De Graafschap v NAC Breda 

There is a full round of second division football this Friday, with some interesting matches. One of them is De Graafschap against NAC Breda, two former top flight teams with very strong fan bases that produce full stadiums in the second division as well. De Graafschap have had a pretty bad start to the season, despite being one of the strong outsiders for promotion this season, but they have been a bit unlucky. In the three matches they lost, they created more chances than their opponents, yet they failed to get points from those games. They finally won their first match last week, against Telstar, one of the weakest teams in the league, which came as a relief. 

NAC Breda are a bit the opposite. After fans managed to keep the City Group out of the club, a few local entrepreneurs jumped in to save the club from bankruptcy. Good for the fans, who demonstrated lots against modern football, but not good for their chances to get back to the top flight quickly, because there is very little money in Breda and the side doesn’t look competitive enough to fight for promotion. They did start with 10 points from the first five matches, which puts them on a play-off spot, but since their schedule has been pretty easy, you can’t read too much into that. 

De Graafschap finally got to winning ways and that should be good for their confidence. With their loyal fans behind them, that should push them towards a victory against this NAC side. 

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ADO Den Haag v Jong AZ 

This is a must-win for ADO Den Haag, but it is far from certain that they actually will. After Dirk Kuyt’s side finally claimed their first three points, they had another tough match against Willem II. ADO parked the bus and hoped to get away with a result against the side that are also struggling at the start of this season. It resulted in a poor match with few chances (1-0), which was telling about the current form from both sides. 

This match will be different. The home side are the favourites to win this match against the AZ academy team. There is a lot of pressure on the team and Kuyt looks a bit lost in charge of this team, but there is another problem in Den Haag. The fans are misbehaving almost every single match and the club is racking up fines and punishments, so there is always fear of escalations in Den Haag. Jong AZ have a decent side this year, but a lot depends on their midfield. 

The first team are playing a Conference League away game in Slovakia the day before, and midfielders Fedde de Jong and Peer Koopmeiners travel to that game. They probably won’t be involved in that game, so might travel back straight back to Den Haag for this one, but that isn’t certain. Wouter Goes will be back from suspension, but his partner in the centre of defence, Maxim Dekker, won’t be there, as he will definitely be involved with the first team. Anyway, the expectation is that ADO will be playing for the win and in those games they have conceded a fair bit of goals, so I’d go on overs in this game.

FC Eindhoven v MVV Maastricht

FC Eindhoven almost had a perfect start to the season with 13 points from five matches. They haven’t, however, been that convincing in recent games. They failed to create a lot of chances, but it has been their steady defence that pulled them through against Jong AZ and Helmond Sport. 

MVV Maastricht also started the season well. For years the side finished near the bottom of the table and the expectations are usually pretty low. However, since Maurice Verberne took charge towards the end of last season, MVV are playing fresh, positive football and that has been giving results. Despite a tough schedule, they are in full fight for the play-off spots with eight points from five games and their schedule also lightens up after the next match, so things look good in Maastricht. 

With FC Eindhoven beating their opponents with the bare minimum so far and MVV in decent form and even being a threat to the big teams this season, I can’t see Eindhoven wrapping this match up easily. That’s why I’d put my money on MVV not losing with more than a goal difference.

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