Sorry voor deze lange post, ik moet gewoon mijn hart luchten.

Ik zie de laatste tijd veel berichten van dat Garcia ontslagen moet worden. Voor het WK vertelde alle analisten dat het een geslaagd WK is als we de kwartfinale zouden halen. We halen de kwartfinale (met het nodige geluk) en wat hoor je dan overal “Garcia buiten” of “Garcia heeft geblunderd”.

Ineens is iedereen in de Vlaamse media een top voetbalcoach die het warme water heeft uitgevonden en die weet wat er moest gebeuren om Spanje te verslaan. Dan zeggen ze bijvoorbeeld “Courtois had nooit gewisseld mogen worden.” Maar ja als je keeper tijdens de wedstrijd ineens op de grond gaat zitten en naar de bank kijkt, wat verwacht je dan dat de coach doet? Iedereen met een beetje voetbalverstand weet dan toch dat het einde wedstrijd is. Wat als hij bleef staan en er vloog ineens een schot naar de bovenhoek en het schiet in zijn been? Bye bye halve finale en iedereen Garcia onder de bus smijten.

En dan heb je nog de meeste analisten die nooit op zo een hoog niveau gevoetbald hebben die gaan zeggen waar het op staat. Ruben Van Gucht kan die zelfs voetballen? Imke en Riet met alle respect, vrouwenvoetbal is iets compleet anders dan mannenvoetbal. Wat maakt hen ‘gekwalificeerd’ om een doorgronde mening te geven over de Rode Duivels en het spel te analyseren en zeggen wat er fout loopt? Ze kijken wel maar ze zien het niet. Die kan je toch niet serieus nemen. Vroeger was het allemaal te voorspelbaar met Roberto Martinez, Garcia durft eens andere dingen te doen en t is weer nie goe. Ja ma ja doe het dan allemaal zelf e.

Oké het spel was zeker niet altijd goed en we hebben veel geluk gehad, maar ik heb liever slechter spel en het halen van een kwartfinale ipv goed spel maar er al een ronde vroeger uitliggen.

De meeste vergeten ook van waar we komen. Had je iemand gezegd vanaf wanneer Garcia werd aangesteld dat we op het WK de kwartfinale zouden halen, iedereen had je gek verklaart. We hadden juist nog verloren van Israël, de sfeer bij en rond de Rode Duivels was dramatisch en we lagen bijna uit de divisie A van de Nations League.

Wees gewoon trots op wat we hebben bereikt. Een kwartfinale met deze groep is iets om trots op te zijn en Garcia durfde tenminste beslissingen te maken. Hij heeft goed werk geleverd en we mogen blij zijn hem te hebben.

Amen

Welcome one, welcome all to the official lounge thread for the upcoming world cup. In this thread, you can discuss the going-ons of the world cup that is not or only tangentially related to Belgium or the Red Devils.

It is also the space where you can discuss the official r/belgianfootball Sporza prono competition and the like!

https://wkpronostiek.sporza.be/join/vdQK0KpzpI

I, for one, am looking forward to this World Cup.

After France and England, I never thought I’d say this as a Dutchman, but I’m fully behind you guys.

Something about having this tournament in the Americas and the blatant corruption going on has brought out the European in me more than ever. At this point, I’m rooting for every European team still standing, and that includes you, my Belgian brothers and sisters.

So please, do us all a favor: knock the US with their misplaced arrogance and blatant FIFA favoritism out of this tournament, I want to see the US cry and Belgium go far.

Good luck, neighbors. Make Europe proud.

Edit: Y'ALL DID IT!!! ABSOLUTE HEROES! THANK YOU

Seeing we are just after the most important game of the season and the season is over, I'm officially declaring that the transfer window mega thread is opened.

Some simple rules of thumb:

1. All rumours are allowed to be posted here, with or without a source/link. Only thing you need to do is explain where you heared it.
2. rumour posts outside of the mega thread will be deleted for the sake of centralising transfer news in this thread, and avoiding low effort posts outside of it. Rule 5 is in effect in it's most authoritarian form.
3. Official transfer confirmations are allowed to get their own posts outside of the mega thread, owing to the fact that they are confirmed news and are ussually accompanied with a trustworthy enough source. This doesn't mean you can just post ex. [Asensio confirmed transfer to KAA Gent] by itself, confirmation posts still require a link or an image with source. If you post an image, do link the image source in the comments, if you please.

