub Stevens March 1993 1996-10-09
Eddy Achterberg 1996-10-09 1996-11-01
Martin Jol 1996-11-01 March 1998
Theo Vonk March 1998 June 1998
Sef Vergoossen 1998 2001
Jan van Dijk 2001 2001-09-19
Georges Leekens 2001-09-19 2002
Wiljan Vloet 2002 2005
Huub Stevens 2005 2007-02-02
Raymond Atteveld 2007-02-02

[edit] References

  1. ^ Gabriele Marcotti (2008-01-21). A level playing field and Africa will shine. The Times. Retrieved on 2008-01-21.

[edit] External links