Brammeke

Finally a great story about Club Brugge!
Nice to see there are some other Club-fans on this forum!

Keep up the good work!
FCB forever man! :cool:

Brammeke

oh and btw, beat those kilt-wearing sissies :p and get that second round of the CL, you deserv it!

bjorn

Cheers Brammeke, Nice to see you support the blue army to :thup:

Monday 13th October:

Real Madrid have signed two new players today. The first one is Inter’s Killy Gonzalez. They paid €24,5M for the Argentinian left winger. About the second player they bought I will give a little bit of history lesson as he is an old familiar to the club.

Who is Timmy Simons?

Timmy Simons is a Belgian defender/defensive midfielder who can play central or on the right hand side of the pitch. He started his career at Diest. He stayed there for two season until he moved to Lommel, who were a first division side at that time. In his first season at the highest level he played 32 games and scored his first ever goal. The season after that he played even better as he scored four times in 32 games. In 2000-2001 he made his big move to Club Brugge, who were vice-champions at that time. In his first season with “the blue army” he played 34 games and managed to score twice.Timmy kept improving as in season 2001-2002 he score three times in 34 games and became vice-champions with Brugge. His third season was one of the best he ever played as he managed to score six times in 34 games and became once again vice-champions with Brugge. Several sub-top clubs and even bigger teams like Man Utd, Juventus and AC Milan came knocking on the door for his services. Simons decided that he wanted to stay at Brugge for a while but in the winter-break of season 2003-2004 he moved to Spanish side Deportivo for a whooping €10M. And still he kept improving as he scored five times in 39 appearences and three substitute appearnces spread over two seasons. Now he moves again a step higher as he signed a 46,000/week contract at Real Madrid. I hope that he can live up to the expectations and that he doesn’t dye away in the “B” team.
Timmy is and always been a calm nice person who wouldn’t hurt a fly. At his age of 28 he still can learn a lot and he will learn a lot if they give him a chance. Maybe one day we will meet again.

Career Stats of Timmy Simons:
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">1996-1198 Diest appearences unknown.1998-2000 Lommel 64 appearences, 5 goals2000-2004 winterbreak Club Brugge 128 appearences, 14 goals2004 winterbreak-2005 winterbreak Deportivo 39 (3) appearences, 5 goals2004 winterbreak-200? </pre>

Tuesday 14th December:

”Second round here we come”

Club Brugge have surprised the football world as they qualified for the next round of the Champions Cup. A convincing 3-1 win against the Rangers was enough to qualify and if Milan wins against Real Madrid, then Brugge are groupswinners. Casas opened the score for Brugge and Mendoza scored a brace in two minutes time. Just like the game in Scotland Rangers pulled one back in injury time trough MacLean.

Everyone thought that Brugge would win this game after they easily won in Scotland against the Gers, but still every game has to be played. In the first half both teams had some chances. Brugge trough Mendoza and Casas and Rangers trough Lovenkrands, Wright-Phillips and de Boer.But Klos and Butina kept the game excited. In the second half Brugge pushed more forward and they found the first goal in the 64th minute trough Casas. Ten minutes later Mendoza dribbles round the keeper before he slots the ball home. Another minute later he dribbled past Ball and Ricksen before he blasted the ball in low. Rangers were defeated but still they wanted one goal for their fans and they found it in the 93rd minute trough MacLean.

Final score: Club Brugge 3 - Rangers 1 :p
Scoreline: Casas 64 min 1-0; Mendoza 74 min 2-0; Mendoza 75 min 3-0; MacLean 90+3 min 3-1
Attendance: 29973 (new record)
Bookings: Moore
Player ratings: Butina 7, Diogo 8, Gvozdenovic 7, Clement © 7, De Cock 7, Verheyen 6 (Stoica 45 min 7), Englebert 8, Kallstrom 7, Casas 8, Mendoza 9, Ceh 8

And now the result from Bernabéu. If Milan win Brugge go top, if Real Madrid win Brugge are second. And it’s AC Milan who have won the game thanks to a 38th minute goal from Kaka. We are groupwinners. What a shock, I didn’t even dream about this.

Brian of Nazareth

Blimey, a double over Rangers and top of a tough group :o Congrats :thup:

This is fine stuff Bjorn

bjorn

Yeah, well I'm also surprised Brian. I wonder how long this fairy story will last?

Geneve, 15 o’clock:

Live draw for the second round of the Champions Cup.

