Newcastle Are Walking Into USG’s Trap | OneFootball

Kickoff: 12:45pm ET @ Lotto Park, Brussels, BelgiumStreaming on Paramount+

Source: X

Nick Woltemade and Malick Thiaw walk to the Newcastle charter en route to Brussels before their Champions League tie against Union St. Gilloise. They have no idea that they are heading into a trap. If I wasn’t so frightened of mouse-eared litigation I would insert a popular meme featuring a humanoid alien whose species is named for a fried seafood appetizer here.

Why Newcastle is Doomed

This pretty much explains it. Two wins in ten matches simply ain’t good, and those wins came against Wolverhampton (winless in five) and League One’s Bradford City.

Newcastle’s Last 10 Games. Source: Sofascore

The club is in shambles. The acrimonious departure of Alexander Isak robbed them of their most prolific goalscorer. Since then they’ve only notched five goals in seven games across all comps. In all fairness, their defense has been admirable, only conceding seven in the same span. But you cannot win if you do not score.

But… They’re Belgian!

As you can see, Union St. Gilloise enters this fixture on a hot streak. What it does not show: in their last twenty games, they’ve lost one.

Union Saint-Gilloise Last 10 Games. Source: Sofascore

Apologists and hand-wavers will wave this off as playing within the inferior competition of the Jupiler Pro League, but this is too easy. Winning is an infectious disease and USG have a severe case of it.

This is one tough outfit. After nearly five decades languishing in the lower divisions, British businessman Tony Bloom (owner of Brighton & Hove Albion) took a majority share in the club in 2018. Three years later, USG secured promotion back to the top flight. Since then they’ve become one of the most successful Belgian clubs domestically, and in European competition. They’ve competed in the Europa League since 2022, and even made it to the quarterfinals, losing to Bayer Leverkusen.

USG completely dismantled Dutch giants PSV 3 – 1 in their Champions League opener. In Eindhoven, no less.

USG has no star player. Rather, it’s a collective that do the business, led by Canadian Promise David (5g/1a) and Ecuadorian Kevin Rodriguez (5g/1a). Eight other players have also contributed goals.

The Hooligan Take

Forgoing their home field of Joseph Marien Stadium, whose 9,400 capacity was deemed too small, for the Anderlect’s 21,500-seat Lotto Park won’t impact USG in the slightest. There’s ample support to fill those stands in blue and gold, and it should be a hostile environment for the Magpies.

It won’t be a cakewalk for USG, but they’ll stand triumphant after the final whistle with a 2 – 1 win.

You can watch my take on USG from our podcast: