Things to Know:

Sportvereniging Roda Juliana Combinatie Kerkrade, also known as Roda JC Kerkrade, is a Dutch professional football club located in Kerkrade, Netherlands. Roda JC Kerkrade plays in the Eerste Divisie. The club was founded by a merger between Rapid JC and Roda Sport in 1962. They were placed in the Eerste Divisie, and after a relegation they were promoted back to the top division in 1973, where they would stay for 41 years until being relegated in 2014. In 2009–10, they added Kerkrade to the name to create brand awareness and get financial support. Roda JC is known as the “coal-miner’s club”; fans of archrival club MVV, from the provincial capital of Maastricht, say those words condescendingly. However, in Kerkrade and the surrounding area, they are said with pride and respect. The last Dutch coal mines were closed in the 1970s, but the southeastern part of the Netherlands’ most southern province, Limburg, is still referred to as the Mijnstreek (“mine district”) today. The coal mines are still recalled in folk songs in the regional dialect and in the stories of old miners, reminiscing about an era that will never return. Southern Limburg will always be their home. Their team, in most cases, is Roda JC. Roda JC’s club honours include seven European campaigns and six KNVB Cup finals, of which they won two. One of its predecessors in club’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.