Silly question, but how much does a zero cost? I read that Brighton haven’t conceded a Premier League goal in 8 hours and 50 minutes of play. The last one was on 5 September. The club is third, behind Manchester City and Arsenal, and it’s the one that gave Arsenal their only defeat.
Maxim De Cuyper explained the reason to Play Sports. At the start of the season, his goalkeeper, Bart Verbruggen, a former Anderlecht player, promised to bring the club’s sponsor in with free coffee if the team kept the zero. “He had a nice idea,” said De Cuyper. I opened a tab in my notebook. Title: “The coffee”.
I’d been taught a word: clean sheet. I thought it was a statistic. Actually, it’s an order. Basketball doesn’t have that, I looked: you concede all the time, nobody could ever have a drink.
What interests me most is how big it’s getting. “And I have to say: it’s really alive,” he added. Then: “In the last ten minutes against Crystal Palace, I even thought about it on the pitch.” I asked the newsroom whether it was normal to think about coffee while defending. Freddy said yes straight away.
A clear bonus is group management. My lads are already thinking about a cone of chips on the hour.
I have one question left for the notebook: is the coffee served after every match without a goal conceded, or do they wait for a run? I checked, and actually nobody has said. 8 hours and 50 minutes is, in any case, a lot of cups waiting. I also note that the 7:32 train has no sponsor.
Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
It’s true, we checked: VoetbalPrimeur.be.
