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SV Bleijerheide

Roda JC

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

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 provincial capital of Maastricht, pronounce those words condescendingly, in Kerkrade and surroundings they are pronounced with pride. Roda JC are Limburg's numbers last 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 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 and Roda JC finished second in the Eredivisie, their best league achievement ever.

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 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 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'.

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

Current squad

Wall of Fame

Netherlands

Australia

Belgium

Denmark

Gambia

Greece

Ivory Coast

Nigeria

Scotland

Turkey

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 2008-10-07

References

External links

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Last updated on Tuesday October 07, 2008 at 05:30:23 PDT (GMT -0700)
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