The Obscure Betting Column: Enzo Scifo's Mouscron and Van Gaal's AZ amongst this week's featured teams

The Joker's Bet Of The Day / Ben Lyttleton / 24 October 2008 / Leave a Comment

The Obscure Betting Boys Dave Farrar and Ben Lyttleton pick out suitably obscure selections from Holland, Belgium and Slovakia this week.

Zilina v Artmedia (Slovakia)

Zilina are flying the flag for Slovakia in the Uefa Cup and while their involvement in the competition is great for the country, it could well hamper their title ambitions. The side go into this weekend joint-top of the league but their only two defeats of the season came in the days after tough Uefa Cup ties against Levksi Sofia: after the first leg, they lost at Banska Bystrica and after the second, to Dunajska Streda. Preparations for Thursday night's historic match against German leaders Hamburg were not ideal, as coach Dusan Radolsky was unable to rest players. Fatigue may well play a role as Artmedia come to town. The visitors are a different proposition to the side that smashed Celtic 5-0 in Champions League qualifying back in 2005 (their coach then, Vladimir Weiss, has progressed to coach the national team) but they are in some form, having won their last away match at Zlate Moravce 5-0. The return of Jan Kozak, a scorer against Celtic who is now back after a loan spell at WBA, has given the squad a lift and they will make life difficult for last year's runners-up.

RECOMMENDATION Lay Zilina v Artmedia @ [1.42]

Kortrijk v Mouscron (Belgium)

Kortrijk fans know better than to expect too much excitement at their matches this season: Elimane Coulibaly scored their last goal three games ago, with the last goal at their Guldensporen Stadium coming five weeks ago
in a 1-0 win over Mons. The club that's famous for starting the careers of the Mpenza brothers is the dullest in this season's Jupiler League,
with only seven goals in eight games so far. The Mpenzas ended up moving on to Mouscron, who are just three points behind leaders Standard Liege after a promising start to the season. Mouscron have this season been inspired by
the performances of Walter Baseggio, one of Belgian football's
greatest under-achievers, and the eight goals of strike-pairing Idir Ouali
and Adnan Custovic. But most of those have been at their home ground as the team coached by the brilliant former player Enzo Scifo, struggle on the road. Mouscron may well win but if they do, it won't be by much.

Under 2.5 Goals @ [2.02]

AZ v Volendam (Holland)

One week it's Groningen, the next it's NAC Breda: welcome to the Eredivisie
where every team is getting a chance to lead the table. The next side that could hit the top is AZ Alkmaar, who have kicked on since beating PSV Eindhoven a month ago and went on to win their next three games. Louis van Gaal's side were major under-achievers last season,
perhaps still punch-drunk from the disappointment of losing the title on the
last day of the previous Eredivisie. They have done well, however, to keep Van Gaal at the helm, and in Dutch internationals Kew Jaliens, Stijn
Schaars and Demy de Zeeuw and the still-improving Maarten Martens and Mounir El Hamdaoui, have a first XI, if not a squad, that could last the distance. They should certainly dispatch Volendam, a side that have shipped nearly three goals per game and are pointless after six games. No team has conceded more than their 17 goals, although the majority of those have been let in at home. Their best result of the season was the 1-0 loss at PSV but
they would do well to repeat that on Saturday evening against flying AZ.

AZ minus 2.0 and 2.5 on Asian Handicap v Volendam @ [2.0]