Wednesday 28 February 2018

Vs Jubilo Iwata (away) 25/2/18 - J League match 1

Jubilo Iwata 0 - 3 Kawasaki Frontale

The season starts here. Or at least that’s the positive spin I’m going to put on it. We never wanted to win those ACL games or that Super Cup, did we? So, back in league action and playing the team who did us a massive favour at the end of last season by preventing Kashima from scoring. Thankfully our Jubilo away game this year was at the Ecopa stadium rather than their usual Yamaha home. I skipped that game last year as the experience hadn't been the best the previous year. The view in the away stand must be one of the worst I’ve experienced in the J League and it was a horrible shuttle bus ride back to the station. But anyway, these are all grumbles that aren’t relevant for this game and there wasn’t much at all to grumble about regarding this performance. I’ll do my best to find some whinging material though, as a post on this blog just wouldn’t be the same without a little moan.


So, the Ecopa, a pretty nice stadium and really loud. Maybe it’s just been a while since I went to a game (aside from the Super Cup), but there seemed to have been some thought about acoustics during the design of the Ecopa. There were quite a few Frontale fans in attendance and perhaps we were quite near the front but the noise was pretty impressive. We were also treated to a soundtrack of rotten driving rock reminiscent of Kenny Loggins’ ‘Danger Zone’ (a not uncommon J League experience, I have to say...), a formation flyover from the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force, which in spite of myself, I found strangely exhilarating, and the strange sight of the ground staff watering the pitch and drenching a section of the cheerleaders who were in formation waiting for the entrance of the teams. I’m also pleased to report that our 2018 slogan ‘Go Sensational’ in all its English language awkwardness is actually not the worst one in the league. Jubilo’s ‘Challenge For Next!’ definitely has us beaten. I look forward to encountering more as the season progresses. The team selection brought a few surprises. Edu replaced Nara, which I felt was a little unfair on Nara, as the goals we’ve conceded so far have been due to mistakes from a huge variety of players and to blame Nara for them is a bit much I think. The front four was also shuffled again, Oniki still looking for the right combination, I guess. This time it was Chinen leading the line, which was a bit of a surprise but which I’m all in favour of. Kobayashi went to the right, Kengo stayed in the middle and Ienaga switched to the left. There was a bit of fluidity in this though with players changing positions at times. The rest of the side was pretty much as you’d imagine.


The first half started as we might have expected from recent performances. We had a lot of possession but were losing the ball in situations where we weren’t under any pressure and were consequently gifting them opportunities with a lot of time and space. Also, when we did get towards their goal, we were struggling to get our shots off. We were pretty much always second to any loose balls in the middle of the pitch and our passing was still not quite there. I’m not sure what has happened to Neto and Oshima at the start of this season. Perhaps the opposition are doing something that is giving them problems, but as far as I can see, it’s more a case of both of them still being quite sluggish after the off season break. They’d be back to their usual efficient selves for five minutes and then give the ball away in a dangerous situation with a really bad pass. Certainly things improved later in the game, but to be honest, we were lucky to not have conceded when we weren’t playing very well. We had a series of let-offs, due in part to Jubilo’s dodgy finishing, a couple of good saves from Sung-Ryong and some good defending from Taniguchi. Also, after an initial slip up, Edu found his feet and was doing a good job at the back. Probably the more interesting performances were further up the pitch though. Ienaga was doing a great job on the left and was really involved in a lot of our attacks. But the biggest difference for me was Chinen up front. He was really giving us some variation from our usual midget front four. Ok, they’re not really midgets, but they definitely lean more towards the small-skillful-player type than the big-strong-guy-causing-problems type. Chinen was constantly chasing down defenders, putting in challenges, often winning the ball. And this ability to win the ball was creating chances and opportunities for the players around him. I really think he gave Jubilo something to think about and something that they probably weren’t expecting to have to deal with. Whether this is a new regular tactic for Oniki or just something he was trying for this game, you’ve got to say it was a great selection, so well done to him! But yeah, let’s not get too carried away, as although the forward line was looking sharp, we still weren’t really hitting the target very often. Probably more often than we have been used to in the last few games though, so an improvement. But, as Jubilo were making plenty of chances, it wasn’t the most comfortable game to watch. Until we scored anyway. Our first goal came on 24 minutes and was from a lovely lofted through ball from Neto, which Kengo headed home firmly over the keeper. A nice goal, and a goal which really changed the rhythm of the game. We grew in confidence, probably as this was the first time we have scored first this year, and Jubilo withered a little. Their front line seemed to be lacking cohesion, and the goal, knocking their confidence a little more, probably didn’t help matters. Quite sensibly they seemed to be waiting for us to gift them the ball with a poor pass and then counter attack. The thing is, after the first goal, we weren’t losing the ball as much and they didn’t really seem to know what to do. So we were heading for the break a goal up and growing in confidence. Then we got a second. Once again it was a header, this time from a corner, although indirectly. Kengo’s corner was cleared back to him, he crossed the ball in for a second time and Taniguchi was able to direct the ball into the corner away from the dive of Kaminski. A great time to score. And an even greater time to score twice, as two minutes later we got another. This time it was from a free kick and this time it was Edu on the end of it. Three goals, three headers, Kengo involved in all of them. Maybe we recognised that we haven’t been shooting very well, so decided that we’d give it a go with the head instead. Really pleased for Edu, who ran to the bench and held up a t-shirt of a friend of his who passed away last year. I imagine he’s been waiting for a while for the opportunity to pay that tribute. So possibly a little fortunate to be three up at half time, but once the first one went in, we really upped our game. Unfortunate for us fans that all these goals were at the far end of the pitch, but I’m not going to complain about any Frontale goal.