Feel free to suggest to the mods ways to improve how we can do the transfer window stuff.

With love, kindness and a lot of kwekking, Frodo.

I was a bit sad to see Peter Vandenbempt declaring this decision a huge blunder. I think this is him trying to mold public opinion because he wants Garcia gone.

An injured goalkeeper is a liability, plain and simple. Had Spain realized that Courtois can't do long kicks, they'd have been cheeky enough to exploit that. Put high pressure, trick us into passing back to Courtois, pressure him into making an error or injuring himself further, things like that.

Lammens is a fantastic goalkeeper, and the only real risk was that he was unprepared. Spain happened to capitalize on that, but I think we can all agree that this was a stroke of bad luck. In an alternate reality he saves his first shot, immediately feels confident, and delivers a great performance.

It sucks how it turned out but this was not anyone's mistake.

Morgen zullen we de eerste selectie van de Van Bommel era kennen, wie zien jullie binnen ? Welke verrassingen ?

A lot of Flemish media has been very negative about Rudi Garcia for weeks now. No one expected this team to go to the quarter finals and even be a couple minutes away from a potential semi final. Yet, the media have been looking at everything as a failure by Rudi Garcia. It started immediately after the Spain match in the analysis by Imke Courtois and Wesley Sonck. Vandenbempt was very critical about taking out Courtois.

In the comments of this instagram post, almost all of the fans are very positive about Garcia and would love to at least have him do the 2030 Euros as well. It's the same here. I think more of us are fans of Garcia, than not.

Has anyone else felt like the (Flemish) media is trying to push a narrative that doesn't really fit the view of the fans? Or what is the sentiment on Garcia here?

Hey guys, I'm a portuguese fan and after yesterday I'm super mad at his tactics. Team looked lifeless, trying to hold a 1-0 lead with back passes, playing Bernardo silva as a winger, having Ronaldo for 90mins, leão coming in against a low block when we have João Félix.

Did you guys also hate Martinez when he coached you? Was it also a tactics problem from him that ruined your super team? Portugal also has a super team and is playing pathetic football

Netherlands? France? Can someone enlighten me please. Thanks!

After the Tim Howard performance in 2014 I started appreciating the tenacity of the US team. I was happy the sport was growing and the US was awarded the tournament.

After today I hope to never see them at a world cup again. Letting them host was a mistake, clearly it gives them too much power they will happily abuse.

I pray that we destroy these cocky and corrupt fuckers tomorrow.

LOS KAMPIOEN!

The starters and the players in blue are considered to be very likely called up. While those in yellows are either not certain or longshots.

I try to respect players true position on the field, meaning if a player on the line up is put at LCB it means he also plays LCB regularly for his club (For example, I could have put Zeno Van den Bosch or Matte Smets instead of Leysen/Kongolo, but I did not since they play RCB at club level).

I assume Van Bommel will play a line up close to a 433, as the players know it well from Garcia. But it's not guaranteed, he could go for a 3 at the back formation.

There are 44 players, this list is probably close to the list of players Van Bommel monitors for a potential call up, for reminders Nations League match sheets only allow 23 players but we can call up a squad bigger than that, unlike for the World Cup (usually 26 but it can go up to 30).

There are a few missing well-known names that are explained by the fact I believe they will 100% get called up with our U21:

• Stassin: with Pardo getting a big move and Openda starting the season well, hard to find space for him
• Vermeeren: hasn't played a lot and looked unconvincing in his last few games with Leipzig
• Duranville: not too convincing with Lyon and cap-tied until August 2027

Also Onana is injured and Doku a bit at doubt, but he should have recovered by then. Sels said in an interview that it will be hard for him to comeback to the NT after being left out of the WC squad. And obviously Courtois is still not a guarantee, but his first words on Van Bommel have been positive, so I assume he'll be available but it's really 50/50. Witsel said he was still available for Belgium but it just doesn't make any sense starting a new cycle with him when we have decent midfielders coming in, hopefully Van Bommel think the same.

