Al-Ahli 2 - 0 Kawasaki Frontale
Ah, what a shame… Three games in seven days in Saudi Arabia was never going to be easy. And particularly if the opponents have a hell of a lot more money than you. And of course that beautiful Saudi Arabian teams’ extra day rest thing that seems to be a new AFL dictate. But I’m only going to spend a small part of this blog post moaning about how unfair the competition was. (Rereading this, it’s clear that I was being a bit optimistic on that count. This post is predominately the same whinge over and over). I will also say that the better team won, particularly when you judge these matters on the amount they paid for their players and the amount they pay their players. As I watched the final in a hotel room in Morioka, 30 minutes after watching my home town team Leyton Orient secure an unlikely play-off spot, there was probably only ever one way my spirits could go and so it turned out to be. We’ve horrendously over performed in this tournament, so it will never be anything other than a massive bonus to get to the final. At the same time, it’s disappointing to have got so close and even to have been so close to somehow matching the opposition’s level, but eventually ending up not getting the job done. I was hoping we could have struck a blow for real football in its perhaps non-existent battle against big money football, but it wasn’t to be. So near, but yet so far. But at the same time, so financially far behind. Therefore, let’s call this a moral victory, eh? And now concentrate on the league in which we will be three games behind in by the time we play next. Oh, and the Emperor’s Cup, and the Levain Cup. I guess the hectic schedule is going to continue for the foreseeable future.
Us -
Well done to all of the players who took part and also to those who were just there making up the numbers. Zero shots on target in the final feels on the surface pretty disappointing, but when you look at the schedule we’ve had to put up with, a schedule that it should be noted was far worse than that of all of our Saudi opponents in this final stage, you’ve just got to say, well done Frontale. I’ve tried to avoid the post match comments and reactions but as far as I understand the players are quite upset, but they really shouldn’t be. The scales were balanced so absolutely in favour of the opposition in almost all of our games that they really shouldn’t be unhappy. It would be easy to say this was a David and Goliath type encounter, but the truth is that we didn’t really look like David for most of this game. Sure, they had more possession, and scored twice whilst we failed to do so, but the truth is that they spent a lot of time in the match time-wasting to hang on to their lead and win the title. Totally fair enough, but given the gulf between the two clubs’ finances it felt very reminiscent of when Man. City took the ball to the corner flag in the 85th minute against my other team Leyton Orient . Basically extremely undignified. Sure we conceded twice, but one was due to a wonder finish by a player valued at 28.7 million Euros on Flashscore after we gave them the ball through a cock up, and the other came when we were briefly down to ten men after Miura had gone off injured, but before Sai could come on. So basically they took their chances. And we really didn’t. But they hadn’t played three days previously. And they could also bring on a sub in the 74th minute who is valued at 22 million euros who Al Ahli bought for 40 million Euros from Celta Vigo. Actually maybe the maths in that previous sentence is quite interesting…. But once again, I’m not whinging… although it might sound like I am. We did great. It’s just probably doesn’t really make sense for teams from other Asian countries to be playing Saudi teams. The financial disparity is so extreme that the best that you can hope for is a miracle result. But damn we were close. Well not exactly close, but maybe 15% away from having a chance. If the tournament had a reasonable break between games and a home and away element, I reckon we might have been able to do them. And how lovely that would have been. But anyway, more on that later, and let’s finish this section by reiterating that everyone related to Frontale did great. Hasebe should already be considered a Frontale legend for making some calls that there is no way Oniki would have made. And right up till the final they all paid off. Don’t worry about what might have been and instead focus on what we achieved. Bravo everyone!
