Mark van Bommel picks up where he left off with Royal Antwerp, Club Brugge’s false start sports

After Van Bommel finished last season as national champion and cup winner, he just hit the strings again last week with a victory in the Belgian Super Cup. After a penalty shootout, Antwerp beat KV Mechelen and the first match in the competition was also a success.

And Antwerp, with the Dutch Gerano Kirk and Vincent Jansen at the base, got chance after chance. But the team needed a Cercle defender to take the lead. Shortly before the end of the first half, Norwegian Jasper Daland sent the ball from a cross from Sweden’s Jacob Ondrejka into his own net. Shortly before, Gili Patai had almost given the home team the lead, but his effort was saved by Cercle goalkeeper Warlison.

After the break, Janssen headed the ball in after a pass from Arbenur Moga, Kirk’s substitute. Shortly before the end, Antwerp midfielder Arthur Vermeren hit the crossbar. And awaits a match against Anderlecht Antwerp next Sunday. At the end of August, Antwerp will play in the Champions League qualifiers for a ticket in the group stage, in which the Antwerp club has never been active.

Club Brugge also featured later on Sunday, but Rooney Dela’s side were choked out in the season opener at KV Mechelen. In the first half, the visitors took the lead with a powerful shot from Rob Schoffs. After the break, Club Brugge equalized through a penalty kick taken by Thiago Rodriguez, but the final result also ended in a 1-1 draw. The only Dutch contribution to the game was Bjorn Meyer, who came on as a substitute for Club Brugge ten minutes from time.

On Friday evening, Royale Union Saint-Gilloise has already started the new season in the Belgian Jupiler Pro league well. Full-back Bart Neukop’s team won 2-0 in the Brussels derby against record champions Anderlecht, Belgium.

And after a 3-0 win over Ajax last week, Anderlecht entered the competition with great confidence, but started the season with a defeat. And this is the seventh time in a row that Union has won the Brussels derby against the big and wealthy neighbor that has ended up in a sporting crisis in recent years.

Dennis Eckert opened the score for Al-Ittihad after half an hour at Josef Marin Stadium. Al Ittihad goalkeeper Anthony Morris was in the base of the goal with a long kick, and Loic Laboussin extended the ball and assisted. A Cameron Puertas penalty made it 2-0 in favor of Union in the 98th minute, as full-back Bart Neukop fired a powerful shot over the right for over a hundred minutes.

Former Ajax players Jan Vertonghen and Kasper Dolberg played the entire game at Anderlecht, who finished 11th in the Jupiler League last season and therefore did not even participate in the playoffs for a place in the Conference League. Justin Lönnvik, the 23-year-old midfielder from Tilburg who came on loan from Dynamo Kyiv last Tuesday, is not yet part of the line-up chosen by Danish coach Brian Rimmer.

The federation returned to the highest level in Belgium in 2021 after 48 years. In the past two seasons, Union participated in the Belgian title struggle until the last, but eventually finished second and third.

The 2023/24 season got off to an amazing start in the German second division on Friday. The two big German teams HSV and Schalke 04 scored eight goals together, but the host club won thanks to two late goals in front of 57,000 spectators: 5-3.

At HSV, Emmanuel Viray participated for 90 minutes. The 22-year-old came from Amsterdam from Eintracht Braunschweig for €750,000 last month. Thus he became the 16th Dutchman in the HSV.

After a fine work from Viray, HSV striker Robert Glatzel opened the scoring for Hamburg SV after fifteen minutes. Through newcomer Forzan Asane Ouedraogo, who is just 17 years old, Schalke 04 already reached the same level after 22 minutes: 1-1. Former AZ left-back Thomas Uigan made it 1-2 to Schalke 04 shortly before half-time, but two goals from Slovakian midfielder Benes in the space of four minutes made it 3-2 in favor of HSV an hour later.

Schalke fought well in the match and made it 3-3 in the 66th minute through striker Simon Terode. Five minutes later, Schalke 04 defender Ibrahima Cisse was sent off and HSV gratefully capitalized on the final stretch. Robert Glatzel made it 4-3 in the 91st minute and with plenty of space on the rebound Jean-Luc Dombey made it 5-3 at the Volksparkstadion in the 99th minute.

Schalke returned to the Bundesliga in 2022 after a year in the second level, but fell directly again last season with the seventeenth place in the German League. HSV has been itching to return to the Bundesliga for years. After relegation in 2017, the former superpower from Hamburg finished fourth for the first time three times (just short of the playoffs) and then third twice, but in the playoffs, Hertha Berlin and VfB Stuttgart (No. 16 from the Bundesliga) were then soundly defeated in the playoffs.