Vs Shonan Bellmare (away) 30/7/16 - 2nd stage match 6

Shonan Bellmare 2 - 3 Kawasaki Frontale

This weekend it was a trip to our neighbours Shonan Bellmare who were worryingly lying second from bottom going in to this game. Early on in the first stage we unbelievably drew 4-4 with them at home. I was hoping for a better result this time, but was at the same time acutely aware of my probably imaginary bottom three curse, so wouldn’t have been surprised with another draw. Given that it’s not that far from Tokyo, Shonan still took a while to get to, probably because we managed to stop off at three pubs on the way. By the time the game started I had been roasting myself under the scorching sun in a beer jus for quite a few hours. Possibly not exactly the wisest move on such a day, but hell, it was the day before my birthday so I was making a day of it.

When we finally got in to the stadium it once again seemed to have been oversold. We were queueing a good hour before the gates opened at 17:00 and we were still kind of lucky to find a place to stand. There were plenty of people stuck with nowhere to stand and it made going anywhere a bit of a squeeze. All the refreshment options were outside the ground so there was quite a lot of going in and out. I’ve never seen a queue for a vending machine as long as it was yesterday. And unfortunately, by half time, most of the refreshing drinks were sold out. The terrace was quite nice to be honest though, apart from the space problems, although it didn’t really have much elevation so seeing what was going on at the other end of the pitch wasn’t easy. Obviously the running track didn’t help, but as that’s another common moan for me, I should probably just stop going on about it.

The starting line up was exactly the same again. I guess why change a winning side, but I wouldn’t exactly say we’ve been winning comfortably recently. In fact, far from it. And today was another sign that we probably need to change something soon. At least the second half performance after we were three goals up was anyway. We were pretty good in the first half, not mind blowing and not creating loads, but we had a few chances and didn’t look like we were in any kind of trouble. Kengo smacked the bar with a shot from miles out. Our first goal came on 32 minutes when Kurumaya drove into the box from the left, put the ball round the defender and went the other way, collected it and for once had a shot instead of laying on a goal for someone else. It wasn’t the most powerful of shots but the keeper couldn’t stop it and Yoshito shepherded it in at the far post. We looked pretty comfortable at this stage and I was hoping we’d go on and score a few to get some goal scoring confidence back.

The second half came with no changes (of course we were expecting the usual Takeoka for Otsuka around 60 minutes…). We pretty much carried on where we had left off and were two up a few minutes after the restart. The ball was played to Kurumaya along the wing and this time he crossed for Yoshito to slot home.  A nice easy finish for him and hopefully a little more confidence too. Then, shock of all shocks, on the 60th minute we scored from a corner! It was a nice ball in from Hashimoto and Shonan, probably having watched our last 100 corners, must have been concentrating too much on Taniguchi and let Kobayashi head it in from around the penalty spot (picture below). At the same time Neto was being totally flattened by a Shonan defender so if it didn’t go in we would have had a shout for a penalty I reckon. This goal meant that Kobayashi has scored in six consecutive games which is a club record. Hope he can make it seven next week against Kofu. So, we were coasting and looking like scoring plenty. So, perfect time to make some shape destroying substitutions to make things a bit more exciting, right?

The first of these was a return to the usual Takeoka/Otuska change and came just six minutes after the third goal went in. To be fair though, Shonan had already got one back by this stage. They threaded a ball through most of our defence who were obviously looking to make it more of an exciting game and Sung-Ryong’s save was pretty weak (it sneaked through between his arm and torso) and it trickled into the net. Then we changed Elsinho for Eduardo and did the usual ‘push Taniguchi up into midfield thing’ that never works and didn’t work again. I think if he wants Eduardo to play, he should start him next week with Taniguchi. Igawa has done well, but he probably wants a rest now. These kind of subs never seem to work but we still do them most weeks. I don’t get it! We were looking really wobbly at this stage. The confidence was shaky and we were for the most part just lumping the ball forward when we managed to get hold of it. I was expecting a capitulation to 3-3. Shonan were having plenty of chances and I was worried. They had a headed chance that hit the bar and bounced down on to the line. We were really living dangerously. Tasaka then replaced Hashimoto and whilst things still looked shaky we did manage a couple of chances, notably including a header from Tasaka which looked like it might have been over the line. Of course it was not given though. You can see it around 3:07 in this youtube link. Yoshito nicked the ball from a poor clearance from the keeper, crossed it to the back post and Tasaka’s header is just about blocked by the keeper, possibly behind the line. Whilst the replay is inconclusive, Kobayashi and Tasaka were pretty certain it had crossed the line.

The second Shonan goal came from a free kick on 90 minutes. There could have been a bit of a push on Edu, but we were just caught out really. The defending wasn’t good enough. Somehow the ref managed to somehow find six minutes of injury time from a game that didn’t really have any injuries and we were really hanging on at this stage. From leading 3-0 to desperation defending shows that we have probably got to sort something out. It was all Shonan at this stage and any shape we might have had was gone. If they had managed an equaliser it probably would have been fair, but once again, we seem to have a bit of luck on our side at the moment. The final whistle was a big relief. We had the three points, I had hurt my throat from shouting too much and had a splitting headache, probably due to dehydration. It had been a testing day!

