Kawasaki Frontale 4 - 2 Avispa Fukuoka
Another week, another 4-2 win against Avispa. Although this was far from as comfortable as the last one. And also much less significant, as even the most optimistic of fan would say that we now have absolutely nothing to play for in the league. With that in mind, some might have thought that we’d have a chance to play some players who haven’t had much of a go recently. Hehehe... Of course we went with pretty much the same players and the same formation again. From the announced line-up it looked like we might be trying three at the back again, but I think it was the usual four and naturally we played our striker Segawa at left back. The reason I think he was a left back rather than a left wing back was that we had no-one to do the same job on the other side. But I have realised that given that they are quite fluid, formations, much like beauty, are in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps it could be said that we were playing some kind of hybrid one-sided three at the back, but if that’s the case, I’d say that if when you made a pizza you changed the base for fried potatoes and the toppings to battered cod, it probably makes more sense to call it fish and chips rather than a very original type of pizza. Other than the one change at left back (perhaps Nobori is injured, he wasn’t on the bench), things were exactly the same as the previous Avispa game. And why not eh? Well perhaps because aside from the early goal in that game, we’d had a truly awful first half. But you know, if you’re excepting our line-ups to change as a reaction to previous performances, well, perhaps you’re being a bit optimistic. With Tuesday’s ACL game coming up soon, I’m going to get this post out of the way quickly, which is what I always say before waffling on for thousands of words. Wish me luck.
The game started in pretty dull fashion, perhaps because both teams clearly had nothing to play for in the league and were both thinking about upcoming cup games. I feel a bit sorry for the Avispa fans who not only had to travel half the length of the country to Kawasaki twice in two weeks, (and go to Nagoya in that middle week too), but also had to come for a Friday night game. I think they clearly were more up for the cups as there weren’t many of them in attendance. And who can blame them? It takes a lot of dedication to attend dead-rubber long away trips at this stage of the season. (But yes, I am looking forward to going to Sagan Tosu on the last day of the season, but that one’s a special one, isn’t it?). In the same way that you could understand some fans not being that bothered, it seems that the people who choose the refs for the games were also not that bothered. We had Mikuriya for the second time this year. He’s got a reputation for being pretty bad. I didn’t think he was awful, but he did seem like he made some confusing decisions. I think he usually likes to book someone extremely early, and then apparently regret the decision and spend the rest of the game avoiding booking anyone unless he really has to. The unlucky recipient on this occasion was Ominami, and in spite of the usual Avispa rough tactics and constant diving, it took him over fifty minutes to find anything else worthy of a yellow. I don’t think we had any VAR referrals in this game, which is really rare. Perhaps he was completely certain about every decision he made, or perhaps the VAR guy was equally flaky. I think I heard that VAR has to be instigated by the ref, but I’m not sure if that is true. It doesn’t really make sense if the ref has to think he has made a mistake before anything gets checked. I guess if it’s true, Mikuriya is just someone with a lot of self confidence so well done to him. But to be honest, he didn’t seem THAT bad. The opposite could be said about the linesman on our side of the pitch. He made some real clangers, the best, hmmm, worst… errrmm…. the biggest of which was deciding that Damiao sliding to win the ball and the Fukuoka player seeing his outstretched legs and just deciding to fall over him warranted a free kick for Avispa. In the next match he officiates in a striker should wait for the goalie to make a diving save and claim the ball, then ‘trip’ over him, winning a penalty and getting the keeper a red card for dangerous play. It’s very dangerous to just lie on the floor where anybody could trip over you. Imagine if the victim had been carrying scissors or a glass. it could have been a bloodbath. So yeah, ref was rubbish but predictably so. The linesman should never set foot inside a stadium again, even as a spectator.
