Sorry this post is so late. And also sorry it’s brief. Although that might come as a blessing to some of you! With the pressure off us after we sealed the title with a dreary performance in Osaka, I guess we’ve all relaxed a little. It seems that my blogging has reflected this. Although of course that’s not to say that I’m not interested in our final two games. I’m hoping that we can win by as big a margin as possible and also have got this thing in my head, about us scoring the most goals and conceding the least. We’re still on track for this and a decent result in our last game could seal it. It would feel a bit tough on Jubilo though, who have done us some big favours in both this year’s and last year’s title races and who could still go down. This game offered something extra, with it being a tense local derby in which we haven’t done so well recently (at least in the league). Before the game FC Tokyo’s Takahagi was quoted as saying he’d never lost a Tamagawa Classico since he joined FC Tokyo. Well, you have now, and to be honest, they couldn’t really have too many complaints about it. They had plenty of chances, but seemed unable to hit the target. Whilst Sanfrecce’s collapse is of course the most notable one this season, FC Tokyo fans will be relieved that it has put their own slide into mediocrity into the shade. I’m sure they were as surprised as most were when they were putting result after result together earlier in the season. But it’s got to be a disappointing finish to the season for them. And whilst they avoided having us win the title at their ground, they still did have to do their end of season final home game presentations with a backdrop of a jubilant Frontale who’d just taken three points from them. I was actually surprised that we didn’t make more of the fact that we’d won the title during this game. I know it’s undignified to gloat, but this was a local derby and I thought we would have at least reminded them on a few occasions of what we'd achieved. Guess we’re even nicer than I thought!
To round up the other few thoughts I had about the game, I’ll start with a good moan about the ref. Iemoto is notoriously a good referee for us. I interpret this as meaning that he knows what he’s doing. I suspect that our rivals might have other explanations though. Perhaps unwisely, a section of the fans cheered his announcement as the ref for the game. I imagine that if we are aware, he is also aware of this talk of him being pro-Frontale, and the cheering before the game, along with him probably wanting to show that he is neutral and protect his reputation resulted in what I thought was a pretty pro-FC Tokyo performance from him. Some of his decisions were baffling. But as tedious as it must be for people to read me moaning about refs when we lose, it must be worse for them for me to do it when we win, so I’ll leave it at that. This wasn’t a vintage performance from us, but we did enough I think. Ao starting came as a bit of a shock and he had a shaky start to the game, but managed to get through it and did a reasonably good job I thought. Chinen had another solid if unspectacular game up front, being preferred to Abe. The finish for his goal was decent, even if we were gifted the ball. Our pressing on the FC Tokyo player in possession though clearly contributed to the error, so I’m going to claim it as good play by us, rather than a complete stinker from them. It was good to see Hasegawa get on the scoresheet again. He had a relatively quiet game. I wish he could have a go up front again, as that’s where he was playing when he broke through for us. His emotional goal celebration seemed to suggest the he might possibly be moving on at the end of the season, (and to be honest, I wouldn’t blame him, but equally would love to see him stay), as I feel it’s been a stop-start season for him. Apparently though it might be something to do with the game’s proximity to the anniversary of him losing his mother. In any case, I think he must understand what we think of him from the reaction of the fans. I’ll do a few end of season posts soon rounding up what I think of various people’s contributions this season and what the future might hold for them soon, so I’ll save any more discussion of that nature for then. But for now, I’ll finish up by saying that this was a decent win with a decent enough performance in a dead rubber that was enlivened by it being a derby. I’m glad that we could come into this game with so little pressure as I expect it might have been a bit different if we were still trying to win the league.
Next up, the final game of the season, home against Jubilo Iwata. It will be our first home game since winning the title and it’s sold out I think, so I expect there may be a decent atmosphere. After that, we can relax, enjoy being champions and start worrying about the awful ACL group we have for next season. Hopefully we can score more than Yokohama do and concede less than FC Tokyo and therefore sew up what I from now on will refer to as ‘THE SUPER TITLE’. Bravo Frontale!
Subs GK 30. ARAI Shota MF 2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei (on for HASEGAWA 67') FW 8. ABE Hiroyuki (on for NAKAMURA 77') MF 22. SHIMODA Hokuto MF 27. SUZUKI Yuto (on for CHINEN 82') DF 29. MICHAEL JAMES MF 37. SAITO Manabu
My Frontale Man Of The Match
This wasn’t the most scintillating of performances. Definitely more solid than spectacular. People are going to think I’m biased again but I don’t care. It’s again going to…
NARA Tatsuki - Another great performance. Solid at the back and made some crucial tackles. There was also the amusing scene of Ienaga shoving him away from the ref after Iemoto gave another rotten decision.
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.
