It’s Saturday! Whilst the night remains alright for fighting, the morning is very much for reading Philip’s Belgian adventure blog. Can Beveren finish season 2 in style?

Hallo allemaal!

Time flies! We are already at the final part of season 2. We started off like a rocket winning 9 straight matches, but after that our engine cooled down considerably and we find ourselves currently in 4th position. With only 4 points ahead of KV Mechelen, we will have to perform at our best if we want to travel around Europe again next season.

Speaking of Europe, we had an excellent UEFA Cup campaign. We made it to the 4th Round, but in our clash with Rapid Vienna we weren’t able to contain Marcus Pürk.

And last but not least, we are also still competing in the Belgian Cup, where we reached the quarter finals for the 2nd year in a row. As I mentioned earlier, I am expecting the away team to win the final and dominate the other team.

Even though I want to finish top 5, I shouldn’t forget the bigger picture here. I have to ensure my Belgian regens develop themselves. How have they done so far?

Appels (Grun) got into the squad after Silvagni’s injury. He performed great and he already developed himself as a starter next to Jansta.

Nasden (Lemoine) is doing OK so far. I have used him as a back-up in the attacking line, but in this final part I am planning to give him also a few starts on the 8-position. He needs to get to minimum 15 matches.

Coene has the lowest rating in the team and he will need more time to develop at a higher level. The left wing back position is a difficult one and there are not too many high-ability players that fit the position. I have Smid still for another year, but giving Coene a few additional matches of development time is probably not a bad idea.

The other regens I haven’t used yet and I am not planning to, unless the game forces me to.

But now it’s time to pick up the action again. We start the blog with a home match against Genk, who are currently on a relegation spot. We open in style.

Next we play Tongeren, who are also in the bottom of the standings. If we want to compete for a top-5 spot, these are matches we have to win. And we do!

Our form is increasing again, and it comes at a perfect time. We travel to Aalst for the quarter final of the Belgian Cup. We play a good match and we go to the semi finals for the first time! Can we beat Standard in the semis?

Anderlecht is the wealthiest of us all and they get another Dutch man in. Eric means business!

We found our winning mood back it seems. We lose Van Den Eede to injury, but Mouscron stands no chance and the win puts us back in 2nd position.

We return home from Mechelen with a point. We could have won, but at least we didn’t give them an opportunity to come closer. The title will be for Standard no doubt; there is only a 4-point gap between place 2 and 6.

If the match against Mechelen was important, then the one against overspenders Lierse is even more. Even though they have added Verhegen and Kreek since our last meeting we sent them home with a big victory. Nasden is growing week after week and for the first time he started on the 8-position.

Time now for the international break where the European countries are trying to qualify for Euro 2000. Euro 2000, the tournament that in reality was co-hosted between Belgium and the Netherlands, in cm9798 however it is only the Netherlands and Belgium needs to qualify. Our goalie Velkeneers received a call up again, but I did not expect him to actually start. He is our first Belgian player to earn a cap! It is an easy evening for him as Belgium ‘only’ wins 5-0 against the Faroe Islands.

Back now to the national league where our good form continues. We pick up another 3 points against Harelbeke. Key player with 2 goals is Tristan Peersman. Van Den Eede had a few injuries this season, but Peersman has clearly taken over the role of lead goal scorer.

Remember Germinal Ekeren? They are the team that broke our 9-win streak earlier this season. That calls for a revenge, doesn’t it?

Speaking of revenge, this time we are on the receiving end of it. So far we had won all matches against our rivals Lokeren, but unfortunately not this one.

The match against Lokeren marks the beginning of a busy week. In the next 5 days we host first Westerlo and then Standard in the semi-finals of the Belgian Cup. Westerlo is a nice apetizer, but unfortunately we cannot repeat the season opener where we beat Standard 4-1. We get an early lead, but Standard is the best team at the moment and advance to the final. Our Cup adventure ends in the semis.

Aha, Standard won’t win the Cup though! The draw sets Anderlecht as the away team, so I am sure they will win it.

The end of the season is now approaching quickly. I decide to give Coene some additional play time and he has a good match as we beat up Lommel. Lierse does the same to Standard and with 4 matches to play we are still in the title race!

Before we go into the season finale we go for another round of Euro 2000 qualifiers. Velkeneers is again capped for Belgium in a 2-1 victory over Macedonia. Will he become the goalkeeper for the remainder of the qualification campaign? Back-up goalkeeper is De Wilde, so I am having high hopes Preud’homme will regenerate next season!

In our match against Charleroi we get behind 3 times, but we show our resilience. We always come back and then go for the win.

We control our own faith as in our final 3 matches we play Club Brugge and Anderlecht. First we travel to Bruges. Last season we pulled off a win and delayed their title party. This time we quickly concede 2 goals and I am afraid it is game over. However we fight ourselves back into the match and we manage to go away with a point.

We stay focused against Aalst and on the last match day we host Anderlecht in a battle for 2nd position.

Since Gerets took over at Anderlecht their performance improved considerably. And that we feel. We also make it difficult for ourselves: Jansta loses his cool and gets an early red card. We equalise quickly after getting 0-1 down, but a goal right before and right after half time kills us.

Third place it is, for the 2nd year in a row. Standard lost their last match as well and then it hits me: I was not only playing for 2nd place but also for the championship!! It is a pity we gave it away, but all things considered we had a good year.

The last match of the season is the Cup Final. As expected, Anderlecht overruns Standard. That’s now 2 finals dominated and won by the away team.

Lommel and Genk relegate to the second division.

Jansta was outstanding and is again the best man of the team. And more important: regens Appels and Nasden are now part of the starting line-up. Peersman is not only our leading scorer, but also top scorer of the league.

Now let’s have a look at the expiring contracts. Johansen and Imagbudu are non-Belgian and will be released, and I decide to do the same with Dhont and Van Herreweghen. All others I will attempt to keep and have them sign a new contract. Especially Velkeneers, I need him to stay on board until a regen goalkeeper is ready to take over.

We finish the season and the blog with 2 international friendlies, for which Leekens decides to call up 3 of our players: Velkeneers, Silvagni and Van Den Eede. Silvagini lost his place in our starting line-up to Appels, but as usual Leekens has a different opinion.

Van Den Eede doesn’t make it to the squad. Velkeneers finishes the season with 4 caps. Funny thing is that 32-year old Silvagni gets a cap in the match against Italy. Getting a red card after 9 minutes in your first cap is perhaps not the most ideal way to be remembered Fabrice.

We are now at the end of season 2. Appels gets the Young Player of the Year award. He’ll be a key player in the years to come. If we play well next season, I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes it already to the Belgian squad.

That’s it for today. Next week we’ll go regen hunting again and we will have a look which regens we can pick up. You still remember our anchor points right?

Tot volgende week!