In a must-win game on Sunday afternoon when fierce rivals Standard Liege came to town, Genk did just enough to secure the three points and move up into fifth place, with just one game remaining in the Pro League’s regular season.
It was a hard-fought battle between these two Belgian giants, with the only goal coming five minutes after the restart, thanks to the quick thinking of Anouar Ait El Hadj, who had only been on the field for a few minutes.
Although Marlon Fossey is still out injured and missed the encounter for Liege, Mark McKenzie was at the heart of the Smurfs’ defense and was able to keep les Rouches strikers, Wilfried Kanga and Kelvin Yeboah, relatively quiet and with few goal scoring opportunities. With Carlos Cuesta partnering him in the heart of the defense, the Ivorian and the Italian were left frustrated on the day.
The American’s only hiccup of the game came late on when he misjudged his back pass to his keeper Maarten Vandenvoordt, and Yeboah pounced, but was denied the equalizer.
“The ball bounced a bit earlier; it was a bit dryer than I thought,” McKenzie said, “but Maarten, he bailed me out so big credit to him.”
The hosts had a fair share of shots at goal but of the 10 registered, only two were on target, including the game-winner.
Winning an early free kick, their first attempt came after five minutes from the resulting set piece, flying just wide of the top of the box. The delivery was half decent and Joris Kayembe-Ditu got his head to it but the Congolese defender was unable to work the keeper.
The next shot, this time on target, came when Standard lost the ball and Yira Sor, collected it, turned his defender and shot. However, with no power behind it, Arnaud Bodart easily scooped it up. This was followed minutes later with Bonsu Baah coming in from the right flank and trying his luck from a tight angle.
It took 16 minutes for the visitors to put in a decent attack, when the ball was played forward to Hayao Kawabe, however the Hiroshima-born midfielder came up against McKenzie and that was the end of that attack.
At the other end, an impressive move that should have hit the back of the net was Bilal el Khannouss bringing the ball into the box and playing it to Baah, who slid it right back to the Moroccan. His shot unfortunately went wide of the near post.
The hosts were having their way, moving the ball around the final third with ease, looking for an opening. It came 10 minutes before the half, when the end product of a few crisp passes ended up at the feet of Bryan Heynen right in the middle of the 18 yard box. The captain must have thought he had more time because after too many touches, Lucas Noubi was able to slide in to block the effort.
The first half of the game belonged to the Limburger boys but try as they may, they could not take advantage of their dominance. The second half however, would be different.
Head coach Wouter Vrancken made a half time substitution that would, in the end, make all the difference. Twenty-one year old Brussels-born Ait El Hadj, who had seen limited playing time this season, having come up from the Genk reserves, made the most of his opportunity this time.
As Genk swarmed in and around the Standard box, El Khannouss struck the ball hard and low, forcing Bodart to get down quickly to make the save. The Belgian keeper however, was only able to knock the shot away a short distance. This allowed the alert Genk youngster to smash it into the back of the net for the well-deserved 1-0 lead.
The goal unnerved les Rouches and soon afterwards the referee was issuing a pair of yellow cards to Gilles Dewaele, and again severa minutes later, to Souleyman Doumbia.
Both teams did create chances late in the game but it the end the lone goal stood to give Genk the points.
After the game, Yanks Abroad spoke to a very relieved McKenzie.
“We wanted to make sure [of these points today],” the defender from The Bronx said. “We had an important stretch and we know that we should have collected more points [from previous games], but today was the most important; to get three points by any means.”
Overall, it looked like an easy day at the office for McKenzie, as he contained and thwarted the attacks that came his way.
“It was just about communicating, especially their movement, defending the space in behind and trying to minimize their ability to collect the ball and hold up play; and ultimately to mitigate their opportunities in the box.”
Regarding their opponents’ performance after the break, where they pushed harder and tried to take the game to Genk, he continued, “They’re a good team, they’re a footballing team so it was about us maybe executing a bit earlier in the game, maybe doing better with our chances but none the less, the team put the energy in defensively and were strong and saw the game out.”
“It was important that we did everything possible to impose ourselves on the game and ultimately we came out with the victory.”
With just one game left to the regular season, a place in the top play-off group is not yet a done deal with Genk on 46 points in fifth place, Mechelen on 45 in sixth place and seventh-place Cercle Brugge breathing down their necks on 44 points. Eighth-place Gent has the same amount of points as Cercle, and will be hoping to steal that sixth and last Group 1 play-off spot.
However, Genk’s fate is in their own hands; a win over the weekend will guarantee a top spot while draw or a loss could knock them down to seventh place, depending on other results.
McKenzie and Genk will finish their season with a trip to Westerlo, where fellow Yanks Bryan Reynolds and Griffin Yow will be looking to upset the KRC cart. Kick off for that encounter will be 5:30 p.m. local time this Sunday.
