Tuesday 27 August 2019

Vs Shimizu S Pulse (home) 24/8/19 - J League match 24

Kawasaki Frontale 2 - 2 Shimizu S Pulse

I was looking forward to this game but I guess I was just being naive in believing that me attending a game would give us a boost of luck and get us back to winning ways. Instead, it’s just business as usual for us 2019 style. Once again we had an opportunity to claw back some ground in the teams ahead of us and once again we messed it up. This game was so underwhelming yet so predictable that I am almost unable to even get irritated by our rotten, rotten form.  Not sure I’ll even have the energy to do my usual attempt at witty bullet points on this post. It will instead be a just a few paragraphs with some doom and gloom but it’s probably more dumb and glum. After we scored an encouraging first goal with a nice move things could have gone one of two ways. Another quick goal for us and I think we would have run away with the game and maybe picked up a morale boosting big win as the Shimizu defence really looked like a defence that had conceded eight in their previous outing. Instead we conceded, from what looked like a bit of a dodgy free kick earned by Douglas who seemed to have mistaken his boots for banana skins as he spent an inordinate amount of time falling and rolling around on the floor. You can’t argue with the finish though. It was a lovely free kick from him and whilst Sung-Ryong got a hand on it and couldn’t quite keep it out, it was on the side of the goal that the wall should have been protecting, so you can’t blame him too much. Shimizu did an interesting free kick routine with players kneeling in front of the wall, which seemed to catch our players attention as much as it did mine, judging by the ineffectiveness of the wall. It’s weird to think that a little while ago Sung-Ryong had the best ever save ratio in the J League. A few games later were conceding an average of two goals a game with the opposition usually only having a couple more shots on target than goals they score. I don’t know where to point the finger to be honest but I have an idea. It doesn’t feel like he’s playing badly and he’s certainly being let down by his defence at crucial moments, but you’ve got to say that the stats make for bleak reading. Taniguchi had another dodgy game I think, but he’s one of Oniki’s undroppables, particularly given that we’ve now got almost no cover there. If Nara gets fit again we should really be thinking about a centre back pairing of him and Jesiel, but I’d be truly amazed if that happened. It was nice for once to see a left back and a right back who actually play in those positions. I think both of them did ok and the substitution of Maguinho was one of the most predictable and pointless subs I’ve seen Oniki make. He clearly doesn’t really rate either Maguinho or Mawatari so as a last resort when he runs out of players to play out of position there will randomly choose one of them to start and then utterly pointlessly change them for the other one, presumably to make sure that neither gets a chance to find any form or pick up any kind of confidence.


This was a weird game to be honest. For the most part we totally dominated it, but were only able to find a way through Shimizu’s ten man defence a couple of times. Understandably after last weeks defensive disaster, Shimizu wanted to tighten things up a little, but the way they were playing they really shouldn’t have been allowed to. They came apparently looking to take a point but weirdly found themselves ahead in the second half and didn’t seem to really know what to do. In the first half after what was a nice goal from us we looked like we were finally finding some confidence again, but then we conceded and Saito got injured, the latter being quite unfortunate as Saito was looking very dangerous. I hope the injury is not too serious. Shimizu’s second goal early on in the second half was entirely our fault, a dodgy pass from Taniguchi being dithered on by Morita, the ball nicked and then Taniguchi left totally flat-footed in defence. It’s something of a miracle that we managed to get back into the game, and even more miraculous that Kobayashi took the first chance he had as it normally takes him a while to get going and find his range in games. Recently, it has sometimes taken more than 90 minutes! I do feel that if he is forced to play instinctively he’s a lot better than if he has time to think about what he’s doing. Perhaps this is also a confidence thing. It’s bizarre that we don’t have more confidence though, being double league champions, but there is a definite feeling that this year the wheels have come off. I’m not sure if the players have the same lack of confidence in Oniki that I do, but it’s definitely the case that people’s abilities are demonstrated more in testing times than when things are going well. Perhaps Oniki’s shortcomings are being exposed recently and are clear to the squad. Certainly there seems to be a lack of a coherent plan. It now feels like we are just throwing stuff at the wall and hoping to find something that eventually sticks. Certainly the referee played a part in the result. He ignored Douglas’s diving and a hell of a lot of time-wasting from Shimizu. Fair enough, add some extra time on at the end, but people are not going to stop time-wasting until they start getting booked for doing it. Saying that, there was a horrible inevitability about this game finishing 2-2. However long we played it seemed that we wouldn’t get a winner. And in the last few minutes of the game you’d almost think that we were the ones playing for the draw, as we passed the ball across the back four, apparently waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. Perhaps we were, and that would be a sign of how far our confidence has sunk. It seems that it doesn’t matter who the opposition is, we’ll most likely play out an ultimately dull draw. Unless it’s someone crap and then we’ll probably lose.


