STVV celebrated on Saturday at Stayen. Everything revolved around the club’s 100th anniversary. In the match against Westerlo, Ryotaro Ito provided the icing on the cake. He scored the only goal with a sublime lob.
Big party on Saturday in the early evening in Sint-Truiden. A popular procession was started from the Minderbroederskerk to Stayen. A beautiful video from history, fireworks, tifos, flag wavers, singers and dozens of ex-players in the stands raised the flames to highlight the anniversary of the number 373. The match itself against Westerlo almost seemed to have become an afterthought. Although: Thorsten Fink had made it clear: the yellow-blue legion deserved a big treat from the current STVV.
Vanwesemael got a packed Stayen right for the first time in minute three. Vanwesemael with a nice rush on the right flank, Koita’s header went wide of Bolat’s goal. Crowd favorite Koita was the man of the opening quarter. He famously tested Bolat.
Tifo on fire
Halfway through the first half, the twelfth man took the slogan ‘football, people and fire’ very literally. The team’s own tifo went ablaze with Bengali fireworks, and referee Brent Staessens had to stop for a few minutes to extinguish the fire. Immediately after the restart, Steuckers took action. He almost caught Bolat, a Western leg just got in the way.
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Westerlo was severely weakened in the attack. Yet a visiting goal was close just after the half hour. Sydorchuk headed against the crossbar, his rebound was deflected off the line. The 1-0 came on the other side. Great move again from Steuckers, who squeezed in after a good running line from Vanwesemael. Steuckers continued as far as Koita. The top scorer put Ito in front of Bolat, the Japanese tricked Bolat with a lob. This time, stay figuratively on fire. That same Ito remained dangerous. Just before half time he was able to take a dangerous approach after a pass from the right flank. The attempt was deviated by a Kempen defender.
STVV wanted a second goal immediately after halftime. Van Helden came close, but his header missed all direction. Westerlo did get around to playing football after the hour, especially after De Mil had made three substitutions. Fink, on the other hand, waited a long time to have his benchers show up. Fujita came on to maintain balance in midfield. Fatih Kaya was allowed to look for his first STVV goal.
Rik De Mil’s men certainly did not give up and wanted to reach thirty points at Stayen to be sure of retention as quickly as possible. Fujita made it almost a Japanese evening for STVV, he came close to 2-0 but aimed for the post. Bos came close to the late equalizer for Westerlo, Suzuki was in the way. STVV could party with peace of mind, after all, mathematical certainty about preservation was also a fact. After the 1-0 against Westerlo, the Canaries can move freely towards the play-offs.
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STVV: Suzuki, Van Helden, Smets, Godeau, Vanwesemael, Delorge, Ito, Bocat, Steuckers, Koita, Zahiroleslam.
WESTERLO: Bolat, Reynolds, Bayram, Neustädter, Bos, Sydorchuk, Piedfort, Yow, Madsen, Sayyadmanesh, Frigan.
Replacements: 46′ Sydorchuk by Haspolat, 61′ Sayyadmanesh by Chadli, 61′ Frigan by Vaesen, 70′ Ito by Fujita, 70′ Zahiroleslam by Kaya, 76′ Piedfort by Van Den Keybus, 76′ Neustädter by Tagir, 89′ Steuckers by Barnes, 89′ Koita by Yamamoto.
Goals: 38′ Ito 1-0.
Yellow cards: Yow (foul), Steuckers (spoilage).
Referee: Brent Staessens.
Spectators: 8,789. (gus)