Finally, here are the results of the Frontale Rabbit 2023 season survey. Sorry they’re a bit late. This time we had a bit of input from fans of other teams so perhaps some of the answers might seem a bit shocking. I’ll mark some of the answers that have come from fans of other teams with an * or separate them so it doesn’t get confusing.
1. Game of season
Winner - YFM away (league)
Runner up - Ulsan Hyundai home (ACL)
There were two which received multiple votes and one clear winner which was my game of the season too. Perhaps the fact that many games were mentioned shows that it wasn’t a great season for us and that any win where we managed with a few goals had a decent chance of being someone’s favourite. I voted for YFM away because we basically nicked the three points right at the end of a terrible game and in doing so could say that, in part, we helped them lose the title race.
Others mentioned
Kashima away (league)
Johor DT home (ACL)
Consadole Sapporo away (league)
Avispa Fukuoka home (league)
Fans of other teams’s answers
Two votes for Vissel Kobe 2 - 0 YFM, which I’m sure most of us can get behind. And one vote for FC Tokyo 2 - 1 Frontale, which I’m sure we can’t.
2. Player of the season
Winner - Wakizaka Yasuto
A clear winner here with Wakizaka taking 80% of the votes cast by Frontale fans. Also mentioned were Sung-Ryong and Leandro Damiao. Yuya Osako got two votes from Kansai based respondents. I have to say, I abstained on this question as I don’t really know who I can vote for. There were some players who had good periods of the season, but the bad periods stand out more.
3. Goal of the season
Winner - Tachibanada Kento, Ulsan home
- ACL
The clear winner here was Tachibanada’s goal against Ulsan in the ACL. Kobayashi’s goal against Fukuoka came in second place. And there were a few others mentioned too. Below are videos of all the Frontale goals. In the interest of keeping non Frontale fans happy, the non Frontale goals mentioned were ‘Osako's away goal @ Reds was the most important one. As for aesthetics, I don't remember all goals but the FC Tokyo goal vs. Cerezo was one of the best ones’, ‘Tokumoto’s curler at Kokuritsu’ and ‘Same as J.League - Ryoma Watanabe’.
Tachibanada Kento vs Ulsan Hyundai, ACL
Kobayashi Yu vs Avispa Fukuoka, J League
Kobayashi Yu vs Johor DT, ACL
Sung-Ryong Jung vs Kashiwa, Emperor's Cup
Kurumaya Shintaro vs YFM, J League
4. Disappointment of the season
‘Winner’ - our league campaign
Lots of fun for rival fans here, as there were plenty of disappointments for us this year. The thing that got mentioned the most was our league campaign and that gets my vote too. One respondent said ‘Finished outside of the top 3 for the first time since 2019. Sooo sad, but considering how disastrously inconsistent we were, nothing but well-deserved’. Aside from the league campaign we had the following answers: 'Oniki', ‘Gomis hasn’t done much since he signed. Nearly cost you the EC (also nearly won it but that doesn’t count)’*, ‘Failing to turn a new leaf and reinvent their football’, ‘Gamba Osaka’* and the home game against Gamba Osaka.
5. Villain of the season (anyone, from any team or an official or...)
In early 2023, I had something of a meltdown when I realised quite how bad our year was going to be. After that happened I managed to reach a stage of acceptance where I knew we were probably going to be crap so I didn’t get that annoyed about anything. As usual, the refs were absolutely useless, but that’s just a given recently, and when you consider how bad we played most of the time, I think useless refs actually helped us get what we deserved sometimes. There were plenty of different answers for this question so I’ll list them all. It seems a bit unfair to say so, but my answer is probably Oniki, as I think his complete inflexibility and lack of ideas turned what could have been a promising season with decent players into a total disaster in the league. He’s apparently a nice guy, but I think in 2023 he proved himself to be not up to the job. Here’s what everyone else said.
