At last, our Kemphans were able to avoid the Mechelen cliff at the AFAS stadium. Attractive football, seasoned with 2 goals on stoppage time and 2 more after some nicely played action. Despite controlling the match, it was still shaky for a while as spills occurred at one point to put the match fully in the fold.

KVC Westerlo

Coach Timmy Simons more logically replaced the injured Jordan Bos with Tuur Rommens. The rest of the eleven remained standing after the handsome Kuip performance against Cercle.

In the ever-bustling stadium of our provincial rivals, our Kemphans showed guts and daring. Two ingredients that are important in football, two things too that our new-fangled coach is trying to instil, with success for the time being and much to the delight of the travelling supporters. By 700 they were there and kept the atmosphere up and propelled our boys to the three-peat. Also important are the gamechangers, a fantastic new word for the reserve players and let’s face it, Josimar Alcocer and Matija Frigan found their way to goal in this role.

Luka Vuskovic’s injury was not too bad in the end. He suffered a stiff neck during the warm-up, but this did not stop him from winning every header, with the apotheosis being the 0-2 in minute 36 after a corner kick from Dogucan Haspolat. At half-time, our medical still tried to loosen his neck, but out of safety it was decided to keep him in the dressing room. This allowed Emir Ortakaya to make his debut in our club’s shirt.

In terms of selection news, once again only Jordan Bos will be sidelined and we welcomed Griffin Yow to the club on Tuesday. Our Yankee was eliminated early (quarter-finals) at the Olympics and chose to join the squad immediately.

The balance of matches against Union still tilts to the wrong side, as in 25 encounters, the Unionists managed to take the sheet 12 times with a three-pointer and 6 times a draw.

Union SG

The Brusselers had to make another trip to Prague on Thursday to qualify for the big ball of the Champions League. They came back empty-handed after a 3-1 defeat. It will also be a busy schedule for them with 3 matches in 6 days. So Saturday they come to the Kuipje, on Tuesday they then play the return against Slavia Prague, to host Charleroi at their own Stade Joseph Mariën on Friday.

Wondering if coach Sébastien Pocognoli will rotate. In the first 2 league games – at Dender 0-0 and at home against Beerschot 3-1 – they were allowed to start against the 2 promoted sides, before thus making the move to the Czech Republic. In those matches, the 10 same names came to the kick-off each time (except once): goalkeeper and captain Anthony Moris, defenders Castro Montes, Mac Allister, Machida and Leysen, midfielders Sadiki, Vanhoutte and Puertas and the most forward players Eckert Ayensa and Teklab. Only the last 11 name changed each time according to tactics. So were Kabangu, Fuseini, Rodriguez and El Hadj.

After another fantastic season, and this time fortunately with a nice prize to put in their cupboard: the Belgian Cup, they did say goodbye to two important (attacking) pawns. Swede Nilsson moved to national champions Club Brugge and the nimble little Algerian Amoura saw his super season rewarded with a transfer to the German Bundesliga, namely the Wolfsburg where Belgian Sebastiaan Bornauw is also under contract.

In his place again came some lesser-known names, but everyone in Belgenland knows what this means, because surely they have made Union discoveries in recent years.

Jasper Vergoote

The 32-year-old West Fleming, affiliated with Varsenare, featured on the opening day of play at Anderlecht vs Sint-Truiden. Then last week he was allowed a trip to Norway, where he got to whistle the Tromso vs KuPS match, in function of the Conference League.

Union is the team he has already whistled the most in his career. So on Saturday he will be leading his 22nd game for them, in which they won 8x, drew 6x and lost 7x. For our Kemphans, this will be his 13th game, with 6 appearances at the Kuipje:

• 2019: OH Leuven (1-2)
• 2020: Lierse (0-0)
• 2021: Antwerp (2-1)
• 2022: Standard (4-2)
• 2022: STVV (2-3)
• 2024: Standard (2-1)

Text and statistics: Peter Boons

Text and statistics: Peter Boons