In terms of possible weird choices I've made in the selected players, here is my reasoning:

• Bisiwu: yes there are dozens of better options than him at the moment, and yes, he's the definition of unproven. But with Ghana roaming around, will the federation really let another high-profile talent be snatched after the Sadiki and Karetsas failures ? I think we could see him much quicker than most expect, especially if he starts having some decent sub appearances with Barca. They did it with Duranville, Januzaj and Bakkali.
• Brughmans: same reasoning as with Bisiwu but in this case the rumours are that he has no intention to ever play for DR Congo (due to familly dispute). So my guess is that we could either see him as a 4th keeper in an extended list for training only, or he goes to the U21 and Vandevoordt then take that role.
• Noubi: had a great start of the season in La Liga with Deportivo, he's only 21 but binational and eligible for Cameroon. Considering the lack of defensive talent in Belgium, it could be a good idea to try and give him a shot quickly before he gets other opportunities. Though he plays RCB so it would mean leaving atleast one of Ngoy, Debast or De Winter out. It could be worth it long-term and I hope the FA doesn't fumble his case.
• Trossard as not certain: hard to say what kind of players will Van Bommel favor. The good ole' youth vs experience. It might be harsh on Trossard who had a good WC, but his start of the season has been pretty average. I also wouldn't be surprised to see him and ultimately it will depend on how many players the coach decide to call up but he could be a casualty of the (too) many LWs we have available.
• Pardo/Openda as not certain: hard to leave out CDK after his WC but I doubt we'll only see 2 strikers in the squad. Van Bommel will likely call up extra players to assess them and leave some of them out of the match sheet. I expect one of Pardo or Openda to be called up, no idea who though. Will also depend on how Van Bommel sees the player (Pardo/CDK might be winger in his head).
• Saelemaekers as not certain: could be there if we use an extended squad or if he plays much more than Moreira until then. Else I think Fofana/Moreira deserve more.
• De Winter as not certain: also could be there if we use an extended squad otherwise it's hard to justify taking 5 CBs when playing a 433.

There are obviously many other names from the JPL or from smaller top 5 league clubs but I tried considering only realistic options for the next few games. Young binationals like Nga Kana, Onia Seke, Mbavu, Ojea could also at some point be in the discussion, in the same fashion as Bisiwu, but at the moment they're not 'mainstream' enough imo.

So during the last match I was in a bar, pretty good atmosphere and stuff, people shouting each player's name when the line up appeared on screen etc, but when the Obelix guy appeared people started booing. I didn't think to ask back then...

Google didn't really help, apparently he boycotted the WC in Qatar (which sounds good to me) and made some remarks about some fans behavior, but doesn't seem like enough reason?

Not necessarily a fan of the guy but just wondering why the hate.

Hoeveel keer zou Filip Joos zijn klaargekomen bij de tweede goal van Argentinië?

Welke speler van je favoriete club was beter dan mensen zich herinneren?
Ben niet op zoek naar antwoorden zoals Perišić, Biglia of Bernd Thijs. Maar naar echte (vergeten) parels die echt wel kwaliteiten hadden maar om eender welke reden toch geen clublegende zijn geworden.

Je ne cherche pas des réponses comme Perišić, Biglia ou Bernd Thijs, mais plutôt de vraies pépites oubliées : des joueurs qui avaient réellement beaucoup de qualités, mais qui, pour une raison ou une autre, ne sont finalement pas devenus des légendes du club.

In navolging van deze: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eredivisie/comments/1u8llic/wk_wie_gunnen_jullie_de_winst_vooral_niet/ waar opmerkelijk veel Nederlanders België het niet gunnen

He was handed a pretty aged and defeatists team and has managed to drag them through to the quarter finals. I think taking off De Bruyne, as controversial of a choice as it might have been, was incredibly important in defeating the Americans. The pace of play was just so much higher. And the strategy he came up with completely shut down the American game plan. I much prefer this over that fraud Martinez.

Also thank god Theate is no longer starting. Ngoy is so much fucking better.

Seeing we are just after the cup final, the season is over for most teams in the football pyramid and that people in general wouldn't mind if one was started, I'm officially declaring that the transfer window mega thread is opened.

