The Jupiler League thread !!!!

gerd

gerd

Retired Footballer
8 January 2002
Over the moon
KRC Genk, Spurs
The what???? And who cares....Belgium football...sounds as exciting as clubbing in Ulan Bator (about that last one, you might be surprised)
Well, i've hesitated a long time but since the Belgian firstg division has kicked off last weekend, why not...Now and then there are some other Belgian guys on this forum and their are plenty of Dutch members...
Anyway all the pundits (yes we have some) think it's gonna be another two horse race between Club Brugge and Anderlecht.
The big news is that Anderlecht still have their two best players: Wilhemsson and Kompany. Kompany wants to go to university and has refused a transfer and Wilhelmsson stayed aswell. Anderlecht lost Aruna Dindane, but they have a bought a very good Turkish forward: Serhat. In addition to that Anderlecht have bought our national goal keeper Silvio Proto although he is a replacement to Czech keeper Zitka (something i don't understand).
Club Brugge lost it's two best players: Nastjah Ceh went to Austria (don't remember which team) and Timmy Simons went to PSV Eindhoven. They bought a couple of new players: Croation Lehko as a substitute for Ceh, Joos Valgaeren and Gregory Dufer. Brugge also have a new manager: Belgian football legend Jan Ceulemans.
I think Anderlecht will win the title.
Possible dark horses could be Standard (who have Sergio Conçeicao) and Racing Genk (Sunday Oliseh).
And do i have a favourite club??? Yes, my favourite club is FC Brussels. They are a rather sorry bunch. Last year they nearly relegated in their first year in first division. Their president is a fifth rate would-be Berlusconi who makes much noise but can't seem to say anything sensible. Two proof you how well organized this team is, i only need to mention the fact that in their first match they only had 14 players who were eligible because the club forgot to ask a license to the Belgian FA for no less than seven players...really a sorry bunch Brussels.
Nevertheless they managed to win their first (away) match against Beveren with O-2. So currently they are second in the league with as much points as leaders Anderlecht. This surely can be considered as the absolute high point in their existence...so i'm in a rather jubilant mood.. now i'm beginning to understand how the Liverpool fans must have felt after Dudek saved Milan's penalty (usually i feel like the Liverpool fans felt at half time).
Unfortunately there is more to come...
 
Already 13 views of this tremendous thread, this shows what great potential Belgian football has...lets just forget the Premiership, la Liga and other Serie A's...the Jupiler League rules!!!
Some news about Belgian teams in Europe.
Both Club Brugge and Anderlecht have played in the last qualification round for the Champions League. Unfortunately it all went a litle bit pear shaped in their first match.
Club Brugge lost their away match to Norwegian giants Valerengen with 1-0. A goal by a very, very good forward: Iversen.
Anderlecht played a home match against Slavia Praha (Czech) team. They started rather well after Bart Goor scored a goal seven minutes in the first half. A litle bit later the Czechs equalised with a beautifull goal. Around the 40th minute Mbo Mpenza headed the 2-1 away.
The second half was goalless, Anderlecht played on the Czech half throughout that second half but the Czechs played rather good.
I was impressed by their physical condition.
Both European giants face a very though second leg...it could well be that countless fans throughout Europe will not be able to see both very popular and attractive Belgian clubs in the CL this year. Which is, lets face it, a shame..especially after Anderlechts historic and record breaking run last season...
 
I think not many people get to watch this league. Which is why no one cares but you.
 
Nice of you to reply (i already wondered)...but i did not really expected reactions..i could have opened a thread about the league in vanuatu and i would have had the same amount of reactions...and frankly...i don't care...for the moment i like to write in this thread...secretly i'm hoping this will become some sort of cult thread...i hope you have at least detected the irony in my postings...besically what i'm saying is: there are other leagues than the English, Spanish, Italian...i enjoy watching it...but i don't take it too serious...
I have a feeling that if i persevere in my postings more and more people will read it and now and then someone (like you) may even react...Belgian football fans have learned to be happy with small things (and certainly fans of the mighty FC Brussels, currently second in the Jupiler Leagues).
And if some mod decides to close this thread down...well why not...
 
Dont see why this should be closed. I'm sure theres more people out there that watch this.
I know I would if I could cuz I watch as many leagues as I can.
 