So, positives. Three points, six in a row for Kobayashi, a Yoshito goal that might help him get back into form (but we've hoped for this before). Another great performance from Kurumaya. Negatives, pretty rubbish defensively in the second half, soft goal for Sung-Ryong to let in, our substitutions were a boost more to the opposition than to us. I get the fact that Otsuka’s job is to run like crazy and give 100% effort knowing that he won’t have to play 90 minutes and he did another decent job. But why not replace him with a midfielder rather than rejigging the side? Taniguchi does a great job in defence, so leave him there. It’s funny that apparently Yoshito had 30 minutes extra training with Otsuka to instruct him how he wants him to play. Yoshito grumbled last week about the system, but it seems that our goals are still mostly coming from the same place (Kurumaya). Not sure if the 30 minutes made any difference. And Yoshito is still very wasteful in front of goal. I can’t help but feel that he is blaming the system on his own bad form. Still, if he is going to have a bad spell, I would much rather he has it now and then get on an amazing streak for the last third of the season. Fingers crossed…

So, next week it’s Kofu at home. I am going to miss this game (and the away games at Sagan Tosu and Urawa) as I am going back to the Europe for a couple of weeks. Hopefully I should be able to watch a stream of them though. I’ll still post about them, but with the details and a bit less opinion as you really don’t get much of a feel about the game just from watching the highlights or a stream. I’m a bit sad to end my run of seeing every league game (apart from the first one) this year, but I think, much like some of the team, I could do with a bit of a rest. Kofu are fifth from bottom so I can’t mention the bottom three thing, and given that we beat Shonan, I guess I have to lay that one to rest anyway really. Let’s hope that I miss three wins and that when I’m back in Japan we’ll still be top. Go Frontale!

Team

GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 18. ELSINHO
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo
DF 4. IGAWA Yusuke
DF 20. KURUMAYA Shintaro
MF 21. EDUARDO NETO
MF 14. NAKAMURA Kengo
MF 27. OTSUKA Shohei
MF 7. HASHIMOTO Koji

FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu
FW 13. OKUBO Yoshito

Subs
GK 30. ARAI Shota

MF 6. TASAKA Yusuke (on for HASHIMOTO 80')
DF 17. TAKEOKA Yuto (on for OTSUKA 66')

MF 19. MORIYA Kentaro
MF 22. NAKANO Yoshihiro
DF 23. EDUARDO (on for ELSINHO 75')
MF 26. MIYOSHI Koji

Goals

KURUMAYA (Frontale) 32'  0-1

OKUBO (Frontale) 48'  0-2

KOBAYASHI (Frontale) 60'  0-3 

OTAKE (Shonan) 63'  1-3

BAHIA (Shonan) 90'  2-3

Highlights

Vs FC Tokyo (home) 23/7/16 - 2nd stage match 5

Kawasaki Frontale 1 - 0 FC Tokyo

This was more than just a normal game of football, this was the TAMAGAWA CLASSICO! Not exactly one of the most famous derbies in the football world, but this is still a fixture that both teams are pretty keen to win. And you would imagine Tokyo would be more keen given that we defeated them at their place earlier in the season. However, perhaps understandably given their recent form, it seems that some FC Tokyo fans actually were hoping that we gave them a good pasting so that they could sack their manager. We definitely didn’t hammer them, and it was a pretty poor game all round, but the manager still got sacked. The game had a godzilla theme, complete with two big footprints on the pitch (one of which you can just about make out in the photo below) and a man in a godzilla suit trying to take a penalty with his tail. Much more entertaining than the football on this occasion.

This was our first game without Oshima and Harakawa and we definitely missed Oshima in the middle. Thankfully though, Kengo was back, apparently fit, and he started. Not sure how fit he actually was as he didn’t have one of his best games, but I think his presence in the side gives confidence to the players around him so it was great that he was available. There was one change to the side from the Iwata game, Kengo in for Oshima, and Moriya and Nagano replaced Noborizato and Harakawa on the bench. The first ten or fifteen minutes we played pretty well, creating a few chances, Otsuka hitting the post after what looked to me like a handball in the box from the Tokyo defender (then again, I have to say that most things look like handballs to me). Hashimoto hit the bar from a Yoshito pass too. This was the decent football calm before the storm of mediocrity though. After this early bright spell, the football skies darkened and we were continuously giving away the ball. FC Tokyo weren’t any better though and it was just a case of both teams losing possession punctuated by the occasional shot, wide, high or straight at the keeper. Tokyo were playing pretty defensively with a lot of men behind the ball. I guess the manager might have been aware that he might be getting the boot if he lost. Whilst not being particularly physical, they were a niggly side, fouling a lot and not really creating anything. That was pretty much it for the rest of the first half.