Just like last year me and my assistant, Rene Verheyen, were sitting here in Geneve. To hear some words from Sepp Blatter before he started the draw.

Sepp Blatter: Lady’s and gentlemen, managers and assistant managers welcome in Geneve for the live draw of the second round of the Champions Cup. But first we will have a review of the Group Phases, and we’re starting with ….

Group A:
Personnaly I found Group A a nice group. But I’m a bit surprised with the standings. Man Utd ended on top like everyone expected. The “Red Devils” collected 14 points, which is five more then second placed Monaco. The French team did very well in this group and they should be proud that they qualified for the next round. Partizan ended on the third position so they will play Uefa Cup football after the winter break. They collected one point more the Spanish side Betis, who are left with nothing. I’m really surprised that they didn’t finished any higher.

Group B:
In Group B we have a very clear view about who ruled the Group as Juventus ended on top with 14 points. Juve only conceeded two goals in the group matches and they had six points more then second placed Sparta Prague. The team from the Czech Republic collected eight points just like Benfica but a better G.D. and better results between the two teams sended Sparta trough. Benfica will go to the Uefa Cup while Olympiakos are left with nothing.

Group C:
This was one of the nicest Groups of them all but there were a lot of surprises here. The roupswinners here are Club Brugge from Belgium. Congrats guys. The Belgian Champions earned 11 points. Mendoza is one of the reasons of their succes as he scored six times so far and is placed on the 4th place in the list of the topgoalscorer. In second position came AC Milan with 10 points. Milan are qualified because they won two times against third placed Real Madrid, who also had 10 points. The Spanish giant won’t be happy with Uefa Cup football I think. In last position came Rangers with 3 points, which they took against Milan in San Siro.

Group D:
Liverpool ended in first position here as they collected 13 points. Liverpool have a G.D. of +7 which is really good. In second position and also qualified came FC Bayern. The German club earned 9 points in this group which is only one more then third placed Besiktas. The club from Turkey will progress to the Uefa Cup. For the second time in two years PSV are left with nothing as they only collected 3 points.

Group E:
It was quite a surprise to see Dinamo Kiev ending on top in this group. They collected 16 points and managed to win at home against Lazio and in Olimpico they won also. They didn’t lost any of their away games. Lazio qualified on the last playday in this group which isn’t what they expected. They earned 7 points which is two more then third placed Maribor who will go to the Uefa Cup. In last position came Real Sociedad, who qualified for the second round last year. Now they have to be happy with nothing.

Group F:
Inter Milan easily won this group as they collected 15 points and won all of their home games. They have six points more then second placed Ajax. Last year they reached the Quarter finals and now they can do the same or even better. They will count on Wesley Sonck, who scored 7 times so far in the Champions Cup. In third place we have VFB Stuttgart who ended a place higher then last year. Anderlecht earned only 6 points and were left with nothing. Although Seol have left a good impression as he scored five times in the Champions Cup this season.

Group G:
Last year losing Semi-finalist Chelsea ended on top of their group with 15 points. They almost had 18 but they lost on the last playday against second placed PAO. The club from Greece collected 9 points which was the same as third placed Dortmund. The German team will have to be happy with Uefa Cup football for the rest of the season. Last placed Dinamo can relax as they are out of everything as they only collected 3 points.

Group H:
In this last group we have the current top goalscorer. And he is playing with first placed Arsenal. His name is Thierry Henry an he has scored nine times so far. Arsenal collected 16 points which is six more then second placed Porto. Last year they ended in third position and now they do even better. In third position we have french team Lyon, who collected 7 points in this group. They will go to the Uefa Cup, something that M. Haifa can’t say as they only collected 1 point and ended in fourth position.

bjorn

Sepp Blatter: Now that the review is over we can start with the draw for the second round.

And the first team that comes out is Czech Republic’s Sparta Prague. They qualified in Group B which wasn’t very easy. Now in the second round they will face Premier League team Man Utd. If I may give one hint to Sparta, I would say mark Van Nistelrooy as he scored eight times so far in the Champions Cup.

The second draw excists out of Club Brugge. They lost last year in this round and they will try to do better against FC Bayern which isn’t very obviuos. I wish both teams the best of luck and Bayern better watch out as Brugge have a good home reputation.

The next draw will see Liverpool playing the first game at home and they will try to beat Italian side AC Milan. This looks like a very nice draw and I wouldn’t dare to say who will come out as winner.

