tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38765528984332349412024-03-21T00:12:12.815+09:00Frontale Rabbit - 川崎フロンターレAn English language blog about Kawasaki Frontale 川崎フロンターレFrontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.comBlogger473125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-34145457500962219722024-03-19T11:51:00.000+09:002024-03-19T11:51:12.212+09:00 Vs Kashima Antlers (away) 17/3/24 J League match 4<h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAuxUs0LB5xtLUyPsF8jBdh2FB2WaTv-RJF8JXPNvT1RTZNSlzcR5edDraGSha-AYFgy9zCsZTJ3eh47KyJr94RZ9XJRKt27-Qc3KyfCbX8xYto1PfYmXtqXB6B4qQOiYeLBXZJjXpbYIBbM-CfRj3qgLNqLxKiaX-P510tvPEdfIy-5eGqXTG7HyBYdIJ/s4032/IMG_8822.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAuxUs0LB5xtLUyPsF8jBdh2FB2WaTv-RJF8JXPNvT1RTZNSlzcR5edDraGSha-AYFgy9zCsZTJ3eh47KyJr94RZ9XJRKt27-Qc3KyfCbX8xYto1PfYmXtqXB6B4qQOiYeLBXZJjXpbYIBbM-CfRj3qgLNqLxKiaX-P510tvPEdfIy-5eGqXTG7HyBYdIJ/s320/IMG_8822.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Kashima Antlers 2 - 1 </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Kawasaki Frontale</span></span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Well, what is there to say? Another loss, this time away from home, just to inject a bit of variety. After keeping a perfect 0% home record in 2024 it seems that Oniki wants to get to work and change that away result success rate. In recent years we never lose away at Kashima. But recent years haven’t been years when Oniki was at his completely-out-of-ideas stage and that’s clearly where we are now. Plugging away with the same tactics which haven’t worked for about three years. Keeping all the same players in, some of whom who have been playing like they’re recently new to the sport. Making sure that the one certainty is that there will be a midfielder playing out of position at full back. To be honest, I’m not sure I need to even write this post, do I? You know what I’m going to say and even if you have never agreed with my opinions, you’ve got to say there is some evidence for them being accurate now, isn’t there? I’m going to try to keep this as brief as possible as the only people who could get any joy out of reading this are Frontale haters and I’m not going to waste any effort pleasing them. So here we go.<br /><br />First half we got a bit battered down our right hand side, as was expected with us playing a midfielder there and as has been the case every time we’ve done that recently. We scored a goal, slightly against the run of play and not via the method that Oniki seems to be wedded to using. He must have been furious! In the second half, after a classic Oniki half time team talk, we conceded twice in the first five minutes and then proceeded to get a red card. We had a marvelous 59% possession and had a momentous two shots, both of which were off target. Much like in the last game we’re averaging around 200 passes for a shot on target. It’s truly turgid stuff. The second half was a perfect demonstration of Oniki’s master plan. Even trailing and with hardly any time left, we were still fucking around passing the ball along the defence line. But it wasn’t really a surprise, was it? Oniki’s subs were just bizarre, deciding to remove our better midfielders and leave his favourites on the pitch. The bench was just weird, basically leaving us with no real way of changing the game given that we are apparently playing wearing the virtual handcuffs of always, no matter the situation, having to stick to Oniki’s master plan. But to be honest, I’m not that upset. I totally expected the game to go this way and in the end we were lucky that we only conceded twice. But, just one more reminder that in the whole game we had two shots on target, managing to do even worse than the three we had against Kyoto. And the worst thing is that the two shots we had on target in 90 minutes against Kashima came in the same attack! Basically, aside from our goal, we didn’t even come close. An absolute waste of time!<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJQZv5jHkKRkTvMXIR1z9cP1B5xGtHYi7GzH54gh2yfUdWB1Ik4FSdg1DlrfgOXGFRPC71h080YxPLdP9uMt7AqdMApF2-mMN636qIx0ebd2V188qMKAOGlNgiK6oCKwo75to3pLab1J9NbNKXU8gChLsv3lQC4q-qsoxK0aKTFrkKD50Th1FGS5RJUoQF/s4032/IMG_8829.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJQZv5jHkKRkTvMXIR1z9cP1B5xGtHYi7GzH54gh2yfUdWB1Ik4FSdg1DlrfgOXGFRPC71h080YxPLdP9uMt7AqdMApF2-mMN636qIx0ebd2V188qMKAOGlNgiK6oCKwo75to3pLab1J9NbNKXU8gChLsv3lQC4q-qsoxK0aKTFrkKD50Th1FGS5RJUoQF/s320/IMG_8829.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> A rare foray into the opposition half<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Here’s what I think are some of our issues, basically stated as I feel there’s no need for me to spend time trying to justify them particularly:<br /><br />- The defence is a mess, as you might expect given that most weeks we’ve had at least one player in there who’s not a defender or at least one player playing out of position. I think we’ve now tried pretty much all of the possible combinations of Jesiel, Takai, Ominami and Maruyama. The one that looked reasonably steady was of course Oniki’s idea of what is our second string and was naturally changed for the following match and that back foru combination has not been seen since. I think pretty much everyone who’s played there has had at least one nightmare game. In this game their first goal came from Maruyama charging half way up the pitch to beat Yuma Suzuki to a header and totally missing it, leaving the ball to run through to an almost empty defence. That was probably another Oniki tactical innovation though so maybe it's a better idea to point the finger elsewhere? I guess you know where I'll point it?<br /><br />- Probably neither Kamifukumoto nor Sung-Ryong are the answer in goal sadly. The endlessly repeated myth of Kami being crucial for our build up is, as far as I can see, total nonsense. He’s not really much better than Sung-Ryong on the ball, but seems to have an endless appetite for trying to do things he’s not quite capable of, like when he raced out of goal to reach one of the many Kashima hoofed long balls and messed up his header, glancing it behind for a corner. I haven’t watched it back, but Kami looked absolutely bewildered for their second goal. (Actually this is a bit unfair now having seen it as the ball bounced weirdly off the bar from the cross. The Kashima player celebrated as if that was his intention… To be honest though, I think there’s a chance that even if it hadn’t, Kami would have still been watching the ball sailing over his head). And not long after that goal he booted the ball off the pitch from a totally miscued goal kick. That’s what he’s in the team for! Apparently... I love Sung-Ryong but I think time is catching up with him a bit. I don’t think either keeper can be blamed too much though as the mess that’s in front of them can’t help and can't give them much confidence. So until that’s sorted out, it probably doesn’t matter that much who’s playing in goal.<br /><br />- Oh my god, the endless ridiculous insistence on playing 4-3-3 with Ienaga in a free role. Particularly dangerous when we have a midfielder behind him at right back. (For some reason a lot of Kashima's attacks were going down that side. I wonder why...). And never thinking of trying anything else. And even if he is wedded to the formation and the same players, why does he never even consider that he could change our approach? The absolute arrogance of the man! Against Kyoto we went with that plan and Tachibanada at right back. Until we abandoned it because it wasn’t working. And then in the next game, went back and gave it another go! And it didn’t work again! Good thing Oniki changed it, right? After a terrible first half it might have made sense to change it at half time, but instead he decided to leave it till after we’d conceded twice. Genius level stuff! The mid-half triple change was perhaps even stupider, completing his mission to remove the midfielders who were playing the best, leaving the others on the pitch and adding a striker to the midfield. To an extent he’d hamstrung himself by bizarrely choosing the players he put on the bench. There was a bit of trouble in our end at the end of this game with a couple of our supporters scuffling. Presumably this was down to one of them saying we’d been totally shite and someone else going with the usual, ‘well done guys, let’s try again next game and definitely not complain’ mantra. I’m sure you know who I think is right. Of course, I'm not saying that fighting about it is the right thing to do as it obviously isn’t. But I do think we should stop celebrating awful performances because we are nice guy supporters. Instead much better to just fuck off out of the stadium at the final whistle. Equally, I can’t see any real benefit in booing the players, especially as I think the problem stems from elsewhere, but at the same time, I’m not going to give them a good old clap for losing yet another game. <br /><br />- Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass and pass. Repeat. And repeat again. Don’t even think about trying to attack. All any fan wants is completed passes! Pass and pass and pass. Don’t try to score as moving the ball forwards makes it more difficult to rack up the completed passes. Far better to do it in front of your own goal, particularly if you're losing as the opposition aren't as bothered about trying to get the ball off you. So we can carry on with the pass, pass, </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">pass, pass</span><span style="font-size: small;">, </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">pass, pass</span><span style="font-size: small;">...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge034aNoNYBlg519F63juKjQC2okxjs6LaGo6pI0PIh8RcYZoBUMssZpmtIPoXouAZpIPFO4qKaDoAVvwZLAY4ibPAMST2N_weBme4gn7ep8uxMsRLD6_6a-YbQR8hvap21Lb4nqzPDzkLFDgcWu1ds1cBAWL5YrA1norQmo5-xzY7j1_AcGo09TUqjtR4/s4032/IMG_8833.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge034aNoNYBlg519F63juKjQC2okxjs6LaGo6pI0PIh8RcYZoBUMssZpmtIPoXouAZpIPFO4qKaDoAVvwZLAY4ibPAMST2N_weBme4gn7ep8uxMsRLD6_6a-YbQR8hvap21Lb4nqzPDzkLFDgcWu1ds1cBAWL5YrA1norQmo5-xzY7j1_AcGo09TUqjtR4/s320/IMG_8833.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Bit of positivity, the bus back wasn’t so bad! On the way it took about two and a bit hours and on the way back, around three hours. Obviously it’s a significantly worse journey when you’re coming back with no points but at least it gave me the opportunity to start writing this shitty post. I think perhaps they have alleviated the traffic situation slightly by changing the departure time of the buses to more than an hour after the game was due to end. I guess if we’d won we could have enjoyed this extra hour celebrating in the stands, but as it was, instead of spending the extra hour sitting in traffic, we instead spent it sitting on a bus which wasn’t due to depart for about 55 minutes. So much of a muchness really, but you know, I’m just trying to draw out any kind of positivity that I can right now. <br /><br />Kashima were Kashima-esque. Unbelievable play acting for most of the game, definitely a focus on the dark arts. I think they aren’t that good this year. But not as bad as us, obviously. Yuma Suzuki did Yuma Suzuki things. And his teammates also did Yuma Suzuki things. At one stage one player fell to the floor and seemed to be confused as to whether he should be clutching his face or his leg. The ref bought it. In the past I’ve thought that Nakamura was one of the better refs but he was all over the place in this game. Somewhat amusingly the big screen seemed to be proactively highlighting his mistakes by playing replays that showed he’d obviously cocked up. He lost control of the game later on and seemed to be intimidated by the Kashima players. He was pretty shit. The thing he did that annoyed me the most was that after a long run of giving them a free kick every time we made a tackle, he decided to give us a free kick for a Kashima offside, just as we were racing up the pitch counter attacking, not even considering playing the advantage. But maybe he did us a favour, as it allowed the Kashima players to retreat back into defence and therefore we were in a much better position to be able to rack up some more passes! It’s all we fans want to see! Not saying he was biased at all. I think the big screen replays demonstrated that his stupid decisions were going both ways. Although it perhaps hurt us more as both of Marcinho’s yellows looked a little borderline, at least with my Frontale hat on. No need to blame the ref. No need to blame the players. There’s only one person to blame when it comes to this defeat and that is the clown prince of Kawasaki, Oniki.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcvgu9ahVPGZxVOdJJ1vlysSHOVeRVI560H386f3ZAHr-yyJgJxdUYgL0W9OJJzHT1pQsdcrTqUG6lK0BSyioJRAAGTzkPhOu6UXpQc8GsRpoC4BitE4YRaKEsB5G2dwUeHojqBpneGQj0npBPXaeyXpUA5m5mlvRxxSRpVnuskD6CiVWYDStzv7rpdWO-/s4032/IMG_8841.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcvgu9ahVPGZxVOdJJ1vlysSHOVeRVI560H386f3ZAHr-yyJgJxdUYgL0W9OJJzHT1pQsdcrTqUG6lK0BSyioJRAAGTzkPhOu6UXpQc8GsRpoC4BitE4YRaKEsB5G2dwUeHojqBpneGQj0npBPXaeyXpUA5m5mlvRxxSRpVnuskD6CiVWYDStzv7rpdWO-/s320/IMG_8841.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can say with confidence that this did not lead <br />to a shot on target as it happened in the second half<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Four games done and after a lucky first win we have three defeats in a row. We’ve played three teams that could be troubling the bottom third of the table and even though we usually play badly against these kind of teams, we’ve done extra badly this year. Against Kashima, perhaps we had a chance to play a bit better as they probably would try to attack us a bit more. But no, we just carried on playing badly. There is nothing to feel even slightly optimistic about. The one goal head start that we got from Erison playing has disappeared now he’s injured. Well, at least that’s what we believe is the case. I don’t think the club officially said he is, and therefore we’ve had no hints to the possible length of his absence. Maybe Oniki’s decided we have better routes to goal. There has been some talk online lamenting how many important players we've lost since last year and blaming that on our 2024 malaise. I think this is hugely off the mark though. I think our squad is better than it was last year but is just being chronically mismanaged. Some might say that we're much weaker at right back but I think that ignores the fact that Yamane really dropped off last year and the fact that we keep playing people who aren't right backs there. Nobori was also slightly on the slide, and whilst I think Miura isn't quite with it yet, he will be better when he settles in a bit more. Perhaps Miyashiro is the biggest loss, but then again we never used him properly anyway, so the loss is more of a conceptual one than anything to do with reality. Once again for me it comes down to how the players are being instructed and managed and surely no-one can think that's being done well at the moment, can they? Next up, FC Tokyo at home, but !!PRAISE THE LORD!! that’s not for two weeks. I’m looking forward to next weekend already as there is no football, which suits me fine at the moment. I would say that if Oniki’s legendary skills make it four losses in a row he should be under some pressure, but who am I kidding, there’s no way he’s going anywhere. I wish he would go… anywhere. We’re fifteenth right now, and I get the feeling that he won’t be under any pressure until our relegation is mathematically confirmed. Then the geniuses up top in the club, might decide they need to have a word with him</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">and will probably end up accidentally giving him a new contract because he won our final dead rubber match of the season. And can you imagine how bad Oniki's tactic, (the singular is intentional here and not a typo), would be in J2? That's truly the stuff of nightmares.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Team<br /></span><span>GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto</span><br /><span>DF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento</span><br /><span>DF 4. JESIEL</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span></span><span> </span> <span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #ffd966;">(Yellow card 34') </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span></span><span>DF 35. MARUYAMA Yuichi</span><br /><span>DF 13. MIURA Sota</span><br /><span>MF 77. YAMAMOTO Yuki </span><br /><span>MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto<br /></span><span>MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki</span><br /><span>FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro<br /></span><span>FW 20. YAMADA Shin</span><br /><span>FW 23. MARCINHO</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span></span><span> </span> <span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #ffd966;"></span></span> <span style="color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #ffd966;">(Yellow card 54', second yellow/</span></span><span style="color: red;">red card 75')</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #ffd966;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />Subs<br /></span><span>GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong</span><span><br /></span><span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span>DF 2. TAKAI Kota<br />DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span></span><span>(on for JESIEL 64')</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>DF 5. SASAKI Asahi </span><span>(on for YAMAMOTO 53')<br />FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for YAMADA 64')<br />FW 17. TONO Daiya (on for SEKO 64')<br />FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke (on for MIURA 81')<br /><br /><br /><b>Goals</b><br /><br />MARCINHO (Frontale) 36' 0-1</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>CAVRIC (Kashima) 47' 1-1<br />SUZUKI</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span> (Kashima) 50' 2-1</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> </span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><b>My Frontale Man Of The Matc<span style="font-family: inherit;">h</span></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I don't think so, do you? Oh actually, he's probably got nothing to do with Frontale, but I'll give it to the guy sitting in the weird hut by the touchline. No idea what's going on in there. But even if he totally messed up whatever he's supposed to be doing, he still did better than any of our players.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEs3NBD4eL8jJg-7IDg9yugsk1GERKsNu2FtNL-hhEhVTf04kQeNGoS4-J5-4r0pfxQbwsGMBqMi6YR_kJuKU2Xj8Hl9BOZTLiyvVRJrAZSrPpZc3GOOeAzzcO4nSZYX00JP7PqvSpZUPv0QbwnC3nFLcu6NxaZU-jfOttZfK6z7gFKUARFteNvZJsrl37/s4032/IMG_8820.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEs3NBD4eL8jJg-7IDg9yugsk1GERKsNu2FtNL-hhEhVTf04kQeNGoS4-J5-4r0pfxQbwsGMBqMi6YR_kJuKU2Xj8Hl9BOZTLiyvVRJrAZSrPpZc3GOOeAzzcO4nSZYX00JP7PqvSpZUPv0QbwnC3nFLcu6NxaZU-jfOttZfK6z7gFKUARFteNvZJsrl37/s320/IMG_8820.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unusual place to put a shed, but why not, eh?<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Highlights</span></b></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TgeR-VpaISE?si=1-csizkWAhVJS6tm" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yW_jy2xpKdI?si=PTnpWKhsMhfo79rj" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1aCvIzN2_Hg?si=GBb6UTzRVy_3pItC" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-47924117238628221142024-03-10T17:56:00.001+09:002024-03-10T17:56:05.490+09:00 Vs Kyoto Sanga (home) 9/3/24 J League match 3<h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk4Q8l01vhj81HZLiu535r07CevT62pAmVYr2J3oOQeoecC9rlaEujFTiQPH6LzW4xELtDfGJhqCZcC1CTfmQ7qGMT8Pdnl94UI8a5h12gZqEfVN9aNvMlzWFxaj1nSzubovH2PaDRXkTu5lwWuPVBoM5n-EBTibSHktUOpbFY-1zuLYMqaajhV_61Xe8w/s4032/IMG_8791.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk4Q8l01vhj81HZLiu535r07CevT62pAmVYr2J3oOQeoecC9rlaEujFTiQPH6LzW4xELtDfGJhqCZcC1CTfmQ7qGMT8Pdnl94UI8a5h12gZqEfVN9aNvMlzWFxaj1nSzubovH2PaDRXkTu5lwWuPVBoM5n-EBTibSHktUOpbFY-1zuLYMqaajhV_61Xe8w/s320/IMG_8791.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Kawasaki Frontale 0 - 1 Kyoto Sanga </span></span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span>Congratulations Oniki! You’ve achieved a new record for earliest loss of hope for a season. I realise that this is exactly the kind of petty comment that people come flocking to this blog to read but don’t get me wrong, I’m actually kind of thankful he has managed to so successfully crush my hopes so early this year. For the remainder of 2024 there will be no grinding of teeth with frustration about how badly we are doing. Instead, just a little smile and wink to myself as I see Oniki repeat, time after time, the same dodgy selections and push on with the same tactic that was last effective some time around four years ago. Bravo Oniki! No more weekends ruined by us performing at a level that is unbelievably further below what even a random team and tactic selection might result in. (It’s a real talent to get us playing the worst possible stuff. Like drawing the one ticket that was put into the tombola by accident and doesn’t even get you a tin of mandarin orange slices). How could a weekend ever possibly be ruined by a game turning out exactly as expected? As sure as summer in Japan will be horribly hot, as sure as any musical release involving any former member of Oasis will sound like the Beatles and be extremely shit, as sure as any 7-11 item that looks vegetarian contains gelatine. That’s how sure we can be that Oniki will keep persevering with his beloved tactic and that we will continue to get horrible and utterly justified results. We’ve played three times at home and have lost them all. We’ve played three teams widely predicted to finish near the bottom of the league and have lost to two of them. I’m seriously worried what will happen when we play a team who are expected to finish above 12th in the league. And the most depressing thing is that we have months of this same old rubbish ahead of us, until we even get the hope of a little break with a cup game, the same players being trotted out every week with micro changes to the starting line up, and the one consistent thing being that at least one player will be played out of position. I suppose at least it makes these posts a little easier to write. In fact I’ll make a new section below that i can cut and paste for future games. Lovely!<br /><br /><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3JCv9E1x0IdVayQ4HxGr77Ub29Pswyw_mTKJf3dmmY0yaCERIiBblinGCkEMl3yoIDMaDXzz17O81ID1BNuAHVVjGuhqHF0dbG5tBIIgIpvPmIGfFKjEAhgY0w3HcyvcLhOcFVQxJVw62wzl95LMBpg-jz5QAuFeAZxobXxFOAPoYVFkjrP2L5jv1S9BK/s4032/IMG_8787.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3JCv9E1x0IdVayQ4HxGr77Ub29Pswyw_mTKJf3dmmY0yaCERIiBblinGCkEMl3yoIDMaDXzz17O81ID1BNuAHVVjGuhqHF0dbG5tBIIgIpvPmIGfFKjEAhgY0w3HcyvcLhOcFVQxJVw62wzl95LMBpg-jz5QAuFeAZxobXxFOAPoYVFkjrP2L5jv1S9BK/s320/IMG_8787.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />How did we play? -</b><br /><br />There was a small adjustment to the usual starting eleven. We decided to build extremely slowly with plenty of passing along the back. Once the requisite number of pointless passes was reached, we either booted the ball forward for Marcinho to run on to, hang on to too long, and then lose, or just hoofed it straight to the opposition cutting out the middle man. And also, we occasionally gifted possession to the opposition, somehow with all of our players out of position and looking in the opposite direction to where the ball was, allowing them a relatively easy finish to take the lead. After which point we continued with the same tactics and players, before shaking things up around 60 minutes with some like for like changes, ensuring that even if one of the players subbed off was playing out of position, there was at least one player coming on who was also playing out of position. At the end of the game, we added a new option, booting the ball forward after only half the usual number of prepaatory pointless passes, but still failed to score, as we lost the ball before we could even have a shot. Oniki said the usual things in his post match interview. But apparently decided that his plan was 98% correct and we’d been unlucky, so has decided to give it another go in the following game.<br /><br /><b>Anything of note in this match? -</b><br /><br />No. Our performance was less blood and thunder and more ketchup and light drizzle. One shot on target for every 200 completed passes. It was truly turgid stuff!<br /><br /><b>Bitching about the opposition -</b><br /><br />Their shorts and socks were weird. They looked like they’d been subject to a laundry error. Their player Kawasaki was once again a thorn in our side and is as far as I can tell, still a bit of an arsehole. Their manager, shock horror, knows what he’s doing and actually thinks about the upcoming game before it starts. How nice it would be to have someone who didn’t think the solution to every situation is to do the same thing. They had two massive centre backs. Oniki played Yamada there by himself. And then put Tono and Kobayashi up against them. Who needs to win headers anyway, eh? Their keeper looked quite dodgy, almost giving us a goal but completely mis-controlling / missing the ball from an early back pass. Their keeper was so dodgy that… he kept a clean sheet. They didn’t bring that many fans, which I was surprised about, as I was pretty sure they’d win the game. Perhaps they too thought that result would be so predictable that it wasn’t worth bothering with.<br /><br /><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCYrPy7y3ase3wX1YubzU37ngc684KtilrQisYFsSxnEZElFf7y7CFz-c1coSKiohhjzWjBsKBWU8gB_CF7cao3tBj6hWxAz9GGf3_mOBXvJKmpCquAFNGnI7MwiRusUjimDReaTFrbNNPNMxFCOfneZmuEgvq5-uf3COrf6wLWEoe8jvY91rGO350Bj1N/s4032/IMG_8793.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCYrPy7y3ase3wX1YubzU37ngc684KtilrQisYFsSxnEZElFf7y7CFz-c1coSKiohhjzWjBsKBWU8gB_CF7cao3tBj6hWxAz9GGf3_mOBXvJKmpCquAFNGnI7MwiRusUjimDReaTFrbNNPNMxFCOfneZmuEgvq5-uf3COrf6wLWEoe8jvY91rGO350Bj1N/s320/IMG_8793.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Ref -</b><br /><br />We had a guest ref from overseas! I spent a long time trying to work out who he was and where he was from as his name was listed on the J League site as ‘スミス ルイス ディーン’. So was this Smith Lewis-Dean? Dean Smith-Lewis? Smith Ruiz-Dean? Smith Luis Dean? It was Lewis Smith, apparent rising star of English refereeing who was perhaps surprised to find that everyone in Japan was including his middle name every time they referred to him. Slightly worryingly he seemed to have only had one game in the Premier League before he came to Japan, so only one experience of VAR before he got thrown in at the deep end in the country where there is no guarantee that the people watching the replays from numerous angles will even understand the rules of the game enough to male the correct decision. And right away after six minutes, off we went again for a lengthy VAR review. Maybe I’m being presumptuous, but I’m guessing Smith doesn’t speak Japanese, so that added an extra level of… what’s the opposite of streamlining?… obfuscation maybe, to the whole thing. Our last two games have for me compounded how much of a game killing waste of time VAR is. I don’t even care if it means that the right decisions are being made (if that is indeed the case. I think it’s not a given in the J League). I think the only people who like VAR must be the people who never go to the stadium to watch a match. VAR saved us in the 6th minute and took a goal away from us in the 88th. On both occasions the wait was interminable, players and fans alike just twiddling their thumbs whilst some out of sight people do their best to kill any kind of atmosphere in the stadium. These awful delays are the reason that almost half of the photos on this post are of people standing around doing nothing. As for the ref, I thought he was alright. Definitely one of those refs who wants to ‘let the game flow’ and consequently doesn’t whistle for much. This approach probably favoured Kyoto who seemed to have come with quite a physical game plan. (Oniki was presumably surprised and shocked by this. Almost everyone else on earth expected it). But I don’t mean to say the ref favoured Kyoto. I thought he was very even handed, and I’m sure everyone on the pitch knew after the first ten minutes or so how the officiating was going to pan out and exactly what they could get away with. So basically no complaints about the ref, which is a rarity. I will say though that I got quite a strong young-school-teacher-‘call me-by-my-first-name’ vibe from him. Plenty of I’m-not-like-those-other-stuffy-refs,-let’s-just-have-some-fun-here-and-shake-things-up-a-bit energy. <br /><br /><b>Looking forward -</b><br /><br />Who will get the opportunity to play out of position in the next match is the big question I think. At least we now have an idea of the pecking order for the right back spot. Well, we at least know that one of our more exciting signings pre-season is lower down in that pecking order than a left back playing out of position, a midfielder playing out of position and a striker playing our of position. I know Oniki is almost permanently incapable of leaving out one of his favorites so perhaps that was why he moved Tachibanada there. This move also saw the reemergence of last season’s tactic where we use the right back coming inside to the defensive midfield spot to start building attacks. I suppose Tachibanada is more suited to this role than a right back might be. The big question though is probably why we’re bothering to try this as it seems to have absolutely zero effect when it comes to varying out attacks. It’s basically just a new way to start doing the move which leads to the same pointless end. Up front, Erison is injured, which is a huge shame as his goal per game guarantee would have got us a point in this match. It seems clear that Gomis is at best Oniki’s fourth choice in a position where we usually only play one player. I’m gutted that his goal got ruled out as we’re all desperate for him to score. When the replay was shown on the big screen, his facial expression did suggest that he thought it might not stand. I think the goal keeper situation is no clearer after this game. I think Kamifukumoto has done ok when he’s played this year. I’d say no better and no worse than Sung-Ryong, who has had the misfortune to have to play behind some defensive horror shows. Ominami and Maruyama looked reasonably solid. but it’s worth remembering that that partnership let in four goals against Shandong, so perhaps we shouldn’t be that positive too quickly. Who knows what’s happened to Jesiel? I’m pretty sure he’s not injured. Just too far down the tactical master’s preference list. The midfield looked pretty bad again I thought. But to be fair, Wakizaka’s corners were better than in recent games. Sp how do we get out of this mess? My first solution would be to smash Oniki’s magnet board to pieces. I think he’s hopeless now and somehow seems to have way too much courage in his own convictions to have noticed quite how much his selections and tactics suck. I’m sure we won’t get rid of him this year, but I think that if we did it would immediately cause a change in fortunes as our players are good but seem to be losing both their footballing skills and any kind of enthusiasm under his charge. As Oniki will remain in charge, slowly further trashing his reputation, I think my other ideas for what should change are about 0.0001% likely to happen. But, I don’t think Wakizaka, Ienaga and Maricnho should be playing every game. Our attacks are woefully predictable and horribly blunt and as long as those players are in the team following the Oniki plan, I can’t see anything changing. The ‘route to goal’ will remain the long bal for Marcinho to chase, with nothing going down the other side because there’s no-one there. But basically with Oniki in charge, and no new ideas, I think the most we’ll get is a little shuffle in other positions, the ‘thinking’ being that the reason we’re so crap is because we haven’t yet discovered the right player to play out of position at right back. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYQnnJicB1Npcv99K64GI8UB1q0BDWGP42s1CgPwrGJi5nsfCdvTiLWs3eGyX_VQKPKoYZsgnC_ge8hQhTEEUD6e0fXmIsF4DGXZ0JuVd1kgTavuvezW3bVFZYJamw_83bO3tqmvhyhehZQuyXm4BNyap5-g6jdAXzZqkPgRsieJ9E7APbXJ1oURWr4mrB/s4032/IMG_8790.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYQnnJicB1Npcv99K64GI8UB1q0BDWGP42s1CgPwrGJi5nsfCdvTiLWs3eGyX_VQKPKoYZsgnC_ge8hQhTEEUD6e0fXmIsF4DGXZ0JuVd1kgTavuvezW3bVFZYJamw_83bO3tqmvhyhehZQuyXm4BNyap5-g6jdAXzZqkPgRsieJ9E7APbXJ1oURWr4mrB/s320/IMG_8790.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Next up, Kashima away, who’ve just lost to Machida, which would be funnier if it weren’t for the fact that Machida’s ‘fairytale’ promotion to J1 came backed up by just the massive oil tanker full of cash. And also would be funnier if we hadn’t lost to Kyoto and Jubilo already this year. We normally do well there, but I can see us getting hammered to be honest. Especially if we approach the game in the same way, and let’s be honest, it will be an absolute miracle if we don’t. Normally one consolation when taking the horrific bus journey back after the game is the fact that we have got three points in the bag, and those three points have on more than a few occasions been absolutely robbed from Kashima. If we have to get on the bus after a humiliation it will take a significant amount of booze to erase the memory after arriving at Tokyo station. Luckily though, I’m now in my happy place, with expectation levels at absolutely rock bottom! At home games I can enjoy the fun at the usual after game pub. Last night, I seemed to be the most positive person there, in no way disappointed as what I knew would happen had happened. Away games still carry the excitement of visiting different places. Well, normally that’s the case, but very much isn’t for Kashima away, where the local highlights basically extend no further than the stadium car park. At least we’re getting the game out of the way early on in the season, meaning that the worst away trip will be done and we can look forward to more exciting destinations. Like… Chofu?</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">Team<br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;">DF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;">DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma<br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">DF 35. MARUYAMA Yuichi</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;">DF 13. MIURA Sota</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #ffd966;">(Yellow card 36')</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;">MF 77. YAMAMOTO Yuki </span><br /><span style="font-size: small;">MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto<br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;">FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro<br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">FW 20. YAMADA Shin</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;">FW 23. MARCINHO<br /><br />Subs<br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong</span><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">DF 5. SASAKI Asahi</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #ffd966;">(Yellow card 80') </span><span style="font-size: small;">(on for WAKIZAKA 79')</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">MF 6. ZE RICARDO<br />FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for YAMADA 70')<br />FW 18. Bafetimbi GOMIS (on for IENAGA 84')<br />FW 17. TONO Daiya (on for MARCINHO 70')<br />FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke (on for SEKO 79')<br /><br /><br /><b>Goals</b><br /><br />KAWASAKI (Kyoto) 65' 0-1<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>My Frontale Man Of The Match</b><br /><br />Hideji's Doppelbock was a real surprise inclusion and ended up being the star performer of the day.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC1kIoXeagJx-YLNTdtejojRNw9ZF-ch8SREmmNlgolUxFFBqg7d4zVus7t4NIi_uQjpkhAfhq97HkBTt64EhcPuYy3i8Se77JI5YuYrGT12MC0-jpscyI07ToYluERxECb5grYyiRQ_tMhG94gQiQx1IGxfschkFL4srMQ2DqgBJlwuFssh7DlQe_0kpf/s1080/044d465190c03c9163f5632cb399f972_c_1362004475_raw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1080" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC1kIoXeagJx-YLNTdtejojRNw9ZF-ch8SREmmNlgolUxFFBqg7d4zVus7t4NIi_uQjpkhAfhq97HkBTt64EhcPuYy3i8Se77JI5YuYrGT12MC0-jpscyI07ToYluERxECb5grYyiRQ_tMhG94gQiQx1IGxfschkFL4srMQ2DqgBJlwuFssh7DlQe_0kpf/s320/044d465190c03c9163f5632cb399f972_c_1362004475_raw.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><b>Highlights <br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><br /></span></span></b></span></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q26H4PC2CGM?si=O-klxxG74vcl9d5w" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/A4zEtdYcYLA?si=8pR3Yu6exrxEUSn_" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mX3CNjK2xCI?si=BGHV-U3Wh9BW10rl" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-19772392219362957022024-03-02T17:34:00.016+09:002024-03-02T17:56:44.225+09:00 Vs Jubilo Iwata (home) 1/3/24 J League match 2<h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSNT8h8KC3CS5m-5FlkAuFXyDFkCxRg5WhqRmDHk1I6IdWcHdPdm-arvS7m5yLzWkYxe2b6y6WKXXeqRcq5ZsGYk6FVsptAyaiveDO5meyaqH029QrjNrArZnZicpVSbgPVW8HK4nStGAjoabXYjI4DjHJLNZLWKN4MDzi69di-M409HzqYrvm_ktzzshg/s4032/IMG_8746.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSNT8h8KC3CS5m-5FlkAuFXyDFkCxRg5WhqRmDHk1I6IdWcHdPdm-arvS7m5yLzWkYxe2b6y6WKXXeqRcq5ZsGYk6FVsptAyaiveDO5meyaqH029QrjNrArZnZicpVSbgPVW8HK4nStGAjoabXYjI4DjHJLNZLWKN4MDzi69di-M409HzqYrvm_ktzzshg/s320/IMG_8746.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Kawasaki Frontale 4 - 5 Jubilo Iwata <br /></span></span></h3><span style="font-size: small;">HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I think there’s no other appropriate reaction to another horrible performance but this time at least we had a crazy game to take the edge off a bit. 'Friday Night J League' is not something I get particularly excited about, but maybe that’s just me. If you win, well maybe it’s a good start to a nice weekend. If you lose, it has weekend ruining potential. In this case, the game was just… stupid… and in its stupid weirdness, it actually worked quite well when it came to just putting it behind me and just getting on with the weekend. Well, apart from the fact that I have to write this blog post I suppose. In a game where we conceded five times to a newly promoted team who only had nine shots in 107 minutes it was something of a surprise to see that people didn’t seem to be absolutely furious at the final whistle and instead sank into another one of those late defeat post game silences. To be honest as they scored goal after goal there also didn’t seem to be much anger or frustration in the stands and more, well, ironic laughter at the absurdity of the situation.