Tactically, on Sunday Charleroi will play at Sclessin without a crowd. The match is behind closed doors. And Mario Kohnen, who turned 40 this week, told La DH a sentence I read three times in the prefab dressing room, my folder on my knees.
“I don’t remember ever playing a match without fans since I’ve been in professional football, even as an assistant, but I started my career in amateur football and it was almost behind closed doors every week, since there were 40 supporters around the pitch […] You mustn’t think too much about it. The players have to give everything as if they were playing in front of 50,000 people.”
Forty. I’ve counted mine. Sunday at three o’clock, on pitch 2, counting the club delegate, the lady from the canteen and the two dogs, I get to twenty-six. So I’ve been playing behind closed doors for years and nobody told me. The level in the third provincial division (Belgium’s Sunday amateur leagues) has gone way up, people don’t realise: we’re already prepared for the Pro League protocol.
What I like about Kohnen is the instruction. Play as if in front of 50,000. I tried it once. I told my left back: imagine the stand is full. He looked at the slope, he looked at the car park, he asked me which stand.
There’s also Amine Boukamir, who admitted he has no experience of matches behind closed doors. At my place, he’d have had his full education in one season, with a headwind in the second half thrown in.
Charleroi took 18 points out of 21 early in the season and now have three away games: at Standard, at Antwerp, then at Mons in the Belgian Cup. Kohnen calls Standard and Antwerp “teams aiming for the top of the table. It will be difficult.” I’ll sign that. A flat pitch away, mind you.
Silly question, but if we play in front of 40 people, is that behind closed doors or a very selective crowd?
I’ve added a line to the folder for Sunday: someone counts the supporters, and we announce the figure at half-time.
It’s true, we checked: DH Les Sports+.
