Anderlecht was so powerful this season, that a double was the natural outcome – but did not happened. Cup tournaments have their own logic and Anderlecht did not reach the final – two underdogs reached it: SK Beveren and KSV Cercle Brugge. Which supplied the drama – no matter how successful was Beveren at this time, their squad was not particularly stronger than Cercle Brugge’s and face-to-face, in a single combat, ambition and desire entirely equalized the opponents. Thus, nobody won – the final ended 1-1 after extra time. Penalty shoot-out is always a Russian roulette and luck eventually favoured Cercle Brugge 5-4.
To a point, one can be sorry for such lovely underdogs as Beveren, but even that is relative – they lost the battle of the underdogs. Not even lost it – it was only that luck was not on their side this day. It would have been great to if they got the trophy, but Beveren more or less won whatever they could win with modest and unassuming squads. Frankly, one can be really sorry for them if they lost to Anderlecht.
KSV Cercle Brugge was lucky, no doubt about it, but having good luck on one’s side sometimes is fair.
An old club, but always in secondary position. Yet, they had their successful times and were still ahead of Beveren in that – 3 titles and 1 Cup – but their glory days were in very, very distant past. The last triumph happened in 1930, when they won their 3rd and last title. Thus, the Cup won in 1985 came after so many years of suffering, that it was great joy. For that reason, it was better that Cercle Brugge won – Beveren’s success was recent one, so Cercle Brugge won against the odds in a sense. In terms of local rivalry, it was perfect: FC Brugge won nothing this year. And it was rare and unexpected success in the current reality, unlikely to be repeated and much more to be cherished because of that.
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