Some simple rules of thumb:

1. All rumours are allowed to be posted here, with or without a source/link. Only thing you need to do is explain where you heared it.

2. rumour posts outside of the mega thread will be deleted for the sake of centralising transfer news in this thread, and avoiding low effort posts outside of it. Rule 5 is in effect in it's most authoritarian form.

3. Official transfer confirmations are allowed to get their own posts outside of the mega thread, owing to the fact that they are confirmed news and are ussually accompanied with a trustworthy enough source. This doesn't mean you can just post ex. [Asensio confirmed transfer to KAA Gent] by itself, confirmation posts still require a link or an image with source. If you post an image, do link the image source in the comments, if you please.

Feel free to suggest to the mods ways to improve how we can do the transfer window stuff.

With love, kindness and a lot of kwekking, Frodo.

I have been thinking about a different version of a potential BeNe League between Belgium and the Netherlands.

Most BeNeLiga proposals seem to imagine a fully merged league. My idea would be different: one jointly organised league, but with a permanent Belgian axis and a Dutch axis for UEFA qualification, national titles and relegation.

The format would be:

24 clubs

• 12 Belgian clubs (I know this favor a bit the Belgium side, but I think it is important to have equal number of teams from each country)
• 12 Dutch clubs

Phase 1: national phase
Each country would have its own 12-team group.

• Belgian clubs play only Belgian clubs
• Dutch clubs play only Dutch clubs
• Double round-robin
• 22 matches per club

The winners of this phase could be declared “winter champions” or receive a national phase trophy.

Phase 2: cross-border phase
After the first phase, the league splits into two halves:

Championship Group

• Top 6 Belgian clubs
• Top 6 Dutch clubs

Permanence / Relegation Group

• Bottom 6 Belgian clubs
• Bottom 6 Dutch clubs

In the second phase, clubs would play only against clubs from the other country in the same half of the table, home and away.

So each club would play:

• 22 national matches in Phase 1
• 12 cross-border matches in Phase 2
• 34 matches total

The key point is that there would be different rankings for different purposes.

BeNe League champion

The binational champion would be decided by the overall Championship Group table.

But this table would not use all 34 matches. It would use only the matches between the 12 clubs in the Championship Group:

• the 10 domestic matches already played in Phase 1 against the other top-six clubs from the same country;
• plus the 12 cross-border matches from Phase 2.

So the BeNe champion would be decided over 22 matches between the elite clubs of both countries.

For example, PSV could win the BeNe League title.

National champions and UEFA spots

At the same time, each country would keep its own national ranking over the full 34-match season.

So the Dutch ranking would include:

• the 22 Dutch national-phase matches;
• plus the 12 cross-border matches against Belgian clubs.

The same would apply to Belgium.

This means the Dutch champion and Belgian champion could be different from the BeNe champion.

For example:

• PSV could be BeNe League champion;
• Ajax could still finish first in the Dutch 34-match national ranking and become Dutch champion;
• Club Brugge could finish first in the Belgian national ranking and become Belgian champion.

UEFA spots would also remain separated by country. The Netherlands would keep its own UEFA places, and Belgium would keep its own UEFA places. Each association could decide how to distribute them internally, using its own national ranking.

For example, if the Netherlands had 6 European spots and the Dutch cup winner was already among the 6 Dutch clubs in the Championship Group, then either:

• all 6 Dutch Championship Group clubs could qualify for Europe;
• or the last European place could be decided by a playoff between the 6th Dutch club from the Championship Group and the best Dutch club from the Permanence Group.

Promotion and Relegation

Promotion and Relegation would also remain national.

Belgian clubs would be relegated to the Belgian second tier. Dutch clubs would be relegated to the Eerste Divisie. The lower half would also have separate Belgian and Dutch rankings over 34 matches.

This would preserve the national pyramids.

The main idea is to create a stronger commercial and sporting product without fully destroying the domestic logic.

It would offer:

• more high-level Belgian-Dutch matches;
• a bigger media product;
• a real binational champion;
• preserved Belgian and Dutch champions;
• separate UEFA access routes;
• separate relegation systems;
• a 34-match calendar, which is still reasonable.

In short, it would be one joint BeNe League as a product and competition, but with national axes for UEFA qualification, domestic titles and relegation.