Them -
Probably not that much to say about a team of financial mercenaries playing in a league full of teams packed with financial mercenaries. Well nothing other than the things I’ve said already numerous times. All of the Saudi teams in this final stage are predominately owned by the Public Investment Fund, which is the sovereign bank wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. The other club they own is the one that is currently at the top of the league. I’m not sure how this is allowed. I’m not sure it would be in most countries, but maybe I’m being naive. After our victory against Al Nassr, there were plenty of their fans and also fans of Al Hilal who were supporting us because they hate Al Ahli. I guess this is something a bit like sibling rivalry. When two of the current top four in the league play each other the one thing that is certain to happen if that your parent company is going to get a win (or at least a couple of draws). I don’t really understand how the same company/people/person can own four teams in the same league without it being a conflict of interests, but let’s forget all of this as there’s nothing we can do about it and it’s kind of none of our business anyway. So instead let’s focus on Al Ahli. The most apparent thing to me about them, (aside from the fact that they are loaded), is that their manager looks like the kind of guy you really should avoid at a party. He really seems like the kind of creep who’s going to try his best to get you involved in his crypto pyramid scheme whilst at the same time give you some tips on how he’s writing a book about pick-up techniques and can tell you how to get and control any woman you want. Basically, I guess I’m saying he looks like he’s a little shit. I think his shitty moaning behaviour on the touchline was replicated though his whole team though, who spent a large portion of the game with expressions on their faces that made it look like they had been utterly wronged. I know this was their first time winning the ACL so fair play to them. Their fellow PIF funded teams who were equally stacked with cash didn’t get as far as they did. But when you consider our most valuable player, (according to Flashscore, Erison €2.2m), is worth about a quarter of the average value of one of their back four, which let’s be honest is absolutely the weakest part of their team, we didn’t really stand a chance. The financial disparity was a massive obstacle, but they were also able to play the final in their home stadium with basically a home allocation of tickets. So, we were really up against it. The AFL has skewed this competition so far in favour of ultra rich West Asian clubs that it has become a joke. Particularly by changing the foreign player limit which is presumably only going to make things worse in the future as more and more cash gets splashed. Al Ahli had two Saudi players in their starting line up. They brought a couple more on later once they were sure they’d be winning but it was basically a band of foreigners who maybe like to be big fish in a small pond. Oh, and really like money. So a massively rich team with players who are worth a shitload more than any of our players and still they spent a lot of the game whinging and time-wasting. On paper they absolutely deserved to win. It’s just a shame that they resorted to such shitty tactics even when the odds were so heavily stacked in their favour. Oh and one last thing, their pitch was fucking shit. Maybe they could spend a bit more money on their ground keeping staff rather than buying one extra player. But I suppose the turn around between games was quite quick. Obviously the AFC in their immense wisdom hadn’t thought of that when planning the competition.
Ref -
How wonderfully appropriate that in the games we won I’ve praised the refs and then in this game I’m going to say that this one was shit! I really recognised his face, so I guess I’ve moaned about him previously. I was particularly aggravated when an Al Ahli player, covering his mouth spoke to ref, who did the same whilst replying and then they both had a good old laugh about something. You can understand players doing it, but it’s not really a good look in the name of transparency when the ref does it. And there was a definite possible red card that he wimped out of giving when Demiral handballed to stop the ball going to Marcinho who was basically through on goal. Given that their players were arguing so hard about it, I guess they thought he was going to be sent off. Not sure it would have made much of a difference, but given that they scored their second when we were briefly down to 10, it might have been nice if we’d been given 45 minutes to try to do the same. But I’m not blaming the ref. I’ve said it a thousand times already but the imbalance between the teams was the main culprit. The ref certainly didn’t help though. But at the same time we couldn’t really have expected to win as we didn’t hit the target even once in this game. Might have done if the red had been given though. Whichever way you look at it it’s nice to be back to thinking that almost every ref can do one as far as I’m concerned. So the wait for me to praise a referee in a game we’ve lost continues. Hopefully we won’t lose again till next year’s preseason.
So all in all, a massively positive campaign, with a slightly depressing ending. The ACL has become a joke of a completion and we came kind of close to winning it in spite of the best efforts of the organisers. I guess now we can confidently state that we are the ‘No. 2 club in Asia’. I’ll leave it to Al Ahli and Kobe to decide who is the number one. So back to league duties, and I’m kind of excited to see what will happen. I think Hasebe has absolutely proved himself and now with the ACL done, I’m really interested to see what happens. This competition was absolutely something that has been on everyone’s minds so far this year, so low with some great performances in the bag, I hope that we can really push on and start showing our true potential in the league. We’ll have three games to catch up, but hopefully with the pressure of upcoming ACL games off, we’ll cut loose and start smashing some teams. Who do we have next? Oh, Kashima. Who’s their manager again? Oh… They’re doing well in the league but have had no distractions and in classic Oniki style they relieved themselves of their cup pressure by losing to a significantly weaker team in an early round. Hopefully we can start a nice losing run of results for them on Sunday. And praise the lord, it’s at the National stadium! Some people might extoll the virtues of the Kashima Soccer Stadium but I’d say that they probably aren’t people who’ve had to return from a busy game there by shuttle bus or public transport. I’m delighted that one of the worst away trips of the year will be significantly simplified in 2025. Think this might be the first time I’ve ever been pleased a game of ours has been moved to the National Stadium, so don’t say that this whole post has just been the same old things repeated endlessly. I finally managed to come up with something new! On Sunday, if we could come away with the three points as well as the satisfaction of not having to go by bus to Ibaraki, it would be a wonderful day indeed.
