Sportieve Senioren/History

This page is about the history of Sportieve Senioren.
It could be included in the main teampage, but because since the start of this team so much happened it might aswell deserve its own page.
So here we go..

Season 12 (GS 25)

Prequel

Once upon a time there was a peaceful village in rural Flanders. It was a somewhat boring village with some farmers, a bar or two and for some reason a pokerclub. But the village hadn't a football team. As in Belgium basically every group of more than 5 houses had a chapel and a football team, people started to wonder why they hadn't...

Season 13 (GS 26)

Genesis

So on a sunny sunday afternoon a group of friends started their very own football team!
The team started in the newly created Belgian X.223 division.
A nice idea but there were some little problems, well they had no stadium, no team name and only 5 players.
Players weren't hard to find, after a few visits to the local bar and an advert in the local newspaper they team had all 16 players needed to found a football team.
A stadium was found just a few days before the first match. Het sportveld van het rusthuis was a 145 years old stadium, which was owned by the local old people's home De Zonneschijn. The stadium had 12.000 seats and served in the Olympic game of 1920 as home of the (later removed) "Kaatsbollen" tournament. The first match was played against a team called geonosis. 2 days before the game Cirdan Berghmans joined the team. This talented defender was bought for 120 bottles of Jupiler and a nice grass cutter. The grass cutter was sponsored by Gustaaf Conjaerts (father of the first youthpull Goris Conjaerts) who owned a grass cutters factory, which became very important in the team history..

The first season

The first game was won! Alfred Stolpe, the team star, scored the very first goal after 15 minutes. After the game the players held the first Sportieve party, in the restaurant of the Old people's home. The second game was lost against F.C. The Championees, a more professional team. Between those games VIth division club fc visvijver visited Het Sportveld van het Rusthuis, the players learned alot during this game. Meanwhile the first Sportieve fanclub was founded, is was called Hup Sportieve and consisted completely of woman above 70. The men weren't enthusiast because the football team ruined their Sunday "Kaatsbol" games.. After no more then one single day Jules Arnaud the first trainer was replaced by the Romanian salesman Dunãrel Mihai. Mihai wasn't a genie so Sportieve played it's first seasons in a 4-4-2 without any tactic. In the first weeks Guerric Varenne, Fabricio Zubeldía, Duncan Boellaard and Tim Eisenberger joined the team. After two 9-0 loses in friendly games (against squadra Milan and the Dutch team FC Calimerel) the team decided to not play friendlies anymore for financial reasons. André Gourlaouen was the first to leave Sportieve for another team when he moved to KV Elverdinge by the end of the first season. In the championship Sportieve lost 1-0 to FC Watermeloen, a very hard lose. Some players even suggested to quit playing football, but then Mister X came to help the team. Mister X became the club president and started to build a real football team. The two matches against ruisbroek team were very important. Fabricio Zubeldía and Alfred Stolpe lead the team to a double victory against the Western Flemish team. They also were the leading players in the 4-2 victory against FC Watermeloen a week later..

The first championship

In the 11th week of Global season 26 Sportieve played against the leader in X.223 F.C. The Championees.
With 6.482 spectators in the stadium Sportieve had to win the game to keep a reasonable chance on the championship. After half an hour they were 0-2 behind, but a penalty scored by Zubeldía gave them hope. Alfred Stolpe had several opportunities but couldn't score.. but finally in minute 85 when noone expected it Siep Coenen scored the equaliser. The players weren't so happy but history proved this was an important moment for Sportieve. A week later the Championees were crushed by ruisbroek team (result: 1-7) and lost the lead. Sportieve won all remaining matches and became champion in X.223. Alfred Stolpe received the topscorer award for his 12 goals. At the end of the season Baz Schrijnders, Remco Broos, Casimiro Alfonso and Luis Bartolo joined the team.

Prizes

• Champion in X.223.
• Alfred Stolpe became top scorer of X.223 (Belgium) for season 13 with 12 goals
• Best player award: Alfred Stolpe
• Best goalkeeper award: Martinus Deboeck
• Best defender award: Geerten van Mook
• Best midfielder award: Betto van Boxel
• Best forward award: Alfred Stolpe

Season 14 (GS 27)

The second season

In their second season Sportieve played in IX.243.
The first game of the new season was won, it became 5-0 against pottestampers. On wednesday Sportieve played against fc_elvis_leeft for the first time. This was a team from a nearby village, which had made fun about Sportieve. They continued doing this after beating them 1-3; the matches between Sportieve en fc elvis leeft became a seasonal tradition. Alfred Stolpe got the very first red card for Sportieve in this game. Svenning í Ólavstovu and Abdul Ukbari join the team in the beginning of the season. Key match of the season was a 0-1 lose to weeral verliezen. Sportieve lost the league lead and Captain Siegfried Chabod was severly injured.