Vs Ventforet Kofu (away) 8/9/24 Levain Cup Quarter Final 2nd Leg

Ventforet Kofu 1 - 1 Kawasaki Frontale (1-2 on agg.)

This was an absolutely disgusting win. I feel kind of dirty. Not saying Kofu were robbed though. I think this was probably the kind of game in which the fairest result would have been a 0-0. But then that undermines the fact that they scored. But it was from a free header because one of the usual suspects wasn't doing what he's supposed to be doing. Us scoring late does make a nice change from conceding late on. On those occasions there was a certain inevitability about it though, our play being pretty bad and it only being a matter of time. In this match you can't say at all that it was inevitable that we would score. Blimey we left it late. Left it late for quite a few things actually. Left it till the end of the first half to have our first shot. Left it till the 93rd minute to have our first and only shot on target. It’s fair to say this was not a game of the highest quality. And don’t forget we had the easiest possible draw in the round. And we still almost messed it up. The main thing to write about this game is that we were absolutely awful so let's just do a couple of bullet points and get this over with.

- Quite pleased to say that I predicted the line up almost exactly correctly. The only difference I had was that I thought Kurumaya would have started instead of Haydar. And maybe he would have if he wasn’t (perhaps) injured. I’m only guessing he is, but he went from starting to not even being in the match day squad. I predicted Tachibanada at right back too. Am I a genius? No. Because I got the score wrong. I thought we’d be the ones conceding a late goal to crash out. But I did get the line up and the fact that we’d be shite correct. But once again I’ll undermine myself by saying that it’s not difficult to guess these kind of things because recently Oniki is even more predictable than he is useless. After he was so pleased with our first half against Sapporo, which to most people was an atrocity of a performance, it’s not surprising that he brought back his 'big guns' for this important game. Equally unsurprising was the fact that the 'big guns' played awfully. You’ve got to feel a bit sorry for the players who started against Kofu in the first leg. They won a match, something that the first choice players haven’t done recently and which those first choice guys still didn’t manage to do in this game. But they were dropped. Well apart from Wakizaka and Tachibanada of course, who Oniki would probably pick to start even if they had completed a transfer to another team. Wakizaka was awful again. But once again, perhaps not as bad as Miura. Oniki taking him off at half time was a shock, but a very welcome one. I still don’t like to blame players for what I wholeheartedly believe is Oniki’s fault though. His football depresses me so much that I can’t begin to imagine how terrible it makes the players feel to have to play it. Surely they don’t sit there listening to his match plan and think that this is definitely the way to win. They must have their doubts. I just wish someone would speak up and say something. I’m presuming no one has. Or perhaps the ones who have been exiled said something. Anyways let’s just remember that once again his starting line up failed to do anything and it was only when he made changes that we really started to even make chances.
 

- I’m not sure there’s any need for this second bullet point. I really can’t get past the fact that we were terrible. Oniki’s post match comments are just baffling. It feels like he’s been watching a different game. Perhaps he should spend less time looking at his magnets. Perhaps he, like me, doesn’t like to criticise the players. Although to be honest, I think that this only applies to some of them. I don’t know what he is watching during the matches sometimes. His apparent obsession with pressing and passing and absolute lack of interest in shooting or scoring is quite baffling. Of course to do the latter you need to do the former, but quite how he thinks us doing only the former makes for a good game, I don't know. He’s really lucky our supporters are so happy clappy. I don’t think other clubs’ fans would put up with this utterly pointless stuff. We’ve often said that our football has at times become like an art installation, where the beauty of passing is being displayed. Perhaps this is still true but the thinking behind the installation has changed and now it's intention is to demonstrate the futility of life through endless and pointless repetition. Oniki’s ideal super cut video on YouTube would be a video of us breaking with numbers into the opposition half, then carefully working the ball back to our keeper. Over and over again. Oniki probably thinks margarine tastes better than butter. When he’s feeling a bit wild and wants to go crazy he probably listens to Oasis, (although they are a bit challenging musically for him). His favourite beer is undoubtedly Asahi Super Dry, a beer that pairs perfectly with every food because of its absolute bland tastelessness. He once went crazy and had two glasses. He accidentally burped though so had to have a lie down. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike him. But it’s getting increasingly difficult to retain this opinion as our football gets even more pointless and boring. And, I kind of don’t even get the point of him being there anymore. We always do exactly the same thing, the same players, the same formation, the same tactics, the same subs, so maybe we could just replace him with a set of instructions he could write at the start of the season. He’s even admitting nothing changes in his post match comments. Someone asked about the subs and he said something along the lines of how we just swapped some players and didn’t bother changing the formation much. I think plenty of people are so desperate to see some method in his madness that they are seeing changes that Oniki hasn’t noticed. And to be honest anyway, it’s not the formation that’s the problem, it’s the system and approach. As I have said on numerous occasions. And apparently will continue to do so, wasting both my time and your time too. So let’s just finish this here.

Next up a relegation 6-pointer against Sagan Tosu at home on Friday. With no midweek game this week it will give Oniki the perfect opportunity to use the same players who haven’t achieved anything and some time on the training ground to work on practicing exactly the same ineffective things we’ve done for the last three years. Who needs new ideas when you’ve just magnificently overcome/scraped through with a very late goal against tough opposition/a team doing almost as badly in J2 as we are in J1. Delete as you prefer. Not meaning to be rude to Kofu. I quite like them and would be very happy to see them back in J1 as I like the away trip. Actually, depending on Friday’s result we might be able to do the trip next year anyway. I’m pretty sure that if we do end up in the relegation zone Oniki won’t have what it takes to get us out of it. After that, we start our ACL campaign against, surprise surprise Ulsan. Confident about that?

 

Team

GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong

DF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento

DF 5. SASAKI Asahi
DF 44. CESAR HAYDAR
DF 13. MIURA Sota
MF 19. KAWAHARA So

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 (on for YAMADA 71')

FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu

MF 17. TONO Daiya (on for MARCINHO 71')
FW 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata
FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke (on for WAKIZAKA 80')
DF 31. VAN WERMESKERKEN Sai (on for MIURA 46')
DF 35. MARUYAMA Yuichi
MF 77. YAMAMOTO Yuki (on for OSHIMA 90+5')

Goals

SON (Kofu) 31' 1-0
TONO (Frontale) 90+3' 1-1

Highlights