Mito Hollyhock 1 - 2 Kawasaki Frontale
Another trip to Mito in the Emperor’s Cup, almost 5 years to the day and once again we’re through safely. Last time they took it to penalties but we managed to get the job done in normal time this year. It wasn’t particularly smooth sailing though, and it wasn’t a vintage performance either. But in 2023, every win takes us a step closer to being not quite so bad, so it’s very welcome. Oniki went with a bit of a reserves side which was a surprise considering it’s the only competition, aside from the ACL, that we still have any hope in. Some might say we needn’t bother adding the ACL to that list and they’d probably be right. In goal we had Kamifukumoto and Ando was on the bench, which I think signifies that Sung-Ryong is definitely back in possession of the first choice keeper spot. The defence was far from our usual back four, with welcome returns for Matsunagane, this time on the right, and Sasaki on the left. Ominami and Yamamura were the middle two. Tachibanada got a start again in the anchor role and had Seko and Tono ahead of him. Never particularly sure about Tono in midfield, but Oniki seems to like playing him there. I think he’s better further forward. And then the front three were Myogan on the left, Segawa in the middle and Miyashiro on the right. By the end of the game Segawa had played in every position across the front three as Oniki swapped him and Miyashiro’s positions at half time. Probably the thing most deserving of comment is that Myogan had a much better game than he did against Shimizu, when he was subbed at half time, and on this occasion got subbed on 62 minutes. I’m not really sure why he was changed, but to be honest, I’d say all of the subs in this match were a bit of a mystery to me. Oniki still seems keen to rekindle the prospect of playing Joao and Tachibanada together. On this occasion it wasn’t as dull as it usually is, but to be honest, we were playing lower league opposition, and it still didn’t look that likely that we’d score with them both on the pitch together. The next couple of changes saw Oniki make what he presumably considered a massively important tinkering of the defence in a game we were winning and didn’t look in too much danger in. Well, at least until he’d shuffled the defence. And then Oniki used his last sub in the 73rd minute, which was another big surprise, him doing all of them with 20 minutes remaining with the very real possibility of an equaliser and consequently extra time. I dunno if he just wants to show everyone that he’s doing something, but I wouldn’t particularly say that his interventions helped us much. Lots of shuffling of players and no really change of approach. But I don’t want to be too cynical in this post as we did the job.
Seko’s goal was a lovely finish. I know this from watching the highlights. At the game behind the goal on a very slightly sloping grass bank, all I could tell you was that it had gone in. The views weren’t the best, but to be honest, in this match, that might have been a good thing. Aside from that goal, the first half was pretty uneventful. The words I wrote in my notes were that we were ‘dull but competent’. Nowhere near as bad as in some other matches this year, but once again, we’ve got to remember we were playing a team from a lower league. The second half continued in a similar way but my notes reference an addition of ‘in’ to the phrase, resulting in us being ‘dull and incompetent’. We didn’t look like we were in much trouble but the few dangerous chances we created in the first half were very absent from our game for at least the first 20 minutes of the second half. Then things livened up a bit and we had a decent Joao chance saved before we extended our lead through a massively deflected Miyashiro shot. I felt a bit bad for their keeper as he’d made some important saves in the first half. Never ones to rest on our laurels, after scoring we immediately decided to give ourselves some more peril as almost from the restart we let them run straight through the middle and score. At the time it looked like Takai had made a real blunder but the replay shows that pretty much everyone was asleep. I’d like to say it spurred us into action, but the truth is more that it spurred us into trying to hang on to our lead with around the last five minutes of the game being spent trying to keep the ball by the corner flag, (never the most encouraging thing to see, but I guess I can kind of understand it, given how things are going this year). In the late stages of the game Mito had a penalty appeal, (down the other end of the pitch, therefore, no idea), and Takai had to clear another chance off the line, but we did manage to hang on, meaning no extra time, and meaning that we might possibly have been able to get home the same night. But we had been worried about extra time and had booked a hotel. So instead of a hurried charge to Akatsuka station we had the bus ride back to Mito, which was a little weird as it seemed to be just an extension of a regular bus service, with people getting on and off along the route back into town. Thankfully we had a seat as it was quite a long journey, but one which we could enjoy through checking the chaos that was going on in the other games.
So on to the next round, which we had probably thought would have been another game against YFC, but they ‘got pumped’ 1-0 by Kochi United, who we’ll now face in the next round. I’ve heard it’s going to be at their place and I really want to go. At the same time, it sounds like it takes the nightmare-to-get-to stadium thing to unimaginable heights. There is no shuttle bus and the nearest station is 10km away. For some reason this makes it even more tempting. We’ll see… A quick mention, before I finish up in the normal way with our next game, that the Chanathip video that came out this week made for pretty grim viewing. He seemed quite upset about the outcome of his time with us and it really hammered home some points that I have suspected recently. He said he didn’t hold anything against Oniki but at the same time was confused by how when the team were losing, and he was playing well in practice games, even when it came to a Levain Cup game, he didn’t make the squad. Oniki apparently told him things would be better next year. I’ve no idea what that is supposed to mean and why it would be any different. And the new chairman was surprised he wanted to leave and thought he should just wait for his turn instead. There’s definitely a big feeling that the new chairman doesn’t quite get football, which is quite concerning really. It just seems that Chana has been treated pretty badly by the club and was very unlucky to arrive at a time when we had a manager who was clinging on to any slight positivity he could find from the same old players and the same old tactics. I’m sure it would have been easier to take for both him and us if we were doing well, but we’ve been stinking the place up for almost two years now and if you can’t get a look in when things are going terribly, you might as well look somewhere else I think. Good luck Chana! You can watch the whole video here. Oh, next up YFM away in the league. Hmmmmm. Fingers crossed.
