And this Thursday evening, the Unionists demonstrated that their offensive problems from the start of the season were well behind them. In the first half, it was Promise David who opened the scoring from the left after a lot of work from Ivanovic (0-1). Just after the break, the defense also showed that it could help its attackers with a header from Ross Sykes which ended in Roef’s net from a corner (0-2).
Only two minutes later, Anouar Ait El Hadj participated in the offensive festival by scoring the third goal for his colors just seven minutes after entering the game (0-3). The Union could and even should have scored more goals.
But David, Ivanovic or even Castro-Montes and Ait El Hadj failed to be precise enough to panic the scorer. Despite this, the Union once again scored at least one goal, which has happened thirteen times in the last fourteen meetings… On his Christmas list, Sébastien Pocognoli could also have asked for a solid defense for the last outing of his team. The most pessimistic would say that it was not a foregone conclusion with the suspensions of Christian Burgess and Kevin Mac Allister.
But the new trio composed of Machida and Sykes around Leysen more than held up. Even if it had to lose to a goal from Gudjohnsen a few minutes after the third Unionist goal, the Brussels defense was uncompromising on numerous Ghent balls, preventing Vrancken’s men from believing in anything other than a defeat. On his gift list, the unionist T1 certainly dreamed of continuing two great series.
It’s done with first of all a thirteenth match without defeat this season, enough to end the calendar year perfectly. It is also done with a tenth match without defeat against La Gantoise, i.e. no setback suffered by the Union since its return to Division 1A. Without forgetting that this success at the same time offers the first away victory in the league to the people of Brussels: this has not happened since May 19 at Cercle Bruges, i.e. for 221 days…
Finally, the greatest gift that Sébastien Pocognoli aspired to was undoubtedly a presence in the Top 5 at the end of the year 2024. With its great victory, the Union overtakes its evening opponent and is now four points ahead of the first team out of the playoffs. Enough to silence the skeptics at the start of the season who said that the people of Brussels would ‘finally’ experience a season without.
Ten games from the end of the classic phase, this does not seem to be the case. And so much the better for Sébastien Pocognoli who certainly still doesn’t believe in Santa Claus but who was very spoiled for his team’s last outing of the year.
