The preliminary final report of our Kemphans is positive. The objective set in July was to achieve retention and have a quiet season, with if possible an outlier here and there. We have had it all, indeed the season is not over yet. All the club’s personal records have been broken, since the introduction of the Play Offs in 2010. What follows is participation in the Europe Play Offs. Gent, Standard and Cercle Brugge will be our opponents in the coming weeks. We took a closer look at these teams during their duels with each other and the following know-it-alls emerged here.

• If we add up the mutual scores between these clubs this season, our Kemphians have the most points. Westerlo (10p) – Standard (9p) – Cercle Brugge (7p) and Gent (6p). If we then count these points at half-time, Standard will end up winning these Play Offs with a one-point lead over our Kemphans.
• Westerlo and Standard are also the two clubs that have not lost a single mutual duel at their home stadium. Overall, a home club won six times, drew four times and lost twice. Gent lost against Cercle (3-4) and Cercle against Westerlo (0-1)
• On the move, the four clubs barely scored points. Westerlo and Cercle Brugge gained 3 points, Gent and Standard went home with 2 points in the three displacements.
• Most goals were scored by Gent (12), followed by Westerlo (11), Standard (9) and Cercle Brugge (8) Gent are also in first place in terms of goals against. They got 13, Cercle (11), Westerlo (9) and Standard (7) do slightly better there.
• Hugo Cuypers was the top shooter. He found his way to goal four times, including two penalties against Westerlo. In surprising second place is Igor Vetokele. He found his way to goal three times, despite managing only eight starting places during the season. Dino Hotic also managed to shake the nets three times, however, he did so in one match, namely Cercle’s 3-4 win over Gent.
• Standard were awarded the most penalties. Four times the ball went on the dot for them. Gent got 2 penalties – both times against Westerlo – and Cercle and Westerlo were allowed to hit once from the eleven-metre mark.
• Overall, Gent will start least fresh. Indeed, they have already played 52 games with commitment this season. Standard, Westerlo and Cercle Brugge all finish on 36 games.
• If we look at ball possession over a whole season, we see that Gent claim 55.7% of the ball, Standard 50.8%, Westerlo 49.7% and Cercle Brugge 43.5%. Remarkably, Cercle barely had the ball both at home (45.1%) and away (41.9%).
• In terms of fair play, Standard is by far the worst of the class of the 4 participants. In fact, they rank 16th overall in this classification. Gent and Westerlo are both in the top three bravest clubs for this season.
• If Westerlo fall behind this season, they haven’t won a game yet. They did manage three more draws from those 14 back-to-back. That makes us the worst of the class and we hope for a rematch in the next few duels.
• Standard are then again the only team to get ahead , won’t lose the match either.

Jasper Vergoote

Was allowed to whistle 20 matches in the Jupiler Pro League this season. This just puts him in the top 10 referees who had to officiate most often.  It will be the third time he will be seen at the Ghelamco Arena this season. The previous two times Gent played a draw against Sint-Truiden (1-1) and won against Seraing (2-1). It will also be the third time for our Kemphians. Both games were played at Kuipje: Standard (4-2) and Sint-Truiden (2-3).

Text and statistics: Peter Boons