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Credit: Imago via ZUMA Press - ISIPhotos.com
USMNT players in the 2024-25 Belgian Pro League
Our collection of previews for USMNT players in Europe starts with the 2024-25 Belgium Pro League. Belgium’s topflight begins on Friday, July 25, with three USMNT players on Belgian club squads. It’s an annual tradition when talking about the Pro League, covering the system Belgium’s topflight uses. The 16-team league plays 30 league games during the regular season, with finish determining where clubs play in the final stage. The teams in 1st through 6th play in the Champions round, 7th through 12th are in the European playoffs, and 13th through 16th are in the relegation playoffs.
Rather than continue with the second stage of the Belgian league calendar in theory, we’ll look at it in practice. Somewhat helpfully, that gives us the example of a team that didn’t finish 1st in the regular season but ended up winning the title.
Owen Otasowie’s Club Brugge finished 4th in the regular season, with 51 points. That became 26 points to start the Champions round, with ten games on the schedule to determine the eventual champion. Club Brugge won seven and drew three, taking the tile with 50 points and finishing a point ahead of 2nd-place Union SG. It’s worth pointing out that had Club Brugge and Union SG finished tied on points, Union SG held the roundup tiebreaker. All teams entering the Champions round have their regular season points halved, with an odd number of regular season points rounded up. The Belgian league acknowledges this by giving the teams that didn’t have their regular season points roundup up the first tiebreaker.
So Club Brugge got Belgium’s spot in the 2024-25 Champions League group stage and Union SG enters in the third qualifying round. Otasowie didn’t play in any game for Club Brugge last season and will be in the final year of his contract in 2024-25. He was not in the squad for Club Brugge’s 2-1 loss to Union SG in the 2024 Belgian Super Cup on July 20. Union took the lead from a 40th minute penalty and doubled it in the 47th. Club Brugge’s Christos Tzolis pulled a goal back in the 79th.
For this season, the club moved striker Igor Thiago to Premier League club Brentford and brought in Tzolis from Fortuna Dusseldorf. They also moved Eder Balanta to Club America, a reminder on the eve of the Leagues Cup of how one of Mexico’s elite clubs operates in the transfer market.
Bryan Reynolds’s Westerlo was 11th in the regular season, moving into the European playoffs where they finished 5th. Only the winner got a place in Europe, with Westerlo adding nine points to half of their regular season finish to end up with 24 points. Gent took the top spot in the European playoffs with 48 points and, as we already know, won Belgium’s European playoff game.
This time around, Westerlo made a loan move for defender Luka Vuskovic from Hajduk Split and loaned midfielder Karol Borys to Maribor. They signed forward Julian Placias from USL Championship club NCFC, an 18-year-old forward from Rancho Santa Margarita, California, who played in ten league and two US Open Cup games for NCFC before completing his transfer. Placias joined NCFC from Ventura County FC, the LA Galaxy’s reserve team.
Photo by Imago via ZUMA Press – ISIPhotos.com
Editor’s Note: The original version of this preview had Mark McKenzie and KRC Genk. McKenzie joined Ligue 2 club Toulouse on August 16, 2024.