I you knew Belgium football you would not say that you would want full games.
Since this season Belgian telvision give one match live on sunday from at 18.00hrs.
The first one Charleroi-GBA was boring as hell...
Because i never have the opportunity to watch full competition matches (Belgian or other, the big competiotions are behind decoders)i will continue to watch but the gap is enormous.
If you know that Bosko Balaban is the star of our Champions, i guess you know enough. Villa fans consider him the worst player ever from their team...
 
I know...I was kidding....the only images I have in my mind of the Belgian national team are him and that picture with Maradona surrounded by around 6 players. That should have been England's plan in the 1986 QF!

Belgium is a good place to visit though. I'd love to sample the delights of a different country's league for a change.
 
I think England's current plan is that if you're winning 1-0 and have 30 mins to go, you keep all 11 men in your own penalty area until the ref blows the whistle.
 
I can see the list of glorious capitulation and those that caused it now...Phil Neville 2000, Emile Heskey 2004 (France).....
 
Good to see a Jupiler league thread here.

I for one enjoy your input in this thread, Gerd and will read it and perhaps participate everyonce in a while when time is on my side, not right now ;) unfortunately hehe.. but basically good first post but it'd be nice to tell people about other clubs too.

From what I remember Koen Daerden the left winger of Genk who I consider a descent player almost signed for Feyenoord as a replacement to Bart Goor but I think the deal ended up not happening.

Also worthy to mention, Bevern lost one of their key players whom I don't like very much but descent player nonetheless in Ivorian, Romaric! and his Explosive shot power!

Charleroi is the club with the Persian chairman, Mr. Bayat isn't it?? ;) over the years he's brought a few Persian players to that club and not much success as they are a rather small club but news from them from time to time would be good if you can provide us.

And yes Aruna Dindane is gone to Lens as replacement of Utaka who was sold to Rennes but let's see how Serhat does now and important thing is like you said Wilhelmsson and Kompany are still there but I really do wish Silvio Proto gets that #1 jersey. It's a shame that a GK of his quality has to be sitting on bench.. when he looks very good and is still young. If they couldn't offer him first team football then I wish he hadn't signed for them.. this is a common problem with big teams of each league having better players sometimes on their bench than most other teams in 1st team. It ruins or takes off a year or two from many talented players' career and I hope same doesn't happen with Silvio and he establishes himself as #1 choice keeper at Anderlecht.

I'm out for now.. but see you later and keep up the news/thoughts and discussion about Jupiler league.

take care
 
Some good points there PLF.
I don't understand why Proto is not the nr 1 GK in Anderlecht...their manager claims that he wants to rotate his GK's...rotation of field players is a good idea, but rotation of GK???? Belgium has always had world class keepers: Piot, Bodart, Pfaff (the most overrated), Preudhomme, De Vlieger (who much better than James and who should play at man city) and now Proto...if you have a very good young GK, just let him play...But sometimes Anderlecht buys Belgian players so that other Belgian clubs can't have them...afterwards they scarcely ever play...That's one of the reasons why much Belgium football fans don't like Anderlecht, although personally i prefer their playing style to the hard-work football of Club Brugge...Anderlecht always tries to bring some flair in it's football...
I think it's a good thing that Koen Daerden stayed in Genk...i'm not quite sure if Feyenoord is a better team than Genk and the Dutch League certainly isn't much better (if at all) than the Belgium...Just before Feyenoord showed some intrest, Portsmouth wanted to buy Daerden...i think he is too young to play in the Premiership. There is a very strange thing about Belgian players who play in bigger leagues: they tend to be injured quite a lot. Some examples: DeGryse and De Bilde at Sheffield Wednesday, Strupar at Derby County, Nillis at Villa, last season De Vlieger (Man City), Bob Peeters (Milwall) and Jelle Van Damme (Southampton). This season: Bernd Thys and Wesley Sonck (Monchengladbach, my two favourite Belgian players).
Some news about my favourite team Brussels: well they still are second, but that won't last long because this weekend they have a home match against Club Brugge which should end in a thrashing.
And about Charleroi PLF, i'm not quite sure if Mr Bayat is still there...Charleroi and Standard are two quite bizar teams. Both tradition teams (Standard is even one of the alltime greats in Belgium football) but the last decades strange things happen in those clubs...The Belgian justice is watching them very close for quite a time now...but they haven fount anything incriminating (yet???).
 
Yes I'm aware of Standard Liege. I wouldn't put them in same category as the small time Charlerio after all Standard have always been one of Belgium's biggest and title challenger of some sort even if in recent yeras they're the outsiders like Liverpool is but still has a chance but perhaps less than Chelsea, Arsenal and Man Utd.

