“A match that will make us grow and learn”: RAAL’s defeat at Zulte Waregem in three lessons

And that is ultimately what we will have to remember from a match that Zulte Waregem went for until the end. The jubilation of the local public and the joy of the players on Vossen’s 2nd goal clearly showed the importance of this duel for Essevee even though we were only playing the 11th day.

First lesson: learn to stick to the result

To snatch the tie, on a magnificent free kick, this late in the game, it must end with a point. But in a team that wants to be offensive, defending at such a moment proved difficult. “And yet, you put your line of 5, 3 and 2… And Zulte had no more spaces, says the coach. JI don’t think everyone was on the same wavelength. We wanted to press too high. We were experiencing emotional instability at the time. They then threw a long ball… and since we don’t protect the 2nd zone… But if you organize your block lines well, the match ends at 1-1 and we left from there with incredible confidence!

Beaten to the wire in Zulte, the RAAL players were marked: “We were too ambitious after the equalizing goal”, reacted Frédéric Taquin

2nd lesson: take initiatives earlier

It’s a bad habit that the Wolves have adopted this season: suffering at the start of the match and then bouncing back better. It worked for them against RWDM and Beveren but it didn’t work at the Elindus Arena. However, the second periods are always better in the bored camp. On Sunday, better control at the start could have helped. “We need to stop being so wait-and-see at the start of the matchconfirms Joël Ito. Personally, in a match like this, I have to bring more. More generally, we should have been more enterprising. They have experience too, we saw it in the game. They were more patient and prevented us from really getting into our game. We must draw inspiration from all that to have that extra something we lacked on Sunday to win .”

Lesson 3: lack of experience

We won’t talk about naivety in the Louviers camp but the experience of the division was clearly lacking in key moments. Especially since Lahssaini and Faye, rare players who have experienced this level in the pack, are absent. “Reason why, I know that we will be stronger in the second round because we will have learned and grown with all these meetingssmiles Taquin. I am also convinced that we will play the final round!”