I'm on this podcast again! I think that might be four times this season. On this episode, we discuss our J League triumph and what we might have in store next season. If you haven't already listened, you can do so below, or can find it on all of the usual podcast apps. Cheers to Ben for having me on again!
Well that was all a bit weird! In spite of this game resembling all of our recent Cerezo disaster performances and exposing our thankfully not so common, but all the same, slightly predictable weaknesses if the opposition get the conditions and their tactics right, we ended up leaving Osaka with our second successive title, secured with two games to spare. This was a far from vintage performance. In fact I’d say it was more like a corked bottle of supermarket plonk that had been stored on a windowsill for the whole summer. The pitch was shaggy and dry. It’s not unreasonable to think that if we know we struggle on dry pitches with long grass, the opposition will probably work that out too. And let’s be honest, Cerezo are usually a team who are more interested in destroying the beauty in a game of football to annoyingly eke out a positive result, so it was no surprise they used the conditions to their advantage. But anyway, I’m not going to dwell too much on the result and focus more on the fact that we did it! We are champions again, and although the circumstances of the victory were a little strange, it still feels pretty good!
Unsurprisingly given what we could achieve, this was a game that was very well attended by Frontale fans. We filled the away section and spilled over down the sides of the ground. We were making plenty of noise and seemed to be up for it, both on the pitch and in the stands. Cerezo started the game the way a team whose coach is soon to leave and who have nothing much to play for would. They seemed to be already on the beach, although I guess that cliche doesn’t resonate quite so well given the J League season finishes in December, rather than May. I suppose that their general lethargy, with everyone behind the ball with the occasional hoof forward counter attack is how they normally play though. The middle of the pitch in this game was horrendously congested. We couldn’t get through it, and although it felt like we’d eventually get a break, we were a bit sloppy with our passing, particularly when clearing after one of their infrequent attacks. It was by no means a great first half. We’d dominated on possession, but they’d had by far the clearest and best chances. The stats say we had four shots in the first half, but this seems generous to be honest. I was pleased to see Abe up front in place of the injured Kobayashi. Apparently, the Kashiwa player who smashed his face in with his elbow apologised after the game last week, but it must have been a bit of a bummer for our captain to miss another opportunity to lift the trophy, after having to make do with a cardboard version of it last year. Kurumaya being available again meant that Nobori was able to move forward into the usual Abe position. It’s a shame for Hasegawa and Saito that they didn’t get an opportunity, but it’s probably fair enough given that Nobori’s been doing well recently. He didn’t last that long though, leaving the pitch midway through the first half, when he was replaced with Chinen, Abe moving out to the left. Perhaps this disrupted our game plan a little, but to be honest we weren’t exactly shining before the enforced change anyway.
We started the second half with the bit between our teeth though, and came out firing. Suddenly we were starting to look more dangerous, but still we were overplaying things a little, no one seeming willing to have a shot. However, this momentum we were building resulted in us conceding. It was from a quick Cerezo break and the defending once again looked a bit dodgy. We huffed and puffed our way through the half and were putting them under some pressure but still not really enough pressure. Saito and Suzuki came on with around 20 minutes to go. I was a little surprised to see Elsinho subbed. There has been talk that it has something to do with him leaving us at the end of the season which would be a real shame. Perhaps Oniki is auditioning Suzuki for the job. In the 90th minute we were handed a real gift of a penalty. I think it was the right decision but have no idea why the keeper felt he needed to make the challenge. Glad he did though! Ienaga stepped up and put it away comfortably. If only he’d done that with a couple of our previous penalties we might have had the title in the bag earlier! We were back in the game, and in spite of us presumably knowing Hiroshima were losing we still seemed to push on for the win. Instead it turned out we were pushing on for the loss, and we got it in the 94th minute. The goal came from another quick break, this one started with a Cerezo handball, not noticed by the ref, and finished with an easy pass to a totally unmarked player and a big deflection off a sliding defender. We were then left with the slightly bizarre situation of Cerezo celebrating the win along with pockets of uncertain excitement in our end and amongst the players as we searched for an update from the Hiroshima game. There were no announcements or updates on the screen. I guess Cerezo were not that bothered to be honest, and in spite of us being fairly confident of the score in the other game, we only came to fully realise we’d won when the players began to celebrate and they starred carting on the parts of the stage for the presentation. It was a really weird feeling to be honest and a bit of a shame that we couldn’t have won the title with at least a draw. But the main thing is, we won it, and I guess there it is kind of appropriate when considering recent results, that the title was confirmed with a Hiroshima loss. They really have stuffed it up. I can’t imagine how bad it feels to be a Sanfrecce fan or player at the moment. Full credit to the numerous Cerezo fans who waited for the presentation and generously congratulated our players. Now the title is won, we can probably forget about individual results, but this game was another Cerezo stinker. It would be nice if we could beat them other than at Todoroki some time. Their bogey team status endures and we should probably try to put this performance behind us with a good finish to the season. We are now certain to end up with less points than last year. It would be nice though if we could preserve or even extend our lead, and I also would like us to outscore our neighbours in Yokohama if that is possible. Our next game is against FC Tokyo, so there’s something at stake there, even if the title is already decided. Fingers crossed for a strong finish and a couple more wins! Go Frontale!
