An overall dramatic opening day of the season. Never before were so few goals scored. Fortunately, our Kemphans found their way to goal three times on Sunday, thus jacking up the goal difference a bit after all. Black beast Mechelen will be the first displacement, around this encounter there are a few facts to be found, all of which you can read through in the below.

KVC Westerlo

All alone at number one. Doesn’t mean anything after 1 matchday, of course, but it still looks nice, both for our club and for newly appointed coach Timmy Simons. There were no real surprises in the starting eleven. Westerlo watchers had seen these eleven coming, though. Of the 25 selected, five boys were eventually relegated to the stands: goalkeeper Nick Gillekens, defender Bakary Haidara, midfielders Raf Smekens and Muhammed Gumuskaya and striker Erdon Daci.

Meanwhile, seats have become even more expensive as both Emir Ortakaya and Emin Bayram have also been spotted around the Kuip in Westel training outfit. Except for Jordan Bos, all players are available for the selection.

The regional derby against Mechelen has been a difficult cliff to avoid for several years now. Of the last 10 mutual encounters, we could only take points once(!). Goals also fall by the wayside. Again, it is important to know that in the last two meetings at the AFAS stadium, we twice held a two-goal lead, but each time had to catch the bus to the Kuipje empty-handed in the final minute.

Coach Timmy Simons can hopefully change that. He also faced our regional neighbours once as T1. With Zulte, he won 3-2, although this was also by a long shot,   because, in added time, the Westvlamians then scored twice more, eliminating their deficit. We again sign for this scenario.

KV Mechelen

Nice opener for the Mechelers.  For the second season in a row, they were allowed to start with a move to the blue side of the Jan Breydel Stadium. Just like last season, they grabbed a point from Bruges. The equaliser was a gem, Norwegian substitute Nosa Dahl first leaving Golden Shoe on the spot with his dribble, only to deliver the ball to Pflücke on a silver platter.

In the starting line-up, we saw a few changes compared to last season, especially in the defensive area. Goalkeeper Coucke’s contract was not renewed and so Ortwin De Wolf joined the ranks. In the first part of the season, he was one of Antwerp’s goalkeepers, he then played a few games with the Young Reds, and after New Year he was a regular in goal at Zulte Waregem.

Another new face we noticed was Spanish central defender José Marsà. This left-winger could be admired in youth at FC Barcelona, before making the move to Sporting Lisbon’s second team. After a detour at Gijon, Mechelen took him away from FC Andorra, which was playing in the Spanish second tier. The third new face was that of youth player Bas Van den Eynden. He had been allowed to make his debut in the 21/22 season, and 3 years later he could only follow that up.

Besnik Hasi has already coached 7 games against KVC Westerlo, four times Anderlecht and three times Mechelen in the past, a defeat against us is not yet on his CV.

Bram Van Driessche

Bram was the referee in the Club Brugge vs Union Super Cup final this season and you could also find his name in the preliminary round of the Champions and Conference League. Last week he was not designated to referee a game in the JPL, so this will be his first appearance in the home league this season.

The last time we were able to finish a game winningly with him already dates back to 8.5 years ago when we managed to beat Charleroi 2-1 at our own Kuipje.

In the meantime, he was listed as our match-winner another eight times, resulting in 5 draws and 3 defeats.

Text and statistics: Peter Boons