Match preview
NetherlandsEerste Divisie
The force is with the home side, I say. And not just a whisper of force — a solid, steady hum of it.
Jong PSV U21 have won 9 of their last 20 home games in the Eerste Divisie, drawing 4 and losing 7. Their points per game at home sit at 1.55, and they average 1.7 goals a game on their own ground. Dordrecht, travelling to this fixture, have won just 4 of their last 20 away games, drawing 6 and losing 10. Their points per game away are 0.9, and they concede 2.25 per game on the road. The gap between these two records is not subtle, and it is the foundation upon which this preview is built.
Look at Dordrecht's last five matches and you see a team leaking. They lost 0–3 at home to Emmen on 9 October, lost 0–3 away to FC OSS on 18 September, and lost 1–2 at FC Eindhoven on 11 September. Three defeats in five games, two of them by three goals. In the five games where xG data is available, their xG against stands at 2.39 per game while their xG for is just 1.21. They are giving away chances faster than they create them, and the results show it.
Jong PSV U21, for all their mixed recent form — one win, two draws, two losses in their last five — have scored in every single one of those games. Their xG for in the five games with data is 1.54 per game and their xG against is 1.37. At home, they beat Den Bosch 3–1 on 7 September and drew 1–1 with Jong AZ on 14 September. The 1–1 draw at Roda on 9 October kept their last-game run alive, but the home record is the anchor here, and it points one way.
The head-to-head at this venue within the last 12 months produced a 1–1 draw on 27 February. The older meetings — stretching back two years — tell a different story, with Dordrecht winning three of four at both grounds, but those are historical and do not carry the weight of current form. The one recent meeting says this fixture can be tight, and that is the honest counter-argument.
The counter-argument is real: Dordrecht beat Almere City FC 3–2 at home on 25 September, and they have scored in three of their last five. Over 2.5 goals has appeared in 8 of Dordrecht's last 10 and 12 of Jong PSV U21's last 20 home games. This is not a match where a 0–0 is the natural resting place. But Dordrecht's away record of 10 losses in 20 games, and the fact that they have failed to score in 5 of those 20, makes the away win a long shot at 3.00.
Key Points:
The home win at 2.15 is the pick. The records speak, and they speak for the home side. May the force be with you.
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Home Win
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