The second half started with a couple of good chances for Tokyo. Sung-Ryong made a decent save coming out and stopping a Tokyo breakthrough. He definitely seems to be playing better recently. We started to pick things up a little afterwards. Kobayashi hit the bar (photo below, I think), Yoshito hit a few more shots straight at the keeper. Otsuka was replaced by Edu with Taniguchi pushing up into the midfield. Then nearing the end of the game we finally made the breakthrough. Hashimoto hit a free kick straight at the wall, we blasted another shot in which was blocked again and then the ball was fed to Kurumaya on the left and he floated a cross in which Kobayashi met with his head and put into the corner. After the goal, Takeoka came on for Hashimoto who I think had done a decent job again. Almost the same substitutions as last week, but reversed this time. Similarly effective though… Somehow our subs haven’t quite worked recently. They are pretty predictable and I wish when Otsuka comes off that we would replace him with a midfielder instead of shuffling the team around. But maybe there’s no-one who can do that job at the moment, but I’m sure Tasaka or Moriya wouldn’t mind having a go.

So, was the victory deserved? Probably, I guess, but this was a pretty bad performance. I don’t think Tokyo expected to get anything from the game and looked like they were playing for 0-0. They seemed to be time-wasting for most of the game. I guess that if even one of the times we hit the woodwork went in, I would definitely not be complaining so much and wouldn’t be feeling so worried. But once again, like the Niigata game, we left it pretty late to secure the points. Positives, back on top of the league, three points snatched from a poor performance, another Kobayashi goal (he’s catching you Yoshito), Takeoka’s new silver hairdo. Negatives, Yoshito is still misfiring. His shots seem to go straight to the keeper at the moment. He grumbled a bit about the system we are playing afterwards, but I think this might just be his frustration talking. He definitely needs a few goals to get his confidence back. If he wasn’t such a big player for us I think he might get dropped. But there’s not really anyone to replace him (what’s happened with Morimoto’s injury?) and his presence does make the opposition uncomfortable. But we need some more goals soon I think. The other big negative was the fact that the game was pretty terrible. But when you get three points and play terribly, it is difficult to moan too much.

Next, Shonan away. Terrifyingly, they are sitting second from bottom. Is a draw on the cards? I hope we can beat them easily with a few Yoshito goals and then I can stop talking about this bottom three draw curse thing. The ground, whilst being relatively close to Tokyo compared to some of the places we have been recently sounds like it’s a bit of a pain to get to, but I hope it will be worth the trip. 


Team

GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 18. ELSINHO
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo
DF 4. IGAWA Yusuke
DF 20. KURUMAYA Shintaro
MF 21. EDUARDO NETO (Yellow card 60')
MF 14. NAKAMURA Kengo
MF 27. OTSUKA Shohei
MF 7. HASHIMOTO Koji

FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu
FW 13. OKUBO Yoshito

Subs
GK 30. ARAI Shota

MF 6. TASAKA Yusuke

DF 17. TAKEOKA Yuto (on for HASHIMOTO 82')
MF 19. MORIYA Kentaro
MF 22. NAKANO Yoshihiro
DF 23. EDUARDO (on for OTSUKA 60')

MF 26. MIYOSHI Koji

Goals

KOBAYASHI (Frontale) 81'  1-0

Highlights

Vs Jubilo Iwata (away) 17/7/16 - 2nd stage match 4

Jubilo Iwata 1 - 1 Kawasaki Frontale

Last weekend it was another away game and once again we headed west from Tokyo on the Shinkansen, this time to Hamamatsu and then on to Iwata. Shizuoka is apparently the home of Japanese football, but the prefecture seems to have been going through a relatively unsuccessful time recently. Last season Shimizu S-Pulse dropped out of J1 and were replaced by Jubilo Iwata coming up from J2. Jubilo made a decent enough go of the first stage finishing in 8th but haven’t had such a good start to the second stage. Coming into the game they had only two points from their first three games but weren’t in that 'bottom-three-draw-with-Frontale' zone. But that’s exactly what happened, but to be fair to them, I think they are in a false position at the moment as they gave us plenty of problems.

Despite being closer to Kanto than Nagoya, Iwata was a bit more of a pain to get to. Well, more accurately, to get home from. The journey to the ground from Hamamatsu involved a short train journey that looked like we were going into the countryside and then a shuttle bus that made it look like we were going into the middle of an industrial wasteland.  Obviously that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but when you get there you can see why they still have Yamaha FC on their team badge as there are Yamaha factories and industrial buildings on all sides all the way to the ground from the bus stop. The ground is a weird one with four stands that have been constructed apparently randomly. We were seated in a pretty small and quite cramped stand on the second floor behind one of the goals. The first floor seemed to only be two or three rows of Jubilo fans. Interesting design. To our left there was a very impressive steep bank of seats that held the majority of the Jubilo fans. The other end looked pretty normal and then to our right was what I guess is the main stand as it had a roof and the press boxes, changing rooms and all that but was pretty tiny. I guess maybe they have limited space and it certainly is interesting, but the away fan experience wasn’t that great to be honest. At the back of our stand you couldn’t really see the goal particularly well, which has got to go down as more than a slight drawback. And there seemed to be a lot of people who couldn’t sit down, which was a bit weird. Anyway, I’ve written a lot already and haven’t even got to the game yet…

