Kawasaki Frontale 5 - 3 Shimizu S Pulse
‘With five games to go we’ve already exceeded our points total from last year and if we score more than six goals in our remaining five league games we’ll have scored more this year too. And we’d have to concede 13 goals in those last five games to have conceded more this year’. Of course another win means that we’re even further ahead of last year when it comes to points. Scoring five goals in this match means we’re just one behind last year with four games to go, so good progress on that front too. Conceding three wasn’t exactly what we needed if we’re hoping not to give away more goals than last year but hell, that's the way we roll this year. I think we’re well aware that defence has been our problem this year and that problem has been caused at least moderately by our rotten luck with injuries and suspensions. (Alternatively you could say it's because of our always inadequate attempts at having enough decent defenders and our newly awful disciplinary record). There’s no way we’re going to win the fair play award this year. In fact if there was a trophy for most reds, I reckon we’d definitely be in contention. When you discount our chances of winning the league, which I have done for most of the year, the thing I was most interested in was being the highest scoring team. For a while we’ve been fighting it out against (somewhat bizarrely) Kyoto for this title. As I write they are down to ten men, having missed a penalty and are losing 1-0 to Shonan, so I reckon we’ll finish the weekend well ahead of them on goals. Anyway, what a long and pointless intro to what I hope will be a relatively short post.
Us -
Yamaguchi back in goal, Jesiel back in defence. But of course no real changes when it comes to us stopping the other team from scoring. It’s becoming quite amusing in a way. Even at 4-0 up I think most of us weren’t feeling particularly safe and sure of getting the points. Thankfully on this occasion we didn’t collapse to a point dropping extent. There is something quite amusing when you think back to the start of the year when Hasebe was announced as our new manager and everyone said we’d become ultra defensive and boring. The absolute opposite has happened! I feel a bit for Hasebe as for most of the year choosing our defence has been basically him always having to try to put at least one player out of position where they are least bad. I suspect when it comes to the end of the season the player who will have played the most games at centre back will be Sasaki, our left back who can also play on the right. In this match we saw on a few occasions what we’ve been missing by not having him playing at full back as he charged forward beautifully. I think it’s clear that although Miura hasn’t had a great season, (and on top of that is now injured), us having two good first choice left backs was why Sasaki was on the right. But I just wish he’d been on the left a bit more. Ok, let’s stop waffling and be a bit more succinct. Lovely goal from Kawahara, and it was really important as at that stage we were really wobbling. Well done Yamaguchi for the penalty save. It was also at a crucial stage. It’s great that we won, but given that although we went four goals ahead, at times we looked like we were going to choke again. So it ended up feeling a bit flat afterwards. Any excitement about great attacking is quite easily undercut by calamitous defending and conceding soft goals. I don’t know what the solution is. But all the same, you can’t say that our games aren’t usually full of action. Presumably the next one will now be a stinker.
Them -
In the first half Shimizu were destroyed by us. Well, by us and also slightly by their own sloppiness. It looked a bit like they thought they were better than they actually were, with them slicing the ball off the pitch on numerous occasions. Whatever their manager said at half time did the trick though as they really came after us in the second half. There were three penalty decisions that went to VAR in this match and they got two of them. I think in all three there was certainly a bit of simulation going on on their part. For the first one you can see the guy move his leg into Tanabe's after he’s already started his dive. Definitely some dark arts brought with them from Shizuoka. And plenty of whinging too. But I say this every week really about every team. What original thing is there to say? Hmmm, their drums and rhythms are good. Not exactly original, but at least a comment that is unique to Shimizu. They brought a lot of fans too, so good for them for doing that.
Ref -
Kawamata is a ref that in the past I thought has been pretty decent. And I continued to think so for the first half of this match too. I think he banged his head on the door frame coming out for the second half though. Actually, considering his height that's probably not going to happen. The difference between his decisions in the first and second halves was astonishing. He definitely lost the plot after half time. Of course this could have something to do with my perception of him being influenced by the fact that we were really under the cosh in the second half. Perhaps. But I suspect the truth is something much more unusual in the 2020’s. Consider these effects:
‘euphoria and exhilaration, then hallucinations develop […] and at a later stage slurred speech, ataxia and drowsiness occur.’
I’ve nailed it, right? Instead of going for the usual half time refreshments, I think Kawamata , shortly after blowing the whistle for the end of the first half, starting sniffing glue. I guess he gave some to Kimura on VAR too as there definitely were some hallucinations on both of their parts when it came to those penalties. After he turned one down for one of their dives at his VAR monitor there was never any doubt he was going to give the next one, which resulted from the corner he gave after changing his mind at the monitor for the previous check. Once again I think we might have been done a bit with this. Much like against Kashiwa where VAR was used to check for a red, which wasn’t given but a yellow was instead, in this match he checked the penalty, didn’t give it but changed his mind about a goal kick. Maybe I’m wrong with my understanding of the rules, but I think I read that you can’t use VAR to correct things that aren’t penalty or red card related. I’ll hate VAR as long as I live, but I’ve no doubt it is here to stay and will continue to give me things to moan about. Kawamata, kick the glue habit and sort things out. I’m prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt for that terrible second half display, but in future, just say no, and then I can go back to giving you faint praise again.
Next up, Cerezo away next Saturday. Considering that it seemed that in our area of the stadium, a lot of season ticket holders resold their tickets for this match, I wonder if the away attendance at Cerezo might be quite low. For some reason that game always seems significantly less well attended than Gamba away, which is strange as the Gamba away experience has always been a bit of a pain in the arse travel wise, and since they moved us into the attic, the game experience has become cack too. But I will be there, hoping for some more goals and hoping that we don’t do as badly as we have done pretty much every season recently there. And then after that, two weeks till the next game, because why not eh? Let’s build up the end of season excitement by making things as stop-start as possible. Lovely!
DF 15. TANABE Shuto
MF 19. KAWAHARA So
MF 6. YAMAMOTO Yuki
MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
FW 17. ITO Tatsuya
FW 9. ERISON (Yellow card 54')
Subs
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
FW 24. MIYAGI Ten (on for MARCINHO 58')
DF 27. KAMIHASHI Ryota (on for JESIEL 81')
DF 30. NODA Hiroto
DF 39. TSUCHIYA Kaito
FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro
WAKIZAKA (Frontale) 4' 1-0
SASAKI (Frontale) 7' 2-0
ITO (Frontale) 13' 3-0
ERISON (Frontale) 37' 4-0
KOZUKA (Shimizu) 45+6' 4-1
TAKAHASHI (Shimizu) 46' 4-2
KAWAHARA (Frontale) 69' 5-2
KITAGAWA (Shimizu) 90+2' PEN 5-3
Highlights