Vs Vissel Kobe (away) 16/4/25 J League match 12

 

Vissel Kobe 2 - 1 Kawasaki Frontale

Finally! Finally we’ve broken that run of drawn games. Oh… Whilst it’s never good to miss a game, sometimes, with hindsight it might seem that you did the right thing by going to work instead and not even bothering with the highlights. I realise that this is an utterly ridiculous thing to say. After all, how can I even comment that the game was terrible without even seeing a moment of it? Well, I guess the scoreline helps give you an idea. And then you could look at the stats. We had only six shots and only one on target, which their keeper let in. Might have been worth trying a few from our own half if he was that dodgy. In the second half apparently we only had two shots, both off target. I still think these games don’t really show where we are as a team, the closer we get to leaving for Saudi Arabia, the more cautious we’re becoming perhaps. It’s just a shame that we’ve had so many games crammed in to such a short period already. It’s almost as if the league is willing us to fail. Can you imagine the situation if Oniki was still in charge. The same players would have played every single minute of both the ACL and league games. But anyway, I keep saying we’re playing with the handbrake slightly on and while I still think this is the case, It’s getting as boring for me to say it as it must be for you to read it. Thankfully there’s only one more game before we leave. It’s probably a must win though, as otherwise we’ll be leaving for our biggest recent challenge with no wins in five games. Hasebe played the first team in this match and we lost. I presume he’ll rotate for Verdy. But the truth is we don’t seem to have that many options right now with an already massive and increasing by the week injury list. And if we do manage to win our first match in Saudi Arabia we’ll then be up against a really stupid schedule of games. Will there be anyone left standing by the time it comes to our first league match after returning from the ACL? Anyway, this is way too long considering I saw nothing of the match and I have nothing new or interesting to say. Perhaps there will be more to write after the game against Verdy at home on Sunday. Hopefully it will be a bit more positive. At the same time, I remember how bad the home game against Verdy was last year so I’m not holding out too much hope. Keep your fingers and your toes and your arms and your legs and even your eyes crossed, I guess. Actually maybe skip that last one.

Team
 

GK 98. YAMAGUCHI Louis
DF 5. SASAKI Asahi
DF 2. TAKAI Kota
DF 35. MARUYAMA Yuichi
DF 13. MIURA Sota
MF 19. KAWAHARA So
MF 6. YAMAMOTO Yuki
MF 17. ITO Tatsuya
MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
MF 23. MARCINHO (Yellow card 12')
FW 9. ERISON (Yellow card 45+2')

Subs

GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for MARCINHO 78')
MF 16. OZEKI Yuto (on for KAWAHARA 78')
FW 18. SEGAWA Yusuke
FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for ERISON 61')
FW 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata
DF 31. VAN WERMESKERKEN Sai (on for SASAKI 78')
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro (on for ITO 61')
DF 44. CESAR HAYDAR

Goals

SASAKI (Kobe) 31' 1-0
THULER (Kobe) 45' 2-0
MARCINHO (Frontale) 45+3' 2-1

Highlights