It was a season opener to forget as Flemish side Westerlo along with Americans Bryan Reynolds and Griffin Yow travelled to Brussels to take on Anderlecht at Lotto Park on Sunday afternoon. This was not les Mauves first competitive game of the season, so perhaps had a slight edge with their game legs already on. They hosted Swedish side Hacken on Thursday night in the Europa League play-offs, coming away with a 1-0 victory in the first leg. The 5-2 goal fest showed that Anderlecht means business this season, while the visitors show that they still have a lot of work to do.
As seemed to be the case with Westerlo last season, they fall asleep defensively early in the game and end up having to fight back after conceding early goals. This was the case in the Belgian capital as the ball seemed to spend the first 20 minutes in front of Andreas Jungdal’s goal with Reynolds and his fellow defenders scrambling constantly as they tried to clear the area. With a few chances already, Thorgan Hazard made the breakthrough in the 19th minute, shortly after the Gamecocks almost scored at the other end.
The former Dortmund and Gladbach midfielder struck his first of the season when youngster Nathan De Cat pinched the ball at the other end and played a long ball to Eden’s little brother, who found himself one on one with Jungdal and finished as a seasoned player should.
After the goal nothing changed and Westerlo continued defending as if they forgot that they too were supposed to go and try to score a goal. The inevitable second strike came almost 20 minutes after the first when Nilson Angulo cleverly chipped the ball into the box to Christian Degreef and the midfielder lobbed it over the Westerlo keeps head as he was going down in anticipation of a low shot. A sweet goal for the 20-year-old.
The half couldn’t have come fast enough for the visitors who had a lot to talk about during the intermission. It must have been a very good team talk because the performances of both sides were so different to start the second half that it appeared as if the two teams swapped uniforms during the break.
Before they could get their heads back into the game, Colin Coosemans was picking the ball out of his own net. Just on the field, Basile Vroninks failed the intercept an easy ball and instead Westerlo are on the attack with a series of crisp passes ending with Kyan Vaesen beating the Belgian keeper from close range. That was followed a dozen minutes later with a wonder goal from the foot of Matija Frigan, the Croatian striker who had his breakthrough season last campaign scoring 13 times.
The euphoria around the stadium as the teams went into the locker rooms at the half, turned into dead silence on the hour mark when the Anderlecht fans realized that they had just blown a two-goal lead. But wait, there’s more!
Back on the attack, the hosts peppered the ball around the visitors’ box and when they ran out of ideas, Angulo took matters into his own hands, taking a shot from the top left of the 18 yard box and sent a sweet curler into the tight space between the keeper and the far post. It was right up there with Frigan’s quality strike.
Twenty-one-year-old Canadian Nathan-Dylan Saliba, who just came over from MLS’ CF Montreal came onto the field as Anderlecht were ready to take a corner. With his first touch of the game, first touch of his Pro League career, he spun away celebrating his first goal for his new side. In 10 minutes, the Brussels gang went from 2-2 to 4-2 and pretty much had the affair wrapped up. Anderlecht never stopped however. A minute into stoppage time, Hazard struck again, giving him two goals and equalling his last season goal tally.
After the tough game, a dejected Reynolds was still gracious enough to come and talk to Yanks Abroad before boarding the team bus for the ride home.
“We need to be smarter whenever we’re building up out of the back,” the Texan said. “We need to kick it longer, play with more confidence but today was like we were more scared, and we didn’t know what to do. So obviously you play a team like this and they’re going to punish you if you make mistakes.”
Although they recovered and got back into the game, the positive play didn’t last the entire half.
“We started really well in the second half but again, a mistake in the back and they went on to win the game.”
On the positive side however he said, “It’s the first game of the season and it’s a long season so you can’t really worry about it at this stage.”
In last place on goal difference, Westerlo will lick their wounds and wait for Zulte-Waregem to come to Het Kuipje for their next battle.
