Looking back at last weekend, 1 thing certainly stood out: an undeserved defeat at the home Kuip with a misty performance after the whistle. Our Limburg friends from STVV were super efficient as they were able to score twice from one great chance.

KVC Westerlo

The big key question here in the Kempen has remained the same for several years now: why don’t our Kemphans reward themselves? Once again, we saw an attacking team, able to force numerous chances, but that last ball just didn’t come against the net. This week the Kemps were certainly not quiet, or rather we were not quiet. Three transfers completed. First in line was Isa Sakamoto, a nippy Japanese on loan from Gamba Osaka for the next six months. Last season, he managed to find his way to goal 11 times in 43 appearances. Then on Wednesday came Dane Andreas Jungdal, the regular goalkeeper of Denmark’s U21 and on 6-month loan from Italian club Cremonese.

Last but not least, an old rat also arrived on the scene with former Algerian internatioal Islam Slimani. 433 professional club appearances and 102 international matches with Algeria are on his CV, in which he managed to score 199 times. So let’s hope his 200th will be in the Westerlo shirt. Other shirts he has already worn are those of Sporting Lisbon, Leicester City, Newcastle United, Fenerbahçe, AS Monaco, Lyon, Brest, Anderlecht and KV Mechelen.

For those interested: Isa will play with number 13, Andreas with 99 and Islam with 19. Normally, the latter would also have chosen the number 13, but our Japanese was just a bit quicker in the country than him. If all goes well, our three acquisitions should already be eligible to play on Sunday thanks to the clever and swift work of our administrative staff.

Antwerp FC

This week they had to play another midweek match against Anderlecht as part of the semi-finals of the Belgian Cup. This match was lost 1-0, but they can already take revenge in three weeks. The axis of the team is dotted with solid thirty-somethings who know the ropes and coach the young players to a higher level. Toby Alderweireld – who has started his last six months as a professional footballer – controls the defence and just ahead of him in midfield he finds Denis Odoi and Tjarron Chery, and deep in the striker mentions the focal point Vincent Janssen, the age of this quartet added up to 137 years and 2452 professional games!

In other words, coach Jonas De Roeck has the most experienced axis in the Pro League. These are complemented by youthful (Belgian) talent such as goalkeeper Senne Lammens (22y), who has become a penalty-killer, defenders Kobe Corbanie (19y) and Zeno Van den Bosch (21y), midfielder Doumbia (20y) and strikers Valencia (21y) and Ondrejka (22y).

The goal production mostly consists of the same players: Chery scored 9x and gave 5 assists, Janssen and Ondrejka stand at 7 goals and 6 and 4 assists respectively and Gyrano Kerk has a production of 5 and 2.

Referee

Bram Van Driessche may try to bring this match to a successful conclusion. This season, he has already refereed two away games for our Kemphans: KV Mechelen (2-4) and Standard (1-2). Looking at it all-time, this will be his 16th game, yet with good results every time. 5x wins, 6 draws and 4 defeats.

Text and statistics: Peter Boons