- Ref Ikeuchi
- Al Rayyan (who took Taniguchi from us)
- VAR
- Oshima’s calf
- 99% of the refs.
- Refs at Vissel - Reysol that didn't award a red and penalty for the Mitsuki Saito assault.
- Nishimura will always top the list
- Not having a specific person in mind, but as for the opposition club, it has to be the bothersome Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo!!!
- The front office
- Reds' Akimoto
- Queuing system for unreserved seats
6. Best away trip (if you've done one)
The most mentions in this category was for Kashiwa away, but both of these were said with the qualifier that it was their only away game. With that in mind, I’ll just list all the places mentioned. I really feel like I should give a better answer to this question than my usual Sagan Tosu away, although this year we actually managed to do alright in that game, even if it was an extremely dull match. So my answer on this occasion will be the Avispa Fukuoka and Kyoto Sanga double header that we did, stopping at Izumo and Okayama ’on the way’. Amazing that we won two games in a row, and Avispa away was quite something in the rain.
- Kashiwa
- Kochi
- Sendai *
- Consadole in J League Challenge in Bangkok *
- Niigata (Emperor’s Cup game)
- YFM
- 3 games in Thailand in March, and 12-14 May in Tokyo (Tamagawa classico, Reysol-YFC, Antlers-Grampus in 3 days) *
7. Best stadium in the J League
Winner - Todoroki
As usual, an overwhelming win in this category for Todoroki, which I think will always just be homerism of the highest order until we get rid of the running track. In second place is Gamba Osaka’s Suita Stadium. Also mentioned were the stadiums of Sagan Tosu, Kyoto Sanga, Vissel Kobe and Kashima. I think I’d probably say Sagan Tosu too, so I guess that takes it up into joint second place. One person said ‘Hiroshima will be interesting to visit’ and I think in 2024 many people will agree and do just that. I certainly intend to go to Hiroshima away for the first time in a few years.
8. Opposition J1 team you like the most
Winner - Consadole Sapporo
Somewhat surprisingly given that they seem to absolutely hate us, Sapporo won, so I guess the feeling isn’t mutual. In reality though, Sapporo actually came joint top with ‘no-one’. Other teams mentioned were Sagan Tosu (they got my vote too), a couple of votes for Shonan Bellmare, one for Kyoto Sanga and one for FC Tokyo * (obviously this was from a Tokyo fan)
9. Opposition J1 team you like the least
Winners - Kashima Antlers & Yokohama F Marinos
The question that I enjoy the most, and it’s a dead heat between the equally despicable Kashima and YFM. I did vote for YFM though, so I guess in my mind they aren’t completely equally despicable. Other teams mentioned were FC Tokyo (a couple of times), Urawa, Consadole, and my favourite answer ‘全部’ (all of them). It;'s quite funny that Consadole were an answer for favourite and least favourite opposition team.
10. Team you're pleased to see come up
Winner - Tokyo Verdy
2nd - Jubilo Iwata
3rd - Machida Zelvia
In my opinion, there’s not much to get excited about when it comes to the teams getting promoted this year. Two very boring away trips to stadiums I’ve been to many times and one slightly more interesting trip to a sightly more interesting stadium in Shizuoka. That’s why I voted for Jubilo. Also, in my opinion, Machida’s massive amount of money takes quite a lot of the shine off of their ‘fairy tale’ promotion, and I think people who voted Verdy are forgetting their history in Kawasaki, Well apart from the person who voted for them and said ‘so we can avenge shocking early exit in 2022 Emperor's Cup as well as prove that there is only one club worthy to be considered the 'pride and joy' of Kawasaki, regardless of the history’, which makes a lot of sense. One respondent begrudgingly voted for Machida saying ‘I don't really like all of the 3 promoted teams this year that much’ which I totally agree with. The FC Tokyo fan voted for Verdy ‘Give me the Tokyo Derby!’. This question was the one which people were most divided on.
11. Best thing about the J League
As usual with this category, I’ll just list the responses, some of which have been amateurly translated by me.