<br /></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />In the pub before the game I heard someone say that we were looking pretty good this season. At the time I found this more than a bit of a stretch, but now, well it looks almost like trolling. I dunno though, I’d probably say that we have a better squad this year than last year. We’ve got a player who looks like he will score in every game he plays. But sadly for 2024 Oniki Frontale, scoring a goal a game is nowhere near what we need to end up taking any points. We’ve now played five games this year, two at home and three away from home. The fact that we’ve won every game away from home might make it look like we’re having a great year. The win away at Shandong was looking like a decent result until we just started slinging out goals for free. The win away at Shonan showed us just about coming out on top over a team many people have down to be relegated in a generally fairly low quality game. The only one where the performance looked in any way assured was the Super Cup final against Kobe where what Oniki considers to be our B team kept things tight at the back against last year’s J League champions and won. At home, when Oniki puts out his A team we’ve lost 4-2 and 5-4, conceding for fun against teams we probably could have beaten quite comfortably. Nothing to worry about here, we only concede an average of 4.5 goals each time we play at home! It’s wonderful value for money when it comes to entertainment for the neutral. Sadly there probably usually aren’t that many neutrals in the stadium, and even last night when the atmosphere in the stands was much better than it deserved to be considering what was gong on on the pitch, there’s probably only so much that even the happiest clappiest of supporters can put up with. Well that would be the case at most clubs, but somehow people seem to be on Twitter trotting out the usual, oh well, on we go to the next match, it was probably just a blip stuff. I have a horrible feeling the maybe we might have peaked already this year by being in sixth after the first game. </span><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic-DbW3-bgCaHlt7EOaQQ-aGI0x-xTC4JIBZE3BQHKkHPksaZceEUwsIQiPdUNHuuFcPcgsKQemr6TKM1oJHSjf-y6r9tW-ojzB4yd6YVNqhtm7BxBbonZb0HeT_ZNp4ql82jiUJhh2-FZaCR3tMuHZafqDIjFwFuWOFcfcYE-1MFRoAHMqzJg_XJ6lT7S/s4032/IMG_8741.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic-DbW3-bgCaHlt7EOaQQ-aGI0x-xTC4JIBZE3BQHKkHPksaZceEUwsIQiPdUNHuuFcPcgsKQemr6TKM1oJHSjf-y6r9tW-ojzB4yd6YVNqhtm7BxBbonZb0HeT_ZNp4ql82jiUJhh2-FZaCR3tMuHZafqDIjFwFuWOFcfcYE-1MFRoAHMqzJg_XJ6lT7S/s320/IMG_8741.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">Unsurprisingly, we went with the same line up as against Shonan, perhaps not noticing that we weren’t very good in that game. There were changes on the bench and people were delighted to see Kobayashi and Tono fit and back in the matchday squad again. Well, some people were. Probably Ze Ricardo and Gomis weren’t so happy, especially considering that neither of them had even a minute on the pitch in the last game but were dropped. There is a huge irony in that this was the first game when we didn’t have a defensive midfielder on the bench and Oniki chose it as the game in which he’d sub off the defensive midfielder at half time. To be fair to him, you probably can’t really complain about Tachibanada being taken off as he hadn’t done much. In fact the whole midfield hadn’t done much at all again. All we seem to get from this midfield recently is the occasional attack and nothing when it comes to stopping the opposition from just having a run at our defence. I felt a bit bad about having slagged off Wakizaka so much recently but that corner in the ACL still really irritates me. Of course I understand that everyone makes mistakes, but I dunno, he’s starting to become a bit Yamane-esque to me, interested mainly in scoring and not much else. Apart from getting irritated at his teammates. In this game, our best midfielder was again the one that has only been with us a few months. But I bet Wakizaka and Tachibanada will both start the next game. <br /></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />When Seko came on and took a set piece, we immediately scored from it. Presumably this irked Wakizaka and he took the set pieces afterwards and we didn’t. I think the only reason Seko had the chance to take it was because it came straight after a corner on the opposite side and Wakizaka wasn’t making it across the pitch quickly enough. Miura took the free kicks against Shonan last week and they seemed to be ok I thought. Well he took the free kicks where we weren’t shooting. In this match, whenever a shooting opportunity came about you could be sure that Wakizaka would be there to put it over the bar. Perhaps it’s something similar to the situation with Tachibanada last year, in that when he became captain, he simultaneously became not very good at playing football, but because of the captaincy, was not dropped until much later than he should have been. I don’t know if the pressure of being captain is weighing on Wakizaka, but he shouldn’t be starting the next game, as far as I’m concerned. So yeah, the midfield was a bit of a mess. At the back, Takai seems to be repeating his 2023 season, where he came in, had some great games and just as he looked to be settling, had an absolute mare of a match where he was at fault for numerous goals. I feel really sorry for him. He’s definitely a good player, but I’m sure he’ll be affected by having another horrible game. Definitely not helped by our lack of midfield though.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdDo7FeZFEmfwFbIcYeB0wE1Zcr_TuzZYv4-U2OtXoL86h05wbGTDCWo_eC-HRITpyb6hwM_qAOGiUTT5GrMaLeKTQIlF-G4wxa_QEdne1oWDt_V-hEPyS1CTx1zdGoiQonW7g-7zLJmtS_HVS3BJeHQ014-1SCVPOxDzfDuoI3ISlX9EaGMkZX1T5sSNK/s4032/IMG_8747.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdDo7FeZFEmfwFbIcYeB0wE1Zcr_TuzZYv4-U2OtXoL86h05wbGTDCWo_eC-HRITpyb6hwM_qAOGiUTT5GrMaLeKTQIlF-G4wxa_QEdne1oWDt_V-hEPyS1CTx1zdGoiQonW7g-7zLJmtS_HVS3BJeHQ014-1SCVPOxDzfDuoI3ISlX9EaGMkZX1T5sSNK/s320/IMG_8747.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />Perhaps more infuriating though were the tactics, which let's be honest, I shouldn’t be that angry about, as they are more predictable than the sun rising every morning. Perhaps some kind of nuclear winter / meteor strike extinction event would be what is required for Oniki to change our tactics. You could perhaps draw some comparisons between yesterday’s game and Kazama Frontale games. I don’t remember them being quite so depressing though. And even though we scored four times, the fact the majority of the first half was spent with us passing the ball sideways along the defence line, over and over again, until launching a long ball forwards for Marcinho to run fast with and then lose without threatening the goal meant that our attacks were neither exciting nor effective. I guess our approach this year is a bit like the one that those guys who do the trick shots online have. Hours and hours of failed attempts of which only a handful are shown before the basketball launched off a shovel from about 50 meters away finally goes through the hoop. Sooner or later it will happen. Just keep repeating it, over and over and over again. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">Perhaps the tactic might work a bit more often if a couple of things changed. Firstly it might work a bit more often if Marcinho could pass the ball a bit better or earlier. We know he can, but this year he seems to be nowhere near as good. Even when we scored from this tactic in the first half it came after Marcinho lost the ball, we had a shot from the loose ball which was saved, and then luckily bounced to Erison who scored. The other thing that might make this tactic a bit more effective is if it weren’t our only method of attack. It’s probably quite easy to prepare for playing us, just get the strikers to stand a little bit off our defence whilst we pass the ball amongst ourselves, then when you are sure that the rest of the team are in the correct position, pressure us a bit, at which point we’ll hoof the ball to Marcinho who’ll run and then lose it. It’s not fair of me to say that Oniki has no other tactics. In this game he switched Erison to the right and put Ienaga in the middle. When this happened we had two approaches instead of the usual one, and some attacks went up the right! Sadly though, there wasn’t anyone in the middle as Ienaga was probably doing his own thing somewhere around the left back spot at the time. Oniki switched them back after about four minutes. He also did change things up a bit later when we were desperately trying to get back into the game, doing a quadruple substitution and changing the formation to…. I dunno really, but Sasaki was kind of playing centre back but going forward a lot, Segawa was at right back and as for what was going on ahead of them, who knows really? Probably don’t need to point out that the handball that gave them the penalty for their winning goal came from Segawa, who once again has proved that he’s not the best defender. Which obviously isn’t a surprise as he’s a striker. But you know... Oniki, eh?<br /></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />As I’m slinging around the moans everywhere here, I probably should say again that maybe Ienaga shouldn’t be playing as much as he is. Wherever he is played, the most notable thing is his absence from that area. That’s why we’re always playing it to Marcinho. There’s nobody on the right, so no other option. Ienaga is nowhere near as effective as he used to be. Of course this is the case as he’s getting older. His one arm stretched out holding off of the opposition doesn’t even seem to work as well anymore. Yet still he’s starting every game. Which once again means we’ve got to turn the blame back to Oniki. I don't like criticising the players. I know they are good players. Believe it or not, I don’t particularly like criticising Oniki either, but I would be really interested to see how someone with anything more than the one approach Oniki has would do with the same group of players. Surely some of the Oniki lovers must be having at least some doubts now? Surely he must have realised that what we’re endlessly repeating doesn’t work? Surely! SURELY!</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDypFcaKnwelkKyx49TP47sY_I3FF0ckubvY8KLrwOYyIw8jQ5zTnj4doQjylmdoKJS86I7XZXkmUGLecN1B1K20rh39jMIvG8pR3NBSsZJPTTmH0noeAx7gJuMCG2cFgf2rlMQg_yhfYWqdxnboHcMWScnV5qsKvoLhnHEYZsgthAS0zxlGbkXtIgYDkR/s4032/IMG_8743.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDypFcaKnwelkKyx49TP47sY_I3FF0ckubvY8KLrwOYyIw8jQ5zTnj4doQjylmdoKJS86I7XZXkmUGLecN1B1K20rh39jMIvG8pR3NBSsZJPTTmH0noeAx7gJuMCG2cFgf2rlMQg_yhfYWqdxnboHcMWScnV5qsKvoLhnHEYZsgthAS0zxlGbkXtIgYDkR/s320/IMG_8743.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: small;">Much like us, Jubilo employed just the one tactic in this game. However, there was a significant difference in that their tactic worked. You would have thought that after a first half of Oniki watching them sit back and then hit us with a fast counter attack, (and more often than not score), he might have tried something to stop them in the second half? Naaaah. It’s not like other teams haven’t played with those tactics against us over the last five or six years and quite often succeeded with them. So we’re really talking about five or six years of Oniki pondering on how to deal with teams who play like that against us. As of yet, still no ideas. Jubilo striker Germain, who has scored 19 goals in the last seven years put four past us in one game whilst Oniki watched and probably fiddled with his magnets. I mean two of them were penalties though, so let’s be fair. If you take the penalties out, Germain only scored one quarter of the goals he scored in the whole of last season in J2 against us in one J1 game. This is not sour grapes though. They stuck to their plan, which they had thought about before the game, and did a job on us. I don’t have any complaints about them, aside from Ricardo Graca, who seemed to be claiming he’d been elbowed in the face by Erison in the build up to our first goal. Well, he said he was elbowed by Erison, but in the replay you can clearly see Graca hack Erison down, get back up, run to inadequately defend his goal, and then after the ball went in, drop to the ground clutching his face, the apparent pain of the assault on him by a waft of air only then sinking in. Was quite funny to see him give away a penalty later on. And yes, it’s these small things that you have to clutch close to your heart on these occasions. Clearly he got the last laugh though. But at least after another horrible defeat for us, we could gain some pleasure in discovering that YFM had lost to Avispa. But clearly they had the last laugh too, as they’d only conceded once to a team who finished 7th in the league whilst we conceded five to a team who weren’t even in J1. Hmmmm. We don't even get the last laugh. This game was so shit that even the Schadenfreude isn’t hitting the spot….<br /><br />A few words about the ref. I don’t really like Iida, and even though he’s considered to be one of the best in the league at the moment, I think he’s pretty bad. However, I thought he had a decent first half, aside from the fact that I thought Miura was fouled in the run up to their first goal but he wasn’t interested or didn’t notice it. In the second half the game went VAR crazy, to the extent that the final whistle only went in the 107th minute. I’m not sure what was going on when he was checking what seemed to be Jubilo’s winning goal for an attacking handball, only to find a defending handball and then award them a penalty instead. I guess it was because both teams had handled. If it had worked in our favour and the penalty hadn’t been scored, I think there would have been some very angry Jubilo fans in the stadium. And probably rightly so. Without a doubt, this was a crazy game, but I don’t think Iida helped matters. Considering his seniority, it did seem that quite a lot of his onfield decisions were proved wrong by VAR. Which I know is the point of VAR, but doesn’t say much about the quality of the ref. And just the whole messy feeling of the game was undoubtedly enhanced by a chaotic refereeing performance. It’s a real quality of mine, that in a blog post that has been mainly about moaning about my own team, I found time to praise the opposition a little, very faintly and with an undercurrent of having a dig, and still take time to go in two-footed on a ref who had a decent first half. I should say though, that we lost because of the way we played and didn’t lose because of the ref, and he probably got most of the decisions in the game right. But still, and with not much evidence on this occasion, yeah refs are shit. Yaah!<br /><br />In past seasons we’ve been slow starters. I don’t know what kind of starter we are this year. Mixed starters? Mmmmm, that sounds quite delicious actually. One thing’s for sure, we’re slow starters in absolutely every match we play this year. Next up we have Kyoto at home, when we’ll have to do our best to not concede in the opening eight minutes like we have in the last three games. As I write this, Kyoto are losing to Shonan, so surely we should beat them, right? And they did draw with Kashiwa who have just beaten Vissel Kobe. Who we beat with our B team. So if my calculations are right, if we play the B team we should be able to beat the team who drew with the team that beat the team we beat and who are losing to the team we beat. Right? Well, 'if we play the B team' is a massive if. If this was 2023, I’d be pretty sure that Oniki wouldn’t change the team for the next match. I’m not sure 2024 Oniki is that different from 2023 Oniki, but I think after conceding nine goals in two home games, he is probably going to have to change something. Bet it will be one or two players though and not any kind of approach or tactics. Expect plenty of sideways passing. At least it won’t be on a Friday evening. That will be our third league game of the season and the third which you could say are against teams expected to finish in the bottom half. If we don’t win it, I think it's quite likely that we will be finishing in the bottom half. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">If any Sorare players are reading this hoping for a line up prediction for the next match, well, forget it. Some people who’ve contacted me on Twitter asking have been quite nice and polite, but some are really rude once they have received my opinion, and to be honest, I can’t really be bothered to deal with people like that. I don’t know anything that I haven’t said in this post, so if you didn’t find an answer here, you won’t get it elsewhere from me as I don’t know. Sorry to any Sorare players who have read this far expecting something and who have been subjected to and now targeted by my moans. For me, and I’m sure for many, football is an emotional thing. Plenty of things I say on here are huge exaggerations of what I might really think if I sat down with my lab coat on and got my clipboard out and that’s because I care about how my team does. The reason I end up arguing on Twitter with analyst experts is because I watch the games with some emotional investment rather than just to count passes and describe passing moves, all to bolster my self-appointed status online. I don’t really understand people who support the league rather than a team and are interested in every Japanese player that plays anywhere in the world. Anyway, seems like I’m in danger of offending an even larger amount of people than usual with this post so I should probably leave it here. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Team</b><br />GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong <span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #ffd966;">(Yellow card 79')</span><br />DF 5. SASAKI Asahi<br />DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma<br />DF 2. TAKAI Kota<br />DF 13. MIURA Sota<br />MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento <span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #ffd966;">(Yellow card 36')</span><br />MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto<br />MF 77. YAMAMOTO Yuki<span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro<span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />FW 9. ERISON<br />FW 23. MARCINHO<p>Subs<br />GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto<br />FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for IENAGA 82')<br />MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki (on for TACHIBANADA 46')<br />FW 17. TONO Daiya (on for MARCINHO 82')<br />FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for TAKAI 82')<br />FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke <span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #ffd966;">(Yellow card 90+6')</span> (on for YAMAMOTO 82')<br />DF 35. MARUYAMA Yuichi<b><br /><br />Goals</b><br /><br />UEMURA (Iwata) 6' 0-1<br />GERMAIN (Iwata) 18' 0-2<br />GERMAIN (Iwata) 29' 0-3<br />ERISON (Frontale) 36' 1-3<br />ERISON (Frontale) 55' 2-3<br />MARCINHO (Frontale) 59' 3-3<br />GERMAIN (Iwata) 7' PEN 3-4<br />YAMADA (Frontale) PEN 24' 4-4<br />GERMAIN (Iwata) 7' PEN 4-5</p><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span></span></span></span></span><b>My Frontale Man Of The Match</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b>Not a huge appetite to do this, so let's just quickly give it to...<br /><br />ERISON - second time in a row, but he just scores goals which is exactly what he should be doing. Big fan favourite already. And well done to him for letting Yamada take the penalty. Must be wondering what he has done to deserve signing for us. I'm sorry Erison!<b> </b>Sack your agent!<b><br /></b><b><br />Highlights</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <br /><br /></span></span></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vinY1b2SGjY?si=qQvxq8X_vHiLitv1" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-5BxFMbQsXE?si=OpT7CjssrjJe85D8" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-72515661075928139522024-02-27T13:07:00.008+09:002024-03-02T17:42:46.570+09:00Vs Shonan Bellmare (away) 24/2/24 J League match 1<h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp9yZOkzKrDFYSYFfwqGN1Aqrsr39fas4xSCBEaQiLvRiRrHDnABc_U7TR0ousE1Jx_-HMDUdyfrAfJ6wkYZYDWCZNwYhCahbVsvePdlq9VNc7e3P-gqtK005W7-mwdv2TnlVUWOK9VJ5H_knk71wBQWb1XrSkR_dO2Pac5WnrsYoDHf8hudwRtpQ_igpu/s4032/IMG_8703.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp9yZOkzKrDFYSYFfwqGN1Aqrsr39fas4xSCBEaQiLvRiRrHDnABc_U7TR0ousE1Jx_-HMDUdyfrAfJ6wkYZYDWCZNwYhCahbVsvePdlq9VNc7e3P-gqtK005W7-mwdv2TnlVUWOK9VJ5H_knk71wBQWb1XrSkR_dO2Pac5WnrsYoDHf8hudwRtpQ_igpu/s320/IMG_8703.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Shonan Bellmare 1 - 2 Kawasaki Frontale </span></span></h3><p>Now the season has kicked off properly we can just pretend that what happened in the ACL was just all a bad dream and concentrate on the league. It’s fair to say that we’re not really fancied to do anything at all in the league this year and I think I’d go along with that. In spite of our squad looking pretty good, I don’t get the feeling yet that we’re particularly organised and have a plan that can get the job done. Hopefully we can do a bit better than last year, but let’s be honest, that’s not a very high bar to clear, is it? In a way, having a very early season meltdown after a truly terrible, (yet wholly predictable), performance in the ACL has allowed me to gain a bit of perspective on where we are this year. In the same way that it’s ultimately pointless and probably not great for anyone’s health to get too angry about a bad defeat, we probably shouldn’t get too excited about a win. Perhaps this is all just a roundabout way of saying I’m really trying to scale back these blog posts a bit as I really don’t have much time to write them at the moment. It seems like a better idea to cut back rather than stop altogether. Anyway, this is probably of not much interest to you, so let’s get on with it.<br /><br /><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZWoWZgS4EtALluJKOMhHkzQYUPjiYL6ffkrnDDhQJuErbF1sy6J8X6eS9g1DkQfbn7bxszEOJHgo81w9xmrEXdkCzmkVCrkU7BPkOqlwCedZyS6pUCSFgpy4ZDitgw_P4w2hOCwazN8oOxYdJutB57sYzGtHpl8aXoJrhff_7o8Y7WAmiqa757BVvmBUy/s4032/IMG_8711.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZWoWZgS4EtALluJKOMhHkzQYUPjiYL6ffkrnDDhQJuErbF1sy6J8X6eS9g1DkQfbn7bxszEOJHgo81w9xmrEXdkCzmkVCrkU7BPkOqlwCedZyS6pUCSFgpy4ZDitgw_P4w2hOCwazN8oOxYdJutB57sYzGtHpl8aXoJrhff_7o8Y7WAmiqa757BVvmBUy/s320/IMG_8711.HEIC" width="320" /></a></b></div><b><br />Us -</b><br /><br />When we conceded after seven minutes in this game to a team that we have struggled a lot against in recent years, it’s fair to say that I was a bit irritated. Particularly as it was a goal that came from a horrible error we made again. Wakizaka, after booting the ball straight off the pitch with his first touch of the game gave the ball away cheaply for a second game in a row and this time it ended up with a free kick for them which they put away after the ball broke free. It looked like a bit of a soft goal to concede and suggests that we’re still in a bit of a mess at the back. This was our fourth game of 2024 and featured our fourth centre back pairing. Somewhat bizarrely I’d say that the one clean sheet we have got in this time came when we played the strongest team out of all those we have faced so far. I guess Shandong might disagree with that though. Also somewhat surprisingly, the only clean sheet came when we had Kamifukumoto in goal. I don’t know what to think about this really. In contrast to the fact that the centre back positions are still very much in flux, it seems that Oniki has decided that his best left and right backs are Miura and Sasaki. It’s quite a turnaround for Sasaki who last year couldn’t get a look in at left back, which is presumably his strongest position and is now first choice on the right. Aside from the defence, it was business as usual with the same midfield and same forward line named again. Any thoughts that Ienaga might be played a bit less this year seem to have been disproved already. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIU-mr-Bp-9oQ7_VsauGCEznGQIlTTWx7t2SEi70zPXfnYRCXsMBc1EOWZNuYOKyAsBbGYNoMoRr8Lmix4rvszO77A4hyphenhyphenMeA7iv-QDMRy59t6HdRNhaNbaiHTv_ENRkVbMGIDOHC_8_zyotV-EoMEAbbp8lHkKqP0jDBzX4koWlEUYOQYyA4iXvls-RMXX/s4032/IMG_8714.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIU-mr-Bp-9oQ7_VsauGCEznGQIlTTWx7t2SEi70zPXfnYRCXsMBc1EOWZNuYOKyAsBbGYNoMoRr8Lmix4rvszO77A4hyphenhyphenMeA7iv-QDMRy59t6HdRNhaNbaiHTv_ENRkVbMGIDOHC_8_zyotV-EoMEAbbp8lHkKqP0jDBzX4koWlEUYOQYyA4iXvls-RMXX/s320/IMG_8714.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />After I got quite irritated about Wakizaka’s poor start to the game/season, which had been slightly inflamed by him saying in a recent interview that he wanted to take the lead in getting Frontale back to where they should be not long after a horrendous cock up by him had helped us get limply knocked out of the ACL, I was delighted to see myself proved wrong and look like an idiot (again) when he blasted in a goal from a long way out at the other end of the pitch. There was an element of justice for me too as in the celebrations I got elbowed in the face. The celebrations weren’t that wild either, so I can only presume it was karma that did it. Our other goal, which came quite a bit later was an extremely amusing goal, with the Shonan keeper doing his absolute best to haul Erison to the ground, but being unable to do so. He can be thankful that Erison was trying to score a goal, rather than running for a train, as so strong was his grip and so unaffected was Erison, that if it were the latter, he would have been dragged up the escalator and onto the train and now be clinging to Erison’s shirt on the next Tokkaido line train out of Hiratsuka. Probably the only other thing of note in this game was the fact that, perhaps with Wakizaka’s ACL opposition assist in mind, it seems that Miura is now taking our set pieces. Perhaps that will not be the case when it comes to us having a free kick in a shooting position, but in this match it was Miura who was taking the ones where we put the ball into the box. I can’t speak for the corners as we only had one in the whole game and I can’t remember it. It would be a very welcome thing though if we had some variation from our corners. Positive variation that is. I guess you can say giving the ball away directly is a kind of variation. Perhaps the fact that we only had one corner, coupled with the fact that Ienaga was encouraging his teammates to take the ball to the corner flag to waste time with five minutes to go suggests that this wasn’t a vibrant performance from us. It’s definitely preferable to conceding in the last minute but I think it does hold quite a bit of danger and sooner or later if we try to do it for the last 5% of every game it’s going to come back and bite us. But on this occasion it didn’t. As I said above, we weren’t great and as I’ll say in the next couple of sections we got a bit lucky at times, but not losing is a good step forward from our ACL trauma. <br /><br /><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQntYWP5FOpfJ6jjA52q5Cnhm3AFB2RTf52kFI_IDTSe6du7dV13zDTSL8a0FfFCOfaH0HtzzbPOla8iE2a3xfIg2eZZ9nyHdH29auPypTE-K7ybNXN5eGt0v7wgjThWf9rgyTpg4QQ6M270gGbgVyTN8bLwnb5-uy30auEHvBAe3CNGYtSlxb0lNCVMBW/s4032/IMG_8705.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQntYWP5FOpfJ6jjA52q5Cnhm3AFB2RTf52kFI_IDTSe6du7dV13zDTSL8a0FfFCOfaH0HtzzbPOla8iE2a3xfIg2eZZ9nyHdH29auPypTE-K7ybNXN5eGt0v7wgjThWf9rgyTpg4QQ6M270gGbgVyTN8bLwnb5-uy30auEHvBAe3CNGYtSlxb0lNCVMBW/s320/IMG_8705.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Them -</b><br /><br />Shonan always cause us trouble and this game was no exception. However they are doing in any particular season, one thing you can guarantee is that form goes out of the window and they give us a real challenge. As this was their first game, we can’t really talk about form on this occasion I guess. But we can remark that they had one shot on target and scored with it. They also hit the bar and had a goal ruled out for offside, which I somehow ‘spotted’ from the other end of the pitch but didn’t realise how close it was until I saw the replay. I guess I spotted the deflection more than anything, but looking back it was a lucky, but just about justified escape. Praise the lord for VAR! Or maybe not, as I’ll come on to shortly. In spite of the stats being slightly one sided in our favour when it came to possession and shots on target, you can’t say that they didn’t cause us quite a few scares. I don’t have much else to say in this section apart from a plea to them to turn down the PA system a bit that was directly behind our area. Pre-game they played a whistle sound effect for some reason which caused a significant amount of people to jump and hold their ears. Similarly, the sound they play for every sub was blasted at such a level that the correct preparation when you saw a sub about to be made was to cover your ears before the attack. There was probably a clue for them in the fact that even normal speech sounded like it was being played through a Big Muff (or other similar distortion pedal). I suppose that part of the point is to cover up the opposition’s singing. I know a few clubs who definitely do this. But they should probably be careful with that whistle sound as they could have a lawsuit in their hands and someone’s audiologist bills to pay.<br /><br /><b>Ref - </b><br /><br />The ref on this occasion was Koya, or as he used to be known on Flashscore, 'K. Hut', the app deciding for some reason to translate his surname. I don’t expect much from J League refs anymore and it’s pretty rare to think a ref has had a decent game. It’s also quite rare to think that a ref hasn’t had an awful game. On this occasion I think he was alright. I didn’t write down anything about being extremely angry about anything he did, so that must be a positive. He did give the two big decisions in the game different ways, which I’m not sure about really as I thought we should have had a penalty but I suppose he was trying to even things up as the previous marginal decision to disallow their goal went our way. I don’t think refs should do this kind of thing, but I understand that they are human beings and this probably seems like the right thing to do if your whole job is showing impartiality. He probably shouldn’t, after his lengthy look at the VAR screen, have whistled loudly and pointed in the direction of the penalty spot though, even if the incident had happened in a similar area, as I think everyone in the stadium thought he’d given it. But let’s be honest, if the biggest complaints we have about a ref are that his hand signals were ambiguous and that he gave each team one of the two big and kind of marginal decisions, he’s probably done ok. Blimey….<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwdmSPR8MDgyGe_4qyLS8Nl4_HCN5mOsNVTaUIpVGWxbr_Q8otxYABoGWXH6kKZr4qnu5eNEwP6mAdl5pJOLwiDoHR9o8kcyIJlc_SHkJp0n5u2JarfiSsRbm40EQLpNYmRXLvqGhRjvf40kEcUZRx1CQeoAGjNtixnADJcFU0k0SrV5Gc5ZVLZX0bR1FK/s4032/IMG_8718.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwdmSPR8MDgyGe_4qyLS8Nl4_HCN5mOsNVTaUIpVGWxbr_Q8otxYABoGWXH6kKZr4qnu5eNEwP6mAdl5pJOLwiDoHR9o8kcyIJlc_SHkJp0n5u2JarfiSsRbm40EQLpNYmRXLvqGhRjvf40kEcUZRx1CQeoAGjNtixnADJcFU0k0SrV5Gc5ZVLZX0bR1FK/s320/IMG_8718.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />So a thoroughly meltdown free blog post for our first league game. Let’s see how long that lasts. I guess it helped that we won. There were some very enjoyable results over the weekend and our 2-1 win sees us sitting in sixth. Hopefully this won’t be the highest we get this year. It’s nice to get one of our biggest banana skins out of the way early on in the season, and even nicer to come away with a win. Next up we have Jubilo at home on Friday. At least this game won’t be kicking off at 5pm. If we can get another win it would be very nice. I suspect we’ll be going with exactly the same players again. And I haven’t seen any evidence of this new approach that I heard we’d be adopting. But I’m not particularly surprised about that either. However, as long as we keep winning, I guess I should refrain from whinging.<p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Team</b><br />GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong<br />DF 5. SASAKI Asahi<br />DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma<br />DF 2. TAKAI Kota<br />DF 71. MIURA Sota<br />MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento<br />MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto<br />MF 77. YAMAMOTO Yuki<span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #ffd966;">(Yellow card 51')</span><br />FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro<span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />FW 9. ERISON<br />FW 23. MARCINHO<p>Subs<br />GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto<br />MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki (on for YAMAMOTO 72')<br />FW 18. Bafetimbi GOMIS<br />FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for ERISON 84')<br />FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke (on for MARCINHO 84')<br />DF 35. MARUYAMA Yuichi (on for WAKIZAKA 90+6')<br />MF 6. ZE RICARDO</p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span><br /></span></span></span></span><b>Goals</b><br /><br />IKEDA (Shonan) 7' 1-0<br />WAKIZAKA (Frontale) 24' 1-1<br />ERISON (Frontale) 56' 1-2 <br /></p><p></p><br /><b>My Frontale Man Of The Match<br /></b><br />It wasn’t the most polished performance but we got the job done. With no one really standing out I’m giving this a bit randomly but with some slight justification and it’s going to…<br /><br />ERISON - looks like a brute up front and is doing the business nicely at the moment. Gets this mainly for the pure entertainment of him dragging the Shonan keeper along behind him whilst he slotted the ball home. Oh, and the goal celebration too, of course! Three games, three goals so far!</div><br /> <br /><b>Highlights<br /><br /></b>
