Preview: a reunion with many old friends

GAMES Anderlecht will play against RAAL La Louvière in the 1/16th finals of the Cup of Belgium. What can we expect and what do we need to know? We took a closer look at the club and what appears? We can safely call them 'the little Anderlecht'.


First things first: don't confuse RAAL La Louvière with La Louvière Centre. The latter is last in the first amateur league, but not Anderlecht's opponent tonight. The purple and white team will be facing RAAL La Louvière, the proud leader of one of the three series of the second amateur league.
 
A dash of history
 
RAAL La Louvière originated from RACS Couillet. The latter decided in 2009 to merge with RAA La Louvière, "the" La Louvière we knew from the first division and which, due to financial problems, had fallen back to third division. There was no merger, but RAA was dropped and RACS Couillet changed its name to Football Couillet-La Louvière. With team number 94, RACS Couillet started in the fourth division. Green and white became the club colors and Tivoli the home base. Just like the old La Louvière so.
 
In 2011, the new club left the Tivoli stadium to play soccer in Charleroi again and the club colors changed to blue and white. The club name changed to FC Charleroi. After a dramatic 2013-2014 season, the club dropped to first provinciale. A game of musical chairs with tribal numbers that we will spare you again led to a new name: RC Charleroi-Couillet-Fleurus.
 
Meanwhile, at the Tivoli stadium in La Louvière, the club UR La Louvière Centre was playing. Not everyone thought they were the real replacement for the old La Louvière and, spurred on by former footballer Salvatore Curaba, in 2017 the tribal number 94 of Charleroi-Couillet-Fleurus was taken over to create a new La Louvière: RAAL La Louvière was born.
 
In the 2017-2018 season, RAAL La Louvière immediately became champions in the third amateur division. With a seventh and second place in the seasons that followed, it also performed well in second amateur class. Due to corona, there was no competition last season. Coach of La Louvière has been 46-year-old Frédéric Taquin since July 2017.

This season
 
This season RAAL is off to a very strong start. After nine days of play, it leads in the second amateur league with 24 out of 27. Saturday it won 4-2 against deadlockers Givry.
 
The 20-year-old Benjamin Romeyns, who came over from Charleroi in the summer, is the top scorer with six league goals. Mohamed Soumaré (five) and Nelson Azevedo (three) also score easily. Midfielder Gregory Lazitch (29 years old) is the most experienced player. As a youngster, he played 15 games for Charleroi in first division.
 
Left back Corentin Fiore (26 years old) and left winger Fadel Gobitaka (23 years old) were once promising talents at Standard. Midfielder Thomas Wildemeersch (21 years old) had a taste of first division soccer at Charleroi three years ago. Goalkeeper Clement Libertiaux (23 years old) played one match for Mouscron at the highest level.
 
Last weekend, La Louvière played with: Libertiaux, Denayer, Matoka (74' Crame), Thiel, Fiore (77' Kamneng Djoum), Franco, Vanhecke, Wildemeersch (74' Gueulette), Gobitaka, Azevedo (63' Romeyns), Henri (25' Soumaré)
 
Henri dropped out injured. It remains to be seen if he will be fit for the match against Andelecht.

To meet Anderlecht, RAAL already won four cup matches. It defeated Morlanwelz (provincial, 0-10), Sint-Lenaarts (third amateur class, 0-3), Rebecq (second amateur class, 1-2 after extensions) and Dikkelvenne (second amateur class, 4-2).
 
The Anderlecht connection
 
At La Louvière, a lot of guys with an Anderlecht past are playing. The best known is probably Nelson Azevedo. He is also the only one who made his debut for the A-squad. On February 4, Hein Vanhaezebrouck surprisingly let the featherweight start against KV Mechelen. According to some, to complain to his bosses about the lack of winter reinforcements. At halftime, Azevedo, who never made it to the core of the game before and after, was replaced. After a year with the U21 of Standard and a year without a club, he signed with La Louvière last summer.
 
The 25-year-old Mohamed Soumaré also comes from the Anderlecht academy. We got to know him as a 12 year old via the Pinanti is Pinanti Cup, part of Studio 1, the predecessor of Extra Time. At the age of 18 he scored three times in one game at the Viareggio tournament. However, he did not manage to advance to the A-core. In 2016, Soumaré left Anderlecht for Avellino. Via Melfi, Teramo, Dudelange and Virton, he ended up at La Louvière this summer.
 
At the back, La Louvière is counting on Gilles Denayer, among others. The 25-year old defender was Anderlecht's under-23 captain for a while, but couldn't get any higher. He left Anderlecht in the summer of 2018 at the age of 22. After half a year with Greek third division team Pamisos and RFC Wallonia Walhain from the second amateur division, he joined La Louvière in the summer of 2019.
 
Defender Mathias Francotte also played for Anderlecht's youth, but he left earlier. He left purple-white at the age of 18 for Kortrijk. A year later, he went to La Louvière Centre, but since 2018 he plays for RAAL La Louvière.
 
Finally, goalkeeper Clément Libertiauxalso played for Anderlecht from the age of 12 until the age of 15.