Us -
Well done to all of the players who took part and also to those who were just there making up the numbers. Zero shots on target in the final feels on the surface pretty disappointing, but when you look at the schedule we’ve had to put up with, a schedule that it should be noted was far worse than that of all of our Saudi opponents in this final stage, you’ve just got to say, well done Frontale. I’ve tried to avoid the post match comments and reactions but as far as I understand the players are quite upset, but they really shouldn’t be. The scales were balanced so absolutely in favour of the opposition in almost all of our games that they really shouldn’t be unhappy. It would be easy to say this was a David and Goliath type encounter, but the truth is that we didn’t really look like David for most of this game. Sure, they had more possession, and scored twice whilst we failed to do so, but the truth is that they spent a lot of time in the match time-wasting to hang on to their lead and win the title. Totally fair enough, but given the gulf between the two clubs’ finances it felt very reminiscent of when Man. City took the ball to the corner flag in the 85th minute against my other team Leyton Orient . Basically extremely undignified. Sure we conceded twice, but one was due to a wonder finish by a player valued at 28.7 million Euros on Flashscore after we gave them the ball through a cock up, and the other came when we were briefly down to ten men after Miura had gone off injured, but before Sai could come on. So basically they took their chances. And we really didn’t. But they hadn’t played three days previously. And they could also bring on a sub in the 74th minute who is valued at 22 million euros who Al Ahli bought for 40 million Euros from Celta Vigo. Actually maybe the maths in that previous sentence is quite interesting…. But once again, I’m not whinging… although it might sound like I am. We did great. It’s just probably doesn’t really make sense for teams from other Asian countries to be playing Saudi teams. The financial disparity is so extreme that the best that you can hope for is a miracle result. But damn we were close. Well not exactly close, but maybe 15% away from having a chance. If the tournament had a reasonable break between games and a home and away element, I reckon we might have been able to do them. And how lovely that would have been. But anyway, more on that later, and let’s finish this section by reiterating that everyone related to Frontale did great. Hasebe should already be considered a Frontale legend for making some calls that there is no way Oniki would have made. And right up till the final they all paid off. Don’t worry about what might have been and instead focus on what we achieved. Bravo everyone!
Them -
Probably not that much to say about a team of financial mercenaries playing in a league full of teams packed with financial mercenaries. Well nothing other than the things I’ve said already numerous times. All of the Saudi teams in this final stage are predominately owned by the Public Investment Fund, which is the sovereign bank wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. The other club they own is the one that is currently at the top of the league. I’m not sure how this is allowed. I’m not sure it would be in most countries, but maybe I’m being naive. After our victory against Al Nassr, there were plenty of their fans and also fans of Al Hilal who were supporting us because they hate Al Ahli. I guess this is something a bit like sibling rivalry. When two of the current top four in the league play each other the one thing that is certain to happen if that your parent company is going to get a win (or at least a couple of draws). I don’t really understand how the same company/people/person can own four teams in the same league without it being a conflict of interests, but let’s forget all of this as there’s nothing we can do about it and it’s kind of none of our business anyway. So instead let’s focus on Al Ahli. The most apparent thing to me about them, (aside from the fact that they are loaded), is that their manager looks like the kind of guy you really should avoid at a party. He really seems like the kind of creep who’s going to try his best to get you involved in his crypto pyramid scheme whilst at the same time give you some tips on how he’s writing a book about pick-up techniques and can tell you how to get and control any woman you want. Basically, I guess I’m saying he looks like he’s a little shit. I think his shitty moaning behaviour on the touchline was replicated though his whole team though, who spent a large portion of the game with expressions on their faces that made it look like they had been utterly wronged. I know this was their first time winning the ACL so fair play to them. Their fellow PIF funded teams who were equally stacked with cash didn’t get as far as they did. But when you consider our most valuable player, (according to Flashscore, Erison €2.2m), is worth about a quarter of the average value of one of their back four, which let’s be honest is absolutely the weakest part of their team, we didn’t really stand a chance. The financial disparity was a massive obstacle, but they were also able to play the final in their home stadium with basically a home allocation of tickets. So, we were really up against it. The AFL has skewed this competition so far in favour of ultra rich West Asian clubs that it has become a joke. Particularly by changing the foreign player limit which is presumably only going to make things worse in the future as more and more cash gets splashed. Al Ahli had two Saudi players in their starting line up. They brought a couple more on later once they were sure they’d be winning but it was basically a band of foreigners who maybe like to be big fish in a small pond. Oh, and really like money. So a massively rich team with players who are worth a shitload more than any of our players and still they spent a lot of the game whinging and time-wasting. On paper they absolutely deserved to win. It’s just a shame that they resorted to such shitty tactics even when the odds were so heavily stacked in their favour. Oh and one last thing, their pitch was fucking shit. Maybe they could spend a bit more money on their ground keeping staff rather than buying one extra player. But I suppose the turn around between games was quite quick. Obviously the AFC in their immense wisdom hadn’t thought of that when planning the competition.