<iframe width="500" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JU7UjQnvUtw?si=YavbyLpNi_DdCJf1" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1uuj3kmVVvk?si=6Wl9_ISX8ds83dEb" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YPLnVQxxIIM?si=4dNASKaHDNCXx1eG" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-66693470127485763262024-02-23T17:15:00.000+09:002024-02-23T17:15:02.218+09:00Vs Shandong Taishan (home) 20/2/24 ACL round of sixteen<h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwWYIUwwcZ4Wl1S6GT3PmnYaPiuQKV8njDXZH56hmefXlIlAQadLA4ib3AGxcj-nQmASmFyr8WqsV93yIv_CfOi4svv9-DOkXl1glul4M-CIYaVz6mOGbYehGUWscUkNGkmmjmQ3JgN0mDxR219Dve-nXet9UmhNqzxZP0CcnN7J1I2y7uk0pKAvpOPLHF/s4032/IMG_8681.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwWYIUwwcZ4Wl1S6GT3PmnYaPiuQKV8njDXZH56hmefXlIlAQadLA4ib3AGxcj-nQmASmFyr8WqsV93yIv_CfOi4svv9-DOkXl1glul4M-CIYaVz6mOGbYehGUWscUkNGkmmjmQ3JgN0mDxR219Dve-nXet9UmhNqzxZP0CcnN7J1I2y7uk0pKAvpOPLHF/s320/IMG_8681.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Kawasaki Frontale 2 - 4 Shandong Taishan </span>(5-6 on agg.) </h3><div style="text-align: left;">What an awful performance. And an awful performance merits an awful blog post, so here we go. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">6</span> Football is crap, isn’t it? Or rather, we’re crap, aren’t we? How far we’ve fallen. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">2</span> Ugh. Where to start with another horrible performance. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">3</span> This was awful again. The game plan didn’t work, and we had no response to going behind. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">2</span> Of course, you know I’m going to blame Oniki for this. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">2</span> What a shit manager. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">7</span> Still grimly sticking to the same formation and tactics. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">7</span> I don’t enjoy moaning constantly about Oniki and I’m often told he’s a nice person, so it doesn’t feel good to just moan and moan, but he’s useless and totally without ideas. I really wanted him to put up his hands at the end of last year, admit he’d fucked it up and move to pastures new. Instead he’s opted for staying and trashing his reputation further. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">1</span> It’s pretty clear that he doesn’t know where to go from here. Our system has been found out and there’s no sign of any other ideas. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">2</span> We scored twice, but we missed an unbelievable amount of good chances. We could almost have had double figures in this game if the majority of our shots didn’t sail miles wide. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">1</span> If I had access to a replay of the whole game, I would ideally get a screen grab of the shot of Oniki in the 88th minute with his magnets and whiteboard trying to work out something... anything, and then not bothering. As usual, too little too late. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">2</span> I believe that as long as Oniki is in charge, we’ll continue to toil and bore our way to mediocrity. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">3</span> If one player is playing badly in one game, well, that’s unfortunate, but it happens. If all of the players are playing badly for the whole of the season, then you’ve probably got to look elsewhere. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">4</span> I realise you were expecting me to say this, the real stinkers once again came from Oniki. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">3</span> The one constant is Oniki’s useless safety first approach. Could we just once take a free kick in midfield and play it into the box, rather than constantly playing it short, especially if there’s an opposition player standing very close waiting to take the ball. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">5</span> We’ve got plenty more players to choose from but a manager who hasn’t got a clue who to pick. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">7</span> Every week a little bit more of my sanity gets chipped away by having to watch the same old shit. It feels a bit like finding the person that irritates you the most on Twitter and blocking everyone else in the world aside from them, basically giving them a funnel to pour a torrent of horror directly into your brain without relief. It can’t be good for our health to watch these games. I’d have no problem if we just weren’t that good, but it’s just that the clown in charge keeps making the same stupid decisions apparently unaware of any detrimental effect they might be having. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">6</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7vxugBxhTuBSW5XUD52Zodbxf5ytirrWR5AdRAV9EJMw05XXyBAgtiPrDj1e9wDQ3lGHROISKz95Qn4GosizFqivmLUv3_I_nDwDNH6F21Hw7fiQCrVT0j_2Mbd21c1mVrTSzRqmD8IDMxnG25ONXfI7B-wPN3FtmNqxoVk4ABhV_lKHO2YyNu4OjGekF/s4032/IMG_8689.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7vxugBxhTuBSW5XUD52Zodbxf5ytirrWR5AdRAV9EJMw05XXyBAgtiPrDj1e9wDQ3lGHROISKz95Qn4GosizFqivmLUv3_I_nDwDNH6F21Hw7fiQCrVT0j_2Mbd21c1mVrTSzRqmD8IDMxnG25ONXfI7B-wPN3FtmNqxoVk4ABhV_lKHO2YyNu4OjGekF/s320/IMG_8689.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Perhaps that first paragraph seemed a bit weird. Or perhaps it didn’t. It’s made up entirely of direct quotes from various blog posts over the last six seasons (see the footnotes at the bottom). I guess the point I’m making is that nothing changes, and we’re still dealing with the same problems we have been for years, which were only swept under the carpet by us fortunately having some very good players who mismanagement couldn’t stop from playing well. I’ve long said we have succeeded in spite of Oniki and not because of him, but unbelievably there still seems to be confidence in and good feeling towards him from the majority of our fans. It’s taken me four days to write this blog post. Not because I am so traumatised by our defeat but more because I’m just totally fed up with writing about Oniki Frontale and with arguing with people about it on Twitter. On paper this is probably a tie that we should have won. We stormed through the group but once again totally shat the bed when it came to the knockout stage. Funny that, eh? Oniki is a manager who in the past could deal with the league format reasonably well as more often than not his one tactic worked, as the players were good. In a one off game though, he can’t rely on being able to back up the bad performances with some good ones afterwards and instead has to think on the go and actually make some changes that might affect the game. I don’t know if it’s all his fault. There is clearly a malaise at the club at the moment, particularly since the new and apparently clueless chairman joined. After the game our main supporter group the Kazoku demanded to see him. Apparently, (and really don’t quote me on this as it’s only information I’m getting second hand), they were upset at the club’s failure to get more fans in the stadium for the game. I’ve got a couple of issues with this, as while the attendance of about 12000 was pretty low, the game was at 5pm so 12000 seemed kind of decent. I have my theories about why the kickoff might have been so early but have yet to have them confirmed, and instead have been told by people who don’t actually know anything about the J League or Frontale that my theory is almost certainly wrong. And in any case, like I said, our support was actually pretty good. Much better than the performance of most of the players. I don’t think an extra 5000 supporters in the stadium would have changed anything when it came to the three major cock ups that our players made that led to three of their four goals. Like I said in the introduction though, one player playing badly or making a horrendous error can be blamed on the player. The same thing happening with three different players in one game, well, you’ve probably got to look at the manager. So basically, I don’t know if the Kazoku’s complaint to the chairman was right, but I am totally with them when it comes to wanting to complain to him. The exodus of important back room staff speaks volumes about something not being right behind the scenes. Anyway, if I went into detail about every moan I had about this match, this post would extend to novella length and much in the way that I don’t think anyone wants to read that, I don’t want write it. So instead I’ll just whinge away in bullet point form.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6dIA8TZ8rhPJXY0WjTUyhAZkmVGhSKoI-ehz55OcbzQmhxzSIefBooAsbXuI9Aqw8Uszd0hrfoTccS-M6_cVGzsLKXxf6QG3RPsn01eMFDKy14l9vH0s6uY1AfICR9qtnI0O-FC404h2FFpne7jwpdcSQ5-dtbWDt_M6_M6YA4QSITk7hvrTFDWmej94C/s4032/IMG_8691.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6dIA8TZ8rhPJXY0WjTUyhAZkmVGhSKoI-ehz55OcbzQmhxzSIefBooAsbXuI9Aqw8Uszd0hrfoTccS-M6_cVGzsLKXxf6QG3RPsn01eMFDKy14l9vH0s6uY1AfICR9qtnI0O-FC404h2FFpne7jwpdcSQ5-dtbWDt_M6_M6YA4QSITk7hvrTFDWmej94C/s320/IMG_8691.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />- Shocking from Ominami for their first goal, dodgy from Maruyama giving the ball away for the late attack that lead to their fourth, but the one that made me the most angry was the ridiculous corner from Wakizaka that lead to their second. His corners have long been terrible, but this was really sinking to a new low. Please can someone else take them.<br />- Oniki’s lack of a clue is perhaps evident in the fact that the two games in which he’s played what he thinks is our strongest line up, we’ve played worse than in the game when he played what he considers to be the second team. Kind of weird that the only changes he made from the first Shandong game to this one were to drop Jesiel for Maruyama, (who was ok in the Super Cup but not immediate-elevation-to-starter level ok) and to change the left back. Quite concerned how little confidence Oniki seems to have in Jesiel now. At the same time, a bit confused that Takai had a great game in the Super Cup and wasn’t chosen to start this game if a change had to be made. Similarly, perhaps the one player who didn’t play that well at the Super Cup also jumped into the first team. In the case of Miura replacing Segawa, it was quite welcome to see a left back playing at left back instead of a striker. And to his credit, the things that looked a bit dodgy about Miura, (kept getting knocked off the ball very easily), in the Super Cup seemed to have been completely eradicated in this game. He had a decent game I thought and his goal was nice. So I guess I’m saying credit to Oniki here…<br />- By the way, the rumoured line up for the Shonan game only has two changes. Sai replacing Sasaki and Takai replacing Ominami. If this is the line up, I guess it shows that Oniki was on the whole quite pleased with how this game went… <br />- The above point is backed up by the fact that it took him till the 84th minute to make any changes in a game that we were losing and had looked generally clueless in. And even then the changes were pretty bad. The whole front three were replaced, but instead of removing a tiring Ienaga, he was instead moved into the midfield where his do-what—I-want style proved to be a lot more dangerous for us. So basically no change of approach, just ploughing on with the same formation and tactics. The change of approach came on 90+9 minutes, three minutes after the game should have ended, when he brought on Takai and Jesiel and sent them up front for one hoofed ball. 84th minute subs seemed to be the wrong changes, way too late, but par for the course for a manager whose only new idea is to grow a beard so that he looks less young for the benefit of the refs. So, actually I should apologise as I’ve long been saying he has no new ideas. He had one - grow a beard!<br />- I think the big aim for 2024 was to make the most of getting through to the knockout stages of the ACL and have a real good go at it. Our aim for 2024 has bitten the dust before our J League campaign has kicked off. Because we were in the ACL, we won’t be joining the more exciting looking than in previous seasons 2024 Levain cup till the later stages, so now we can ‘concentrate on the league’ with our squad that contains players who will almost certainly have almost no involvement. Poor Matsui, Yui, Kanda and probably more, whose season is now probably done before it began. But this is all a bit of a moot point anyway, as Oniki was never a great fan of rotating that much, was he? There is some irony in the fact that this year we probably have a decent amount of centre backs and now Oniki doesn’t appear to know who to play. We’ve had three games with three different combinations so far. The Paradox of Choice seems quite relevant in this situation. Still, never mind, we’ll probably start getting the injuries and red cards flowing soon and he’ll be back on more comfortable ground. <br />- The ref started the game pretty well I thought, playing a decent advantage and seemed to be in control. This didn’t last long though and he really should have sent off at least one Shandong player in the first half for a second yellow, (for his third of fourth bookable offense). In the second half he was all over the place and the game got quite physical, but by this stage he was only interested in booking numerous staff on the Shandong bench. He did also award Shandong the corner that they scored their winner from after the six minutes were already up. But obviously his performance wasn’t why we lost the game. That was down to us being useless and Shandong really wanting it. They were a different team in the second leg. Or perhaps I should say they were a different team after we gifted them their first goal in the first leg. After that, the gifts continued to flow, our manager watching as the tie slipped away from us, perhaps hoping that sooner or later the boost of him having grown a semi-beard would kick in. It didn’t. They were by far the better team on the day. The only aspect that we bettered them in was with the ‘giving the ball away in potentially fatal areas’. We were SO much better at that.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQOOfvYgGKSNGxkIICkMDcSWY03ukBQieQnXz2i3UFHHAHpmGLyKFhuW-aA5XYbd_xqWbG4iyTj5pRN8IV6dUbsEwHEsyC_2RPua639v4bUSSKVFGPqsYSrLAztKWLBpiq73pODq11MGEi05cn9l7L4wT14svO8-lReyAohUjxttL_q3GlupYLvC70oxma/s4032/IMG_8692.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQOOfvYgGKSNGxkIICkMDcSWY03ukBQieQnXz2i3UFHHAHpmGLyKFhuW-aA5XYbd_xqWbG4iyTj5pRN8IV6dUbsEwHEsyC_2RPua639v4bUSSKVFGPqsYSrLAztKWLBpiq73pODq11MGEi05cn9l7L4wT14svO8-lReyAohUjxttL_q3GlupYLvC70oxma/s320/IMG_8692.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Anyway, let’s tie all this up with a suitably meandering last paragraph. As I’ve been stewing in my frustration for the last few days, dreading another whole season of this crap, the one image that keeps coming into my head is a strange one. It is of Oniki, whose job is to move some water from one bucket to another, and is trying to do it using only his hands. He keeps stopping halfway between the two buckets water pouring from his inadequately cupped hands whilst he looks at his magnet board and considers perhaps a slight change of the colour of the buckets, all the time not realising that he could have just carried the first bucket to the second one and poured it in to complete the job in an efficient way. There were many people in the stadium on Tuesday who’d taken time off work to watch what they hoped would be a solid performance, seeing out the tie in what was supposed to be the easier second leg. Little did they realise that Oniki and most of the players had also booked time off work and hadn’t showed up. If we agreed to or even didn’t protest the ridiculous early kick off, diluting the home advantage and inconveniencing ourselves, there really is something wrong with the club. I love that fact that we are a family club and welcoming and friendly to all. I don’t believe this should extend to changing kick off times for the benefit off the opposition, (if this is what happened). This was also displayed when Shandong scored their winner and one of their fans jumped the barrier, did a quick turn, leaving one of our security staff on their backside, ran to celebrate with the players and still eluded the security for a while before being ‘apprehended’ and gently ushered back to their seat. Even when we’re supposed to be throwing people out of the stadium we just let them go back and have a sit down. They probably got him some refreshments after his exertions. After these kind of disasters I usually try to be optimistic and say that hopefully this will give us a kick up the backside going forward. Whether that happens remains to be seen. Tomorrow we’ll be going to play Shonan away and kick off our league campaign. We have a pretty mixed record there. If, as it seems, we go with almost the same line up and get another shocking result, don’t expect the next blog post to be very long. Now we’re out of the ACL, (at the first time of asking), Oniki presumably has time to get going with his new tactics and approach that wouldn’t have been ready for the ACL game. Whether I did actually read this online and it’s true, or if it was just a dream I had where my subconscious was trolling me, I don’t know. I don’t believe he has any new tactics or a new approach and now we’ve seen that the grow a beard thing doesn’t work, I suspect we’ll just be stuck with the same old stuff for the whole of 2024. And what better way to finish this rotten post on that note of bleakness!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">1</span> https://frontalerabbit.blogspot.com/2023/08/vs-gamba-osaka-home-6823-j-league-match.html<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">2</span> https://frontalerabbit.blogspot.com/2019/12/vs-yokohama-f-marinos-home-301119-j.html</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">3</span> https://frontalerabbit.blogspot.com/2018/09/vs-gamba-osaka-away-2918-j-league-match.html</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">4</span> https://frontalerabbit.blogspot.com/2022/05/vs-shonan-bellmare-home-25522-j-league.html<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">5</span> https://frontalerabbit.blogspot.com/2023/04/vs-gamba-osaka-away-9423-j-league-match.html</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">6</span> https://frontalerabbit.blogspot.com/2023/07/vs-nagoya-grampus-away-1723-j-league.html</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">7</span> https://frontalerabbit.blogspot.com/2023/05/vs-urawa-reds-away-24523-levain-cup.html</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Team</b><br />GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong<br />DF 5. SASAKI Asahi<br />DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma<br />DF 35. MARUYAMA Yuichi<br />DF 71. MIURA Sota<br />MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento<br />MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto<br />MF 77. YAMAMOTO Yuki<br />FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro<span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />FW 89. ERISON<br />FW 23. MARCINHO<span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #ffd966;">(Yellow card 69')</span><p>Subs<br />GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto<br />GK 22. HAYASAKA Yuki<br />DF 4. JESIEL (on for WAKIZAKA 90+9')<br />MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki<br />FW 18. Bafetimbi GOMIS (on for YAMAMOTO 84')<br />FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for ERISON 84')<br />MF 25. MATSUI Renji<br />MF 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata<br />DF 29. TAKAI Kota (on for IENAGA 90+9')<br />FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke (on for MARCINHO 84')<br />DF 52. Sai VAN WERMESKERKEN <br />MF 55. ZE RICARDO<br /> </p><b>Goals</b><br /><br />CRYZAN (Shandong) 8' 0-1</div><div style="text-align: left;">GAO ZHUNYI (Shandong) 25' 0-2 <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">MIURA (Frontale) 30' 1-2<br />ERISON (Frontale) 59' 2-2 <br />CRYZAN (Shandong) 73' 2-3<br />JADSON (Shandong) 90+7' 2-4<br /><br /> <br /><b>Highlights<br /><br /></b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZklhPXb8hSo?si=ev6666WEcRiUJnEL" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-53850944042421141912024-02-19T15:28:00.001+09:002024-02-19T15:28:33.976+09:00Vs Vissel Kobe 18/2 Super Cup<h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEKGWwrpnKiD9Bd6M9iNCBDZdGuSWpfHVrcJOrpVxPesjvUrb8d8_FqeVNWA7kmbFyHuX9zn3lImUpVLbPCzZRppj8BfdE5-t_X5n34vRnB3l94hEdSGS0Lw0R2miRtCJAyJ7iRu44oQzJpDYCsNojv4bS919jOkyG6gX73Tm887Dh7MU04SITViVgtFyS/s4032/IMG_8652.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEKGWwrpnKiD9Bd6M9iNCBDZdGuSWpfHVrcJOrpVxPesjvUrb8d8_FqeVNWA7kmbFyHuX9zn3lImUpVLbPCzZRppj8BfdE5-t_X5n34vRnB3l94hEdSGS0Lw0R2miRtCJAyJ7iRu44oQzJpDYCsNojv4bS919jOkyG6gX73Tm887Dh7MU04SITViVgtFyS/s320/IMG_8652.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Vissel Kobe 0 - 1 Kawasaki Frontale</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It’s February 18th and already we’ve played our second game of the year. By the time 16 out of the 20 J1 teams kick off their first competitive game of 2024, we’ll be starting our fourth. And there’s no time to sit around enjoying not writing blog posts because game number three is fast approaching. After our first eleven just about did enough against what looked like a not particularly strong Shandong team last Tuesday we turned up at the National Stadium with a completely different first eleven. I think I expressed my doubts that Oniki would rotate much for this match, but he totally did so I have to eat some humble pie. Maybe he really has changed his approach. I guess that will become clearer as the games continue to come thick and fast. I know I always make a joke about the Levain Cup being the most prestigious of all Japanese football titles, but the Fujifilm Super Cup, as I believe it is now called, is most definitely the title all teams take least seriously and care the least about. Well, unless you are the troll Marinos fan who always finds something to criticise us about and expressed his disgust at us not taking this prestigious cup final seriously by rotating too much. Perhaps he’s still a bit sore after his side threw away a two goal lead against Bangkok United. I think a competition that only two teams have a chance of winning and which is usually crammed in between the last pre-season friendly and the season opener is absolutely the least admired trophy to add to the cabinet. But I am delighted that we snatched it away from Vissel Kobe’s clutches. Actually, that makes it sound like they were cruelly denied the cup by some misfortune, but I think we looked much better than them. To add a bit more detail and heat to that burn let’s say I think our second team looked much better than their first team. And even if they want to use the excuse that we’d already started our season, I’d like to add that any start to the season that our starting eleven had had, was basically sitting on a plane, and then sitting on a bench. I’m sure Mikitani could have funded a similar trip for their players if they’d wanted it. Anyway, this introduction has already gone longer than I wanted the whole post to go on, so I’d better get on with rolling out some more insults, as I’m sure that’s why you’re here. Let’s use the usual headings. <br /><br /><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicPqtl3WM1Th_WFdruCjH3H9BQJYKRyAitOK2G8D34dL607lb9YRDWkUZgK0_SwFSv6EwQPbteg7RmlWX1IT35d43rML2qUo2bGRh_ibWRq4t1iDaLEhAmkNnf3jf2RMenAuF84eAXS-68yVsZB4EZkVbJdsSTPApcaXLc4C4LDEJT2C8CUmQH-DrGfDJd/s4032/IMG_8648.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicPqtl3WM1Th_WFdruCjH3H9BQJYKRyAitOK2G8D34dL607lb9YRDWkUZgK0_SwFSv6EwQPbteg7RmlWX1IT35d43rML2qUo2bGRh_ibWRq4t1iDaLEhAmkNnf3jf2RMenAuF84eAXS-68yVsZB4EZkVbJdsSTPApcaXLc4C4LDEJT2C8CUmQH-DrGfDJd/s320/IMG_8648.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Us -</b><br /><br />Massive changes as I said above. First pitch time for Ze Ricardo, Patrick Verhon and Yamauchi. First starts for Van Wermeskerken and Maruyama. And I thought everyone did alright! There was no-one on the pitch for us who didn’t show some real positive promise. Certainly there were a few dodgy moments, but that’s to be expected with a team and partnerships that have never played together. And presumably there was a bit of a language barrier between Ze Ricardo and Patrick as they’ve only been in the country about a month. Sai almost made the perfect start to his Frontale career, coming very close to scoring with a backwards header very early on in the game. He later went on to actually make the perfect start to his Frontale career by scoring in the second half. It doesn’t bother me that he basically blocked a clearance which was then deflected into the net. I’ve seen goals that have more egregiously been not designated as own goals. I thought the rule was that if the ball was going on target before the final deflection it’s not an own goal. But anyway, I’m sure he’s happy to be credited with it and us fans are just happy it went in. To be honest, I couldn’t see a great deal of difference in the way we approached the game to how we did last year, but it just felt a lot better than it has recently. I guess this is due to the novelty factor of there being different players. I don’t think it’s particularly apparent that the ‘first choice’ team is better than the ones who started this match, which is something that if Oniki agrees with, will give him some difficult decisions to make. Certainly in the past I have been frustrated by us not changing anything much when the one plan we had wasn’t working. Seems like I’m easily placated by seeing some new faces though. Oh, and perhaps by winning! As I said above there were plenty of decent performances. I’m a bit biased as I like him a lot, but I thought Seko had a really good game and was unlucky to see his free kick hit the bar. His corners looked better than Wakizaka’s 2023 corners too. (I do remember thinking his corners were a bit better in the ACL game though). Takai was the other stand out I thought. He was clam and assured at the back and dealt with Osako pretty easily for the most part. He also looked good coming out of defence too. He showed this kind of promise in his first few games, so it’s good to see that kind of thing coming back after he had a bit of a wobble. I felt a bit sorry for Gomis in this game as he’s coming closer and closer to scoring but just doesn’t seem to have any luck. When he did put the ball in the net, (see below), the ref wasn't having it and he was denied an almost certain goal when after Marcinho came on and did one of his trademark dribbles, he tried to shoot rather than pass to an unmarked Gomis. Hopefully he’ll score soon, as I think that when he does he’ll start banging them in for fun. So, a much improved performance from our last game in this stadium and maybe some reason for optimism. Hopefully that doesn’t come crashing down in the immediate future. <br /><br /><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcD-oC24RcCRa2_p04zOnrebmDsO5snAQkzsZAJHEN_oaDv9ZWneMvMfPLR-8kcAfs29VC7-wk-KJUREU7CrDEDx0Llue6N2-73BwUDXcL5nUCJf6qih5-F3KIZ5DGbJfsWcQNOB3rB_5vNaBaAqYrSj8npdPLCeASM4PGhiFhnDqxiooGI_QMkycPyq0y/s4032/IMG_8645.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcD-oC24RcCRa2_p04zOnrebmDsO5snAQkzsZAJHEN_oaDv9ZWneMvMfPLR-8kcAfs29VC7-wk-KJUREU7CrDEDx0Llue6N2-73BwUDXcL5nUCJf6qih5-F3KIZ5DGbJfsWcQNOB3rB_5vNaBaAqYrSj8npdPLCeASM4PGhiFhnDqxiooGI_QMkycPyq0y/s320/IMG_8645.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Them - </b><br /><br />After years of laughing at Vissel Kobe’s splashing of the cash to no effect I think everyone had to admit that last year they were deserved champions. Certainly their ability to sign plenty of high profile and effective players, somewhat in contrast to some of their recent more high profile foreign imports, helped them do well, but they more than earned their success. This is especially easy for me to say as they stopped YFM winning the league and did so with an extremely dodgy decision, hopefully rubbing salt in the YFM wounds. Not sure what’s happened to them since last year though. Now they seem like an ineffective long ball team. I particularly enjoyed the English language interview of Sai (van Wermeskerken, from now on just know as Sai as it’s a long name to have to keep typing), where he singled out the fact that it had been a challenge because we had to deal with a lot of long balls from Kobe. I don’t know if this was a wonderfully taken dig, but I kind of hope that it is. I guess their shooting was pretty bad in this game and that helped us out. Sakai was particularly awful when it came to getting shots or passes on target. I wonder if they’ve turned into 2023 Frontale. I saw they had plenty of possession and a decent amount of shots but failed to score. Got to love it when one of the three teams who people seem to be tipping for the title start out their year like that. Their keeper looked awful too. I’ve been trying to think of a more amusing second half to the following comparison but haven’t quite been able to find one so you have to make do with this. Maekawa had more flaps than a migrating Arctic Tern in these 90 minutes. And one of these set up our goal. It’s a bit of a shame that we couldn’t have taken advantage of more of them though. One final point on Kobe. Seeing Arai and Miyashiro in their colours was a bit of a wrench. Arai was much loved at Frontale and we were kind of surprised when he left. The fact that he went down to J2 for a few seasons with JEF and then ended up at the J1 champions is a surprise, but I guess he’ll be playing a back up role there. Perhaps judging on how bad Maekawa played though, he could be getting more action than anyone expected. Miyashiro is a tough one. I had his shirt last year, (curse of the shirt, basically it’s my fault he left), but can’t begrudge him leaving us as he was underused, never really played in his best position and even though he scored more goals from open play than any other player in far less minutes, it was clear that Oniki wasn’t going to either make him his first choice striker or change our system to suit him. I was a bit shocked to see how many of our fans booed him before, during and after the game, and kind of disgusted that it happened when he and Arai came to greet us after the match. I don’t know if it’s because they resent him for leaving for a bigger pay packet, for the reigning champions or just because he was a youth team product who didn’t stay with us for the rest of his career. It seems that no-one has a problem when our players leave for foreign teams, regardless of the level, but if they leave to a J1 rival they should be hated. Of course it wasn’t everyone booing, but it was a significant amount of people. Perhaps these people think it would be better for him to stay with us forever, playing fewer and fewer games as the years pass, but still being there to take pictures with bananas for themed match day events and to make everyone in the crowd feel comfortable and warm inside. I don’t know what 2024 will hold for him, but maybe Kobayashi is an interesting comparison. He turned down some offers to go to teams where he’d definitely have played more and is apparently going to have a career with us after he stops playing. I can’t imagine it’s much fun for him though, particularly in a season like 2023 where the rotation was really minimal. Fingers crossed for him in 2024.<br /><br /><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0VBpUbliaNz612qeUqiiEdwAJXfdq0O4cjNrShnOXUkVbG83BWh_6lkZFrMDbMl8h6HsV4-vfHsqe77L8T-Z_hd9n5Sw2uBPyM6UIrr49cimtEu7jOo0YncsHRKMNbApRU248TtBXSegtNjNHaRznIpwyvKTjrhEXNK15zN0LZU7stKH04R4GHKHQtgTV/s4032/IMG_1654.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0VBpUbliaNz612qeUqiiEdwAJXfdq0O4cjNrShnOXUkVbG83BWh_6lkZFrMDbMl8h6HsV4-vfHsqe77L8T-Z_hd9n5Sw2uBPyM6UIrr49cimtEu7jOo0YncsHRKMNbApRU248TtBXSegtNjNHaRznIpwyvKTjrhEXNK15zN0LZU7stKH04R4GHKHQtgTV/s320/IMG_1654.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Ref and VAR -</b><br /><br />This game had the potential to be a perfect storm of absolute shitness when it came to officials. The ref was Ikeuchi who is notoriously bad, but who I faintly praised in the last game we had with him saying that I ’didn’t find much if anything to get irritated about’. Perhaps he read this and was infuriated and determined to prove that there is always something to get irritated about when he’s in charge. The first note I made during the game said ‘four mins till first absolute shit decision’. I can’t remember what it was now, but I guess it was one of many, in my opinion, absolutely one-eyed decisions he made in the game. I knew we were in trouble when he decided to apparently warn Tanabe after a tackle that he didn’t even give a free kick for. Then unsurprisingly, the very next tackle Tanabe made he was booked. Gomis pointed this out to Ikeuchi but perhaps that only encouraged him, and it wasn’t long before he was able to book Gomis too. It seemed like everything was given Vissel’s way. I wouldn’t be surprised if you checked his fridge you’d find a massive bit of Kobe beef in there and a big pile of Rakuten gift cards on top of it. Of course I am naturally biased in favor of Frontale and my Vissel supporting friend seemed to think he’d done ok in the game. I find though that in the J League, if you feel like the ref has had a decent game, he’s probably been biased in your favour. I think a ref having a decent game is rarer than a cross that Maekawa doesn’t flap at. Or a bit of Kamifukumoto distribution that doesn’t end up flying off the side of the pitch,(this is hugely unfair, as I thought he had a decent game yesterday). The most egregious Ikeuchi cock up though was him blowing for a free kick when Yamada absolutely fairly won the ball by the goal line, passed it back to Gomis who put the ball in the back of the net. He clearly blew up for a free kick as it looked like some of the Kobe players had stopped. So I guess he must have been confident he was right, or does that 'let the play go on and get VAR check it' thing only work with offsides? I can’t remember if it was Ikeuchi who previously decided to blow the whistle for a goal that we scored that was incorrectly flagged offside, but crucially blow the whistle before the ball went in, so ruling out any possibility of VAR coming into play? I don’t know if it was him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. I know it’s not a good look for our fans to boo the ref as he went up to receive his medal for a job truly terribly done, but to be honest, I thought he was awful, so probably got what he deserved. One thing that I thought was interesting was that the stadium screen which was broadcasting the action throughout the game stopped showing the action or replays as soon as there was any kind of hint of a decision which could have been contentious. I guess they are fed up of the referee’s incompetence being clearly shown to all in the stadium, and I suppose if you have incompetent refs it’s easier to try to hide their incompetence than try to actually make them not incompetent.<br /><br />Next up, Shandong at home in the second leg of our ACL knockout game. We did our best to try to make the second leg interesting by gifting them a few goals late on in the first game, but it would be nice if we could put in a good and confident performance in what will be a library of a stadium given that the kick off has been set for 5pm on a Tuesday. I can only imagine this is due to us being obliging with the opposition's request which was probably intended to minimise any home advantage we might have. Certainly, there isn’t a rational reason to start at 5 when it comes to other time zones. Fingers crossed for a good result. I’m hoping that these posts might become a bit less rambly, a bit funnier and a lot less moany in 2024. I’m not sure I’ve started that particularly well though. And I guess a lot depends on what’s happening on the pitch. Definitely it’s a lot easier to not moan when the team isn’t playing badly, but I’m honestly trying to be less critical and a bit fairer to people who are doing their best. I’m sure Ikeuchi would be happy to hear this. Of course the useless bastard would. </span><span class="Emoji_emoji__6sYSR __variable_c30de8 Emoji_emoji-large__iiCJx !bg-transparent transform active:scale-75 transition-transform">😉</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Emoji_emoji__6sYSR __variable_c30de8 Emoji_emoji-large__iiCJx !bg-transparent transform active:scale-75 transition-transform"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Emoji_emoji__6sYSR __variable_c30de8 Emoji_emoji-large__iiCJx !bg-transparent transform active:scale-75 transition-transform"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Ly9rGzWAmvmXXF88mxw1_XBgmD1zFCO_jWrbMgmAArEk_yFKhSBWuO7kxs6hfmZwkc0I9B5YdUDDfquBNutWhZCPYT9jlDf1gQpWuPSxmzPIqfWIi9mqscBd4x-mURKNY3Lp00cH76EZBWzp_b6hXa8RdPY7C0_OWF804FpfFO6cZECUQb0ARPBqyqL3/s4032/IMG_8651.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Ly9rGzWAmvmXXF88mxw1_XBgmD1zFCO_jWrbMgmAArEk_yFKhSBWuO7kxs6hfmZwkc0I9B5YdUDDfquBNutWhZCPYT9jlDf1gQpWuPSxmzPIqfWIi9mqscBd4x-mURKNY3Lp00cH76EZBWzp_b6hXa8RdPY7C0_OWF804FpfFO6cZECUQb0ARPBqyqL3/s320/IMG_8651.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirpSiMwOOeB1Qju5bzVBpDks8ET-X9inHG-VzGK_Q-GflpE02d1bmdIhDLH9varsoIFPLbdtN3oTRujEEoUHa8jFQb0yhKgbwcI7TIc9pb63dKEASdWHMsuprieaBOT522WNoK6AMCVG1576mSmzLHWxztWkjdw-NojYw_PQ4P3u_iV_AMzny0r0C8eOBd/s4032/IMG_8656.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirpSiMwOOeB1Qju5bzVBpDks8ET-X9inHG-VzGK_Q-GflpE02d1bmdIhDLH9varsoIFPLbdtN3oTRujEEoUHa8jFQb0yhKgbwcI7TIc9pb63dKEASdWHMsuprieaBOT522WNoK6AMCVG1576mSmzLHWxztWkjdw-NojYw_PQ4P3u_iV_AMzny0r0C8eOBd/s320/IMG_8656.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br /> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Team<br /></b><br />GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto<br />DF 31. Sai VAN WERMESKERKEN<br />DF 2. TAKAI Kota</div><div style="text-align: left;">DF 35. MARUYAMA Yuichi</div><div style="text-align: left;">DF 15. TANABE Shuto <span style="color: #ffd966;">(Yellow card 15') </span> </div><div style="text-align: left;">MF 6. ZE RICARDO</div><div style="text-align: left;">MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki<br />MF 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata<br />FW 20. YAMADA Shin<br />FW 18. Bafetimbi GOMIS <span style="color: #ffd966;">(Yellow card 25') </span></div><div style="text-align: left;">FW 28. PATRICK VERHON<br /><p>Subs<br /><br />GK 21. ANDO Shunsuke<br />MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento <span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #ffd966;">(Yellow card 90+3') </span>(on for YAMAUCHI 80')<br />DF 13. MIURA Sota (on for TANABE 46')<br />FW 23. MARCINHO (on for PATRICK VERHON 65')<br />MF 25. MATSUI Renji<br />FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke (on for VAN WERMESKERKEN 80')<br />MF 77. YAMAMOTO Yuki (on for SEKO 85')<br /></p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">My Frontale Man Of The Match</span></b></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></b></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This game and the team showed something of a work in progress, but some of that work was more complete so I have to give it to...</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">TAKAI Kota - looked great at the back and also bringing the ball out from the back. Really pleased to see him back on track after a little wobble.<br /></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Goals</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">VAN WERMESKERKEN (Frontale) 48' 0-1<br /><b> </b></div><b>Highlights</b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> <br /><br /></span></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BDxNyDYzzNY?si=SHZcU_d06g_wqMWY" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rVJGngeX8lg?si=Myu9OyX_1E9qxsg2" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PMfZVcjen_g?si=tDYOrCbTjEQj_hTP" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-59137387043633583882024-02-13T23:12:00.003+09:002024-02-16T00:15:05.159+09:00Vs Shandong Taishan (away) 13/2/24 ACL round of sixteen<h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBt5fGqeLQlgETxhC8zH9nFl4qgHublmVRAVYIm93qFepL7g9LSPZIFMv8ZRMdYAYW6EwA4CTPw5Hi2rd7Vguijg-C6XdhOCMVOyUC9Fg0XmsrR-euK9uNStA8UoLajaVuvNtALBm0B4i_vT3dA2BNuIihWOkcJaNhXRxeP6r__Oxe2IiJUGJsUOkTJpwi/s4001/IMG_8610.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2534" data-original-width="4001" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBt5fGqeLQlgETxhC8zH9nFl4qgHublmVRAVYIm93qFepL7g9LSPZIFMv8ZRMdYAYW6EwA4CTPw5Hi2rd7Vguijg-C6XdhOCMVOyUC9Fg0XmsrR-euK9uNStA8UoLajaVuvNtALBm0B4i_vT3dA2BNuIihWOkcJaNhXRxeP6r__Oxe2IiJUGJsUOkTJpwi/s320/IMG_8610.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Shandong Taishan 2 - 3 Kawasaki Frontale</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We’re back and banging! Erm… With a pretty average (and that’s being generous. Losses to Ryukyu and Machida and a draw against Okinawa SV…) pre-season behind us, we’re slap bang back into action with the first of three games in eight days. Quite how it’s possible for us to have such a packed schedule so early in the season, I don’t know. I presume the J League was aware of when the ACL games would be but perhaps expected us to fail to get out of the group and by doing so, avoid a busy start. A new year brings new players and often brings new hope. When I guested on the J Talk Podcast the night before this game, my feeling was that our season could go one of two ways. If the new players and the teased new approach start working quickly we could have an exciting year. Equally, if the new approach proves to be as successful and original as last year’s new approach, and the like for like signings we made for players who were leaving continued in their predecessors’ foot steps, we could have another dodgy year. After that second half, it seems more likely it’s the latter. Of course, it’s too early to make any kind of judgements after one game. Especially one which we somehow won! Also, I read, (or perhaps hallucinated), that Oniki had a new idea (!!!) but thought it wouldn’t be ready in time for the ACL so was going to go with the old idea that had proved so stultifying over the previous 12 months. It’s probably too early to draw any concrete impressions on where we are after this match, so I’ll try to just skim over everything in a couple of short paragraphs and be done with it. Here we go.<br /><br />In the first half we looked pretty good. Well for about half an hour. Shandong didn’t look that good and it seemed that their best route to goal would be us giving them the ball directly in front of our goal whilst not really under that much pressure. I stupidly mused that we looked like we were playing much better football than them and that there were some reasons to be optimistic. At the same time, I noted that there was barely anyone in our team who hadn’t made a horrendous error which had somehow miraculously not ended up leading to us conceding. So perhaps there was something new! A new and original way to not really get the job done. How foolish of me to underestimate Oniki and his new ideas! After scoring our second goal on 33 minutes after we’d previously been gifted an absolutely undeniable penalty, surely things were looking bright, right? Perhaps yes. So bright that we found ourselves dazzled for the remainder of the match aside from when Ienaga scored with our ONLY SHOT OF THE SECOND HALF. Add to that nugget, the 29% possession we ‘enjoyed’ after the break. Still I suppose we can be positive about how well we were taking our chances, with more than half of our shots on target and about a third of them being goals. It seems that we still can play the ball around nicely, (well, actually not as much as we usually do perhaps, but you know, got to grasp on to something), but once again after a slightly bright start absolutely failed to attack in any meaningful way. After they made some changes near the start of the second half, it seemed like it took Oniki about 15 minutes to notice we were getting swamped at the back. 15 minutes during which we had conceded. I suspect he was looking at his magnet board at the time and probably hadn’t spotted that they’d restarted the game after making their subs. But this is all a bit unfair and a bit premature as we won, even if it was a bit too close for comfort at times. And maybe Oniki’s going to roll out those new tactics on Saturday for the Super Cup, right? But wow, anyone who came into the season with any optimism and watched this match without having that optimism firmly smashed out of them is much more positive person than I am. But yeah, most people are, aren’t they? Hehe.