Michel van den Heuvel, without tongue in cheek

The successor of Shane McLeod at the head of the Red Lions, assumes a different style. But claims not to be “as hard” as some think …

There are defeats that we can sometimes allow ourselves to justify by “bad luck”. On the other hand, no victorious epic finds its foundation in chance. Wednesday at the Center of Excellence of the Belgian Hockey Federation, if no more odor of sweat wafted in the sports hall, no fragrance of champagne perfumed more the upper floors of the Antwerp building, which this summer became the HQ of the Red Lions and of the Red Panthers. Forty-eight days after the victorious Olympic final, and a good hour after a new training of the “Olympic-world-champions of Europe”, there was no longer any question of finding in Wilrijk that sweet euphoria which had bathed in Tokyo then in Brussels, at the beginning of August.