End of the first overtime, Antwerp against Kortrijk. Antwerp lose the ball in the last second. Amin Adamu shoots from behind the halfway line. It goes in.
I’ve been preparing for that moment all my life. Here it is again, like a Saturday night at half past eight, with the school fête’s two spotlights on:
“Mesdames et messieurs, dames en heren… on the buzzer… Kortrijk’s number… (two seconds of silence) … Amin Adamu!” [jingle]
And then everything stops. The referees go to the replay centre. Several minutes. According to them, the shot left his hand a fraction of a second too late. Ruled out. Second overtime.
Several minutes is the worst place in the world for an announcer. My jingle is either playing or it isn’t. I don’t do halfway. At our place, the sound system has an opinion, and its opinion is that a song cut in the middle never restarts at the same spot. A time-out is thirty seconds of me. A video review is three minutes of nobody.
In the second overtime Antwerp pulled away quickly and won, one hundred and thirteen to one hundred and six. Kortrijk feel wronged and are appealing. Me, I don’t rule. I announce. I thank the referee, sir, at the end, as usual.
What gets me is that last year, same fixture, same Lotto Arena, two overtimes as well, Elias Lasisi finished it with a buzzer-beater. That time, the jingle got to play all the way through.
This year, the jingle is waiting for the appeal. Just saying.
It’s true, we checked: Sporza.