<br /><br />Normally we’d be saying, ‘Oh well, these things take some time to gel and you can’t expect a team with so many changes to hit the ground running immediately’. Sadly for us, it just happens that two of our first three games are really significant ones for us to try to make 2024 a bit better than 2023. As far as I could see in this match, Erison has come in to replace Damiao and looked like he will do things a bit differently. I suspect he’s going to be more like Okubo than Damiao, but to be honest, it won’t be such a bad thing if we have a striker who the opposition are really going to hate. And if he can score like Okubo did, well, that will be very welcome. Not sure about his penalty run up, but loved his goal celebration. A promising start for him, I think. But maybe when I say start, I’m only talking about the start of this game and ignoring anything that happened after we’d scored our second as after that point no-one did anything. Sasaki came in for Yamane, which was a bit of a shock as I’m sure everyone expected Van Wermeskerken to play there. Perhaps he’s not settled in yet. I thought Sasaki did a good job when it came to going forward but got exposed whilst defending a few times, so actually quite like Yamane at his peak! Noborizato was replaced by Segawa, because yeah, of course, who would expect the only international we signed to play at left back when we could play a striker there instead, right? And Yamamoto came in for Seko. Perhaps he’s been playing better in training or perhaps Oniki just sees Seko as an eternal sub. It’s a good thing that we’re talking a one goal lead into the second leg. Naturally, (because this is the ACL where none of the rules ever seem to make much sense), away goals have no significance, so scoring three times in the away leg will be ultimately pointless if we concede twice in the second whilst failing to score. I hope the Shandong that played the first 30 minutes turn up rather than the one that played the rest of the game. It would be a huge understatement to say that their approach was quite a physical one. They got away with absolute murder in the first half, but to be honest, you’ve got to blame the ref for being so flaky. Perhaps its not such a good idea to have a ref from a league that only has nine teams in it, an average attendance of significantly less than 1000 per game and has no relegation in charge of an important game. I don’t want to be too mean to him though given that as bad as he was, there are plenty of equally bad Japanese refs, and a few that are worse too. He seemed to enjoy VAR quite a lot. The amount of discussions they had made me think that they were probably on a ‘pay as you VAR’ rate when it came to their salary. Hopefully we’ll have a ref in the second leg who can control the game a bit better. The knee in the back to Segawa was surely a red card, but neither the ref or VAR thought so. The way they were just kicking us around the pitch in the first half makes it astonishing that we ended up with four yellows to their two. Not saying ours were undeserved at all. To be honest, I can’t remember most of them. It was that kind of game. Shandong will come to our place hoping to continue their second half onslaught. I guess only time will tell whether they really upped their game, or whether we were just absolutely useless in the second half. Right now, I think probably both actually. But they are sure to be cowed by the electric atmosphere that they’ll find at Todoroki at… 5pm on a regular working day. Dunno if they needed to start early to get a plane home afterwards. Or maybe we wanted to try to save some money on the floodlights or something. But wow, what a useless time slot for pretty much every country in the whole of the federation. And our usual pub won’t even be open afterwards….<br /><br />Well, that went on a lot longer than I expected and a lot longer than the game deserved. I guess there’s more to write about when the game is bad and there’s plenty of moaning to be done. Next up the Super Cup against Vissel Kobe at the always disappointing National Stadium on Saturday. If the team we started with today was our first choice team, there is no way we should be going with the same players on Saturday with the second leg only three days later. So expect some rotation. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. If my initial impressions of Shandong were accurate, we could be in for a much sterner test at the weekend than we were in this game. Fingers crossed, I guess.</span></div><br /><b>Team</b><br />GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong<br />DF 5. SASAKI Asahi<br />DF 4. JESIEL<br />DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma<br />DF 30. SEGAWA Yusuke <span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #ffd966;">(Yellow card 59')</span><br />MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento<br />MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto<br />MF 77. YAMAMOTO Yuki<br />FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro<span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #ffd966;"> (Yellow card 90+8')</span><br />FW 89. ERISON<span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #ffd966;">(Yellow card 31')</span><br />FW 23. MARCINHO<br /><p>Subs<br />GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto<br />GK 21. ANDO Shunsuke<br />DF 15. TANABE Shuto <span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #ffd966;">(Yellow card 90+1') </span>(on for SEGAWA 89')<br />MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki (on for YAMAMOTO 64')<br />FW 18. Bafetimbi GOMIS <br />FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for ERISON 72')<br />MF 25. MATSUI Renji<br />MF 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata<br />DF 29. TAKAI Kota<br />DF 35. MARUYAMA Yuichi (on for MARCINHO 72')<br />DF 52. Sai VAN WERMESKERKEN (on for SASAKI 90')<br />MF 55. ZE RICARDO<br /> </p><p><b>Goals</b><br /><br />ERISON (Frontale) PEN 28' 0-1<br />MARCINHO (Frontale) 33' 0-2 <br />FERNANDINHO (Shandong) 67' 1-2<br />IENAGA (Frontale) 79' 1-3 <br />JADSON (Shandong) 85' 2-3<br /><br /> <br /><b>Highlights</b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> <br /></span></p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bbsNgopeqaM?si=N_-Qh1__sYw4OYsY" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-42586989224941110792024-02-12T23:56:00.002+09:002024-02-18T23:45:01.030+09:00New player songs 2024<p>Here are the new players' songs and a few other new songs too, one of which includes quite complicated looking dance moves. To check the songs of players remaining from previous seasons, please check the posts <a href="https://frontalerabbit.blogspot.com/search/label/songs">here</a>.</p><p><b>6. ZE RICARDO</b><br /><br />Ze Ricardo<br />Ze Ricardo<br />Ze Ricardo<br />Oh Ze! Ze!<br /></p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OQUL7J39fE4?si=dyL5BCPIelwlhT_N" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><p><b> <br />9. ERISON</b><br /><br />Erison goal<br />La La La La Laa<br />El Toro Erison<br />Tsukisusume<br /></p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hs8OzrUyp5E?si=ao4SqxK7ZGg4NRVw" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><p><b><br />13. MIURA Sota</b><br /><br />Oh oh o, oh o oh<br />Kakeagare yo<br />Miura Sota <br /></p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-6x4aX6pUWk?si=JA7PfDptEHz7FJnY" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><p><b><br />15. TANABE Shuto </b><br /><br />Tanabe Shuto, Tanabe Shuto<br />Run Run La la la la<br />Run Run La la la la<br />Tanabe Shuto<br /></p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zo-iUfBJC_s?si=JqhIERUk1J72wDfs" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><p><b><br />24. MIYAGI Ten</b><br /><br />Ten ten ten<br />Miyagi Ten, ten te ten te ten<br />Miyagi Ten, get goal<br />Kawasaki sodachi no Miyagi Ten, hey!<br /><br /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vuuoqip4IYE?si=nj_Ikz9WNJpwxeNR" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><b><br /><br /><br />25. MATSUI Renji</b><br /><br />Go fight!<br />Vamo Matsui Renji<br />Misero Matsui Renji<br />Ok! Alright! Shori o kono te ni<br /></p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aCf5AGPFSCo?si=WOtd22RDg006zwsb" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><p><b><br />26. YAMAUCHI Hinata</b><br /><br />Yamauchi Hinata<br />Kagayake Hinata<br />Yamauchi Hinata<br />Hinata la la la<br /></p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ribvVkHAADc?si=vIDATwU7WodV6hNV" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><p><b><br />31. Sai Van WERMESKERKEN</b><br /><br />Van Wermeskerken Sai<br />Tsukisusume yo, shori e<br /></p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-aftYRXJvkg?si=0gpa9Xbcy3RDS3E7" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><p><b><br />34. YUI Kota</b><br /><br />Yui Kota, Yui Kota<br />Kawasaki sodachi no Yui Kota<br />Yui Kota, Yui Kota<br />Sekai e habatake Yui Kota<br /></p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cJPt_cI2jsQ?si=TDpcy-d1NQLIqxmh" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><p><b><br />35. MARUYAMA Yuichi</b><br /><br />Maruyama<br />Maruyama<br />Oh o, oh o o oh.<br /></p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MkHRZ3a_kWY?si=aBBdpC-vGjQ9tCwN" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><p><b><br />77. YAMAMOTO Yuki</b><br /><br />La La La La La La Laa<br />Yamamoto Yuki<br />Yamamoto Yuki go!<br /><br /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5H8kK92VhYs?si=hsjgAYdByf3c_JtE" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><b><br /><br /><br />Vamos</b><br /><br />Vamos, vamos<br />Kawasaki vamos<br />Vamos, vamos<br />Frontale<br /><br /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k2vI7q6XZyQ?si=fZVTHOfR-Xp53VES" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><br /><b><br /><br />Cosmic Love</b><br /><br />O o o o, o o, o oh<br />Kawasaki Ole (Ole)<br />O o o o, o o, o oh<br />Let’s go, uo uo uo uo <br />Sha!<br /><br /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iXhaKl-_Bwk?si=FONFbArDvGkru9s-" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><br /><br /><b><br />Kawasaki Odori<br /> </b><br />Mita ka Kawasaki hataraku iki o<br />Migoto hyaku man saita hana<br />Uki uki, uki uki<br />Kira kira, kira kira<br />Kawasaki odori<br /></p><p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/frwESh3hoFk?si=MpplI_e-VBtG8qIU" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe></p><p><b></b></p><p></p><p></p><p><b></b></p><p>And here's the dance...<br /><br /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-h2BGjAg4rc?si=XXnPFN4RHpm_LfwT" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><b><br /><br /><br />Ale Kawasaki</b><br /><br />Allez allez oh Forza Kawasaki<br />Koe agero tamashii komete<br />Tsukamitore kokode shori o Hibikasero oretachi no koe<br />Laa la, laa la la, la la la, la la la la<br />Laa la, laa la la, la la la, la la la la<br />Laa la, laa la la, la la la, la la la, laa la<br />La la la la, laa la<br /></p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U42coPaAJYE?si=oGFYlG2N-EH-lYp1" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><p></p>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-74701885312805525632024-01-22T12:43:00.000+09:002024-01-22T12:43:18.468+09:002023/24 Players in and out<p style="text-align: left;">Today, my final 2023 season post and my first 2024 season post and it's about the players leaving us and joining us. For once, me being a bit slow has worked in my favour as our latest signing was only announced yesterday. I have to say, I don't really know much about any of the players who are joining us so there's not going to be a great deal of detail here, but hopefully it might give you a little background on the new guys. Some of these parts were written before new signings were made and as I can't be bothered to change them, please ignore the bits that don't completely make sense with recent signings in mind. After this you won't be hearing from me until the ACL games. I'm quite pleased to have finally got all these end of season posts done. Perhaps it was related to our terrible form in 2023, but recently this blog has really been a bit of an effort to keep going. These posts take quite a long time to write, (unbelievable when you consider the quality, eh?), so I'm happy to not have anything to write for a while now. See you in mid February!<b><br /></b></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b>Leaving the club</b></h3><p><b>Leandro Damiao<br /></b><br />Probably said everything I wanted to say about Damiao’s departure in my end of season player round up post. I think most of us knew he was going to go so it wasn’t such a big surprise. It’s nice that he has left on a high after we won the cup, but it’s a shame that he’s gone at at time when he seemed to be playing better than he had for a while. Wish him all the best wherever he ends up. Well, unless it’s a rival, I guess, but even if that happens I will still think he’s a nice guy.<br /><br /><b>Joao Schmidt<br /></b><br />Much like Damiao, we probably suspected that he was going to leave us. And much like with Damiao, I probably said most things in my player round ups. Always had his pitch time limited by being behind Tachibanada in Oniki’s eyes. And that’s a little hard to disagree with, considering that when he had a run in the team, even though I thought he was one of our better players, we didn’t play very well. Never seemed particularly suited to Oniki’s tactics as when he played some lovely balls forward there was often no-one expecting them. Has gone to Santos who have just been relegated to Brazil’s Serie B for the first time in their 111 year history so are presumably doing a big rebuild. He joins one of my most disliked ex-J Leaguers Diego Pituca there. Good luck to Joao and hope he can keep the horrible Pituca out of the team.<br /><br /><b>Miyashiro Taisei</b><br /><br />Now we’re on to the more surprising departures. Although I did speculate halfway through last year that a new contract for Oniki would trigger some players leaving. Miyashiro has left us to go to Vissel Kobe. Some might say that this is because he might think that they have more chance at winning things than we do, and that could well be the case, but I think he probably believes that even with two of what people consider to be the best strikers in the league ahead of him, he probably still has more chance at Vissel of getting some time on the pitch and getting played in a position that suits him. People have long said that he didn’t fit our system, and this is a bit frustrating when you consider that our system didn’t really work for long parts of 2023 but remained unchanged. Of course, one player is not as important as the team, but at the same time, it’s certain that ineffective tactics are also not as important as the team as a whole. It’s a real shame as I think he has a bright future and we didn’t see the best of him. In spite of him not playing many minutes he still ended up being our second highest scorer and that was playing in a system to which he wasn’t suited. I normally finish these by wishing the departing player all the best, but given that he’s going to Vissel it feels a but more difficult to do so. But he does seem to be a nice guy and perhaps he shares my feelings on the effectiveness of Oniki as a manager. So, good luck to him.<br /><br /><b>Yamamura Kazuya<br /></b><br />Another player who it is difficult to wholeheartedly wish all the best as he is transferring to my most hated local rival team YFM. Again though I think he’s been slightly badly treated by us and therefore it’s no surprise to see him move on. In my player round up I said “it seems to be his destiny that he’ll be playing in defence for us from time to time as long as he’s happy to put up with it” and it seems that he wasn’t prepared to put up with it any longer. And who can blame him? Whether he gets to play in midfield at YFM, well, who knows? But I wouldn’t be surprised if he does better than some people expect and makes us playing him relentlessly out of position look a bit stupid.<br /><br /><b>Yamane Miki</b><br /><br />The rumours about Yamane’s departure had been circulating for a while so it wasn’t a great surprise when he finally left for LA Galaxy. Yamane has had a great career with us but has definitely dropped off a bit in the last couple of years. Whether this was due to fatigue from playing every single game or whether he’s just on the way down, he’ll be difficult to replace. At the same time though, I think it needed to be done, as Oniki seemed wedded to playing him whatever the situation and the only way we’d be able to give anyone else a chance to prove themselves in that position would be if he departed. Hopefully Oniki’s solution to the problem won’t be to play a midfielder there. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was though. Good luck to Yamane in LA. I guess it will be an interesting new place to live and play, even if it is for the wrong LA team (at least that’s what my friend says). I think it’s a good transfer for both him and us, as we needed to change things up a bit and now Oniki will have no choice but to do so. <br /><br /><b>Noborizato Kyohei</b><br /><br />Perhaps the most surprising departure of all, given that Nobori has been a fixture at Frontale for many years. Perhaps though the writing was on the wall a little as we had a few other left backs in the squad and then recently signed great hope Miura from Kofu. I say we had a few left backs in the squad but the truth is that Nobori was clearly Oniki’s first choice at left back though and if he hadn’t suffered from a few injuries in the last few seasons I think he would have been played a lot more. Returning to his hometown Osaka and has signed for Cerezo. Not sure he’ll be a starter there, but it probably looked like a better bet than slowly being fazed out with us. Will be dearly missed though as a Frontale legend and a mood maker. Wish him all the best at his new club.<br /><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Out on loan</h3><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Igarashi Taiyo - Renofa Yamaguchi<br /></b><br />Played 36 times last year for Renofa, scoring three times and his loan has been extended for another year. It’s nice to see a player who goes out on loan and actually plays! Only three goals last year, but then again Renofa did only score 37 in total and just about avoided relegation. Think another season will do him well as I can’t imagine he’d be anywhere near involvement with us yet.<br /><br /><b>Einaga Takatora - Thespakusatsu Gunma<br /></b><br />Had half a season on loan at Mito last year where he didn’t quite seem to kick on, mostly being used from the bench. Scored once and got one assist in his 16 appearances which isn’t that bad though. Kind of surprised we’ve loaned him out again as before he first went out on loan he was making it on to the bench quite often. This year he’ll be going to Thespa instead, who flirted with some kind of success last year but ended up in mid-table. Hopefully he can get a bit more pitch time in Gunma than he did in Ibaraki as I think he has a bright future, hopefully for us.<br /><br /><b>Myogan Toya - Vegalta Sendai<br /></b><br />Classic Oniki move for Myogan, Matsunagane and Ozeki, join the first team, don’t get involved that much and then go out on loan the following season. Feel like Myogan never really got a fair crack of the whip so it will be good for him to actually play some football. He came to us with quite a reputation so hopefully can show why he got that reputation and have a blinder of a season at Sendai to give Oniki something to think about. The last player Oniki played a couple of times and then sent to Sendai on loan was Itakura. Perhaps Myogan will also get signed by Man City before he is able to play for us again.<br /><br /><b>Matsunagane Yuto - Fukushima United<br /></b><br />Probably had more involvement than he or us might have expected last year as a defensive injury crisis thrust him into action. Thought he did pretty well when called on, but clearly needs more experience before he gets more involved with us. Hopefully having a manager he knows well, (Terada), at Fukushima United will significantly help his development and we’ll see him back with us soon.<br /><br /><b>Ozeki Yuto - Fukushima United<br /></b><br />Much the same as what I said for Matsunagane, minus the part about him playing football. Plenty of people were saying that Ozeki would be stepping up next year with the departure of Joao Schmidt, but that did seem a bit optimistic for someone who'd only played 13 minutes in the whole of last season. Hopefully Terada can work his magic and kick start Ozeki’s career in 2024.<br /><br /><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Back from loan</h3><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Miyagi Ten <br /></b><br />Slightly surprising to see him back from his loans (Nagasaki and Montedio) and with us again. Miyagi has always seemed to suffer from not quite fulfilling his promise. Although saying that, his figures from last year look good, with him playing a total of 20 games and scoring six times. There was some talk of him not having the smoothest of times on loan, and it is pretty unusual to see someone cut their loan short and then go to a different team mid-season. Perhaps the most significant thing in his stats from last year are the long periods when he wasn’t involved at all. Think it’s probably time for him to show us what he’s made of mentally. We know there’s a great player in there, but the season before last, he didn’t really manage to make the most of his opportunities. Guess there’s something of a make or break feel to his 2024 with us, as I suspect if he leaves us again it won’t be on loan.<br /><br /><b>Matsui Renji<br /></b><br />Loaned out to Machida midway through last season and it seemed to work out pretty well for him. As Machida have signed pretty much a whole new squad it’s a bit difficult to work out if we wanted him back or Machida didn’t want to keep him. Played 17 times for Machida and scored once, and shock of shocks, he was played in midfield when he played for them. Not sure what 2024 holds for him. Oniki has only ever played him at right back and you can’t really say his route into a midfield spot in our team is any easier in 2024 than it was in 2023. But I’m sure he’s benefited from actually playing some matches in his preferred position.<br /><br /><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">New signings</h3><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Erison<br /></b><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxrMuJ2_AbY1c1LgaFUL5AHvZA-lg26yz1hYhf_xHPRg3EtM7CsKAAOXaKF4Sh1DEoiylNSFIfMyyQXAo9DN1tPICXwG1RPtW5vHyb7y5eMh6z2uLHbLhHMQu2R-r1AvpVHwSuH7jJVdo7sZYUbirjDCzcgZoTVn4B_OyBBxXvcKhao5IoTglfb-n5ptJt/s2880/erison.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2880" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxrMuJ2_AbY1c1LgaFUL5AHvZA-lg26yz1hYhf_xHPRg3EtM7CsKAAOXaKF4Sh1DEoiylNSFIfMyyQXAo9DN1tPICXwG1RPtW5vHyb7y5eMh6z2uLHbLhHMQu2R-r1AvpVHwSuH7jJVdo7sZYUbirjDCzcgZoTVn4B_OyBBxXvcKhao5IoTglfb-n5ptJt/s320/erison.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />24 year old centre forward who it seems we might have paid quite a bit of money for. Signed from Botafogo in Brazil’s top flight where he didn’t play much last year after he had a couple of medium term injuries… Apparently he is something of a potential legend and people are talking about him having a real big impact in the J League. But perhaps we’ve heard that before. Looks very powerful and hopefully can knock in a few goals. Has had a decent goal to game ratio from his time in Brazil, scoring 19 goals in 62 games.<br /><br /><b>Ze Ricardo </b><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHL36seXqmwbRV2L9DTIGUBXnX5bm7jJdYl0ZKcjBLc8uS0HGjiwjMQXGqHPa5Bgae3pKWBU5HPmHLgmuFGEDX-P-CZIAz4xx16nr4swL5z7SGlw4YRYyNMm8ybDieXxyMh_G6l6QY6z3mV-Zlku-1CQ9o8pJXuwxcryPA4dAEBM7tgRErcetFK2pfNVYe/s2880/ze%20hikardo.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2880" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHL36seXqmwbRV2L9DTIGUBXnX5bm7jJdYl0ZKcjBLc8uS0HGjiwjMQXGqHPa5Bgae3pKWBU5HPmHLgmuFGEDX-P-CZIAz4xx16nr4swL5z7SGlw4YRYyNMm8ybDieXxyMh_G6l6QY6z3mV-Zlku-1CQ9o8pJXuwxcryPA4dAEBM7tgRErcetFK2pfNVYe/s320/ze%20hikardo.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />24 year old defensive midfielder signed from Tombense in Brazil’s Serie B. Slightly bizarrely was loaned to a Serie A team and was almost an ever present before returning to Tombense where he hardly played at all. So presumably he felt like it was time for a change. Bit worried that he’s a complete replacement for Joao Schmidt in every way, including the part that him and Tachibanada won’t be able to play together. But there has been some talk of a new system being used next year. (I’ll believe it when I see it). Looks very smiley from the season opening ceremony pictures. <br /><br /><b>Patrick Verhon<br /></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgglfkavbwgZzWclA8L9xw9jypi1kKONjA5-MkN49h8kq23OlxNJFjvpt6CxpB5d7XU_Hf3hsHGT9LXPVSpL3POJuMviDZwCUqoUKuPD55Ph9R7DGdtL9n6gvO7M8V-Bqf0BQq0WjOf8gfmhrcM705t5YuukKMJ6eeyFdy_a32ron-1QFhks54MquR5Q8bw/s2880/patrick.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2880" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgglfkavbwgZzWclA8L9xw9jypi1kKONjA5-MkN49h8kq23OlxNJFjvpt6CxpB5d7XU_Hf3hsHGT9LXPVSpL3POJuMviDZwCUqoUKuPD55Ph9R7DGdtL9n6gvO7M8V-Bqf0BQq0WjOf8gfmhrcM705t5YuukKMJ6eeyFdy_a32ron-1QFhks54MquR5Q8bw/s320/patrick.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />19 year old attacking midfielder joining us from Bahia in Brazil’s top flight. Doesn’t seem to have played for them much though, if at all. Very young still and most of his football seems to have come in U20 teams and competitions, where he scored five goals in seventeen games, which is pretty promising! There’s not much info I can find about him apart from that. Hopefully he can give our attack an injection of excitement when he gets a chance to show us what he can do. <br /><br /><b>Sai Van Wermeskerken<br /></b><br />This signing was talked about for a while but I’m not sure any of us actually expected it to happen. 29 year old right back who has a Dutch father and a Japanese mother, signed from NEC Nijmegen, to fill the gap left by Yamane. Scored an absolute blaster of a goal in his last game in Holland but had been in and out of the team before he left them. Signed for Nijmegen last October, so only spent a short time with them. Hopefully he’ll settle well with us and stay a lot longer.<br /><br /><b>Yamamoto Yuki<br /></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjJCnh_Rq4EIiGCcdBj2fHRvc4hlN-7pfNOv36t1llbHFGJj_PkuRnlthbGn8o93NJTkWBoQqoInXS_tgn_vjIDRfsuz0oP0gH_UUtv6skvAG7-FRpfTYS88po4tAWBkJvA6X5uxW9xm-DnuEx2GL06FDpYFblRoIorKOEH8SdCjJjBaR3OlQsSF4xDsuh/s2880/yamamoto.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2880" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjJCnh_Rq4EIiGCcdBj2fHRvc4hlN-7pfNOv36t1llbHFGJj_PkuRnlthbGn8o93NJTkWBoQqoInXS_tgn_vjIDRfsuz0oP0gH_UUtv6skvAG7-FRpfTYS88po4tAWBkJvA6X5uxW9xm-DnuEx2GL06FDpYFblRoIorKOEH8SdCjJjBaR3OlQsSF4xDsuh/s320/yamamoto.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />26 year old central midfielder signed from Gamba Osaka from whom he’s made 97 league appearances in the last three seasons. Guess that means he was quite an important player for them. Perhaps he felt like it was time for a change, presumably hoping that our performance in the league last season was a blip more than the start of our decline. I asked @BlogGamba on Twitter for some words on him and this is what he said.<br /><span class="css-1qaijid r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0 r-poiln3" style="text-overflow: unset;">'A fan favourite at Gamba, Yamamoto’s intelligent movement and link up play saw him shine despite his club enduring something of a nightmare last season. Capable of playing anywhere in a midfield 2 or 3, Yamamoto’s vision and versatility go some way to balancing out his defensive inadequacies. He’s more than capable of holding his position in a solid defensive line, but he’s definitely not a ball-winner and while great at starting counter attacks, he’s not much use defending against them. A decent set piece taker, though not as good as Wakizaka, if he adds goals to his game then he’s likely to earn a national team call up at some point in the not too distant future.'</span><br /><b><br />Maruyama Yuichi<br /></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6v0LKBYZgDfODne1ayRT_KalL6XwNupTYTBfVIOCzH6iaxl4JO4x_LYyDG8zdqVf7id730dBkATglq0yYcnv4Wovy8xxxHoRAm9t0FZjRp9pGcunL3iRWkvPqtjRkbYSC4I0hPkyloS-oLG5vp_Tt_j8DtlJLqu65Ensl1JIj4wogCUEDKGUwF_3k7BaZ/s2880/maruyama.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2880" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6v0LKBYZgDfODne1ayRT_KalL6XwNupTYTBfVIOCzH6iaxl4JO4x_LYyDG8zdqVf7id730dBkATglq0yYcnv4Wovy8xxxHoRAm9t0FZjRp9pGcunL3iRWkvPqtjRkbYSC4I0hPkyloS-oLG5vp_Tt_j8DtlJLqu65Ensl1JIj4wogCUEDKGUwF_3k7BaZ/s320/maruyama.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />We signed a defender!! But much like the signing of Gomis, you could probably say that at 34, he’s not really one for the future. Signed from Nagoya Grampus where he played 160 games and for whom he began last season as a starter. But seemed to fall out of favour after he picked up an injury and presumably lost his place to a younger player. I guess he is the replacement for Yamamura. Interestingly, their names are anagrams too. Well, perhaps that’s interesting. Said he wanted to retire at a Kanto team so jumped at the offer when it was made.<br /><br /><b>Miura Sota<br /></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIlDLHRnrx3TutLfRqgjQr3efdQsyZikH1ZXvC7FtRS8yEmE1kdAze4yEr0Vybk2uX4hebRGfC0Kzi8e8sQ9PFMSpCmPV4n6m_Ef6dccCVXTlSCFokN35P1pukbD_dx3PcjA1CdIj1-rxe_VIkq-HQQYKpa_xxjmnzOiC3Q2zhLSqBRzuRwwUEezhfLGvt/s2880/miura.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2880" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIlDLHRnrx3TutLfRqgjQr3efdQsyZikH1ZXvC7FtRS8yEmE1kdAze4yEr0Vybk2uX4hebRGfC0Kzi8e8sQ9PFMSpCmPV4n6m_Ef6dccCVXTlSCFokN35P1pukbD_dx3PcjA1CdIj1-rxe_VIkq-HQQYKpa_xxjmnzOiC3Q2zhLSqBRzuRwwUEezhfLGvt/s320/miura.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />23 year old left back who we have signed from Ventforet Kofu. Recently received his first call up to the national team, so perhaps this is our route back into having some players who will be busy during the numerous international breaks. Or perhaps he’s ruining his chances of getting picked again by coming to us! Hopefully not. Presumably his arrival was the incentive Nobori needed to move elsewhere. Started last year for Kofu as something of a bit part player but cemented his spot as the season progressed ending up with 21 appearances for them in the league. You’ve got to imagine he’ll be our first choice left back in 2024. <br /><br /><b>Yui Kota<br /></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhvKi9n2rSiOi3U6NcB9_Ud1e0jMmLVtI86R8M7JYMqoXKJYUBF9M5TUVm5HqXUYe8CJrSY3FRwV0XqPDXb2nsn3s2zta5T54DkB1ppM3mS6dl-cIzVFAXtS46DeV3D7Ah4uCrxKE3pkp8bEaFJwhOw7CP8WGmVrj1l_zekDw6qjWmr40VRxkghljtloSs/s2880/yui.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2880" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhvKi9n2rSiOi3U6NcB9_Ud1e0jMmLVtI86R8M7JYMqoXKJYUBF9M5TUVm5HqXUYe8CJrSY3FRwV0XqPDXb2nsn3s2zta5T54DkB1ppM3mS6dl-cIzVFAXtS46DeV3D7Ah4uCrxKE3pkp8bEaFJwhOw7CP8WGmVrj1l_zekDw6qjWmr40VRxkghljtloSs/s320/yui.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />Signed from our youth team. I’ve seen him play a few times, usually in midfield, but the last time he played in central defence and did a decent job there too, Looks comfortable on the ball and is very much one for the future. Presume he won’t get much of a look in in 2024 before maybe going out on loan the following season. Still only 18, so has plenty of time!<br /><br /><b>Yamauchi Hinata<br /></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj3jmK6-FDluKt_Cohh3kzs1VRJ23G_TEB8RPtgQ7JyV81Boiz20m6eu_XceqMfpfRuTIfITYSb7GwAJM7Mdb_2uhdCFKoha8-EC1R37JdgG7thZZmT1idfLLN0lUlIyOGdXAMEoGr1O38hqYISoSoyomod_DRri_mPqsuI2ZbxIxav0G2k6ioGz2PUkBs/s2880/yamauchi.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2880" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj3jmK6-FDluKt_Cohh3kzs1VRJ23G_TEB8RPtgQ7JyV81Boiz20m6eu_XceqMfpfRuTIfITYSb7GwAJM7Mdb_2uhdCFKoha8-EC1R37JdgG7thZZmT1idfLLN0lUlIyOGdXAMEoGr1O38hqYISoSoyomod_DRri_mPqsuI2ZbxIxav0G2k6ioGz2PUkBs/s320/yamauchi.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />Product of our youth team who arrives in the first team via a stint at Toin University, (former team of Yamane, Tachibanada, Yamada, Hayasaka and Issaka Zain). Defensive midfielder, a position we have quite a lot of players in now, which makes me think that he probably won’t get much of a look in next year. But one for the future.<br /><br /><b>Kanda Soma<br /></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyUqCP4PNWyt6lpPUrwitRNZo2DL3fB21Ous6Iu6cjn2W6iwaYXQbmfjTR4NNuyz-gxqm__LXhEu3ecPigOwU8DJjg4Po81qF9izHVMb8573tRC9w3mGyZcVdDOUwRzRiHs4d0I_4Z-_dl_zdOU8ywQt1PnsfdxAtmGYsFgm58Y0LUImWFji8IILhvaqSr/s2880/kanda.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2880" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyUqCP4PNWyt6lpPUrwitRNZo2DL3fB21Ous6Iu6cjn2W6iwaYXQbmfjTR4NNuyz-gxqm__LXhEu3ecPigOwU8DJjg4Po81qF9izHVMb8573tRC9w3mGyZcVdDOUwRzRiHs4d0I_4Z-_dl_zdOU8ywQt1PnsfdxAtmGYsFgm58Y0LUImWFji8IILhvaqSr/s320/kanda.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />18 year old centre forward who joins us from Shizugaku High School. Scored 12 goals in 12 games for them last year in the Prince Takamado U18 Premier League West. Much like with Yui and Yamauchi, I can’t imagine we’ll see much if anything of him next year, but his stats look like he’ll have a promising future. <br /><p></p>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-6838727870452748602024-01-21T20:27:00.000+09:002024-01-21T20:27:35.367+09:002023 Season survey results<p>Finally, here are the results of the Frontale Rabbit 2023 season survey. Sorry they’re a bit late. This time we had a bit of input from fans of other teams so perhaps some of the answers might seem a bit shocking. I’ll mark some of the answers that have come from fans of other teams with an * or separate them so it doesn’t get confusing.<br /><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><b>1. Game of season </b></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Winner - YFM away (league)<br />Runner up - Ulsan Hyundai home (ACL)</b><br /><br />There were two which received multiple votes and one clear winner which was my game of the season too. Perhaps the fact that many games were mentioned shows that it wasn’t a great season for us and that any win where we managed with a few goals had a decent chance of being someone’s favourite. I voted for YFM away because we basically nicked the three points right at the end of a terrible game and in doing so could say that, in part, we helped them lose the title race.<br /><br />Others mentioned<br />Kashima away (league)<br />Johor DT home (ACL)<br />Consadole Sapporo away (league)<br />Avispa Fukuoka home (league)<br /><br />Fans of other teams’s answers<br />Two votes for Vissel Kobe 2 - 0 YFM, which I’m sure most of us can get behind. And one vote for FC Tokyo 2 - 1 Frontale, which I’m sure we can’t.<br /><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"> 2. Player of the season </h4><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Winner - Wakizaka Yasuto</b><br /><br />A clear winner here with Wakizaka taking 80% of the votes cast by Frontale fans. Also mentioned were Sung-Ryong and Leandro Damiao. Yuya Osako got two votes from Kansai based respondents. I have to say, I abstained on this question as I don’t really know who I can vote for. There were some players who had good periods of the season, but the bad periods stand out more. <br /><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">3. Goal of the season </h4><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Winner - Tachibanada Kento, Ulsan home - ACL</b><br /><br />The clear winner here was Tachibanada’s goal against Ulsan in the ACL. Kobayashi’s goal against Fukuoka came in second place. And there were a few others mentioned too. Below are videos of all the Frontale goals. In the interest of keeping non Frontale fans happy, the non Frontale goals mentioned were ‘Osako's away goal @ Reds was the most important one. As for aesthetics, I don't remember all goals but the FC Tokyo goal vs. Cerezo was one of the best ones’, ‘Tokumoto’s curler at Kokuritsu’ and ‘Same as J.League - Ryoma Watanabe’.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Tachibanada Kento vs Ulsan Hyundai, ACL </b><br /><br /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fmoqEyM0QW0?si=1Ksn7roYczcBNaSl&start=328" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Kobayashi Yu vs Avispa Fukuoka, J League<br /><br /></b><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fqQtLFSTsiw?si=JINt9rLf23_ulj9z&start=378" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Kobayashi Yu vs Johor DT, ACL<br /><br /></b><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RFShMZ4LRnQ?si=7h49eRS2BLR4mi3v&start=328" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Sung-Ryong Jung vs Kashiwa, Emperor's Cup<br /><br /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2b4XvqOhRwo?si=ZB_Zi1zxb99z7tst&start=249" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe></b><br /><b><br />Kurumaya Shintaro vs YFM, J League<br /></b><br /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bAr_hmTohxA?si=we7TSYqEIrOi6zGD&start=467" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"> 4. Disappointment of the season </h4><p style="text-align: left;"><b>‘Winner’ - our league campaign</b><br /><br />Lots of fun for rival fans here, as there were plenty of disappointments for us this year. The thing that got mentioned the most was our league campaign and that gets my vote too. One respondent said ‘Finished outside of the top 3 for the first time since 2019. Sooo sad, but considering how disastrously inconsistent we were, nothing but well-deserved’. Aside from the league campaign we had the following answers: 'Oniki', ‘Gomis hasn’t done much since he signed. Nearly cost you the EC (also nearly won it but that doesn’t count)’*, ‘Failing to turn a new leaf and reinvent their football’, ‘Gamba Osaka’* and the home game against Gamba Osaka.<br /><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"> 5. Villain of the season (anyone, from any team or an official or...) </h4><p style="text-align: left;">In early 2023, I had something of a meltdown when I realised quite how bad our year was going to be. After that happened I managed to reach a stage of acceptance where I knew we were probably going to be crap so I didn’t get that annoyed about anything. As usual, the refs were absolutely useless, but that’s just a given recently, and when you consider how bad we played most of the time, I think useless refs actually helped us get what we deserved sometimes. There were plenty of different answers for this question so I’ll list them all. It seems a bit unfair to say so, but my answer is probably Oniki, as I think his complete inflexibility and lack of ideas turned what could have been a promising season with decent players into a total disaster in the league. He’s apparently a nice guy, but I think in 2023 he proved himself to be not up to the job. Here’s what everyone else said.<br /><br /> - Ref Ikeuchi<br />- Al Rayyan (who took Taniguchi from us)<br />- VAR<br />- Oshima’s calf<br />- 99% of the refs. <br />- Refs at Vissel - Reysol that didn't award a red and penalty for the Mitsuki Saito assault.