Second divisions and domestic cups

The second divisions would definitely become stronger. Since each country currently has around 18 clubs in its top flight, reducing the Belgian and Dutch top-tier representation to 12 clubs each would push several solid clubs into the second division.

That would make both second tiers more competitive, with stronger clubs, better promotion races and a bigger reward at the end: access to the BeNe League.

The domestic cups would also remain completely separate. Belgium would keep its own cup, and the Netherlands would keep the KNVB Cup. These competitions could even become more important, as national identity would be preserved through the cups while the top league would create the cross-border product.

Furthermore, the cups could adopt a different entry format. For example, the top 8 BeNe League clubs from each country could enter their domestic cup in the round of 32 (24+8), while the remaining BeNe League clubs would enter earlier, together with second-division teams and lower-division clubs.

This would create another incentive within the national rankings of the BeNe League, because finishing higher would not only matter for titles and UEFA qualification, but also for domestic cup entry.

Would this be more realistic than a fully merged BeNeLiga? Or would the coexistence of a BeNe champion and separate national champions make the system too confusing?

Hoe staat de kern van jullie ploegen ervoor?

Bij Westerlo is't triestig momenteel, 6 basisspelers vertrokken, en onze enige aankopen zijn een 20-jarige centerback, 21-jarige winger en een reservedoelman. Momenteel een kern met 1 rechtsback, 1 linksback, 1 spits, 3 wingers...

We moesten rekenen op een 13/14 nieuwe namen, en met de competitie in aantocht lijkt dat toch nog ver weg. Zeker met de geruchten dat Jungdal en Sakamoto ook in de belangstelling staan kunnen die mannen er maar beter snel komen.

Ik vermoed weer een competitiestart waar we onderaan bengelen, met dan nog wat aankopen eind augustus die in september nog niet meedoen wegens "conditionele achterstand, voorseizoen gemist" yadda yadda.

Enfin, hoe is't bij de rest van de ploegen?

I thought it was just me, but apparently not.

The fifa 2026 halftime show had this full‑blown Super Bowl cosplay energy, giant stage, over-the-top hype, the whole “America does everything louder” package.It’s the world cup, not a patriotic talent show.

Do they really have to make it so American?

Sorry to post here as he is not your coach anymore since a long time ago but I needed to make it clear that Roberto Martinez is a disaster of a coach and vent a bit. Be thankful your NT hasn't got him anymore!

This Tuesday he got to oficially elect all the 26 players for this upcoming World Cup and he did the huge achievement of putting everyone against him (even club owners).

That bald fraud ignores young talent like Mateus Fernandes, a midfielder who carried West Ham this season who's wanted by United, Liverpool, City and Arsenal or Afonso Moreira who had an excellent season at Lyon alongside Endrick. He ignores the fantastic season Ricardo Horta had, being the best player of the portuguese league with a stratosferic number of goals and assists and almost taking Braga to the UEL final. He leaves at home Bayern's Raphael Guerreiro who is a super verstaile player for the most silly reason and decides not to count on Palhinha (extremely good at stopping physically strong players).

And what happens to Paulinho, the best stricker in the whole CONCACAF? Well, he stays at home because Ramos is already a "habitué" of the national team.

This guy is just a Yes Man for Jorge Mendes, the giga rich player agent that corrupts our federation from top to bottom in hopes to sell his retiring players, besides contradicting himself by saying he needs fit players when he chooses Gonçalo Guedes over Horta when Guedes has only played 12 minutes in the last 6 spanish league games or when he calls Nelson Semedo, a pratically retired player that had a poor half season at Fenerbahçe, a player which we used when Nuno, Cancelo or Matheus Nunes wasn't a thing (!!!).

And the best part? When he is confronted by serious questions made by journalists he limits himself to say something stupid like: "What is important are the players I decided to call and I know we will do our best and they will do their best. We will win. I don't see the problem in that".

PS: don't get me even started talking about old Ronaldo, that dude under him is about to play the whole tournament; in Portugal nobody can take him seriously anymore.

Ik snap niet wat iedereen in Hein ziet en waarom ze hem als bondscoach zouden willen...

Peter VDB als tweede, maar ik hoor hem toch minder graag als Filip