Pickard: Club Brugge — Season 2 (November to December)

Hey People!

Welcome back to another update on my Club Brugge Story. Last update showed how well we’d started in the League (finally beating Genk) and progressing to the next round of the Belgian Cup however, in the Champions League it wasn’t so pretty, 3 losses (in a difficult group I might add) led us all to believe that our run in the competition is coming to an abrupt end :(. Anyway…On with the show…

November

Our first match of the month was to play hosts to Roma, having been out classed and out played by the Italian side in the previous fixture I wasn’t expecting much but going in a half-time 0-0 gave me new hope. I told the players ‘we can win this’ and we went out fully of confidence and created chances but not taking them, with 9 minutes left Roma scored (very dubious goal…Taddei was yards offside) pretty much sealed our fate. 1-0 the final score, the player put in a brilliant performance but the might of Roma prevailed.

Our next challenge was Tournai. Tournai were bottom of the, not much of a challenge your thinking but, with the teams morale battered and bruised from the champions league result made this a challenge, a challenge we simply weren’t up for and went in 0-0 at half-time. I gave the ‘for the fans’ speech at half-time, but that didn’t work and to make matter worse…our captain Carl Hoefkens scored their winning goal. Bottom of the league beat us…how embarrassing…I was fuming!

Next up was STVV in the Belgian Cup 7^th round, the round we were dumped out of last year. I very difficult match with the team suffering two straight defeats. I told the lads ‘I expect a win’ and with 24 minutes it was 1-0…to STVV, Carl Hoefkens with another own goal. Before we knew what was happening STVV raced to a 2-0 lead, we were sinking without a trace and make matters worse 6 minutes after the goal…Lerato Chabangu limped off with a potential knee injury…how bad…who knew. With the whole team’s morale very poor…I was struggling for words…me lost for words, I left this one to the assistant.  The punishment didn’t stop there, just before the hour mark STVV made it 3-0. ..we were crashing out of the cup again…but, I got even worse Benson Mhlongo then gave away a penalty which was converted, 4-0 and STVV converted another penalty in stoppage time to make it 5-0…Benson Mhlongo again…don’t know how he stayed on the pitch to be honest it was an awful challenge. My heaviest defeat us Brugge manager and I was livid.

I didn’t think it could get any worse, but then I looked at the fixture list…Genk…oh great, with must players morale on ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ we were in for a stuffing. I made 4 changes, 1 was forced due to Lerato Chabangu being out until January (just before the African Cup of Nation…interesting).  Genk dominated from the start and we were lucky to go in at half time at 0-0. Katlego Mphela wasn’t making any impact what so ever so no came Dorge Kouemaha. We started to make a few chances and 24 minutes from time it was Kouemaha that got us a goal with in the end sealed the win. Another win against Genk…COME ON!!!

After the near priceless victory over Genk, we then hosted Mallorca in a very key champions league match. If we beat Mallorca better than they bet us in the last match (2-1 we the score), we would move in to 3^rd place in the group. Benson Mhlongo gave us the perfect start as his header gave us a 17^th minute lead, which we held onto at half-time.  Mallorca started the better in the second half and created a few chances to level, but Danny Koevermans sent the Brugge fans into raptures when he made it 2-0 in the 62 minute. 2-0 was the final score and we moved into 3^rd in the group…I began to believe we could.

After the heroics of midweek, it was time for some more (we hoped), this time against Anderlecht. Having beaten them earlier in the season, I was brimming with confidence…and so was the team, Dorge Kouemaha netted after 17 minutes only for Romelu Lukaku to peg us back 4 minutes later. We went in at half-time 2-1 up, Anderlecht’s goalkeeper scored an embarrassing own goal. I ‘encouraged’ the players and Kouemaha scored his second of the match, 3-1. We weren’t done there as Hao Junmin scored a peach of a free-kick in stoppage time, 4-1 the final score.

With the players buzzing after the 4-1 demolition of Anderlecht, I left the team as it was and poor KV Mechelen didn’t know what had hit them as we raced to a 3-0 half-time lead, goals from Danny Koevermans, Maxime Lestienne and Phillpp Klement. We added one more half-time, that goal coming from Dorge Kouemaha. KV Mechelen did score in stoppage time but, they were well beaten, a great end to November after a very disappointing start.

December

After first match of December was a tricky one again Westerlo, remember last post Diogo Rincon run the show…well he did pretty much the same in this match. We some how managed to be level at half-time, Diogo Rincon awesomely missed a penalty (wish I knew how to upload to youtube). We had a few chances in the second half but Westerlo struck just before 60 minutes and a few minutes later Dorge Kouemaha was stretchered off, bang went our goal scorer. We created chances to equalise but none were taken and it finished in a 1-0 defeat.

Our next match was Arsenal, I again didn’t expect a result, and told the team ‘pressure is off’. We knew if Roma bet Mallorca we’d be through to the knockouts of the Euro Cup, our Champions League journey would end but not our European one.  We went in at half-time 2-0 down. The only thing we were winning in was the number of yellow cards lol. We were getting battered. I made 3 subs at half-time and we only conceded once more, 3-0 the final score. But, had Mallorca lost…No, Roma had fielded a weakened side and lost…the Italian w*****s!!! We were out of Europe all together :(

Demoralised, I had to try and pick the team up for our next match against KV Kortrijk…We dominated possession and created more chances and lost 1-0, their goal coming in the early stages of the second half.

 We then faced high flying Standard, again we created more chances but failed to convert them and an Axel Witsel 29^th minute rocket gave Standard the 3 points.

So far in December we hadn’t won, got a point or even scored which was very worrying and we need a win to keep up with Standard and Genk (grrrrr).  But it only took Lokeren 4 minutes to dent our chances of winning. With no Chabangu or Kouemaha, we were struggling to finish chances. But with just over 10 minutes remaining, a goal from a very unlikely source…Juanito headed us back in the match. We then pressed for the victory but again nobody could capitalise on the chances. 1-1 the final score and wooop our first point in December.

 So after a very disappointing two months what had happened to our 6 point lead…

Hahaha what lead…we were now 2^nd…3 points a drift of Standard and a point clear of Genk (grrrrr). Couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Anderlecht in 9^th position…thought we were have a bad couple of months.

So that’s it for this post…the next post will show our results from January right up to the end of the Pro League normal season, which runs until March. Thanks for reading and as always comments welcome :)

Regards

Martin