<br />- Nishimura will always top the list<br />- Not having a specific person in mind, but as for the opposition club, it has to be the bothersome Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo!!! <br />- The front office<br />- Reds' Akimoto<br />- Queuing system for unreserved seats<br /><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"> 6. Best away trip (if you've done one) </h4><p style="text-align: left;">The most mentions in this category was for Kashiwa away, but both of these were said with the qualifier that it was their only away game. With that in mind, I’ll just list all the places mentioned. I really feel like I should give a better answer to this question than my usual Sagan Tosu away, although this year we actually managed to do alright in that game, even if it was an extremely dull match. So my answer on this occasion will be the Avispa Fukuoka and Kyoto Sanga double header that we did, stopping at Izumo and Okayama ’on the way’. Amazing that we won two games in a row, and Avispa away was quite something in the rain. <br /><br />- Kashiwa <br />- Kochi<br />- Sendai *<br />- Consadole in J League Challenge in Bangkok *<br />- Niigata (Emperor’s Cup game)<br />- YFM<br />- 3 games in Thailand in March, and 12-14 May in Tokyo (Tamagawa classico, Reysol-YFC, Antlers-Grampus in 3 days) *<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><br /> 7. Best stadium in the J League</h4><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Winner - Todoroki</b><br /><br />As usual, an overwhelming win in this category for Todoroki, which I think will always just be homerism of the highest order until we get rid of the running track. In second place is Gamba Osaka’s Suita Stadium. Also mentioned were the stadiums of Sagan Tosu, Kyoto Sanga, Vissel Kobe and Kashima. I think I’d probably say Sagan Tosu too, so I guess that takes it up into joint second place. One person said ‘Hiroshima will be interesting to visit’ and I think in 2024 many people will agree and do just that. I certainly intend to go to Hiroshima away for the first time in a few years.<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><br /> 8. Opposition J1 team you like the most</h4><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Winner - Consadole Sapporo </b><br /><br />Somewhat surprisingly given that they seem to absolutely hate us, Sapporo won, so I guess the feeling isn’t mutual. In reality though, Sapporo actually came joint top with ‘no-one’. Other teams mentioned were Sagan Tosu (they got my vote too), a couple of votes for Shonan Bellmare, one for Kyoto Sanga and one for FC Tokyo * (obviously this was from a Tokyo fan)<br /><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"> 9. Opposition J1 team you like the least </h4><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Winners - Kashima Antlers & Yokohama F Marinos</b><br /><br />The question that I enjoy the most, and it’s a dead heat between the equally despicable Kashima and YFM. I did vote for YFM though, so I guess in my mind they aren’t completely equally despicable. Other teams mentioned were FC Tokyo (a couple of times), Urawa, Consadole, and my favourite answer ‘全部’ (all of them). It;'s quite funny that Consadole were an answer for favourite and least favourite opposition team.<br /><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"> 10. Team you're pleased to see come up</h4><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Winner - Tokyo Verdy<br />2nd - Jubilo Iwata<br />3rd - Machida Zelvia</b><br /><br />In my opinion, there’s not much to get excited about when it comes to the teams getting promoted this year. Two very boring away trips to stadiums I’ve been to many times and one slightly more interesting trip to a sightly more interesting stadium in Shizuoka. That’s why I voted for Jubilo. Also, in my opinion, Machida’s massive amount of money takes quite a lot of the shine off of their ‘fairy tale’ promotion, and I think people who voted Verdy are forgetting their history in Kawasaki, Well apart from the person who voted for them and said ‘so we can avenge shocking early exit in 2022 Emperor's Cup as well as prove that there is only one club worthy to be considered the 'pride and joy' of Kawasaki, regardless of the history’, which makes a lot of sense. One respondent begrudgingly voted for Machida saying ‘I don't really like all of the 3 promoted teams this year that much’ which I totally agree with. The FC Tokyo fan voted for Verdy ‘Give me the Tokyo Derby!’. This question was the one which people were most divided on.<br /><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"> 11. Best thing about the J League </h4><p style="text-align: left;">As usual with this category, I’ll just list the responses, some of which have been amateurly translated by me. <br /><br />- Passion<br />- Helps build home town love<br />- Competitiveness<br />- The current Feb - Dec calendar<br />- Great and respectful fans (at least most of them) <br />- Best league in the world. Good football, safe, friendly and minimum idiots. When I was in Europe in the summer, stadiums were full of idiots.<br />- Unpredictability (Apart of our surprisingly disastrous performance in 2023, lol)<br />- Connection with supporters<br />- Safe for families, always more than just the game, naivety (?) still in it - not (yet) all about money / business<br />- Safe away trips<br />- Charitable activities of various clubs<br />- Connection with supporters<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><br /> 12. Worst thing about the J League </h4><p style="text-align: left;">Plenty of different answers which I’ll list below. For me, it’s the refs. It’s always the refs. Especially the bigger name refs who I think get worse every single year. But at the same time, some of the newer ones are utterly useless too, (Takasaki who we had the misfortune of encountering for the first time this year managed to plumb new depths).<br /><br />- It being underrated<br />- Delays in confirming the schedule of games<br />- Not allowed to be as rude to your rivals as in Scotland<br />- The stupid new calendar to please AFC and European Markets <br />- Players leaving mid season for arguably worse teams in Europe -_- <br />- That they are even considering moving to an autumn-spring system.<br />- The Refs<br />- Reluctance to increase the selling value of a player who wishes to play abroad <br />- So much tone policing in the fan culture<br />- Lack of (Japanese) players who are ready to take one for the team, play had, play a little dirty when it's needed<br />- Call leader system<br />- Supporter bad behaviour of teams like Urawa and Kashima<br /><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"> 13. Trophy you would like to win the most next year </h4><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Winner - ACL</b><br /><br />Perhaps because it’s the only one we’ve never won, and we are through to the knockout stages, the ACL took the top spot this year. It was a clear winner with the league following behind and no one mentioning anything else. I think if the influx of money in west Asian football continues it’s going to become almost impossible to win this trophy soon, so maybe this is our last chance. Saying that though, I suspect that the Saudi League’s bubble will burst sooner or later. For me though, I’m much more interested in the league. One of my Kansai responders said ‘J1 and ACL for Vissel, Emp. Cup for Gamba, Levain for Cerezo’ which I don't understand, because we're going to win all of them, aren't we?<br /><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"> 14. What’s your view of Oniki? <br /><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">I probably don't need to say what I think, do I? If he really changes things this year, I'll be delighted, but I have no idea how he expected us to get better last year by just continuing relentlessly with the same bad ideas, week after week. </span><br /></h4><p style="text-align: left;">- Nice person<br />- Best manager in the country<br />- Clings onto his veterans FAR too long. Takes too long to bring through new blood. *<br />- Classic championship coach dilemma. Hard enough to reinvent the team once (2020, twice if you include his first season), but incredibly difficult to reinvent his own approach and tactics. I feel like he needs more tactical support on his bench, and increasingly in the dressing room<br />- Has that ability to help players turn the situation into the better. Just, he needs to do a lot of homework in terms of positive performance and consistency<br />- I’ve no idea how he wins things. He must have a deal with the devil to get those trophies. *<br />- Won everything he could have. One of the best ones in the history of the league it's only downhill from here. *<br />- Seems like a great guy, but needs to work on his tactics for next season and has to give our young players more chances. <br />- I hope the new coaching staff members will give him new and fresh ideas <br />- Got it right towards the end but meh I think it's time for a change personally<br />- GOAT<br />- Passionate and reliable.<br /><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"> 15. If you could have any J League player sign for Frontale, who would it be? </h4><p style="text-align: left;">Some of these answers came through before all of our transfer business was done, so perhaps they are a bit out of date. Or perhaps not. I always struggle with this question as I think we have good players that just aren’t used very well. Some of the names mentioned would be quite difficult to welcome to Frontale for me. As I haven’t seen the new players play yet and I haven’t seen the rumored new system, I’m going to remain optimistic and say we don’t need anyone, no matter how high profile! Here are the names mentioned. <br /><br />- Elber (YFM)<br />- Osako (Kobe), Koga (Kashiwa), Miya (Fukuoka)<br />- Kawasaki (Kyoto)<br />- Koizumi (Urawa)<br />- Whoever gets Frontale relegated. *<br />- Higashi (FC Tokyo) *<br />- ‘Daniel Schmidt (I am not sure whether or not this is realistic atm. But, yes, why not?)’<br />- ‘Yuya Osako. Or.....how about a villain like Yuma Suzuki’<br />- ‘NEED a central FW - Yuma Suzuki? Or a younger GK - Obi Powell, but too late!’<br />- Handa (Gamba)<br /><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"> 16. Which former Frontale player would you most like to see us re-sign? </h4><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Winner - Miyoshi Koji</b><br /><br />I’m a bit surprised as I thought more people would say Mitoma as he is almost certainly the best player we’ve had in recent years. But perhaps people were being a bit more realistic with their answers. Mitoma was in second place though. Others mentioned included Chinen, ‘Okubo. And make him start every game, no subs’ *, ‘Leandro Damiao, why did you let him go?’ *, ‘Realistically, I will say... Tatsuya Hasegawa. But, if Reo Hatate decides to returns out of the blue, especially sooner rather than later, then, yes. YES!’, Taniguchi, Miyashiro * and Itakura. Personally I think I’d go for someone who we didn’t see the best of, so probably Miyoshi or Itakura (who was apparently not good enough to play for us, but good enough to be signed by Man City).<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"> <br />17. What’s your prediction for next season? </h4><p style="text-align: left;">If I had to answer this question a few weeks ago, I’d have been pretty pessimistic. But sitting here typing this shortly after the signing of Sai Van Wermeskerken I’m starting to think a bit more positively. I think a lot depends on Oniki’s rumoured new system actually being something new. At the moment, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt and I like the look of the squad. Let’s see how long that positivity lasts…<br /><br />- the quadruple<br />- maybe not so different from 2023, but a chance to improve if we progress in the ACL and advance in the Emperor’s Cup like we did in 2023.<br />- League: 1st, Emperors cup: win, Levain Cup: win, ACL: win<br />- Win the ACL, top-6 in J1, early eliminations in Cups <br />- Not really optimistic, but hopefully playing for at least a Top 3 finish in the league <br />- That nobody will be 100% correct in their J-Pred.<br />- Mid-table maybe just below FC Tokyo *<br />- Can't say anything yet at the moment. I'm sorry... <br />- ACL semifinalist, 3rd in J1. Who knows about cups<br />- Consolidation as new players are bedded in. Top eight?<br />- One title<br />- J League Champions </p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><br />18. How was VAR for you? </h4><p style="text-align: left;">I think I’ve said many times that I hate VAR and would like to see it banished from football. I don’t particularly care about everything being accurate. Life isn’t always accurate. And the big problem is that you can’t actually rely on VAR making better decisions. I think the only people who like VAR are people who never or rarely go to watch matches in the stadium. It never makes for a more enjoyable match experience and isn’t it supposed to actually be fun to go and watch football? Anyway, here’s what other people said. It seems that most people don’t agree with me!<br /><br />- Needs to be a bit better.<br />- Better than nothing.<br />- Shite<br />- Lame<br />- Inconsistent and waiting for decisions was very tedious <br />- Mostly correct decisions. Gets lots of criticism but it's not as bad as people make it out to be.<br />- They need to open up communications so we can understand what’s happening in the stadium. It’s too frustrating with all the silence from the refs and stadium boards not being clear enough.<br />- Already operating in positive terms, in my opinion. Just... need some evaluation, such as determining severity of foul and what kind of reminder/card deserves to be given to fouling player<br />- Mostly it works ok.<br />- Did what's on the label. Not sure it's perfect or works, but did what it said it's there for.<br />- Don’t mind it<br />- Although there were some problems to begin with, it’s now really good. Going digital is a good decision.<br /><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">19. Any other comments </h4><p style="text-align: left;">My usual part where I hope people say nice things about my blog, which I can then write on said blog and give myself a pat on the back for. So please indulge me here…<br /><br />- Vamos Kawasaki !!<br />- FORZA FRONTALE 🐬<br />- Thanks again for the entertaining blogs :)<br />- Thanks for keeping up with your spicy commentary!<br />- Need to clamp down on referee abuse, while referees need to apply Laws and learn FOOTBALL too, not just the Laws! They do not know how to PLAY - they don't know the GAME, they only seem to know the Laws.<br />- I want Bafe to score soon.<br /><br /></p>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-54891414092872594612023-12-30T20:25:00.000+09:002023-12-30T20:25:20.797+09:002023 season round up<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfRTJsO9-Rc7aUFI_OfmzFatd-AKFL5sHrpyFfbMKyxrMTHGzGgSdzbEZNAfztmkmOmCPYFR68hmkgxVNUDhChzxEpgXWO3f98wBzPwWq6Z2zU-Ss4HC30tNYzAhJQ0sVi0Ye5_ymimXceEjmRvSdclBa3embS4YxE7kOoHBfk9V-kHZguVLVph2hp252F/s4032/IMG_5300.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfRTJsO9-Rc7aUFI_OfmzFatd-AKFL5sHrpyFfbMKyxrMTHGzGgSdzbEZNAfztmkmOmCPYFR68hmkgxVNUDhChzxEpgXWO3f98wBzPwWq6Z2zU-Ss4HC30tNYzAhJQ0sVi0Ye5_ymimXceEjmRvSdclBa3embS4YxE7kOoHBfk9V-kHZguVLVph2hp252F/s320/IMG_5300.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />2023 is probably not a season that will live long in the memory, even though we ended up being more successful this year than we were in 2022, when we finished with absolutely nothing. Anyone who has read this blog in 2023 will probably know how little enjoyment I have taken from most of our games and from writing blog posts in 2023. With that in mind, perhaps this year’s review will be a bit shorter than usual. After all, there are only so many ways you can say ‘we did the same thing we always did and once again, failed to be successful’. I think the photo I've used for this is quite appropriate considering how poor and blurry most of the year was. I’m going to divide this up by competition so you might be able to find some positivity in some of the sections. Probably not this first one though…<br /><br /><b>J1</b><br /><br />2023 saw us achieve our worst J League finish for 11 years. The last time we finished as low as 8th was 2012 and the last time we finished lower was the previous year when we finished in 11th. To be honest though, I think 8th kind of flattered us when you consider the rubbish we were playing in the league for most of the year. Clearly we’re coming out of a period of success with us being a strong team since our first ever title win in 2017. Whether that period is now over and we have reverted to type a little or whether this is just a blip remains to be seen. Regular readers will know that I am not the biggest fan of Oniki. I feel like this is actually a bit harsh though as clearly he’s done a lot for the club and has achieved great success since he took over the manager position. Nothing lasts forever though, and although a lot of the blame for our recent decline has to go to the departure of important players to European (and Qatari…) clubs, I think too many casual fans and observers have overlooked the impact that a lack of ideas from our manager might have contributed. Anyway, this isn’t supposed to be an Oniki bashing session, so instead let’s focus more on the misery of our league campaign this year. <br /><br />We probably should have guessed what was in store for us from the first game. Perhaps it’s a little unlucky to have to take on your local rivals and last season’s title winners in your first game. We were scoring goals for fun in pre-season but as soon as it came to a game that actually mattered we looked totally useless. In my post at the time I said we ‘looked a mess at the back’ and that it was ‘a challenging game to watch’. I also said, and yes you can tell me how much of a genius I am if you want, ‘I get the impression that this will be quite a difficult season’. And that truly came to pass. The opening game also gave us some other omens for the year. We got a red card, something which plagued us in 2023, although to be honest playing with ten men sometimes made us do a bit better, and we got a defensive injury, throwing us into a first wholly predictable defensive injury crisis. We were long overdue one of these as we’d miraculously scraped through with the bare minimum of players over the course of quite a few years where we’d steadfastly refused to sign defenders. We followed up this red card with another one in the next match in case the writing that was on the wall wasn’t clear enough to read. I don’t really know what else to say about us in the league in 2023. We persevered with the same dull and pointless tactics and got what we deserved more often than not. So I guess I should just highlight a few games that stood out. Standing out for the wrong reasons were Gamba away where we were a complete waste of space against a team who had failed to win in the league until we turned up. The two away games in a row against FC Tokyo and Yokohama FC were a disaster too, where we just looked totally incapable of either attacking or defending. For positive reasons, the games that stand out are probably Kashima away, YFM away and Avispa away. Kashima was a ridiculous game where we conceded after five minutes to a goal from a player who’d left us in the summer, struggled to hit the target for the whole 90 minutes, got a red late on and an equaliser after that and then somehow ended up winning with a retaken penalty deep into injury time. YFM away was great because of a bundled in winner with two defenders and no attackers in the box, again deep into injury time, and was special mainly because I really don’t like YFM and we can say that this helped when it came to them not retaining the title. Avispa away was great because it rained ridiculously and I got totally soaked but sang so much I became hoarse. Obviously it’s not great when you get so wet at a game, but getting totally soaked is somehow better than getting just a bit wet as far as I’m concerned. <br />Let’s just finish up this section with a quick note that in our games against the top five teams we took 15 points from a possible 30. Against the bottom five teams we only took 17 from a possible 30. I guess that means from the middle seven teams we took only 18 from a possible 42. I guess this shows that we can stink it up whoever we’re playing. 50 points from 34 games, only 51 goals scored and 45 conceded, compared to 66 points, 65 scored and 42 conceded in 2022. I think the difference is that we were lucky in 2022 and in 2023 we got what we deserved. <br /><br /><b>Emperor’s Cup<br /></b><br />Some positivity! We won the cup! The final was, aside from the penalties, truly terrible though, wasn’t it? And that wasn’t the only game we needed penalties to get through. I think we were slightly lucky to get Avispa in the semi-final as at that stage they were still involved in both cups and were going for their best ever league finish so clearly were spreading themselves quite thin. Before we got to the penalties and tired opposition stage, we’d swatted non league opposition away quite easily at home, had huffed and puffed a bit away at Mito and then needed a late Sasaki goal to get past Kochi United. I guess we were quite lucky with the draw we got. But unlucky that the Kochi United stadium was pretty much completely inaccessible without a car as I would have liked to go to a new stadium. But at least we got the chance to visit Mito again and it was nice to come away from Niigata with a victory, (albeit on penalties, which severely cut into post match boozing time). In the past we used to be terrible in knock-out tournaments, so it’s good to see that we don’t have that problem so much anymore. And it’s good to see that our luck didn’t completely desert us in 2023. <br /><br /><b>Levain Cup<br /></b><br />Not so much fun in this tournament for us. In spite of us ending up on the same points as the group winner with a significantly better goal difference, we crashed out at the group stage. The group was pretty even/pretty bad with lots of people taking points off each other which messed it up for all of us apart from Urawa in the end. Once again, our first game in the competition gave us an omen of what was to come in 2023. Getting Shimizu in our group seemed like a doubly good thing as it provided us with an opportunity to go to a ground that we wouldn’t be able to in 2023 as Shimizu had been relegated and presumably would give us a chance to pick up six easy points for the group stage as Shimizu were very much focused on getting promoted back to J1 and were also in shocking form when we played them. Naturally we were 2-0 down after seven minutes and things didn’t get much better from there. They were even playing a bit of a reserves team as far as I can remember. Myogan got his first involvement and was then subbed at half time, which seemed to be a bit of an Oniki thing with various players in 2023. When we got back into the game though a Chanathip goal we then conceded again five minutes later. I probably had some more concrete moans when I wrote the biog post but I can’t remember why we were crap now. After this we got a couple of 0-0 draws, further demonstrating how 2023 would be. It’s a bit worrying that we had so many warnings very early on in the season but the manager was still unable to do anything about it. A big 6-0 win against Shimizu at home did wonders for our goal difference but that didn’t count in this group stage for some reason. And then a defeat to Urawa away pretty much sealed our fate. The last game away at Shonan was for the most part another truly awful performance with us going 2-0 down and then staging an unlikely but ultimately pointless comeback to win with a late goal. I like the Levain Cup more than many people do. I think it’s a good chance to go to some games in interesting stadiums and see players we don’t normally see. Sadly this year we got Shonan and Urawa in our group, negating the first part and after some initial rotation, Oniki reverted to the same old players for the ‘important games’, so the second part also was a wash out. Next year we have a new knockout format for the competition which could make things more interesting. I hope it means we can visit some interesting stadiums. I bet we’ll draw a boring team in the first round. <br /><br /><b>ACL</b><br /><br />Perhaps the big surprise of the year was the way we navigated though the ACL group stage. In recent years the ACL has proven tough for us. We have been accused of not taking the competition seriously which is completely inaccurate, but understandable from the completely abysmal way we’ve dealt with ‘easy’ games in the past. Once again the draw wasn’t that kind to us either from the point of view of getting exciting away trips or beatable teams. Two of our opponents were in our group last year so there wasn’t even much novelty value. But this year we did better! After squeaking a win away at Johor in the first game we managed to do what has in the past been almost impossible for us to do, and beat Ulsan. They were pretty poor though. After that game we went slightly goal crazy and scored plenty, won five out of five and secured first place in the group with a game to spare. It all looks quite rosy from a distance but I would say that if felt like our opposition weren’t as good as we might have expected so perhaps it's a little early to book those flights to the middle east for the final. I suspect that we will draw Ventforet Kofu in the next round and lose to them. But this is just my natural pessimism. Our progress is definitely one of few highlights of 2023 though. Group stages are where doing the business is the most important thing and you don’t need to particularly set the world on fire. And the goals that we got in the later group games gave us all a much needed boost of positivity. The last time we got through we were terrible and went out against Ulsan. The previous time we threw away a great first leg lead in the away game against Urawa. Both times we’d won the group so let’s not get too carried away. But at the same time, we can enjoy finishing the year still in the competition. <br /><p></p>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-4837985272578168692023-12-29T19:58:00.000+09:002023-12-29T19:58:15.643+09:002023 season player round up part 3<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDaqmTmds1FvfLKJzBTyk3mCXTAilCcoLWrVS9T9yREPaXMvu2NwL3etaejQYzGnT6-S4Tvfew1G6NWhhs_fdV4CqclN2FlolkLtsD3w3Dn0RML6l1pecd8doaeUCXtDNl2KCe82gHPFXSiZI1uYbAh3hzP3yk8AIwlBO9GahN-a0b2qJDjLtOnqwh1aF3/s4032/IMG_5901.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDaqmTmds1FvfLKJzBTyk3mCXTAilCcoLWrVS9T9yREPaXMvu2NwL3etaejQYzGnT6-S4Tvfew1G6NWhhs_fdV4CqclN2FlolkLtsD3w3Dn0RML6l1pecd8doaeUCXtDNl2KCe82gHPFXSiZI1uYbAh3hzP3yk8AIwlBO9GahN-a0b2qJDjLtOnqwh1aF3/s320/IMG_5901.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Part three of three of the end of season round up. Next up we'll have the review of the season by competition. <b><br /></b><p></p><p><b>25. Renji MATSUI (MF)</b><br />0 minutes played<br />From a Frontale point of view, there’s nothing to say. Had no involvement and then was loaned out to Machida Zelvia in May where he seemed to have some success. The previous year his only involvement was playing out of position at right back. Perhaps the departure of Joao Schmidt might open the door for him slightly. Or perhaps he might go out on another loan. If he stays with us he'll probably just be played at right back in a couple of cup games.<br /><br /><b>26. Takatora EINAGA (FW)</b><br />170 minutes played<br />Was considered another exciting prospect and just as he seemed to be getting slightly involved was sent out on loan to Mito. Had some involvement there but maybe didn’t make quite the impact some may have expected him to. A very exciting player on the few occasions I’ve seen him play, but one whose path is currently blocked by another of our undroppables, Ienaga. Much like Matsui, not sure what next year will bring for him, but I would certainly welcome a bit of excitement in our attacks next year. <br /><br /><b>27. Yuto MATSUNAGANE (DF)</b><br />315 minutes played<br />Came in somewhat surprisingly at the start of the season to cover another defensive crisis. Did pretty well considering his age and inexperience. Clearly not the finished product and probably won’t become it by just training. I would expect a loan period for him next year, but that probably depends on departures and arrivals. <br /><br /><b>28. Yuto OZEKI (MF)</b><br />13 minutes played<br />I missed the only contribution he made as I was on the plane on the way to the UK for my holiday so can’t really comment. Would imagine he will also be loaned out next year, but much like Matsui, the departure of Joao Schmidt might slightly open the door for him. Have only ever seen him play for the youth team where he looked pretty good but obviously it’s a bit of a step up to the J League. <br /><br /><b>29. Kota TAKAI (DF)</b><br />1785 minutes played<br />Defensive crises meant that he was used more than he’d have expected in his first full year. Started his senior career looking really good and got everyone excited. But unfortunately had one really shocking game which dented his confidence and I guess our confidence in him. But he did manage to pick up a bit towards the end of the year. Looks good on the ball I think, but probably needs to improve his decision making a bit as there are only so many situations you can dribble your way out of. But excited to see how his 2024 goes.<br /><br /><b>30. Yusuke SEGAWA (FW)</b><br />1809 minutes played<br />Our fourth highest goalscorer and didn’t play that many minutes really. At times has looked really exciting, but has also missed some chances that looked easier to score. But like with most of our attackers, it feels unfair to pin any weaknesses of our attacks on the players when I think that for most of the year, it’s the tactics that have been at fault. <br /><br /><b>31. Kazuya YAMAMURA (MF)</b><br />1952 minutes played<br />This was another year of mainly being the ultimate back-up player for Yamamura. His versatility meant that he was often on the bench to cover the defence and pretty much anywhere else he was needed. But the truth is he was almost exclusively used in defence and only then sporadically. I wish he’d occasionally get more of a chance to play somewhere else but it seems to be his destiny that he’ll be playing in defence for us from time to time as long as he’s happy to put up with it. He had a good end to the season though and has played better than some others in defence this year.<br /><br /><b>33. Taisei MIYASHIRO (FW)</b><br />2460 minutes played<br />Second highest scorer and would have been top if you don’t count goals from penalties. Decent record on minutes per goal too. But has had his pitch time limited by Oniki. I don’t really know why. It’s been said that he doesn’t really fit the way we play, but when you consider how ineffective our play was for the most part, you could probably say that we could do with changing the way we play. I’m a little worried about the rumours I’ve heard that he’ll be leaving. <br /><br /><b>41. Akihiro IENAGA (MF)</b><br />3353 minutes played<br />Lots of minutes played again by Ienaga and you’ve probably got to say that it is for diminishing returns. He definitely doesn’t have the cut and thrust that he used to and recently has even struggled a bit to do that thing where he holds off the opposition players. So perhaps age is catching up with him. Quite why he is so undroppable is a bit of a mystery to me. He definitely has his moments still, but quite why we persist with starting him as often as we do and by doing so, retaining our unbalanced and increasingly ineffective formation, I don’t know. I also don’t know if he will accept less playing time. He seems like he is a strong willed player. And when he’s playing well, he’s still great. But the fact is, the great times are becoming less common.<br /><br /><b>49. Kazuki KOZUKA (MF)</b><br />457 minutes played<br />Another who never really got that much of a chance. But at the same time, didn’t really fully take the infrequent chances he was given. His departure so soon after his red card against Urawa seemed a bit harsh. Felt like he always had the potential to score some bangers but never was going to get the opportunities with us, with so many people ahead of him. <br /><br /><b>99. Naoto KAMIFUKUMOTO (GK)</b><br />1710 minutes played<br />Tricky year for our new keeper. Was signed with plenty of fans raving about his ability on the ball and saying how it was going to revolutionise our attacks. I think Oniki thought that would be the case too and perhaps his entire new year’s strategy was ruined by some dodgy performances. After Kami took over from Sung-Ryong, there wasn’t really any significant improvement in our distribution and he seemed to be not as good at actually stopping the opposition from scoring. Much like a few others, I feel like he had a bit of a baptism of fire and never really recovered from it. Sadly for him, it’s clangers rather than good things that stick in the memory, a hopeless attempt to save against Nagoya, the ridiculous header to gift Urawa a goal. But saying that when he was called on for ‘second string’ games later on in the season he acquitted himself pretty well. Perhaps he’s still settling in. I hope so. But the truth is, I don’t really know what the goalkeeping situation will be next year.<br /><br /><b>Toru ONIKI - manager</b><br />I guess most readers know how I feel about Oniki in general so I won’t go into that in much detail. He’s achieved great things with us, but I feel he’s run out of ideas. In 2023, he stubbornly stuck with players who weren’t performing and was quite unwilling to give players much of a chance. He’s definitely terrified of losing, and because of this, worried about taking any kind of chance when it comes to playing anyone who he doesn’t consider to be one of his best players, who he squeezes into formations, out of position in an attempt to play as many of them as possible. It feels tough to moan at him for our terribly dull football in 2023 when we finished the season scoring for fun and winning the Emperor’s Cup. The truth is though that we only started scoring goals when we were already well out of the league title race and even when we were doing this, we were also conceding goals for fun. And we were VERY lucky to win the Emperor’s Cup. I wasn’t particularly happy when he signed a new contract but I expected it was going to happen after our ACL results. He’ll really need to come up with some new ideas in 2024 in order to avoid another dodgy season, particularly when you consider that we might be losing a few of his favourite players.</p>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-16397721200461256712023-12-29T08:53:00.000+09:002023-12-29T08:53:03.037+09:002023 season player round up part 2<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigMx8cdQQ2sDbvjKS4tQeAM4tKQ7d5dCPBzZxwWPnY6OfCwLQpB7Gd3lheVlSD5ffLx6cvnBZdijQknbo4b-6-4TUfSePbRvrEZJIDcgQQInfG1KYpVLaobcQLapTms9Y27ZHCGH_umGb-aDZcAJZPycHDwfAwBjXdQCDy4J-uVQdwOqnWjgNSl7kfHVPJ/s4032/IMG_0441.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigMx8cdQQ2sDbvjKS4tQeAM4tKQ7d5dCPBzZxwWPnY6OfCwLQpB7Gd3lheVlSD5ffLx6cvnBZdijQknbo4b-6-4TUfSePbRvrEZJIDcgQQInfG1KYpVLaobcQLapTms9Y27ZHCGH_umGb-aDZcAJZPycHDwfAwBjXdQCDy4J-uVQdwOqnWjgNSl7kfHVPJ/s320/IMG_0441.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Today, part two of three of my end of season player round up posts. Part one was yesterday and part three is coming tomorrow.<b> <br /></b><p></p><p><b>13. Miki YAMANE (DF)</b><br />4203 minutes played<br />In previous bad seasons I’ve been pretty hard on Yamane. That is in part because he’s been so good in seasons when we haven’t been terrible. At the start of this year, I think Yamane was perhaps playing his worst football he’s ever played for us. Things picked up a bit later on in the year, but he still clearly had a bad year. At the start of the season, Oniki was experimenting with a tactic where Yamane would move into central midfield to set up attacks. It didn’t work, but of course we still persevered with it for ages. When we reverted to the same old stuff he picked up a bit, but he was nowhere near his best in 2023 scoring less goals and getting less assists and being generally less effective than in previous years. But at the same time, he was ridiculously overused by Oniki and I’m sure no-one plays their best when they have to play every single game. If the rumoured transfer to LA Galaxy goes through, I’m not going to be too upset. With Yamane in the squad and Oniki in charge he will probably be starting every game so replacing him becomes more difficult whilst simultaneously his level drops. I think a fresh start works for both player and team. <br /><br /><b>14. Yasuto WAKIZAKA (MF)</b><br />3527 minutes played<br />Our only player who made it into the team of the year, and to be honest, at the time, I thought it was a bit of a stretch to put him in there. Looking back at the stats, I think I’ve been a bit unfair on him. But at the same time, a lot of his goals came from penalties. Clearly he’s a hugely talented player, but at the same time, I think often his amazing turns, touches and passes are followed up by really horrible mistakes. His corners have been pretty awful all year too. But you can’t really criticise him for that as we have other people in the squad who can take them but aren't given the opportunity, which I'm sure is not his decision. I think it’s fair to say that it hasn’t been his best year, but he’s still done better than plenty of our squad have done. And like Yamane, he’s probably played way too many games this year, being almost as undroppable/unrotatable as our right back. After the Emperor’s Cup win it apparently sounded like there was a chance he might be leaving and in recent days there have been some rumours circulating, so perhaps we might be seeing someone else in the number 14 shirt next year. <br /><br /><b> 15. Shuto TANABE (DF)</b><br />573 minutes played<br />Feel a bit sorry for him as when we had our defensive crisis, (hang on, which defensive crisis? It seemed like 2023 was one defensive crisis after another), he was recalled from his loan at JEF, came in to play a few games and then was unceremoniously dropped from the matchday squads when anyone else was available. I thought he did a pretty good job when he was called on. His versatility, (can play all across the back) might help him in 2024, as it looks like we’ll have a few shakeups at the back. Younger that some might imagine as although he’s been around for a few years, he didn’t go down the university route. So fingers crossed for the future.<br /><br /><b>16. Tatsuki SEKO (MF)</b><br />2640 minutes played<br />Was a bit in and out of the side as Oniki struggled to find his perfect midfield, (by playing some players out of position and refusing to rotate others at all). On the rare occasion he was allowed to take a free kick, he scored it against his old team, and then was immediately substituted. I think he was criticised unfairly at times because sometimes his passes went astray. The truth was, he was usually trying to attack rather than safely and pointlessly play the ball backwards like the team had been instructed to. I feel like 2024 might be a good year for him. I hope so!<br /><br /><b>17. Daiya TONO (FW)</b><br />1764 minutes played<br />A tricky year for our striker who was almost exclusively played in midfield. Scored quite a few goals though and always looked a danger when he was able to attack. Don’t know why he was asked to do the tough midfield stuff though as he clearly is more of an attacker. And this was shown by his red card against Kashiwa. There have been big rumours about him leaving us before the start of next season and I wouldn’t be surprised as he presumably doesn’t think he’s going to play up front much for us with Oniki in charge. I don’t want him to go though.