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Roda JC

A MINER'S CLUB - NOT A MINOR CLUB

The last Dutch coal-mines were closed in the 1960s, but the southern part of Holland's most southern province, Limburg, is still referred to as the Mijnstreek ('Mine District') today. It is a beautifully shelving area, where the landscape does not look 'Dutch' at all. The coal-mines are still industrious in folk songs in the regional dialect and in the nostalgic stories of old miners, reminiscing of an era that will never return. Southern Limburg will always be their home. Their football team, in most cases, is Roda JC.

Indeed, Roda is known as a 'coal-miner's club'. Supporters of MVV, from the mundane provincial capital of Maastricht, may pronounce those words condescendingly, but in Kerkrade and surroundings they are pronounced with pride. Roda JC are very clearly Limburg's number one football team today and that won't change now that VVV-Venlo (from Northern Limburg)have returned. Roda's club honors include seven European campaigns and five Dutch cup finals, of which the latter two (1997 and 2000) 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 legendary, semi-professional Rapid JC team were coal-miners.


Rapid JC, predecessor of Roda JC, Dutch champions of 1956.
Ten out of eleven players on the team were coal-miners.

Few Dutch football clubs have such a complicated history of mergers as Roda JC (full name: Roda Juliana Combinatie). The story in short: Kerkrade FC (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 new clubs, Roda Sport and Rapid JC, existed for only eight years before they joined forces and became Roda JC in 1962. The newly born club got promoted to the Eredivisie in 1973 and never went down since. Today, they play their home games at Parkstad Limburg Stadium, one of the larger and most beautiful new Eredivisie facilities.


Arguably one of the most beautiful new Eredivisie grounds: Parkstad Limburg Stadium in Kerkrade.

Since their promotion to the highest level in 1973 Roda finished in the top ten of the Eredivisie more than twenty times, thereby developing into one of Holland's 'best of the rest', the select handful of clubs that regularly qualify for 'Europe' and manifest themselves as opponents the top teams regularly drop points against. Roda, for one, reached their all-time high in 1994-1995: the yellow and black side were the only team in Holland and Europe that season to not lose a game against unbeaten national and European champions Ajax. Both league confrontations ended in 1-1, as Roda JC finished second in the Eredivisie that year, their best league achievement ever.


The best Roda JC team ever. The 1994-1995 squad finished second in the Eredivisie, directly behind Ajax.

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 powerhouse Sredets 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 rather unlucky 0-1 home defeat to AC Milan, Roda caused major panic at the San Siro by winning the return leg by the same score. The 'Koempels' (local dialect for 'miners') had their chances in extra time and even took the lead on penalties, but wasted their 'match point' and lost the shoot-out. One spotkick away from eliminating AC Milan... it's something to be proud of.


Early 1980s Panini sticker of 'Mister Roda':
Eugene Hanssen, scion of a Limburg coal-miner's family.

Roda's natural place in Dutch football is best illustrated by their history in the Dutch Cup. The fact that they made it to five finals indicates that they're normally better than most clubs, but the fact that their first three finals were lost to one of the 'Big Three' (PSV in 1976 and 1988; Feyenoord in 1992) is equally telling. In the club's latter two cup finals a 'non-Big Three' club was the opponent and both times the cup went to Kerkrade: Heerenveen were beaten in 1997, NEC in 2000. It sums it all up: the 'Big Three' are normally superior, the others not necessarily so.


Recent Roda success: players celebrate the winning of the 2000 Amstel Cup in Rotterdam.

Thanks to chairman and 'rich uncle' Nol Hendriks Roda JC are known as a buying club, rather than a club with a great youth academy. In recent seasons Roda were sometimes more of a 'foreign legion' than the fans appreciated. They want Roda to stay true to its origins. Quite typically, the club's eternal fan hero is a scion of a local coal-miner's family. A history of Roda JC would be incomplete without his name: Eugène Hanssen, long-time Roda captain during the 1980s and early 1990s, and still a working-class hero in Limburg's proud and beautiful 'Mine District'. (MP)

RODA JC FACTS

Founded: 27 June 1962, merger of Roda Sport (1954) and Rapid JC (1954). Roda Sport was a merger of Kerkrade Minor (1926) and Bleijerheide (1914). Rapid JC was a merger of Juliana (1910) and Rapid '54 (1954).
City: Kerkrade
Stadium: Parkstad Limburg Stadium
Capacity: 19,979
Official website: www.rodajc.nl

Honors:

  • Dutch champions: 1956 (Rapid JC)
  • Dutch Cup winners: 1997, 2000
Recent History: Ajax vs Roda JC