Next up we have our traditional bogey team Cerezo Osaka, away from home. This is a fixture that almost always ends in a disappointing defeat. Considering that 2019 is one disappointment after another, how amusing and amazing it would be if we knocked that run on the head and got a big win. It would also be amazing if I won the lottery, but I suspect neither of those outcomes are likely to happen. It’s sad that now the best part of an away fixture is the travel and enjoying a different city before and after the game. That used to be the bread with the football being the filling of an enjoyable sandwich. Now we get our sandwich, take a bite, choke and gag on the filing, scrape it out, trying to forget about it and just settle for eating the bread. This season is over I reckon, so let’s just enjoy that bread as best we can. I think the three teams above us will slip up again, but I don’t think all three will slip up sufficiently to cover the fact that we will almost certainly spend at least half of our remaining fixtures on our backside. The thought of us finishing strong and making a charge for the title seems ridiculous. So perhaps we should focus on the cups then. Well, we have perhaps the least enticing draw possible in the Emperor’s Cup. Away to Vissel Kobe really lacks excitement for me and we’ll probably lose. And in the Levain we have two games against Nagoya who recently totally destroyed us in the league. So, what is there to look forward to? Not much really. Perhaps the most enticing prospect is having this season over and done with and then having a fresh start next year. We might even have some Levain group games next year which will be fun. To be honest, right now, the 2019 season can’t end fast enough for me.

Team

GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 26. MAGUINHO
DF 4. JESIEL
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro
MF 6. MORITA Hidemasa
MF 22. SHIMODA Hokuto
MF 19. SAITO Manabu
MF 14. NAKAMURA Kengo
MF 8. ABE Hiroyuki (Yellow card 90')
FW 9. LEANDRO DAMIAO

Subs
GK 21. ARAI Shota
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for MORITA 78')
MF 16. HASEGAWA Tatsuya (on for SAITO 35')
DF 17. MAWATARI Kazuaki (on for MAGUINHO 69')
FW 20. CHINEN Kei
MF 28. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
MF 34. YAMAMURA Kazuya

Goals
 
LEANDRO DAMIAO (Frontale) 14' 1-0
DOUGLAS (Shimizu) 30' 1-1
RENATO (Shimizu) 65' 1-2
KOBAYASHI (Frontale) 79' 2-2