<br /><br /><b>18. Chanathip SONGKRASIN (FW)</b><br />328 minutes played<br />Very sad that he left in the summer but totally understandable. His departure probably says something about the state of the club behind the scenes at the moment with the new chairman not exactly seeming that in touch with Frontale, or even with football. Got hardly any chances and basically seemed to be a player signed for his commercial value without anyone consulting the manager who it seemed didn't rate him/didn't know what to do with him. Can’t really speak about his season from a footballing point of view, but really happy he got to come back to Todoroki in the ACL and we got the chance to give him a proper and emotional farewell.<br /><br /><b>18. Bafetimbi GOMIS (FW)</b><br />426 minutes played<br />Somewhat weird signing, presumably made with the imminent departure of Damiao in mind. But is older than Damiao and has yet to totally get into his stride. Three assists late on in the season from only 426 minutes played is pretty impressive but it would have been nice if he could have got his first goal before the season ended. And also, was a bit of a shame he missed his penalty in the final. Whether getting a pre-season in means he’ll start the season banging or whether the passage or time will dull his effectiveness, well, we’ll see I guess. But I hope it’s the former as we all want to see that goal celebration. <br /><br /><b>20. Shin YAMADA (FW)</b><br />1476 minutes played<br />Has made himself a real fan favourite, for both his all effort performances and his no megaphone Vai La after our occasional victories. Like plenty of others, feel like he hasn’t benefited from our formation and tactics up front. Definitely one for the future and think he’ll only improve next year.<br /><br /><b>21. Shunsuke ANDO (GK)</b><br />0 minutes played<br />A quiet year again for Ando. He wasn’t even on the bench for some of the ACL games this year, suggesting that perhaps Hayasaka is now ahead of him in the pecking order. There’s nothing else to say really about someone who hasn’t been involved at all. <br /><br /><b>22. Yuki HAYASAKA (GK)</b><br />0 minutes played<br />Similarly to Ando, hasn’t been involved but was on ACL benches occasionally. And therefore there’s nothing to say.<br /><br /><b>23. MARCINHO (FW)</b><br />1673 minutes played<br />Difficult to write this one. Given than when he was available he always played and was pretty much our only attacking route thanks to our lopsided formation, you’d think it was a good year for him. But the truth is that he probably didn’t make the most of the chances he had or almost created. People said that his pace was too much for the opposition but often his pace was too much for us too as there was often little or no support for him. Our one dimensional tactics probably meant that things were tougher for him as it was always obvious what we were going to do. Had a few injuries in 2023 and finished the season injured too, which got me wondering if he was going to move on. We’ll see, I guess. Hopefully we can see the best from him in 2024.<br /><br /><b>24. Toya MYOGAN (MF)</b><br />152 minutes played<br />A great hope at the start of the season but another player who had hardly any chances. His first action was against Shimizu away in the Levain Cup and he was subbed at half time, apparently being blamed for our absolutely terrible first half performance in that game. Still young and will perhaps hope that he can make a Mitoma like contribution next year after a first season of not much happening. Equally he could go out on loan in the way that others have. Oniki does like to get the young players in the squad for a year and then loan them out for a year. Either way, hopefully there will be a bit more to say next year.</p>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-19130208000318981012023-12-27T19:47:00.001+09:002023-12-27T19:47:18.118+09:002023 season player round up part 1<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHWM-iNEeaXIVgs-5yzcvT5UpeNmDMCyOdk_h-et8Pk0KqCgLWXvTsw-lSIx9jQYq4KKJdC9GB7dFTXkxyPcsuoUUzI84I6WXsXg-x39nsWZvHDHUGM9KdjMb2GkiL1M68zQNeLNRSnIoqCmS_9uQvOgX7MqDKZvn1TxSWvwsj_qIGuAK_JYxKRQU_code/s4032/IMG_6744.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHWM-iNEeaXIVgs-5yzcvT5UpeNmDMCyOdk_h-et8Pk0KqCgLWXvTsw-lSIx9jQYq4KKJdC9GB7dFTXkxyPcsuoUUzI84I6WXsXg-x39nsWZvHDHUGM9KdjMb2GkiL1M68zQNeLNRSnIoqCmS_9uQvOgX7MqDKZvn1TxSWvwsj_qIGuAK_JYxKRQU_code/s320/IMG_6744.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Here is part one of three of my end of season player round ups. These were written before our latest signing, (midfielder Yamamoto Yuki from Gamba Osaka), so don't expect anything relating to that transfer to be reflected in here. Of course these are just my opinions. So with that in mind, expect these posts to be a bit pessimistic after what was, aside from the Emperor's Cup, a pretty disappointing season. Part two coming tomorrow.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><p><b>1. Sung-Ryong JUNG (GK)</b><br />3030 minutes played<br />Bit of a weird season for him. The arrival of another first choice J1 keeper probably signaled that he wasn’t going to be an automatic starter any longer. But he did begin the season in goal. Unfortunately for him, he made a clanger in the first game which gave his doubters a reason to kick on with their doubting. To be fair to Oniki he didn’t immediately drop him, but I think it was always in his long term plan. After he had been dropped and then later made it back into the team, I think he was one of our better players, saving us on many occasions. Finished the season on a high, doing the business in goal and from the penalty spot to win us a title. I’m a big fan of Sung-Ryong. As the years pass, perhaps a few more mistakes have been creeping in, but as far as I’m concerned, if the same keepers are at the club next year, he should be the one starting as I feel a lot safer when he’s in goal for us. <br /><br /><b>2. Kyohei NOBORIZATO (DF)</b><br />3037 minutes played<br />Slightly surprised to see he played so many minutes as he has become a bit more injury prone in recent seasons. At the same time, I think he’s lost a bit of his edge too, which is natural as the years catch up with him. But he still was clearly Oniki’s first choice at left back this year. There’s going to be a bit more competition next year though as we’ve already signed a new left back. Somewhat shockingly scored twice this year. Still an important squad member, and not just as a ‘mood maker’, but I imagine he won’t be playing quite as much next year.<br /><br /><b>3. Takuma OMINAMI (DF)</b><br />3009 minutes played<br />Feel a bit sorry for him as he joined us apparently with the aim of getting himself back into national team contention. Presumably he had no idea we were going to have such an underwhelming season. Took a little while to get settled, but I think looking back, he was our best defender of the year. Thought he did well on the occasions he played at right back too. Occasionally had a rush of blood to the head, but you could say that most of our defenders are guilty of this more often than he is. Looking forward to see how he pushes on in 2024. <br /><br /><b>4. JESIEL (DF)</b><br />573 minutes played<br />A year to forget for a player who most people would have said is one of our best. After a long term injury in 2022 it was good to see him start the first game of the season. But he managed to get sent off in that game, perhaps an omen for what was to come in the rest of the season. Picked up another big injury which kept him out for seven months whilst trying to prevent the ball going out for a corner. Another omen for how bad 2023 would be for us perhaps. And then a few games after he came back had an absolute first half nightmare when he was responsible for us conceding three times before the break and was subbed off at half time. Steadied the ship slightly after a little break, but really hope the off season gives him a chance to get himself back to being the player we know he can be, as 2023 was really a year to forget for him.<br /><br /><b>5. Asahi SASAKI (DF)</b><br />1137 minutes played<br />Bit worried about Sasaki. I don’t think he’s ever been given a chance to stake a claim for a place in the starting line up and now we have a new left back joining. This might mean that we see him more at right back, (especially if a certain transfer rumour comes true), or maybe even at centre back. Had a few injuries in 2023 so I guess that contributed to him not getting much time on the pitch, but I hope he isn’t disheartened by his quiet 2023 as I think he has a lot to give.<br /><br /><b>6. JOAO SCHMIDT (MF)</b><br />2462 minutes played<br />Leaving us after his contract was not renewed. I feel sad about that, but in spite of what he could offer us, I think he was hampered by playing in the same position as Tachibanada who is both our captain and an Oniki favourite. Looking back, the time when he did have a run in the team did correspond with one of our worse periods though. I’m not sure that is connected, but it doesn’t look good. Think maybe he never really was used in the right way. Makes sense for him to go elsewhere as he’s too good to be sitting on the bench most weeks. Wish him the best of luck wherever he ends up. <br /><br /><b>7. Shintaro KURUMAYA (DF)</b><br />2134 minutes played<br />Clearly Kurumaya is now a central defender in both his and Oniki’s eyes. I’m not sure it’s his best position, but I guess at this stage it doesn’t really matter. I think I probably said all of this in last year's round up too. At the start of the year, in the same way that Jesiel had a dodgy but at the same time portentous start to the year in the first game, so did Kurumaya who got injured (for the first time) in the first game. But not as seriously as the injury that prematurely ended his season in September. In between these two injuries he was able to score a delightful bundled winner away against YFM. I don’t know what’s going to happen in our defence in 2024 but I hope that it’s not as dodgy as it was in 2023. I’m not sure that Kurumaya at centre back is the key to this.<br /><br /><b>8. Kento TACHIBANADA (MF)</b><br />3021 minutes played<br />Another player who had a bit of a weird year, being our captain but having quite a long period out of the team. Playing him and Joao Schmidt together never worked, so I’m glad that Oniki stopped trying to do it and if one of them had to give way, it made sense that it would be Joao. Tachibanada added goals to his game this year, scoring some important ones, particularly in the ACL against Ulsan. Put in some time at left back and right back too, because… well because Oniki. If he plays in the defensive midfield position that he’s best in, I think he’s very important for us. But I don’t think he should necessarily be played out of position in order to be squeezed in. Fingers crossed that doesn’t happen in 2024.<br /><br /><b>9. LEANDRO DAMIAO (FW)</b><br />1178 minutes played<br />Farewell to Damiao, as he was another player who didn’t have his contract renewed, (by mutual consent I believe). I think we all knew that this was going to happen. It’s nice to see him able to leave on something of a high, scoring a few goals towards the end of the year and with us taking the Emperor’s Cup. Before his late season revival, felt like things had gone a bit stale for him though and that a move would be best for both parties. This was probably due to our predictable and ineffective tactics though. It seemed that no-one who started in the middle up front for us could really score many goals, probably due to our utterly ponderous football. Now he’s gone, we’ll miss his obsessive desire to do overhead kicks and his nice guy character. Wish him all the best wherever he ends up. <br /><br /><b>10. Ryota OSHIMA (MF)</b><br />768 minutes played<br />Another season ruined by injury. It’s hard to say much about it. I can’t imagine how Oshima feels about another probably wasted year. I don’t think we even saw him anywhere near his best on the limited occasions he was involved. Don’t know what to say really, apart from the fact that it’s just really sad.<br /><br /><b>11. Yu KOBAYASHI (FW)</b><br />859 minutes played<br />The best goals per minute ratio of any of our players makes it sound like 2023 was a good year for Kobayashi. But when you look at how few minutes he played, perhaps it wasn’t. Had a few injuries through the year, but the fact that he was involved in 16 league games but only played for 518 minutes shows that a lot of his contributions were ten minute ‘cameos’ from the bench. I don’t know what 2024 will hold for him. Damiao has gone, but maybe the more obvious replacement for Damiao would be Gomis. I know Kobayashi wants to play in the middle, but I’m not sure playing there by himself works so well for him or us, as evidenced on the few occasions he started playing there. So maybe a new approach from Oniki will help him. Whether we get that or not is another thing. <br /></p>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-17481900828726197352023-12-23T20:57:00.000+09:002023-12-23T20:57:14.572+09:00 2023 season player stats <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAFguTOiukA0WBeiCK0j44PyGrGkQjFX33xLuddKZPRr6ONdv01P9GTRWoXmvFy6O9cv2bTllQsqcBzFuvbLYPhRLR0FldZDFfwr0BII5MlV8kRPmPCDad7imuVf5NzsmUDd3egYa-9WlY3T8CA9Mvmckzj25PUdKia6Ebrw-ow0qXf4gxWMIcPNl18FCu/s4032/IMG_5954.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAFguTOiukA0WBeiCK0j44PyGrGkQjFX33xLuddKZPRr6ONdv01P9GTRWoXmvFy6O9cv2bTllQsqcBzFuvbLYPhRLR0FldZDFfwr0BII5MlV8kRPmPCDad7imuVf5NzsmUDd3egYa-9WlY3T8CA9Mvmckzj25PUdKia6Ebrw-ow0qXf4gxWMIcPNl18FCu/s320/IMG_5954.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Sorry that this is a bit less detailed than usual this year. In the past I’ve done half-season stats which meant that at the end of the year, putting together the final stats was a lot less daunting. But this time around, after a bit of a dodgy season, the thought of spending hours assembling them has made it a non starter for me. So you’ll have to put with this. I’ve got the total minutes that each player played and they will be in the player round-up posts. So, this stats section will just be a few top fives (or more) and some brief comments. Sorry! Stats were taken from Transfer Markt, Flashscore and the official Frontale site. <br /><br /><br /><b>Most minutes played (all competitions)</b><br /><br />1. YAMANE Miki - 4203<br />2. WAKIZAKA Yasuto - 3527<br />3. IENAGA Akihiro - 3353<br />4. NOBORIZATO Kyohei - 3037<br />5. Sung-Ryong JUNG - 3030<br />6. TACHIBANADA Kento - 3021<br />7. OMINAMI Takuma - 3009<br /><br />I only listed players here who played more than 3000 minutes. Slightly worrying that three of those players are over thirty and that one of them seems likely to leave us in this transfer window. <br /><br /><br /><b>Most goals (all competitions)</b><br /><br />1. WAKIZAKA Yasuto - 13<br />2. MIYASHIRO Taisei - 12<br />3. TONO Daiya - 8<br />4. SEGAWA Yusuke - 7<br />5. YAMADA Shin - 6<br />5. SEKO Tatsuki - 6<br />7. LEANDRO DAMIAO - 5<br />7. TACHIBANADA Kento - 5<br />7. MARICNHO - 5<br />7. KOBAYASHI Yu - 5<br /><br />First of all, I only had stats for league games and blimey, it was bleak reading. Thankfully with the addition of other competitions, where we’ve managed to score some more goals, things look a bit brighter. But still only two players managed to score over ten goals and one of them, (Wakizaka), had his total significantly enhanced by penalties. It’s a good thing that we’ve got someone who can score them now though. When you consider how long Miyashiro dropped out of the squad his stats look pretty good. <br /><br /><br /><b>Least minutes per goal (all competitions)</b><br /><br />1. KOBAYASHI Yu - 172<br />2. MIYASHIRO Taisei - 205<br />3. TONO Daiya - 221<br />4. LEANDRO DAMIAO - 236<br />5. YAMADA Shin - 246<br />6. SEGAWA Yusuke - 258<br />7. WAKIZAKA Yasuto - 271<br />8. MARICNHO - 335<br />9. SEKO Tatsuki - 440<br />10. TACHIBANADA Kento - 604<br /><br />Here, as in the previous category, I stuck to people who’ve scored five or more goals in total as I thought it would make more sense if we’re doing an average. I think Kobayashi should probably take these stats and wave them in Oniki’s face a bit. At the same time, I was quite shocked as it didn’t really feel like he was that effective this year. Miyashiro comes out reasonably well again.<br /><br /><br /><b>Most assists </b><br /><br />1. WAKIZAKA Yasuto - 12<br />2. IENAGA Akihiro - 8<br />3. YAMANE Miki - 4<br />3. MIYASHIRO Taisei - 4<br />5. MARCINHO - 3<br />5. Bafetimbi GOMIS - 3<br /><br />Wakizaka coming top here is no surprise really, half of his assists coming in the league and half in cups. Feel like I’ve been a bit hard on him. Yamane’s dodgy season is totally on display here, particularly when you consider he’s played the most minutes and assists is one of the big things he’s in the team for. The big shock must be Gomis finishing fifth after joining us so late in the season and hardly playing at all. But the fact that could happen shows how dodgy we were in 2023.<br /><br /><br /><b>Most yellow cards</b><br /><br />1. JOAO SCHMIDT - 7<br />2. KURUMAYA Shintaro - 5<br />3. OMINAMI Takuma - 4<br />4. KOBAYASHI Yu - 3<br />4. TACHIBANADA Kento - 3<br />4. IENAGA Akihiro - 3<br />4. YAMANE Miki - 3<br />4. TAKAI Kota - 3<br /><br />I think a Brazilian player comes top of this list every year. They definitely seem to get booked for things that Japanese players get away with. <br /><br /><br /><b>Most red cards</b><br /><br />1. JESIEL - 1<br />1. KURUMAYA Shintaro - 1<br />1. OMINAMI Takuma - 1<br />1. WAKIZAKA Yasuto - 1 <br />1. YAMAMURA Kazuya - 1<br />1. TONO Daiya - 1<br />1. KOZUKA Kazuki - 1<br /><br />Nice to see the reds being shared around! We got a shocking amount of red cards this year, which I think speaks volumes about how we struggled. Too many different defensive partnerships due to injuries and red cards meant that we got more injuries and red cards. Can’t remember any of them being particularly shocking or outrageous. But then again, I’ve done my best to erase most things about this season from my memory so perhaps some were massive injustices. Surprisingly quite a few of these weren’t for our old friend, the DOGSO.<br /><br /><br /><b>Frontale Rabbit man of the match awards</b><br /><br />1. Sung-Ryong JUNG - 4<br />1. SEKO Tatsuki - 4<br />3. JOAO SCHMIDT - 3<br />3. YAMADA Shin - 3<br />5. LEANDRO DAMIAO - 2<br />5. KOBAYASHI Yu - 2<br />5. OMINAMI Takuma - 2<br />5. TONO Daiya - 2<br />9. YAMAMURA Kazuya - 1<br />9. KURUMAYA Shintaro - 1<br />9. KOZUKA Kazuki - 1<br />9. NOBORIZATO Kyohei - 1<br />9. SASAKI Asahi - 1<br />9. TAKAI Kota - 1<br />9. TANABE Shuto - 1<br />9. MATSUNAGANE Yuto - 1<br />9. Bafetimbi GOMIS - 1<br /><br />This section is always a bit of a free for all and here I've listed everyone who got one of these prestigious awards from me. My decisions for this don’t usually correspond with what other people think. This season there were plenty of times that I didn’t give this award. I think in past seasons it has only been for truly terrible games or games I couldn’t attend. I’ve attended as many games as I always do, so interpret the lack of awards how you want. Clearly some of the awards were for sentimental reasons. But in usual bizarre Frontale Rabbit style, neither of our top two scorers or top two assisters got even one award from me…<p></p>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-45048850493925520822023-12-22T07:27:00.001+09:002023-12-23T08:11:19.838+09:00 2023 season ref stats <p>Here we go with the end of season round up posts and as usual, I’m starting with the refs. Perhaps the most interesting thing about these stats are the totals at the bottom in comparison with the previous two years. You can clearly see that we have steadily got worse when it comes to getting points from games and have been getting more and more cards per games too. When it comes to individual refs, the ‘best’ refs for us, (ignoring those who only had one of our games), were Koya, Mikuriya and Nakamura, (who was the ref of the year according to the J League, an award which I predicted somewhat amazingly). When you add in yellow and red cards for these three, it’s Koya and Mikuriya who come out on top. Yes, Mikuriya, who has a reputation for being absolutely terrible! Our refereeing enemies in 2023 were Iida and Okabe. Iida has really pissed me off recently actually, so I’m relieved to see that the fact that we got no points from his games backs this up somewhat. Three yellows and one red in the two games he was in charge of mean that Iida is only beaten by two refs when it comes to dishing out cards to us. The first of those refs was the absolutely awful Imamura, (the guy who screamed at Kozuka), and the other one was the ever ‘popular’ Nishimura who gave us three red cards this year in just four games, (almost half of all the reds we got). In conclusion, Merry Christmas and a happy new year to Koya, Mikuriya and Nakamura. And to Iida and Okabe, well, hope you get a 'how to referee' book and some glasses for Christmas. Player stats coming next.<br /><br />Ref stats<br /><br />G - Games refereed<br /> W - Wins <br />D - Draws <br />L - Losses <br />Y - Yellow Cards<br /> R - Red Cards, *= 2nd yellow red card <br />AVC - Average number of cards per game (yellow = 1, red = 3) <br />AVP - Average points for us per game<br /><br />AL MARRI <br />G 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 Y 1 R 0<br />AVC 1 AVP 3 <br /><br />ARAKI<br /> G 2 W 0 D 2 L 0 Y 3 R 0<br />AVC 1.5 AVP 1<br /><br />BRAMALL<br />G 1 W 0 D 1 L 0 Y 0 R 0<br />AVC 0 AVP 1 </p><p>FUKUSHIMA <br />G 1 W 0 D 1 L 0 Y 0 R 1<br />AVC 3 AVP 1 </p><p>IIDA <br />G 2 W 0 D 0 L 2 Y 3 R 1* <br />AVC 3 AVP 0 </p><p>IKEUCHI <br />G 2 W 1 D 0 L 1 Y 1 R 0 <br />AVC 0.5 AVP 1.5<br /><br />IMAMURA<br />G 2 W 1 D 0 L 1 Y 5 R 1<br /> AVC 4 AVP 1.5 </p><p>KASAHARA <br />G 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 Y 1 R 0 <br />AVC 1 AVP 3 </p><p>KAWAMATA <br />G 4 W 1 D 1 L 2 Y 3 R 0 <br />AVC 0.75 AVP 1<br /><br />KIMURA <br />G 4 W 1 D 2 L 1 Y 1 R 0 <br />AVC 0.25 AVP 1.25 <br /><br />KOYA <br />G 2 W 2 D 0 L 0 Y 1 R 0 <br />AVC 0.5 AVP 3<br /><br />MATSUO<br /> G 2 W 1 D 0 L 1 Y 6 R 0 <br />AVC 3 AVP 1.5<br /><br />MIKURIYA <br />G 2 W 2 D 0 L 0 Y 1 R 0<br />AVC 0.5 AVP 3 </p><p>NAKAMURA <br />G 2 W 2 D 0 L 0 Y 5 R 0 <br />AVC 2.5 AVP 3<br /><br />NISHIMURA <br />G 4 W 2 D 0 L 2 Y 4 R 3 <br />AVC 3.25 AVP 1.5<br /><br />OKABE<br /> G 3 W 0 D 2 L 1 Y 4 R 0 <br />AVC 1.33 AVP 0.66<br /><br />SENDACHI<br />G 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 Y 1 R 0<br />AVC 1 AVP 3<br /><br />TAKASAKI <br />G 1 W 0 D 1 L 0 Y 0 R 0<br />AVC 0 AVP 1<br /><br />TANIMOTO<br />G 3 W 1 D 1 L 1 Y 2 R 0<br />AVC 0.66 AVP 1.33 </p><p>YAMAMOTO <br />G 3 W 2 D 0 L 1 Y 5 R 1 <br />AVC 2.66 AVP 2<br /><br />YAMASHITA <br />G 2 W 1 D 0 L 1 Y 2 R 0 <br />AVC 1 AVP 1.5<br /><br /><b>TOTALS<br />G 45 W 20 D 12 L 13 Y 49 R 7<br />AVC 1.55 AVP 1.6<br /><br />*2022 TOTALS FOR YOUR REFERENCE*<br />G 38 W 21 D 8 L 9 Y 38 R 3<br />AVC 1.23 AVP 1.86<br /><br />*2021 TOTALS FOR YOUR REFERENCE*<br />G 46 W 31 D 13 L 2 Y 21 R 0<br />AVC 0.45 AVP 2.3</b><br /><br /></p>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-66498418874351611222023-12-15T16:55:00.006+09:002023-12-23T08:11:07.178+09:00 2023 Season survey questions <p>Here is the 7th annual Frontale Rabbit Blog survey. Once again almost totally cut and
pasted from last year's one. Maybe the answers won't be as depressing this year as last year. If you have any questions you think I should add,
please let me
know and I'll put them in. Please reply any way you want. Leave a
comment on the post, send me an email to frontalefan(at)gmail(dot)com,
tweet them, Instagram message me…. any way you can think of really. I'll
follow up collating the answers when I've got some responses. And in
the interest of getting as many replies as possible,
it's in Japanese too. Thanks!</p><p></p><p>Frontale
Rabbitブログの年末恒例アンケートも7年目になりました。質問は昨年とほぼ同じですが、これ以外にも聞いたらおもしろいと思う質問があったらお知らせください。返答方法は自由
-
ブログコメント欄、メール(frontalefan(at)gmail(dot)com)、ツイート、Instagramのメッセージなど。返答が集まったら結果を報告します!</p><p> </p><p> 1. Game of season<br />今シーズン1番良かった試合<br /><br />2. Player of the season<br />今シーズン1番良かった選手<br /><br />3. Goal of the season<br />今シーズン1番のゴール<br /><br />4. Disappointment of the season<br />今シーズン1番がっかりしたこと<br /><br />5. Villain of the season (anyone, from any team or an official or...)<br />今シーズンの悪者(他のチームの選手でも審判でも誰でも)<br /><br />6. Best away trip (if you've done one)<br />今シーズン1番のアウェイ遠征(もし行った場合)<br /><br />7. Best stadium in the J League<br />Jリーグで一番好きなスタジアムは? <br /><br />8. Opposition J1 team you like the most<br />フロンターレ以外でJ1で1番好きなチーム<br /><br />9. Opposition J1 team you like the least<br />J1で嫌いなチームを1つ選ぶなら<br /><br />10. Team you're pleased to see come up<br />J1に昇格してうれしいチームを1つ選ぶなら<br /><br />11. Best thing about the J League<br />Jリーグで1番良いこと<br /><br />12. Worst thing about the J League<br />Jリーグで1番嫌なこと<br /><br />13. Trophy you would like to win the most next year<br />来シーズン1番欲しいタイトル<br /><br />14. What’s your view of Oniki?<br />鬼木監督についてどう思いますか?<br /><br />15. If you could have any J League player sign for Frontale, who would it be?<br />Jリーグの選手でフロンターレに欲しい選手は?<br /><br />16. Which former Frontale player would you most like to see us re-sign?<br />元フロンターレの選手で、1番フロンターレに戻ってきてほしいのは誰ですか?<br /><br />17. What’s your prediction for next season?<br />来年の予想<br /><br />18. How was VAR for you?<br />VARについてどう思いましたか?<br /></p><p>19. Any other comments<br />その他コメント <br /></p>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-59807679952928486432023-12-13T18:34:00.001+09:002023-12-13T18:34:55.163+09:00Vs Ulsan Hyundai (away) 12/12/23 ACL Group stage match 6<h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Ulsan Hyundai 2 - 2 Kawasaki Frontale</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">As I said I would in the last post, I missed this game as I was on a plane to the UK. With that in mind, this is going to be very brief. It seems that hell has frozen over as Oniki finally found a game he deemed to be meaningless enough to play some of the younger players. It was good to see Matsunagane, Tanabe and Myogan, (who got an assist but was again changed at half time), get some pitch time again and Ozeki was able to come on from the bench. It was a bit bizarre to see Oniki decide it was necessary to bring on Ienaga in the 82nd minute, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt as I haven’t seen the game aside from the highlights. (Very generous of me, eh?). It looked like we attacked with some purpose and we pretty much matched them for all stats apart from possession in both halves. And we all know that in the past we’ve been big on possession and low on actually making chances so that’s got to be an encouraging thing. Kamifukumoto also seemed to have a decent game. (Well, he made some good saves on the highlights and wasn’t at fault for either of the goals). Whether any of this will in any way affect next season remains to be seen. But we’ve made it through the group unbeaten and are now presumably preparing for a defeat to Kofu in the next round.<br /><br />Next up, Christmas and New Year and I guess some Frontale Rabbit round up posts and the survey and stuff. Right now that seems like a lot of work though for what was aside from the ACL and Emperor’s Cup, a pretty terrible season. I’ll do my best though. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><b>Team </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 27. MATSUNAGANE Yuto<br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;">DF 4. JESIEL</span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 29. TAKAI Kota</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 15. TANABE Shuto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><div><div>MF 6. JOAO SCHMIDT<br /></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 17. TONO Daiya<br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 20. YAMADA Shin</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span>(Yellow card 45+6') <br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 24. MYOGAN Toya<br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Subs<br /></span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>GK 22. HAYASAKA Yuki<br />GK 21. ANDO Shunsuke<br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span>DF 2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei</span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span>DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma</span></span><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 13. YAMANE Miki</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> (on for MATSUNAGANE 78')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 28. OZEKI Yuto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> (on for SEKO 78')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 31. YAMAMURA Kazuya </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> (on for SEGAWA 78')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 33. MIYASHIRO Taisei</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> (on for MYOGAN 46')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 34. YUI Kota</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 37. OGAWA Jo<br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> (on for YAMADA 82')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><b> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><b>Goals<br /></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><b><br /></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>TONO<span><span><span><span> (Frontale) 17' 0-1</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>SEKO<span><span><span><span> (Frontale) 31' 0-2</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> <br />ADAM (Ulsan) 44' 1-2</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span>ADAM (Ulsan) PEN 53' 2-2</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><b><span>H</span><span>ighlights</span></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/onwLn8ZRuqo?si=delUSJvA1zL1y1vW" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-58174149990279748912023-12-10T11:23:00.000+09:002023-12-10T11:23:38.125+09:00Vs Kashiwa Reysol 9/11/23 Emperor's Cup Final<h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimmQ5KpIH1vCLK-pgrF_LIycn_ofqLG3Ft33LQ75-ll8GlbFldyOHq61sf8Ccb0HTt3h2CrV4YTW8LUZZ-YF1Xks5MRSjvy46OOwbLIcaSqqkve5O_cy3THgWNmEc-ty2LWeHguxM0y4paDMMg1X9i3uIdlVkIfgdguxMgJkTGObXTnhpD7rG7OsieNo_B/s4032/IMG_7987.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimmQ5KpIH1vCLK-pgrF_LIycn_ofqLG3Ft33LQ75-ll8GlbFldyOHq61sf8Ccb0HTt3h2CrV4YTW8LUZZ-YF1Xks5MRSjvy46OOwbLIcaSqqkve5O_cy3THgWNmEc-ty2LWeHguxM0y4paDMMg1X9i3uIdlVkIfgdguxMgJkTGObXTnhpD7rG7OsieNo_B/s320/IMG_7987.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Kawasaki Frontale</span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> 0 - 0 Kashiwa Reysol</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span>(AET) (8-7 on penalties)</h3><div style="text-align: left;">Errrrmmmm. Well what happened there then? I don’t really understand how it happened but we are Emperor’s Cup champions and can now put another star on our shirt. I know that nobody wants to hear me moan after we’ve won a title, so either please bear with me whilst I get that out of the way quickly and then can go on to something a bit more positive or interesting, or skip the next paragraph to the point marked below to save your sanity.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-80yn-vL4j7RdKOiv8P7NVg-6tj2uY2VzECICNSrFwO8x47n10k_ylJi0Yoen2vroHbPm5chHjpzQYTEJ1i3vahyeLV5SnMP_Nr0L0TlQKeo9QPJCL3EMGFGoj-n5dBN05ghS5_wneIZnkuJwjBrhgp4uiAqkWcAPpXHaRsZ_kR_Vvsr6DYf_hDipGO2n/s4032/IMG_7968.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-80yn-vL4j7RdKOiv8P7NVg-6tj2uY2VzECICNSrFwO8x47n10k_ylJi0Yoen2vroHbPm5chHjpzQYTEJ1i3vahyeLV5SnMP_Nr0L0TlQKeo9QPJCL3EMGFGoj-n5dBN05ghS5_wneIZnkuJwjBrhgp4uiAqkWcAPpXHaRsZ_kR_Vvsr6DYf_hDipGO2n/s320/IMG_7968.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />So here we go with the moans. One shot in the first half! And it took 39 minutes for that to happen! Only five more shots in the second half. In the same time Kashiwa had 22! We didn’t even have the possession we normally do. We couldn’t even enjoy those sideways passes. Things picked up a bit in extra time, but until then, oh my god it was bad. And there just doesn’t seem to be any ideas from the manager on how to change things. I don’t understand why he needs his magnet board so much as every change is pretty much like for like, (or puts someone out of position without altering anything else). On 84 minutes with us perhaps hoping we might be able to try and win the game Oniki made our final two subs and brought on a defender and a defensive midfielder. In the game Kashiwa apparently had 32 shots, 19 of which were on target. I can remember a couple of great saves, but apart from that I guess we were just lucky that we were up against a team who really couldn’t shoot. Especially lucky as we were a team that relly couldn’t even make it to a shooting position. When talking about our Tosu performance I said it looked like we were already on the beach. In this game it looked like we were still sitting on the beach but apparently oblivious as the tide comes in, up to our chins. I hope it’s a coincidence that since Oniki signed his new contract we have gone back to playing the worst stuff of the whole of his time in charge of us. We’d been on a good run until he signed, but since then have managed one goal in 210 minutes of football and that was an own goal. I’ll finish this moaning section by just reiterating that we were truly terrible in this match. I think the first half against Kyoto was better and we conceded three times in that game. I have absolutely no idea how we won. But of course, I’m delighted that we did. <br /><br /><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8hnLVVG2hiUeY9SJds7e0YM9_YtDhTS3BAWCQdIbT_9ElzV2wNZxSB9QDFQxjUqlLhCJWxsfmexMTs8rsCtvtqo50UvgHUQgSosZA0WsiUDQNsIxnyQcmo4sIvRNQlwZopDucWhtgcrQYrzazOVaw48mjXEFXOdsT1nQhTi6_6ui-l4YD3EM6p3LeBUhF/s4032/IMG_7976.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8hnLVVG2hiUeY9SJds7e0YM9_YtDhTS3BAWCQdIbT_9ElzV2wNZxSB9QDFQxjUqlLhCJWxsfmexMTs8rsCtvtqo50UvgHUQgSosZA0WsiUDQNsIxnyQcmo4sIvRNQlwZopDucWhtgcrQYrzazOVaw48mjXEFXOdsT1nQhTi6_6ui-l4YD3EM6p3LeBUhF/s320/IMG_7976.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />[SKIP TO HERE IF YOU WANT TO AVOID MOST OF THE MOANING]</b><br /><br />As much as I’d like to rip into Kashiwa and make snarky comments about them, you’ve got to feel sorry for them. Even if they did heartily boo both Segawa and Ominami. You’ve got to feel particularly sorry for their keeper, who did amazingly in the penalty shoot out, getting his hands on loads of our penalties, but fortunately for us, not being able to stop enough of them. It’s really harsh that it was him whose penalty was saved to hand us the victory. If ever there was someone who didn’t deserve that, it was him. Probably Matheus Savio deserved that, who didn’t take long in this match to go down and roll around on the pitch feigning injury. He did however create a lot of chances. A lot of chances that Kashiwa were thoroughly incapable of taking for some reason. But I shouldn’t let that cloud two amazing saves by Sung-Ryong to keep us in the game. Even at that stage he was clearly our man of the match. Little did we know that he was going to go on and score our winning penalty too. Amazing, and kind of amusing considering that our great leader tried to bin him off earlier in the season. As undeserved as the win was, I’m really delighted for our players, especially the ones who’d never won anything before. I guess this victory in some way validates Ominami’s decision to transfer to us, even though clearly the season didn’t really go how he might have expected it to. There were plenty of tears on the pitch and in the stands after the final penalty was saved, If only we could have skipped the match and gone straight to the penalties. The pre-game entertainment was quite good I thought and surprisingly stylish when you consider how bad the soundtrack is at Emperor’s Cup games. And there wasn’t a flame cannon in sight, so I guess that particular cringy moment is something that the J League is into and not the JFA.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVgiN2w4ZH6y3vMKHgdiyQTzQMNwigZVLxWEQ_vfplV8TVggFPahvKyOhjP13xT-yKX8vuaY7WR3QG6m4Cif8_qCG1x5B2dZBdU4uMyKt55kZXK1eQFBi4vu9qhnWFxO5yksbynl-jZzDmteWXVnxjyjPQgDNw8HA9cAj7j5XXImDawWxztPvekUiRqqBX/s4032/IMG_7978.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVgiN2w4ZH6y3vMKHgdiyQTzQMNwigZVLxWEQ_vfplV8TVggFPahvKyOhjP13xT-yKX8vuaY7WR3QG6m4Cif8_qCG1x5B2dZBdU4uMyKt55kZXK1eQFBi4vu9qhnWFxO5yksbynl-jZzDmteWXVnxjyjPQgDNw8HA9cAj7j5XXImDawWxztPvekUiRqqBX/s320/IMG_7978.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />So, we’ve done the ‘we’re crap section’ and the ‘they were unlucky’ section. So all that’s left really is the random stuff. First of all, the pitch in spite of it looking much better than it did in the J2 play off final, seemed to be totally cack. Perhps they got the spray paint and the roller out. Undoubtedly they got the sand out. every time the ball ‘bounced’ there was a puff of sand from the turf. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not saying that was the thing that was preventing us from getting the ball into any kind of shooting position. I had plenty of moans at the ref Kimura during the game but he probably did alright as there is nothing that is sitting burning in the pit of my stomach at the moment. I felt sorry for Gomis, who late in extra time almost chose an amazing time to score his first goal for us but was denied by a great save and then a lucky rebound for Kashiwa. It was a shame he missed his penalty too as he had the chance to win us a tournament the first time he put the ball in the net. But it wasn’t to be. I wonder how much longer he’ll be with us. Not sure it was his dream to come to Japan and sit on the bench for the final few years of his career. But we do know that Damiao is going, so perhaps that will open the door for him slightly. At the same time, we’ll be losing a striker in his mid thirties who has recently hit some good form and replacing him with one in his late thirties who has struggled a bit so far. Can’t say he’s really had a decent run yet though. Who might be joining Damiao in departing? Well Terada is rumoured to be leaving for a spot as manager of a team in a rice producing area of Japan according to a slightly cryptic tweet. (Apparently that’s Fukushima Utd). Clearly he has realised that he’s kind of wasting his time as Oniki will apparently only ever leave Frontale if he is forcibly removed. Marcinhho has been conspicuously absent the last two games, but apparently he has ‘a slight injury’. It was a shame he didn’t play in this game as even though our attacks through him often peter out, we don’t really have any other way of playing. So I guess it’s no surprise that we struggled to make chances without him. Even with Damiao leaving, you’ve got to think a lot of the attacking players might think they’d be better off looking elsewhere, as most of them seem to have been snubbed at one stage or another this year. I know most rumours are probably baseless, but I’ve heard Miyashiro might be leaving, (curse of my shirt again… sorry), Tono is being linked with a return to Avispa, (what, he doesn’t like being played out of position for 25 minutes each week?) and another player who we haven’t seen recently is Yamada. But to be honest, I have no evidence for that last one. In midfield, there has been talk of Tachibanada leaving, but maybe not much recently. Last year it seemed like he’d be the next to depart for next to nothing, but I’m not sure he’s done enough this year to attract that much attention. Joao Schmidt might want to go somewhere though, as he’s clearly thought of as a back up by Oniki now. And perhaps somewhat out of the blue, Wakizaka being so emotional, and some comments he made have started rumours about him. Or at least feelings about him. I don’t know if it’s just because he was our only representative in the J League team of the year, (his inclusion was a bit of a surprise to me, to be honest). Further back, Sasaki seems to have totally disappeared since he scored the winner away at Kochi United. And once again we have midfielders starting ahead of him in his position, which can’t give him much confidence. And this morning it’s being reported that Yamane has received an offer from LA United, so maybe we’ll lose him too. In my opinion, the problem, as I’ve said many times before, is that we just don’t rotate enough or properly. It’s basically the whole front three or centre back pairing changes, (if we don’t have loads of inuries), and that’s it. And that only happens about one game in five. I don’t really understand how anyone is supposed to get into any kind of form or even really have a chance to take. I think I also said that Oniki staying or going might have a significant affect on the squad. I think that perhaps if he was gong we might have some players who think they would have more of a chance with a new manager, with god forbid some new ideas, in charge. With him staying, with the players fully aware of his inflexibility, I imagine some might want to try their luck elsewhere. But this is all mainly speculation on my part. