KVC Sint-Eloois Winkel Sport – KFC Dessel Sport (20-02-2022)

 

It was good that we arrived more than an hour before kick-off to town, as it took us almost 30 minutes to find the stadium. The address online was more than 10 km from where the real Sportpark Terschueren is. Our last game of the weekend is again in the Eerste Klasse, the third division of Belgian soccer. We visit the KVC Sint-Eloois Winkel Sport, which was founded in 1940, during the Second World War, and has mainly made some promotions within the amateur divisions because of the many bankruptcies of Belgian soccer clubs.

 

After killing time to escape the still relentless rain and wind, we arrive 2 minutes before kick-off, park straight in front of the ground on a tiny parking lot that is nevertheless only one-third occupied. As we approach the small ticket booth, the guy starts to wave his hands and tells us enthusiastically that face masks are no longer necessary. He is also the first one this weekend not to check our vaccine status. We keep our masks on, completely confusing the man, and pay €10 ($11) for a generic ticket.

 

The stadium, if you will, has an Astroturf pitch and two small stands. We sit on the main stand, which is covered and has six rows of seats. On the other long side of the pitch is a small standing-only stand, also covered, with only 18 people on it. There are between 150 and 200 people in the stadium, including a sizeable section from Dessel, who are top of the league. The supporters are again older, white men from around town (which explains the lack of cars on the little parking lot).

 

In the 11^th minute there is an awful misunderstanding between a defender and the goalie of Winkel Sport, after having received a free kick some 25 meter from their own goal. The defender kicks the ball softly to his goalie, who thinks he is going to take the free kick himself, as a Dessel striker gets in between them, picks up the ball, goes around the goalie, who protests and motions that he is to take the free kick, and shoots from 20 meter in the goal: 0-1. The group of some 35-50 loud (and drunk) away supporters jumps up to celebrate.

 

Dessel remains better but by and large stops playing. Still, they do get some chances, often through breaks after poor defending by the hosts. In the 30^th minute, after a foul, a hard, low shot from 20 meter is saved by the home goalie, first with his hands and then the rebound from 5 meter with his leg. After that, Winkel Sport gets several chances. The most notable, in the 42^nd minutes, sees a beautiful action by the striker, who cuts free in the box and shoots hard in the short corner from 5 meter, but it ricochets off the post. In extra time, Dessel attacks and a saved header is rebounded with a beautiful half volley from 16 meter, but lands on top of the crossbar. Half time: 0-1.

 

Although Dessel has the much better team and cannot afford to lose any points at low-placed Winkel Sport, they seem uninterested in making the lead bigger. You see the confidence of the hosts grow, as they create a few chances. In the 55^th minute a Winkel-Sport break leads to a foul in the box. The penalty is scored and it is 1-1.

 

At the end of the game Winkel Sport becomes stronger and stronger. In the 85^th minute they have an excellent break, with a great through pass, a strong cross back, and a volley from 5 meter that is saved by the goalie. Unfortunately, three minutes later a player gets his second yellow and has to leave the pitch. It is only now, a few minutes before the final whistle, that Dessel starts to really pressure. But it won’t help them. They lose two points, as it ends 1-1, which is quite sour for Winkel Sport, who deserved more, particularly given the unfortunate goal they got against them.

 

 

KVC Sint-Eloois Winkel Sport is really just a small amateur team. Although they play in the third division of Belgian football, they have never played professional, unlike many other teams in that league (like Dessel). Not the most exciting groundhop destination.

KVV THES Sport Tessenderlo - FC Mandel United (19-02-2022)

The drive from Wegberg to Tesssenderlo is so short that even with an excellent pig out stop in Geel, we arrive to the town far too early. As it is cold and rainy, Belgium and the Netherlands are punished by a crazy storm (which would create major damage, particularly at the West coast), but we find shelter in a canteen opposite to the stadium, where we can also park. We are visiting the KVV THES Sport Tessenderlo, a team in the Eerste Nationale (First National Amateur Division), the third tier of Belgian football. Unsurprisingly, this is another fusion club, with THES standing for Tessenderlo, Hulst, Engsbergen and Schoot.

 

Two minutes before kick-off we cross the street to the stadium and pay €12 ($13) for a generic ticket. The stadium at the Gemeentelijk Sportpark (Community Sports Park) Tessenderlo has only one stand, on one long side, but it is quite big, giving the ground a more real football experience. The pitch is Astroturf.

