Kawasaki Frontale 3 - 0 Vissel Kobe
This game was delightful. It’s always fun to beat a team who splash the cash and even more so this season considering we are struggling to beat almost anyone. This was the first time this year that we’d managed to win two games in a row. We’ve somehow ended up in 12th after this result. Although the score might suggest otherwise, this wasn’t a magnificent demolition of Kobe by us. Instead it was something more like someone trying to do their washing up by throwing a grenade into the sink by them. Which probably made it even better. Let’s get straight into this in depth and considered post. (Well, actually more like into the pointless rambling bitching).
Don’t believe everything, (hmmm, maybe anything), you read on Twitter. That second red was an absolutely nailed on one. You can’t see it from the single replay everyone has used to add their measured expert opinions after viewing but Thuler was shouting at the linesman to enter the field to take off an extra ball that was in play. The linesman said he couldn’t, to which Thuler responded with a torrent of abuse and then kicked the ball directly at him. The Kobe manager says he doesn’t know why he would even be booked as he was passing the ball to the linesman, perhaps ignoring the fact that the ball didn’t need to go to the linesman and Thuler would have been fine kicking it anywhere in absolutely any other direction other than directly at the official. It was clearly intended to intimidate the linesman so fair play to him for drawing the ref’s attention to it. We constantly hear people talking about players lacking respect for officials and when they are pulled for doing something that exactly demonstrates that kind of thing everyone thinks it’s a disgrace. Wonderful double standards! And even better coming from a point of view of almost complete ignorance about what actually happened in the stadium. If I were a Kobe fan or anyone to do with the club I’d be more angry at a totally dickish bit of petulance from a player whose team was already down to ten man rather than moaning about the officials.
Initially wasn’t as sure about the first red. At the time I couldn’t see what had happened so was relieved to see the card going to them and not us. On replays which apparently have convinced Kobe fans in the absolute opposite direction, I think it’s probably fair enough. From the majority of his first half performance it seemed that Iino was mainly concerned with diving so it was a really pleasant surprise to see him get booked for it. It always annoys me that no one seems to get booked for diving anymore. He was definitely looking for contact and even seemed to stop as he got in front of Ominami, perhaps aiming for the red card rather and a free kick rather than a penalty and a yellow. And he did that really fucking annoying thing of grabbing the ball as he went down. He seemed to be an intensely annoying character and this is even reflected in his name which whenever it is typed in romaji looks like lino, a common shortened form of linesman. See you can’t even tell the difference, can you? I might have just typed the same thing both times. It’s probably a bit of luck that Thuler was the idiot kicking the ball at the linesman rather than Iino otherwise we’d be talking about an interaction between the Iino and lino. It could be even further confused if that situation had taken place on an interior floor surface as them we’d be talking about Iino and the lino on the lino.
As I constantly say that Kasahara is normally a nightmare ref for us due to us always getting DOGSO reds when he’s in charge of our games it would probably cause the irony detector to explode if I were to praise him on this occasion. Put your hard hats on, because he got both decisions right as far as I’m concerned. I’m sure Twitter experts all over the world though will know better though from their one camera angle of the second red, which was coincidentally the exact worst one possible to understand the decision. Everyone knows the best place to truly enjoy football is on a screen thousands of miles from the stadium with a dubiously stained Sorare tshirt on. Even better if you can parade the fact that you are truly of superior intellect by saying something like this would only happen in Japan, right? It doesn’t matter if you only got the tiniest glimpse of something, you can still have an EXPERT OPINION. I’ve seen that picture of the dinosaurs looking slightly perturbed as a massive meteor crashes into the earth and although it is only an artistic rendering of something that may have happened millions of years before I was born I can conclusively say that that kind of thing could only have happened in that particular place, (I have no experience of it and no knowledge about it, but that doesn’t matter because I KNOW). In addition those dinosaurs went down too easily and the linesman missed a clear offside from the meteor. Don’t forget this is not an opinion this is CAST IRON TRUTH. Don’t doubt it, I’ve watched a two second gif of one dinosaur’s eyebrow movement several times so don’t need to see the rest of the picture. Oh, and I have managed a premier league team for over 200 matches on Championship Manager.
Now, let's take a little break and look at some whining at the ref for giving correct decisions Kobe photos!
This was a thoroughly enjoyable game because of what happened. It’s a bit difficult to say whether we were any good or not. Especially given that for the majority of the first half this was a game that perhaps could be described as one between two great teams who were cancelling each other out. Equally though the same could be true if it were two teams playing mediocre to dogshit level stuff. And seeing as neither team managed to hit the target in the first half this is probably closer to the truth. In spite of this being a wonderfully entertaining victory, it does leave a bit of a bad taste in the mouth when you consider that it has probably done Machida a bit of a favour. I guess a distaste for Machida is one thing we can all agree on. Hopefully they’ll have three people sent off when we play them. On the notoriously tweaky J League forums Vissel fans were talking about it being a league wide conspiracy because ‘THeY dOn’T wAnT Us tO wIn tHe LeAgUe’. I think pretty much everyone would rather they do than Machida do. I don’t think us Frontale fans ever said that when decisions went against us when we weren’t doing absolutely shit like we are this year. Guess Rakuten money can’t buy any relief from paranoia or a persecution complex, eh?