Subs GK 30. ARAI Shota MF 16. HASEGAWA Tatsuya FW 20. CHINEN Kei (on for NOBORIZATO 37') MF 22. SHIMODA Hokuto MF 27. SUZUKI Yuto (on for ELSINHO 76') DF 29. MICHAEL JAMES MF 37. SAITO Manabu (on for ABE 76')
My Frontale Man Of The Match
This isn’t sour grapes after a loss, but there weren’t really any good performances in this game. Perhaps it was the tension of the situation, maybe the conditions, maybe we just had an off day. So, in the interests of doing something corny, and not for the first or probably last time, let’s give it to...
THE SUPPORTERS - big turn out, lots of noise and deserve to get something after a very limp performance from the team.
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. And we have that extra footage video again at the bottom.
Another game ticked off, and unbelievably Hiroshima lost again. We now find ourselves one win away from a second consecutive title. This excitement is so all-consuming that once again, I don’t have a lot to say about the game. At least when it comes to talking about things in detail anyway. Due to his red card in the Emperor’s Cup we had to face Kashiwa without Sung-Ryong in goal so Arai took his place. Oshima dropped to the bench with a slight injury and was replaced by Shimoda. And Abe was back, with Saito making way. Other than these changes it was as you’d expect. Kashiwa came into the game in a rotten league position and you’ve got to think that afterwards they were left hanging on to their J1 life by only a thread. The defeat to us was a blow for them, but probably one they might have been expecting. Jubilo’s 98th minute winner after coming back from 2-0 down with 30 minutes to go must have been a real kick in the guts though. People rave about them being a great team with great support and a great ground. Presumably not so many of these people have attended a match in a sold out away end in rotten weather conditions. Sure, you’re close to the pitch, but it can get pretty punishing if it’s raining or if it’s sunny, as you’re completely exposed. Also, not so much fun if you’re a non-Japanese goalkeeper as Cerezo found out earlier this season. All of this adds to the fun of their always hilarious ‘We’re Kashiwa Stupid’ banner. To amp things up, they decided to cover the Kashiwa part, leaving only ‘We’re Stupid’, which I’m guessing wasn’t exactly the message they were aiming to impart. They also charmingly had a ‘Play Dirty Go Hard’ flag, a message which some of their players took to heart in this game. I’m pleased the worst we have to put up with is ‘Go Sensational’, which at the start of the year felt pretty embarrassing, but when compared to some of the other abuses of the English language on teams flags actually seems quite quaint and charming! Have no idea if the same problem blights the other foreign language flags, but let’s be honest, it wouldn’t really be a surprise, would it? Much like with some of my recent posts, I’m going to just try to mention a few things I noticed from the game and then slip away quietly, eagerly awaiting the coming of the next match.
The result makes us look good, and we played some nice stuff in this game, but I think it probably more accurately reflects the depths that Kashiwa have sunk to. They looked pretty shaky at the back, but maybe this was our great attacking! Up front they had Olunga, who, at least in this game, fitted beautifully into the ‘big lump, with not much else to his game’ mould. Nara dealt with him pretty comfortably I thought. Ito hit the post for them, but aside from that and a few other chances, that was about it for them. After the first goal went in (lovely finish from Ienaga again!), I had a feeling that if they conceded again before half time, they’d probably be on a fast train to J2. And concede again they did, when we scored from a corner! A few seasons ago, that was a really rarity, but I feel that at the start of this year it was something we were doing quite regularly. That definitely dropped off though and I can’t recall the last time we did it. Pleasingly, it was Taniguchi who scored. He’s had a bit of a dodgy time recently with some real clangers in defence. You could say all three goals against Montedio were his fault if you were being harsh, or perhaps also if you were being fair. He didn’t start this game particularly well either, but the goal seemed to give him some confidence and we looked a lot more solid in the second half. You could probably say something similar about Arai. When he’s had his chance in goal he’s done ok, but I think the defeat against Kashima in the Levain Cup was a bit of a low point for him. Nice to have him back with a clean sheet though, and he made some good saves in the game.