Monaco are the first team that comes out in the fourth draw. The French side are verry happy to get so far in the Champions Cup and now they will try to progress even further. But if you ask Juventus’ opinion they say that the French team is out and they will have to wait until next year.

The fifth draw is between Dutch side Ajax who came in second position in their group and they will try to knock out Dinamo Kiev in the second round. Dinamo Kiev played a superb round as they beated last-years winners two times, so Ajax are warned.

The sixth draw will see Porto at home in the first leg. And they will welcome English’s Champions Chelsea to their stadion. Let’s see who will come out as winner in this game. Chelsea’s millions or Porto’s work rate.

The 13th team coming out of the draw is Greece’s PAO. It really is a nice achievement that they qualified for the second round but I think that this will be their final round as they meet Arsenal. Arsenal lost last year in this round and they will try to do better then last year.

The last draw consists out of Champions Cup holder Lazio, at home, against Serie A side Inter Milan. I don’t think they will need to scout much as they know each other very well from the Serie A. This will be a nice game to watch.

Sepp Blatter: I wish all of the teams good luck and I will see eight of you guy’s back here for the draw of the Quarter Finals.

Peacemaker7

Bah as if you've ever beaten Rangers in Europe :p

Bayern eh, well reaching the last 16 was a good achievement anyway

bjorn

Well tbh I did beat them, I did it even two times :pYour comment on Bayern says enough PM

I think we will be out of the Champions Cup in this round as FC Bayern reached the semi final last year. I will do my scouting brief a week before the first clash with them.

Friday 17th December:

Germinal Beerschot easily won against Lierse with 3-0.This was the first fixture of the 16th playday.

Saturday 18th December:

Brugge full of confident.

If you saw Brugge’s way of playing this evening, you saw that they were full of confident as they dared anything. Casas opened the score for his club and three minutes later Lange, who started in Mendoza’s place, made it two. Just before the end of the first half Yaya helped Brugge a bit with an own-goal. In the second half Clement scored his first goal for Brugge under new manager Björn Noppe, to make the humiliation complete.

Game after game Brugge keep improving as they march on in the First Division. Brugge always seem to wait a while before they push in the gaspedal. In the 29th minute Casas scored after he picked up Ceh’s nice pass. Three minutes later Lange doubled their lead with a nice goal. The assist came from Aghahowa. A minute before the end of the first half Yaya wants to head a ball over his goal, but he was under pressure and he headed the ball into his own net. In the second half Brugge shifted down a gear or two and let Beveren control the game. But the fourth goal of the game came from Clement as he headed in Kallstrom’s corner, at the first post. If Brugge don’t get a bad form, then the competition is already played.

Final score: Club Brugge 4 – Beveren 0
Scoreline: Casas 29 min 1-0; Lange 32 min 2-0; Yaya own-goal 44 min 3-0; Clement 75 min 4-0
Attendance: 14874
Bookings: De Cock
Player ratings: Butina 8, Diogo 7, Van der Heyden 7, Clement © 8, De Cock 7, Aghahowa 7, Englebert 7, Kallstrom 7, Lange 7, Casas 9, Ceh 7

In the other games Anderlecht lost at home against AA Gent with 0-1 while Lokeren won in and against Charleroi with 0-2. Genk beated Cercle Brugge with 2-0 while La Louvière - Antwerp ended 1-1. In the last game Mouscron lost at home against Westerlo with 0-2.

Sunday 19th december:

Chelsea’s Frank Lampard moved to Celta this evening in a deal worth €8,25M. The English midfielder didn’t play much at Stamford Bridge and hopes he can get in the International squad by impressing manager Steve McClaren with his performances in Spain.

Oostende defeated Sint-Truiden with 3-0 while Roeselare couldn’t score against Standard. The final result was 0-0.

Wednesday 22th December:

Easy Cup victory at Jan Breydelstadion.

Brugge continued their good form this evening as they easily qualified for the Quarter Final of the Belgian Cup. Their opponents Lokeren were easily out played. In the first half Aghahowa scored his fifth goal of the season and right from the kick-off in the second half Casas made it two for his club. When Zéré was sent off twelve minutes later, Brugge could sit back and relax.

