Kashiwa Reysol 2 - 3 Kawasaki Frontale
I’m writing this at the annual Frontale Fan event. It’s a bit of luck that we won this game otherwise the fan celebration could have been a bit of an awkward occasion. I guess the win is the headline. It’s been a long time. A very long time if we’re talking about the league. You could be forgiven for thinking that we were only capable of beating amateur teams judging by our recent record. But no! We’ve remembered how to win a match! And I guess Oniki was right all along. If you keep doing the same thing eventually it works. However, the margins between us winning and extending our disappointing run were quite small though. I think if our winner had been disallowed there’s no way we would have even drawn this game, such have our travails been recently. Confidence was at an all time low and whilst throwing away a two goal lead would have been a new way for us to disappoint this season, we somehow managed to avoid doing so. So this will be a different kind of post than usual. Recently I’ve tried to keep things brief because I’m as fed up of writing about our disappointing games as I am of watching them. On this occasion, I don’t think it would look very gratifying to be moaning when we finally won a game. Finally! This wasn’t the dominant performance we might have hoped for. But we won and that’s the most important thing right now. Definitely plenty of our recent problems have been self inflicted, but at the same time a long run of disappointments brings with it pressure and makes it more likely that we’ll be ‘unlucky’. So let’s keep things positive as this was definitely a step in the right direction.
The game saw the return of Miura at left back. That came from nowhere really. And it’s a bit of luck as with Takai off at the Olympics and potentially not coming back (just my hunch), at least for any meaningful amount of time, we were starting to look worryingly short at the back. Again. Jesiel has got injured. Again. Or maybe it might be more accurate to say that Jesiel has aggravated an existing injury again as I don’t think he has ever looked particularly fit this year. He’s gone back to Brazil for surgery. Kurumaya after appearing from nowhere and playing 90 minutes against Oita now also seems to be slightly injured again (judging from fan event activities). Maruyama? Well, who knows really? So basically right now we just have Sasaki, Ominami and Tanabe who can play at centre back. Probably this mini break in our schedule has come at a good time. Some people have said this game showed just how much we’ve missed Miura but I think that might be getting a bit carried away. But he did get an assist for the first goal, so well done to him for that. Elsewhere on the pitch Yamamoto was back in the starting line up, shortly after being linked with a few other J1 teams. My first impression on hearing that news was that Oniki’s mum and dad had told him that they were going to get rid of some of the toys he never plays with and then he immediately said that they were all his favourites and threw Yamamoto back in to prove his point. With our lack of defensive cover and Oshima back fit again our unbalanced squad is taking on a very familiar shape. As has been the case for literally years we’ve ended up with a bum squeaking paucity of options at the back threatening to completely fall to pieces with the next injury or red card and a midfield where three players will play and with about 20 players to choose from in those spots. Our current formation is never going to be able to keep all of them playing and interested. Which is a bit worrying, but as I said, not at all surprising. On this occasion we went with Yamamoto and naturally Wakizaka and Tachibanada. Oniki stuck with the Kobayashi / Yamada revolving door up front. Yamada scored twice in this game which makes my usual moan about our starting striker not scoring very often look kind of stupid, but please let me at least have my usual moan about us not really having any variety up front on the bench. I’m pretty sure both Gomis and Erison are available. I’m also pretty sure that while we keep on with the same tactics we won’t be getting the best out of them so I guess I’m back-handedly backing Oniki here. But at the same time I’d love to see us try something different occasionally, maybe playing with two up front at some stage with Kobayashi or Yamada alongside Erison or Gomis. But I would also love to win the Loto 7 jackpot and I think the chances of either happening are about the same.
But what’s all this semi grumbling about? This was supposed to be a semi positive blog post this time. So let’s get optimistic. Our run has been terrible and breaking it was the most important thing to do. It’s slightly annoying that on the week we finally did, almost everyone below us also won. When things aren’t going particularly well, it doesn’t really matter how you play if you get the result, does it? After we raced into an early two goal lead I foolishly let the ‘surely we won’t throw this lead away’ thought enter my head. I take full responsibility for us doing exactly that. But the players seemed really determined to get the win on this occasion. The way our winner came about is perhaps symptomatic of this. The Kashiwa keeper and fans were moaning about how it should have not been allowed but as far as I could see, and I was pretty close, the keeper basically lost the ball twice and then pretended he had been assaulted to cover up his blushes. This was a nice scrappy way to win a game. An even nicer way to win is by having your goalie save a bit of a dodgily awarded (with my Frontale cap on) penalty in injury time. There’s a lovely video of the Kashiwa fans behind the goal imagining, as I was, that we’d once again managed to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory, arms aloft and singing and then as the save was made dropping both their arms and their heads. Given that Kashiwa is a club that always treats the away fans like shit, well, couldn’t have happened to a nicer team! On balance, I think a draw would have been a fair result. Sure, they had twice as many shots as us, but we had more on target somehow. It was a pretty scrappy low quality game, but quite an exciting one too. There’s no denying that we absolutely robbed them in the cup final last year so perhaps they were looking for revenge. If they want to get it they really need to improve their shooting.
