Vs Urawa Reds (away) 24/8/24 J League match 28 Part 1

Urawa Reds 1 - 0 Kawasaki Frontale
(match abandoned at half time)

I’ve spent most of this week enjoying not having to worry about writing a blog post about this half game. For some reason I thought I’d just do it when the game was replayed and write this off. But I hadn’t really considered that it would restart from half time and that meant that I probably needed to write something about the first part. So after relishing a blog post free week I’ve now realised I’ll eventually have to write two blog posts about this game. However, it’s not all doom and gloom as this first half was so predictably dull that I can knock that part out in a few sentences and then focus, as I like to do, on the chaos surrounding the match instead. So here we go.

- Pretty irritating starting line up, or more accurately bench, in my eyes at least. Our young keeper Hayasaka who conceded three against YFM, none of which were down to him as far as I was concerned dropped out of the match day squad completely. There was talk that he was ‘sick’ but at the time I suspected this was ‘bullshit’ and it seems to have proved to be. Yamaguchi was on the bench which slightly confuses my usual rant about new players needing to spend a year in the stands aside from emergency situations, but the fact that Hayasaka wasn’t there does back up my other usual rant that Oniki is an absolute psychopath when it comes to not being able to understand the emotional impact of the usually pretty random decisions he makes on players’ morale. Guess Hayasaka can at least get some consolation from Ando, who seems destined to be our fourth keeper eternally, regardless of who signs for us.

- Similarly when it comes to psycho Oniki it must have been a bit of a shock for Yamamoto, one of our big summer signings to see that Kawahara, after his arrival from Sagan Tosu on Tuesday, made it to the bench on Saturday. I feel sorry for Yamamoto. As has been the case with multiple midfielder signings in recent years, the new guys are held to a much higher standard than Oniki’s golden boys. Any sub-magnificent performance in a rare start will certainly mean another month on the sidelines. In the meantime, those preferred players can have stinker after stinker and only lose their place when hell freezes over. I imagine Ze Ricardo is probably feeling similarly. I guess the revival, (however long it lasts), of Oshima has lessened their chances further. Now Oniki has three automatic picks in midfield. And practically a quarter of the squad sitting on the bench or in the stands who would like to play in one of those spots. Utterly ridiculous recruitment again in a transfer window. I suspect Kawahara is a very good player. But so is Yamamoto. And so probably is Ze Ricardo (we haven’t really had a chance to judge him). Let’s hope they enjoy showing their skills in practice sessions because with Oniki in charge, as long as we avoid injuries or suspensions, they aren’t going to be getting much of a chance.

- The return of Oshima has caused a great deal of excitement on Twitter. We did alright when he came back from injury. We actually won some games. As I’ve said before though, those wins come with some massive caveats. We also got absolutely walloped by YFM with him in the team and went a goal behind in this game. All the time we’re getting little clips of Oshima skills appearing online, apparently without any acknowledgment of that fact that whilst he’s doing well, we’re still shit. I’m not saying he shouldn’t play or isn’t doing well. I am saying that people’s excitement about him is a perfect distraction for the club from the absolute dogshit performances down to Oniki’s absolute refusal to change anything. The little run of wins was perhaps the worst thing that could have happened when it comes to the likelihood of us making any progress. It gave him the perfect excuse to stay strong in his belief that farting around with the ball and avoiding shooting unless absolutely necessary is the way to win matches. There has been some talk this week that we’ve been experimenting with playing two up front in practice. It speaks volumes that we’re only trying this now when our football has been ineffective and predictable for at least the last three years. And Oniki giving this a go in practice by no means guarantees that he’ll ever try it in a game. He does have form for changing things when we play Sapporo though, (remember the year he decided the perfect approach would be to put the strikers on the wing and play with Ienaga ‘up front’? I think we just about scraped through that game), so perhaps he’ll do it for one game and then revert to the same old stuff afterwards. It all seems kind of performative anyway, and I think a certain section of the fanbase isn’t really that bothered about our lack of success with Oniki’s usual approach. Even when we play our shittest football, there are people who praise the players for giving it their best and looking a bit upset by yet another horrible result. It doesn’t have to be like this. It’s a terrible thing to say, but I’m kind of hoping we get destroyed in our first four ACL games as I think if we do well in them there’s a chance that Oniki will be ‘persuaded’ to sign a contract extension.