You know the score already I guess, but the game was a bit of a weird one. Before the game I would have been disappointed with a draw, but to be honest, Jubilo did a pretty good job on us. The first half was fairly uneventful. We were playing some nice football going forwards, but the last ball always went awry. Kobayashi hit the post and we had a goal ruled out for offside from Otsuka. As it was at the other end of the pitch I can’t really comment on how accurate it was. Jay Bothroyd had a good game knocking people about for them. I think he thinks he’s still playing in the Championship in England as he had a pretty physical game. About ten minutes in he was so furious about a tackle from Neto (which the ref gave as a foul by Bothroyd against Neto I think) that immediately from the restart as soon as Neto got the ball ‘Jay’ came clattering into him and got himself a booking. I know it’s not in the rules, but I reckon when you can’t stop yourself from doing something so predictably stupid you should just be sent off. But then again, of course I would say that. It was fun to give him some abuse in his own language though. He seemed to be staring in our direction, so maybe he heard. Apologies to those sitting around me, but I guess many wouldn’t have understood my specific English football abuse vocabulary. After this early act of insanity, he did unfortunately seem to calm down and concentrate on giving us a tough time and judging by his twitter feed he does seem to be quite a nice guy. So apologies to him too.

Inevitably, early on in the second half he scored their goal when he received the ball completely unmarked from a cross from the edge of the box. Whether this was amazing movement off the ball from him or bad marking from us, I’m not sure, but I would probably go with the latter. It was a decent finish though. They also hit the bar bit later in the second half, but to be honest they didn’t have many other chances. Once again we were making chances but not quite getting the last ball in the right place. Kazama did his usual first sub, replacing Otsuka, who had been a bit quiet but did a decent enough job, with Takeoka. And then, finally we scored. Kobayashi! (Again!) It was a great pass through from Oshima and Kobayashi took a touch and then lifted it over the onrushing keeper. Nice! We had another couple of goals ruled out for offside in the second half too. And also we were caught offside loads of times. Either Jubilo were playing a great offside trap or the officials were incompetent. Once again, I prefer the latter. The second substitution came ten minutes later and was equally predictable. Elsinho off and Miyoshi on. Poor Miyoshi had a bit of a stinker though. He misplaced a few early passes and fell over a few times. It seemed that it wasn’t really going to be his day. 

 

There was a fair bit of Jubilo time wasting but when they finally managed to get round to taking their goal kicks the game was quite stretched and either side could probably have scored. Our final substitution came on 84 minutes and was Edu on for Hashimoto. I was delighted to see Edu back on the bench, but a little confused to see this substitution. Edu went in at centre back and Taniguchi was pushed up on the wing (which really hasn’t worked in the past, and didn’t at this game either). Hashimoto had been playing pretty well I think and was causing them some problems on the wing. At this stage I was happy settling for the draw as I think our shape got a bit confused. Towards the end it seemed as it we were either playing some kind of total football or everyone was just charging forwards. I remember seeing Igawa make a lung-busting run to the opposition penalty box and was contemplating the concept of a Igawa wonder-goal winner but it wasn’t to be. Edu seemed to be appearing on the right wing too. We were definitely giving it a good go, but it wasn’t to be. The final whistle went and players from both teams dropped to the ground. At the time, it was disappointing but on reflection, and having seen the other results, it seems not so bad after all. Much better than the bus journey back to the station.

On balance probably a fair result, although I would like to be able to see replays of the ‘goals’ we had ruled out. Given that we now lose Oshima and Harakawa to the Olympics it might have been an opportunity missed. Our next games are going to be tougher given the players we have to pick from. But maybe this will be a good opportunity for some people who haven’t shown what they can do so far this season to make their mark. That’s a nice optimistic way to look at it anyway. Positives… Edu is back, but I hope this doesn’t mean Taniguchi will be back on the wing. He’s done really well at the back recently. Maybe he should replace Oshima in the middle instead.  Hmmm, maybe that’s it for positives. Although I guess the fact that pretty much everyone else in the league drew as well is also a decent positive. Negatives… Okubo still looks like a shadow of the player he is. Not many shots and the ones that he had were either hit well wide or straight at the keeper. We can only hope he gets his form back soon. The players going to the Olympics soon, so even less to chose from. Distinctly average performances from most of the team. The bus ride back to the station.

So, next we have FC Tokyo at home. The Tamagawa Classico! That should hopefully bring out something from the team. We did a good job on them at the Ajinomoto earlier this season, so hopefully we can repeat the result at home. Who knows who will play? Maybe we will have some surprise recovery from injury, but I think it’s still too early for most of the injured players. Let’s hope we can get three points to put us back on track. I’m sure FC Tokyo wouldn’t mind losing to us twice in a season, would they?

