Roda JC

Roda JC

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	vacant
Manager	Harm Van Veldhoven
League	Eredivisie
2009–10	Eredivisie, 9th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours

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

History

The history of the forming of Roda JC.

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 four 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 provincial capital of Maastricht, pronounce those words condescendingly, in Kerkrade and surroundings they are pronounced with pride. Roda JC is Limburg's number one club, now that Limburg rivals VVV-Venlo, MVV and Fortuna Sittard are relegated from the Eredivisie. Roda's club honours include seven European campaigns and six KNVB cup finals, of which 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 themselves for European football and manifest themselves as tough opposition for the 'Big Three'. Roda, for one, reached their all-time high in the 1994–95 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 and Roda JC finished second in the Eredivisie, their best league achievement ever.

The club's most memorable European campaign was in 1988–89, 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 became 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 six finals, but the first three times and the last time 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 and 2008. In two of the club's 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.

Since 1992 Roda have been in discussions with neighbours Fortuna Sittard, as well as MVV and VVV-Venlo, with a view to merging to form a new club, named F.C. Limburg.^[1] A statement of intent was published by Roda and Fortuna in November 2008 and in early 2009 financial backing was found for the scheme.^[1] All attempts, however, were stranded.

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 19 000 seats. It was opened on August 15, 2000 with a match against Real Zaragoza.

Achievements

• Eredivisie champion: 1
  

1955/1956 (as Rapid JC)

• Eredivisie runner-up: 2
  

1958/1959 (as Rapid JC), 1994/1995 (as Roda JC)

• Eerste Divisie champion: 1
  

1972/1973 (as Roda JC)

• KNVB Cup winner: 2
  

1996–97, 1999–2000 (as Roda JC)

• KNVB Cup runner-up: 4
  

1975–76, 1987–88, 1991–92, 2007–08 (as Roda JC)

• Johan Cruijff-schaal runner-up: 2
  

1997, 2000 (as Roda JC)

Current squad

For recent transfers, see List of Dutch football transfers summer 2010 and List of Dutch football transfers winter 2009-10.

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 2 DF Davy De Fauw (captain) 3 DF Eric Addo 4 DF Pa Modou Kah 5 DF Vincent Lachambre 6 MF Ruud Vormer 7 MF Sebastian Svärd 8 MF Willem Janssen 9 FW Mads Junker 10 MF Anouar Hadouir 11 FW Morten Skoubo 12 DF Eelco Horsten 15 DF Jimmy Hempte 17 FW Rihairo Meulens

No. Position Player 18 MF Arnaud Sutchuin 19 FW Aleksandar Stankov 20 FW Guus Hupperts 21 GK Mateusz Prus 22 GK Przemysław Tytoń 24 DF Yani Urdinov 26 MF Laurent Delorge 27 DF Boldizsár Bodor 28 MF Kenneth Staelens 29 GK Collin van Eijk 33 FW Antonio Stankov 34 FW Jeanvion Yulu-Matondo

Notable players

Managers

Former chairmen

• Servé Kuijer
• Olaf van Eijndhoven

See also

• Sporting Limburg

References

External links

• Official Roda JC website (Dutch)
• Site about Roda JC Players (Dutch)
• West Side Ultras (Dutch)
• Koempels Pleasure Dome (Dutch)
• 1st Official Supporters Fanclub (Dutch) / (German)
• Fanproject Kerkrade 98 (Dutch)
• Parkstadlimburg-stadion (Dutch)
• 1990s Review (Dutch)
• Supportersclub Roda (SCR) (Dutch)
• Roda United (Dutch)