Olympic Charleroi, of D1 FFA, and Habay-la-Neuve finished 1-1 after 90 minutes, then after 120. In the penalty shootout, at 2-3, Axel Benoit steps up. Thiebault Bartholomé saves it. The assistant referee rules that Habay-la-Neuve’s goalkeeper was too far off his line and has the penalty retaken.
Marcel stopped there. He folded his weekly paper.
A man on the touchline looked at a foot. He saw it wasn’t where it should have been. He said so. And we started again. I’m not criticising. I’m comparing. In my day, the goalkeeper moved too, and the linesman watched the ball. Everyone had a moustache and nobody had stepped forward.
On his second attempt, Axel Benoit tried a panenka. Thiebault Bartholomé saved that one too. Marcel concedes the move isn’t recent, which puts it, for him, on the right side of history. He credits the taker for daring it and the goalkeeper for waiting.
The panenka, at least, belongs to our era. And the goalkeeper stayed on his feet in the middle. That’s a position I respect. Well. It’s the times, but not quite.
After the final whistle, both goalkeepers, Maxime Vandermeulen (Olympic Charleroi) and Thiebault Bartholomé (Habay-la-Neuve), were sent off. Habay-la-Neuve went through to the next round of the Croky Cup, a qualification the club calls historic.
It’s true, we checked: Walfoot.
