After a difficult start in the Champions’ play-offs, in which he made several mistakes in a row, there is now a well-deserved moment of joy for Union goalkeeper Anthony Moris. The 33-year-old goalie kept his net clean in the Croky Cup final on Thursday afternoon, helping Union win its first trophy in 89 years. “Union will always be a title contender.”
Anthony Moris was not given much work to do during the cup final. Perhaps even less than he expected. Anyway, when it was needed, he was there. For example, on Jurgen Ekkelenkamp’s attempt, after Burgess let him off the hook. Important, but also a ball he had to have. “We have worked extremely hard to achieve this,” said the Luxembourg international. “No one can fault our cup win. If you have beaten Anderlecht, Club Brugge and Antwerp, among others, then you deserve to win the cup. You should also not forget that we have an almost completely new team. A lot of players left us last summer, but Union will always be a title contender and a candidate to win the cup. After that poor start in the play-offs, we did not panic, but remained rational. If you look at our track record this season, including in European football, we have once again shown how many qualities we have.”
© BELGA
The cup must also be a great relief for Moris himself. The captain has finally won his first medal at Union, something that is good for him after his poor start in the play-offs. “But as I said before, I can close myself off to that. I don’t read those articles that criticize me. You must be able to accept criticism, just as you must be able to accept compliments. It was difficult for me to see that my loved ones were affected. Anyway, I have a lot of confidence in myself and am professional enough to forget these kinds of things.”
On to the title?
The fact that Union has now won its first prize since 1935 is a nice statistic. “But I wasn’t born yet, so I didn’t think about it too much,” the goalkeeper laughed. “Although it has indeed been a long time. I’m glad we succeeded. For example, I also think of guys like Christian (Burgess, ed.)Loic (Lapoussin, ed.) and Guillaume (François, ed.). We were promoted together, became vice-champions, played in the quarter-finals of the Europa League and now won the cup. Then all we have left is the title.”
“Of course we are not finished for the title yet. Club is a very strong team, but hopefully this cup win can provide a boost.”
Anthony Morris
Goalkeeper Union
The championship has certainly not yet been given up by the people of Brussels. The gap to Club is three points, to Anderlecht two. Union will travel to Jan Breydel on Monday, and if it still wants to play for the championship, it will have to win there. Moris: “Of course we are not done yet. Club is a very strong team, but good. Hopefully this cup win can provide a boost and perhaps we are now mentally liberated.”
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