Stunting at the Bosuil, it was in. We also saw the old Westerlo back in Antwerp. The final points distribution was certainly not stolen, although it was still a little shaky after MegaToby’s equaliser following Antwerp’s powerplay and ditto fifteen thousand spectators who got behind their team. However, our Kemphans kept their cool and so everyone at the Kempen festive table can talk about their favourite team climbing out of the doldrums step by step, because let’s face it: what Barcelona couldn’t do, our boys did.

KVC Westerlo

Once again, coach Rik De Mil, a people manager of the highest order, was forced to make last-minute changes to his starting eleven. But he had taken it into account. Bryan Reynolds had ended up doubtful after the last practice session. During the warm-up, however, it became clear that Edi Jordanov was going to take his place on the right flank. Both scenarios had been taken into account by our coaching staff.

At first, our Kemphans had to undergo the law of the strongest. Gradually, the pieces of the puzzle fell together. They did full justice to our supporters’ tifo: “fight for our colours”. Wet your jersey and fight for every morsel of grass, this is our DNA.

Fun fact is that Mark van Bommel, during the press conference, waved compliments at our new coach. “You just have to do it” he said, “take over in the middle of the season and still get the team back on track in a short space of time”.

Before everyone can start enjoying a week’s holiday, we still get RWDM on the floor at the Kuipje. A direct rival shall we call it. The importance of taking points here is even greater than the point won in Antwerp.

Knowing our coach, he will again opt for the same players, although the against Antwerp suspended Emin Bayram, is again selectable. At the time of writing, it was not yet clear whether Bryan Reynolds can be patched up in three days.

Two players are in danger of being forced to skip the first match of 2024 in Bruges: Sergii Sydorchuk and Edi Jordanov.

RWDM

The Brusselers were given a serious thrashing by Club Brugge last game and will be keen to make up for this lapse, although we note that against the West Flemish they had to concede no less than 13(!) goals in two games.

Five times this season they have already managed to finish a game winningly: at home against Mechelen, Cercle Brugge and STVV and twice they got the win away from home: Leuven and Eupen.

The only time they achieved a clean-sheet away from home was at Antwerp, which is also a top performance against one of the smoothest scoring teams in our domestic league. 

Claudio Caçapa, 3x Brazil international, usually plays in a 3-4-2-1 system, with the following players forming the base against Club Brugge:

1.        Goalkeeper Théo Defourny: captain

2.        Ilay Camara: right back transferred from RSCA Futures

3.        Moussa Sissako: Malian defender, ex-youth PSG, ex-Standard

4.        Klaus: Brazilian defender, dropped out with injury

5.        Youssouf Koné: 70 games in the Ligue 1, including Lille and Lyon

6.        Felipe Abner, Brazilian left-back who played in Real Madrid’s youth team

7.        Pierre Dwomoh: midfielder and property of Antwerp

8.        Shuto Abe, Japanese midfielder of 1m71

9.        Deep striker Makhtar Gueye: already good for 8 goals

10.      Xavier Mercier: 322 professional games, 63 goals and 79 assists

11.      Pathé Mboup: Senegalese left-back transferred from Lyon B

Wim Smet

The Antwerp native will take on our last game of 2023. This season we already got him once before against that other Brussels opponent Union (1-3). It will be his ninth time at the Kuipje, in which we won 6 times, drew once and lost twice.

Text and statistics: Peter Boons