Hmmmm, wasn’t a great deal of actual content in this post was there? Next up, FC Tokyo away and then YFM at home the following weekend. Would be lovely to keep the run going. Actually can you call it a run if it’s only a run of two matches. Guess it’s more of a brisk stroll at this stage. It would be a miracle if either of those games ended up being as amusing and entertaining as this one though. It’s somewhat unfortunate that us finally managing to string two wins together is coinciding with a period for me where I have way too many more important things to do than write these blog posts. So I know I always say this, but they will be a lot shorter in the future, for a while at least. Which is a huge shame after the way this game went and considering that we’re playing two derbies in our next two games. I’ll do my best to leave out the informative bits and leave the snark and insults in though. With this in mind, I’ll finish by briefly resurrecting a recently dormant format point and see you next time for the new ‘don’t have the time or inclination to do this properly’ style Frontale Rabbit blog.
Banner Wisdom
Don’t believe everything, (hmmm, maybe anything), you read on Twitter. That second red was an absolutely nailed on one. You can’t see it from the single replay everyone has used to add their measured expert opinions after viewing but Thuler was shouting at the linesman to enter the field to take off an extra ball that was in play. The linesman said he couldn’t, to which Thuler responded with a torrent of abuse and then kicked the ball directly at him. The Kobe manager says he doesn’t know why he would even be booked as he was passing the ball to the linesman, perhaps ignoring the fact that the ball didn’t need to go to the linesman and Thuler would have been fine kicking it anywhere in absolutely any other direction other than directly at the official. It was clearly intended to intimidate the linesman so fair play to him for drawing the ref’s attention to it. We constantly hear people talking about players lacking respect for officials and when they are pulled for doing something that exactly demonstrates that kind of thing everyone thinks it’s a disgrace. Wonderful double standards! And even better coming from a point of view of almost complete ignorance about what actually happened in the stadium. If I were a Kobe fan or anyone to do with the club I’d be more angry at a totally dickish bit of petulance from a player whose team was already down to ten man rather than moaning about the officials.
Initially wasn’t as sure about the first red. At the time I couldn’t see what had happened so was relieved to see the card going to them and not us. On replays which apparently have convinced Kobe fans in the absolute opposite direction, I think it’s probably fair enough. From the majority of his first half performance it seemed that Iino was mainly concerned with diving so it was a really pleasant surprise to see him get booked for it. It always annoys me that no one seems to get booked for diving anymore. He was definitely looking for contact and even seemed to stop as he got in front of Ominami, perhaps aiming for the red card rather and a free kick rather than a penalty and a yellow. And he did that really fucking annoying thing of grabbing the ball as he went down. He seemed to be an intensely annoying character and this is even reflected in his name which whenever it is typed in romaji looks like lino, a common shortened form of linesman. See you can’t even tell the difference, can you? I might have just typed the same thing both times. It’s probably a bit of luck that Thuler was the idiot kicking the ball at the linesman rather than Iino otherwise we’d be talking about an interaction between the Iino and lino. It could be even further confused if that situation had taken place on an interior floor surface as them we’d be talking about Iino and the lino on the lino.
As I constantly say that Kasahara is normally a nightmare ref for us due to us always getting DOGSO reds when he’s in charge of our games it would probably cause the irony detector to explode if I were to praise him on this occasion. Put your hard hats on, because he got both decisions right as far as I’m concerned. I’m sure Twitter experts all over the world though will know better though from their one camera angle of the second red, which was coincidentally the exact worst one possible to understand the decision. Everyone knows the best place to truly enjoy football is on a screen thousands of miles from the stadium with a dubiously stained Sorare tshirt on. Even better if you can parade the fact that you are truly of superior intellect by saying something like this would only happen in Japan, right? It doesn’t matter if you only got the tiniest glimpse of something, you can still have an EXPERT OPINION. I’ve seen that picture of the dinosaurs looking slightly perturbed as a massive meteor crashes into the earth and although it is only an artistic rendering of something that may have happened millions of years before I was born I can conclusively say that that kind of thing could only have happened in that particular place, (I have no experience of it and no knowledge about it, but that doesn’t matter because I KNOW). In addition those dinosaurs went down too easily and the linesman missed a clear offside from the meteor. Don’t forget this is not an opinion this is CAST IRON TRUTH. Don’t doubt it, I’ve watched a two second gif of one dinosaur’s eyebrow movement several times so don’t need to see the rest of the picture. Oh, and I have managed a premier league team for over 200 matches on Championship Manager.