 

There are some 250 to 300 people in the stadium, almost all sitting on one half of the main stand. The fans are local, almost all men (40+), and again very few women and children. As far as I can see, there are no away fans. KVV THES Sport Tessenderlo is somewhere mid-table, while FC Mandel United is bottom of the table.

 

The game is played under atrocious conditions. It rains almost the whole game but the real problem is the extreme wind, which is not just cold, but makes particularly passes high passes problematic. In the 13^th minute the guests have their first good attack, but the striker heads the ball wide. Two minutes later a too long THES free kick goes from right to left, the cross is missed by the goalie but the rebound is missed. A minute later, the hosts have a counter, the player goes around the goalie, but shoots hard wide.

 

In the 20^th minute a long ball is missed by a defender and a THES striker goes alone at the goalie, followed closely by three defenders, and scores cool: 1-0. Two minutes later, the hosts head a free kick at the goalie from close by. Ten minutes later they have a fantastic counter, with a brilliant cross in the run, and the striker totally misses the ball. Criminal! Three minutes before half time, the guests, who escaped several time, score in an unexpected move. 1-1 is the half time score.

 

After a classic Belgium stadium snack, a bit too crispy Mexicano Sandwich with Samourai sauce, it is time for the second half. The weather remains horrible. In the 57^th minute a THES cross is poorly boxed away by the Mandel United goalie, fantastically volleyed in the rebound, and even more spectacularly saved by that same goalie. Two minutes later a beautifully executed attack by the hosts is missed from 7 meter by a striker who shoots hard but wide.

 

The longer the game continues, the poorer the hosts play. In the 63^rd minute Mandel has an enormous chance, after a counter, but striker, who goes alone at the goalie, shoots wide. Although THES has been much better, and should have won this game easily, Mandel seems to win it in the last minute of extra time, when the ball is pumped into the THES box, and after a header a group of players jump and one heads it in from about 3 meter… 1-2. No, as the goal is disallowed because the goalie is attacked in his protective space.

 

So the game ends in a 1-1 draw, which is almost lucky in the end for THES, which should have easily have won this game against the bottom team of the league. They created enough chances, despite strong rain and wind, but failed to finish. 

 

Overall, not a good game, but many very good chances made it entertaining. And while there are few supporters, and there is not too much atmosphere, the big stand gives it a real football feel.

FCV Dender EH-Club Brugge KV (22-03-2008)

An Easter break without a groundhop, that would be wrong, so I decided two days before to find a club that I hadn’t visited before, but that would be accessible by public transport. Given that only the two top divisions in Belgium played, and I have seen the vast majority of teams, this was not easy. One of the few options was FCV Dender EH, but they were playing their big game against Club Brugge, so I was expecting it to be sold out weeks in advance. Not so! There were still a couple of tickets available online, uncovered standing behind the goal, so I paid the 15 euro each, and ordered two tickets: one for P.S. and one for me.

After an easy train ride of some 1 hour and 15 minutes, transferring at Brussels, P.S. and I arrived in Denderleeuw, East Flanders. We had a quick snack, which turned out to be a mistake, and walked to the stadium – an easy 10 minute walk, as the lights are clearly visible and quite a lot of locals are walking to the stadium too. Well before kick-off we arrived, though it would take some time and effort to find out where exactly we had to change our Internet voucher for a real ticket (“at the small garden hut around the corner of the entrance”). We joined the hundreds other fans in front of the tiny entrance to the Florent Beeckmanstadion.

The Football Club Verbroedering Dender Eendracht Hekelgem is a typical example of the all too common Belgian merger club. FCV Dender EV is a merger (in 2004) of Verbroedering Denderhoutem and FC Denderleeuw EH, itself a merger of FC Denderleeuw and Eendracht Hekelgem (2001). In 2006 the new FCV Dender EH became champions in the Derde Klasse (Third Division), and the next year they did the same in the Tweede Klasse (Second Division). This first season in the Eerste Klasse (First Division) they are fighting relegation. They were at the bottom of the table during the whole first half of the season, but have since started a modest rise (under new coach Johan Boskamp).

Around and inside of the stadium it was absolutely clear: this was the big game of the season. Club Brugge is the big team in the area and the one to beat. The stadium was sold out and had a great local atmosphere. Interestingly, although the stadium announcer spoke of 6.800 spectators, which is also the official maximum, the official club website reports 7.000. Whatever the exact number, at least 1.000 were Club Brugge fans, who were not only in the whole stand behind one goal, but also dispersed throughout the other three sides of the pitch.

