Kyoto Sanga 1 - 1 Kawasaki Frontale
It may surprise some readers to hear me say this, but this was quite an entertaining match. Of course the result wasn’t the best, but a draw against a team who with three games to go in the season still weren’t certain to avoid relegation is in 2024 actually a pretty positive outcome. We’ve been atrocious against teams in the bottom half this year. It was especially positive considering that at the final whistle we also were still not mathematically safe from relegation either. This post is going to be light on detail and content for a few reasons. Firstly, I’m writing this on a bus to Tokushima where I intend to consume a lot of alcohol, so there’s definitely a feeling of getting the witting of this out of the way. Secondly, I spent most of the game ducking and weaving trying to avoid the two massive flags in front of me. These flags made large portions of the pitch and the game completely invisible to me. Your guess is probably better than mine for what went on. But don’t worry, I clearly saw all the idiotic things the ref and linesman did though. Finally, this will be light because this game ultimately wasn’t that important and probably won’t live long in the memory. But for once it’s nice to not have an awful performance casting a long shadow over what was supposed to be a nice weekend away. Ok, so let’s get on with this.
As I said, it was a fun game. Large periods of it were end to end, particularly in the second half. Kyoto have been in decent form recently so a draw against them is perhaps a good result. Whilst the game was quite exciting, it wasn’t really very pretty. We were totally on top in the first half yet only managed our first shot around the 35th minute. A very familiar story. After that and before half time we did come alive, but didn’t manage to actually force a save, so perhaps it was more a case of just waking up than being brought back from the dead and given superpowers. Although it didn’t feel like it, it seems like Kyoto really dominated the chances in the second half. Certainly Sung-Ryong made some great and very important saves. But I felt like we were having good chances of our own, so I was a bit shocked when I saw the stats. As the real story of the game for me is the performance of the officials, maybe I should get the Kyoto bitching part over in this paragraph. They’re definitely a physical team, spending quite a lot of the match trying to kick lumps out of us. They are also definitely a team of whiny little arseholes, moaning about every decision, even the ones that went their way. I imagine they’d only be happy if every attempted Frontale tackle resulted in the execution of the player responsible and them being awarded five bonus goals for having to put up with us trying to get the ball. I also noticed that behind the goal in the home end there was one of those usual nationalist flags. It’s not uncommon for teams to have some kind of knuckle-dragger fans whose whole reason for living is to try to be an edgelord waving them but usually they at least attempt to cover things up a little by having them in their team’s colours. Not on this occasion. And I’m pretty sure I didn’t see it in the first half, so maybe they only decide to wave it if there’s a Korean player nearby. Can’t say for sure but it definitely seemed to be the case to me.
This is all probably quite biased though. However, I think both sets of fans were irritated by the person that I’ll dedicate a whole paragraph to. Kasahara was back again and it seems he’s still useless and he still hates us. Perhaps he was wound up by our stubborn refusal to give him a DOGSO red opportunity. It certainly seemed like he had a bit of a grudge against us when he openly laughed as he waved away what I reckon could have been a penalty for a shove in the back on Ienaga. Reckon this decision could have gone either way really, but it was a bit weird to see the enjoyment he took in making it. I guess the big talking point of the game was the penalty. Or rather I should say penalties. I haven’t yet seen a replay of Sung-Ryong apparently moving off his line for the first one which he saved. To be honest though, I’d say that anytime the taker does one of those stupid run ups the keeper should have the right to not only leave his line but also smack the taker in the face. It’s really annoying and I’m disappointed that I’ve seen some of our players do it this year. I’m not sure how jogging on the spot doesn’t count as stopping halfway through the run up, but it seems that plenty of refs are ok with it. Both of the penalties definitely included clear stops in the run up. Would have been nice to see the officials pay as much attention to that as they did to movement off the line. The most annoying thing though is that it was even given. Kasahara missed it and after VAR drew his attention to his ‘clear and obvious error’ it took him ages and numerous replays to apparently see that it hit Tachibanada’s arm. To be honest, I don’t think that part was even worth debating it was so obvious. The stupid part is the fact that refs are supposed to take into account body position and distance from where the ball was kicked in these cases. Tachibanada was touching the attacker so couldn’t have been closer. Quite how he’s supposed to get his arms out the way as an attacker kicks the ball right at him from point blank range, I don’t know. As soon as he went to the monitor I just knew he was going to give it though, the stupid arsehole. He’d already stiffed us in the first half by not sending Appiah off for a second yellow. Clearly it was a yellow card offence but Kasahara didn’t want to give it in front of the home end. It was particularly galling that he gave Sai a yellow for a very similar incident in almost the same place in the second half. But I guess it’s no surprise we don’t get consistency from these refs as they seem unaware even of the rules of the game, so it’s expecting a bit much for them to apply them on a fair basis. Kasahara should consider a new career. Not just because he’s a hopeless ref, but also because I think he do really well having his own winery as he clearly is excellent at bottling things. To be fair though, he wasn’t helped by his linesman at our end who was also hopeless. But similarly to how I stated above, if the refs are shit, it’s no surprise that the guys who aren’t good enough to be awful refs are also not good at their job. I’m not sure anyone ever dreams as a youngster of being a linesman, do they? But anyway, useless ref, useless linesman, but it probably helped when it came to my enjoyment of the match. I shouted quite a lot. I suspect I might shout more when I watch some replays.