Team

GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 18. ELSINHO
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo (Yellow card 27')
DF 4. IGAWA Yusuke
DF 20. KURUMAYA Shintaro
MF 21. EDUARDO NETO
MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota
MF 27. OTSUKA Shohei
MF 7. HASHIMOTO Koji

FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu
FW 13. OKUBO Yoshito

Subs
GK 30. ARAI Shota
DF 2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei

MF 6. TASAKA Yusuke
MF 15. HARAKAWA Riki
DF 17. TAKEOKA Yuto (on for OTSUKA 60')

DF 23. EDUARDO (on for HASHIMOTO 84')

MF 26. MIYOSHI Koji (on for ELSINHO 76')

Goals

JAY (Jubilo) 53'  1-0

KOBAYASHI (Frontale) 64'  1-1

Highlights

Vs Albirex Niigata (home) 13/7/16 - 2nd stage match 3

Kawasaki Frontale 3 - 2 Albirex Niigata

So the games keep coming thick and fast at the moment. Wednesday night was the third game of the second stage and our third match in July and it was only the 13th. Three down, three to go. And three victories. And three goals scored in each game, although we conceded a couple last night too. There were a few worrying things coming in to this match. Kengo is injured, although not as seriously as first expected so that is a relief, but that is just one of quite a few injuries we have at the moment. Of course, there are the long term ones that we know about, but given that we had to call off our satellite league game this week due to an injury crisis I guess there are a few more that maybe we are unaware of. Itakura was on the bench and given that he hasn’t been in the previous few games when we looked a bit light defensively I guess this gives an idea of how deep the problem is. Nobori is back though and hopefully he is the first of a rapid succession of injury comebacks.

Going in to the game, I couldn’t help think of our pretty terrible performance in Niigata earlier in the season. Before this game, I think Albirex were the only team apart from Urawa that managed to stop us scoring all season. It’s a bit of a mystery how, as they don’t seem to be able to stop anyone else from doing so this year. Also they were lying fourth from bottom, which seemed to be pointing towards a draw. (I think I might have to revise my previous comment about teams in the bottom three or four always drawing with us. Judging by this result and last week at Nagoya, it seems that it’s the bottom three rather than the bottom four we have to worry about). Another bad omen was the fact that the referee was the notoriously bad (in my opinion), Enomoto. I can’t usually remember the names of any refs in the J League as they all seem to be of fairly similar skills and character. But when Enomoto’s name was read out before the game I was reminded that I am actually aware of one referee who seems to be from the school of refs that think people come to watch them referee rather than the football. 

 
As expected, he was pretty terrible, but towards the end of the game I couldn’t help think that he might have been more terrible in our favour for once. His first notable contribution to the game was a wonderful interception of a Frontale pass, neatly laying off the ball for Albirex to score. I knew he likes to be the star of the show but I never anticipated that he wanted to get an assist too. (I know, I'm exaggerating!). By this stage the score was already 1-1. We had huffed and puffed without really creating much for long periods of the first half. There were a few chances here and there but it was Niigata who took the lead with a pretty good shot that pinged off the left post and into the right corner. Can’t complain too much about that one. We managed an equally spectacular, or maybe more spectacular equaliser when Oshima smashed one into the top corner from miles out. A really great goal and another assist for Kurumaya. This is how it remained till half time. The second half was more of the same really. The game was fairly exciting but of a pretty low standard. We couldn’t hit the target really and Niigata weren’t doing much better. Their second goal which I was complaining about above was a real kick in the guts though as we had broken up an attack and were starting to break. Enomoto should really be able to get out of the way of a pass that he is facing. It was another decent finish from Albirex but the way it came about was a total stinker and I think we were a little caught off guard by the ref’s footwork. I don’t know if Enomoto’s decisions after this were affected by what had happened. It’s hard to tell when a ref is so random as a matter of course. At this stage I was hoping for a draw as it seemed things weren’t going work out for us and I couldn’t see us scoring twice. Thankfully, the Niigata centre back was there to help us out with this.

Before the second Niigata goal we had made a couple of subs. As has become a bit of a tradition recently, Otsuka was replaced by Takeoka and Elsinho pushed up. Then Hashimoto came on for Miyoshi who had quite a quiet game. I think at the moment he is most effective as a sub as he has played better off the bench than from the start. Very pleased to see him progressing and getting game time though. He will be a very important player for us at some stage, possibly quite soon. It was one of these subs who made the second goal for us. Hashimoto took a short corner to Oshima and the two exchanged a couple of passes, Oshima putting Hashimoto through into the box. His cross was deflected by Kobayashi (some said it was a handball, particularly those from Niigata, it’s really very difficult to see though and Kobayashi himself said after the game that it hit his torso) and Niigata’s centre back and captain Morita had to do something with the ball as it was going in. Fortunately for us he slotted it past the keeper. I did feel sorry for him though and the Niigata fans. After this equaliser the game got even more stretched. Frontale were definitely looking for a winner. Albirex didn’t seem quite sure what to do. The remaining 10 minutes were pretty crazy and we were putting them under quite a lot of pressure. This pressure finally paid off in the 94th and final minute. Kurumaya drove a cross in again, someone touched it, possibly Neto, possibly an Albirex player and it fell for Kobayashi right in front of the goal and he finished with a back heel. My first thought was that it was probably offside but there was no flag and we all celebrated like crazy, Kobayashi in the crowd with his shirt off and Neto following him in. He got booked for this of course. My voice is still suffering a little today. I’ve since watched as many highlights as I can find to definitively prove to myself that it was onside but I haven’t been successful in this mission. Equally though, I haven’t been able to determine that it was offside, so it definitely was a close call. 