Ref -
How wonderfully appropriate that in the games we won I’ve praised the refs and then in this game I’m going to say that this one was shit! I really recognised his face, so I guess I’ve moaned about him previously. I was particularly aggravated when an Al Ahli player, covering his mouth spoke to ref, who did the same whilst replying and then they both had a good old laugh about something. You can understand players doing it, but it’s not really a good look in the name of transparency when the ref does it. And there was a definite possible red card that he wimped out of giving when Demiral handballed to stop the ball going to Marcinho who was basically through on goal. Given that their players were arguing so hard about it, I guess they thought he was going to be sent off. Not sure it would have made much of a difference, but given that they scored their second when we were briefly down to 10, it might have been nice if we’d been given 45 minutes to try to do the same. But I’m not blaming the ref. I’ve said it a thousand times already but the imbalance between the teams was the main culprit. The ref certainly didn’t help though. But at the same time we couldn’t really have expected to win as we didn’t hit the target even once in this game. Might have done if the red had been given though. Whichever way you look at it it’s nice to be back to thinking that almost every ref can do one as far as I’m concerned. So the wait for me to praise a referee in a game we’ve lost continues. Hopefully we won’t lose again till next year’s preseason.
So all in all, a massively positive campaign, with a slightly depressing ending. The ACL has become a joke of a completion and we came kind of close to winning it in spite of the best efforts of the organisers. I guess now we can confidently state that we are the ‘No. 2 club in Asia’. I’ll leave it to Al Ahli and Kobe to decide who is the number one. So back to league duties, and I’m kind of excited to see what will happen. I think Hasebe has absolutely proved himself and now with the ACL done, I’m really interested to see what happens. This competition was absolutely something that has been on everyone’s minds so far this year, so low with some great performances in the bag, I hope that we can really push on and start showing our true potential in the league. We’ll have three games to catch up, but hopefully with the pressure of upcoming ACL games off, we’ll cut loose and start smashing some teams. Who do we have next? Oh, Kashima. Who’s their manager again? Oh… They’re doing well in the league but have had no distractions and in classic Oniki style they relieved themselves of their cup pressure by losing to a significantly weaker team in an early round. Hopefully we can start a nice losing run of results for them on Sunday. And praise the lord, it’s at the National stadium! Some people might extoll the virtues of the Kashima Soccer Stadium but I’d say that they probably aren’t people who’ve had to return from a busy game there by shuttle bus or public transport. I’m delighted that one of the worst away trips of the year will be significantly simplified in 2025. Think this might be the first time I’ve ever been pleased a game of ours has been moved to the National Stadium, so don’t say that this whole post has just been the same old things repeated endlessly. I finally managed to come up with something new! On Sunday, if we could come away with the three points as well as the satisfaction of not having to go by bus to Ibaraki, it would be a wonderful day indeed.
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 77. YAMAMOTO Yuki
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro
MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
MF 23. MARCINHO
FW 9. ERISON
Subs
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
GK 21. ANDO Shunsuke
MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento
DF 15. TANABE Shuto
MF 16. OZEKI Yuto (on for YAMAMOTO 65')
FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for ERISON 46')
FW 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata (on for KAWAHARA 84')
FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke (on for IENAGA 82')
DF 31. VAN WERMESKERKEN Sai (on for MIURA 42')
FW 32. KANDA Soma
MF 37. ITO Tatsuya (on for IENAGA 65')
DF 44. CESAR HAYDAR
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 77. YAMAMOTO Yuki
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro
MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
MF 23. MARCINHO
FW 9. ERISON
Subs
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
GK 21. ANDO Shunsuke
MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento
DF 15. TANABE Shuto
MF 16. OZEKI Yuto (on for YAMAMOTO 65')
FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for ERISON 46')
FW 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata (on for KAWAHARA 84')
FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke (on for IENAGA 82')
DF 31. VAN WERMESKERKEN Sai (on for MIURA 42')
FW 32. KANDA Soma
MF 37. ITO Tatsuya (on for IENAGA 65')
DF 44. CESAR HAYDAR
My Frontale Man Of The Match
I usually don’t give this when I haven’t been at the game and I hate giving it in a ridiculously sentimental way but on this occasion I’ll make an exception and give it to …
EVERYONE - to all the players, congratulations, you did us proud. To Hasebe, you’ve really proved your worth and I hope you can show how good a manager you are for the rest of the season and longer. And to the fans who went to Saudi Arabia, good for you too. Everyone, give yourself a pat on the back. Well, everyone apart from me as this post is a bit of a dog’s breakfast.
Goals
GALENO (Al-Ahli) 35' 1-0
KESSIE (Al-Ahli) 42' 2-0
Highlights
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