- Passion
- Helps build home town love
- Competitiveness
- The current Feb - Dec calendar
- Great and respectful fans (at least most of them)
- Best league in the world. Good football, safe, friendly and minimum idiots. When I was in Europe in the summer, stadiums were full of idiots.
- Unpredictability (Apart of our surprisingly disastrous performance in 2023, lol)
- Connection with supporters
- Safe for families, always more than just the game, naivety (?) still in it - not (yet) all about money / business
- Safe away trips
- Charitable activities of various clubs
- Connection with supporters
12. Worst thing about the J League
Plenty of different answers which I’ll list below. For me, it’s the refs. It’s always the refs. Especially the bigger name refs who I think get worse every single year. But at the same time, some of the newer ones are utterly useless too, (Takasaki who we had the misfortune of encountering for the first time this year managed to plumb new depths).
- It being underrated
- Delays in confirming the schedule of games
- Not allowed to be as rude to your rivals as in Scotland
- The stupid new calendar to please AFC and European Markets
- Players leaving mid season for arguably worse teams in Europe -_-
- That they are even considering moving to an autumn-spring system.
- The Refs
- Reluctance to increase the selling value of a player who wishes to play abroad
- So much tone policing in the fan culture
- Lack of (Japanese) players who are ready to take one for the team, play had, play a little dirty when it's needed
- Call leader system
- Supporter bad behaviour of teams like Urawa and Kashima
13. Trophy you would like to win the most next year
Winner - ACL
Perhaps because it’s the only one we’ve never won, and we are through to the knockout stages, the ACL took the top spot this year. It was a clear winner with the league following behind and no one mentioning anything else. I think if the influx of money in west Asian football continues it’s going to become almost impossible to win this trophy soon, so maybe this is our last chance. Saying that though, I suspect that the Saudi League’s bubble will burst sooner or later. For me though, I’m much more interested in the league. One of my Kansai responders said ‘J1 and ACL for Vissel, Emp. Cup for Gamba, Levain for Cerezo’ which I don't understand, because we're going to win all of them, aren't we?
14. What’s your view of Oniki?
I probably don't need to say what I think, do I? If he really changes things this year, I'll be delighted, but I have no idea how he expected us to get better last year by just continuing relentlessly with the same bad ideas, week after week.
- Nice person
- Best manager in the country
- Clings onto his veterans FAR too long. Takes too long to bring through new blood. *
- Classic championship coach dilemma. Hard enough to reinvent the team once (2020, twice if you include his first season), but incredibly difficult to reinvent his own approach and tactics. I feel like he needs more tactical support on his bench, and increasingly in the dressing room
- Has that ability to help players turn the situation into the better. Just, he needs to do a lot of homework in terms of positive performance and consistency
- I’ve no idea how he wins things. He must have a deal with the devil to get those trophies. *
- Won everything he could have. One of the best ones in the history of the league it's only downhill from here. *
- Seems like a great guy, but needs to work on his tactics for next season and has to give our young players more chances.
- I hope the new coaching staff members will give him new and fresh ideas
- Got it right towards the end but meh I think it's time for a change personally
- GOAT
- Passionate and reliable.
15. If you could have any J League player sign for Frontale, who would it be?
Some of these answers came through before all of our transfer business was done, so perhaps they are a bit out of date. Or perhaps not. I always struggle with this question as I think we have good players that just aren’t used very well. Some of the names mentioned would be quite difficult to welcome to Frontale for me. As I haven’t seen the new players play yet and I haven’t seen the rumored new system, I’m going to remain optimistic and say we don’t need anyone, no matter how high profile! Here are the names mentioned.
- Elber (YFM)
- Osako (Kobe), Koga (Kashiwa), Miya (Fukuoka)
- Kawasaki (Kyoto)
- Koizumi (Urawa)
- Whoever gets Frontale relegated. *
- Higashi (FC Tokyo) *
- ‘Daniel Schmidt (I am not sure whether or not this is realistic atm. But, yes, why not?)’
