As Lady Gaga once said, football is a funny old game. Going into their Champions League match with Arsenal on Tuesday night, Anderlecht were seen as lambs to the slaughter. They had won one of their last five league games and would be without Steven Defour and Matias Suarez through injury and Alexsander Mitrovic as… Read More »
It was 20 years ago today – give or take a few days – the Belgian team seemed to lose its way! Twenty years ago, almost to the day, Belgium faced Saudi Arabia after having won their first two games in the World Cup. With Georges Grün having already picked up a yellow card, coach… Read More »
Marc Wilmots has announced the Belgian squad to meet the Ivory Coast next week and there are no shocks. In keeping with previous squads, Wilmots is sticking with his trusted players regardless of whether they play regularly with their clubs. Of the 23-man squad, only one position is genuinely up for grabs – reserve right… Read More »
I wrote this back in October for World Soccer. It explains, to an extent, why it’s a season of transition for all of the bigger clubs in the Jupiler Pro League. Only Standard Liege have managed to avoid the charge of ‘under-performing’ this season and it’s likely that several of their top youngsters could move… Read More »
Several big clubs suffered at the weekend. Anderlecht arrived late for their match at Charleroi and throughout the game. They only started playing at 2-0 down; it finished 2-1. Second-placed Genk went to Oostende and were thrashed 4-0; Anderlecht loanees Fernando Canesin and Jordan Lukaku were instrumental in the result. Then league leaders Standard were… Read More »
Friendly encounters Tonight’s friendly with Colombia and Tuesday’s against Japan will give a chance to two or three players – most notably Thomas Meunier, Jelle Vossen and Radja Nainggolan – who could have a chance of breaking into the squad to go to Brazil. However, Marc Wilmots is extremely loyal and only a couple of… Read More »
A tad late on the blog but just to add that Belgium won 2-1 in Croatia to confirm their participation in the 2014 Worl Cup finals in Brazil.
The big winners this weekend were Anderlecht and Zulte Waregem. Anderlecht, beset by injuries and suspensions, fielded a young side, went to Genk and returned with the three points. Kara’s early dismissal did help JVDB’s boys. Remarkably, despite the talk of crisis, Anderlecht are the ‘form’ team in the JPL. Later, Zulte Waregem beat Bob… Read More »
It’s exactly three years to the day since I started writing this blog. Today I find myself in Zagreb with Belgium needing just one point to secure qualification for the World Cup finals. In those three years the team has been transformed. Most of today’s players were in the squad three years ago but they’ve… Read More »
Goals galore in the Jupiler Pro League this weekend, 31 in eight games. Anderlecht’s Aleksandar Mitrovic and Matias Suarez dazzled against a poor KV Mechelen with the former scoring his first after two minutes. For Genk, Ilombe Mboyo and Jelle Vossen combined brilliantly to destroy Zulte Waregem while Standard’s Michy Batshuayi scored his first ever… Read More »