RODA JC

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

Contents

History

Stadium

Achievements

Current squad

Hall of Fame

Former managers

External links

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 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'.

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.

Achievements

★ 'Eredivisie '

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★ 'Winners:' 1955/1956 Rapid JC

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★ 'Runners-Up:' 1958/1959 Rapid JC

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★ 'Runners-Up:' 1994/1995 Roda JC

★ 'Eerste Divisie '

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★ 'Winners:' 1972/1973 Roda JC

★ 'Dutch Cup'

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★ 'Winners:' 1997, 2000 Roda JC

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★ 'Runners-Up:' 1976, 1988, 1992 Roda JC

★ 'Dutch Super Cup'

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★ 'Runners-Up:' 1997, 2000 Roda JC

Current squad

Players in 'bold' have international caps.

Hall of Fame

'Netherlands'

★ Dick Advocaat

★ Stanley Bish

★ Michel Boerebach

★ Lars Brouwers

★ Joop Dacier

★ Leo Degens

★ Leo Ehlen

★ Henk Fräser

★ Bram Geilman

★ Maurice Graef

★ Nol Hendriks

★ Ruud Hesp

★ Gene Hanssen

★ Marco van Hoogdalem

★ Bert Jacobs

★ Ron Jans

★ Jan Jongbloed

★ Johan de Kock

★ Adrie Koster

★ Gerard van der Lem

★ John van Loen

★ Eric van der Luer

★ Mark Luijpers

★ Dick Nanninga

★ Theo Pickee

★ Richard Roelofsen

★ Huub Stevens

★ Wilbert Suvrijn

★ René Trost

★ Peter van de Ven

★ Pierre Vermeulen

★ Piet Wildschut

★ Peter de Wit
'Australia'

★ Graham Arnold

★ Željko Kalac
'Belgium'

★ Tom Soetaers

★ Bob Peeters

★ Joos Valgaeren

★ Peter Van Houdt
'Denmark'

★ John Eriksen

★ Jens Kolding

★ Sten Ziegler
'Gambia'

★ Edrissa Sonko
'Greece'

★ Yannis Anastasiou
'Ivory Coast'

★ Arouna Koné
'Israel'

★ Motti Ivanir
'Nigeria'

★ Tijani Babangida
'Turkey'

★ Fatih Sonkaya

Former managers

★ Eddie Achterberg

★ Rob Baan

★ Jan van Dijk

★ Hans Eijkenbroek

★ Robert de Groot

★ Bert Jacobs

★ Rob Jacobs

★ Martin Jol

★ Frans Körver

★ Adrie Koster

★ Georges Leekens

★ Fritz Pliska

★ Jan Reker

★ Sef Vergoossen

★ Piet de Visser

★ Wiljan Vloet

★ Theo Vonk

External links

★ Official Roda JC website

★ Site about Roda JC Players

★ West Side Ultras

★ Rodaworld

★ Koempels Pleasure Dome

★ 1st Official Suporters Fanclub /

★ Fanproject Kerkrade 98

★ Parkstadlimburg-stadion