Whilst I’m on the sly digs section, perhaps I should also say that perhaps my feeling that a draw was a fair result is based on the fact that Kashiwa were diving and feigning injury a hell of a lot. After generously giving Diego a clap before the game for his (I think) 100th game, I was regretting doing it and cursing him after he went down EXTREMELY easily shortly after the kick off. The ungrateful sod! And so it continued for the whole of the 90 minutes. I think the only time the ref didn’t buy one of their feigning attempts was for our winner. I guess the real problem though was the ref. Again Nakamura, who I and the J League thought was the best ref last season, was absolutely shit. The only possible explanation I can come up with for the absolute uselessness of the ‘elite’ refs is that as soon as someone is inaugurated into the group of absolute clowns, they gain admittance to the special refs’ room with its plates of edibles and poppers filled glade plug ins. I think it’s the only way to explain the complete lack of judgement that most of them show on a weekly basis. Although I suppose I have to partly blame the VAR ref Otusbo (who the hell is he? It’s a new name for me. I guess now we’re relegation contenders we get the real scrapings from the bottom of the barrel. But I suppose it makes sense for less experienced refs to make their horrendous cock ups away from the glare of the players and fans so they don’t get too disheartened), who decided it was worth looking at but couldn’t actually make up his own mind. I’m fully aware that probably the situations surrounding both our winner and the awarding of the penalty to them could probably have gone either way so I shouldn’t moan too much that both teams got one decision. But I dunno, I’m not sure, if you are supposed to take distance into account for handballs in the box, how Tachibanada could have got much closer for it not to be a penalty. I don’t think he could have got out of the way if he wanted to. I know it’s not a popular suggestion, but I think the only way we can get rid of these deeply unpopular decisions is by making any contact with the ball in the relevant area a handball. Once again the introduction of VAR with the intention of getting decisions right has just instead created another ridiculous over complication of the rules with the addition of another element which is totally subjective. I still think it should be binned. And if they could accidentally attach some of the current refs to it as they bin it, that would be great, thanks.
I’ve got here to the end part and have noticed that I haven’t mentioned some of the extremely important points that I noted during the game, so I’m going to bang them all in here in a one paragraph beano. I saw a Kashiwa fan at the station with a t-shirt with ‘PRICK’ written on the back in massive letters. That was a bit weird, but I have to say, as it is one of my favourite referee and opposition player descriptors, it was lovely to see. Our goalkeeper coach has a really good shot on him with both feet. Sign him up! The hyping up music before the game was a weird kind of mildly industrial Germanic techno with a spaghetti western style trumpet. It was proper shit! (Opposition fans, feel free to hit back at our pregame music, but you’ve got to come up with a proper description like I did). The Kashiwa keeper Matsumoto seemed to be using his headband to sculpt his hair into a replica of the eponymous castle in a case of nominative determinism. I’m pretty sure there is at least one error, possibly more, in the word choice in that sentence, but it’s getting late and I want to finish this.
Next up, a couple of weeks off before a midweek home game against Vissel Kobe on the 7th. I’d love us to give them a spanking, but even if we managed to do so, there would be a slight regret in that result presumably aiding little old Machida Zelvia to get a bit closer to the title. What a fairy tale story theirs is, isn’t it? And even more so as they’re real plucky underdogs who have just broken the J League transfer record with a mid-season signing. Perhaps though we should be pleased that they are uniting fans of opposition clubs, as it seems that everyone hates them, and with good reason in my opinion. Perhaps it might have been nice to take the good feeling from our first win in ages into another game quickly. But at the same time, maybe that feeling can really help the team get things a bit more together in the next few weeks. Have no idea who will be fit by then. Most of our injuries this year seem to have come in training, so maybe two weeks with no game could be a very dangerous prospect. We haven’t signed anyone yet, unlike many of the clubs in our league. I kind of feel though that we already have more players than we’ll ever use and the two central midfielders that we’ll presumably sign might even muddy the waters further when it comes to knowing who should be playing. Oh, but maybe, you know, some defensive cover might be nice. And that Loto 7 win for me. Definitely don’t forget that part!