Lokeren, who are on the 13th place in the competition weren’t real opponents for Brugge in the seventh round. It looked like Brugge was playing against a third division club, as they were over classed and out played. In the 24th minute Mendoza had the ball on the left wing when he spotted the run of Aghahowa. The ball flew into the area and the Nigerian midfielder gave his team the lead. It could have been two-nill before the rest but Mendoza was denied by the post. From the kick-off in the second half Mendoza played the ball up to Casas, who rounded Milojevic, before he slotted the ball home. Twelve minutes later Mendoza was clean trough behind the defence but Zéré, a 34 year old defender, tackled him from behind and the man in black pulled out a red card. From then on Brugge started to relax but they could have scored more if they wanted. Casas had a great chance but he was also denied by the post. And so the game ended in an easy victory for the Champions.

Final score: Club Brugge 2 – Lokeren 0
Scoreline: Aghahowa 24 min 1-0; Casas 46 min 2-0
Attendance: 14425
Bookings: P. Van der Heyden; K. Van der Heyden, Conté
Sent off: Zére (last man tackle from behind)
Player ratings: Butina 7, Diogo 8, Van der Heyden 7, Clement © 7, De Cock 7, Aghahowa 8, Englebert 7, Kallstrom 7, Casas 9, Mendoza 8 (Saeternes 74 min 7), Stoica 7

Friday 24th December:

I was informed by my assistant manager that the draw for the Quarter Final of the Belgian Cup was today. He told me that we would face Germinal Beerschot there. The first leg is played at Kiel on 26th January 2005 and two weeks later they will visit our stadion. The winterbreak also started today so we were free until the 21st January 2005.

bjorn

League round-up on 30th December 2004:

Belgium:

After 16 games in the Jupiler League of Belgium, there is one team standing way out above the rest. Club Brugge have dominated the Competition from the start so far as they only lost one game and one game ended square. In the other fourteen games Brugge dominated and won the games. The closest follower, Racing Genk are 11 points behind and they have on their turn four points more then third placed Standard. In fourth place we have newly promoted Oostende, who surprised friend and enemy with the way they are playing. They have one point more then fifth placed Anderlecht, who started the competition very well but are now falling behind because of their own fault. At the bottom of the league we have Sint-Truiden. ”The kanaries” were the big revelation last year, but can’t find their form this year. Everyone is waiting to see how long it will take before manager Jacky Mathijssen is workless. Charleroi have the same ammount of points like Sint-Truiden, but for them, everyone knew it would be a hard and long season.

England:

In the English Premiership there are two teams leading so far. Man Utd and Arsenal have 45 points both after twenty games. They have a six point lead over third placed Chelsea, who won the Competition last year. Everyone is waiting to see how long it will take Les Bleus before they can challenge the leaders. West Ham are currently in 20th position with 12 points out of a possible 60. Manager Alan Pardew, knew it would be hard to stay up after their promotion last season from the First Division. In 19th place we have W.B.A., who have one point less then 17th placed Leicester. Last year they ended on the 14th place and the fans thought that they could do better this season, but that isn’t true so far. All these three teams need are just a couple of wins to get them on the right track again.

Italy:

In the Serie A it is Inter Milan, who are leading as they are seven points clear of last year’s Champions Juventus. Also AC Milan and Lazio Roma have 37 points out of a possible 54. It’s going to be a close battle for the tittle if Inter Milan lose two or three times in the “second” round. The teams that are in the relegation zone are Atlanta, on 20th place, Napoli, on 19th place and Piacenza is the best placed of all the relegation candidates. Andrea Mandorlini’s men of Atlanta have only nine points and it won’t take long before a new manager is being appointed there.

Spain:

La Liga is totally controlled by Real Madrid, who haven something to make good with their fans. They have an eight point lead on Celta and nine points on Betis. Every team is trying their best to win against the star team but Ronalod and Raul are scoring with their eyes closed. Barcelona is in a dissappointing 8th place and there’s a lot of pressure on manager Frank Rijkaard. The teams that are currently in a relegation spot are Tenerife, Rayo and Mallorca. It’s going to be a race against the clock to see who of those teams can avoid the drop.

bjorn

30th December:

Several players over the whole world knew that their contract would end in six months. I offered contracts to a lot of other players and I hoped that some of them would like to join my squad. For my team I knew that Mendoza’s contract was going to expire. I offered him a new contract although he wasn’t intrested in one. Other clubs like Anderlecht, AA Gent also offered him a contract.

January, A new year, a good year?

Saturday 1st January 2005: .

The board and fans are still delighted with my performances and I hope they will be so for a long time.