The second half started in much the same way the first had finished. We were brim full of confidence and moving the ball around nicely. Any sloppy touches were glossed over by the scoreline. After a little while though, Jubilo started to creep back into the game. I guess we were taking things a bit easier and playing the game out, rather than pressing for a fourth goal. Thankfully for us, Jubilo still weren’t taking their chances. Sung-Ryong had to make a few saves and they fizzed a couple past the post or over the bar. We’d clearly taken our foot off the gas, so our chances were coming with less regularity. On 67 minutes, Morita replaced Neto, and we were given our first opportunity to see how he could cope with playing in midfield, after his previous appearances at right back. It probably says a lot that I didn’t notice him much. I guess he was just doing the defensive job he was brought on to do. I’m really pleased to see one of the youngsters getting an opportunity. I suppose that if you are a young Frontale player and want to get game time, it helps if you’re not an attacking midfielder as 90% of our squad seem to play there. In any case, Oniki clearly rates Morita, as he’s picking up the minutes early on this season. Our second change was on 78 minutes and saw Chinen, who seemed to be a spent force after all his efforts, replaced by Okubo. Well done Chinen! He’s making a very good claim for the front man position, if you ask me. Okubo did a decent job in the limited time he had. Right at the end of the match he made one particularly good chance for himself, collecting a through ball from Kobayashi, holding off the challenge of the defender and then making himself some space to shoot only to have his shot saved by a diving Kaminski. Our other substitution was Noborizato on for Kengo, who probably also deserved a sit down. This gave Ienaga five minutes to give the behind-the-striker position a try. Not really enough time to make any judgements about that, particularly as the game was pretty much over as a contest. One other notable incident from the end of the second half was a shot from Kobayashi that flew agonisingly just wide of the post. He’s making some great chances, but I think he really needs a goal to get some confidence. The penalty in the Super Cup probably doesn’t really count when you talk about him getting off the mark. Hope he can get a cracker soon. I think he played well on the right, and personally speaking I think that is his best position. It may well not be statistically accurate, but I feel like we got more goals when he was on the wing and Abe was up front, rather than vice versa. Perhaps he wants to play up front more than on the wing, but I think the wing position is best for him and for the team. All in all though, a pretty satisfying first day of the league season, which had us claiming a big win whilst not particularly playing at our best. We have the dual satisfaction of starting our title defence at the top of the table after the first game, whilst being able to look forward to hopefully some more exciting performances when things really start to click.


