Sanfrecce Hiroshima 1 - 1 Kawasaki Frontale
Oooof. Well that wasn’t much fun. But at the same time, we can’t say we didn’t see it coming. We’ve been a bit rubbish recently because we’re tired, right?… Oh, maybe not. We’ve been a bit rubbish recently because of the refs, right?… Maybe not. Because we’ve lost our two best players and have done nothing to replace them?.. Probably getting closer, but… One thing we can all agree on, whatever your interpretation of this recent rubbish spell, is that we’ve been rubbish. Given that I delighted in the early Muscat Out hashtags recently, it’s only right that I should give credit to YFM when they play well… Sorry, what was that? I missed what you said. Never mind, can’t have been important. Anyway, moving on to the moaning, here’s what someone might say if they had watched this awful match and then wanted to get the resulting blog post out of the way as soon as possible with as little effort as possible.
Positives -
We didn’t lose! That’s it!
Negatives -
We were utterly shite for the majority of the game, were lucky to get a draw, in spite of Hiroshima apparently not wanting to do anything at all in the second half, and look totally clueless with a squad that has gone from one with high quality back up in every position, to one that plays like it is entirely made up of reserves, the kind of which make up J League squads but are lucky to even make the bench in Levain Cup games. If a few players play badly, perhaps you can blame the players. If everyone is shit, perhaps you can blame the manager. I dunno, I don’t have any answers, but we look like we’ll never score again, let alone win recently. Yes, we lost two important players. But even the players who were playing before we lost those players seem to have been transformed into statues by Mitoma and Ao’s departures. Schmidt didn’t have a great game. Ienaga, who knows? He was pretty much anonymous. Hasegawa had a great opportunity with Mitoma gone but seems to be going the way of Chinen recently, ie. I’m sure there’s a player in there, but more often than not, most games seem to take away from his reputation rather than enhance it. Hatate seems to be definite starter, but it seems like Oniki picks the other ten players first and then plays Hatate where there is a gap. People might say it’s a sign of a good team when the starting eleven picks itself. But in our case it seems to be the sign of a team without many options, or rather without many options that could ever possibly be taken due to us being stuck in a relentlessly repetitive rut. We didn't even make all of our subs in a game we were totally underwhelming in. Oniki seems determined to drive this system into the ground, smashing it to pieces and making it totally useless, rather than trying something new. Perhaps earlier this year there was no reason for us to try anything new. But I think we probably need to now. The results paper over the cracks a little and we still haven’t lost. But this is two league draws in a row against pretty ordinary teams. Our nice comfortable margin has almost been erased and confidence must be at an all time low. What joy! And an away double header coming up against Fukuoka, who we often seem to struggle against, and Consadole, who shocked us at our place last year. What could possibly go wrong? I was really looking forward to those games. A lovely round trip with plenty of tourism and plenty of drinking of beers, but now instead, I’ll be at home feasting on my fingernails instead of bar snacks. Can’t say I’m particularly confident, are you? To be honest, in a way, I’m kind of please they are not selling away tickets as it would be shame to have a nice trip ruined by some rotten Frontale performances. Instead, far better to stay at home and wallow in self-pity!
Suggestions -
I don’t really have any. I’m not a manager. I’m just a whinger. But maybe… change something? Or do something better.
Other stuff -
Aoyama and Jofuku are a pair of wankers. And, I think I got more enjoyment out of the Kashiwa game when I was in bed drifting in and out of a restless sleep with a fever after my second COVID vaccination than I did out of this dire 90 minutes.
Next up Avispa away on Wednesday (1-1), and then Consadole on Saturday (2-2). And that’s me being positive with the predictions. We’ll probably lose both and be in second this time next week. Blimey. Go (do something else if you value your sanity instead of watching) Frontale!
Team
DF 13. YAMANE Miki
Subs
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