The game saw the return of Miura at left back. That came from nowhere really. And it’s a bit of luck as with Takai off at the Olympics and potentially not coming back (just my hunch), at least for any meaningful amount of time, we were starting to look worryingly short at the back. Again. Jesiel has got injured. Again. Or maybe it might be more accurate to say that Jesiel has aggravated an existing injury again as I don’t think he has ever looked particularly fit this year. He’s gone back to Brazil for surgery. Kurumaya after appearing from nowhere and playing 90 minutes against Oita now also seems to be slightly injured again (judging from fan event activities). Maruyama? Well, who knows really? So basically right now we just have Sasaki, Ominami and Tanabe who can play at centre back. Probably this mini break in our schedule has come at a good time. Some people have said this game showed just how much we’ve missed Miura but I think that might be getting a bit carried away. But he did get an assist for the first goal, so well done to him for that. Elsewhere on the pitch Yamamoto was back in the starting line up, shortly after being linked with a few other J1 teams. My first impression on hearing that news was that Oniki’s mum and dad had told him that they were going to get rid of some of the toys he never plays with and then he immediately said that they were all his favourites and threw Yamamoto back in to prove his point. With our lack of defensive cover and Oshima back fit again our unbalanced squad is taking on a very familiar shape. As has been the case for literally years we’ve ended up with a bum squeaking paucity of options at the back threatening to completely fall to pieces with the next injury or red card and a midfield where three players will play and with about 20 players to choose from in those spots. Our current formation is never going to be able to keep all of them playing and interested. Which is a bit worrying, but as I said, not at all surprising. On this occasion we went with Yamamoto and naturally Wakizaka and Tachibanada. Oniki stuck with the Kobayashi / Yamada revolving door up front. Yamada scored twice in this game which makes my usual moan about our starting striker not scoring very often look kind of stupid, but please let me at least have my usual moan about us not really having any variety up front on the bench. I’m pretty sure both Gomis and Erison are available. I’m also pretty sure that while we keep on with the same tactics we won’t be getting the best out of them so I guess I’m back-handedly backing Oniki here. But at the same time I’d love to see us try something different occasionally, maybe playing with two up front at some stage with Kobayashi or Yamada alongside Erison or Gomis. But I would also love to win the Loto 7 jackpot and I think the chances of either happening are about the same.
But what’s all this semi grumbling about? This was supposed to be a semi positive blog post this time. So let’s get optimistic. Our run has been terrible and breaking it was the most important thing to do. It’s slightly annoying that on the week we finally did, almost everyone below us also won. When things aren’t going particularly well, it doesn’t really matter how you play if you get the result, does it? After we raced into an early two goal lead I foolishly let the ‘surely we won’t throw this lead away’ thought enter my head. I take full responsibility for us doing exactly that. But the players seemed really determined to get the win on this occasion. The way our winner came about is perhaps symptomatic of this. The Kashiwa keeper and fans were moaning about how it should have not been allowed but as far as I could see, and I was pretty close, the keeper basically lost the ball twice and then pretended he had been assaulted to cover up his blushes. This was a nice scrappy way to win a game. An even nicer way to win is by having your goalie save a bit of a dodgily awarded (with my Frontale cap on) penalty in injury time. There’s a lovely video of the Kashiwa fans behind the goal imagining, as I was, that we’d once again managed to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory, arms aloft and singing and then as the save was made dropping both their arms and their heads. Given that Kashiwa is a club that always treats the away fans like shit, well, couldn’t have happened to a nicer team! On balance, I think a draw would have been a fair result. Sure, they had twice as many shots as us, but we had more on target somehow. It was a pretty scrappy low quality game, but quite an exciting one too. There’s no denying that we absolutely robbed them in the cup final last year so perhaps they were looking for revenge. If they want to get it they really need to improve their shooting.
Whilst I’m on the sly digs section, perhaps I should also say that perhaps my feeling that a draw was a fair result is based on the fact that Kashiwa were diving and feigning injury a hell of a lot. After generously giving Diego a clap before the game for his (I think) 100th game, I was regretting doing it and cursing him after he went down EXTREMELY easily shortly after the kick off. The ungrateful sod! And so it continued for the whole of the 90 minutes. I think the only time the ref didn’t buy one of their feigning attempts was for our winner. I guess the real problem though was the ref. Again Nakamura, who I and the J League thought was the best ref last season, was absolutely shit. The only possible explanation I can come up with for the absolute uselessness of the ‘elite’ refs is that as soon as someone is inaugurated into the group of absolute clowns, they gain admittance to the special refs’ room with its plates of edibles and poppers filled glade plug ins. I think it’s the only way to explain the complete lack of judgement that most of them show on a weekly basis. Although I suppose I have to partly blame the VAR ref Otusbo (who the hell is he? It’s a new name for me. I guess now we’re relegation contenders we get the real scrapings from the bottom of the barrel. But I suppose it makes sense for less experienced refs to make their horrendous cock ups away from the glare of the players and fans so they don’t get too disheartened), who decided it was worth looking at but couldn’t actually make up his own mind. I’m fully aware that probably the situations surrounding both our winner and the awarding of the penalty to them could probably have gone either way so I shouldn’t moan too much that both teams got one decision. But I dunno, I’m not sure, if you are supposed to take distance into account for handballs in the box, how Tachibanada could have got much closer for it not to be a penalty. I don’t think he could have got out of the way if he wanted to. I know it’s not a popular suggestion, but I think the only way we can get rid of these deeply unpopular decisions is by making any contact with the ball in the relevant area a handball. Once again the introduction of VAR with the intention of getting decisions right has just instead created another ridiculous over complication of the rules with the addition of another element which is totally subjective. I still think it should be binned. And if they could accidentally attach some of the current refs to it as they bin it, that would be great, thanks.