Seko’s goal was a lovely finish. I know this from watching the highlights. At the game behind the goal on a very slightly sloping grass bank, all I could tell you was that it had gone in. The views weren’t the best, but to be honest, in this match, that might have been a good thing. Aside from that goal, the first half was pretty uneventful. The words I wrote in my notes were that we were ‘dull but competent’. Nowhere near as bad as in some other matches this year, but once again, we’ve got to remember we were playing a team from a lower league. The second half continued in a similar way but my notes reference an addition of ‘in’ to the phrase, resulting in us being ‘dull and incompetent’. We didn’t look like we were in much trouble but the few dangerous chances we created in the first half were very absent from our game for at least the first 20 minutes of the second half. Then things livened up a bit and we had a decent Joao chance saved before we extended our lead through a massively deflected Miyashiro shot. I felt a bit bad for their keeper as he’d made some important saves in the first half. Never ones to rest on our laurels, after scoring we immediately decided to give ourselves some more peril as almost from the restart we let them run straight through the middle and score. At the time it looked like Takai had made a real blunder but the replay shows that pretty much everyone was asleep. I’d like to say it spurred us into action, but the truth is more that it spurred us into trying to hang on to our lead with around the last five minutes of the game being spent trying to keep the ball by the corner flag, (never the most encouraging thing to see, but I guess I can kind of understand it, given how things are going this year). In the late stages of the game Mito had a penalty appeal, (down the other end of the pitch, therefore, no idea), and Takai had to clear another chance off the line, but we did manage to hang on, meaning no extra time, and meaning that we might possibly have been able to get home the same night. But we had been worried about extra time and had booked a hotel. So instead of a hurried charge to Akatsuka station we had the bus ride back to Mito, which was a little weird as it seemed to be just an extension of a regular bus service, with people getting on and off along the route back into town. Thankfully we had a seat as it was quite a long journey, but one which we could enjoy through checking the chaos that was going on in the other games.
So on to the next round, which we had probably thought would have been another game against YFC, but they ‘got pumped’ 1-0 by Kochi United, who we’ll now face in the next round. I’ve heard it’s going to be at their place and I really want to go. At the same time, it sounds like it takes the nightmare-to-get-to stadium thing to unimaginable heights. There is no shuttle bus and the nearest station is 10km away. For some reason this makes it even more tempting. We’ll see… A quick mention, before I finish up in the normal way with our next game, that the Chanathip video that came out this week made for pretty grim viewing. He seemed quite upset about the outcome of his time with us and it really hammered home some points that I have suspected recently. He said he didn’t hold anything against Oniki but at the same time was confused by how when the team were losing, and he was playing well in practice games, even when it came to a Levain Cup game, he didn’t make the squad. Oniki apparently told him things would be better next year. I’ve no idea what that is supposed to mean and why it would be any different. And the new chairman was surprised he wanted to leave and thought he should just wait for his turn instead. There’s definitely a big feeling that the new chairman doesn’t quite get football, which is quite concerning really. It just seems that Chana has been treated pretty badly by the club and was very unlucky to arrive at a time when we had a manager who was clinging on to any slight positivity he could find from the same old players and the same old tactics. I’m sure it would have been easier to take for both him and us if we were doing well, but we’ve been stinking the place up for almost two years now and if you can’t get a look in when things are going terribly, you might as well look somewhere else I think. Good luck Chana! You can watch the whole video here. Oh, next up YFM away in the league. Hmmmmm. Fingers crossed.
Team
GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto
DF 27. MATSUNAGANE Yuto
DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma
DF 31. YAMAMURA Kazuya
DF 31. YAMAMURA Kazuya
DF 5. SASAKI Asahi
DF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento
MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki
MF 17. TONO Daiya
FW 33. MIYASHIRO Taisei
FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke
FW 24. MYOGAN Toya
Subs
MF 6. JOAO SCHMIDT (on for MYOGAN 62')
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro (on for SASAKI 69')
MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto (on for SEKO 73')
FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for TONO 62')
MF 28. OZEKI Yuto
MF 28. OZEKI Yuto
DF 29. TAKAI Kota (on for MATSUNAGANE 69')
My Frontale Man Of The Match
Way too much shuffling of positions throughout the game and too bad a view to draw any strong conclusions, so let’s cop out and give it to…
SEKO Tatsuki - has really started showing his worth recently and his goal was an absolute blaster. As far as I’m concerned right now our best midfield three has to be Joao, Seko and one other. If you leave either of them out, we’re nowhere near as good.
SEKO Tatsuki - has really started showing his worth recently and his goal was an absolute blaster. As far as I’m concerned right now our best midfield three has to be Joao, Seko and one other. If you leave either of them out, we’re nowhere near as good.
Goals
SEKO (Frontale) 25' 1-0
MIYASHIRO (Frontale) 80' 2-0
TERANUMA (Mito) 81' 2-1
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