Vs Yokohama F Marinos (away) 1/11/26 J League match 13

Yokohama F Marinos 4 - 2 Kawasaki Frontale

The winning run is over in predictably horrific style. I can’t help but feel that we might have done better in this game if we came in to it on a five game losing run instead. There was no way that our scummiest neighbours would let us extend a nice run in a game against them. And so it proved to be. One thing to grasp onto is perhaps the fact that this awful defeat was not as bad as the ‘home’ game defeat against them last year. Well at least in terms of the result anyway. I have no interest in prolonging my irritation about this all any longer so please forgive me if I just whinge a lot, (mainly about us), and get out of here. I’ve got plenty of targets for my annoyance this time and that’s probably no surprise as this was a truly shitty game that makes it difficult to even think about anticipating the next match, let alone actually attending it with any expectation of enjoying it. That next match is against a team who love to score and are in good form. This match wasn’t, and still we shat the bed on a monumental scale. As I want to get this done as soon as possible I’m going to not worry about trying to present this post in an organised and thoughtful way, (unbelievably, I normally do try to make these at least slightly readable), and instead will pile it all up in a series of probably ill-informed bullet points. Here goes.

- That same shitty first choice midfield three were back again and once again were awful. Somehow two of them managed to stay on the pitch for the whole ninety minutes. I’m not saying they are awful players, but I am definitely saying that when they’re together we do badly. How Hasebe hasn’t noticed this is a mystery. In our last seven games we’ve won five and lost two. The two losses form the bread in the win sandwich and both featured those three starting. Nagoya at home and this game were truly shit matches. In the middle five wins, three featured Hasebe’s second choice midfield and it seems like those games were pretty good. The other two were the wins away at Cerezo where we were more than aided by a very early red card for them but still in spite of scoring four times could still consider ourselves a bit lucky to win, and the Okayama home game where we were utterly shit and we’re lucky to get the win. Stuck right in the middle is the Vissel Kobe match. On paper I guess they are the strongest team of the lot and we absolutely battered them with our ‘second choice’ midfield. I’ve seen people talking about how they want Ozeki and Yamamichi to start. I agree. But I wonder if they realise that if this is to happen some sacred cows will have to be sacrificed. Surely even the most happy clappy of fan or staff member can see that the big names are regularly soiling themselves. And they still are automatic choices to start the next game if it’s considered an important game. Hasebe rotating for Vissel is still baffling. Does he intend to change it every game? Maybe we’ll see soon as we have two cup games against Kashiwa coming up, preceded by a league game against the same team. Our play is obviously dull but it seems that the football gods who presumably decide the cup draws want us to suffer even more dullness by having to playing the same team three times in a row. Pretty sure the same thing happened with the same opposition a year or two ago. I’m delighted to say that I have to work for one of those game so can’t attend, and perhaps might struggle to get a ticket for one of the others. So maybe I will be spared some misery. 

- When it comes to who was bad in this game it would be much easier to name who wasn’t bad as the list is significantly shorter. Pedro Romano wasn’t bad. And unlike a lot of his teammates, he really seemed to care about us getting repeatedly dismantled. Ito also seemed to care and I was a bit surprised to see him taken off as one of our first changes. Not sure if Derik was good or bad as he never really received the ball so it was difficult to judge. Don't try to give the ball to your one striker? Great tactics! Uremovic scored so that’s in his favour. But we did look a total mess at the back so that probably counts against him. But at least he managed to get a shot on target which is more than can be said for many of his gutless teammates. I think we have a problem in goal. I’m absolutely not saying Yamaguchi would have done any better. I suspect he would have done worse. But fuck me, Brodersen is not good on the ball. Which makes it all the more baffling that we continue to persevere with the absolutely pointless short goal kick thing. I perhaps can see some benefits to it if we could actually in any way do the basics, but recently it’s basically our opponents best form of attack against us. In this game YFM even stopped trying to pressure us in these stupid short goal kick situations, presumably knowing that they didn’t have to, as it seemed part of our game plan to give the ball away, particularly when under absolutely no pressure. Just absolutely woeful stuff. Presumably it will remain a crucial part of our genius tactical master plan for every forthcoming game.

- Wakizaka is a problem, I think. Many people disagree. He’s undroppable. He’s playing shit. He’s moaning at his teammates for making mistakes and taking no responsibility when he makes his own numerous mistakes. He’s the captain so you’d hope he be able to support and motivate his teammates but recently he seems more interested in farting around picking fluff out of his belly button, giving the ball away, missing even the easiest passes and chances and mouthing off at his teammates. He’s by no means the only problem in the midfield, but his unquestioned presence is blocking younger players who look more interested and are surely not in as bad form as he is. Maybe there are some similarities with Marcinho in that both of them seem to not be playing very well but then score goals, erasing any memories of any other very dodgy moments. But at least Marcinho looks like he’s trying and is interested. I doubt Hasebe will have the guts or the insight to drop him. But clearly the midfield three he prefers are absolutely not doing the business right now. 