- ‘Yuya Osako. Or.....how about a villain like Yuma Suzuki’
- ‘NEED a central FW - Yuma Suzuki? Or a younger GK - Obi Powell, but too late!’
- Handa (Gamba)
16. Which former Frontale player would you most like to see us re-sign?
Winner - Miyoshi Koji
I’m a bit surprised as I thought more people would say Mitoma as he is almost certainly the best player we’ve had in recent years. But perhaps people were being a bit more realistic with their answers. Mitoma was in second place though. Others mentioned included Chinen, ‘Okubo. And make him start every game, no subs’ *, ‘Leandro Damiao, why did you let him go?’ *, ‘Realistically, I will say... Tatsuya Hasegawa. But, if Reo Hatate decides to returns out of the blue, especially sooner rather than later, then, yes. YES!’, Taniguchi, Miyashiro * and Itakura. Personally I think I’d go for someone who we didn’t see the best of, so probably Miyoshi or Itakura (who was apparently not good enough to play for us, but good enough to be signed by Man City).
17. What’s your prediction for next season?
If I had to answer this question a few weeks ago, I’d have been pretty pessimistic. But sitting here typing this shortly after the signing of Sai Van Wermeskerken I’m starting to think a bit more positively. I think a lot depends on Oniki’s rumoured new system actually being something new. At the moment, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt and I like the look of the squad. Let’s see how long that positivity lasts…
- the quadruple
- maybe not so different from 2023, but a chance to improve if we progress in the ACL and advance in the Emperor’s Cup like we did in 2023.
- League: 1st, Emperors cup: win, Levain Cup: win, ACL: win
- Win the ACL, top-6 in J1, early eliminations in Cups
- Not really optimistic, but hopefully playing for at least a Top 3 finish in the league
- That nobody will be 100% correct in their J-Pred.
- Mid-table maybe just below FC Tokyo *
- Can't say anything yet at the moment. I'm sorry...
- ACL semifinalist, 3rd in J1. Who knows about cups
- Consolidation as new players are bedded in. Top eight?
- One title
- J League Champions
18. How was VAR for you?
I think I’ve said many times that I hate VAR and would like to see it banished from football. I don’t particularly care about everything being accurate. Life isn’t always accurate. And the big problem is that you can’t actually rely on VAR making better decisions. I think the only people who like VAR are people who never or rarely go to watch matches in the stadium. It never makes for a more enjoyable match experience and isn’t it supposed to actually be fun to go and watch football? Anyway, here’s what other people said. It seems that most people don’t agree with me!
- Needs to be a bit better.
- Better than nothing.
- Shite
- Lame
- Inconsistent and waiting for decisions was very tedious
- Mostly correct decisions. Gets lots of criticism but it's not as bad as people make it out to be.
- They need to open up communications so we can understand what’s happening in the stadium. It’s too frustrating with all the silence from the refs and stadium boards not being clear enough.
- Already operating in positive terms, in my opinion. Just... need some evaluation, such as determining severity of foul and what kind of reminder/card deserves to be given to fouling player
- Mostly it works ok.
- Did what's on the label. Not sure it's perfect or works, but did what it said it's there for.
- Don’t mind it
- Although there were some problems to begin with, it’s now really good. Going digital is a good decision.
19. Any other comments
My usual part where I hope people say nice things about my blog, which I can then write on said blog and give myself a pat on the back for. So please indulge me here…
- Vamos Kawasaki !!
- FORZA FRONTALE 🐬
- Thanks again for the entertaining blogs :)
- Thanks for keeping up with your spicy commentary!
- Need to clamp down on referee abuse, while referees need to apply Laws and learn FOOTBALL too, not just the Laws! They do not know how to PLAY - they don't know the GAME, they only seem to know the Laws.
- I want Bafe to score soon.
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