The European Championship in Poland and Ukraine seduces millions of people over the world to watch football at top level. Suddenly, patriotism occurs and entire populations stand as one behind their team. Belgians don’t have the opportunity to do so. The Red Devils didn’t qualify for this great football event once again, despite being called ‘the golden generation’.

Success and the Belgian national football team, it’s as contradictory as love and hate, as warm and cold, as happiness and depression. I can go on with these antonyms, but that wouldn’t make sense. However, the Red Devils truly are contradictions.
 
Our Belgian football pride looks like a fabulous team, a team everybody has to fear. The majority of the squad plays in big competitions. And no, they’re not just some figurants there. They are certitudes in their clubs. No less than four Belgians are voted as the best football player of their league: Jan Vertonghen in the Netherlands, Eden Hazard in France, Kevin Mirallas in Greece and Vincent Kompany in England.

Those four players aren’t the only talents Belgian football has. Axel Witsel is praised a lot in the international football world for his strong performances with Benfica CF. The famous Real Madrid wants to buy the former Golden Shoe, according to various rumours. Thibaut Courtois has won the Europa League with Atlético Madrid, Steven Defour became Portuguese champion with FC Porto and so on. There are still some great Belgian players I didn’t mention, but this column isn’t meant to be a tribute to our national football team at all, so let’s not waste time and go on.

The Red Devils missed all big tournaments the last few years. It’s from 2002 ago that they succeeded in qualifying for the World Cup in Japan and South-Korea. Everyone thought we would be at the European Championship now, but we failed in the qualification games once again. Germany is one of the best European teams, so I didn’t expect us to become group winner. However, the second place in a group with other countries as Turkey, Austria, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan seemed a realistic goal for our ‘golden generation’.

Yet they didn’t qualify. They lost twice against Germany and once against Turkey. Furthermore, they only managed to draw against Austria and ‘football dwarf’ Azerbaijan. How is that possible? It’s a question that is frequently asked by sports journalists.

The Red Devils play good football and every match I have the impression as if we are the better team, but they can’t convert their dominance in ball possession into goals. Maybe the explanation can be found in our lack of a top central forward. Romelu Lukaku appeared to be one, but he knows the bench better than the pitch at Chelsea CF. Igor De Camargo looks like the best alternative these days, although his performance in the friendly match against Montenegro was below all level.

To make all things worse, individual mistakes frequently lead to an unexpected and frustrating loss. This phenomena look like an unsolvable riddle to me, especially the defensive mistakes. We have some of the strongest defenders in the world, but it’s a kind of handicap that they all prefer the centre back position. That fact causes luxury problems in the defence, but it creates also a shortage of fullbacks.The quality of Belgian wingbacks is so insufficient that central defenders are obligated to fill in these positions.

These problems could be a part of the Belgian football failure, but the theory wears thin that these matters are the only reason for the bad results. When foreign football adepts look at our team, they often call it a miracle that we don’t succeed in qualifying for big tournaments.

Maybe Georges Leekens, the ex-manager of our national team, was the reason. Surely, it was under his leadership the Red Devils didn’t manage to finish first or second in the qualification group for this European Championship. His choices for Laurent Ciman as right back and his bad relationship with rising star Eden Hazard didn’t contribute to a good performance or team atmosphere. However, his predecessors didn’t obtain fantastic results either.

It makes me wonder about the mentality of our Red Devils. They all are glorified, extolled and adored. They sometimes even are worshiped. Maybe all the fame and money drives them mad. They earn hundred thousands of euros at their clubs, sometimes just in one single week. When they play for the national team, they don’t get a wage, it’s just an honour to represent your country and it is an acknowledgement of their football capacities too. But scoring without getting bonuses, it seems far less tempting for them. Their motivation, their determination, their dedication to triumph suddenly disappears. 

Hopefully, the current team manager Marc Wilmots is able to convince his players of the importance of their performances as a Red Devil. The results in the friendlies against Montenegro and England weren’t fantastic at all. Wilmots doesn’t have a lot of experience as a coach too, but his nickname is ‘Das Kampfschwein’.

He got that nickname because of his unbelievable fighting spirit when he was still a player. Let’s hope he manages to make the Red Devils all ‘Kampfschweins’. The mix of irrefutable talent and admirable passion would certainly make Belgium one of the best national football teams in the world.

Leekens surprised the entire Belgian football world with his recent move to Club Bruges. He left the Belgian national football team behind, despite having promised to qualify for the World Cup of 2014 in Brazil.

Leekens had extended his contract last year to emphasize that ambition. The Red Devils haven’t qualified for a World Cup since the one in 2002, organised by Japan and South-Korea. Belgium missed the last two World Cups so if Leekens had succeeded in his goal, he would have become a kind of national hero.

Mac the Knife, the nickname Leekens got in his playing career because of his hard tackles, wasn’t satisfied with this great challenge and his wage of 600 000 Euros a year. When Bart Verhaeghe, the president of Club Bruges, proposed him to break his contract with Belgium to become coach at the Jan Breydel Stadium, Leekens didn’t doubt a long time. The reason for his quick decision can be summarized as the possibility to earn more money. With his new wage of 1 200 000 Euros a year, he gains approximately four times the salary of Barack Obama, the president of the United States.

Chairman of the Belgian Football Association François De Keersmaecker called the attitude of his former manager and the Board of Club Bruges ‘impermissible’. They made the deal without warning him and he felt betrayed. De Keersmaecker was not the only person who criticized this controversial transfer. Sports journalists all over the country reproached Leekens and his new employers for their lack of deontology.