- Whilst we’re in the subject of picking holes in Hasebe’s abilities, you’ve got to ask some questions about his tactics and subs in this match. We were not in the game right from the start, could easily have conceded two or three more than we did in the first half and he did nothing. We had two shots in the first half apparently. This was surprise for me as I can’t remember the one that wasn’t the goal. We were awful. And he changed nothing at half time. When he finally made a change it seemed a bit late and he took off Ito who had been one of the few players to show any kind of interest. Losing 4-1 with time running out, Hasebe finally changed our shape in the 78th minute. Presumably he thought we had enough time to come back and win. And then with little more than five minutes left he made his final two subs, two defensive changes. So maybe he was intent on keeping things tight and preserving our 4-1 defeat. I know we don’t have a great deal of options due to inuries and stuff, so maybe I should cut him some slack. But as far as I can see, when we win, it’s usually because we got lucky and when we lose, it’s because we got what we deserved. If he continues to carry on with picking the same players and doing the same things, you’ve got to hope that his time with us won’t extend past this season. I know he’s not at fault for the numerous individual errors we made in this match which lead to every single one of their goals, but he is responsible for the idiotic short goal kick tactics which was involved in most of those mistakes and he is responsible for constantly picking players who seem like they can’t be bothered, aside from the part where they get to slag off their teammates. 

- Not going to bother talking much about YFM. We know they are a scummy club and they showed it with their persistent fouling, diving and time wasting. I think we actually could say we won this game 6-0 as every goal scored in the match was created by us. They hammered us AGAIN. I don’t get how their players always seem to be well up for this fixture but ours seem to not care. I don’t think YFM are very good, but you can’t deny that they deserved this win, as even if they weren't very good, we were absolutely fucking shit.

- And a quick word on the ref. He was dogshit. As I’ve said in previous posts on his games, he likes to not give much. And on this occasion he thought he’d extend that policy to not give us anything. We had three possible penalties turned down by him. Just give us one, you bastard! Miyaichi's yellow looked like it could have been a red to me, but let-it-go Shiino was in town. I mean, we didn’t lose because of him but it’s good for some of our players that he was so shit that he took some of the focus away from their numerous cock ups. But I suppose on reflection, given that it was a game between two middling to hopeless teams, it made perfect sense that the ref would also be shite.


This has all been quite pessimistic. I blame that of course on the shite on the pitch but also on the fact that the seats in the stadium were too small, (or the person next to me was maybe hogging my space), so I spent most of the match quiet uncomfortable. Add to this the stupid fucking big flags which seem impossible to avoid at certain games, the almost constant waving of which meant that most of the match for me was viewed as a series of brief glimpses of still photos with plenty of stuff missed in between them. Sadly the absolute cock ups for the goals were all too clear though. Basically this was a top tier shit afternoon. The only saving grace I can find is that it wasn’t an early Saturday kick off as that would have ruined a whole extra day of the weekend. Absolutely gutless stuff and apparently the players were still applauded at the end of the match. CONGRATULATIONS ON GETTING HAMMERED BY A SMALLER SCORELINE THAN LAST YEAR! NICE WORK LADS! KEEP UP THE… OBJECTIVELY AWFUL WORK. I didn’t see this for myself as I was out of there as soon as the ref blew the final whistle. Right now I have absolutely no desire to go to the next match, away at Kashiwa next weekend. Of course, I’ll go, but if Hasebe goes with the same old shit, which he almost certainly will, it will almost certainly result in another shocker. I’m currently watching the U21 team on DAZN and I’d love some of these guys to get a look in with the top team. At least then there would be something to look forward to. Or maybe Kobayashi could play a bit more. There’s no way we’ll ever put together enough consistency to get anything out of this season so why not just give us some kind of interest or enjoyment. Please, please, please. Make the utter boredom and frustration stop. Or if that’s not possible at least let us have the same dull shit but with some different faces.

Team 

GK 49. Svend BRODERSEN
DF 5. SASAKI Asahi
DF 4. PEDRO ROMANO 
DF 22. Filip UREMOVIC (Yellow card 76') 
DF 13. MIURA Sota
MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento
MF 6. YAMAMOTO Yuki
MF 17. ITO Tatsuya 

MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
MF 23. MARCINHO
FW 97. DERIK LACERDA

Subs

GK 1. YAMAGUCHI Louis
DF 2. MATSUNAGANE Yuto
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for MARCINHO 78')  
MF 16. OZEKI Yuto (on for YAMAMOTO 64')
MF 19. KAWAHARA So (on for TACHIBANADA 84')
FW 20. MOCHIYAMA Kyosuke
MF 25. YAMAICHI Shuto (on for ITO 64')
DF 28. MARUYAMA Yuichi (on for UREMOVIC 84')
DF 29. YAMAHARA Reon (on for MIURA 78')


Man of the match

What do you think? Should I just ditch this section permanently? 

Goals

TONO (YFM) 12' 1-0
KONDO (YFM) 28' 2-0 
UREMOVIC (Frontale) 33' 2-1
TANIMURA (YFM) 41' 3-1 
QUINONES (YFM) 56' 4-1 
OZEKI (Frontale) 90+2' 4-2

Highlights 

(coming soon)