Avispa probably had the better of the first half. Actually they probably had the better of most of the game. Definitely until we made our first subs. Once again we conceded a goal whilst we were waiting to bring subs on. This is always very noticeable for me. Does this happen to other teams? Or is it something unique to us? The starting line up had been plodding around but it still took Oniki till the 67th minute and us going behind after opening the scoring to change anything. We hadn’t been awful though, we’d just been really dull and blunt. And as usual our first subs were just like-for-like changes, with no change in approach. It was a surprise to see Miyashiro back though, as in spite of him being our top scorer for most of the season, he’s disappeared recently. Not a great deal changed with these subs as you’d expect with us ploughing the same furrow, just with a different bit of equipment attached to the tractor. The next set of changes did seem to do something though. I was a bit worried at the time about us making our final sub in the 78th minute, but fair play to Oniki for noticing that we were still not very good and trying to do something about it. The first tactical change was moving a midfielder to left back to replace the striker who'd been playing there. Swiss army knife Tachibanada had a go there and I can’t remember noticing him that much. Well actually, I didn’t realise we’d made a change there until I spotted him making a run up the left and was quite surprised. I guess the big change was Kobayashi coming on, as he looked like he really had a point to prove. When he scored I remember thinking that we hadn’t scored a goal like that for ages, where a striker has the ball and runs into the box, beats a player and puts the ball in the net. Presumably I’m wrong with the details on this, but it really felt like something different. After scoring he then went on to cross the ball for Gomis to lay it off for Tono to spank it home, a goal made by a sub crossing to a sub who gave the ball to a sub. And then Gomis, perhaps still new to the team and not realising that our default position when leading, no matter how the game is going, is the resolutely refuse to try to score any more goals and instead try to keep the ball by the corner flag, played a lovely ball across goal for another sub to slide the ball home. So, unbelievably, we scored four goals again and it looked like a comfortable win! The be honest though, the two winning goals came in the 92nd and 96th minutes of a game with five minutes added. And we were losing until the 84th minute, so don’t get too excited about us turning things round. It was a lovely morale boost though to come back from trailing to win. Just don’t mention that pretty much everything good that happened in the game came from people Oniki didn’t start. Not saying the starters were bad, just that it seems that he still thinks the solution to our starting line-up not being able to create chances or score is to keep things the same and give them another chance. In this game, I don’t think any starters had a particularly bad game, but I don’t think our aim should be to ‘avoid having a particularly bad game’. However, as long as we’re winning, I don’t think anyone is going to complain too much. Not even me! The best thing about this game was the redemptive themes at play. Kobayashi, who’s struggled this season, but probably at the same time hasn’t really been given any kind of run, scored a lovely goal, threatened on numerous occasions and got the assist-assist for the goal that took us back ahead. Gomis, who when he came on seemed to still be having trouble settling in, assisted twice. It would have been great to have seen him score, but the assists will hopefully do him a world of good. And Tono, who spent a season on loan at Avispa, has been linked with a transfer back to them and always seems to score against them, (and actually quite often seems to score whenever he is given a chance), came on and did the business again. I’ve often said we should abandon our recenently kind of useless tactics. I’ve said that they don’t work, particularly with Ienaga on the right up front. The last game proved me wrong about the latter and perhaps this game proved me wrong about the former too. So perhaps the problem is more the approach. If we could start every game with the mindset that we are already losing, maybe we could do a bit better. In other words, I suppose I’m saying that if we weren’t quite so patient and conservative, we might do a lot better. After saying that I’ve been wrong twice in a row, I’m pleased that I could end on a note saying something else that I’ve been saying for years is correct. Well, at least as far as I’m concerned anyway.