Positives and negatives, and I’ll start negative today. Not a great deal to moan about, but I'll nearly always find something. Our shooting is nowhere near good enough at the moment, we’re giving the ball away too easily in midfield and we’re looking sluggish in a few areas. It’s early days still, but I’d have hoped we were in a bit better shape at the start of the season. Perhaps the early season defeats in the ACL and the Super Cup might have sharpened our focus a little in this match, but things were still a bit blunt in certain other respects. Neto and Oshima were playing well below their usual standard, but maybe we’ve just grown used to them being so good, that when they have an off day it’s really evident. On to the positives. Three goals, all well taken headers from excellent deliveries. The first was maybe my pick of them as it came from a much more unlikely headed goal route. Kengo seems to be on fire at the moment, which is great. I can’t speak for how he did in the ACL games, but it seems he’s still got what it takes to be one of our most important players. Sung-Ryong also looked pretty sharp in this game. Some of the saves he had to make were fairly routine, but he did pull out a couple of great ones and he gives us some real solidity between the posts. Taniguchi and Edu both played well at the back and whilst it feels a bit unfair on Nara to be dropped for this game, it’s good to see we have three decent centre backs. Michael James remains a bit of a mystery! Ienaga had a good game on the left. He was really involved and was making things happen. It was great to see Morita come on in the Neto position. He really looks like he’s going to be used a lot this year and I think his versatility makes him a really good addition to the bench. The big positive for me though was Chinen. Sure he didn’t score, but he really put himself about up front and really gave Iwata something to think about. And although I didn’t see the ACL games, I wonder if he was the big difference between the performances. Looking forward to seeing him progress!


Next up, we have local rivals Shonan Bellmare at home on Friday night. Last year, we struggled a bit against the promoted teams, so it definitely won’t be an easy game. After that we have another home game, this time in the ACL and it’s a crucial one. It’s still the early stages but I think a home tie against Melbourne is pretty much a must win, given that we’ve lost the first two group games. Fingers crossed we can get a little run of results going!

Team

GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 18. ELSINHO
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo
DF 23. EDUARDO (Yellow card 54')
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro
MF 21. EDUARDO NETO (Yellow card 12')
MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota
MF 11. KOBAYASHI Yu
MF 14. NAKAMURA Kengo
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro
FW 20. CHINEN Kei

Subs 
GK 30. ARAI Shota
DF 2.  NOBORIZATO Kyohei (on for NAKAMURA 85')
DF 3. NARA Tatsuki
FW 4. OKUBO Yoshito (on for CHINEN 78')
MF 8. ABE Hiroyuki
MF 16. HASEGAWA Tatsuya
DF 25. MORITA Hidemasa (on for NETO 67')

My Frontale Man Of The Match

This is a bit of a tricky decision for once. I really want to give it to Chinen, as I think his impact could possibly have been the difference between the previous three defeats and this win. Also Taniguchi had a great game at both ends of the pitch, and Ienaga, Edu and Sung-Ryong also deserve a mention. I think though it would be churlish to give to anyone other than...

NAKAMURA Kengo - a nice goal and two quality assists. Not bad for an old guy! (By the way, the MOTM photos will restart once I've got some of this season's gacha gacha offerings)



Goals
 
NAKAMURA (Frontale) 24’ 0-1
TANIGUCHI (Frontale) 43’ 0-2
EDUARDO (Frontale) 45’ 0-3
   

Highlights

The Frontale youtube channel usually has longer highlights provided by DAZN, but given that last year's highlights got wiped when the broadcaster got changed, I'm going to stick with the official J League ones. But you can watch the longer highlights here if you want.
 

Wednesday 21 February 2018

Vs Ulsan Hyundai (away) 20/2/18 - ACL Group Stage Match 2

Ulsan Hyundai 2 - 1 Kawasaki Frontale

Another game I couldn’t attend or even watch due to work so I’ll be brief. It’s now played three and lost three for us and the need to get this season going with even a half decent result becomes all the more pressing. As far as I can tell, we lost this game to two great goals from them combined with things still not clicking for us up front and a lack of organisation in the middle and at the back. We had a few players missing due to injury (Kengo, Elsinho, Hasegawa) but the majority of the line up were what we have to presume is our first choice eleven. We dominated possession but once again failed to get our shots on target. The one shot on target resulted in our goal which was a Chinen header from a Noborizato cross. So well done to two of our subs. The highlights made it look like we had a few shots, but it really doesn’t matter if their keeper doesn’t even have to make a save in the whole game as the stats I’ve seen suggest. I’ll save the in depth and amateur rambling for the next game which I’ll actually be able to attend. I’ll finish with these stats, taken from Flashscore, so perhaps not 100% accurate, but I think they say something:
Minutes played: 282
Shots on target: 10