As I said, going forward we were looking decent. If it wasn’t for the (unfortunate for us) return of Nakamura in goal for them, I think we would have scored a few more. I can’t imagine he’ll be staying at Kashiwa next year if they go down. We had quite a lot of possession and created quite a few chances in the first half and started the second half by coming flying out of the traps. Things did drop off a bit though. Understandable I guess, especially after the third goal, as it looked unlikely we would lose and could take our foot off the gas in view of the upcoming games. It did seem a shame though as we had some good breaks where there was absolutely no support. A few times a player would speed towards goal with the ball, hotly pursued by a couple of Kashiwa defenders and then the attack would fizzle out with a pass backwards and into our own half. Kengo looked a bit tired in this match and was lucky to last 80 minutes I thought. I guess his versatility and the absence of Oshima meant that he was left on the pitch a bit longer than he might have been otherwise. But it did feel a little like his recent 38th birthday might have had a psychological effect on him. Probably it’s more likely that another long season of being a first team regular has tired him out, or perhaps he was just having a quiet game. One of those four possibilities anyway! One big downside of this game was the injury to Kobayashi. He took an elbow right between the eyes and has apparently broken a bone. Guess this means he’ll either miss the next game or be wearing one of those Phantom of the Opera style masks that have become common recently. The incident was completely off the ball and looks a bit naughty from the Kashiwa defender. He clearly knew Kobayashi was there as he could probably feel him having a little pull of his shirt. The ref and linesman both completely missed it though. To be fair to them, I also did, but as I said at the time, I’m not getting paid to watch the match and they are. Kashiwa weren’t the nicest team. It seems their tactics are to try to kick and elbow their way to J1 safety. After this display, I won’t be particularly sad to see them go down.
In a slight change from my previous positives and negatives, I’ll go for good day and bad day instead. A good day was had by the fans as this is a big step to the title. There was significant excitement even after the final whistle as events in the Jubilo/Sanfrecce developments filtered through the crowd, unfortunately resulting in most people not listening to what Ienaga or Tanuguchi had to say in the post match interviews. I think most of the players had a good day too. Kobayashi wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders in front of goal and his unfortunate injury meant that he had to be replaced just as he was working towards getting some shots on target. Also Kengo was quiet as I said above. But you couldn’t say either had a bad game. The people it really was a bad day for have got to be anyone connected with Kashiwa who now look cooked and Sanfrecce, who seem to be finding a new and original way to flop each week. Their collapse has been astonishing and we shouldn’t forget, (if we win the league), that we’ve had some dodgy results this year and if Hiroshima hadn’t so completely imploded, we would probably be fighting it out for second place. Feels nice to be seven points ahead of them though, particularly after that horrendous decision they got against us earlier this year!
Next up, three matches, of which we have to win at least one to take the title. First Cerezo Osaka away next Saturday. I feel we still owe them a pasting for our horrendous performances when it mattered against them last season. The weekend after, we’re away again, this time to FC Tokyo, who recently have remembered how to win football matches and would be delighted to put the brakes on any title challenge of ours. Then finally a home game against Jubilo, who did us a huge favour in the last game of last season holding Kashima and did us a huge favour this weekend by beating Hiroshima. Three games, one win required. The away game at Cerezo has now sold out, so presumably there are a few confident people around. I’m still not going to jinx anything though. Fingers crossed, and keep it up Frontale!
Subs
GK 24. ANDO Shunsuke
MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota
MF 16. HASEGAWA Tatsuya
FW 20. CHINEN Kei (on for SAITO 76')
MF 27. SUZUKI Yuto (on for NAKAMURA 80')
DF 29. MICHAEL JAMES
MF 37. SAITO Manabu (on for IENAGA 90+1')
My Frontale Man Of The Match
There are quite a few contenders in this match to be honest. Nobori was great going forward and at the back, so much better than against Montedio. The middle two of Shimoda and Morita also did a good job. Morita really is a talent and it’s nice to see that he’s not trying so many tricks as he was a few games ago as these never look good when they go wrong and you probably shouldn’t be doing them in your first season proper. Ienaga and Abe did their usual high quality stuff. Abe’s chipped finish after Chinen’s shot was saved was very nice. Arai picked up the defensive man of the match award after the game and he did well too, his ball control and distribution even looking a bit better than usual I thought. But, and I have no qualms about saying this, for me it has to go to…
NARA Tatsuki - not just because I am a Nara superfan, but because he totally bossed Olunga, tidied up after a few players mistakes, was like a rock at the back and did a fantastic goal celebration for our third which I retweeted on twitter. Great stuff! Oh, and believe it or not, apparently he hasn't been booked all season. I should probably check this before posting it, but, oh well...
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. And we have that extra footage video again at the bottom.
FC Tokyo 0 - 2 Kawasaki Frontale 