- Oh, so on to the actual game. Hmmm. I didn’t have many notes but one was ‘45 mins of possession, passing and conceding’ and I think that just about sums it up. More possession, more passes, less shots and one goal down. It’s classic Oniki stuff. Perhaps the game and our current season were summed up in the move, (which has also been widely shared online, again with no apparent acknowledgement that the skills were ultimately pointless), where Yamada raced through shrugging off the Urawa defender several times before a nice turn put him on his backside, at which point with the goal in front of him and only the keeper to beat, Yamada passed the ball backwards. Oniki ball at its finest. No write up of the game would be complete without mentioning that the conditions were absolutely awful due to the heavy rain which seemed to start just as the ref raised his whistle to his mouth and continued until long after we’d all left Saitama. When the game was abandoned after an initial decision to prolong half time by 20 minutes the Urawa fans broke into a chorus of boos. Hmmm, I say ‘broke into’, but ‘resumed’ probably would have been a more accurate word as once again the ‘amazing’ atmosphere their fans create was definitely one which focused more on booing and whistling the opposition rather than actually supporting their own team. When Wakizaka and Oniki came out to apologise to/thank our fans, the brave Urawa ultras who’d stayed on just to be able to boo a little longer, wholeheartedly resumed their booing, clearly convinced that because we’d been losing we had asked for the game to be abandoned and because everyone hates them and everyone loves us, it immediately happened. Anyone in the stadium who thought that the game could go ahead was clearly delusional (hmmmm, I guess that does sum up the attitude of quite a large element of their fanbase…). This was particularly demonstrated when Miura attempted to run up the wing, pushed the ball ahead of himself, the ball grinding to a halt as it entered a Biwa-esque lake, which in turn then tripped Miura over. If you asked the Urawa fans though they probably would have had a theory that Frontale after going a goal behind had been secretly watering the pitch to try to get the game called off. Or perhaps that not only are the league and the other teams anti-Urawa, but also Mother Nature is against them too. Perhaps it’s because the strength of their support is greater than anything else in heaven or on earth and therefore even the elements are jealous and want revenge.

- Whilst I’m on an Urawa bashing roll, might as well keep going, right? After all, there wasn’t much else to write about regarding this match if I’m being honest. I work in Urawa and on Saturday morning had been at work. The thought of going from home to Urawa, then back home for a couple of hours at the most, then back to Urawa and then back home again wasn’t exactly appealing so instead I decided to see out the day boozing my way around Urawa. One thing that I always moan about when it comes to going to the Saitama stadium is how crap the journey is. When you consider that the line was built pretty much to serve the new stadium, it’s impressive that Urawa Misono station is still absolutely miles from the stadium. For away fans coming from Tokyo, well, I guess it’s not supposed to be easy, but I was shocked how difficult it is to get to the stadium even from Urawa. I suppose this is what happens when you build a stadium in the middle of nowhere. To be honest though, I usually don’t really mind the walk. It’s much better than cramming on to a shuttle bus. The problem is when it is absolutely pissing it down and the rain floods the sewers on the path back to the station. What better way to top off an abandoned game after a shit first half than to wade through toilet water that at points goes over ankle level filling your shoes with watered down faecal matter. Actually I suppose it was kind of appropriate considering what we’d seen in the first half. After all, I’m sure we’re all fed up of seeing the same old shit on the pitch so perhaps it was interesting to encounter some different diluted shit directly flowing into your shoes on the way home. Can’t blame them for the weather though. (As much as they seemed to want to blame us for it). Can however blame them for the usual absolutely awful music they play. I’m starting to wonder if there is some kind of secret agent in their stadium staff who is looking to undermine the tough guy image that their fans so desperately want to pursue. Of course we always get East 17’s ‘House of Love’ which still entertains me for its bizarreness. But on this occasion it was backed up by what could only be selections from one of those CDs you get from a TV shopping channel. ‘Love all those great soul anthems from the 70s and 80s but disappointed that they’re not quite uplifting enough? Yearning for something a bit more like what you might hear at a party night in a medium sized town’s All Bar One on a Saturday night? Well buy this CD and play it to a stadium full of tough guys! Featuring mid tempo versions of ‘The Greatest Love of All’ and ‘Loving You’ complete with a foot tapping light house beat.’ It’s so absolutely hilariously out of step with the image their fans seem to want to portray that it can only be the work of someone trying to undermine them! Extremely amusing!