Charlerio on other hand is rather small and it'd be good if you can find out Mr. Bayat is still there.

Dutch Eredivisie is of higher quality than Jupiler league in my opinion. Not by a far stretch but they are better and French league is miles better than both and the most under-rated league in the world. Not much difference between Bundesliga and Ligue 1 in terms of quality of players or football and top 3. But people always think there's quite a large gap between top 3 and those 2 but no these 5 leagues are really great and close and then after these 5 there is a rather BIG gap and other leagues start like Eredivisie, Jupiler, Greek league, Turkey, Russia Portuguese Superliga and even Brazil and Argentina from South American continent but even though this aint right thread I get REALLY pissed when I hear a Scot or a Dutch or just another person who's misinformed speak of Ligue 1 in same level as SPL for example.

No they are in top 5.. and the top 5 are REALLY high quality and worth watching week in week out many matches in my opinion every week where as after those 5.. there's quite a big difference and the rest begin.

Anyways yeah I hate that tactic where bigger clubs buy players not even if they're gonna use them but to keep others from not having them. Look at what happened to Scott Parker... he was one of Premiership's BEST Central midfielders an amazing player at Charlton who did it all.. attack/defend.. score everything you want in a central midfielder but Chelsea bought him at a time where they really didn't need a player of his quality as BACKup. As a result 2 years passed by and perhaps 2 that could've been best years of his career. Now he's gone to NUFC and hopefully he'll do well there but point is overall I hate it when this happens to talented players and I hope same doesn't happen with Silvio Proto.

Anyhoo, Romaric has gone to Le Mans by the way if anyone doesn't know cuz I noticed I didn't mention it in my last post where he ended up.

Finally.. be optimistic Gerd ;) dont expect a thrashing hehehe... but do expect a loss ;).

I'm kinda glad Genk kept on to Daerden as well not because Feyenoord aren't better than Genk because they are in c'mon who are we kiddin ;) but for the time being I'd like to see him stay there and it'll also mean Genk have more chance of possible success ;).

Take care for now and keep us updated.
It was nice talking to you and about Belgian league for a change ;)
 
I agree with you on the French League PLF...this is a very underrated League.
I'm just back from my yearly holoday in France and i've been an avid reader for three weeks of magazines or papers like L'Equipe, Onze and France Football. They agreed on one thing, that last season was the worst in the history of French football. The amount of goals in the average match was the lowest ever and the gap between Lyon and the rest was huge...
About Belgian and Dutch football. Well in theory teams like Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord and maybe Heerenveen are stronger than Belgian teams, but if they face each other in matches: nine times out of team the Belgian teams win. The same goes for the national teams, of course Belgium has no players with the talent of Van Nistelrooy, Makaay, Seedorf and dozens of others. But look at recent statistics and you will see that the Belgium national team usually wins these matches since the eighties. And then there is the frustrating qualification tournament for the WC of 1974 were the Dutch had their best team ever. Did you knew that Holland only qualified because of a better goal average??? And did you know that in the last minute of the last match a Russian referee disallowed a perfectly good goal from the Belgium team...I know it still is a national trauma in Holland that they did not win that World Cup (and i understand why, they had a superb team). But normally they wouldn't even have been qualified for that World Cup (and by the way: unlike most of my compatriots i love Holland and Dutch football).
 
Hey, i didn't realise Brian Pinas had left Groningen for Cercle Brugge. Let me know how he does gerd.
I also have a question for you. Last season, or the one before i'm not sure, Bosko Balaban had a big golden ball on his back, where his squad number was. What was that all about? Something to do with being top scorer?
I remember when i lived in Vienna, back in the day of Toni Polster :lol: i followed the Austrian league a bit - another small league.
 
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Yes Prof, the current top scorer has a big golden ball on the back of his shirt...attrocious!!!!
Anyway great news: Fc Brussels - Club Brugge 1-1 !!!!!
Great result. Brugge took the lead, but Brussels equalised almost immediately.
In the second half there really was only one team deserving the win: Brussels !!!
This comes as a big shocker, even for me...
And in an interview with their loathsome president i heard next week they will have 4 new players...Things are looking better than expected.
 