The Away Fans

The atmosphere was both familiar and euphoric: everyone seemed to know the people around them, be they home or away supporters, and they were ready to have the evening of their life. Even the fact that we were experiencing the coldest night of the year (so far) couldn’t temper the enthusiasm. So, bundled up we saw what would turn out to be a mediocre but very exciting game of football. From the beginning FC Dender played at least as attacking as Club Brugge, who were kind of fighting for their last chance at the title. The first chances were all for the hosts, even though they didn’t really test the Club goalie.

After some 15 minutes the visitors took over the initiative and started to create more chances. They hit a defender with a header and shot at the fists of the Dender goalie. However, in the 30th minute FC Dender had a beautiful attack, created mostly by the agile striker Munyaneza (referred to by the locals as ‘Mayonnaise’). After a lucky chance for Brugge, in the 38th minute, it would be the hosts who had the last big chance, in the 40th minute, forcing the Brugge goalie to make a great safe. Half time score: 0-0.

During half time we went into the big and buzzing canteen, where everyone was taking shelter for the freezing wind, and to my great surprise I found a well-stocked fan shop, which even sold (not particularly beautiful) pennants. Ignoring the broad choice of snacks outside, which included pitas, we took our place behind the goal to enjoy a second half of David against Goliath. Both teams were still roughly equal, although you could see the tiredness arising among several Dender players. Not surprisingly, it was Brugge who would create most of the chances, though very few the result of good play or truly challenging the Dender goalie.

As players became more and more tired, particularly those of Dender, the spaces became bigger and some chances clearer. In the 73rd minute the hosts had a nice long attack, but failed to finish, while 5 minutes later Munyaneza went alone at the Brugge goalie and failed. The home fans started to think that there might be even more in this game than a draw and in the 75th their dreams came true: after a good attack, Sanchez shoots from just outside of the penalty box, fast and low, in the corner: 1-0 and the people go crazy around us (including us).

The Fan

The last fifteen minutes must have been the longest the FC Dender fans ever saw. In the 84th minute a Dender defender rescues at the goal line. The home fans become euphoric, and even take the three minutes extra time lightly. In fact, in the last minute of the game a Dender striker again goes alone at the Brugge goalie, but his lob is too low. Not much later the referee blows his final whistle and everyone turns their cell phone to the scoreboard: “this is historic”, says a young Dender fan next to me. And he was right!

Tingling from coldness and satisfaction P.S. and I walked back to the stadium. We were even so early that we could take a train back earlier, returning to Antwerp before midnight. We were in full agreement on the evening: this is what groundhopping is all about!

RCS Charleroi – KSV Roeselare (04-08-2007)

Whenever my English mate L.M. comes to visit me, I take him to a Belgian game. As the new season of the Eerste Klasse (First Division) had started on Friday, with an undeserved victory of lucky Anderlecht at KV Mechelen, we decided to go and see one of three Eerste Klasse teams I haven’t seen yet: Royal Charleroi Sporting Club, the biggest team of Wallonie’s biggest city.

We took the train to Leuven where we were met by J.B. After a scenic route we arrived in Charleroi four hours before kick-off. Charleroi counts over 200.000 people in the city itself and some 500.000 in the urban area around. While we knew that it is not the most beautiful city -- it is an old mining town in the infamous Le Pays Noir (the black land) area – we had never expected it to be so grim and uneventful. There is truly nothing to do! Although, you might want to drop in at the Greek snack bar that advertises a “gyros géante”. Take them on their word, as it is huge! This is what the medium one looked like!

At about 19.00 we returned to the stadium to get our tickets and visit the fan shop. Unfortunately, they didn’t sell pennants (which seems to be a trend), so I was left without any souvenir. We decided to buy a ticket for Tribune 3, the long side that was still in the hot sun. For 19 euro we had a great seat at the middle of the pitch. As I had eaten only half of the pita, I was able to squeeze a Mexicano with Andalousse sauce in before taking our place.

Despite (or because?) the great weather (31 C) the stadium was quite empty. The Stade du Pays de Charleroi was renovated in 1999 to accommodate the European Championship of 2000 and can now host 25.000 people. For this game, only 8.158 turned up, including some 50 people who had made the 140 km journey from Roeselare in West Flanders.

