July 25, 2021
These diaries first featured a match from Belgium’s First Division A in April, or the Jupiler Pro League as it is more commonly referred to, when Beerschot narrowly prevailed over Sporting Charleroi towards the end of the 2020/21 season.
This weekend saw the start of the 2021/22 season and the Sunday lunch-time kick-off between KV Mechelen and Royal Antwerp was an opportunity to catch-up again.
Koninklijke Voetbalclub Mechelen were one of Europe’s strongest sides in the 1980’s, winning the 1987/88 European Cup Winners Cup with a 1-0 victory over Ajax in the final, and they won the subsequent European Super Cup with victory over PSV Eindhoven. They also won their fourth Belgian Championship in 1988/89, with the others being in the 1940s.
My one visit to Mechelen was in October 1993, when along with 5,000 others in the Achter de Kazerne, I saw them thrash MTK Budapest 5-0 in the UEFA Cup. The Mechelen side that day included Belgian internationals, keeper Michel Preud’homme and forward Alex Czerniatynski, although ironically it was Hungarian forward Denis Eszenyi who grabbed the headlines with a hat-trick against his compatriots.
Since those glory days, Mechelen have been also rans in the Belgian league and 1993/94 was the last time Mechelen participated in European competition.
Mechelen is in the province of Antwerp with a population of around 85,000, and located approximately 25km from both Antwerp and Brussels. In a lesser claim to fame I have played at Mechelen Cricket Club !
Royal Antwerp FC were originally formed as a cricket club by English students, hence the name being in English rather than Flemish. They are the oldest club in Belgium and proudly possess Matricule number 1 to indicate this. As a result, they are often referred to as “The Great Old”. Probably the high point in their history was reaching the final of European Cup Winners Cup Final in 1992/93 where I saw them lose 1-3 in the final to Italian side Parma at Wembley. They have won the Belgian title four times, although the last of these was in 1956/57.
I have never visited Antwerp’s Bosuilstadion but whilst living in Belgium I twice saw them play at KVK Tienen in the Belgian Second Division, when they won 1-0 in 2007/08 and drew 2-2 in 2008/09. They were by some distance the best supported side in that division, and created a great atmosphere at a normally sleepy provincial club like Tienen. After the drawn match I managed to obtain the autograph of Benny Lunenberg, Tienen’s captain, for the young son of a Tribune Twee regular Antwerp supporting friend. I doubt he has kept this souvenir !
In 2020/21 Antwerp finished second in the regular season table, and ultimately third after the championship play-offs, to qualify for the Europa League where they are still to find out who their opponents will be. Mechelen finished eighth in the regular season, but missed out on a European place after finishing sixth overall.
The coach of Antwerp is Danish international Brian Priske, whose career included a season at Portsmouth in 2005/06. Ex-Manchester United, Leicester and Stoke full back Richie de Laet ( 2 caps ) will be familiar to viewers in the UK, and centre-back Bjorn Engels joined from Aston Villa in June.
The two top scorers from last season are no longer at Antwerp. Ex-Norwich and Hull City Congolese striker Dieumerci Mbokani has left for a side in Kuwait whilst Israeli international Lior Refealov has switched to Anderlecht. Antwerp will be hoping that Swiss international Michael Frey ( 14 caps ) and young Congolese forward Guy Mbenza ( 2 caps ), who these diaries observed on loan to Swiss Second Division side Stade Lausanne Ouchy in February, will fill the huge holes made by those two departures. Antwerp are rumoured to be signing South African forward Percy Tau from Brighton and Hove Albion for a reported £5M, although this move has not yet been confirmed.
Antwerp’s foreign internationals include Cameroon forward Didier Ze ( 1 cap ), Congolese defender Luete Dongo ( 5 caps ), Congolese winger Nill de Pauw ( 1 cap ), Cameroonian midfield Franck Boya ( 6 caps ), Japanese midfielder Koji Miyoshi ( 5 caps ), and Ghanaian winger Opoku Ampomah ( 4 caps ).
Other foreign players include Senegalese defender Abdoulaye Seck, Angolan winger Bruny Nsimba, Portuguese right back Aureilio Buta, who is rumoured to be a target for Celtic, French keeper Jean Butez, Croatian keeper Davor Matijas, Nigerian midfielder Alhassan Yusuf and Portuguese centre-back Dinis Almeida.
Last season only 8 from a first team squad of 28 were qualified to represent Belgium but this has improved to 12 out of a squad of 30 for this season. Veteran midfielder Faris Haroun won 6 caps and ex-Koln midfielder Birger Verstraete has one cap.
A fee of 5.4M euros was paid to Standard Liege for 20 year old winger Michel-Ange Balikwisha but he is out injured at the moment. Haroun was also missing through injury, whilst Miyoshi was playing in the Olympic games. Ze was missing through more controversially circumstances though, reportedly refusing to play for Antwerp and trying to engineer a move to Anderlecht.
In contrast, 15 out 25 of Mechelen’s squad are Belgian but only veteran ex-Borussia Monchengladbach striker Igor de Camargo ( 9 caps ) has any full international honours.
