Kawasaki Frontale 3 - 0 FC Tokyo
Ah…. It’s lovely when we win, isn’t it? It’s even better when it’s against a local rival in a somewhat artificially constructed derby. And by a few clear goals! Ambassador, you are really spoiling us. I’ve come away from this game with scandalously few notes which means this is all going to be a bit slapdash but I’m sure you’d expect nothing else. As the next game is fast approaching and it’s already Monday evening when I’m writing this, let’s get into it.
First of all a few words about the latest starting line up. Sung-Ryong was back in goal. I think I said before that I think there’s not a great deal of difference who we have in goal this year and with that in mind, I think it’s very much a case of you hang on to the spot unless you make a massive cock up. In the cold light of day rather than during the game, I’m not sure Kami flapping at that cross that hit the bar against Kashima was a total clanger, but it seems that might have been the reason for another change in goal. This game, with FC Tokyo having just the ONE shot on target, (I think in second half injury time!), is unlikely to give us any new insight into who should be in goal. I will say though that the save was a pretty good one, and instinctively I feel more comfortable when Sung-Ryong is in goal. That opinion is a bit harsher on Kami than it was last year though. In central defence I thought we’d already tried all the possible combinations but I was wrong! Jesiel and Takai was a new one! I don’t know if them playing together is the magic formula though. I think pretty much every centre back has made at least one horrible blunder this year. People might comment that Takai has been in the team for our two 2024 clean sheets. I’d probably counter that by saying that he was in the team when we conceded five times against a newly promoted team too though. Yamamoto didn’t play, I think for the first time we’ve had Oniki’s first choice 11 out. I don’t think you can really make a connection between his absence and us winning though as I think he’s consistently been our best midfielder this year. But it seems that he and Wakizaka are probably best in the same position and I can't see Oniki dropping Wakizaka. Hmmm. It was nice to see Tachibanada back where he plays best though. Of course though this meant that the only natural option at right back was Segawa (hehe), who is presumably ahead of Sasaki, Sai, Ominami and Tanabe there. I think that’s all of the people in the squad who play right back who weren’t selected. Up front Erison returned from injury, much to my delight. Sadly we didn’t get the (at least) one goal his appearance normally guarantees. But he really is our best option there as he’s just a brute. And a brute with a great eye for goal. (Well apart from the fresh air shot/half scuff in the second half when it seemed that we were focusing on experimenting with different ways to waste great scoring opportunities. Replacing the banned Marcinho was Tono, who finally got a chance to play in something like his best position. I think having him there gave our attack a bit of variation. Not saying that Marcinho shouldn’t play, but just that we shouldn’t rely on him so heavily, and so predictably. So that’s the changes in the team. I think Segawa had a pretty good game to be honest. Likewise Miura. The midfield looked really solid and the amount of time that we just robbed the ball from FC Tokyo shortly after they entered our half was lovely! We scored three times! Amazing! We carried on attacking right up till the end instead of taking the ball to the corner flag constantly after the 85th minute. It was fun! I am fully aware though that this is very much coloured by the fact that we won. So with that in mind, let’s get negative!