The game started explosively: within 1 minute Sporting had scored 1-0! What a start to the new season! Unfortunately, after that the game deteriorated rapidly. Roeselare showed that it will be a main contender for relegation with many poor passes and uninventive play. Charleroi didn’t impress either, although they have more skill.

I was most impressed by two players of Roeselare: French central defender Jonathan Joseph-Augustin and Bosnian defender Davir Mirvic (who played more like a defending midfielder). The most remarkable player on the pitch was Roeselare’s Belgian-Turkish striker Izzet Akgül, who joined this summer from… Sporting Charleroi! Clearly, the home supporters had not forgiven him this move, as they were whistling and taunting him during the whole game. Anyway, half time score was 1-0! Time to get something to drink.

The second half started where the first one had left off, with poor football and few chances. Roeselare got a bit better in the game without becoming really threatening. But then, in the 65^th minute, the ball falls to Akgül, who plays himself free and scores professionally: 1-1. This set off a spat of insults from the home fans, which led the referee to stop the game for a couple of minutes.

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After the game restarted the home team pushed more for a victory. However, it mainly showed its incompetence. Roeselare didn’t have too much problems to keep their goal clean and didn’t press much forward anymore. 1-1 was what they got and it must have been one point more than they had expected.

All in all it was a decent groundhop, although this was mainly so because of the great weather. The game itself was poor, even for Belgian sub-top standards, and I was not that impressed by the atmosphere in the stadium. Sporting is one of the few Belgian teams with a solid following, but if this is what counts as "une toute grosse ambiance", at the Stade du Paus de Charleroi, as the official website claimed afterwards, they are having a problem.

Groundhopweekend February 2005

My, my, what a weekend! I cannot remember the last time I was so cold! And I mean C-O-L-D!!! And on this cold(est) weekend I was groundhopping. Yep, and it again didn’t exactly go as planned.

Hannover Scorpions -- Iserlohn Roosters (25-02-2005)

On Friday afternoon my brother T.M. and a friend of him picked me up at Schiphol airport and we were on our way to Hannover to see a game in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). Having driven around the traffic jams we arrived more than an hour in advance to the beautiful, brand-new TUI Arena. The hall can hold 10.600 people for icehockey games, which makes it a large-size ring. For this game some 6.000 people turned up, among whom a remarkable number of girls and women.

We bought tickets for a standing place behind the goal for 14 euro and entered the stadium. The atmosphere was classically good, as with all sport manifestations in Germany. The icehockey was a lot less good, particularly from the hosts. They were 2-0 behind after 6 minutes and never looked like winning. The final score of 2-6 was deserved, even if Iserlohn didn’t play a top match.

After a short night in the usual F1 hotel we decided to be ambitious after all and head out to Luxemburg, in the hope to see the cup game between Progres Nierderkorn and Dudelange in the afternoon, and a game of Raon L’Etap in the Franse Championnat National (Third Division) in the evening. Almost the whole time we drove through a snowed-under Germany and at times it was still snowing. When we finally arrived at the Stade Jos Haupert, some 40 minutes before kick-off, we saw the squad practice at a training pitch. After inspection of the empty stadium and snowed-under pitch, we decided to also skip the French game and look for a safe alternative instead.

Sint-Truiden VV -- AA Gent (26-02-2007)

And so we drove without any rush to Sint-Truiden in Belgian Limburg. After a short stop at Frituur Juliette (hmmmm) we drove to the stadium to make sure that we could also buy a ticket without a Fancard. The security was watertight: Fancard or identity papers.... or just giving your name. J Thus we bought a ticket for just 7.50 euro and spent the next 60 minutes in Cafe Stadion, warming ourselves and watching the game Hertha-HSV on tv.

It was freezing in 'the hell of Staaien', but fortunately the game was less boring than the last time I visited STVV. This was mainly the merit of AA Gent, who scored early in the game. Thereafter the vistors remained the better team, though most remarkable was how poor STVV is. Only Benji de Keulenaar is a good player, but by himself he was obviously unable to defeat AA Gent. In the end “the Buffalos” won 0-2 and we drove with frozen toes to Antwerp.

KV Kortrijk -- Excelsior Virton (27-02-2007)

After a good night rest in my own bed, and a delicious cup of coffee, we set off to Kortrijk (in West Flanders) for a game in the middle bracket of the Tweede Klasse (Second Division). We knew it was going to be freezing col, but when we got caught in a snow storm just outside of Ghent we were starting to worry for another cancellation. Fortunately the snow storm was local; in fact, it hadn’t even snowed in Kortrijk.

