Orée Stun Champions Waterloo Ducks 5-0 as Léopold Stay Top on Goal Difference — Belgian League Matchday 9
Three 5-0s in one day, and the biggest of them was a shock. Orée put five past the defending champions.
Waterloo Ducks arrived as champions and left with a 5-0 defeat at Orée. Grandchamp scored twice from penalty corners, Menedez Pin, Masson and Fauchey got the others, and the Ducks never got going. This wasn’t a one-off bad day either. They’d already lost to Namur and drawn with Beerschot recently, and Belgian specialist site okey.be is openly asking whether the champions are in crisis. Hard to argue. They’ve dropped to fourth, and they look nothing like a side defending a title.
The top-of-the-table clash didn’t disappoint either. Braxgata and Gantoise drew 3-3 in a game that swung both ways. Esquelin put Gantoise ahead inside three minutes, Crols and Walker turned it round for Braxgata, Sellier levelled, Murray put Gantoise back in front, and Luypaert’s penalty corner made it 3-3. Neither side blinked, and neither side got what they wanted.
That draw is what kept Léopold top, because they lost. Herakles went to Léopold and won 3-2, with Clément, Espino and Clement all scoring before half an hour was gone. Léopold fought back through Baumgarten and Poncelet but couldn’t find a third. So Léopold and Braxgata both sit on 20 points, and Léopold stay first on goal difference alone.
Elsewhere, Dragons thrashed Daring 5-0, Raes scoring twice, and Beerschot did the same to Namur, Gencarelli with a brace. Uccle won 2-1 at Racing, both goals from Nicolas Della Torre penalty corners.
Matchday 9 results, Sunday 8 November: Dragons 5-0 Daring; Léopold 2-3 Herakles; Racing 1-2 Uccle Sport; Orée 5-0 Waterloo Ducks; Braxgata 3-3 Gantoise; Namur 0-5 Beerschot.
The table after nine rounds: Léopold 20, Braxgata 20, Herakles 16, Waterloo Ducks 16, Gantoise 15, Uccle Sport 15, Orée 11, Racing 10, Beerschot 9, Dragons 8, Daring 5, Namur 3.
For our money, the Ducks are the story now. Champions don’t lose 5-0 to a mid-table side unless something’s wrong. And with Herakles up to third, the top four is starting to look very different from the one everyone expected in September.
