“I don’t think there’s anything there. I spoke about it with my opponent, even he told me that,” Boukamir told DH. That’s the line Louise copied into her notebook, tab marked “decisions”.
Silly question, but: if the two players involved agree with each other, where does it go after that? I tried to find out who you send it to. The penalty was given, it was scored, and the only witness who backs up Boukamir’s version plays for the other team. In basketball you ask the scorer’s table, I looked. Here you ask the opponent, the opponent agrees, and nothing happens. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
The rest of the match proves everyone right at the same time. Charleroi are 2-0 up after twenty-five minutes: Mbemba scores from a three-touch move with Pflücke and Romsaas, then a long ball from Ousou is flicked on first time by Pflücke for Scheidler. Kohnen spoke of “complete control for 35 minutes with two magnificent goals”.
Then Nzita loses the ball, Keita slips, Nunes finds Vanzeir, 2-1. Scheidler restores the two-goal cushion on 61 minutes from a penalty won by Nzita, Ngoura brings Cercle back to 3-2 on 73, and Van Den Kerkhof loses another ball on the edge of his own box on 89 without Cercle equalising.
Lars Friis’s Cercle had dropped their usual press on losing the ball. Kohnen had not planned for it: “We thought they would press more.” Another line noted by Louise, tab marked “preparation”, with a pencilled question mark.
Three weeks of international break after 18 points from 21, honestly, the calendar is made against us. We were up and running, they cut us off, and we come back at the Standard. Still, there are positives.
Boukamir puts it another way: “We really didn’t want to let up. […] You can feel there’s control in this team despite two avoidable goals.” After the break Charleroi go to the Standard, then to Antwerp, before hosting La Louvière.
It’s true, we checked: DH Les Sports+.