The first goal was an absolute gift from FC Tokyo. In fact maybe that actually made the first goal going in all the more enjoyable. The other two goals came after Tokyo were down to 10 men after a very welcome red card for their keeper which probably decided the game, even though the margin at that stage was only one goal. I think that vocally I celebrated the red card a bit too much, particularly as there was lengthy VAR check after my celebration before it was finally given. The second goal went in off Nagatomo’s backside which also was very amusing. OG = お尻ゴール. Hang on this is supposed to be the negative part and instead I’m posting enjoyable stuff… (Before I switch back to that, let me just say that Yamauchi’s assist and his subsequent celebration was a real joy). However, let’s not forget that quite a lot of the first half of this match was basically both teams focusing all of their efforts on intensely pressing the opposition’s short goal kicks to absolutely no effect. It was nice of FC Tokyo to join in with our usual Frontale performance art piece of futile yet beautiful repetition. Any excitement about us winning has to be tempered by the fact that they seemed to be able to do almost nothing when they approached our goal. I don’t know if that’s their preferred front three this year, but if it is, they must have really been having an off day, as aside from their late fast break and only shot on target, they never looked like they were getting anywhere near close to scoring. Matsuki, who obviously is a contender for number one hate figure, looked pretty useless I thought. Delighted! Araki whose parent club makes him a perfect fit for the same award was also anonymous. Lovely! But with this in mind, you’ve got to say that any delight about our comfortable win has to be qualified by the overall poor quality of the game. With this in mind though, I think the performance wasn’t actually that important. I don’t particularly think we’ve been unlucky so far this year and have largely got what we deserved. But a first home win should hopefully create a bit of good feeling around the team. It certainly did in the pub afterwards! (Although obviously the team weren’t in the pub with us). So to sum up, I’d probably say the right thing to do is to delight in the big win, whilst understanding that the performance was by no means as impressive as the result suggests, and while the goals put a nice gloss on things, the real significant things are the three points and the boost it will hopefully give us.
Oh, almost forgot to mention the ref. I thought he was a ref that let a hell of a lot of things go, but officiated the game in a pretty even handed way. So I suppose that is almost…. praise. So let’s undermine that by saying that there was one absolutely horrendous bit of reffing from him when Ienaga was being relentlessly fouled, but managed to keep the ball, and the ref decided to wait until Ienaga had shrugged off the fouler and played a nice pass into the middle towards the goal until he blew up for the free kick, which from my scant knowledge of the rules of the game seems to be the complete opposite to how you’re supposed to play the advantage in these kind of situations. See, I couldn’t resist a bit of a moan, could I? But Ueda did… alright. Which in 2024 J1 amounts to high praise to be honest. A quick look back at posts on previous games he’s been in charge of suggests that he’s either pretty good, or absolutely terrible, with the one constant being that he doesn’t give much. Thankfully he went for a pretty good on this occasion! And before you start thinking that my past opinons were based more on our results than the ref’s performance, the last two games we’ve had with him were a big win where I thought he was terrible and a dodgy draw where I thought he was pretty good.
Next up, YFM away on Wednesday in what is a bit of a local derby packed couple of weeks, because after that we have Machida at home. I don’t know if the fixture computer does this on purpose. You might think it would make sense to put the closer to home goes in around Golden Week as loads of people are traveling at that time. Instead, the fixture computer, which is almost certainly a modified fax machine, has given us Sanfrecce Hiroshima away and Avispa Fukuoka away around that time, nicely slotting in Urawa at home in the middle lest anyone get the idea of combing the two away trips. And then after Avispa we’re back home against Consadole before retuning to Kyushu for the second time in two weeks. My league game 100% attendance is going to be killed off very early on this season. YFM away will show us quite how positive we should be after this game. They aren’t doing particularly well this year either but it’s never an easy game and they are almost certainly my most disliked team in the league. Although Kashima and Urawa obviously are right up there too. Sorry this post has been light on anything amusing and hasn’t even contained that much moaning and opposition baiting. I guess it’s just a relief that we’re back going in the right direction. Whether that is a lucky accident or not, I guess we’ll find out soon.
