There wasn’t much to the first half. Lommel SK had the most ball possession in the first half, but the two best chances were for the visitors from East Flanders. Captain Jari De Busser prevented two shots from Van Landschoot and Mertens, who is normally a tormentor for the home team.
The audience hoped for improvement in the second half. Both teams found it difficult to break through the opponent’s defense. Still, it worked the first time following regarding an hour of playing. After the necessary tiki-taka in the penalty area of SK Deinze, Aguilar was suddenly completely free at the back line. The Peruvian defender offered Vancsa his thirteenth goal on a platter in front of an empty goal: 1-0.
“It was a good goal,” acknowledged Lommel SK coach Steve Bould. “Do you call this a tiki-taka goal in Belgium? Do you mean that positively, because even Pep Guardiola doesn’t like that word?
© Dick Demey
Core severely thinned out
After that, green-white was only a shadow of itself. “We were in a good position until we scored,” Lommel SK coach Steve Bould also noted. Green and White have been missing a killer in front of goal all season. “We looked nervous and stopped playing. We crawled into our shell. It’s not easy to create something in the penalty area. Of course, we don’t have a real number nine and we haven’t done too badly with this system. We created opportunities, but they weren’t big ones.”
A hungry SK Deinze quickly took over possession and pushed the North Limburgers back. The equalizer caused joy among the Deinze technical staff, but followingwards there was a lot of frustration among the home crowd in the Soverein Stadium. With goal scorer Braken and assist provider De Schryver, Deinze coach Hans Somers brought in two game changers. A fact that colleague Bould is undoubtedly jealous of, as the Briton once once more made only one substitution in ninety minutes. The self-declared broad core of last summer has thinned out following ten months.
© Dick Demey
The crowd hoped for an improvement in the second half, but both teams found it difficult to break through the opponent’s defense. After a change of ball at the request of referee D’Hondt, Lommel SK flashed through the rearguard of the East Flemish team. After the necessary tiki-taka in the visiting penalty area, Aguilar was suddenly completely free at the back line. The Peruvian defender offered Vancsa his thirteenth goal on a platter: 1-0. The flames went out of control for a moment, barely two minutes later the Hungarian winger kicked Schuermans’ ankles.
Different keg in Deinze
Five minutes earlier, Bould had come up with an (emergency) solution to deal with the calf injury of left back Henry Oware. Right back Kluiverth Aguilar switched to the left side, but Deinze immediately punished the lack of automatics in that corner of the field: 1-1. A cross from De Schryver was smoothly pushed into the net by substitute Braken. Goalkeeper De Busser saw the leather disappear into the goal next to the first post.
“Most likely the staff shifts in the back are also part of the cause,” Bould admitted. “It was a change I didn’t want to make. I left Oware on the field for ten to fifteen minutes, but he mightn’t make any further progress. Then of course you can’t play football anymore, I’m afraid. It didn’t help us and may have caused the goal.”
© Dick Demey
Lommel SK was also overrun in midfield. The home team collapsed like a pudding. The strength and experience of worker Schoofs one row higher turned out to be a great loss in the final phase, when he retired as right back. The retiring Glenn Neven was not called in. “I really don’t want to make these substitutions. I don’t have a right back and a left back,” the disappointed Brit added. “We also looked tired, and there was also nervousness due to a lack of experience.”
Bould realizes that he will have to do something different next week in the Dakota Arena. Green and White’s last victory there dates back six years ago. “I hope we can quickly find the energy once more for next Sunday. We defended well on stationary phases, but we need to bring more positive play forward. It went from left to right following the opening goal and that is not our game. Penalties? We have already trained on penalties. Real Madrid doesn’t do that, but of course we don’t have their 15 players either,” the Briton concluded with a quip.
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LOMMEL SK: De Busser – Aguilar, Tolinsson, Wouters, Oware (71′ Sales) – Granell, Karim, Schoofs – Talvitie, Rosa, Vancsa.
SK DEINZE: Miras – Almenara, Lemoine, Schuermans, Janssens – Quintero, Anne (68′ De Schryver), Hendrickx – Staelens (82′ Mercier), Mertens (68′ Braken), Van Landschoot.
GOALS: 55′ Vancsa 1-0, 76′ Vomiting 1-1.
YELLOW CARDS: 44′ Quintero (tackle), 63′ Anne (tackle).
REFEREE: Lothar D’Hondt
SPECTATORS: 3,500