Next up are Jubilo Iwata away on Sunday. Thankfully this year it’s not at the Yamaha stadium which I didn’t bother with last year as the previous season's experience wasn’t that great. Hopefully at ECOPA it will be much more enjoyable and if we can pull off a miracle and get something from the game, all the better! I’m ditching my normal closing sentence as it didn’t seem to be doing much good, so instead I’ll end with a dolphin emoji. 🐬 


Team

GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 25. MORITA Hidemasa
DF 3. NARA Tatsuki
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro
MF 21. EDUARDO NETO
MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro
MF 4. OKUBO Yoshito
MF 8. ABE Hiroyuki
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu

Subs 
GK 30. ARAI Shota
DF 2.  NOBORIZATO Kyohei (on for ABE 65')
FW 9. AKASAKI Shuhei
MF 19. MORIYA Kentaro (on for NETO 81')
DF 17. TAKEOKA Yuto
FW 20. CHINEN Kei (on for OKUBO 71')
DF 23. EDUARDO

Goals
 
JUNG (Ulsan) 42’ 1-0

LEE (Ulsan) 66’ 2-0
CHINEN (Frontale) 85' 2-1
 
Highlights

Friday 16 February 2018

Vs Shanghai SIPG (home) 13/2/18 - ACL Group Stage Match 1

Kawasaki Frontale 0 - 1 Shanghai SIPL

 

I’ll keep this brief. The ACL game days and kick off times have been very unkind to me this year. Due to work, I couldn’t go to this match and I probably won’t even be able to watch the away game next Tuesday, let alone travel to the match. Looks like I didn’t miss much though as we sank to a second consecutive defeat at the earliest possible stage of our 2018 campaign, (something that didn’t happen at all last year). It hasn’t been the most encouraging of openings and against Shanghai, it seems we again looked out of form and off the pace. We had chances but only two of them were on target which is a little worrying. Certainly this happened at times last year, but we need a good result soon to stop these defeats becoming a habit. There are still some questions regarding what our first choice starting eleven is. Elsinho was back which suggests that this was our favoured line up, but I’m a bit worried if we think that Okubo is our best option on the left. All the talk of us having two complete teams so we could compete on all fronts this year is looking a bit shallow.

From the limited highlights I’ve seen of the match, it looked like Shanghai weren’t as formidable as we might have expected, but we’ve still left ourselves with a mountain to climb by getting off to such a bad start. It’s really not clicking at the moment and whilst this happened in a few games last season, there’s a slight worry that perhaps our tactics have been found out. It’s not a problem if we’re playing well as it’s difficult to stop us when we’re in our groove, whatever tactics you employ. But when we stutter, we look very wooden. So, some work to be done before next Tuesday or we might find ourselves ‘concentrating on the league’ earlier than we hoped.

Next up, Ulsan away in the ACL and then after that a tricky league opener away at Jubilo on Sunday, thankfully not at their usual stadium! GO (sort things out, please) FRONTALE!

Team

GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 18. ELSINHO
DF 3. NARA Tatsuki
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo
DF 2.  NOBORIZATO Kyohei
MF 21. EDUARDO NETO
MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro
MF 14. NAKAMURA Kengo
FW 4. OKUBO Yoshito
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu

Subs 
GK 30. ARAI Shota
MF 8. ABE Hiroyuki (on for NAKAMURA 71')
MF 16. HASEGAWA Tatsuya (on for IENAGA 81')
MF 19. MORIYA Kentaro
FW 20. CHINEN Kei
DF 23. EDUARDO
MF 25. MORITA Hidemasa (on for NETO 86')

Goals
 
ELKESON (Shanghai) 23’ 0-1


 
Highlights

There's a longer unofficial video here if you like to see chance after chance being missed.

Sunday 11 February 2018

Vs Cerezo Osaka 10/2/18 - Super Cup

Kawasaki Frontale 2 - 3 Cerezo Osaka

So once again, back to the Saitama Stadium to play Cerezo Osaka in a cup final, this time ridiculously early in both the day and the season. I am not sure of the esteem in which the Fuji Xerox Super Cup is held for the majority of J League fans, but this was at least an opportunity to get some kind of revenge on Cerezo for ruining our day back in early November. Sadly, this opportunity was spurned and instead we got another reason to either dislike Cerezo or at least consider them as our new bogey team. Last season we had two rotten games against them when we really didn’t show up and one stormer (at home in the league). We can now add another to the first column. In the end you could say the scoreline flattered us a little. They weren’t particularly good, but we were pretty rotten, lethargic and a mess all over the pitch. Bit worrying that this is the case after a fairly long break and with a starting eleven with hardly any changes from the side that won the league. Oh dear. Shanghai at home on Tuesday…

