OPINIONS There will always be killjoys to minimize the quality of the performance of our little Mauves last night, but I really appreciated this great victory against one of the best teams in our championship.
Certainly, we suffered during the first 20 minutes;
Certainly, we benefited from a luck factor which we have often lacked in recent years;
Certainly, contrary to what has often happened, all the arbitration decisions, whether they came from the ref or the VAR, were favorable to us;
Certainly, playing 11 against 10 and even against 9 at the end of the match made it easier to achieve a clear score in a tennis set;
But we have to go back to the final meeting of the 2019/2020 season (before the competition was stopped due to the health crisis) to see an even larger victory with a score of 7-0.
Honestly, it’s been a long time since I had the pleasure of attending such a pleasant meeting at Parc Astrid.
Let’s give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar or rather to the people of Ghent what belongs to the people of Ghent, the latter came to win and not only to defend by planting the players’ bus in front of the goal. But why on earth did you play not with healthy determination, but with totally excessive and brutal commitment?
I think you don’t have to look very far to understand, the answer is Wouter Vrancken, the impetuous coach of La Gantoise who coached Genk until the twilight of the late season.
I have always found Gent to be a fairly sporty and friendly team generally playing attractive football, but yesterday I saw a bunch of bullies and vicious players.
Instead of attacking the referee, Vrancken would have done better to encourage his players to play football rather than get into it.
That being said, could Colin Coosemans have been punished for grabbing Dean’s jersey?
The action clearly did not take place inside the rectangle, but from the moment when the fault had escaped Mr. D’hondt, should the VAR or, more precisely, was it entitled to to intervene.
Under the stupid regulations in force, the answer is yes if the fault deserved an exclusion and no if a teammate from our last rampart had retreated behind him at the time of the illicit gesture. Now – I just rewatched the images just now – Zanka comes back volle petrol to cover his goalkeeper and therefore, Coosemans could not inherit the red card.
Intellectual honesty obliges me to recognize that in the opposite direction, I would certainly have skimmed and I would undoubtedly have been tempted to think that the fault deserved an exclusion.
I take this opportunity to highlight the difference between intellectual honesty and objectivity, a concept I have frequently discussed with friends.
Whether it is this column, discussions between friends or my work, I always strive to demonstrate intellectual honesty in my comments, which can in certain cases lead to relational difficulties as it can be more easy to go with the wind in certain circumstances.
Let’s take a clear example: if I comment on the contentious phases after an Anderlecht-Standard, I will do so by expressing what I sincerely think in my soul and conscience. Will I still be objective? I would like to be able to answer in the affirmative, but intellectual honesty requires me to express doubts about my objectivity.
Which brings me to the subject of arbitration. Some readers have sometimes (or often) criticized me for an excessive tendency to criticize those who were formerly called the men in black. I have never done this by deliberately taking the side of showing myself in bad faith, but it is certain that unconsciously, this must have happened on one or another occasion. This is why I decided to talk a lot less about the shortcomings of refereeing for a while now.
If we come back to the match on Sunday evening, I thought Mr. D’hondt’s refereeing was excellent, apart perhaps from a certain leniency compared to the very aggressive play of Ghent at the start of the match.
No need to draw a picture for yourself to understand that this appreciation of the referee’s performance is in no way shared by the Ghent players and supporters and even less so by Mr. Vrancken.
This is what gives both the charm and the drama of football.
Where I feel that Torunarigha’s exclusion is completely justified and that he should have already been excluded earlier due to the way he played, some think that his second yellow card is very harsh.
Where for me, the VAR did well not to intervene for Coosemans’ fault due to the arguments stated above, others claim that what he did justified an exclusion.
Where the sending of Samoise to the locker room did not allow for any discussion in my eyes, there are those who will judge that his action was not extremely serious.
Regardless, I would be curious to know when Sporting went 15-0 in three games.
If there is one among you, keen on statistics or archival research, who knows the answer, I would be happy if he or she would communicate it to me.
I had told anyone who would listen to me before the match that David Hubert was going to experience two test matches for him against tougher opponents than the last ones he had faced.
He passed the first hurdle with flying colors, we can bet that it will also be the same on Thursday against Porto.
As for Wouter Vrancken, I imagine that he noted in red in his notebook the weekend of February 1 and 2 during which the people of Ghent will host Sporting at home.
The reception will certainly be particularly warm and eagerly awaited by the Buffalos who will be thirsty for revenge, because they are not used to taking such a thaw.
Source: © Source interne
