Perhaps I was being excessively dramatic after the last match. Certainly I was in an appalling mood after an appalling performance. But judging from the starting line up of this game it seems that Hasebe also thought that we were pretty bad against Vissel Kobe. In that match we basically started like we were on fire, scored and then turned off for most of the rest of the game. Yeah, we had some chances late on, but most of those chances didn’t actually make it to the actually-having-a-shot stage and it never really looked like we were going to get anything from the game. There were a few similarities in this match. Again we started pretty well and scored fairly early. And once again we spent most of the second half not threatening to do anything. But I guess the big difference in this match was that we were two goals up instead of one goal down. And we even managed to stretch the lead late on after Ozeki came on apparently determined to score. Conceding the late consolation goal was a bit of a bummer and it looked absolutely miles offside in the stadium. (On DAZN they only seemed to have one angle that included both the keeper and the recipient and it was a far from ideal angle. If VAR only had the same one, I can understand why they didn’t have the confidence to overturn the decision). The win takes us up to fifth and now we’ve played all of our games in hand. If we hadn’t fucked up so massively against Vissel, we would have been in second, three points behind Kashima. I think I said after our game against them that I thought Kashima weren’t very good, so hopefully that turns out to be true and they plummet to mid table where they deserve to be. A quick aside, delightfully, and allowing me to fully enjoy my post-game beers, YFM got spanked and remain rock bottom. Winning a game is great. Your enemies losing badly is great. Having both happen on the same evening is wonderful.
Us -
Ito started this game and I thought he was great again, with so much energy and a desire to go forward instead of pass backwards. I don’t think Ienaga is past it, but I am certain he is past starting every game. Perhaps similarly with Maruyama. He’s played well this year, but at his age I would hope he gets a rest from time to time. While he was by no means the worst performer in the last game, he didn’t have a great match and probably needed a bit of a rest. So Jesiel was back and played almost all of the 90 minutes! When he did leave the field it looked initially a bit of a worry as it seemed like he might be injured again. But I think it was mainly cramp, possibly brought on by a shocker of a foul from an Albirex forward. We are clearly going to need Jesiel going forward as it seems that Takai will be leaving soon. I wonder if we might see Sasaki back at centre back alternating with Jesiel and Maruyama. I’d rather have him at full back, but perhaps feel that if we keep injury free we have more cover in those positions than we do in the middle. Another person I slagged off a little in the last post was Yamamoto who had a bit of a dodgy game. But he was back to his best in this match. I think the schedule has been catching up with a lot of people recently. Yamada dropped to the bench, and I don’t think anyone could really argue with that. Kanda made his first start which is something plenty of people have been calling for and he managed to get his first league goal. I feel a bit sorry for Yamada as it would probably have been a goal he would have also scored, but at the same time with the slump he’s been going through, maybe he wouldn’t have been in the right place. I feel like none of our (fit) strikers have shown themselves to be an undroppable definite first choice so that’s clearly an area where we have some questions to answer. I suspect either Kobayashi or more likely Yamada will start on Sunday against Verdy. But anyway, Kanda did what he was supposed to do and that’s something that can't be said about plenty of our players in recent matches, so well done to him. I also criticised Yamaguchi, probably quite unfairly in that last post. This is a tricky one for me, because I started the year a bit suspicious of him, have been won round on a few occasions by great performances, and then have reverted to my original point of view after some horrible performances. Presumably this is why when we concede a soft goal it’s my instinct to blame Yamaguchi, even though others are equally culpable. That’s not really fair of me so I apologise to him and his fans. I guess the problem is that as a goalkeeper, when you make a big mistake it more than likely ends up in a goal, so it’s very visible. In his match he made one very good save and other than that didn’t have a massive amount to do so I’ll just concentrate on praising the good save. It’s always a lot easier to be reasonable when we’ve won!
Miura back in the starting line up made a difference I think. And it was good to see Sai back from injury (probably... I don’t think anything was ever announced). Oshima was absent but I hope this is because Hasebe is just doing a better job of managing the fragile often injured players. If he can keep Oshima and Jesiel available for most of the rest of the season he will have achieved miracles. Maybe… maybe…. the injury situation is clearing up a little. Maybe. Of course we still have Erison injured who is the only striker who has really properly staked a claim for the position this year and that's clearly a blow. But maybe elsewhere, Hasebe finally has some options. Just in time for us getting the rug pulled out from under us by Takai leaving. Yamada is also rumoured to be going (to Celtic), but I’m not sure how likely that is or how much of an effect it would have on us. Hopefully we will sign some replacements and/or reinforcements in the transfer window. The season actually looks like it is delicately balanced right now. So it would be good if we tried to at least slightly push it in a favourable direction.