So an enjoyable game and thanks to Gamba beating Jubilo, a point that ensures our safety, so there’s… erm… something to celebrate tonight. Hmmmm. Our matches have seemed kind of pointless for a lot of this year, but now they are officially pointless. Well, apart from the ACL games. Next up, the second half of our match against Urawa. I’m not going to that one as I have much better plans. Going to Saitama Stadium is a pain in the arse even when there are no caveats, so the thought of going there for only 45 minutes is a big ask. And we’re losing at half time. After that it’s Buriram away in the ACL, so I’m not going to be attending a match for a while. Might give me an opportunity to get my voice back properly before presumably ruining it again when the next clown of a ref rolls into town. Oniki lovers will be sad that the Oniki Frontale games are running out fast now. I’m pleased that we don’t have any relegation worries so I can probably have a little truce with him. He’s obviously done a lot for the club and it’s a bit of shame that he didn’t leave in a better circumstances than a hopeless season, but at least he didn’t get us relegated. Come on Oniki and give us something to cheer about by smashing five past Urawa!
As I said, it was a fun game. Large periods of it were end to end, particularly in the second half. Kyoto have been in decent form recently so a draw against them is perhaps a good result. Whilst the game was quite exciting, it wasn’t really very pretty. We were totally on top in the first half yet only managed our first shot around the 35th minute. A very familiar story. After that and before half time we did come alive, but didn’t manage to actually force a save, so perhaps it was more a case of just waking up than being brought back from the dead and given superpowers. Although it didn’t feel like it, it seems like Kyoto really dominated the chances in the second half. Certainly Sung-Ryong made some great and very important saves. But I felt like we were having good chances of our own, so I was a bit shocked when I saw the stats. As the real story of the game for me is the performance of the officials, maybe I should get the Kyoto bitching part over in this paragraph. They’re definitely a physical team, spending quite a lot of the match trying to kick lumps out of us. They are also definitely a team of whiny little arseholes, moaning about every decision, even the ones that went their way. I imagine they’d only be happy if every attempted Frontale tackle resulted in the execution of the player responsible and them being awarded five bonus goals for having to put up with us trying to get the ball. I also noticed that behind the goal in the home end there was one of those usual nationalist flags. It’s not uncommon for teams to have some kind of knuckle-dragger fans whose whole reason for living is to try to be an edgelord waving them but usually they at least attempt to cover things up a little by having them in their team’s colours. Not on this occasion. And I’m pretty sure I didn’t see it in the first half, so maybe they only decide to wave it if there’s a Korean player nearby. Can’t say for sure but it definitely seemed to be the case to me.
