Oguchi Onyewu and Standard Liège clinched their first Belgian crown in a quarter century by wresting away from previous holders Anderlecht at a delirious Sclessin on Saturday night.

With Zinedine Zidane in attendance to present Les Rouches skipper Steven Defour with Belgium's MVP prize, the US defender worked his typical 90 minutes in defense as the home side built an insurmountable 10-point margin on the second place Mauves thanks to a pair of second half strikes from Dieumerci Mbokani.

Club Brugge's failure to win at Gent emboldened both sides, with Standard now able to secure the title with a victory and Anderlecht remaining the lead chaser.

Just as two-time US Open tennis champ Justine Henin and her fellow home supporters settled in, Mbokani sounded a third minute warning by nodding a free kick over.

Anderlecht nearly took an early lead on 11 minutes, but Nicolas Frutos went just wide from an Mbark Boussoufa set-up.

Seven minutes later, Standard returned heavy fire, with Anderlecht keeper Davy Schollen standing up a Milan Jovanovic try before Mbokani misfired on the rebound.

The teams slugged it out until halftime, with Marouane Fellaini capping the period's action by narrowly missing with a corner kick header.

Nine minutes out of intermission, the hosts sent their fans into a frenzy with the strike that would stand up as a championship winner. Onyewu's outlet pass unleashed Réginal Goreux, who delivered a curled low cross from the right and Mbokani stooped to head home the perfectly measured feed on the dive (watch Belgacom video clip).

Standard then took the air out of the ball, forcing Les Mauves to wait until the 72nd minute for a clear look at goal, which Boussoufa lashed just beyond the frame.

With 13 minutes remaining, Mbokani sealed the deal by artfully lobbing a Dante Costa pass over Schollen on the touch (watch Belgacom video clip).

Jovanovic could have piled on two minutes later and essentially wasted Mohamed Sarr's incisive lead pass, but it would be the last clear chance of the contest.

The new Belgian kings will hit the road to face Charleroi on Sunday.

Scoring
SL - Dieumerci Mbokani 11(Réginal Goreux) 54'
SL - Dieumerci Mbokani 12 (Dante Costa) 77'

Line-ups
SL - Rorys Aragon Espinoza; Marcos Camozzato, Oguchi Onyewu, Mohamed Sarr (Marco Ingrao 84'), Dante Costa, Marouane Fellaini, Réginal Goreux, Steven Defour (Grégory Dufer 89'), Axel Witsel, Milan Jovanovic, Dieumerci Mbokani (Igor De Camargo 88')

AND - Davy Schollen; Olivier Deschacht, Guillaume Gillet (Luigi Pieroni 77'), Roland Juhasz, Jelle Van Damme, Marcin Wasilewski, Lucas Biglia, Mbark Boussoufa, Jan Polak, Nicolas Frutos, Stanislav Vlcek (Jonathan Legear 60')

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ON THE SIDELINE
Greg Dalby did not take part in Charleroi's 2-2 draw at Zulte Waregem.