Two players stood out from the pack this weekend, for vastly differing reasons. Anderlecht keeper Silvio Proto kept another clean sheet and approached his personal record, while Club Brugge’s Ronald Vargas was badly injured against Genk and will not play again this season.
Proto is one of several Belgian keepers in the spotlight these days. On Wednesday, he’ll be back in the Belgian side for the friendly with Finland. A few seasons ago, Proto was widely regarded as being odds-on to be Belgium’s keeper for years to come. Latterly, though, he’s been ignored by several national coaches due to injuries and a surprising lack of consistency in the Anderlecht goal.
That’s all changed now though and on Saturday, against Sint Truiden, Proto kept his seventh consecutive clean sheet. He now needs to keep his goal intact for just two minutes against Cercle Brugge on Saturday to beat his own record of 660 minutes without conceding a goal, a record he set earlier in the season. National coach Georges Leekens seems to have settled on either Proto or Bari keeper Jean-Francois Gillet as his first choice and as Gillet played in the last friendly in Russia, it’s Proto’s turn. The Anderlecht keeper says he’s relaxed about the Finland game but I suspect he’s not totally telling the truth.
Meanwhile, there were remarkable scenes at Genk on Sunday night. Club Brugge’s Venezuelan striker Ronald Vargas was carried off with ligament damage after just six minutes; out for six months at least. That was followed, over the course of 90 minutes, by Vadis Odidja and Ivan Perisic both receiving red cards and club captain Karl Hoefkens getting a late thigh injury, meaning that Club Brugge finished the game with eight players and, no surprise, no points. Vargas’ injury, while being a disaster for him personally, was good news for Genk’s Jelle Vossen. Vossen leads the goal scoring charts and Vargas is his closest rival. Because of the interminable play-off system, there are only five games to go in the Jupiler League and the title of the league’s leading scorer will go to the player with the most goals when the season ‘proper’ ends. Despite his lack of confidence at the moment, that’s going to be Vossen.
With Proto’s clean sheet, Anderlecht took three easy points from a Sint Truiden side reduced to ten men. Brazilian Kanu replaced the departed Jan Polak and with Matias Suarez replacing Jonathan Legear, out due to illness, that meant a little ‘magic’ in the Anderlecht ranks. Romelu Lukaku, though, still looked somewhat off the pace. Over at Eupen, Standard Liege had their first away win for several months and moved into the top six – if they stay there they will enter the ‘play-offs 1’. For regular readers, there will be a test about the Belgian play-off system at the end of March.
Apart from that, Ghent, Charleroi – miraculously – and KV Mechelen all had good wins. Next weekend’s stand-out game will be Standard Liege – Genk on Sunday night. The ‘Rouches’ fans will be longing for Steven Defour’s return, but that’s some weeks away.
Positions
- Anderlecht: p 25, points 57.
- Genk: 25-54.
- Ghent: 24-46.
- Club Brugge: 25-42.
- Standard: 24-39.
- Lokeren: 24-39.
13. Germinal Beerschot: 24-20. 14. Eupen: 25-19. 15. Lierse: 24-16. 16: Charleroi: 25-14.