So, tough on Niigata, but they were a bit of an unlikeable side. I really like their fans and their city, but the team is full of moaners. The ref put up with way too much of their complaining. It must have been difficult for him to concentrate his consistently irrational refereeing with such a distraction. I hope they stay up though as I really want to go back there next year. Positives, not many, but three points pulled out of the bag has to be a pretty big one, especially with our ongoing injury crisis. Negatives, a few more. Defensively we were a bit shaky and whilst no-one really had an off day, no one really played that well. It was a very scrappy affair. Terrible refereeing, random advantages played (he seemed to spend most of the game running around with his arms spread) whilst at the same time being ultra picky about the positioning of free kicks. Can’t complain too much about this though I guess, given our last two goals. Not saying we shouldn’t have had them, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if at least one of them was ruled out. So maybe the bad referee was actually a positive. We’re still top (second stage and overall) but the games keep coming. This weekend, we’re off to Iwata. It’s on Sunday as Monday is a public holiday.  Let’s hope we can continue the three trend by scoring three goals and coming away with three points. 

Team

GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 18. ELSINHO
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo
DF 4. IGAWA Yusuke
DF 20. KURUMAYA Shintaro
MF 21. EDUARDO NETO (Yellow card 27')
MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota
MF 27. OTSUKA Shohei
MF 26. MIYOSHI Koji

FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (Yellow card 90+5')
FW 13. OKUBO Yoshito

Subs
GK 30. ARAI Shota
DF 2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei

MF 6. TASAKA Yusuke (on for ELSINHO 79')
MF 7. HASHIMOTO Koji (on for MIYOSHI 63')

MF 15. HARAKAWA Riki
DF 17. TAKEOKA Yuto (on for OTSUKA 55')

DF 28. ITAKURA Ko
 
Goals

NOTSUDA (Albirex) 36'  0-1

OSHIMA (Frontale) 38'  1-1

SILVA (Albirex) 65'  1-2

MORITA (Albirex) OWN GOAL 84'  2-2
KOBAYASHI (Frontale) 90+5'  3-2
 
Highlights

Vs Nagoya Grampus (away) 9/7/16 - 2nd stage, match 2

Nagoya Grampus 0 - 3 Kawasaki Frontale 

Seems like we are playing a lot of away games at the moment and this weekend it was Nagoya we were visiting. July is a pretty crazy month. We play six times, four of them away. If we can come out of July still top and unbeaten we’ll be going well I reckon. As a city, I quite like Nagoya. It seems fairly unpretentious. I was kind of ambivalent about the team coming into the fixture, possibly not so much afterwards. As a British person, they were probably the first Japanese football team I ever heard of.  So on the second Saturday of July, I found myself following in the footsteps of Gary Lineker. I think he also spent quite a lot of time sitting in the stands at Grampus games. To me, the ground had a kind of central European feel to it and felt very much like a athletics stadium again. We were quite a distance from the pitch, but maybe that’s just because we’d been much closer at Sendai the previous week. Can’t beat a ground without a running track. Unfortunately there aren't many of them in J1 it seems. There was a forecast for rain so we expected that we were going to get soaked as most of the stadium was uncovered. Thankfully though, the rain had pretty much stopped by the time we were heading to the ground.

I was terrified to see that Nagoya were fourth from bottom coming in to this game. I’m still working out the fine details of the theory, but it seems that if a team is in the bottom three and we should beat them easily, we will somehow contrive to manufacture a draw. Kazama named an unchanged side from Sendai. I guess with the injuries at the moment, the team is pretty much picking itself. Please excuse me if I am a little light on details or insight about this game. I was pretty badly hungover on Saturday morning. But once I was on the terrace my head started clearing a little. Once again we took  a decent amount of fans. This is probably a pretty easy away game to make if you can afford the shinkansen and I guess in spite of the disappointment at the end of the first stage we still have plenty of reasons to be enthusiastic at the moment. This enthusiasm obviously rubbed off on the players as we looked in total control in the first half. I think there was a period where we must had the ball for about five minutes, winning it back immediately as soon as Nagoya took it off us. It’s something of a shame that we managed to score only once in the first half as we were making chances. It looked as if Okubo was going to have another frustrating afternoon and it was once again someone else who put the first goal in. Kobayashi put a great ball across the goalmouth that Otsuka just failed to connect with and it ran right through to Kengo on the other wing. He managed to collect it, turn and cross it back in where Kobayashi met it with a powerful header that the goalie couldn’t stop. Lovely! Nagoya had a couple of chances but nothing too worrying. Nagoya seemed to have two tactics for the game. When they had the ball, ‘hoof it to the big guy’ who was very big indeed but thankfully didn’t seem very skilful. When they didn’t have the ball, the tactic was ‘kick whoever has the ball’. I guess our passing game means that we will attract quite a lot of fouls but Nagoya played like a bunch of thugs really.

