Waaslanders remain undefeated after victory against Cappellen: “But we still made it difficult for ourselves” (Temse)

Lokeren-Temse and La Louvière did not miss a beat on the 11th matchday and therefore remain undefeated together in the lead. The gap with the closest pursuers is now already eight points.

Against Cappellen, the Waaslanders should have had all their sheep on dry land halfway through. But until then, superior goalkeeper Björn Joossens only had to turn once. Even after coffee, he was by far the best visitor, which made it even more exciting after an unexpected goal from the visitors. “We indeed made it unnecessarily difficult for ourselves in that last fifteen minutes,” captain Arne Cassaert also admitted. “Until then there was actually no problem. We were 2-0 ahead and it could and should have been twice as much. But suddenly it became 2-1. We have to look again at the images of how we were fooled there. But the result was that the visitors suddenly gained courage. Although that no longer led to real opportunities,” said the Wase captain.

Patron Maes

The home team got off to a scorching start in the first half, but too often and too easily misjudged the offside trap that the visitors had set up. In the first ten minutes, Lokeren already had its nose against the wall four times. Yet it was already 1-0: a cross from Lambo was extended into the goal from close range by Vermeiren. Opportunities for El Banouhi and Cassaert were parried by Joossens in the first fifteen minutes. And the visiting goalkeeper continued to make saves: he intercepted a Maes effort before Vermeiren could print and three times kept Maes himself, who not only directed but also tried several times, from making it 2-0. When Geudens mishit a cross from, again, Maes, the Antwerp keeper even thwarted an own goal. On the other side, Jelle Merckx stood idly by.

After an hour, star Maes put the ball in the feet of Van Moerzeke, who was able to score between Joossens’ legs. The match seemed over, but nothing could be further from the truth. A quick counter by the visitors via substitute Abaz was finished by Nöstlinger (who was still in Lokeren’s service for a few months three years ago). Cappellen took courage from this to take more initiative. But there were no opportunities. On the contrary, it was goalkeeper Joossens who had a world save to stop Braem. And when he did seem to have been beaten, a ball from Van Moerzeke was cleared off the line by his defense. The final score was for substitute Van Aerschot, who saw his spectacular bicycle kick fly just wide.