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Pickard: Club Brugge — Season 2 (Championship Playoff)
Hey Everyone!
This is it the final post of Season 2, could we do it…could we become Champions for the second season?
Let’s find out…
Match 1 – Genk
The one team I didn’t want to start the playoffs against and we got them…Genk. There a very difficult side to beat and away too. We got off to the worst possible start…1-0 Genk after just 6 minutes…was our playoff hopes over before they’d really begun? No…an Eric Lamela thunder bolt made it 1-1 in the 45+2 minute, there was hope. We came out in the second, firing on all cylinders but couldn’t score…missing 4 clear cut chances. I thought our chance of winning the match was over but, with 7 minutes remaining Jeroen Simaeys popped up with the winner. GET ON…great start and a win over Genk haha!
Match 2 – AA Gent
Having heroically beaten Genk, AA Gent were next up for us. We hadn’t played well against them all season. We we’re the better side in the first half but failed to score. It was AA Gent who struck first but Lerato Chabangu equalised on 70 minutes and that’s how it ended…we couldn’t find a winner, 1-1 the final score.
Match 3 – STVV
Another match we dominated, but this time it wasn’t a draw…we lost 1-0. The winner goal came 4 minutes after the restart and they held on for the win. We couldn’t afford another slip up and Anderlecht were next up.
Match 4 – Anderlecht
There always big matches against Anderlecht but this one was massive, a loss and we could probably kiss goodbye to our title…no pressure then. We again, like the previous two matches, started the better of the two teams but, this time we were 2-0 up at half-time. Goals from Hao Junmin and a far post header from Dede had given us the priceless lead. I ‘encouraged’ the players at half-time and it worked a treat we managed to hold on to our 2-0 lead and got an amazing victory.
Match 5 –Standard
Next up were Standard, they had been in great form during the season and were still in with a shot of the title…very tough match ahead of us then. They came out all guns blazing and had the major share of possession but, we were 2-1 up at half-time, I couldn’t believe it…we were catching them on the counter. Sven Kums and Lerato Chabangu were the scorers and I told the players I wanted more of the same. I couldn’t believe the second half…Standard ended up having 61% of the possession but we won 5-1, Carl Hoefkens netting twice and Hao Junmin rounding off an amazing score line. What was more amazing was that we’d missed 3 clear cut chances…it could have been 8-1.
So at the halfway stage where did that put us…
Joint first with Genk (grrrrrr). If only we’d have managed to beat STVV. Anyway on with the show…
Match 6 – Genk
It was Genk time again. We’d definitely had the upper hand of them during the season (apart from the Super Cup), but this match was the most important, a win would move us clear of them in the playoff table. We had Dede missing from our defence so I had to draft in Jeroen Simaeys (who scored the winner in the previous match against Genk). It was a shaky start from both teams, everyone knew what it meant but, disaster struck on the 43rd minute…Jeroen Simaeys got sent off for a second bookable offence, what made it worse, it was for arguing with the referee, I was fuming with him and later fined him 2 week wages. I tried to ‘encourage’ the players at half-time but I knew that playing the whole second half with 10 men against one of the best teams in the league was going to be difficult…and it got even more difficult when Marvin Ogunjimi gave Genk the lead. The players rallied round to get an equaliser but I didn’t happen, we lost 1-0 and to make things worse Lerato Chabangu picked up an injury which would rule him out until the final game.
Match 7 – AA Gent
So without our key striker, needing a win and playing against a team we’d struggled to beat all season, you’d think this would be no exception…it wasn’t…AA Gent dominated but we managed to scrap a 0-0 draw. Our title hopes were fading fast.
Match 8 – STVV
Needing nothing but a win I told the players ‘I expect a win’…we were 1-0 down after 23 minutes but, Dorge Kouemaha managed to score to make it 1-1 at half-time. I again told the players ‘I expect a win’…this time they listened and Dede scored a 90th minute winner, our title hopes were still alive…just.
Like I said just…we were 5 points behind with two games to play. We could only hope that Genk lost both.
Match 9 – Anderlecht
This was it we had to win and what a match for us to have to do it in. We already knew that Genk had lost earlier, so a win would put us right on their tail going into the last match…but it was Anderlecht’s first half and Fredy Montero gave them a 1-0 half-time lead. I tried to ‘encourage’ the player in an attempt to spring life into them…and it worked. Hao Junmin scored within 4 minutes of the restart. We had chance after chance, but it just wasn’t going in then…Anderlecht broke and Fredy Montero scored…2-1 Anderlecht, even with 24 minutes remaining I knew it was over. We pressed and pressed but it was no good. Our title challenge was over…we’d lost 2-1.
Match 10 – Standard
Our title hopes may have been over but that loss had dropped us to 3rd in the table and out of the Champions League qualifying positions…so a win against Standard was vital but with Standard in 2nd place and only 2 points behind Genk they were challenging for the league title. It started very open with both team creating chances. On the 17th minute the deadline was broken…Dede put us 1-0 up…10 minutes later it was 2-0, Lerato Chabangu with the finish…8 minutes later Dede had got his second, 3-0 at half-time…I couldn’t believe it. Cani finished the match off in the 77th minute and we’d moved up into 2nd place, booking our place in the Champions League qualifying rounds for next season.
In all fairness Genk probably deserved to win the title…they also went on to lift the Belgian Cup to completed a domestic treble…so congrats to them.
Just before I end this post, I have been thinking of where I want to go with this story and I have come up with a list of Objectives I want to achieve.
As you can see I have already won the Belgium League so I have crossed that one out but, there are a lot of things still to do. Let me know what you think of them.
So that’s it for Season 2, thanks for reading and comments are always welcome.
Regards
Martin