At 14.15 we arrived at the ramshackle Guldensporenstadion of KV Kortrijk. We saw almost none, except for a bus with green-white supporters. We turned out to be at the back of the stadium together with the away fans, in this case some 25 jolly Walloons from Virton. We bought a ticket for a steep 12 euro and joined the Virton fans on Tribune (Stand) 4.

All in all I don’t think more than 500 supporters were in the freezing stadium. This was a shame, as the game was not bad at all. After 5 minutes Virton was already 0-1 up and another 5 minutes later KVK had equalized. 1-1 was also the half time score but there had been some good football, particularly from Virton. In the second half both teams played much weaker, most notably the Walloons. Some 15 minutes before the end of the game Virton lost the game, when it got reduced to 10 men and, shortly after, got two goals against because of individual mistakes. Thus, the final score was 3-1 for KVK in this 6-point game.

LOSC -- Stade Rennais (27-02-2007)

Directly after the final whistle we jumped into the car and drove to Lille to catch a game in the French Ligue 1 (First Division) an hour later. The last time I saw LOSC, they played in the center of town. Whether or not as a consequence of renovation, Lille plays this season at the Stade Metropole, a typical athletics stadium. L We bought a ticket for just 11 euro and entered the bare, concrete stadium.

I’m going to keep it short: could, COLD, C-O-L-D!!! Man o man, how cold were we! At one time I tried to text a friend and my fingers froze so quickly that I had to stop texting and put my gloves back on (which helped only partly). And than also a 0-0 game! Still, I do recommend a visit to LOSC. Not only is Lille a pretty city (for North France), LOSC plays good and attractice football, the atmosphere is (usually) good, and the merguez americaine greasy. But do choose a day that the weather is (much) better!

RAEC Mons – KVV Sint-Truiden (05-08-2006)

On a Saturday my Dutch groundhop friend M.T. came to pick me up in Antwerp to travel to Mons (in Dutch: Bergen) to visit the Royal Albert-Elisabeth Club Mons. At 20.00 the RAEC Mons would play KVV Sint-Truiden, a game in the second round of the Belgian First Division. We arrived more than two hours before the game and decided to look for a snackbar in the center of Mons. As is the case in most Belgian cities these days, unfortunately, one cannot find an authentic “frituur” anymore, so we settled for one of the many döner kebab places. Surprisingly, Mons has a cozy ‘historic’ square in the center of what is for the rest a classic Walloon town.

Around 19.30 we parked the car just behind the Stade Charles Tondreau, on the side of the away supporters. Next to us two very attractive girls parked a huge Mercedes, supporters of Sint-Truiden, but we still decided to join the home supporters (an unwritten rule of groundhopping is that you normally sit with the home crowd). Once we had finally circled the whole stadium, a fair walk, we were confronted with a long line in front of the ticket office. This (as well as the women ;-) made us reconsider our earlier decision and return to the away supporters (but only after buying a small souvenir in the small fan shop).

After again circling the stadium, we were only allowed into the away supporters stand after having re-parked our car in the special parking space for away supporters. We bought a ticket for the covered seating stand for 20 euro and took our places.... right, next to the nice women. In all honesty, they were the ones that made this groundhop such a success, as the game was very poor and was made only noteworthy because of the two (!) red cards for Sint-Truiden – which led to broad speculation about the Chinese mafia (involved in the match fixing scandal of last season). In the end Mons won 2-0, but they were only able to score against 9 men. Both teams will definitely not play for the prizes this season

RAEC Mons is probably worth a visit mainly because the fact that is already rumoured for years that either they will go bankrupt or they will merge with La Louviere. However, they have just built an ultramodern new stand on one side of the pitch, and they seem to aim at rebuilding the whole stadium.

Given that Mons is the city of Elio Di Rupo, leader of the Walloon Parti Socialiste and thus one of the most powerful politicians in Belgium, RAEC Mons is probably not as threatened in their existence as some might think. Anyway, the team might not be good, but they always attract a decent crowd (for Belgian standards). The Stade Charles Tondreau currently holds 9.000 people (4.000 seats) and even for the low-key game against Sint-Truiden the home stands were three-quarters full. The home supporters create a decent atmosphere, but that could hardly compensate for the poor quality of football. Two of the away supporters, on the other hand..