Their foreign internationals include Trinidad and Tobago defender Sheldon Bateau ( 43 caps ), Cameroonian midfielder Samuel Gouet ( 11 caps ), ex-Birmingham Swedish forward Karim Mrabti ( 3 caps ), ex-Bristol City Swedish forward Gustav Engall ( 2 caps ) and ex-Sevilla and Celtic Ukrainian winger Marian Shved ( 2 caps ).
Foreign players without international caps include Dutch full-backs Lucas Bijker ( ex-Heerenveen ) and Sandy Walsh, French defender Thibault Peyre, Swedish left back Victor Wernersson and Brazilian Vinicius Souza.
Temperature at kick-off was expected to be 22 degrees with thundery showers forecast for later during the game. The rain actually arrived midway through the first-half but the second half was played in bright sunshine.
Bet365 had Antwerp as narrow favourites at 29/20, with Mechelen at 17/10 and the draw at 5/2.
Nearly all matches in 2020/21 were played behind closed doors, but in 2019/20 Mechelen averaged 14,835. Due to Covid restrictions, attendances will be limited at the start of the season, with a maximum of 4,800 expected for today’s game.
Pre-season friendlies are often an unreliable indication of form. Antwerp went into their first league match having drawn with Utrecht and Monaco and lost to AEK Athens, Mechelen had drawn with Roda Kerkrade and Standard Liege and lost to Utrecht.
MyCujoo/Eleven Sport were streaming the match but with a 3.49 Euro fee to watch. However, the game was free to watch on onefootball.com and also on Bet365 to those who had an active account. The onefootball stream was around 45 seconds behind the Bet365 stream, but had the advantage of a commentary in English.
Mechelen played in their traditional yellow and red stripes with black shorts, whereas Antwerp were in their change kit of all white.
Both sides made a lively start and despite the reduced attendance, the crowd made a lot of noise and generated a terrific atmosphere. Interestingly, one of the messages written across the top of the main stand read “You’ll Never Work Alone”.
The first chance of the match fell to Antwerp, Benson’s shot was saved at the near post and from the resulting corner de Laet headed just wide from close range, perhaps showing why he didn’t score at all last season.
Antwerp had the upper hand and were looking to feed Buta down the right-hand side. However, their opening goal in the 18th minute came from a long ball down the left. Mechelen defender Vanlerberghe dithered over a clearance and was outmuscled by Frey, who cut-back inside and saw his shot deflect off Souza and over the diving keeper.
The set-back seemed to galvanise Mechelen and Antwerp keeper Butez needed to make a brilliant double save in the 24th minute. First, Cuypers’ shot from the edge of the area was parried and Druijf following up saw his effort block by the body of Butez. Hairemans had a good chance to equalise but swept left-footed over the bar from 14 yards after a pull-back from the left hand side by-line.
Benson briefly stemmed the tide with a counter attack and a low shot across goal that was a comfortable save for Coucke, but Mechelen responded with Mrabti shooting straight at Butez after being put in space by a clever back-heel by Cuypers. A minute before the break Hairemans ran along the by-line but his pull-back was intercepted by Butez.
Antwerp went into the interval leading 1-0 with just 36% of the possession and Frey gave an interview in English as he came off the pitch.
The second half started with Mechelen continuing to press and immediately Vanlerberghe saw a curling free-kick tipped onto the bar by Butez.
Antwerp needed to do something to change the pattern of the play, but rather than any tactical change, out of the blue they doubled their lead in the 56th minute. Benson was allowed to run unchallenged from close to half-way, and delivered a delightful curling left-footed shot into the corner of the goal from just outside the penalty area.
Mechelen didn’t panic though and the game continued in the same vein, with Antwerp perhaps blinded to the need to make any alterations by holding a 2 goal lead. Butez had to be alert to tip a dangerous cross from Gouet over the bar, and after the corner was partially cleared, a cross beyond the far post was kept in play by Gouet and the ball struck de Laet and went into the net for an unfortunate own goal. There was a big question as to whether or not the ball had gone out of play, but VAR didn’t intervene and the goal stood. 1-2 after 60 minutes.
Antwerp were unable to turn the tide, and two goals in a minute saw them go behind after 74 minutes. First Butez made another fine save to keep out a close range header from Cuypers but Druijf was on hand to acrobatically flick the ball into the net from a couple of yards. Although the contact wasn’t clean, there was enough for the ball to go over the line.
As Antwerp reeled from this. Druijf ran at the back-peddling defence and shot from the edge of the area and past the keeper at the near post. 3-2 to Mechelen
Antwerp finally made some substitutions to get back into the match, but it had little effect. Seck did have a goal bound header cleared but offside was given. In the closing stages, Antwerp were unable to apply any pressure as they struggling to win the ball back from Mechelen, who looked the more likely side to score again.
Overall, a fully deserved win for Mechelen in a cracking game which was a good advert for Belgian football.
KV Mechelen : Coucke – Walsh, Vanlerberghe, Gouet, Bijker – Hairemans ( Storm ), Souza, Schoofs ( Bateau ), Mrabti ( Swers )– Druijf ( Engvall ), Cuypers
Royal Antwerp : Butez - Buta, De Laet, Seck, Quirynen ( Ben Hamed ) – Benson ( De Sart ), L. Verstraete ( Boya ), Gerkens, B. Verstraete, Soussi ( Bataille ) - Frey
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