The game started in pretty dull fashion, perhaps because both teams clearly had nothing to play for in the league and were both thinking about upcoming cup games. I feel a bit sorry for the Avispa fans who not only had to travel half the length of the country to Kawasaki twice in two weeks, (and go to Nagoya in that middle week too), but also had to come for a Friday night game. I think they clearly were more up for the cups as there weren’t many of them in attendance. And who can blame them? It takes a lot of dedication to attend dead-rubber long away trips at this stage of the season. (But yes, I am looking forward to going to Sagan Tosu on the last day of the season, but that one’s a special one, isn’t it?). In the same way that you could understand some fans not being that bothered, it seems that the people who choose the refs for the games were also not that bothered. We had Mikuriya for the second time this year. He’s got a reputation for being pretty bad. I didn’t think he was awful, but he did seem like he made some confusing decisions. I think he usually likes to book someone extremely early, and then apparently regret the decision and spend the rest of the game avoiding booking anyone unless he really has to. The unlucky recipient on this occasion was Ominami, and in spite of the usual Avispa rough tactics and constant diving, it took him over fifty minutes to find anything else worthy of a yellow. I don’t think we had any VAR referrals in this game, which is really rare. Perhaps he was completely certain about every decision he made, or perhaps the VAR guy was equally flaky. I think I heard that VAR has to be instigated by the ref, but I’m not sure if that is true. It doesn’t really make sense if the ref has to think he has made a mistake before anything gets checked. I guess if it’s true, Mikuriya is just someone with a lot of self confidence so well done to him. But to be honest, he didn’t seem THAT bad. The opposite could be said about the linesman on our side of the pitch. He made some real clangers, the best, hmmm, worst… errrmm…. the biggest of which was deciding that Damiao sliding to win the ball and the Fukuoka player seeing his outstretched legs and just deciding to fall over him warranted a free kick for Avispa. In the next match he officiates in a striker should wait for the goalie to make a diving save and claim the ball, then ‘trip’ over him, winning a penalty and getting the keeper a red card for dangerous play. It’s very dangerous to just lie on the floor where anybody could trip over you. Imagine if the victim had been carrying scissors or a glass. it could have been a bloodbath. So yeah, ref was rubbish but predictably so. The linesman should never set foot inside a stadium again, even as a spectator.
Avispa probably had the better of the first half. Actually they probably had the better of most of the game. Definitely until we made our first subs. Once again we conceded a goal whilst we were waiting to bring subs on. This is always very noticeable for me. Does this happen to other teams? Or is it something unique to us? The starting line up had been plodding around but it still took Oniki till the 67th minute and us going behind after opening the scoring to change anything. We hadn’t been awful though, we’d just been really dull and blunt. And as usual our first subs were just like-for-like changes, with no change in approach. It was a surprise to see Miyashiro back though, as in spite of him being our top scorer for most of the season, he’s disappeared recently. Not a great deal changed with these subs as you’d expect with us ploughing the same furrow, just with a different bit of equipment attached to the tractor. The next set of changes did seem to do something though. I was a bit worried at the time about us making our final sub in the 78th minute, but fair play to Oniki for noticing that we were still not very good and trying to do something about it. The first tactical change was moving a midfielder to left back to replace the striker who'd been playing there. Swiss army knife Tachibanada had a go there and I can’t remember noticing him that much. Well actually, I didn’t realise we’d made a change there until I spotted him making a run up the left and was quite surprised. I guess the big change was Kobayashi coming on, as he looked like he really had a point to prove. When he scored I remember thinking that we hadn’t scored a goal like that for ages, where a striker has the ball and runs into the box, beats a player and puts the ball in the net. Presumably I’m wrong with the details on this, but it really felt like something different. After scoring he then went on to cross the ball for Gomis to lay it off for Tono to spank it home, a goal made by a sub crossing to a sub who gave the ball to a sub. And then Gomis, perhaps still new to the team and not realising that our default position when leading, no matter how the game is going, is the resolutely refuse to try to score any more goals and instead try to keep the ball by the corner flag, played a lovely ball across