The second half started without any changes for Frontale and we kind of continued where we had left off. We didn’t have the wobble that we had for large parts of the second half at Sendai. The team was looking dangerous and comfortable (like an armchair on a motorbike, maybe?). It seemed inevitable that we’d get another goal and although it took a little while to come it was well worth waiting for, at least in its significance rather than the actual goal itself. I think most of us have been a little worried about Okubo’s form recently. He’s missed a lot of chances and has only scored from the penalty spot. Therefore it was great to see him pass the ball out to Kurumaya on the wing who managed to drive a low cross in that Okubo just about connected with. I thought it might have actually gone in without him touching it, but apparently not. Something certainly wrong-footed the keeper. Okubo celebrated it like he hadn’t been worried at all, but I guess it must have been weighing on his mind a little. It was certainly weighing on mine. After this, I guess the game was pretty much over. Nagoya weren’t offering much and we were looking pretty good. It took a little while to come but we got a third on 77 minutes with a cracking curling blast from Kengo from the edge of the box. I really like Neto’s little dummied pass to set him up. I could have had a great photo of his celebration but sadly someone in front of me was unsurprisingly also celebrating. I am left to rue what could have been.

At this stage we were really playing the ball around nicely and the points were secured. It would have been nice if the ref had just blown up and we could have called it a day there and then. Sadly it wasn’t to be. Given that Nagoya had pretty much no chance of getting any points from the game I guess they thought they needed to make their mark in another way. In the middle of the pitch their number 15 Lee made a pretty nasty and very late challenge on Kengo and put him out of the match and out of quite a few more matches I suspect. I’m not sure it was a malicious challenge but it definitely merited the red card it got and it pretty much summed up their nasty negative game plan. It totally took the gloss off the victory too. Whilst they’re still not sure how serious the injury is, it seems that there is no break but they suspect ligament damage. It’s definitely going to rule him out for at least a few months I reckon. And it’s yet another injury at a bad time. They are mounting up and Oshima and Harakawa are going to the Olympics soon. We’re definitely going to be making use of the whole squad this season. Four more games in the next 20 days. It couldn’t have come at a worse time really. Especially as he has been playing really well and with loads of energy recently. Oh, and remind me again what happened last time Kengo missed a game through injury….

So, some positives and negatives from the game. Definite positives are the result and the performance. I can’t think of anyone who had a bad game. Elsinho was looking much livelier and seemed to be on a mission to nutmeg the whole Nagoya team. The defence were pretty solid and when they weren’t Sung-Ryong made a few good saves. The midfield was creating plenty of chances and looked like they would never lose the ball. And up front both forwards scored and hopefully this is the start of another run of goals for Yoshito. Personal highlights were the person behind me who was singing all the Frontale songs in a kind of Enka style with loads of vibrato. It was really fun! And one other highlight was Kano Kenta’s hair which is just amazing in its colour, style and bounciness. The big negative is pretty obvious. Poor Kengo! Injuries are piling up with no sign of anyone coming back and the Olympics are coming soon. The next month or so will be crucial. Oshima will be as big a miss as Kengo as I think he has been fantastic recently. To lose both at the same time will be a big blow. Well, let’s see what happens I guess and keep all our fingers crossed. 

Next up, Albirex Niigata are coming to the Todoroki. They are currently sitting fourth from bottom so who knows what might happen. We definitely under performed at their place earlier in the season so hopefully we can do a bit better this time. And then next Saturday we’re away again, this time to Jubilo Iwata so I will get the chance to follow in the footsteps of another English striker. Jay Bothroyd maybe not as famous or successful as Gary Lineker though. Let’s hope we can keep things together and keep the run of 3-0 victories going.  

Team

GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 18. ELSINHO
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo
DF 4. IGAWA Yusuke
DF 20. KURUMAYA Shintaro
MF 21. EDUARDO NETO
MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota
MF 14. NAKAMURA Kengo
MF 27. OTSUKA Shohei
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu
FW 13. OKUBO Yoshito

Subs
GK 30. ARAI Shota
MF 6. TASAKA Yusuke 
MF 7. HASHIMOTO Koji
DF 17. TAKEOKA Yuto (on for OTSUKA 78')
MF 19. MORIYA Kentaro
MF 25. KANO Kenta (on for EDUARDO NETO 90')

MF 26. MIYOSHI Koji (on for NAKAMURA 86')
 
Goals

KOBAYASHI (Frontale) 36'  1-0
OKUBO (Frontale) 53'  2-0
NAKAMURA (Frontale) 77'  3-0
 
Highlights

 

Vs Vegalta Sendai (away) 2/7/16 - 2nd stage, match 1

Vegalta Sendai 0 - 3 Kawasaki Frontale

This weekend it was an away trip to Vegalta Sendai. This is the third time we have met them this season. We drew with them at home when they were languishing near the bottom of the table back in May (as we do with teams near the bottom) and then beat them, also at home, in the Nabisco cup when it was pretty much too late for us to qualify for the knockout stage. There’s a very good relationship between the two clubs, mainly due to Frontale being the first team to play Sendai after the earthquake in 2011 and I personally also have a soft spot for them as they seem to be a nice bunch and their chants are quite rocky. This also was a new city for me so I was very much looking forward to this fixture. I liked the ground as it was quite compact (no running track, hooray!). The nicest part was that there was no enforced segregation around the ground (apparently this is only for Vegalta vs Frontale games due to the good relationship between the clubs). It was nice to be able to walk the whole way round the stadium through all the home fan areas and see the fans free to mingle. I saw plenty of Frontale fans buying Vegalta goods and Vegalta fans buying Frontale goods. I spotted one Frontale fan buying a Vegalta bicycle helmet which is really going the extra mile. Most people were sticking with towels. Anyway, I hope this relationship continues as it makes a very welcome change from the ill-feeling towards the opposition that is often present in football. 

