Vissel Kobe 1 - 0 Kawasaki Frontale
I’m sure you’ll understand why I want to keep this brief. Not only is there nothing new to say as the fact that we keep taking the exact same approach to every game with almost exactly the same players, unsurprisingly keeps yielding the same results, but also because this match was so unrelentingly shit from both teams and there are only so many synonyms that I can find for terrible. Yeah, of course we’ve been poor all year, but blimey, this was a new level of shitness. Not the worst we’ve played all year, but definitely the most boringly we’ve played and the game which most felt like an utter waste of time. And we didn’t even get the consolation of traveling to a different part of the country for an away game. Instead we could ‘enjoy’ the ‘LOVE KOBE FESTIVAL’ just the 500 or so kilometres from the city it was celebrating. Or perhaps I’m wrong and this was supposed to be a ‘LOVE (VISSEL) KOBE FESTIVAL’. I’d say that was equally misplaced logic, as even from a Vissel point of view, in spite of getting the win, there probably wasn’t that much to enjoy about this stinking turd of a game. Perhaps the one small crumb of comfort we could hang on to after this match was that thanks to how bad Vissel were at shooting, we could come away with a defeat by just the one goal. If they could hit the target we probably could have conceded four or five so absent was the concept of defending from Oniki’s match plan. Perhaps it’s unfair to blame Oniki for the defence being shit, but blimey it was terrible. I saw someone on Twitter saying that the 'J2 level defenders' Ominami, Jesiel and Sasaki were hindering Takai’s development. On the evidence of this game, I’d say that was generous to the extreme to Takai who had another one of his increasingly frequent absolute stinkers. It always seems that after he’s had a good few games or has achieved something he has a series of horrible performances. He couldn’t pass to save his life in this match. And much like some of his teammates in spite of playing horribly this year he still seems to be so full of confidence that the idea of making a simple pass without attempting some kind of trick shot at the same time seems to be complete anathema. It was by no means Takai only who wasn’t at their best in this game. Once again Tachibanada, Wakizaka and Ienaga were almost anonymous apart from when they were fucking up. Gomis didn’t do much, but how was he supposed to do anything when the only time the ball came anywhere near him was when it was hoofed from a goal kick to him? Yamauchi had another quiet game, but it was still kind of baffling to see Oniki change him at half time when you probably could have made a better case for changing almost anyone else on our team. Certainly anyone in the midfield or the attack.
But you know, that's the mystery of Oniki, eh? And by mystery, I don’t mean the mystery that he is still in the manager's job. The mystery is just that his tactics are at such a high level that mere mortals like us can’t understand them. Two examples so perfectly encapsulated this game that I will state them here to show you how Oniki is working and thinking on a higher plain that we can. The first was when Wakizaka chased across the field to deftly steal the ball from a Kobe player. He won the ball, beat the player and then proceeded to boot the ball directly off the pitch. I’m only a mere fan, but if I can speculate, perhaps the idea was that giving Kobe the ball in their own half would allow us to ‘draw them out’. And as we all know, drawing the opposition out is the pinnacle of football as far as the mighty O is concerned. In fact so important is it that usually after successfully drawing them out we put our foot on the ball and allow them to regroup so we can attempt to draw them out again. The second noteworthy moment was when Yamada got the ball in the box with the goal gaping and only a pretty dodgy looking keeper to beat and instead of shooting decided to cut back and play the ball out to the wing. I have to admit, Oniki has foxed me with this one. I can’t work out any reason why this might be a good idea. However, it certainly helps to explain why we didn’t have a shot for the first 31 minutes and even then that was off target. In the next 30 minutes we managed just the one more shot. Also off target. So no work for their keeper in the first hour. The last 30 minutes was blistering though, with us doubling our shot count for the match, unsurprising I guess as we were behind and were chasing the game. We even got those shots on target. Perhaps it’s a bit of an exaggeration to call a ball gently rolled towards the opposition keeper a shot on target, but I think we should really hang on to that positivity and claim them as near misses. After all, if the keeper and all of his defenders hadn't been there it would definitely have been a goal. Well definitely unless the ‘shot’ ran out of oomph before it managed to trickle over the line. Four shots in ninety minutes. You can’t really say we didn’t deserve to lose. With our cutting edge right now, it’s pretty certain that the best result we can hope for is a 0-0. Oniki found his level when he outfoxed a team three leagues below us with a pretty average at best performance. It’s just a shame that we can’t play amateur teams every week really. Well, I shouldn’t wish too much for that as that clearly lies in the future for us if we renew Oniki’s contract again. In three years we can play in the JFL! Plenty of new grounds to visit. Presumably he’ll still be using the same tactics to the same effect.