Highlights

Tuesday 20 August 2019

Vs Vegalta Sendai (away) 17/8/19 - J League match 23

Vegalta Sendai 2 - 2 Kawasaki Frontale 

I’m finally back from my holiday, but not in time for this game, so I missed another one of my favourite away fixtures which was a shame. What was a blessing perhaps is that I missed another dodgy performance although that should be said with some caveats. We did manage to rescue a point after initially going ahead and then conceding two sloppy goals, the first of which looked offside to me, but you know, these things come and go over the course of a season apparently. We did have a very makeshift defence on show with Yamamura and Kurumaya in the middle due to the absence through suspension of both Taniguchi and Jesiel. The fact is though, we managed to only concede twice in this game so in a way, that’s something of an improvement, as we’ve conceded three in two of the last three league games. Against Nagoya, Hiroshima and also in this game, our goals conceded count almost equals the opposition’s shots on target count which is a bit of a worry to be honest. Recently, all you have to do to beat us is to get a shot on target it seems. Pair this with our wastefulness in front of goal and you’ve got a recipe for disaster to be honest. What’s causing this rotten form? Who knows? Especially not me, as I’ve seen very little of our recent games, apart from this one which I watched on Rakuten Sports. The only bright spark of this weekend of matches was the fact that FC Tokyo prepared for their long stretch of away games by getting in a hopefully morale-sapping home defeat. But regarding defending our title, we now have Kashima to worry about too. There are some threads of hope to hang on to though. As mentioned above, FC Tokyo have a lot of away games now. And Kashima will hopefully be prioritising the ACL and slip up in the league as a consequence. But yeah, just threads really, and even if both of those teams do start sucking, we still have to start not-sucking. Anyway, next up, a game I can watch, Shimizu at home on Saturday. I’m actually looking forward to it. Hopefully we can get back on track a little.

Team

GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 26. MAGUINHO
MF 34. YAMAMURA Kazuya
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro (Yellow card 72')
DF 2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei
MF 25. TANAKA Ao
MF 22. SHIMODA Hokuto
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro
MF 14. NAKAMURA Kengo
MF 8. ABE Hiroyuki
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu

Subs
GK 21. ARAI Shota (Yellow card 81')
MF 6. MORITA Hidemasa
FW 9. LEANDRO DAMIAO (on for NAKAMURA 86')
MF 16. HASEGAWA Tatsuya (on for IENAGA 69')
DF 17. MAWATARI Kazuaki
MF 19. SAITO Manabu (on for ABE 75')
MF 28. WAKIZAKA Yasuto

Goals

ABE (Frontale) 23' 0-1
NAGASAWA (Sendai) 54' 1-1
NAGASAWA (Sendai) 64' 2-1
HASEGAWA (Frontale) 79' 2-2

Highlights

Saturday 17 August 2019

Vs Fagiano Okayama (away) 14/8/19 - Emperor's Cup 3rd round

Fagiano Okayama 1 - 2 Kawasaki Frontale (AET) 

We're through! Just about... This game was particularly mysterious as there was no way of watching it apart from going to the stadium. Hardly a vintage performance and finally Oniki decided to play a right back. Two in fact, therefore another player playing out of position! Slightly worrying that we went behind with our two best centre backs playing, who will both be banned for the next league match. Damiao scored again, but very late, and we left it late into extra time to get the winner. Seems from twitter that there were a few dubious refereeing decisions, but aren't there always? Hopefully the squad have been able to get home as all the shinkansens on Thursday morning were cancelled due to the typhoon. A delayed return after a match which went to extra time isn't the best preparation for another away game in Sendai on Saturday. Fingers crossed, eh?

Team

GK 21. ARAI Shota
DF 26. MAGUINHO
DF 4. JESIEL
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo
DF 17. MAWATARI Kazuaki
MF 6. MORITA Hidemasa 
MF 22. SHIMODA Hokuto
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro
MF 28. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
MF 19. SAITO Manabu
FW 9. LEANDRO DAMIAO

Subs
GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro (on for MAWATARI 81')
MF 8. ABE Hiroyuki (on for SAITO 67')
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu
FW 20. CHINEN Kei (on for WAKIZAKA 61')
MF 25. TANAKA Ao
MF 34. YAMAMURA Kazuya (on for MAGUINHO 98')

Goals
 
NAKANO (Okayama) 11' 1-0
LEANDRO DAMIAO (Frontale) 18' 1-1
IENAGA (Frontale) 117' PEN 1-2

