Vs Sanfrecce Hiroshima (away) 19/8/18 - J League match 23

Sanfrecce Hiroshima 1 - 2 Kawasaki Frontale

 

I’m finally back in Japan and ready to get back into the swing of Frontale things again. It’s a shame I missed this game, and I well and truly missed it, as I got on the plane just as it kicked off. It was a pleasant surprise when I finally saw the result though. Certainly, it was a important win, a real six pointer. If only we’d beaten Tosu, we’d now be in a really good position, being able to go top with a good result in our game in hand. [Hmmm, slight problem with my maths here, should add an almost before the word top in that sentence]. But I guess life is full of what ifs. Hopefully this will have put a hefty boot in Hiroshima’s confidence. They’ve been stuttering and this was the game they really needed to not lose. But lose it they did, and with FC Tokyo stumbling again, it could be developing into a two horse race at the top, which is very welcome, as before the World Cup break it looked like a one horse race with a three or four horse race for second place. The league is certainly very open this year, but we seem to be finding some consistency recently.

Next up we have Shonan at home in the Emperor’s Cup on Wednesday and then Sendai at home in the league on Saturday. It will soon feel like I was never away. Go Frontale!


Team

GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 18. ELSINHO
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro
DF 2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei
MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota
MF 25. MORITA Hidemasa
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro
MF 14. NAKAMURA Kengo
MF 8. ABE Hiroyuki
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu

Subs
GK 30. ARAI Shota
DF 17. TAKEOKA Yuto
MF 6. TASAKA Yusuke (on for KOBAYASHI 90+3')
FW 20. CHINEN Kei (on for NAKAMURA 85')
MF 27. SUZUKI Yuto (on for ABE 88')
DF 29. MICHAEL JAMES
MF 37. SAITO Manabu


Goals

PATRIC (Hiroshima) 56' 1-0
KOBAYASHI (Frontale) 63' 1-1
KOBAYASHI (Frontale) 77' (PEN) 1-2


Highlights

The Frontale youtube channel usually has longer highlights provided by DAZN, but given that a previous 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.