Now, let's take a little break and look at some whining at the ref for giving correct decisions Kobe photos!
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| Red whine - pair with beef dishes. Particularly good if the beef is misplaced |
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| White whine - pair with roasted official, sorry, I mean roasted pork |
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| Rosé whine - pair with a green salad with a very sour citrus dressing |
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| Sparkling whine - pair with something cheesy, like your chairman's online presence |
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| Dessert whine - pair with bitter (at decisons) chocolate pudding |
This was a thoroughly enjoyable game because of what happened. It’s a bit difficult to say whether we were any good or not. Especially given that for the majority of the first half this was a game that perhaps could be described as one between two great teams who were cancelling each other out. Equally though the same could be true if it were two teams playing mediocre to dogshit level stuff. And seeing as neither team managed to hit the target in the first half this is probably closer to the truth. In spite of this being a wonderfully entertaining victory, it does leave a bit of a bad taste in the mouth when you consider that it has probably done Machida a bit of a favour. I guess a distaste for Machida is one thing we can all agree on. Hopefully they’ll have three people sent off when we play them. On the notoriously tweaky J League forums Vissel fans were talking about it being a league wide conspiracy because ‘THeY dOn’T wAnT Us tO wIn tHe LeAgUe’. I think pretty much everyone would rather they do than Machida do. I don’t think us Frontale fans ever said that when decisions went against us when we weren’t doing absolutely shit like we are this year. Guess Rakuten money can’t buy any relief from paranoia or a persecution complex, eh?
Hmmmm, wasn’t a great deal of actual content in this post was there? Next up, FC Tokyo away and then YFM at home the following weekend. Would be lovely to keep the run going. Actually can you call it a run if it’s only a run of two matches. Guess it’s more of a brisk stroll at this stage. It would be a miracle if either of those games ended up being as amusing and entertaining as this one though. It’s somewhat unfortunate that us finally managing to string two wins together is coinciding with a period for me where I have way too many more important things to do than write these blog posts. So I know I always say this, but they will be a lot shorter in the future, for a while at least. Which is a huge shame after the way this game went and considering that we’re playing two derbies in our next two games. I’ll do my best to leave out the informative bits and leave the snark and insults in though. With this in mind, I’ll finish by briefly resurrecting a recently dormant format point and see you next time for the new ‘don’t have the time or inclination to do this properly’ style Frontale Rabbit blog.
Banner Wisdom
‘We shall overcome’
What do they mean by this? Is it the massive amounts of cash that they’ll overcome? Is it the constant interference from their chairman? Perhaps it’s the well known on the internet anti-Vissel conspiracy that runs through the entire league and is especially rife amongst the officials? Or is it the handicap of two of your players being idiots and getting sent off? Ah, actually it’s definitely not that last one, is it? Because that resulted in a 3-0 defeat. 😉
What do they mean by this? Is it the massive amounts of cash that they’ll overcome? Is it the constant interference from their chairman? Perhaps it’s the well known on the internet anti-Vissel conspiracy that runs through the entire league and is especially rife amongst the officials? Or is it the handicap of two of your players being idiots and getting sent off? Ah, actually it’s definitely not that last one, is it? Because that resulted in a 3-0 defeat. 😉
Team
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
DF 31. VAN WERMESKERKEN Sai
DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma
GK 22. HAYASAKA Yuki
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro (on for SASAKI 90+1')
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for IENAGA 86')
MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki (on for VAN WERMESKERKEN 78')
DF 5. SASAKI Asahi (Yellow card 20')
DF 13. MIURA Sota
MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento
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
SubsFW 41. IENAGA Akihiro
FW 20. YAMADA Shin
FW 23. MARCINHO
GK 22. HAYASAKA Yuki
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro (on for SASAKI 90+1')
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for IENAGA 86')
MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki (on for VAN WERMESKERKEN 78')
MF 17. TONO Daiya (on for OSHIMA 78')
FW 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata (on for MARCINHO 78')
FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke
FW 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata (on for MARCINHO 78')
FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke
Goals
IENAGA (Frontale) 57' 1-0
YAMADA (Frontale) 71' 2-0
YAMADA (Frontale) 85' 3-0
My Frontale Man Of The Match
A slightly left field selection on this occasion as they haven’t started any games for us so far this season, but it has to go to…
KARMA - it’s a bitch when you break the rules and get caught, isn’t it? 😉
Highlights
As always, a thoroughly-enjoyable report and rant, despite me obviously disagreeing completely with the referee decisions... don't ever stop! This is what supporting football teams is all about... it is banter? is it abuse? is it a rant? Is it anti-Machida (of course it is). Is it worth a read - YES! Always!
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