Football – Netherlands – Eerste Divisie
Friday 22nd August 2013 – Kickoff: 1900hrs
Hosts Den Bosch will be looking for back-to-back home wins tonight when they take on RKC Waalwijk following a recent win over VV Venlo.
Den Bosch overcame VV Venlo 2-0 at home which would have been a bit of a relief as they’d opened their new Eerste Divisie season with a 1-2 loss away at Fortuna Sittard. But Den Bosch have been in good form leading up to the start of the new season as their pre-season results testify.
The hosts had won five of their seven pre-season matches including wins over Dordrecht 4-1 away, Heracles 2-0, Lommel 3-0 and PSV 1-0. Although I don’t place too much importance on friendly matches, Den Bosch finished last season in fourth place with an overall home record of 9-5-5 29/23 with their leading goalscorer being Quekel (19 goals).
Visitors RKC Waalwijk finished third from bottom in the Eredivisie at the end of last season and occupied one of the relegation play-off places. This therefore meant they had to go to a two-legged play-off against Excelsior who finished third in the Eerste Divisie.
Waalwijk lost 2-4 on aggregate so they now start this season in the Eerste Divisie, and find themselves bottom of the division after back-to-back defeats to Roda 2-3 away and last Friday’s heavy 0-4 home defeat to Oss.
They now face two tough away trips to Den Bosch tonight and then De Graafschap next Friday so it’ll be interesting to see how they fare, and will be keen to avoid any early rot setting in.
Den Bosch with home advantage will fancy their chances against a stuttering Waalwijk outfit who have yet to find their feet in the Dutch second tier. I’ll back the hosts to win this one perhaps by a 2-1 scoreline.
Pick: Den Bosch straight win @ 1.85 Pinnacle