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV-i0NeIHqHMFPHle5Zyc3u3gb0NS6r_9yTAg-PqrumuH9j9QKjjcqajnLi6M0RMCfX2ov0HScs-Kbu7uEWOXDwjXe3VjWtvFdx_F4VnCTT6Rf6gsHgj4tXouCNvzUQD3A8zVrAVcsjCD6oPeNT3A-rHZAqSokNghRoMCWKPnK1OZoBs31iIs723GD3tS3/s4032/IMG_7980.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV-i0NeIHqHMFPHle5Zyc3u3gb0NS6r_9yTAg-PqrumuH9j9QKjjcqajnLi6M0RMCfX2ov0HScs-Kbu7uEWOXDwjXe3VjWtvFdx_F4VnCTT6Rf6gsHgj4tXouCNvzUQD3A8zVrAVcsjCD6oPeNT3A-rHZAqSokNghRoMCWKPnK1OZoBs31iIs723GD3tS3/s320/IMG_7980.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />How has this post about a game where we won a title managed to start with a moan and later turn into a ‘doom and gloom, everyone’s leaving’ tract? Well, I guess that’s just the way I write ‘em. It was pretty evident though that it wasn’t a great game and the joy of winning a title even in lucky fashion doesn’t completely cover up the doubts that are clear to see. I’m sorry I’m so negative, but perhaps that’s because I’m already thinking about the 2024 season. If we start the first game with pretty much the same lineup and tactics I think we all need to buckle up for what could be a very testing year. Or perhaps Oniki will use the break to have a good think and change things. Perhaps he’ll come up with another idea like getting Yamane to move into midfield when attacking like he did at the start of this season. The fact that his one big tactical change was a disaster, taking one of our effective attackers from his position and getting him to move into an area when he can penetrate less, doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. Conversely, perhaps we’ll start next year with lots of different players after having loads of people leave. It would be a major shock, but might hint at the state the players think we are in. Perhaps we need a few players to leave to freshen us up a bit. It’s just a shame that the ones who probably do go will be the ones who haven’t really had much of a chance, leaving us with the same old line ups and the same old ideas. Sorry that should have said idea. Anyway, let’s be positive. We are the champions! All of Japan is looking at us with admiration. It doesn’t matter that most of the admirers didn’t see the game. In fact perhaps that’s a bonus. I’m delighted for Sung-Ryong and the players who won their first titles. I’m sad to see Damiao go. I’m kind of relieved that after Tuesday’s game away in Ulsan, which I won’t be attending or even watching due to being on a plane, we’ll have a break. I think everyone needs it. I certainly do. When we went to the Sagan Tosu away game we spent a night in Kagoshima. At the station, I bought a keyring that says ‘Kagoshima! Soccer Victory!’ It’s not a branded Kagoshima United thing, more like a ‘lucky charm’ mass-produced with a slight variation with the wording and picture (Examination Success!, Basketball Win!) depending on which aspect of your life needs a bit of a plasticky luck boost. Some might say that the two games we’ve played since the purchase have been pretty awful. But on the evidence of the results so far, it’s working. Even if perhaps it might be working at the cost of some of our sanities! SOCCER VICTORY! </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0bQgHDzmqD8N3VHE-qr_01CJSToGZwoZITzx-lZbEdqh3ObzlbtNW3pqfHMwVApafK67NeL-_1wUlVSPgj47qIQRs8cRT9xEBd_e3cJQLFR4_WWWu1ZElP8Z5RY8HmZVW_NwojT-tKJUAyKimoGpTxR7D4_fIPzNyHrAHccbNIM3UmgYfpEJXnvdFY7so/s4032/IMG_1247.heic" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0bQgHDzmqD8N3VHE-qr_01CJSToGZwoZITzx-lZbEdqh3ObzlbtNW3pqfHMwVApafK67NeL-_1wUlVSPgj47qIQRs8cRT9xEBd_e3cJQLFR4_WWWu1ZElP8Z5RY8HmZVW_NwojT-tKJUAyKimoGpTxR7D4_fIPzNyHrAHccbNIM3UmgYfpEJXnvdFY7so/s320/IMG_1247.heic" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikevQPhLwmB1LZzp8aZQQ7o3luSk6t0xKLBI4R8Cyf2r10hKR0Wm3h5iMz8YTjU1Q1YzNXJXWbEbevzBaePJgAUegdDIxqQeditFsL7P5kuGfwBvGxfAYXZJOpr0MAsZVoozDuw1vlU9fjReO6DMyhjE3Ncv14AmR8P7d8WTzRR-RWmWrPw_empA02EKmn/s4032/IMG_7971.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikevQPhLwmB1LZzp8aZQQ7o3luSk6t0xKLBI4R8Cyf2r10hKR0Wm3h5iMz8YTjU1Q1YzNXJXWbEbevzBaePJgAUegdDIxqQeditFsL7P5kuGfwBvGxfAYXZJOpr0MAsZVoozDuw1vlU9fjReO6DMyhjE3Ncv14AmR8P7d8WTzRR-RWmWrPw_empA02EKmn/s320/IMG_7971.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1B7wsK1rNyw6T3FXGgj1-9DkzPD4IBLhgZBTolyGBZgxtb6Q8yV97TfwDkXQ8vL_jm7kygH6uj2TRgShYzGCL46MEYzcD8VqLkkd9jJd26QmdnaLL71KiyBkU_MWs86Lt_96uLbj3mGA-kMfDdCjeU9_flej8d2onHgzb2uU_QEftS_s8dvNRinrV59MG/s4032/IMG_7972.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1B7wsK1rNyw6T3FXGgj1-9DkzPD4IBLhgZBTolyGBZgxtb6Q8yV97TfwDkXQ8vL_jm7kygH6uj2TRgShYzGCL46MEYzcD8VqLkkd9jJd26QmdnaLL71KiyBkU_MWs86Lt_96uLbj3mGA-kMfDdCjeU9_flej8d2onHgzb2uU_QEftS_s8dvNRinrV59MG/s320/IMG_7972.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5q7dFYgDGXwXODiwDFyWQCm0rtwlgmCQI7B8j4iXJC-NPuigcZMnK7GfiSuuk7_JhiYQZxcFzYlkE_4RciFwqDnQvyTrgncAx5H4KQXh2e6KZIrWmf_2wH2XGVRYHEpU3sqiLwvAzxmMOJMPyy865InYKwWTaxsXEDAkyzyX6_M2bQ4nlSip_yNFVVLR/s4032/IMG_7985.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5q7dFYgDGXwXODiwDFyWQCm0rtwlgmCQI7B8j4iXJC-NPuigcZMnK7GfiSuuk7_JhiYQZxcFzYlkE_4RciFwqDnQvyTrgncAx5H4KQXh2e6KZIrWmf_2wH2XGVRYHEpU3sqiLwvAzxmMOJMPyy865InYKwWTaxsXEDAkyzyX6_M2bQ4nlSip_yNFVVLR/s320/IMG_7985.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnr0FU71R6WlwRage0ACmLpbv-yO2V-VzTgH7598-MfWaiHFSZPyjz0eXENzvtQffIowiTbD8yTqRvldGY2FWWKYUSuVGEv9-zbg-NDfRYEXiP5bvg4Af0adG2KpNSQVV6YstCJVJX_teYtQEYuVxdRm7mjDcBgo0n2dyedonosAIdOkAIPXtrUqgUSoZ/s4032/IMG_7986.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnr0FU71R6WlwRage0ACmLpbv-yO2V-VzTgH7598-MfWaiHFSZPyjz0eXENzvtQffIowiTbD8yTqRvldGY2FWWKYUSuVGEv9-zbg-NDfRYEXiP5bvg4Af0adG2KpNSQVV6YstCJVJX_teYtQEYuVxdRm7mjDcBgo0n2dyedonosAIdOkAIPXtrUqgUSoZ/s320/IMG_7986.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9pp6QTRRF3OXJfMKmf02SMqyOMncQZyWVXMPXo8mFBJGgl4ummgAIvaYV4bOfrj1HhhwsxwIEA4sQ2M5Pj-vORG6mRueT35rahmm27K0YaS6Xzt5FjzIVBow5yZzoyI3hNEhiP8UH5dkZ241ip19aTU_3O6fPeeYX8dOmfzbHM6Zwu7RsN1gL0hR8vN73/s4032/IMG_1272.heic" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9pp6QTRRF3OXJfMKmf02SMqyOMncQZyWVXMPXo8mFBJGgl4ummgAIvaYV4bOfrj1HhhwsxwIEA4sQ2M5Pj-vORG6mRueT35rahmm27K0YaS6Xzt5FjzIVBow5yZzoyI3hNEhiP8UH5dkZ241ip19aTU_3O6fPeeYX8dOmfzbHM6Zwu7RsN1gL0hR8vN73/s320/IMG_1272.heic" width="320" /></a></div><br />Team </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 13. YAMANE Miki <br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 31. YAMAMURA Kazuya</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;">DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma<br /></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>DF 2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei</span></span></span></div><div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span>(Yellow card 55')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 9. LEANDRO DAMIAO<br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 33. MIYASHIRO Taisei</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>Subs</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;">DF 4. JESIEL</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>(on for OMINAMI 87')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;">MF 6. JOAO SCHMIDT</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> (on for WAKIZAKA 87') </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>(on for </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>LEANDRO DAMIAO</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> 77') </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 18. Bafetimbi GOMIS </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>(on for KOBAYASHI 106')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;">FW 17. TONO Daiya</span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>(on for SEKO 64')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div><div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>(on for MIYASHIRO 64')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">My Frontale Man Of The Match</span></b></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></b></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Such have been our travails in recent times that more often than not I haven’t bothered with this. But in this game there was a clear and deserved recipient. Do I even need to say that it goes to…<br /><br />Sung-Ryong JUNG - needs absolutely no explanation. Arise Sir Sung- Ryong!</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><b>Goals</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><b> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>None</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Penalties</span></span></span></span><br /><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">IENAGA </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span>) 1-0</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> MATHEUS SAVIO <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Kashiwa</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">) 1-1<br /></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">SEGAWA </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span>) 2-1</span></span><br /></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">HOSOYA </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Kashiwa</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">) 2-2</span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">YAMAMURA </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>) 3-2</span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">TOSHIMA </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Kashiwa</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">) 3-3</span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">TACHIBANADA </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span>) 4-3</span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">SENTO </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Kashiwa</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">) 4-3</span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (Hit post)</span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">GOMIS </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span>) 4-3</span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (Saved)</span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">MUTO </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Kashiwa</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">) 4-4</span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">NOBORIZATO </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span>) 4-4</span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (Saved)</span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">KATAYAMA </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Kashiwa</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">) 4-4 </span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Hit post)</span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">TONO </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span>) 5-4</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">YAMAMOTO </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Kashiwa</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">) 5-5</span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">YAMANE </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span>) 6-5</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">KAWAGUCHI </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Kashiwa</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">) 6-6</span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">JOAO SCHMIDT </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span>) 7-6</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">TATSUTA </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Kashiwa</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">) 7-7</span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">JUNG </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span>) 8-7</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">MATSUMOTO </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Kashiwa</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">) 8-7</span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (Saved)</span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><b>Highlights</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> <br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p></div></div></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2b4XvqOhRwo?si=zL4kpE0DhbBacsWk" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-91947063987040584762023-12-05T16:42:00.001+09:002023-12-05T16:42:59.923+09:00 Vs Sagan Tosu (away) 3/12/23 J League match 34 <h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTEZDdUc8LTzGRs6VhUZxy1RhC7gNoPrqQOZZUtnHAXuCQJbo5na9ganCgAR4zuRUldEhplEcClBl5PeH4adT4msoXLQBJL2rSaHlP-G7VlF_3S_2yrWZHRj9Z2dA7h-x4wVLlhQE9-HW9T8Ib0gYEB5cqNYJu3z_YVV0XWUBiiAVybaUQFQa68vQu5n7V/s4032/IMG_7919.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTEZDdUc8LTzGRs6VhUZxy1RhC7gNoPrqQOZZUtnHAXuCQJbo5na9ganCgAR4zuRUldEhplEcClBl5PeH4adT4msoXLQBJL2rSaHlP-G7VlF_3S_2yrWZHRj9Z2dA7h-x4wVLlhQE9-HW9T8Ib0gYEB5cqNYJu3z_YVV0XWUBiiAVybaUQFQa68vQu5n7V/s320/IMG_7919.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Sagan Tosu 0 - 1 Kawasaki Frontale</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Another league campaign draws to a close and unlike last year, where we came miraculously close to kind of undeservedly getting something on the last day of the season, this year it was effectively all over months ago and all we could look forward to on the last day of the season was getting that most desired of all prizes, a top eight finish. This year’s league campaign has been an unmitigated disaster. I’ll write more about this in my end of year round up if I can be bothered to write anything at all. But it’s not all doom and gloom. We have the knockout stages of the ACL and the Emperor’s Cup final to look forward to. If we win the Emperor’s Cup and go a bit further in the ACL, perhaps this season will be looked back on as being a bit of a success. Of course objectively that will be correct, but an 8th place finish in the league isn’t something we’ve been used to recently. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihAYZNCODPu2hcYMz4G7I-6ZU8b1bg-OjTZfRhVsXoNbDrp7GJNI1B8lhTsZWIDvdhXRGvgqE-qvn-uDtlSYih5ztpOAmdrGKuQ-FC5fwc6LU4VCLO0Ui_fMMQuOLWFaWPAVJHeYjuYw_Jpfd8VEGV018slZYXFjFvjAsXRihKC4ZfkvRMiHPo-X4mJwwI/s4032/IMG_7914.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihAYZNCODPu2hcYMz4G7I-6ZU8b1bg-OjTZfRhVsXoNbDrp7GJNI1B8lhTsZWIDvdhXRGvgqE-qvn-uDtlSYih5ztpOAmdrGKuQ-FC5fwc6LU4VCLO0Ui_fMMQuOLWFaWPAVJHeYjuYw_Jpfd8VEGV018slZYXFjFvjAsXRihKC4ZfkvRMiHPo-X4mJwwI/s320/IMG_7914.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />As I’ve said before, you can’t really make much sense of why we’ve done better in some competitions than others this year. It’s basically been the same players and the same approach all the way, but maybe we’ve just been luckier when we aren't playing league games. It doesn’t even make sense when you consider the quality of the opposition. For some bizarre reason, even in past seasons when we’ve been flying high, it’s always the ‘weaker’ teams that get us. And that’s been the case again this year in the league. Although the truth is that pretty much everyone has had a decent chance of getting us at some stage of the season. Well apart from Kashima, hehe. When it comes to playing some noticeably weaker teams in the ACL however, we seem to brush them aside without too much trouble. A very confusing year. The only thing we can predict with any kind of confidence is that we’ll play terribly in the first half of pretty much every game. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7TxN_9QGv_2tQPMe1GmaQyYnujYmInY8Xvt1WrVf2NK-n-dihRQntetcQ53E4WoZ8U01tBnLG2yWd2m1TRtiNPcNIbGLQ5_VBwEviep4_eo76sITGRcqdPKF_zp_6BljHSpCjIVFjzDWpuEfZxQ62J96rZ-kdiOvCk5wnn91eePFA7VlKNW4SVgq0Grgn/s4032/IMG_7920.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7TxN_9QGv_2tQPMe1GmaQyYnujYmInY8Xvt1WrVf2NK-n-dihRQntetcQ53E4WoZ8U01tBnLG2yWd2m1TRtiNPcNIbGLQ5_VBwEviep4_eo76sITGRcqdPKF_zp_6BljHSpCjIVFjzDWpuEfZxQ62J96rZ-kdiOvCk5wnn91eePFA7VlKNW4SVgq0Grgn/s320/IMG_7920.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Guess I’d better talk about this game a bit. In this match we didn’t play particularly well in the first half. But thankfully neither did Sagan Tosu. Both teams looked like they were already on the beach. Neither team had anything much to lose in this game when you consider league position so maybe that was why almost all the players on the pitch looked like they were thinking about plenty of other things than football. However, the thing is that we very much should not be on the beach yet. We have the cup final next weekend, and what better preparation for that game could there be than a game where we apparently managed four shots on target, none of which I can particualrly remember. As usual with Tosu away, part of this is probably to do with the shochu consumed whilst standing behind the goal. In a game of little quality it is kind of fitting that we won through an own goal. I think a fair result, particularly when you consider the level of both teams’ play, would have been a 0-0. Apparently Sagan Tosu didn’t manage a single shot on target, so perhaps if anyone ‘deserved’ to win it, it was probably us. But yeah, 0-0 would have made more sense. But still I had a lot of fun at this game. Think it was a kind of last day of term feeling, and will be the last time I get to watch Frontale from a reasonable distance in 2023 so I guess I just got a bit carried away and sang myself hoarse. Sorry if you were expecting more details from this post. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHuIv5Fkh-HZocPz59wH2DGDbRvYpRorJSeN56iZ4tSpu_x9_iObbTFkNdfTPPhfaUbMwaFE6Rin6tATym0PXEbo2ewbhpHKFpCQLWXxk90NuUAI75xUravkqyhkRppjxb59AT6WB62k4S7nEPbXYWPpvhypZIpwkpV-G8ZMTUWdG4GdSE_KIhS_NFKJUG/s4032/IMG_7921.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHuIv5Fkh-HZocPz59wH2DGDbRvYpRorJSeN56iZ4tSpu_x9_iObbTFkNdfTPPhfaUbMwaFE6Rin6tATym0PXEbo2ewbhpHKFpCQLWXxk90NuUAI75xUravkqyhkRppjxb59AT6WB62k4S7nEPbXYWPpvhypZIpwkpV-G8ZMTUWdG4GdSE_KIhS_NFKJUG/s320/IMG_7921.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Maybe I should briefly say that the ref again seemed a bit rubbish, but rubbish in general rather than for any particular clanger. (We should have had a free kick inside their box for a back pass though, when they took a free kick, passed it back to the keeper who handled its and decided to take the free kick again from completely the wrong position. This was at the other end of the pitch though and… you know, shochu…). It was just a general low standard J League officiating performance. Clearly I couldn’t do a better job myself, but I don’t think that exempts me from being able to moan a bit. Especially given that this moaning has been the most entertaining part of many of this year's games for me. I feel like I should also write more about Oniki signing a new contract at the end of the season, so I won’t talk about it too much here. I will say though that depending on the result of the cup final, the decision will seem either well made or perhaps a bit of a rash decision. Certainly, as soon as the ink was dry on the new contract we seem to have gone back to the terrible early and mid season toothless performances. Presumably there is no connection, unless Oniki is really getting an early start on trying to lower expectations before picking things up shortly before the next contact renewal time. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnLoxmIKsUg4zwIsia8ZkStpdUc_YpzMFx7-nT4H6_iqaksxr7ATbmjnFGeIasHORF_Vn_yAl78aF1gPFS1K_TlJAqXMC9j75XmRBpErB1uj_w28TnsmdWJV8TQxjA5adq8ljrxlnM14RkWod0SICFaVUOjq0il44EjajhBSKwFraZIOO9Q65Pf52jHk-A/s4032/IMG_7925.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnLoxmIKsUg4zwIsia8ZkStpdUc_YpzMFx7-nT4H6_iqaksxr7ATbmjnFGeIasHORF_Vn_yAl78aF1gPFS1K_TlJAqXMC9j75XmRBpErB1uj_w28TnsmdWJV8TQxjA5adq8ljrxlnM14RkWod0SICFaVUOjq0il44EjajhBSKwFraZIOO9Q65Pf52jHk-A/s320/IMG_7925.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />It is quite funny, (well, maybe funny isn’t the right word…), quite how bad we became between the last couple of matches and this one. But we do always play pretty badly against Sagan Tosu, so maybe snatching a 1-0 win from a late own goal should actually be considered a bit of a coup. Plenty of fans seem to have greeted Oniki’s new contract with glee. I can’t say I feel the same way, but thought it was kind of inevitable after we cruised through the ACL group stages. The weird thing about the timing of that competition is that now it straddles two J League seasons there is the very real chance of a team who qualified from the group stage looking very different when it comes to the knockout stage. I wonder if players would be cup tied if they transfered from one ACL team to another. Anyway, 2024 will be another year for us with Oniki. If we finish the year playing how we </span>have for the most part of the last couple of months, I think we can be a bit more optimistic. If we revert to the same old rubbish of the previous months in the final, I think it’s going to be another long year. <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0efkC5SNg1bI6Og3qBcns8kZaDxRVm4CIIHDVriL9vl2jUJfuB-76Ju0lTYL5ZT7FDFwKRVsdh2_ql4ieXbVDDpVgXAAofZfS3g7gi1dRuKQjEBnkUWOjpjaOlGj5lMjR4vjSJFp_DFVI8yDjNN9fnFnwiY6a9ZbqM8HoEUmshClMRmY87fAoxbHdT90t/s4032/IMG_7926.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0efkC5SNg1bI6Og3qBcns8kZaDxRVm4CIIHDVriL9vl2jUJfuB-76Ju0lTYL5ZT7FDFwKRVsdh2_ql4ieXbVDDpVgXAAofZfS3g7gi1dRuKQjEBnkUWOjpjaOlGj5lMjR4vjSJFp_DFVI8yDjNN9fnFnwiY6a9ZbqM8HoEUmshClMRmY87fAoxbHdT90t/s320/IMG_7926.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Next up, this Saturday, the Emperor’s Cup final against Kashiwa Reysol. We were pretty ineffective when we played them at their place recently, (one of the bad games in what was a pretty good run). Our previous Emperor’s Cup final at the National Stadium was a pretty dull affair so I guess this one could be too. But fingers crossed anyway. After that, the following Tuesday we finish 2023 with an away trip to Ulsan. I will be on my way to the UK for my Christmas holiday on the day of that game, so don’t expect anything more than a couple of sentence for that blog post and because of pre-holiday lack of preparation coming home to roost, also expect the Emperor’s Cup one to come out around the same time.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> <br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxCox3QJcbjkDgh1tvHCEIDVfU4wfGYCs5MNHDs0ev9H7dWACpg-dn0BmqTpeY5lSC6fp73V0XKBe6-mcMirZf9pkv7YR3ifc2ERIqpJ76Io9EZq01RpXFIlvyEOobV3vk1xAsPW36jEeoBgVFrFmRZikK8GS6w48WPdQP8P4kiVzToQxEJrx58c61y4JR/s4032/IMG_7930.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxCox3QJcbjkDgh1tvHCEIDVfU4wfGYCs5MNHDs0ev9H7dWACpg-dn0BmqTpeY5lSC6fp73V0XKBe6-mcMirZf9pkv7YR3ifc2ERIqpJ76Io9EZq01RpXFIlvyEOobV3vk1xAsPW36jEeoBgVFrFmRZikK8GS6w48WPdQP8P4kiVzToQxEJrx58c61y4JR/s320/IMG_7930.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Team </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 13. YAMANE Miki <br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span>DF 4. JESIEL<br /></span></span></span></div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 31. YAMAMURA Kazuya</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span>DF 2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei</span></span></div><div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento</span></span></span></span><br />MF 17. TONO Daiya<br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 33. MIYASHIRO Taisei</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> <br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>Subs</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><div><div><span style="font-size: small;">DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> (on for JESIEL 81')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> (on for SEGAWA 59')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 18. Bafetimbi GOMIS </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>(on for WAKIZAKA 81')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 20. YAMADA Shin </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>(on for KOBAYASHI 59')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /></div></div><div><div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 29. TAKAI Kota</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>(on for TONO 71')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><b>Goals</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><b> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>HINO (</span></span></span></span></span>Sagan Tosu<span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>) OWN GOAL 87' 0-1<span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><b>Highlights</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p></div></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wf079fvyUps?si=ly5L7MKA_lMDA_YM" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3KAD8zEzenU?si=wuG_L1daqTmuOPbT" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9pQbmysv3kI?si=L-1U4K1j3l-3eCBP" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-642127607520742102023-11-30T14:31:00.000+09:002023-11-30T14:31:00.983+09:00Vs Johor DT (home) 28/11/23 ACL Group stage match 5<h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrw4Ve5S4AEGEtmcvF-BWOzGXisQllriwMrApo2uAuQbzg2qY2M_I38eGUprptGkqprQou5uyO0Gw9YeZEzDTdMq2nhiiE2jh9DbNhMa_auL7kPIjaM56nGBIhAvb70gyGN3IcoL5k6p2W6KYq4MXU_il5ML556-fOBKen2g-bVyDzW08IajLjX2Kln139/s4032/IMG_7863.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrw4Ve5S4AEGEtmcvF-BWOzGXisQllriwMrApo2uAuQbzg2qY2M_I38eGUprptGkqprQou5uyO0Gw9YeZEzDTdMq2nhiiE2jh9DbNhMa_auL7kPIjaM56nGBIhAvb70gyGN3IcoL5k6p2W6KYq4MXU_il5ML556-fOBKen2g-bVyDzW08IajLjX2Kln139/s320/IMG_7863.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Kawasaki Frontale 5 - 0 Johor DT</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is perhaps the first week for a long time where I probably should spend some time writing a proper blog post as there are suddenly lots of things to talk about regarding Frontale. Sadly, I only have a little time after this game when I’m not working before we head off to Kyushu for the final league game of the season, so as you have probably come to expect, this is going to be the usual rushed out mess.<br /><br />I guess the first thing to talk about is obviously this game. Although to be honest, I think the things around the game are actually more important and interesting. In last year’s ACL when Johor basically played all of their games at home and their opponents had to travel they ended up winning the group. This year, they are nowhere near as lucky and nowhere near as effective. They have totally dominated their domestic league, conceding only seven goals in 24 games, but somehow 2023 Frontale managed to put five past them. Toward the end of the game when the goals just kept on coming, I got the sense that perhaps the Johor players weren’t enjoying not having things their own way. There were a lot of snippy tackles late on and they probably should have had a lot more yellow cards than they ended up with. The first half was nowhere near as much of a landslide when it came to goals, but as far as I was concerned, we never looked that uncomfortable in this game, which is something that I haven't said much, if at all, this year. I don’t really know what has happened to us recently. After being truly awful in front of goal for most of the season, suddenly we’re scoring goals for fun. Sometimes also conceding goals for fun too, but we seem to have won quite a lot of games in the last couple of months. Aside from the ACL and Emperor’s Cup though, this has all been too little too late. And in fact the two draws and one loss that we’ve had in the last two months have all come in the league, all to teams who are lower in the table than us. You can’t really say we’ve changed much when it comes to players. Our match day squads are basically still made up of the same players, and most changes that are being made are due to a succession of injuries rather than for tactical reasons. Also, I can’t really see any difference in the approach or tactics, but observing these kind of things has never been my speciality. The only thing I can put it down to is us getting some confidence back. Hopefully we can keep that confidence going for the final three games of our season. The remaining ACL game is utterly pointless for us now. Although I guess we could do Johor a favour by beating Ulsan, but even then, perhaps a win against Pathum wouldn’t be enough for them to progress as one of the best second placed teams. The remaining league game is equally meaningless. There’s a slim chance that a big win and other results going our way could see us finish as high as seventh, but to be honest, I think ninth is absolutely the right place for us this year. It’s been pretty hard going until recently. Anyway, back to this game, it was great to see five goals all from different players. It was also great to see some really good moves too. I said in the first half that Yamane never seems to shoot anymore so I’m going to take credit for him scoring in the second half. Not sure how much we can read into this big win though as Johor seemed pretty average. I thought one moment in the first half neatly summed them up. They did a really fancy kind of reverse back heel sweep pass to beat us on our right hand side and then lost the ball shortly afterwards. Johor remind me a bit of one of those people who does amazing ball juggling on Instagram or those guys who make the videos where they take perfect free kicks with no goalkeeper or opposition or dribble past cones and finish with confidence into an empty net (all with us having no knowledge of how many failed attempts haven’t made it on to the video, I guess). They seem to be good at football skills, but maybe not that good at actually playing football. Perhaps this is a bit unfair on them, but I certainly didn’t see much from them last night apart from petulant fouls when things weren’t going their way. Their fans on the other hand, were really good. I don’t know how big their drum was but it was absolutely booming, and their singing was pretty loud considering they didn’t have that many fans there. I think they probably brought more than Ulsan or Pathum did though, even if it was mainly the guys around the drum that were making the noise. And they had some good songs too! Whilst praising their fans, I feel I need to put in my usual moan about our support being a bit shit at times. Our call leader group’s apparent absolute refusal to sing when the opposition have the ball made for a very flat atmosphere when they were playing the ball around the midfield. I guess they want to save their support for when we’re attacking, but to go silent when we don’t have the ball just makes for a weird experience. Before I finish this section about the match, I guess I should mention that once again we were supplied with an absolutely dogshit ref. The linesman on the back stand side was pretty good though, I thought. The ref pissed me off, but this is such a common occurrence that in a way, it’s kind of pointless for me to even mention it. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgict4WJRtWuxi8TSUCbDGuFczROvRyYRG_Dt6Qbot8cXS0rJeNO_29-5bxBkPX6y6TUL67Baq0FOn_HUPivzIxQekKvA5mF5gPmG6ShLAx3Vpo4YfV9AU3pzSSxJ9JHVgmJoAv2L1AWdIlTjw25scGq5yPvCygtK2sRAL2jParcRFc16QJ3V_eW4dWPnMy/s4032/IMG_7858.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgict4WJRtWuxi8TSUCbDGuFczROvRyYRG_Dt6Qbot8cXS0rJeNO_29-5bxBkPX6y6TUL67Baq0FOn_HUPivzIxQekKvA5mF5gPmG6ShLAx3Vpo4YfV9AU3pzSSxJ9JHVgmJoAv2L1AWdIlTjw25scGq5yPvCygtK2sRAL2jParcRFc16QJ3V_eW4dWPnMy/s320/IMG_7858.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />So, aside from this match, there are also a few other things to mention. As predicted by myself in the pub after the game, Oniki will remain our manager for next season. I had no idea the announcement would come so soon after I said so, but I could never imagine that he would leave after getting us through the group stage so smoothly. Presumably he thinks he can help us navigate our way a bit further in the competition. I hope the other prediction I made about us losing to Ventforet Kofu in the next round doesn’t come true, but it would be a very Oniki Frontale way for us to get booted out of the knockout stage of a competition, wouldn’t it? So what can I say about him extending his tenure with us? Well, not much really as any negativity about it happening when we are scoring for fun would seem like extreme sour grapes. I wonder how the decision will look though if we revert back to our shocking old form in the Emperor’s Cup final and lose it. The end of our season has panned out in exactly the way a manager hoping to extend his contract would want it to, our current good run erasing the memories of some very bad games earlier in the year that saw us ruled out of the league title race very early on. Looking at things optimistically, I guess you have to hope that Oniki has made a subtle but crucial tweak to our play which has caused us to suddenly start doing well again. The first half against Kyoto and most of the game away at Kashiwa were pretty awful though. And I don’t know how long the same group of players can keep playing every game, with very little rotation. I suppose there will be a few players leaving at the end of the year. Damiao certainly was acting again like he won’t be at Todoroki next year. It’s a real shame as he seems to be on top of his game at the moment, but you can’t begrudge him wanting to move on. However, there must be some other players who are thinking that they can have a better chance of playing football if they move away. I don’t want to name names, but I can think or three or four who I wouldn’t be surprised to see moving on at the end of the year. Presumably we’ll get some players in too, but whether they will get any match time is another matter. New signings who aren’t big names normally have to spend a year occasionally gracing the bench and nothing more before being allowed to play football. And then think about all of the players who we had great hopes for who haven’t played hardly at all this year and probably won’t play next year without any major injuries or departures. Us retaining our manager might give some players who have hardly been used and were on the fence about whether to stay or go a reason to look elsewhere, perhaps imagining that their chances or being involved won’t improve with the same guy in charge and the same players ahead of them in the squad. I suspect that we won’t have any first team players departing at the end of the season. I don’t think anyone has shone brightly enough to attract attention from overseas. So it wouldn’t be a great surprise to see the first starting line up of next year being almost the same as the last one of this year, (I guess with someone in place of Damiao). Anyway, we’re doing well at the moment, so this makes it a bit difficult to be even slightly critical. Let’s just hope that good form continues and we can make a better fist of the league next year. We’ll have a few more games as the league expands to 20 teams so maybe we’ll need to rotate a bit more. Conversely, the change in the Levain cup structure means that every game is a knockout, which usually means that Oniki doesn’t change the line up much. I hope that us carrying over our good from the end of the season into next season will happen, but there are definitely weak spots in the line up where players are getting older and their level is dropping off slightly and it would be more likely that they’d get worse as we enter another year rather than better. But I don’t know, it’s all a bit difficult to tell, isn’t it? In my opinion, I think the most likely thing is that not much will change though. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitm7zw0bk23Oz07dv9qUjSNtrNoiyb-2BtR1lREpY0TgxHvkDlHtbnWi3UdfnX_Kxls1bHql6VZT07vkgCX1u9qS1Wy-_Q94ATZHkb9MdbHvqgXdyBK3VqMnDBePdwJrMl-d4mwq3DH3tn8YfTZpzdoFnDBLXc__yUbAxG_mDv2W605c7LURl_iFfscX0l/s4032/IMG_7866.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitm7zw0bk23Oz07dv9qUjSNtrNoiyb-2BtR1lREpY0TgxHvkDlHtbnWi3UdfnX_Kxls1bHql6VZT07vkgCX1u9qS1Wy-_Q94ATZHkb9MdbHvqgXdyBK3VqMnDBePdwJrMl-d4mwq3DH3tn8YfTZpzdoFnDBLXc__yUbAxG_mDv2W605c7LURl_iFfscX0l/s320/IMG_7866.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />I feel like there was some other major talking point I was supposed to write about, but for some reason it has completely left my mind. Please comment if you know what it might have been and I'll add something. Next up Sagan Tosu away on Sunday which I’m really looking forward to, particularly as the result doesn’t matter and I can just enjoy a nice stadium and nice shochu. Well, I say nice shochu, but I’m most definitely not an expert and find it quite difficult to drink, but for some reason, always seem to have a very nice time after I’ve finished my first glass. So cheers to our progression in the ACL, (hang on, did I even mention that had happened? I guess you knew anyway) and cheers to the final game being one in a good stadium!