All right, let's see how things are going after two matches.
Three teams have maximum points: Anderlecht, Standard and surprise package Westerlo.
Standard and Anderlecht are welknown, but i guess Westerlo is an unknown to most people on this forum.
Westerlo is a tiny club who promoted 7 or 8 years ago. Their promotion was a huge surprise and the pundits were sure that the club would only stay one season in the top flight. Well, they were wrong, Westerlo are still in it and every year they play some spectacular home matches (i rememner two matches against Anderlecht: 5-1 and 6-2). Since then Westerlo is considered the best managed team in Belgium (the Belgian Bolton or Charlton???). Since last season Westerlo is somewhat of a satellite club of Chelsea. They loan youthfull Chelsea players for one or two seasons.

Brussels are 6th, which still can be considered as a huge success...
Current top scorer and wearer of the attrocious shirt is Serhat Akin from Anderlecht.

Tomorrow our national team, the red devils (!!!) play a friendly against Greece.
I will give you indebt information of this fascinating game between two giants of European football (and our Portugese friend will surely acknowlegde this one!!!).
 
hehe.......nice thread mate.

Didn't know Dindane went to Lens, remember the days when Man Utd where said to be after him. Looked a good player. Is this Wilhelmsson's last year of his contract? He is a cracking player, always wanted Celtic to sign this guy. And Kompany, wants to goto University??? :shock: Do you mean he wants to stay with Anderlecht and do a degree or something? Not to mention probably going on a free at the end of his contract too.

Personally I want Cercle Brugge to win, just because they got big Joos. :) Although hope your team does well for you mate. ;)


FD
 
Yup Dindane looked very good at times in Anderlecht and hasn't done bad in his first 3 matches for Lens ;)
 
FD, Joos Valgaeren went to Club Brugge and not Cercle Brugge (people in Brugge would consider as bad as confounding Rangers with Celtic).
I always liked Joos and i have a feeling that Celtic still could use him. Uptil now Joos is usually on the bench with Club Brugge too...now that is something i don't understand. Their CB's are two donkeys: Clement and (certainly) Birger Maertens (Poor, Stupid and Ugly).
Belgian coaches make strange tactical decisions: Wilhelmsson and Proto are on the bench with Anderlecht and Blondel (very good player who was at Tottenham)and Valgaeren in Brugge...
Dindane was a great player who had one problem: i had trouble scoring goals...he was much more of a creator of goals...He seems to be a very, very nice person....he really was loved by the other Anderlecht players.
And yes it seems that Kompany wants to do a degree...he's a very talented football player but i have the distinct impression that he doesn't like all the publicity around it...he seems a quite guy.
 
Oh dear, bit confused there..........hehe.

Well hope they win, are they usually not the favourites along with Anderlecht? Club Brugge are the better out of the Brugge club's, is that right?


FD
 
Yeah Fd, Club Brugge are the better of both Brugges teams (like Celtic in Glasgow although the difference is bigger in Brugge). The Belgian championship usually is a two horse race between Anderlecht and Brugge. Occasionally a third club can win it, recently only Racing Genk.
Anyway this evening the Belgian national team faces Greece in a friendly as a preparation for another all or nothing WC-qualification match in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Belgium started terribly in the WC-qualification. After three matches they had only one point and they were almost out...since then they won almost all their matches and still are almost out...but teams like Spain and Serbia-Montenegro started dropping point aswell...so they still have the faintest chance.
For this evenings match there are quite alot of injured players (just like for every other match in this qualification round). Buffel, Sonck and Daerden are out injured...tomorrow i'll let you know how things went...
 
As promised some news about the match Belgium-Greece.
Our national team has won the match with 2-0. For the first 20 minutes the match was pretty locked up, but then a Greek defender made a lateral pass that was intercepted by Emile Mpenza: 1-0.
Four minutes later Emile's brother Mbo Mpenza finally scored his first goal for the national team (after 45 appearances). A beautifull volley from outside the box.
The Belgian had a couple of good chances in the first half but Nikopolides played a great match. In that first half the Greek didn't impress me at all.
In the second half the Greeks were able to create more chances but Silvio Proto once again showed that he is a fine young GK. The Belgian team could have scored on the counter but that second half really was the half of the goal keepers.
All in all a fine match to watch...
I hope our national team plays as good in their WC qualifier in Bosnia-Herzegowina.
 
Silly Sky LOL...is that supposed to be Mbo Mpenza???
I don't get it, but it sounds quite funny.

It's a good, but unimportant result...
 
Oh, now i'm getting it "Silly Sky" is Sky...(had overlooked the "said").
No, no poor Mbo for once he scored (one goal in 45 matches is dazzling for a forward) they claim that it was his brother who scored...dear oh dear...
 
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