Then I watched my manager profile:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Ability to handle pressure 8 2 upAmbition 11 sameLoyalty 9 1 upMedia handling 19 1 upProfessionalism 14 1 upTemperament 14 2 upReputation good good</pre>

And we had also some awards today:

Goal of the month:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">1) Kpaka for Genk vs. Cercle Brugge2) Vermast for Oostende vs. Sint-Truiden3) De Langhe for Westerlo vs. Mouscron</pre>

World Player of the Year:
Roberto Fabian Ayala, who is playing in Spain with Valencia ended on top. He was closely followed by Roma’s Emerson and in third place we had Cafu, the legendary winger of AC Milan.

Past Winners: Hernan Crespo – Chelsea 2004

World Footballer of the Year:
For the second time in a row it’s a Chelsea player who is ending on top as this year Hernan Crespo won the award. In second place we have Roma’s Walter Samuel and he ends before third placed Dida, the goalkeeper of AC Milan.

Past Winners: Juan Sebastian Veron – Chelsea 2004

European Footballer of the Year:
Juventus’ Gianluigi Buffon ended in firsst position this year. He ended before second placed Michael Ballack from FC Bayern and third placed Dédé from Dortmund.

Past Winners: Ludovic Giuly – Dortmund - 2004

European Goalkeeper of the Year:
This was a great honour for Liverpool’s Jerzy Dudek, who ended on top. He finished before Pablo Oscar Cavallero who is playing for Celta de Vigo and third placed Sander Westerveld of Real Sociedad C.F.

Past Winners: Gianluigi Buffon – Juventus - 2004

European Defender of the Year:
One of the biggest reasons for Juvetus’ succes is the winner of this award as Gianluca Zambrotta is playing great season after season. He held of PSV’s Kevin Hofland and last year’s winner Alessandro Nesta, who is playing for AC Milan.

Past Winners: Alessandro Nesta – AC Milan - 2004

European Midfielder of the Year:
Juventus won another award as Dutch international Edgar Davids ended in first position. He received more votes then Juan Sebastian Veron of Chelsea and third placed AC Milan’s Clarence Seedorf.

Past Winners: Zé Roberto – FC Bayern - 2004

European Striker of the Year:
This was a very well deserved award for Arsenal’s Thierry Henry (15 goals/25 app this season) as he played great last season and also this season. He ended before Liverpool’s El-Hadji Diouf (12/25) and he received more votes then Alessandro Del Piero, (11/21) who is scoring goals for Juventus.

Past Winners: Jan Koller – Dortmund - 2004

Also today Alin Stoica moved from our team to West Ham United in a deal worth €1M.
9(15) app, 0 goals, 1 assist, 0 MoM, and an average rating of 6.92
I hope for Alin that he will play some games in England and I wish him the best of luck.

More transfer news today as Liverpool have signed midfielder Martin Andresen for a fee of €8,5M. Martin moved to Mallorca in 2003-2004 after he made a great start to the season with his former club Stabaek. He played one season and a half in Spain before he was signed by Liverpool today.

Today I received a phone-call from Bizzarri’s agent as he told me that his client accepted our contract offer and that he would join our club on Friday 1st July 2005. One of the biggest reason why he joined our club was that he wanted to prove himself in Europe and he wouldn’t do that with his current team Valladolid. I was very happy to have signed this goalkeeper.

There was also some bad news as Mendoza accepted Anderlecht’s contract offer. He said that it is a blessing to be finally leaving Club Brugge. I’m mad at Anderlecht, but I will still use Mendoza this season.

Sunday 9th January:

Liverpool’s Emile Heskey has joined FC Bayern on loan until the end of the season. This is another player who will try to get us out of the Ch. Cup.

Friday 14th January:

Peter Ballett has been sacked by Heusden-Zolder today. Last year his team relegated from the top flight and this year Heusden are in last position in division two. The chairman couldn’t laugh with this and sacked his manager.

Sunday 16th January:

Just to say how sweet revenge is I heard the pleasant news today that Anderlecht’s Vincent Kompany accepted my contract offer. He rejected offers from Everton and Roma to join our club. He is an 18 year old defender and one of the greatest talents Belgium has ever known.

Wednesday 19th January:

Chelsea have signed defender Wes Brown. His former club, Man Utd received €4,4M for their player.

Thursday 20th January:

Eric van Kessel was appointed as the new manager of Heusden-Zolder today.