So, anything good to come out of this game? Well one thing might be the fact that so many of our players have shown themselves to be so out of form that they shouldn’t start the next game. Unfortunately most of the players who’ve been rubbish also fall into the 'Oniki’s favourites' camp and therefore will continue to be played, no matter how bad they become. I reckon even a serious muscle injury or a broken bone might not be enough to change Oniki’s mind about how one of his favourites will be much better to play than any other player in the squad. As we can’t hope for any real changes in personnel it seems pointless to say that Ze Ricardo came on and had his best (part of a) game for us. Would love to see him and Seko start the next game. I don’t know who else I’d want in midfield but I know it wouldn’t be Wakizaka or Tachibanada. Erm… that’s it. Ze Ricardo had a good 20 minutes, That’s all I have to say apart from the fact that I avoided disappointment after the match by resigning myself to that fact that we’d lose before the game had started. But even this mental prep didn’t help me avoid the absolute boredom and frustration of watching such a terrible performance. And the bewilderment of reading Oniki’s post match comments where he followed the same tactical instructions he’d given the team perfectly and repeated exactly the same bollocks he says every week, somehow thinking that it might make sense this time. Of course, it didn’t. It seems he thinks we need to increase the variation of our attacks. Jeez, no shit. That’s why he gets the big bucks, I guess. Presumably not big enough bucks though to able to find the solution to the problem which is staring most people apart from him in the face, which is TRY TO SCORE A FUCKING GOAL INSTEAD OF FOCUSING ON PRACTICING SIDEWAYS PASSING IN OUR OWN HALF FOR NINETY FUCKING MINUTES.
Wow. A post that is so pissed off that I didn't even bother to make fun of the opposition. I normally try to be pretty supportive (to the players at least) even when things aren't going well, but I can't put up with much more of this absolutely awful stuff. It's taken the fun out of even making a joke about Furuhashi doing well to stay on his feet during his half time appearance in contrast to all of the times he's played against us. Next up Niigata away on Saturday, a game which when it occurs in the league even when we’re having a good season is pretty much always a disappointment with us performing terribly and coming away with nothing. Not sure what that means will happen this year. I don’t think there’s any further we could sink. Perhaps just the one shot in the whole game maybe? Anyone expecting anything exciting from this match is clearly a more positive person that I am! At least it’s a fun city to visit.
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| Just how big are those technical areas? Guess you can tell how bored I was from the fact that I took this photo |
But you know, that's the mystery of Oniki, eh? And by mystery, I don’t mean the mystery that he is still in the manager's job. The mystery is just that his tactics are at such a high level that mere mortals like us can’t understand them. Two examples so perfectly encapsulated this game that I will state them here to show you how Oniki is working and thinking on a higher plain that we can. The first was when Wakizaka chased across the field to deftly steal the ball from a Kobe player. He won the ball, beat the player and then proceeded to boot the ball directly off the pitch. I’m only a mere fan, but if I can speculate, perhaps the idea was that giving Kobe the ball in their own half would allow us to ‘draw them out’. And as we all know, drawing the opposition out is the pinnacle of football as far as the mighty O is concerned. In fact so important is it that usually after successfully drawing them out we put our foot on the ball and allow them to regroup so we can attempt to draw them out again. The second noteworthy moment was when Yamada got the ball in the box with the goal gaping and only a pretty dodgy looking keeper to beat and instead of shooting decided to cut back and play the ball out to the wing. I have to admit, Oniki has foxed me with this one. I can’t work out any reason why this might be a good idea. However, it certainly helps to explain why we didn’t have a shot for the first 31 minutes and even then that was off target. In the next 30 minutes we managed just the one more shot. Also off target. So no work for their keeper in the first hour. The last 30 minutes was blistering though, with us doubling our shot count for the match, unsurprising I guess as we were behind and were chasing the game. We even got those shots on target. Perhaps it’s a bit of an exaggeration to call a ball gently rolled towards the opposition keeper a shot on target, but I think we should really hang on to that positivity and claim them as near misses. After all, if the keeper and all of his defenders hadn't been there it would definitely have been a goal. Well definitely unless the ‘shot’ ran out of oomph before it managed to trickle over the line. Four shots in ninety minutes. You can’t really say we didn’t deserve to lose. With our cutting edge right now, it’s pretty certain that the best result we can hope for is a 0-0. Oniki found his level when he outfoxed a team three leagues below us with a pretty average at best performance. It’s just a shame that we can’t play amateur teams every week really. Well, I shouldn’t wish too much for that as that clearly lies in the future for us if we renew Oniki’s contract again. In three years we can play in the JFL! Plenty of new grounds to visit. Presumably he’ll still be using the same tactics to the same effect.