Highlights
 

Wednesday 14 August 2019

Vs Nagoya Grampus (away) 10/8/19 - J League match 22

Nagoya Grampus 3 - 0 Kawasaki Frontale


I couldn't watch this as I'm STILL on holiday. Another bad result as we are STILL apparently rubbish. This has got to be game over I reckon. We need so many failures from so many other teams whilst significantly improving ourselves. People are complaining about the ref and bad decisions, but even if our ball-over-the-line-not-given goal was given and their first goal was offside, we still would have lost. Taniguchi and Jesiel both banned for our next league game and Oniki has allowed Michael James to return to Albirex Niigata leaving us with zero centre backs. I really don't understand what he is thinking. Oh, and once again, Kurumaya at right back, Nobori left and then swapped at half time. Still doesn't work, eh? Who'd have thought it? A loss to Okayama in the Emperor's Cup and a failure to beat Sendai in the next league game and there really should be some pressure on Oniki. To be honest, at most clubs, there already would be and probably would have been a change. I still hope he can sort things out, but I have plenty of doubts. What a waste! We have a great squad and are almost certainly going to have our worst finish for years.

Team

GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo (Yellow card 27', second yellow/red card 80')
DF 4. JESIEL (Yellow card 85')
DF 2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei
MF 34. YAMAMURA Kazuya
MF 25. TANAKA Ao
MF 28. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
MF 14. NAKAMURA Kengo
MF 8. ABE Hiroyuki
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu

Subs
GK 21. ARAI Shota
MF 6. MORITA Hidemasa
FW 9. LEANDRO DAMIAO (on for YAMAMURA 59')
MF 16. HASEGAWA Tatsuya 
MF 19. SAITO Manabu (on for WAKIZAKA 46')
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro (on for NAKAMURA 71')

MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota - was due to start but was replaced by Yamamura after getting injured at the last minute. Another bit of bad news and another possible dodgy Oniki decision to name him as a starter if he wasn't really fit.

Goals

IZUMI (Nagoya) 11' 1-0
IZUMI (Nagoya) 18' 2-0
MAEDA (Nagoya) 64' 3-0

Highlights

Monday 5 August 2019

Vs Matsumoto Yamaga (home) 4/8/19 - J League match 21

Kawasaki Frontale 0 - 0 Matsumoto Yamaga 


Still on holiday for this one. Another rotten game that I couldn't watch. One shot on target at home against a team that are relegation contenders. Haven't even bothered to watch the highlights to be honest. Maybe the wheels have already come off.

Team

GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo
DF 4. JESIEL
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro
MF 22. SHIMODA Hokuto
MF 25. TANAKA Ao
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro
MF 14. NAKAMURA Kengo
MF 19. SAITO Manabu
FW 20. CHINEN Kei

Subs
GK 21. ARAI Shota
MF 6. MORITA Hidemasa
MF 8. ABE Hiroyuki
FW 9. LEANDRO DAMIAO (on for CHINEN 63')
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for SHIMODA 77')
MF 16. HASEGAWA Tatsuya (on for SAITO 74')
MF 34. YAMAMURA Kazuya

Goals

None

Highlights

Vs Sanfrecce Hiroshima (away) 31/7/19 - J League match 16

Sanfrecce Hiroshima 3 - 2 Kawasaki Frontale


This game was on my birthday. Thankfully I am still on holiday so couldn't watch it. The wheels are coming off.

Team

GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 17. MAWATARI Kazuaki
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo
DF 4. JESIEL (Yellow card 89')
DF 2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei
MF 6. MORITA Hidemasa
MF 22. SHIMODA Hokuto
MF 8. ABE Hiroyuki
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro
MF 16. HASEGAWA Tatsuya
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu

Subs
GK 21. ARAI Shota
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro (on for NOBORIZATO 73')
FW 9. LEANDRO DAMIAO (on for ABE 57')
MF 14. NAKAMURA Kengo
MF 19. SAITO Manabu
MF 25. TANAKA Ao
MF 34. YAMAMURA Kazuya (on for MORITA 46')

Goals

SASAKI (Sanfrecce) 4' 1-0
DOUGLAS VIERA (Sanfrecce) 23' 2-0 
ARAKI (Sanfrecce) 52' 3-0
KOBAYASHI (Frontale) 75' 3-1
LEANDRO DAMIAO (Frontale) 78' 3-2

Highlights