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Almere City FC welcome FC Dordrecht to the Yanmar Stadion on Friday evening in the Eerste Divisie, and both sides know exactly what’s riding on it. Almere sit sixth on 55 points and are chasing the kind of finish that keeps the promotion picture alive and the mood sharp going into the final stretch. Dordrecht are 10th on 47 points, not out of the conversation for a stronger end to the season, but they’re in that awkward middle ground where a push upward still matters and a flat run can easily drag them backwards.
There’s also a neat bit of context here. Almere have been one of the division’s more dangerous home sides, while Dordrecht have been perfectly respectable away from home without ever really looking secure. That combination usually brings goals. Add in the fact that these two have a habit of producing tight, competitive meetings, and you’ve got a Friday night game that should move quickly and leave little room for passengers.
Almere come into this one with a form line that’s been lively but uneven. They beat Vitesse 3-1 away on 13 March, then drew 2-2 at home to RKC Waalwijk a few days later, and followed that with a smart 2-0 win at Jong Ajax. That little run looked like a team finding its groove. Then the wheels jolted. A 3-2 home win over TOP Oss kept the momentum going, but the last two outings have been defeats, first at home to FC Den Bosch and then away to Willem II Tilburg, where they went down 2-1 on 12 April.
That Willem II match summed up the problem neatly. Almere were never cut off from the game — they created enough to score, with Mounir El Allouchi on target early and Ferdy Druijf adding another later on — but they were loose enough at the back to invite trouble. They gave up 1.37 xGA and lost the big-chance count 3-1. That’s the worry. They can score, they can carry a threat, but they’re not locking games down.
At home, though, they’ve been a different animal. Nine wins, three draws and six defeats from 18 league matches at the Yanmar Stadion is a solid return, and 39 goals scored there tells you they don’t just edge games, they tend to get involved in them. The flip side is 24 conceded at home, which is not disastrous but is certainly not the mark of a side shutting opponents out. Almere have scored in bunches this season and their recent run underlines that: they’ve seen both teams score in five of their last six league matches, and over 2.5 goals has landed in five of those six too. That’s not a coincidence. It’s a pattern.
Jeroen Rijsdijk’s side don’t look like a team built for caution. They press enough, they attack enough, and when the match opens up they usually prefer to keep playing rather than sit on what they’ve got. That’s good news for a goals market. It’s also why they keep leaving the door open at the other end. Three clean sheets in this sort of stretch would be a surprise, not a norm.
Dordrecht arrive with a very different kind of rhythm. Their last six league matches have had a bit of everything, but not much stability. They lost 2-1 at De Graafschap on 14 March, drew 2-2 with TOP Oss at home, then went down 3-1 at Jong FC Utrecht. Another defeat followed at home to Roda JC Kerkrade, and that made the 0-3 loss particularly ugly. Still, they stopped the slide with a 1-1 draw at SC Cambuur, and then last time out they beat ADO Den Haag 1-0 at home thanks to Jan Plug’s goal on 65 minutes.
That win over ADO mattered. It wasn’t flashy, but it was disciplined, and the numbers were tidy enough: 1.71 xG, only 0.35 xGA, and a 12-5 shot advantage. Dordrecht were not hanging on for dear life. They controlled it. The question is whether that cleaner performance was the start of something or just one good night at home. Away from home, their season has been far less convincing.
Their league away record reads six wins, six draws and six defeats, with 23 goals scored and 27 conceded. Balanced, yes. Comfortable, no. It tells you they can compete on the road, but they’re not a side that travels with much authority. They’ve scored in enough away games to avoid being dismissed outright, yet they’ve also had too many away afternoons where they’ve been forced to chase the match rather than shape it. That’s dangerous here, because Almere won’t offer them a slow, sterile contest.
Dirk Kuijt’s team do have attacking moments, and they’ve been involved in a few open games recently. But they don’t defend with the same edge as the better away sides in the division, and once they’re behind, they can become oddly vulnerable. Their away numbers are not terrible. They’re just not strong enough to suggest they’ll keep Almere quiet for long. Can they get enough on the board to make this awkward? Probably. Can they stop the home side from creating chances? That’s a much tougher ask.
This fixture has leaned Almere’s way for a while. The most recent meeting came on 3 November 2025, when Almere won 1-0 away at Dordrecht. That followed another 1-0 away win in March 2023, and before that Almere beat Dordrecht 2-1 at home in November 2022. There’s a clear trend there, and it’s not subtle.
The pattern goes beyond those individual scores. Almere have not lost any of their last 11 meetings with Dordrecht, and they’ve also tended to strike first in this fixture. Dordrecht have had trouble keeping them out for years. That won’t decide Friday’s game on its own, but it does shape the mood going in. Almere know how to handle this opponent.
We’re backing Over 2.5 Goals at 1/2 here, and it feels like the cleanest angle on the card. Almere’s home matches are usually active, Dordrecht have enough away threat to contribute, and neither defence has the kind of record that screams caution. Almere have also cleared this line in five of their last six, while Dordrecht’s recent games have been open enough to support a similar view.
A 2-1 home win looks the likeliest scoreline. Almere’s home edge, plus that long unbeaten run in this head-to-head, nudges them just ahead, but Dordrecht have the attacking moments to get on the board and keep the total moving. If you wanted a smaller play, Both Teams to Score has a decent shout too. Still, the goals market feels safer than choosing a side.