This is all probably quite biased though. However, I think both sets of fans were irritated by the person that I’ll dedicate a whole paragraph to. Kasahara was back again and it seems he’s still useless and he still hates us. Perhaps he was wound up by our stubborn refusal to give him a DOGSO red opportunity. It certainly seemed like he had a bit of a grudge against us when he openly laughed as he waved away what I reckon could have been a penalty for a shove in the back on Ienaga. Reckon this decision could have gone either way really, but it was a bit weird to see the enjoyment he took in making it. I guess the big talking point of the game was the penalty. Or rather I should say penalties. I haven’t yet seen a replay of Sung-Ryong apparently moving off his line for the first one which he saved. To be honest though, I’d say that anytime the taker does one of those stupid run ups the keeper should have the right to not only leave his line but also smack the taker in the face. It’s really annoying and I’m disappointed that I’ve seen some of our players do it this year. I’m not sure how jogging on the spot doesn’t count as stopping halfway through the run up, but it seems that plenty of refs are ok with it. Both of the penalties definitely included clear stops in the run up. Would have been nice to see the officials pay as much attention to that as they did to movement off the line. The most annoying thing though is that it was even given. Kasahara missed it and after VAR drew his attention to his ‘clear and obvious error’ it took him ages and numerous replays to apparently see that it hit Tachibanada’s arm. To be honest, I don’t think that part was even worth debating it was so obvious. The stupid part is the fact that refs are supposed to take into account body position and distance from where the ball was kicked in these cases. Tachibanada was touching the attacker so couldn’t have been closer. Quite how he’s supposed to get his arms out the way as an attacker kicks the ball right at him from point blank range, I don’t know. As soon as he went to the monitor I just knew he was going to give it though, the stupid arsehole. He’d already stiffed us in the first half by not sending Appiah off for a second yellow. Clearly it was a yellow card offence but Kasahara didn’t want to give it in front of the home end. It was particularly galling that he gave Sai a yellow for a very similar incident in almost the same place in the second half. But I guess it’s no surprise we don’t get consistency from these refs as they seem unaware even of the rules of the game, so it’s expecting a bit much for them to apply them on a fair basis. Kasahara should consider a new career. Not just because he’s a hopeless ref, but also because I think he do really well having his own winery as he clearly is excellent at bottling things. To be fair though, he wasn’t helped by his linesman at our end who was also hopeless. But similarly to how I stated above, if the refs are shit, it’s no surprise that the guys who aren’t good enough to be awful refs are also not good at their job. I’m not sure anyone ever dreams as a youngster of being a linesman, do they? But anyway, useless ref, useless linesman, but it probably helped when it came to my enjoyment of the match. I shouted quite a lot. I suspect I might shout more when I watch some replays.
So an enjoyable game and thanks to Gamba beating Jubilo, a point that ensures our safety, so there’s… erm… something to celebrate tonight. Hmmmm. Our matches have seemed kind of pointless for a lot of this year, but now they are officially pointless. Well, apart from the ACL games. Next up, the second half of our match against Urawa. I’m not going to that one as I have much better plans. Going to Saitama Stadium is a pain in the arse even when there are no caveats, so the thought of going there for only 45 minutes is a big ask. And we’re losing at half time. After that it’s Buriram away in the ACL, so I’m not going to be attending a match for a while. Might give me an opportunity to get my voice back properly before presumably ruining it again when the next clown of a ref rolls into town. Oniki lovers will be sad that the Oniki Frontale games are running out fast now. I’m pleased that we don’t have any relegation worries so I can probably have a little truce with him. He’s obviously done a lot for the club and it’s a bit of shame that he didn’t leave in a better circumstances than a hopeless season, but at least he didn’t get us relegated. Come on Oniki and give us something to cheer about by smashing five past Urawa!
Team
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
DF 31. VAN WERMESKERKEN Sai (Yellow card 52')
DF 35. MARUYAMA Yuichi
DF 5. SASAKI Asahi
DF 13. MIURA Sota
DF 5. SASAKI Asahi
DF 13. MIURA Sota
MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento
MF 77. YAMAMOTO Yuki
MF 17. TONO Daiya
MF 23. MARCINHO
FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke
FW 9. ERISON
MF 17. TONO Daiya
MF 23. MARCINHO
FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke
FW 9. ERISON
Subs
GK 98. YAMAGUCHI Louis
DF 4. JESIEL (on for VAN WERMESKERKEN 84')
GK 98. YAMAGUCHI Louis
DF 4. JESIEL (on for VAN WERMESKERKEN 84')
MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota (on for YAMAMOTO 46')
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for MARCINHO 84')
MF 19. KAWAHARA So
FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for ERISON 46')
FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro (on for TONO 46')
My Frontale Man Of The Match
Goals
YAMADA (Frontale) 24' 0-1
RAFAEL ELIAS (Kyoto) 79' PEN 1-1
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for MARCINHO 84')
MF 19. KAWAHARA So
FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for ERISON 46')
FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro (on for TONO 46')
My Frontale Man Of The Match
Haven’t done this for ages but given that I made a note that he was single-handedly keeping us alive in the game it has to go to…
JUNG Sung-Ryong - I’m slightly worried that he might be leaving us at the end of the year, presumably to retire. This match showed that there’s no need for him to retire just yet. Great stuff again!
Goals
YAMADA (Frontale) 24' 0-1
RAFAEL ELIAS (Kyoto) 79' PEN 1-1
Highlights
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