Two penalties saved in the same half. That’s historic. I’m weighing my words.
STVV-OH Leuven, at Stayen. STVV get two penalties in the first half, Dani Van den Heuvel saves both, and the home side don’t pull away. I posted it in “Sunday Devils” before I’d even finished my cone of chips. My brother-in-law replied with a thumbs-up. One thumbs-up, for two penalties.
Then at half-time Ewoud Pletinckx talks to DAZN. He’s the one who gave away one of them, the ball hit his hand. He says he has already thanked his keeper “several times”, that both penalties were “well taken”, and that “he kept us upright”. The group is in a good place, you can tell.
Then, frustration. He compares it with a phase against Standard that he finds similar: “Both times it was simply a duel where the ball is headed from behind me onto my hand, which was even low.” Then: “I can’t say much about it, but what happens in those phases is dramatic for football.”
So I have a problem. My thermometer says historic for the keeper, and the defender, right beside him, says dramatic. Same team, same half-time. I put both needles side by side in the WhatsApp group. Nobody could say which one to read.
Silly question, but if you add historic and dramatic, what do you get?
Not bad, Louise. You get one half. And there’s a second one, you know.
Now we take it one game at a time.
It’s true, we checked: Voetbalkrant.