On to the game. The starting line-up was the same as for the Omiya game, so it seems clear that this is Kazama’s favoured 11 with the current injuries. Not sure what has happened to Noborizato as I haven’t heard of any injury and he has dropped out of the squad completely. Maybe it’s not something serious and he’s just slowly recovering at the moment. In any case, this team seems to be doing the job at the moment. The first half was pretty impressive. We had quite a few chances and didn’t really ever look like conceding. Neto and Oshima were consistently winning the ball back in the middle when Sendai tried to attack and we looked dangerous every time we went forward. The defence didn’t have much to deal with, but everything they did have to do, they did well. Sendai played quite a physical game we were knocked about quite a bit, but we kept attacking and got a couple of first half goals. The first was from Otsuka sweeping the ball in after Oshima floated a ball over and Kobayashi headed back in front of the goal. A nice easy finish for him and given Yoshito still isn’t scoring it’s good to see that Otsuka is getting in the right place to put chances away. The second was a weird one and from the other end of the pitch it took a little while to even realise it was a goal. Yoshito did a nice back heel to Kengo who did pretty much what Oshima did with the first goal. This time Kobayashi’s header back towards the goal was fumbled into the net by the keeper as he clattered into the post. Not exactly a wonder goal, but they all count.

We started the second half pretty well too. Otsuka was replaced by Takeoka during the break, so Elsinho moved up into the midfield. We had quite a few chances in the first part of this half but then things started going a little awry and Sendai really got back into the game. Even though we had a two goal lead, things weren’t that comfortable and I was worried to think what might have happened if they managed to get a goal back. But the defence was playing pretty well, and whilst they were having chances we were dealing with everything. Something wasn’t quite working though and we were up against it a bit. We still had a few chances but nothing was going in (and many weren’t going on target even). Kengo put a free kick just over and Taniguchi almost scored with a header from a Kengo corner. (I wonder if we will ever score from a corner again…). Miyoshi came on for Elsinho with 15 minutes to go and had a positive effect. I think he always worries the opposition as he is the kind of player who drives at them running with the ball. He made a couple of chances for others and had a curling shot which just went wide of the top corner. Then on 87 minutes we counter attacked, the ball came to Miyoshi who cut inside and bent one into the bottom corner with his left foot for his first ever professional goal. This was maybe the highlight of the game for me as I think he’ll be an important player for us in the future and it's good to see homegrown talent coming through. He always has lots of energy and is wiling to shoot. I hope this will give him plenty of confidence and this will be the first of many goals. After this the victory was sealed. Hashimoto came on for a brief appearance and almost scored. He could have squared the ball for Yoshito though, and I wish he had as he really needs to start scoring again. Thankfully for Hashimoto, they are friends so he didn’t get too much of a mouthful.

So, in the end, it looked like a comfortable victory and I guess for large parts of the game that is exactly what it was. However we did have a pretty long and quite nervy period of not doing very much in the second half. But we didn’t concede. And we’re back at the top of the league, only having vacated the spot for the most important part of the first stage. Positives: another good game from the defence (Kurumaya and Taniguchi particularly), a clean sheet, scoring a few goals (Otsuka keeping his run going), Kengo looking full of energy and Oshima playing well and of course Miyoshi’s first pro goal. Negatives: Yoshito really needs a goal, things not quite working out for Elsinho in spite of plenty of effort from him, worries about what we'll do when Oshima and Harakawa go to the Olympics soon. But not too much to be negative about. Next stop Nagoya on Saturday.

Team

GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 18. ELSINHO
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo
DF 4. IGAWA Yusuke
DF 20. KURUMAYA Shintaro
MF 21. EDUARDO NETO
MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota
MF 14. NAKAMURA Kengo
MF 27. OTSUKA Shohei
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu
FW 13. OKUBO Yoshito

Subs
GK 30. ARAI Shota
MF 6. TASAKA Yusuke 
MF 7. HASHIMOTO Koji (on for KOBAYASHI 88')
MF 15. HARAKAWA Riki
DF 17. TAKEOKA Yuto (on for OTSUKA 46')
MF 19. MORIYA Kentaro
MF 26. MIYOSHI Koji (on for ELSINHO 75')
 
Goals

OTSUKA (Frontale) 17'  1-0
KOBAYASHI (Frontale) 21'  2-0
MIYOSHI (Frontale) 87'  3-0
 
Highlights