FC Twente – AZ, 17 October 2009 19:45 CET
FC Twente are the current leaders in the Eredivisie with 23 points from nine games. The team won their last four games in a row and looking for a fifth against AZ on Saturday. FC Twente holds a good home record this season winning their games against RKC Waalwijk (2-1), FC Utrecht (3-2) and VVV Venlo (2-1) and drawing against PSV (1-1). Two weeks ago FC Twente grabbed a 1-3 win over Heracles Almelo in a derby game thanks to goals from Ruiz (att), N'Kufo (att) and Janssen (mid) climbing to the first place in the ranking. For the game against AZ Heubach (def) and Rajkovic (def) will remain sidelined while apart from the two defenders coach McClaren will have the disposal of a fully fit selection.
AZ has known quite a turbulent week, well…maybe not AZ but the bank of chairman Dirk Scheringa has tumbled down, being declared bankrupt which has caused quite some unrest in the club. AZ is currently on the sixth place in the ranking with fifteen points from six games and the team has finally managed to book a win two weeks ago, beating NAC Breda 1-0 thanks to a goal from Lens (att). Losing their three previous games against FC Utrecht (1-0), NEC (0-1) and ADO Den Haag (2-1) didn’t do the team much good with the pressure increasing on the selection after two disappointing results in the Champions League as well.
The game between FC Twente and AZ will be the biggest game of the weekend and looking at the status of the teams we have to give the advantage to the home side in this one. The current form of FC Twente is much better with four wins in a row while AZ comes from only one win and three defeats. After the busy week for AZ I can imagine that the players are not really focused on the game against FC Twente but will be busy thinking to leave the club during the winter break – something that is said to be inevitable after Scheringa will not be able to put any more money in the club. Apart from this the position of El Hamdaoui (att) has shown some cracks over the last few weeks with incidents on the training and the fact that he was kept out of the selection for the game against NAC Breda.
Odds for the home win can be found over evens and I will be taking them with medium stakes (5/10).
FC Twente to win $2.10 (Betfair) (5/10)
Ajax – Willem II, 17 October 2009 18:45 CET
Ajax are currently on the third place in the ranking with twenty points from nine games and the team is coming from a 2-2 draw away to Roda JC in their last game. Roda JC was the most eager team in the match but it was Suarez (att) opening the score from eleven meters halfway the first half. Roda JC leveled the score barely a minute later and in the second half the hosts grabbed the lead. A free kick from Suarez (att) leveled the score for Ajax twenty minutes from time and the visitors got down to ten men after Emanuelson (def) was shown a red card ten minutes from time. As a result of this the defender will be suspended for the game against Willem II.
Willem II occupy the seventeenth place in the ranking with only seven points from nine game and the team seems one of the most important relegation candidates this season along with RKC Waalwijk and Sparta Rotterdam. The team grabbed a 1-1 draw at home against NEC two weeks ago thanks to an equalizer from Boutahar (mid) in the second half after the visitors had taken the lead in the first half. Willem II holds a poor record on the road to Ajax losing their last three games 7-0, 4-1 and 6-0 in the Amsterdam Arena.
With Ajax increasing their form by the week and Willem II slowly sliding deeper into the relegation zone, the difference in quality between the two teams and the record of Ajax against Willem II over the last years this should be a comfortable home win.
Sparta – Feyenoord, 18 October 2009 14:30 CET
Sparta completes the relegation zone trio together with RKC Waalwijk and Willem II being on the sixteenth place in the ranking. The team has collected only eight points in the competition so far and with bigger brother Feyenoord visiting on Sunday, not much hope is there to expand this number. Sparta is one of the weaker teams in the Eredivisie this season losing their last two games against Vitesse (2-0) and SC Heerenveen (0-2). It's not really the case that the team plays abysmal, but more the lack of scoring power that can explain the low ranking of the team this season. With only four goals in nine games, grabbing points will be very hard since outscoring your opponent is the key to be able to climb in the ranking.
Feyenoord are in good form at the moment occupying the fourth place in the ranking after wins over RKC Waalwijk (3-0) and NAC Breda (0-2) and the team seemed to have crept from their misery from last season. Team manager Been has a positive effect on the group and Feyenoord will be visiting Sparta Rotterdam in a derby game on Sunday. The difference in quality of the teams is quite huge and Feyenoord should have no problems in picking up three points against a team that has so much trouble in finding the net.
Pairing them up with Ajax this weekend gives us odds around even and I will take these with medium stakes (6/10).
Feyenoord and Ajax to win $2.05 (Coral) (6/10)
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