goal for another sub to slide the ball home. So, unbelievably, we scored four goals again and it looked like a comfortable win! The be honest though, the two winning goals came in the 92nd and 96th minutes of a game with five minutes added. And we were losing until the 84th minute, so don’t get too excited about us turning things round. It was a lovely morale boost though to come back from trailing to win. Just don’t mention that pretty much everything good that happened in the game came from people Oniki didn’t start. Not saying the starters were bad, just that it seems that he still thinks the solution to our starting line-up not being able to create chances or score is to keep things the same and give them another chance. In this game, I don’t think any starters had a particularly bad game, but I don’t think our aim should be to ‘avoid having a particularly bad game’. However, as long as we’re winning, I don’t think anyone is going to complain too much. Not even me! The best thing about this game was the redemptive themes at play. Kobayashi, who’s struggled this season, but probably at the same time hasn’t really been given any kind of run, scored a lovely goal, threatened on numerous occasions and got the assist-assist for the goal that took us back ahead. Gomis, who when he came on seemed to still be having trouble settling in, assisted twice. It would have been great to have seen him score, but the assists will hopefully do him a world of good. And Tono, who spent a season on loan at Avispa, has been linked with a transfer back to them and always seems to score against them, (and actually quite often seems to score whenever he is given a chance), came on and did the business again. I’ve often said we should abandon our recenently kind of useless tactics. I’ve said that they don’t work, particularly with Ienaga on the right up front. The last game proved me wrong about the latter and perhaps this game proved me wrong about the former too. So perhaps the problem is more the approach. If we could start every game with the mindset that we are already losing, maybe we could do a bit better. In other words, I suppose I’m saying that if we weren’t quite so patient and conservative, we might do a lot better. After saying that I’ve been wrong twice in a row, I’m pleased that I could end on a note saying something else that I’ve been saying for years is correct. Well, at least as far as I’m concerned anyway.
Next up Pathum away in the ACL. On paper they are the weakest team in the group and we’ve won our first two games so… hmmm, could be a banana skin. Particularly considering that Chanathip is now playing there and probably feels like he has something to prove. If it’s ok with him, could he save proving that point till the game at Todoroki and just let us have the three points on this occasion please? Given that we’ve played Oniki’s first choice team in this game and have another game on Tuesday, perhaps this will mean that we’ll see some changes on Tuesday. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Anyway, we’ve had a few good results recently so I’m in a good mood and hope you are too, and that my minor whinging hasn’t brought you down too much. Hopefully we can get a good result on Tuesday, and if Johor and Ulsan could draw too, that would be lovely! After that, the following Sunday we’re away at Kashiwa, the team who treat the opposition fans the worst in the whole of the league. Our last two games there have been draws, so it would be nice to get an ultimately-pointless-for-us win. The fact that they might have something to play for means that it might be a decent game.
Team
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
DF 13. YAMANE Miki
DF 31. YAMAMURA Kazuya
DF 30. SEGAWA Yusuke
MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento
MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki
MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro
FW 9. LEANDRO DAMIAO
FW 23. MARCINHO
Subs
GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto
MF 6. JOAO SCHMIDT (on for SEGAWA 78')
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for IENAGA 78')
FW 17. TONO Daiya (on for SEKO 67')
FW 17. TONO Daiya (on for SEKO 67')
FW 18. Bafetimbi GOMIS (on for LEANDRO DAMIAO 67')
DF 29. TAKAI Kota
FW 33. MIYASHIRO Taisei (on for MARCINHO 67')
My Frontale Man Of The Match
I mean, it is ridiculous to give this to someone who only played from the 78th minute, but the rest of the game wasn't that great so...
KOBAYASHI Yu - Scored a goal that gave everyone in the stadium a real boost. And put in a lovely cross for Gomis to set up Tono. Feel good factor gets the win this time perhaps.
KOBAYASHI Yu - Scored a goal that gave everyone in the stadium a real boost. And put in a lovely cross for Gomis to set up Tono. Feel good factor gets the win this time perhaps.
Goals
SEGAWA (Frontale) 20' 1-0
GROLLI (Avispa) 24' 1-1
YAMAGISHI (Avispa) 66' 1-2
KOBAYASHI (Frontale) 84' 2-2
TONO (Frontale) 90+2' 3-2
MIYASHIRO (Frontale) 90+6' 4-2
Highlights
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