Them -
Not a great deal to say about Albirex really. They dominated possession in the match and had 50% more shots than us. I think these stats are partly coloured by our dodgy second half though. However, I didn’t ever really feel like we were in much danger. Before the game I would have been happy to wish them well for the rest of the season, but they didn’t give us the ball back after we put it out for an injury and that peed me off a bit. But at the same time, they brought loads of passionate fans, (more fans and more passion than Vissel and that game was on a Saturday not a Wednesday evening!), and I enjoy the away fixture, so I would quite like them to stay up. They’re in the muck at the moment though, so they’ll need a bit of a change in fortune.
Ref -
When I saw the ref was Kawamata I was cautiously optimistic. He definitely seems to be one of the better refs and I thought he did well in this match. What a rare thing to say! I thought he let a few things go for the good of the game and I’m all in favour of that. There was one situation where if he’d given a marginal foul against a Niigata defender he probably would have had to send him off for a second yellow card as it would have been one of those promising attack things. I’m fine with him not giving it. A referee employing some common sense is a very welcome thing. Good for him!
So that's about it rather than a quick mention for the one massive disappointment for me about this match which was the fact that the semi-secret toilet that is always much quieter than the others now has someone standing with a sign pointing to it. I’m gutted about the potentially disastrous effect this will have on my half times in the future. I’m sure you feel my pain and totally understand why I’ve mentioned it. Next up Tokyo Verdy away on Sunday early evening. Another team who aren’t in great form and are languishing at the wrong end of the table. Usually this would mean that we’d lose but that didn’t happen in this match so fingers crossed it won’t in the next one either. After that, Kashima at home the following weekend. That's going to be an interesting one…
Team
GK 98. YAMAGUCHI Louis
DF 5. SASAKI Asahi
DF 2. TAKAI Kota
DF 4. JESIEL
DF 13. MIURA Sota
MF 19. KAWAHARA So
MF 6. YAMAMOTO Yuki (Yellow card 90+10')
MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
FW 17. ITO Tatsuya
FW 38. KANDA Soma
FW 23. MARCINHO
Subs
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
DF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento (on for KAWAHARA 79')
GK 98. YAMAGUCHI Louis
DF 5. SASAKI Asahi
DF 2. TAKAI Kota
DF 4. JESIEL
DF 13. MIURA Sota
MF 19. KAWAHARA So
MF 6. YAMAMOTO Yuki (Yellow card 90+10')
MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
FW 17. ITO Tatsuya
FW 38. KANDA Soma
FW 23. MARCINHO
Subs
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
DF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento (on for KAWAHARA 79')
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for KANDA 68')
MF 16. OZEKI Yuto (on for WAKIZAKA 88')
FW 20. YAMADA Shin
FW 24. MIYAGI Ten (on for MARCINHO 68')
DF 31. VAN WERMESKERKEN Sai
DF 35. MARUYAMA Yuichi (on for JESIEL 79')
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro
MF 16. OZEKI Yuto (on for WAKIZAKA 88')
FW 20. YAMADA Shin
FW 24. MIYAGI Ten (on for MARCINHO 68')
DF 31. VAN WERMESKERKEN Sai
DF 35. MARUYAMA Yuichi (on for JESIEL 79')
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro
My Frontale Man Of The Match
I’ve been convinced to award this to this player because on Flashscore he was awarded the second lowest score on our team which I thought was absolutely idiotic. So it goes to…
ITO Tatsuya - genuinely forward looking, energetic and consistently one of our best players when he starts. If Ienaga comes back on Sunday as I suspect he will, hopefully Ito can start on the left and let Marcinho have a rest.
Goals
WAKIZAKA (Frontale) 12' 1-0
KANDA (Frontale) 35' 2-0
OZEKI (Frontale) 90+1' 3-0
OKUMURA (Albirex) 90+5' 3-1
Highlights
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