The day started, as I said above, ridiculously early, even more so for the Cerezo fans I guess. A 13:30 kick off with another whole 90 minute game before kick off, (J League U18 selection vs Japanese high school selection), meant that the gates opened at 09:30. I have no idea what time the many people ahead of us in the queue got there as we arrived around 08:40 and were quite a way back. Thankfully the weather wasn’t too bad and there was also the prospect of a huge number of J League mascots in attendance hanging around outside the ground. An early highlight of the day was getting my photo taken with Ehime’s angry orange and long time favourite Sagan Tosu’s Wintos. This early highlight actually proved to be the only highlight of the day for me. It was a fairly depressing game to watch. The only changes to last year’s first choice starting line-up were Tasaka in for Elsinho (again inured against Urawa in pre-season. Just saying, but maybe we should stop playing one of our main rivals a couple of weeks before the start of the season…), and Moriya in for Oshima who was on the bench, but still recovering from the injury he got playing for Japan. Joining him on the subs bench were Arai, Noborizato, some guy called Okubo, Hasegawa, Chinen and new signing Morita. As seems to be the way in such competitions, we were treated to a bizarre special rule for this game, this time involving substitutions. We were able to change five players, but had to do it on no more than three occasions (not including half time). The fact that the rule requires deatiled explanation says something I guess, but I suppose the thinking was, it’s almost a pre-season game so allow them to make a few more changes, but not give anyone the opportunity to use all five changes to bring the game almost to a halt, hanging on to a lead at the end of the game. 

I know there’s an element of sour grapes in this, but I’m not going to dwell too much on specific events in the game. If you saw the game, you don’t need anyone bringing back the misery. If you didn’t, consider yourself lucky. You’re better off not knowing. We didn’t start particularly well. They had us penned back in our half and were making a few chances. Admittedly the start was better than in the Levain final, but I certainly felt a bit apprehensive for the rest of the game after the first five minutes or so. Our off season seems to have left us unable to pass the ball and the midfield was pretty anonymous. Neto and Kengo were having a bit of a dodgy time of it, but really, no-one was covering themselves in glory. We were doing ok at the back, for the most part stopping their attacks but as soon as we tried to move the ball forward we lost it. Sung-Ryong took an early knock with a knee to the head from a Cerezo forward. Surprised it wasn’t a booking to be honest as it looked pretty bad. Not saying it was intentional but his boot and knee were pretty high. He was down a long time but thankfully could continue. We seemed to be doing ok passing the ball along the back line but, thanks to Cerezo pressing us, were having trouble getting out of our own half. When we did try to move the ball forward we lost it and they came back at us fast. Inevitably, sooner or later they scored and whilst it was a nice move from them, it was made all the easier by the fact that we gave them acres of space in spite of having loads of players back. No-one got anywhere near the ball or any of their players so they were effectively able to pass the ball into the back of the net. Very frustrating. The goal resulted in a change of game plan for them and it was almost like we were back in the Levain final again. Cerezo put everyone behind the ball and waited for a fast break on the counter attack. There aslo was a considerable amount of time wasting. Both of these things are annoying, but they’re legitimate tactics so we’ve got to learn how to deal with them. When we did manage to move the ball forward a little they started to look a bit rattled, but as seems to be the case against Cerezo at the Saitama Stadium, our shots were high, wide or rolled straight at the keeper. It was a pretty underwhelming first half, but the consolation was that things could only get better.