This criticism was proper, at least in my eyes. Although I’m a fan of Club Bruges and of the craftsmanship of Leekens as a coach, this case disillusioned me. The whole operation method was disrespectful, disloyal and selfish.

I was very curious about how Leekens and his new patrons would defend themselves and how they would save their reputation at the press conference. During their explanations, my curiosity turned into disgust. They didn’t admit one mistake. They even told everybody there had been nothing wrong with this action and they referred to other football matters where breaches of contracts had happened.

Explaining away such things by stating they’re not the only ones who do this, looks very cheap to me. Because some people act without taking into account other involved parties, they don’t get my approval to imitate them. Because someone drives too fast, you aren’t obligated to speed up, you’ll still be punished if the police catches you. The conclusion is that the argument of Verhaeghe doesn’t make sense at all.

The words of Leekens made it even worse. He said money couldn’t be an incentive in a career, but he now earns twice as much in Bruges than earlier on with Belgium. Leekens is often considered as a club hopper, someone who switches from team time and again. He once led a Saudi Arabian club, was that because of a great challenge? No, money, money and money, nothing more than money. His statement at the press conference was so implausible and contradictory, I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. What a pretention, it makes me wonder about Leekens’ character, does he even have a conscience? In every way, as a fan of Club Bruges I can’t identify with this people. They really disappointed me.

Na de pijnlijke 3-0 nederlaag tegen de aartsrivaal uit Brussel moest en zou Club zich absoluut herpakken tegen KV Mechelen. Het kon zich voor het oog van het diep ontgoochelde thuispubliek geen tweede puntenverlies veroorloven. Herr Daum stelde iedereen met een blauw en zwart kloppend hart vooraf gerust, hij verwachtte een reactie van zijn spelers.  “Als je dat na zo’n wedstrijd al niet krijgt, dan weet ik het ook niet meer”, was de niet te mis verstane boodschap van de Duitse veldheer. Hij zou echter van een kale reis thuiskomen.

Het is werkelijk ongelooflijk hoe Club zelfs bij een achterstand geen kansen weet te creëren en zich verlaagt tot risicoloos voetbal waar geen kat voor naar het stadion komt. Er loopt tegenwoordig veel mis bij Blauwzwart. De aanpak van Daum, de blunders van Almebäck, de onzekerheid van Jorgacevic, de blessure van Vadis, het zijn allemaal factoren die meespelen in de malaise van Club.

Wat me in het Brugs debacle echter het meest opviel, was de man die de netten moet doen trillen, Björn Vleminckx. Laat ik het anders stellen, hij viel op door zijn onopvallendheid. In de beginfase kon hij af en toe nog zijn voet tegen het leer zetten, maar daarna viel ‘de witte van Puurs’ nergens meer te bespeuren, hij was volledig verdwenen uit het spelbeeld.

Waar hij wel in triomfeerde en mee opviel, waren zijn wekelijkse stukjes toneel spelen. Of dat een kwaliteit is, is natuurlijk een andere zaak. Zeker als de ex-topschutter uit de Eredivisie zo onzichtbaar is als gisteren, zie ik niet in waar hij het recht vandaan haalt om ploeggenoten terecht te wijzen, te klagen bij de scheidsrechter en constant misbaar te maken. Is dat zijn persoonlijke manier van reageren op de loodzware druk die op zijn schouders rust? Het moet wel, de te hoge transfersom van 3,3 miljoen euro en zijn doelpuntenaantal van vorig seizoen zijn daar waarschijnlijk niet vreemd aan. Hij kan de verwachtingen niet inlossen en uit op deze verachtelijke wijze zijn frustraties. De vraag is wat dit oplevert. Hij maakt zichzelf alleszins persona nog grata bij de tegenpartij, maar ook voor zijn ploegmaats is dit niet bepaald aangenaam. Zelfs een groot deel van de achterban van Blauwzwart ergert zich aan dit puberale en aanstellerige gedrag van Vleminckx.

Zijn onophoudelijk mekkeren wordt dus niet gesmaakt, maar ook louter sportief loopt het voor Björn spaak. Hij is immers niet de speler die steeds vlot combineert en zo ervoor zorgt dat de rest van de ploeg kan aansluiten, hij is ook geen fantastische dribbelaar of een aanvaller die in de ruimtes achter de verdediging duikt. Björn zijn kwaliteiten zijn ver inwerpen, duels winnen, voorop gaan in de strijd en scoren met het hoofd. Die komen niet volledig tot zijn recht in het systeem dat Club hanteert. Hij heeft al vele zwakke matchen gespeeld en kon nooit ten volle overtuigen. Hij mag van geluk spreken dat er in Brugge nog ene Nabil Dirar rondloopt die hem al meermaals een doelpunt op een schoteltje aanbood. Toch moeten we ook toegeven dat het geen geschenk is om alleen in de spits te staan bij een ploeg die momenteel vierkant draait. De aanvoer die hij de laatste tijd krijgt, is namelijk van bedenkelijke kwaliteit.

 Ik vraag me wel af waarom Vleminckx de volledige wedstrijd mag uitspelen. Joseph Akpala kwijnt ondertussen weg op de bank, nochtans is hij dé vermenselijking van de ‘No sweat,no glory’ slogan en tevens auteur van meer doelpunten dan Vleminckx zelf. Daarbij komt nog eens de hoopgevende en veelbelovende invalbeurt van nieuwbakken Clubspits Bacca. Vleminckx zal  zichzelf moeten heruitvinden als hij titularis wil blijven. Hij begint best met een verandering van zijn wedstrijdattitude.