First of all a few words about the latest starting line up. Sung-Ryong was back in goal. I think I said before that I think there’s not a great deal of difference who we have in goal this year and with that in mind, I think it’s very much a case of you hang on to the spot unless you make a massive cock up. In the cold light of day rather than during the game, I’m not sure Kami flapping at that cross that hit the bar against Kashima was a total clanger, but it seems that might have been the reason for another change in goal. This game, with FC Tokyo having just the ONE shot on target, (I think in second half injury time!), is unlikely to give us any new insight into who should be in goal. I will say though that the save was a pretty good one, and instinctively I feel more comfortable when Sung-Ryong is in goal. That opinion is a bit harsher on Kami than it was last year though. In central defence I thought we’d already tried all the possible combinations but I was wrong! Jesiel and Takai was a new one! I don’t know if them playing together is the magic formula though. I think pretty much every centre back has made at least one horrible blunder this year. People might comment that Takai has been in the team for our two 2024 clean sheets. I’d probably counter that by saying that he was in the team when we conceded five times against a newly promoted team too though. Yamamoto didn’t play, I think for the first time we’ve had Oniki’s first choice 11 out. I don’t think you can really make a connection between his absence and us winning though as I think he’s consistently been our best midfielder this year. But it seems that he and Wakizaka are probably best in the same position and I can't see Oniki dropping Wakizaka. Hmmm. It was nice to see Tachibanada back where he plays best though. Of course though this meant that the only natural option at right back was Segawa (hehe), who is presumably ahead of Sasaki, Sai, Ominami and Tanabe there. I think that’s all of the people in the squad who play right back who weren’t selected. Up front Erison returned from injury, much to my delight. Sadly we didn’t get the (at least) one goal his appearance normally guarantees. But he really is our best option there as he’s just a brute. And a brute with a great eye for goal. (Well apart from the fresh air shot/half scuff in the second half when it seemed that we were focusing on experimenting with different ways to waste great scoring opportunities. Replacing the banned Marcinho was Tono, who finally got a chance to play in something like his best position. I think having him there gave our attack a bit of variation. Not saying that Marcinho shouldn’t play, but just that we shouldn’t rely on him so heavily, and so predictably. So that’s the changes in the team. I think Segawa had a pretty good game to be honest. Likewise Miura. The midfield looked really solid and the amount of time that we just robbed the ball from FC Tokyo shortly after they entered our half was lovely! We scored three times! Amazing! We carried on attacking right up till the end instead of taking the ball to the corner flag constantly after the 85th minute. It was fun! I am fully aware though that this is very much coloured by the fact that we won. So with that in mind, let’s get negative!
The first goal was an absolute gift from FC Tokyo. In fact maybe that actually made the first goal going in all the more enjoyable. The other two goals came after Tokyo were down to 10 men after a very welcome red card for their keeper which probably decided the game, even though the margin at that stage was only one goal. I think that vocally I celebrated the red card a bit too much, particularly as there was lengthy VAR check after my celebration before it was finally given. The second goal went in off Nagatomo’s backside which also was very amusing. OG = お尻ゴール. Hang on this is supposed to be the negative part and instead I’m posting enjoyable stuff… (Before I switch back to that, let me just say that Yamauchi’s assist and his subsequent celebration was a real joy). However, let’s not forget that quite a lot of the first half of this match was basically both teams focusing all of their efforts on intensely pressing the opposition’s short goal kicks to absolutely no effect. It was nice of FC Tokyo to join in with our usual Frontale performance art piece of futile yet beautiful repetition. Any excitement about us winning has to be tempered by the fact that they seemed to be able to do almost nothing when they approached our goal. I don’t know if that’s their preferred front three this year, but if it is, they must have really been having an off day, as aside from their late fast break and only shot on target, they never looked like they were getting anywhere near close to scoring. Matsuki, who obviously is a contender for number one hate figure, looked pretty useless I thought. Delighted! Araki whose parent club makes him a perfect fit for the same award was also anonymous. Lovely! But with this in mind, you’ve got to say that any delight about our comfortable win has to be qualified by the overall poor quality of the game. With this in mind though, I think the performance wasn’t actually that important. I don’t particularly think we’ve been unlucky so far this year and have largely got what we deserved. But a first home win should hopefully create a bit of good feeling around the team. It certainly did in the pub afterwards! (Although obviously the team weren’t in the pub with us). So to sum up, I’d probably say the right thing to do is to delight in the big win, whilst understanding that the performance was by no means as impressive as the result suggests, and while the goals put a nice gloss on things, the real significant things are the three points and the boost it will hopefully give us.