Half time saw a couple of changes. Moriya was replaced by Oshima and Kengo by Okubo. I did think that maybe Okubo might be playing in the Kengo role more this year and that is where he came on. Things did seem quite fluid though, with him apparently swapping front man position with Kobayashi quite a bit. He looked determined to get involved and from the start was at the heart of a couple of early good moves. However, we then conceded again. It was route one stuff but still featured high levels of ineptitude from us. A long goal kick was smacked up the pitch, Nara missed the first header, Neto was outmuscled for the second one and Tasaka half pulled out of the challenge on Kiyotake as he ran through on goal, presumably knowing that if he made any contact, it probably would have been a red card. Once again, loads of space and an inability from us to make a challenge. This goal didn’t seem to deter us too much though. We were back pressing again and starting to build up some momentum. And it didn’t take long for us to get one back. It was from the penalty spot and was an absolute gift from Cerezo. Their player smashed into the back of Kurumaya, who was on the edge of the box, waiting to head the ball. It seemed like a totally unnecessary challenge for them to make and was a really clumsy one. I’m not sure what they were complaining about, as the Cerezo player made no attempt to go for the ball and simply took out the player. Kobayashi put the penalty away, straight down the middle. Shortly after the goal Tasaka was replaced with Morita. Oniki has done this a few times in the past and I’m not sure I really agree with it. If someone makes a clanger of a mistake they are sometimes hauled off shortly afterwards. But it did give us our first look at Morita who slotted in at right back. He gave a decent account of himself in the rest of the game, getting forward well and looking dangerous at times. Good for him! This goal really opened the game up with Cerezo seemingly unsure as to whether to try and play football or put everyone behind the ball. Things got a bit ragged with attacks going from end to end and with lots of space. But we were clearly in the ascendency and building up a bit of speed and rhythm with Cerezo taking every opportunity to try and slow things down and waste some time. I couldn’t have imagined they’d go as far as to have two of their players run into each other though. It was a bit of a slapstick moment, but to be honest the joke was on us, as Kiyotake was down for an eternity, the stretcher being called on, then him standing up, then sitting back down and then leaving the field on the stretcher, killing two or three minutes. This killed our momentum dead and we were back to square one again. Around this time we had some more major let offs, with Cerezo going close on a few occasions and even having the ball in the back of the net only for it to be ruled out for offside. Our midfield was a bit more solid with Oshima doing a better job than Neto was doing or Moriya had done. In the second half, it was definitely the defence who went missing rather than the midfield. Both Nara and Taniguchi made shocking errors and Neto was also playing a part in the shambolics. But we had little choice than stick with the same at the back as our squad seems horribly light on defenders. Hasegawa came on for Abe and gave it a good go. Our threat was definitely coming predominately down the left, with him and Kurumaya linking up quite well. But we weren’t scoring. And once again we feel asleep at the back and conceded. A defensive clearance was, as seemed to be the case all game, collected by a Cerezo player rather than a Frontale one, headed back towards our box and they had plenty of time and space to pass the ball through the whole of our backline and finish easily. Again, we made it too easy for them. Oniki responded to this by bringing on Chinen for Ienaga. Your guess is as good as mine as to where the front four were playing. It always feels like the right thing to do to bring on a striker, but I think we were lacking a bit of organisation up front. To be honest, at this stage, I would have been quite happy if the ref had blown up ten minutes early and put us out of our misery. But as tends to happen, we were thrown a lifeline, to give us just a little hope that could later make the misery more pronounced. On the 92nd minute we pulled a goal back again and it was through Okubo. Hasegawa made a nice run up the left, but lost the ball by the goal line. Generously, they returned the ball to him and he passed the ball across the box for Okubo to prod home. A bit of a gift again, as probably all of there goals in this game were. There were still three more minutes of injury time left to play, and due to plenty of time wasting, we got a bit more than that. But there were no more goals. It wasn’t to be and we got exactly what we deserved from the game - nothing. Cerezo were just more organised than us, dealt better with the occasion and whilst they didn’t exactly set the world on fire, justifiably took home the trophy. Another silver for us. Although to be honest, this time it was second place out of a total field of two, so probably doesn’t count.