I’ve got here to the end part and have noticed that I haven’t mentioned some of the extremely important points that I noted during the game, so I’m going to bang them all in here in a one paragraph beano. I saw a Kashiwa fan at the station with a t-shirt with ‘PRICK’ written on the back in massive letters. That was a bit weird, but I have to say, as it is one of my favourite referee and opposition player descriptors, it was lovely to see. Our goalkeeper coach has a really good shot on him with both feet. Sign him up! The hyping up music before the game was a weird kind of mildly industrial Germanic techno with a spaghetti western style trumpet. It was proper shit! (Opposition fans, feel free to hit back at our pregame music, but you’ve got to come up with a proper description like I did). The Kashiwa keeper Matsumoto seemed to be using his headband to sculpt his hair into a replica of the eponymous castle in a case of nominative determinism. I’m pretty sure there is at least one error, possibly more, in the word choice in that sentence, but it’s getting late and I want to finish this.
Next up, a couple of weeks off before a midweek home game against Vissel Kobe on the 7th. I’d love us to give them a spanking, but even if we managed to do so, there would be a slight regret in that result presumably aiding little old Machida Zelvia to get a bit closer to the title. What a fairy tale story theirs is, isn’t it? And even more so as they’re real plucky underdogs who have just broken the J League transfer record with a mid-season signing. Perhaps though we should be pleased that they are uniting fans of opposition clubs, as it seems that everyone hates them, and with good reason in my opinion. Perhaps it might have been nice to take the good feeling from our first win in ages into another game quickly. But at the same time, maybe that feeling can really help the team get things a bit more together in the next few weeks. Have no idea who will be fit by then. Most of our injuries this year seem to have come in training, so maybe two weeks with no game could be a very dangerous prospect. We haven’t signed anyone yet, unlike many of the clubs in our league. I kind of feel though that we already have more players than we’ll ever use and the two central midfielders that we’ll presumably sign might even muddy the waters further when it comes to knowing who should be playing. Oh, but maybe, you know, some defensive cover might be nice. And that Loto 7 win for me. Definitely don’t forget that part!
Team
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
DF 31. VAN WERMESKERKEN Sai (Yellow card 74')
DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma
DF 5. SASAKI Asahi
DF 13. MIURA Sota
MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento
MF 77. YAMAMOTO Yuki
MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro
FW 20. YAMADA Shin
FW 23. MARCINHO
DF 31. VAN WERMESKERKEN Sai (Yellow card 74')
DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma
DF 5. SASAKI Asahi
DF 13. MIURA Sota
MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento
MF 77. YAMAMOTO Yuki
MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro
FW 20. YAMADA Shin
FW 23. MARCINHO
Subs
GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for IENAGA 64')
MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota (on for MIURA 70')
DF 15. TANABE Shuto
MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki (on for YAMAMOTO 70')
FW 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata (on for MARCINHO 79')
FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke (on for YAMADA 70')
GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for IENAGA 64')
MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota (on for MIURA 70')
DF 15. TANABE Shuto
MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki (on for YAMAMOTO 70')
FW 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata (on for MARCINHO 79')
FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke (on for YAMADA 70')
Goals
YAMADA (Frontale) 4' 0-1
YAMADA (Frontale) 10' 0-2
SHIRAI (Kashiwa) 12' 1-2
KAKITA (Kashiwa) 67' 2-2
WAKIZAKA (Frontale) 79' 2-3
SHIRAI (Kashiwa) 12' 1-2
KAKITA (Kashiwa) 67' 2-2
WAKIZAKA (Frontale) 79' 2-3
My Frontale Man Of The Match
I was going to just give this to one person and then I thought it would be pretty unfair to not at least give a share to the person who has done that rarest of things, score as a starting central striker for us. So with that in mind, it goes to…
JUNG Sung-Ryong and YAMADA Shin - It had to go to Sung-Ryong for saving our bacon and significantly improving the vibes of the fan event the following day with his penalty save. But then again it also had to go to Yamada for giving us a new kind of lead to throw away. Bravo to both of them!
JUNG Sung-Ryong and YAMADA Shin - It had to go to Sung-Ryong for saving our bacon and significantly improving the vibes of the fan event the following day with his penalty save. But then again it also had to go to Yamada for giving us a new kind of lead to throw away. Bravo to both of them!