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| FC Tokyo fans either claiming some regal heritage or really should go and get that checked out by a doctor |
Oh, almost forgot to mention the ref. I thought he was a ref that let a hell of a lot of things go, but officiated the game in a pretty even handed way. So I suppose that is almost…. praise. So let’s undermine that by saying that there was one absolutely horrendous bit of reffing from him when Ienaga was being relentlessly fouled, but managed to keep the ball, and the ref decided to wait until Ienaga had shrugged off the fouler and played a nice pass into the middle towards the goal until he blew up for the free kick, which from my scant knowledge of the rules of the game seems to be the complete opposite to how you’re supposed to play the advantage in these kind of situations. See, I couldn’t resist a bit of a moan, could I? But Ueda did… alright. Which in 2024 J1 amounts to high praise to be honest. A quick look back at posts on previous games he’s been in charge of suggests that he’s either pretty good, or absolutely terrible, with the one constant being that he doesn’t give much. Thankfully he went for a pretty good on this occasion! And before you start thinking that my past opinons were based more on our results than the ref’s performance, the last two games we’ve had with him were a big win where I thought he was terrible and a dodgy draw where I thought he was pretty good.
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| Ref Ueda about to commit an absolutely crunching foul to break up a Frontale attack |
Next up, YFM away on Wednesday in what is a bit of a local derby packed couple of weeks, because after that we have Machida at home. I don’t know if the fixture computer does this on purpose. You might think it would make sense to put the closer to home goes in around Golden Week as loads of people are traveling at that time. Instead, the fixture computer, which is almost certainly a modified fax machine, has given us Sanfrecce Hiroshima away and Avispa Fukuoka away around that time, nicely slotting in Urawa at home in the middle lest anyone get the idea of combing the two away trips. And then after Avispa we’re back home against Consadole before retuning to Kyushu for the second time in two weeks. My league game 100% attendance is going to be killed off very early on this season. YFM away will show us quite how positive we should be after this game. They aren’t doing particularly well this year either but it’s never an easy game and they are almost certainly my most disliked team in the league. Although Kashima and Urawa obviously are right up there too. Sorry this post has been light on anything amusing and hasn’t even contained that much moaning and opposition baiting. I guess it’s just a relief that we’re back going in the right direction. Whether that is a lucky accident or not, I guess we’ll find out soon.
Team
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
DF 30. SEGAWA Yusuke
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
DF 30. SEGAWA Yusuke
DF 4. JESIEL (Yellow card 34')
DF 2. TAKAI Kota
DF 2. TAKAI Kota
DF 13. MIURA Sota
MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento
MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki
FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro
FW 9. ERISON
FW 17. TONO Daiya
Subs
Team
GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto
DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma
MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento
MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki
FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro
FW 9. ERISON
FW 17. TONO Daiya
Subs
Team
GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto
DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma
DF 5. SASAKI Asahi (on for SEGAWA 64')
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for IENAGA 90+5')
FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for ERISON 82')
MF 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata (on for TONO 82')
MF 77. YAMAMOTO Yuki (on for WAKIZAKA 90+5')
Goals
WAKIZAKA (Frontale) 34' 1-0
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for IENAGA 90+5')
FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for ERISON 82')
MF 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata (on for TONO 82')
MF 77. YAMAMOTO Yuki (on for WAKIZAKA 90+5')
Goals
WAKIZAKA (Frontale) 34' 1-0
YAMADA (Frontale) 83' 2-0
TACHIBANADA (Frontale) 90+2' 3-0
TACHIBANADA (Frontale) 90+2' 3-0
This is a bit of a tricky one for a change. It could easily be someone from the midfield as the ball just didn’t seem to be able to get through it when Tokyo attacked. And it could have been a few other players too, but I dunno, for me one player stood out slightly and that was…
MIURA Sota - Has had a reasonably positive start to his career with us but like everyone has had a few dodgy games. But in this match he just seemed to be at the heart of a lot of our positive play and looked to have really found his feet.
MIURA Sota - Has had a reasonably positive start to his career with us but like everyone has had a few dodgy games. But in this match he just seemed to be at the heart of a lot of our positive play and looked to have really found his feet.
Highlights
The 4-2-3-1seems to work the best with this squad. Look forward to seeing Ze Ricardo replacing Seko.
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