It seems ridiculous to be moaning so soon after we won the league in dramatic fashion, but I guess that’s what people have come to expect from this blog. The wins are fantastic and the defeats are tragedies. To be honest, on this occasion, it was just a case of mild disappointment and frustration. We simply didn’t turn up, but in the scheme of things, it was’t a crucial game. I think the more worrying thing is how unprepared we look for the start of the season. We’ve got a very important game on Tuesday in the ACL and if we play like this, we could be in real trouble. Two defeats in the bag before we start the season. Fingers crossed, this dodgy performance can give us a bit of a kick up the backside. Let’s tentatively do some positives and negatives. Negatives first. Rotten midfield in the first half, rotten defence in the second and a forward line that didn’t really get into the game. Worryingly few decent chances (although apparently we had the same amount of shots as they did…). Not the best performance from Oniki either. A game with five subs is a weird one, but  at the end we seemed to be just throwing on players more out of hope than anything else. Also, a bench of seven with a disturbing lack of defensive options on it. I know that’s not the way we play, but if we’d had an injury to Nara or Taniguchi we could have been in real trouble. But I don’t want to blame him too much, as the goals were all down to individual errors it seemed and there’s not much you can do about that during the game when you’re the manager. Perhaps the most worrying thing, is that again, we failed to rise to the occasion. Last year we succeeded, but it was after almost all hope was gone and we had to rely on other teams, rather than our own composure in a pressure situation. Can we really say that the chokers tag has been dispelled? Maybe not. It’s difficult to find positives in the game, but maybe you could say that the subs played alright, maybe better than the starters. Okubo seems determined to make up for lost time and I hope he’ll remain motivated for the whole season. Morita did well on his debut too. He must have made quite an impression in preseason to be given an opportunity so early. Although I suppose the Elsinho injury helps. There has been some talk about the grass being long and the pitch being dry from the players afterwards, but let’s be honest, we’ve got to have a plan B, and an ability to cope with conditions which are not the same as at our home games. To tie all this up into some kind of conclusion, I’d say that as we lost this game, we’ll say it’s an insignificant cup. If we’d won, of course we’d be saying the opposite. This was a rotten performance, but it’s early stages still and it’s stupid to read too much into one match. Perhaps if we hadn’t made so many errors in one game, we could have won it. Small things change matches, and sadly on this occasion, the small things that changed the match were for the most part us handing them goals on a plate. Onwards to Tuesday when we can either completely forget about this performance, or sink into a bigger funk of doom and gloom.

So, next up are Shanghai SIPG at home on Tuesday in the ACL. Despite then having to go through the qualification rounds, they probably are our strongest opponent in the group stages, given some of the big name players they have. Sadly, due to the really early kick off and my work, I’m probably going to miss this game. The game after is also ACL. We don’t get into action in the league till the 25th when we’re away at Jubilo. It feels a bit lacklustre to say it after this damp squib of a game, but as tradition dictates, GO FRONTALE!


Team

GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 6. TASAKA Yusuke
DF 3. NARA Tatsuki
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro
MF 21. EDUARDO NETO
MF 19. MORIYA Kentaro
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro
MF 14. NAKAMURA Kengo
MF 8. ABE Hiroyuki (Yellow card 60')
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu

Subs 
GK 30. ARAI Shota
DF 2.  NOBORIZATO Kyohei
FW 4. OKUBO Yoshito (on for NAKAMURA 46')
MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota (on for MORIYA 46')
MF 16. HASEGAWA Tatsuya (on for ABE 71')
FW 20. CHINEN Kei (on for IENAGA 79')
MF 25. MORITA Hidemasa (on for TASAKA 52')


My Frontale Man Of The Match

Not sure anyone really deserved it. The game was just a bit of a let down. I’ll leave it for this match but note that Okubo did a good job, and I’m surprised I’m saying that as I thought his return was not a good idea. Oshima made a difference when he came on but couldn’t do quite enough. Morita had a solid debut with his 40 mins on the pitch. Out of the starters, I guess if I had to pick one, it would be Kurumaya, but it wasn’t really anyone’s day.


Goals
 
YAMAGUCHI (Cerezo) 26’ 0-1
KIYOTAKE (Cerezo) 48’ 0-2
KOBAYASHI (Frontale) 51’ (PEN) 1-2
TAKAGI (Cerezo) 78’ 1-3
OKUBO (Frontale) 90+2’ 2-3     

 

Highlights

Wednesday 7 February 2018

New player songs 2018

Just a brief post with videos of tunes and words for the new player songs for this season. I've done this in a bit of a hurry, so please let me know if there are any mistakes you spot. None of them standing out as a particular favourite for me yet, but we'll see when they're being sung for real.


4. Okubo Yoshito

Yoshito Okubo
Goal o ubae!
Yoshito Okubo
Kawasaki no Yoshito

 


9. Akasaki Shuhei

Aka-saki!
Aka-saki!
Kibare Akasaki
La la la la

 


22. Shimoda Hokuto

Ole! Ole! Shimoda Hokuto
Izayuke Shimoda Hokuto



 
27. Suzuki Yuto

Vamo Ralph Suzuki Yuto ole!
Misetsukero Suzuki Yuto ole!

 


37. Saito Manabu 

Kawasaki no hoshi
Saito Manabu
Ao kuro mato-otte
Kagayake yo Manabu