So, anything good to come out of this game? Well one thing might be the fact that so many of our players have shown themselves to be so out of form that they shouldn’t start the next game. Unfortunately most of the players who’ve been rubbish also fall into the 'Oniki’s favourites' camp and therefore will continue to be played, no matter how bad they become. I reckon even a serious muscle injury or a broken bone might not be enough to change Oniki’s mind about how one of his favourites will be much better to play than any other player in the squad. As we can’t hope for any real changes in personnel it seems pointless to say that Ze Ricardo came on and had his best (part of a) game for us. Would love to see him and Seko start the next game. I don’t know who else I’d want in midfield but I know it wouldn’t be Wakizaka or Tachibanada. Erm… that’s it. Ze Ricardo had a good 20 minutes, That’s all I have to say apart from the fact that I avoided disappointment after the match by resigning myself to that fact that we’d lose before the game had started. But even this mental prep didn’t help me avoid the absolute boredom and frustration of watching such a terrible performance. And the bewilderment of reading Oniki’s post match comments where he followed the same tactical instructions he’d given the team perfectly and repeated exactly the same bollocks he says every week, somehow thinking that it might make sense this time. Of course, it didn’t. It seems he thinks we need to increase the variation of our attacks. Jeez, no shit. That’s why he gets the big bucks, I guess. Presumably not big enough bucks though to able to find the solution to the problem which is staring most people apart from him in the face, which is TRY TO SCORE A FUCKING GOAL INSTEAD OF FOCUSING ON PRACTICING SIDEWAYS PASSING IN OUR OWN HALF FOR NINETY FUCKING MINUTES.
Wow. A post that is so pissed off that I didn't even bother to make fun of the opposition. I normally try to be pretty supportive (to the players at least) even when things aren't going well, but I can't put up with much more of this absolutely awful stuff. It's taken the fun out of even making a joke about Furuhashi doing well to stay on his feet during his half time appearance in contrast to all of the times he's played against us. Next up Niigata away on Saturday, a game which when it occurs in the league even when we’re having a good season is pretty much always a disappointment with us performing terribly and coming away with nothing. Not sure what that means will happen this year. I don’t think there’s any further we could sink. Perhaps just the one shot in the whole game maybe? Anyone expecting anything exciting from this match is clearly a more positive person that I am! At least it’s a fun city to visit.
Team
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma
Subs
GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto
MF 6. ZE RICARDO (on for YAMAUCHI 46')
DF 15. TANABE Shuto
MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki (on for JESIEL 72')
FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for GOMIS 61')
FW 23. MARCINHO (on for TONO 61')
MF 30. SEGAWA Yusuke (on for IENAGA 80')
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma
DF 4. JESIEL
DF 2. TAKAI Kota
DF 5. SASAKI Asahi
MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento (Yellow card 14')
MF 17. TONO Daiya
DF 2. TAKAI Kota
DF 5. SASAKI Asahi
MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento (Yellow card 14')
MF 17. TONO Daiya
MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro
FW 18. Bafetimbi GOMIS
FW 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata
FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro
FW 18. Bafetimbi GOMIS
FW 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata
Subs
GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto
MF 6. ZE RICARDO (on for YAMAUCHI 46')
DF 15. TANABE Shuto
MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki (on for JESIEL 72')
FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for GOMIS 61')
FW 23. MARCINHO (on for TONO 61')
MF 30. SEGAWA Yusuke (on for IENAGA 80')
Goals
MUTO (Vissel) 43' 1-0
My Frontale Man Of The Match
It’s a bit of a shock that I’m doing this for such an awful game, but I guess I’m grasping at any kind of positive. There’s only one option, (aside from giving to Sung-Ryong again who managed to stop all but one of the shots Vissel managed to get on target), and it’s…
ZE RICARDO - give this man a start and give certain other players a rest. His brief appearance resulted in what I guess were probably the only forward passes in the entire game for us.
Highlights
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