- Also perhaps trying to undermine them are… themselves. After hiring yet another foreign manager and splashing the cash and then starting to freak out when the team isn’t immediately top of the English Premier League and hasn’t won the World Cup within the managers first 30 games, Urawa have once again dumped another manager! It used to be the case that getting beaten by Frontale, (somewhat surprisingly even when we were absolutely flying), was the straw that broke the camel’s back and was enough to get any manager sacked. Now we’ve fallen so far that only being 1-0 up against us at half time is enough of a reason to change things at the top. Urawa, like FC Tokyo, seem to be a club that thinks that the only reason they aren’t winning everything is the manager, and haven’t noticed that the same problems keep happening whoever they hire. It’s quite amusing to watch from the outside. And as for the fact that they’ve rehired their previous manager, who seemed to spot that the club was perhaps rotten from top to bottom and left before he was fired, well, I hope he’s getting a lot of money, because I’m sure he knows what’s going to happen. When I quit my previous job due to the working conditions becoming unbearable I felt great relief. I was stupid enough to go back when they begged me to return, and whilst things were better for a while, it came as no surprise when things started getting shitty again and I had to quit a second time. Skorża, I hope it’s going to be worth it. It wasn’t for me. Maybe this might be the first time in the J League that the manager of a team has been changed at half time in a game. Although judging by the number of batshit chairmen and clubs that are around I wouldn’t bet that it hasn’t happened somewhere before. Probably best to restart the game at 0-0 though, right?😉 If there’s any sign of rain in the area for when the second half is played, I think a great deal of people might be traumatised and give the game a miss. It’s certainly a bit of a pain in the arse to make the trip given we probably know what’s going to happen anyway. Well, unless you’re really addicted to seeing passes and the occasional piece of skill that doesn’t even result in a shot but looks nice when cut up for Twitter.

Considering there were only 45 minutes played in this match and I have hardly written about the actual football, this has turned out to be a surprisingly long post. I thought I’d stopped doing that kind of thing recently, so after I’ve put this up I’ll have a moan at myself to add to all the other moans I’ve had already. Or maybe as a tribute to Urawa I should scream, whistle and boo as loudly as I can whilst looking myself straight in the eyes in a mirror. Next up, Sapporo away on Sunday. At least it’s a nice trip! I think we’ll probably lose. And it could be another game that is tricky due to weather. Of course as it’s being played in the Dome the game will be fine, but the approaching typhoon is making our flight back look a bit dicey. Still I guess it would be more fun to be stranded in Sapporo than to be stranded in Urawa Misono! After that we have a Levain double header against Kofu. I’m not exactly confident about that either, but once again, at least the trip is a nice one. So here’s to good away trips! And to good times (before and after but probably not actually) at home games! The games are mostly frustratingly crap right now, so let’s be grateful there’s more to life than the 90 minutes! 

Team

GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong

DF 31. VAN WERMESKERKEN Sai

DF 5. SASAKI Asahi
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro
DF 13. MIURA Sota
MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento

MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota

MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro
FW 20. YAMADA Shin
FW 23. MARCINHO

Subs

GK 98. YAMAGUCHI Louis
FW 9. ERISON

FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu

DF 15. TANABE Shuto

MF 17. TONO Daiya
MF 19. KAWAHARA So

DF 44. Cesar HAYDAR

Goals

WATANABE (Urawa) 23' 1-0

Highlights

Seems like Youtube agrees with me that there were no highlights in this game