</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><b> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><b>Team </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 13. YAMANE Miki <br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 31. YAMAMURA Kazuya</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;">DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span>(Yellow card 33') </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>DF 2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei</span></span></span></div><div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 9. LEANDRO DAMIAO<br />FW 23. MARCINHO</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> <br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">Subs<br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>GK 22. HAYASAKA Yuki<br />GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;">DF 4. JESIEL</span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;">MF 6. JOAO SCHMIDT</span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span>(on for SEKO 85')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> (on for LEANDRO DAMIAO 67')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 15. TANABE Shuto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 17. TONO Daiya</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span>(Yellow card 86') </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span>(on for MARCINHO 67')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;">FW 18. Bafetimbi GOMIS </span></span><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 20. YAMADA Shin</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> (on for IENAGA 73')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 29. TAKAI Kota<br />FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 33. MIYASHIRO Taisei</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span>(on for WAKIZAKA 67')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><b>Goals<br /></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><b><br /></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>IENAGA<span><span><span><span> (Frontale) 8' 1-0</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>LEANDRO DAMIAO<span><span><span><span> (Frontale) 50' 2-0</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>MARCINHO<span><span><span><span> (Frontale) 60' 3-0</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>KOBAYASHI<span><span><span><span> (Frontale) 69' 4-0</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>YAMANE<span><span><span><span> (Frontale) 88' 5-0</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><b><span>H</span><span>ighlights</span></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RFShMZ4LRnQ?si=FxxfnkxuZYU3dYUu" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe> Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-5392013892621816132023-11-26T12:43:00.002+09:002023-11-26T12:43:28.697+09:00 Vs Kashima Antlers (home) 24/11/23 J League match 33 <h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_yGTb2gPQimF-pX9C7y2oE857g_pLVX8DUemc_MGwJHwiz8tXvTfrSlwv84MWTPwD9FrT1iPdGR2YisJxTbUwISv7lHu6Fm3KOxkX4S8TuGGwnQS1jIT-Iovyi0QHIUGbLnGxa8yJHBKJQZ2_kFqzNIjWiId6bcGtH45HEf5OXbHO44NLCCll5XKFvQTA/s4032/IMG_7847.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_yGTb2gPQimF-pX9C7y2oE857g_pLVX8DUemc_MGwJHwiz8tXvTfrSlwv84MWTPwD9FrT1iPdGR2YisJxTbUwISv7lHu6Fm3KOxkX4S8TuGGwnQS1jIT-Iovyi0QHIUGbLnGxa8yJHBKJQZ2_kFqzNIjWiId6bcGtH45HEf5OXbHO44NLCCll5XKFvQTA/s320/IMG_7847.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Kawasaki Frontale 3 - 0 Kashima Antlers <br /></span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">What’s happened to us recently? After struggling to play attacking football for pretty much the whole year, now we’re on a massive goalscoring streak. Perhaps it’s because the pressure is off as we’ve been out of the title race for a while. Perhaps Oniki has tweaked the tactics (haven’t really noticed that happening particulary, but what do I know?). Actually the only team we’ve been unable to score multiple goals past in the last month and a half is one of the two teams still involved in the relegation battle going into the final week’s fixtures. Thankfully we got our awful performance against the other one out of the way earlier in the year. Bizarrely, but maybe not so unpredictable given recent years’ performances, the only other game in this run that we’ve failed to win was against Kyoto, a team who were until this round of fixtures, also involved in the relegation battle, albeit slightly tenuously. Whatever the reason for these goal heavy games, it was lovely to keep the high scoring going against Kashima, who at times for me get slightly forgotten as being a true hateable team. I guess they just haven’t been very successful recently 😉. That and the fact that they seem to be completely unable to beat a Oniki managed Frontale team which must be particularly annoying for them in 2023, when pretty much anyone can beat us pretty easily. We’ve got four more games left this year, Sagan Tosu away in the league, Johor at home and Ulsan away in the ACL, and the Emperor’s Cup final. If we don’t win the Emperor’s Cup this will have been a pretty poor season, I think. Even if we do, there is definitely a case to be made that it still has been pretty bad. This sounds like an entitled attitude, but the fact is that we were apparently fully focused on regaining the league title this season and that was probably the worst we did in any competition. Well, perhaps the Levain could also be taken into consideration for this title, but the fact that most teams play the reserves for games in that competition means that it’s always a bit random. So, I guess the key is to intentionally not focus on a competition and then you do well in it. This was one of the first years for a long time that the ACL wasn’t really mentioned as a season goal and somehow we seem to be managing to negotiate a difficult group without too much trouble so far. 2023 has been a weird season, but probably not weird enough to live long in the memory. Certainly I want to forget quite a few of the games we’ve had to watch this year. But anyway, this isn’t an end of season round up. That will, I guess, come in a few weeks. Not sure I can really be bothered to write it though as it’s never much fun when you have almost nothing positive to say. <br /> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6_lHYXa7i0wORc7zZ0fY1Lrg3tI2Y0kXtA_SDEuURzZJ0E6sMVhcxEfnFB8gjtp7ORUKsp_nZGKT3B4smn15_-PssY_E9oUhx_n4EMsmpHY4YIz-QcuwsbVIryLs-qeqqRnhy410rjwMfoHiktmaEsfJZUmN2yYB7_m00Elz5SzZSlU9zYbeiL-HOaVN/s4032/IMG_7831.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6_lHYXa7i0wORc7zZ0fY1Lrg3tI2Y0kXtA_SDEuURzZJ0E6sMVhcxEfnFB8gjtp7ORUKsp_nZGKT3B4smn15_-PssY_E9oUhx_n4EMsmpHY4YIz-QcuwsbVIryLs-qeqqRnhy410rjwMfoHiktmaEsfJZUmN2yYB7_m00Elz5SzZSlU9zYbeiL-HOaVN/s320/IMG_7831.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Unsurprisingly, Oniki kept pretty much the same line up for this game. I guess it was slightly interesting that Ominami was back and it was him who partnered Yamamura in defence. Jesiel had a shocker in his last game which led to me pondering on whether he wasn’t really fit. I don’t know if we’ll see him again this season. Yamamura and Ominami looked pretty well organised in this game, so I’d much rather it was them playing at the moment to be honest. Up front we had Oniki’s recently favoured Ienaga / Marcinho / Damiao trio. Probably the main talking point of this game was Damiao who turned back the clock somewhat and could have had a hat trick if Oniki hadn’t intervened and taken the ball off him and given it to Wakizaka for our very much not crucial in any way whatsoever penalty with us leading 2-0 with about 10 minutes to go. Sure Damiao’s recent penalties have left quite a lot to be desired, but at least give hm the chance of scoring a hat trick in what will probably be his last appearance at Todoroki. There has long been talk that he’ll be leaving us and his goal celebration with his kids who were sitting in the main stand and then him climbing in with the drummers for a post game Vai La De Frontale suggests that he was making the most of his last home appearance. It will be a shame if he goes, but probably the right decision. Strikers in Oniki teams seem to struggle recently, and I can’t imagine it’s much fun being a big money player who doesn’t play much and when they do play, struggles to get any chances. I think he’s greatly loved by our fans and seems like a really nice guy. I think we all hope he goes back to Brazil rather than join another J League team, particularly as I suspect he’d start scoring for fun in a different formation or under different tactics. But Oniki, why did you demand Wakizaka took that penalty?! As I always say, there seems to be nothing but nice comments about him and how much of a good guy he is, but there is definitely the cold veins of a psychopath in some of the decisions he makes. Let’s not get too carried away about us scoring three times in this game. The first goal was a nice move and a lovely finish from Damiao. But the second was an absolute gift from a Kashima defender and their keeper got in on the gifting by giving us a penalty for the third. However, we did look pretty solid at the other end so perhaps…. we deserved to win… Perhaps. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqvN-dhVV8mKSOB1rK6aND3U7UursSU0PxOS93zk9kOY-4jrgXzUAADHZS_a456jEvazSPUz9Hmg_Xqst46XEJ-opbGBh9tek4RZS9oP6WwBMT8y716iDg1OyGvv8njUDliDTs9qTXrSR-TRmNIXJRVw3GregRApbnnDaK-LzLzfHsynZOn0vaNC082Drp/s4032/IMG_7834.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqvN-dhVV8mKSOB1rK6aND3U7UursSU0PxOS93zk9kOY-4jrgXzUAADHZS_a456jEvazSPUz9Hmg_Xqst46XEJ-opbGBh9tek4RZS9oP6WwBMT8y716iDg1OyGvv8njUDliDTs9qTXrSR-TRmNIXJRVw3GregRApbnnDaK-LzLzfHsynZOn0vaNC082Drp/s320/IMG_7834.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Not taking anything away from the joy of putting the despicable Kashima to the sword though. I’m sure there are some nice people involved with the club and I’m sure that not all of their fans are arseholes, but how nice to see Suzuki, Pituca and Iwamasa upset about how this game went. I have nothing new to say about the Spirit of Zico banner, It’s still bizarre. I don’t have anything original to say about Yuma Suzuki’s shorts, which at the start of the match seemed to be pretty normal but soon started to creep up his thighs as if they were trying to sneak their way into his arse without anyone noticing. There was one particular amusing point where his short wearing style seemed to bite him as he kind of swiveled mid air to try to volley the ball and seemed to give himself a wedgie. At the end of the game, Suzuki was furious and gutted by the result, taking his time to half-heartedly join the post game bow line. He may have been gutted but his shorts presumably were relieved as they were by that stage only millimeters away from being completely consumed, never to be seen again. Actually though, I don’t mind him that much. He’s a real Okubo type player, who you love if he’s on your team and hate if he’s on the opposition team. I think he’s probably not as nuts as he seems to be and instead is a bit of an expert in the dark arts. Pituca on the other hand is just an areshole it seems. Constantly complaining about everything, perhaps constantly only moments away from punching someone or kicking something into the crowd. How nice it is that he’ll be leaving Japan soon (apparently). It will mean the end of my jokes about him looking like CJ from Eggheads, but I think no-one ever understood what I was talking about when I made that reference, year after year, much to my own amusement. For the sake of tradition, let’s just one more time refer to his most famous news story by hoping that wherever Pituca moves next, there are no canals, as if there are the local population could be in danger. I feel like I should probably mention their goalkeeper too, who I think is young and looked quite dodgy at times. I could happily enjoy this dodginess though, as before he started being dodgy, he’d been flopping around feigning injury and moaning a lot. I have to say, I find it quite annoying when goalies come out of their box and then go down at the slightest contact. Surely they should be treated the same as outfield players if they want to start heading or passing the ball. But this is probably the ref’s fault and not his. In any case, the keeper somehow managed to combine the characteristics of both a sickly child and a frail OAP, bridging the generation gap. Truly inspirational stuff. A quick word on the Kashima gammon fans who were pretty annoyed at the end of this game. Who can blame them? As their players went to thank them, a shirtless gammon ran towards the extremely low wall separating them from the pitch area and was somehow stopped in his tracks. Another one did that classic Kashima move of simultaneously perfectly playing the roles of angry fan trying to storm the pitch and security guard holding him back, another brave protestor being thwarted by a wall that comes up to just past his knees and the restraining pull of himself on himself. I’d very much enjoyed us beating Kashima, but the reaction of their fans just added that extra bit of satisfaction to everything. Lovely!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhqAOZCVFK8F1_6DBlDfYGnB9rrIp6E5HtgWhk07YOqP1WrvpD8e5MQ3BgJEHdE8XR9pbVsayMdFWxzraD9LEsFBcEK602XE7h3ZacbXN9y2m0iRUnNYsMT3QDxVhVqH1zhu78FmjEeeiLDGK1V2iUx4B3jQlIHMCF_8et2lA7F4IMw8tDqqBdOR9S8k6g/s4032/IMG_7839.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhqAOZCVFK8F1_6DBlDfYGnB9rrIp6E5HtgWhk07YOqP1WrvpD8e5MQ3BgJEHdE8XR9pbVsayMdFWxzraD9LEsFBcEK602XE7h3ZacbXN9y2m0iRUnNYsMT3QDxVhVqH1zhu78FmjEeeiLDGK1V2iUx4B3jQlIHMCF_8et2lA7F4IMw8tDqqBdOR9S8k6g/s320/IMG_7839.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />A few words on the ref. It was Kasahara and we also had Nishimura on VAR which sounds like a nightmare combination. Although thank you to Nishimura who overruled Kasahara to give us what looking at replays was clearly a penalty. Kasahara managed to keep his red card in his pocket in this game, and was presumably distraught that he couldn’t give a DOGSO red card to us. He didn’t seem very keen to give yellows either. Although he made an exception for Kobayashi’s first tackle after coming on. To be fair I don’t think he made any clangers, but he did give some wired decisions at times and they did start to irritate me. But in 2023 a referee being irritating and making weird decisions but not making any major mistakes counts as a first class officiating performance, so best give credit where credit’s due. Especially as he told Ienaga to go off the pitch behind the goal in order not to waste time and then let himself be completely ignored, and even slightly humiliated. Actually, I should be giving Ienaga the credit here and not the ref, shouldn’t I? So, well done Ienaga.<br /><br />Next up Johor at home in the ACL. A point will secure first place in the group but it would be nice to beat them, wouldn’t it? After that, our final league game of the season away at Sagan Tosu down in Kyushu. It’s always one of my favourite away trips and perhaps this year it will be even more fun as the game will be 100% meaningless, so when we perform badly as we tend to do, it won’t matter at all! </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><b>Team </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 13. YAMANE Miki <br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 31. YAMAMURA Kazuya</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><div>DF 3. OMINAMI Takuma<br /></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span>DF 2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei</span></span></div><div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 9. LEANDRO DAMIAO<br />FW 23. MARCINHO</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> <br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>Subs</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;">MF 6. JOAO SCHMIDT</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> (on for NOBORIZATO 87') </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span>(Yellow card 90') </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>(on for IENAGA 87') </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 18. Bafetimbi GOMIS </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>(on for LEANDRO DAMIAO 87')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">FW 17. TONO Daiya</span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>(on for SEKO 87')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div><div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 29. TAKAI Kota</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 33. MIYASHIRO Taisei</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> (on for MARCINHO 71') </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoeVZxzvamj8SeXXXyISfXV_xelZVnjk59LH55D598_ni9QADRg671Juvh57EP9tBBeXfXJu3jk-teYvmxbIn6T4pAF7LD0fXqFXHVArFLP2pq7_Bl7vfdz-Di5AhXCjtrwNeHBVTr3yOCRSpwx4liDpZeKA6jb3i0T-TwJbr2pZG1pYVHpvrR-bGyHdCj/s4032/IMG_7845.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoeVZxzvamj8SeXXXyISfXV_xelZVnjk59LH55D598_ni9QADRg671Juvh57EP9tBBeXfXJu3jk-teYvmxbIn6T4pAF7LD0fXqFXHVArFLP2pq7_Bl7vfdz-Di5AhXCjtrwNeHBVTr3yOCRSpwx4liDpZeKA6jb3i0T-TwJbr2pZG1pYVHpvrR-bGyHdCj/s320/IMG_7845.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">My Frontale Man Of The Match</span></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></b></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">As it might be one of the last times I can give this to him, and jointly for his first blasted finish and the good grace with which he allowed the penalty to be taken from him, it has to go to….<br /><br />LEANDRO DAMIAO - lovely guy. It’s been a pleasure having you at our club and we hope you can score a few more before you depart.</span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><b>Goals</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><b> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>LEANDRO DAMIAO (</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>) 34' 1-1</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>LEANDRO DAMIAO</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span> (</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>) 63' 2-3</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>WAKIZAKA (</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>) PEN 84' 3-3</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><b>Highlights</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p></div></div></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZB4ORRyRe44?si=MXmDjIDKcHoFvMYu" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZZ0xuLApLfw?si=CQmAvjev0bnq3CDE" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-26602782612525805922023-11-16T15:41:00.000+09:002023-11-16T15:41:31.450+09:00Vs Kyoto Sanga (home) 12/11/23 J League match 32<h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhliJ0X06fifPld3gsl4gZxZy8loVQQd3d-K7qMyt1edZ4MEdLomMHd7pexcxtNFtOXwMxDvTDj9PXjgxnhcPuHfItpKkZ14tCiVuvLssXuvXvW5RJtDiTmH4Ff5hWGXx-KuNG8nWBICeT9IQXdac1EUxG5ZEIetz6u_AgKRyH_dmncfSv0Xk8rBq1Sqllo/s4032/IMG_7805.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhliJ0X06fifPld3gsl4gZxZy8loVQQd3d-K7qMyt1edZ4MEdLomMHd7pexcxtNFtOXwMxDvTDj9PXjgxnhcPuHfItpKkZ14tCiVuvLssXuvXvW5RJtDiTmH4Ff5hWGXx-KuNG8nWBICeT9IQXdac1EUxG5ZEIetz6u_AgKRyH_dmncfSv0Xk8rBq1Sqllo/s320/IMG_7805.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Kawasaki Frontale 3 - 3 Kyoto Sanga</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Sorry this is a bit late but I had an unpleasant start to the week as I think I caught the flu. Given that, I'm a bit worried that I was at the Frontale game on Sunday and then the Brave Thunders game too, (deal on tickets as it was a collaboration with Frontale. Have never been to a basketball game before and it was a lot of fun). This morning I’m feeling slightly human again so am sitting down and trying to get this post out of the way as quickly and painlessly as possible. Time always dulls the details and when you add three days of high fever to this, you can expect that there won’t be much that makes sense in this post but I’ll do my best from the notes I made. Here we go.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8fcLGWe89EJy7CoM8L8UKcieCBSfDzdGpncBk2RtiPHxgUjxK4QlR8dqWgxphEny2YPF9gnHbsksM-Ja6MKmZ0ATwr4PNtsWhnmRlulJ4RVjV27D-6pIvImEu2ftOropmbWYTSC8OW9hQQTBiEpdItcxqiuQ9SOBFd8pzbZszMpaVcMsHLyi5zOuPQPuD/s4032/IMG_7808.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8fcLGWe89EJy7CoM8L8UKcieCBSfDzdGpncBk2RtiPHxgUjxK4QlR8dqWgxphEny2YPF9gnHbsksM-Ja6MKmZ0ATwr4PNtsWhnmRlulJ4RVjV27D-6pIvImEu2ftOropmbWYTSC8OW9hQQTBiEpdItcxqiuQ9SOBFd8pzbZszMpaVcMsHLyi5zOuPQPuD/s320/IMG_7808.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />People excited by the starting line up and imagining we were changing formation and approach probably don’t know Oniki as well as they think they do. Naturally, no left back in the line up means we’ll probably be playing an attacker there. And so we did. You could say there was some rotation as Takai was in for Yamamura and the front three were changed. It’s basically the same 15 or 16 players still though. I think the last time Takai started at Todoroki he had a nightmare and was directly responsible for three opposition goals. On this occasion he was the solid link in the defensive chain and Jesiel instead was giving away goals for fun. Their second was particularly shocking, when it appeared that Jesiel was stuck in slow motion and could only look on as the Kyoto player easily beat him by… not really doing anything. I suspect that Jesiel has been rushed back from his injury and is feeling the pace. If only we had a manger who actually knew how to rotate, particularly in games that are absolutely meaningless for us! It was a shock when he was replaced at half time though, but definitely the right decision as he’d been really out of sorts. Not sure why Joao also got subbed, but that does seem to be Oniki’s reaction to a poor first half (remove the midfielder who isn’t Wakizaka or Tachibanada). If only we could get to a situation where we could actually choose the right players or approach right from the kick off if would be nice! So terrible have all of our first halves been recently, that if there was a bar in the stadium, it really wouldn’t be worth leaving it till half time. There’s one thing we can always guarantee recently and that’s that we’ll concede for fun in the first half. At least in this game we managed a couple of goals in the first 45 minutes and they were nice ones. Miyashiro was back starting again and scored a good goal and got an assist for Kobayashi's goal. I wonder what might have happened if Oniki hadn't dropped Miyashiro (our then top scorer) completely from our squads earlier in the year? Anyway, to sum us up in this game, we still look utterly surprised that teams will come and try to score goals against us, totally unprepared for what they might try to do, struggle to get decent shots in from our normal ponderous build up play, and will apparently persist in playing anyone at left back apart from an actual left back. I’m surprised he hasn’t given Kamifukumoto a go there yet. It’s weird that in a year when we are targeting reclaiming the league title we are woefully off the pace and when we haven’t mentioned the ACL and are in tough group we seem to be negotiating it pretty well. I think the only conclusion we can draw is that we’re not very good at doing what we want to do, or perhaps that our manager's plans to get what we want are so poor that they have no chance of succeeding. I guess the even more bizarre thing is that Oniki has never really been one for prioritising any one competition. In anything other than very early Emperor’s Cup rounds against amateur or university teams, Oniki’s gone with pretty much the same group of players and the same approach. Surely it can’t only be me who has noticed that they don’t work, can it?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc2twLdtEKAbDb_a0P-FfTycWw7bCxh9076SS3nu6QBekeWRPllVELeVAF2Z6ee3x8UHdckjvSraWMC5Rf1S2k1sb2tkh6I6_IOATyDJnjaZkEo3s8bNvR2UF8ikznr9GaMZhtYWiD1UjP9nZTB69psDMHVzLbN_XiDZHIjH4XJOMCbzryyoTq7pGEufUl/s4032/IMG_7809.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc2twLdtEKAbDb_a0P-FfTycWw7bCxh9076SS3nu6QBekeWRPllVELeVAF2Z6ee3x8UHdckjvSraWMC5Rf1S2k1sb2tkh6I6_IOATyDJnjaZkEo3s8bNvR2UF8ikznr9GaMZhtYWiD1UjP9nZTB69psDMHVzLbN_XiDZHIjH4XJOMCbzryyoTq7pGEufUl/s320/IMG_7809.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />On to the opposition and the officials. Let’s start with Kyoto as there’s not much to say about them really. They haven’t really looked like they were in relegation trouble for a while this season but as it comes to the crunch they find themselves hanging around in the wrong area again. So should be easy picking for a resolutely mid-table team like us, right? Well, of course not. Previous to this game they’d only scored 33 goals in their 31 games, but we let them score three against us. It seems to me that Kyoto have three main skills, time wasting, play acting and cutting through our defence with ease and scoring against us. Thankfully they devoted the second half to the first two having had their fill of the latter in the first half. I don't really have anything moany to say about them. We all know that with their manager they will be well organized and difficult to break down, We probably didn’t imagine that they’d cut us to pieces though. I normally get really angry about their captain but the only bitchy note I wrote about this game was that ‘their keeper is annoying’. I’m not sure the point has guaranteed their safety. Three would have done and looked likely for most of the match. They are definitely not the team I want to go down the most who are in the bottom five. Let’s move on to the officials or more accurately the ref. Takasaki was a new name for me and as I tweeted, this usually is a bad sign but I wasn’t going to pre-judge him. I should have trusted my gut though as he was by far the worst ref we’ve had for absolutely years! Apparently unaware of basic rules and almost always looking in the wrong direction at all times, I felt like he was a youngster who in their first proper game was determined to show that he wasn’t going to play favorites and give decisions to the home side and overcompensated the other way. He also seemed to be making every decision by using a complicated system of dice rolling like the dungeons and dragons nerd he probably is. (Sorry D&D fans, you probably weren’t expecting a dig at you here, but at the same time, I guess you’re kind of used to that kind of thing happening). The first dice roll was for whether to have his eyes open or not, then another roll for the direction in which to look, one for whether to blow his whistle or not, one for which team to give the decision to. There was probably another dice to roll later on when writing his report to decide how to justify his totally random decisions in the game. I can’t help but feel that if his first dice roll had come up with eyes closed and whilst his eyes were closed someone had nicked all of his dice and therefore he had to officiate the rest of the game by sound alone, we would have had a more consistent and accurate performance from him. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDUilHZbG2zFgtuv_XdK34i6oXcp-705QnjVDPk3erlEjwY8yPByBqSRtvjZIRVXaOA0M6871vF1ql3NwXQzH4taOD0MqAG-e1HjP-HO2mKhpOMogFWRJrR6KWFeXV-B9RwEHbZ5COYbigbRDWWDnIR7or_VzlYjLN0nvnNPhNRb5QLA7DFHvwISpOn7br/s4032/IMG_7804.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDUilHZbG2zFgtuv_XdK34i6oXcp-705QnjVDPk3erlEjwY8yPByBqSRtvjZIRVXaOA0M6871vF1ql3NwXQzH4taOD0MqAG-e1HjP-HO2mKhpOMogFWRJrR6KWFeXV-B9RwEHbZ5COYbigbRDWWDnIR7or_VzlYjLN0nvnNPhNRb5QLA7DFHvwISpOn7br/s320/IMG_7804.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Ironically, the most egregious error he made, which cost us a goal and was confirmed as a horrible mistake by J League Judge Replay, (presumably to absolutely no consequence to the referee), was one that I didn’t see at all. Probably because I already had my head in my hands as we were clearly about to gift the opposition a goal. Little did I know that it was the ref who’d passed the ball out wide for the Kyoto play to make the assist. Our players surrounded the ref afterwards which is never a good look, but is something we don’t normally do, so I guessed something shocking had happened. Perhaps he thought he’d play an advantage instead of giving the absolutely obviously correct drop ball decision, as maybe he wants to get a reputation as a ref who lets the game flow. I’d like to see his career flow straight down the plughole if I’m being honest right now. Apparently VAR can’t intervene in this situation as there wasn't a foul committed, so it’s good to see that VAR, with its strictly prescribed guidelines, is ruling out those errors that we all care the most about, namely whether a striker’s toenail is offside or not, but failing when it comes to the reason for its whole existence, ie. fixing clear and obvious errors. Not saying I think it should be used more. I personally think we should just dump it now and forget it ever existed. Surely no-one thinks the game is better with it? I don’t think VAR was used at all in this game, which suggest that for a ref with very little experience and apparently very little skill, Takasaki was quite confident in his own abilities. Oh well, at least it wasn’t a shocking refereeing error in a potentially title deciding game…. oh 😺. Not being a fan, (and that’s quite an understatement), of either Vissel Kobe or Yokohama F Marines, it has been a bit difficult for me to decide who I would prefer to see win the league this year, but perhaps Vissel Kobe winning it, in part thanks to a truly awful refereeing cock up and therefore really irritating YFM fans whilst at the same time undermining Vissel’s first league title, well, that would suit me just fine I think. But there are still two games left, so plenty of chance for some more clowning from the guys who apparently know the rules of the game but seem to forget them every time they step on the the pitch and get their hands on their whistle. Some people have welcomed the introduction of the J League Judge Replay program to draw attention to the mistakes that are made, but it doesn’t seem that them highlighting previous cock ups has made it is any less likely that future cock ups will happen. So perhaps in the end, the whole thing only has the purpose of undermining the refs further. I would imagine that they don’t watch it anyway. After all, they are the experts and have nothing to learn. I don’t know if there have been more mistakes this year, but it feels like it. I know it’s a hard job, but is it too much to ask that some of them aren’t absolutely terrible at doing it?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgshyphenhyphenXnj0mI0k0nOvDEwfD61eCj4HQCsxg4SCLBFlTWsln_WkIU9ruD-eWW1GyIvcDt0QArFL8jtEyMTGfm36Y0Hq6xVNn5NjEOly0ixRZ6XcgkivryMZ7uOoQUEF0pQwQWcifscOmXlbRGsWYnlPL5tUbPLIdoxDrd53bXyv1JZPj1P3MY6TK46uOkX6P9/s4032/IMG_7812.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgshyphenhyphenXnj0mI0k0nOvDEwfD61eCj4HQCsxg4SCLBFlTWsln_WkIU9ruD-eWW1GyIvcDt0QArFL8jtEyMTGfm36Y0Hq6xVNn5NjEOly0ixRZ6XcgkivryMZ7uOoQUEF0pQwQWcifscOmXlbRGsWYnlPL5tUbPLIdoxDrd53bXyv1JZPj1P3MY6TK46uOkX6P9/s320/IMG_7812.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Next up Kashima at home in another one of those pointless league games. Then we have Johor at home in a very important ACL game only four days later. What’s the betting he’ll start pretty much the same team for both of those games? Quite high I’d say. Sorry this post is a mess. I've had to make a lot of corrections already in my post-fever state and have probably missed some more. But you don't come here for accuracy anyway, do you? You come here for the wonderful insight, right? Sorry that is once again absent too. And not even much trolling of the opposition. See! I clearly am still a bit ill.<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><b>Team </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 13. YAMANE Miki <br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span>DF 4. JESIEL<br /></span></span></div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 29. TAKAI Kota</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 30. SEGAWA Yusuke</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;">MF 6. JOAO SCHMIDT<br /><span><span><span><span>MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 18. Bafetimbi GOMIS</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 33. MIYASHIRO Taisei</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>Subs</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><div><div><span style="font-size: small;">DF 2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei</span><br /><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> (on for JOAO SCHMIDT 46')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 20. YAMADA Shin </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>(on for MIYASHIRO 71')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 23. MARCINHO </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>(on for GOMIS 61')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 31. YAMAMURA Kazuya (on for JESIEL 46') </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>(on for SEGAWA 79')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><b>Goals</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><b> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>FUKUDA (</span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>Kyoto</span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>) 7' 0-1<span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>MIYASHIRO (</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>) 19' 1-1</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>TOYOKAWA (</span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>Kyoto</span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>) 42' 1-2</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>TOYOKAWA (</span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>Kyoto</span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>) 45+1' 1-3</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>KOBAYASHI (</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>) 45+5' 2-3</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>WAKIZAKA (</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>) PEN 90+1' 3-3</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><b>Highlights</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p></div></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dCPlNbVKF6A?si=m2TJUnrzSqGXL8vv" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dfsz2-7EkDw?si=Oldr2BwjZ_JZBHjX" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xrqb29Et29E?si=sZt7xAYR76rk4qDu" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe>Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-73562223988550218852023-11-10T11:59:00.000+09:002023-11-10T11:59:10.277+09:00Vs Pathum United (home) 7/11/23 ACL Group stage match 4<h3 style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIyakJptL-niDPQ4zfH_effMyu5C9OVpbxcXPZb3UVPL2_gSipOuJcsBvYR9C6s6PYaYo9rdAAmyIOD-w5jzyB9Loyt8QLlOdzFmy8Y458PUY4w8cm6D5S_xws4fvJOfO1C6T9wVsXGV73eD5xOxLS4SiSkPegOMrb0LsNpE0uosGK1pmJXlAkFFfI4Hne/s4032/IMG_7781.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIyakJptL-niDPQ4zfH_effMyu5C9OVpbxcXPZb3UVPL2_gSipOuJcsBvYR9C6s6PYaYo9rdAAmyIOD-w5jzyB9Loyt8QLlOdzFmy8Y458PUY4w8cm6D5S_xws4fvJOfO1C6T9wVsXGV73eD5xOxLS4SiSkPegOMrb0LsNpE0uosGK1pmJXlAkFFfI4Hne/s320/IMG_7781.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Kawasaki Frontale 4 - 2 Pathum United </h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">So we’re back to the 4-2 wins again after the brief diversion of a dodgy 1-1 draw. It would be wrong to say some things never change as not all of our last five games have been 4-2 wins. When it comes to us having terrible first halves though, some things really never change. Thankfully in this match, our visitors gave us two penalties. Which was a bit of luck as I didn’t think we were going to score otherwise. I have no idea why we’re so useless in the first half of games recently, but it’s pretty undeniable. At the same time as we were clutching at penalty kick straws, our former player Chanathip was scoring for fun up the other end. He never really seemed to do that for us. I wonder why…? Perhaps because he was always played out of position? Oh well, perhaps our esteemed chairman was right and he should just have waited for his chance to play, (presumably when hell froze over with the ice encasing the rest of our midfielders and attackers). Anyway that’s all in the past now so I can just be pleased that he got his chance to show us what could have been and also enjoy his nice greeting to our fans and our reaction to him. I don’t think any of us wanted him to leave, but I don’t think many of us can begrudge him for doing so. </span></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br /></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguLKl1SzXxqcVgHMNEIpYjA72_keMXqg6G_Vv7dj7wyNgvFtpIm7LAdt4geCjTwHU3TFp0t5B0-z2b6GZ8f7wJfBMbit1fZ6IN-aS5PJ-mKiEmDD3-Jqb6lZhaloBttQylI8W6wmQndcRafx2Vi_UIgXlFHK1yuEbNk9jY77fBSni8PnIjnJK3mWJStLNa/s4032/IMG_7777.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguLKl1SzXxqcVgHMNEIpYjA72_keMXqg6G_Vv7dj7wyNgvFtpIm7LAdt4geCjTwHU3TFp0t5B0-z2b6GZ8f7wJfBMbit1fZ6IN-aS5PJ-mKiEmDD3-Jqb6lZhaloBttQylI8W6wmQndcRafx2Vi_UIgXlFHK1yuEbNk9jY77fBSni8PnIjnJK3mWJStLNa/s320/IMG_7777.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />On paper this was our easiest game in the group stage of this year’s ACL. Our group isn’t the easiest but somehow we seem to be navigating our way through it quite nicely at the moment. Bizarrely we haven’t conceded against the two ‘stronger’ teams, but have conceded four times in the two games against Pathum. To be fair though, one of the goals in the previous game was an absolute gift from a hopeless ref and both in this game were gifts from our defence and Sung-Ryong. The Sung-Ryong one was particularly weird, almost as if he forgot Chanathip wasn’t playing for us anymore. Plenty of Pathum’s dangerous moments came courtesy of us and our ridiculous tactics at the back. It seems that Oniki is definitely right back to the play-it-around-at-the-back-to-‘draw-out’-the-opposition tactics. It’s never really worked particularly well, and on the occasions in this game where we managed to get a couple of their players drawn out and play the ball past them, perhaps successfully implementing the tactic, we then followed Oniki’s second rule of football which is that as soon as you enter the opposition half, you immediately need to pass the ball backwards, which was perfect for allowing their strikers to retreat into position and therefore make the whole first part of the tactics utterly pointless. It does feel like we’re deliberately trying to make things more difficult for ourselves recently. It was perhaps a surprise to see Wakizaka taking our penalties. It seems that we’ve gone through quite a few penalty takers recently and none of them have exactly shone. Therefore it was nice to see Wakizaka put both of his away nicely. Particularly as aside from the penalties he didn’t have a great game, I thought. But then again, no one did really. Marcinho was perhaps unlucky to get two goals disallowed through VAR, (haven’t looked back at them as I wasted enough time on VAR at the game to want to waste any more watching replays), but at the same time, he did seem to do his usual thing of making a really good run, but sadly one that outwitted not only the opposition but also his teammates, and then couldn’t do anything with the ball. Ienaga missed what for him were a couple of absolute sitters. Damiao seemed to try to do an overhead kick from just in front of the goal line, when it presumably would have been easier and more effective to do almost anything else (this was at the other end of the pitch though, so I might have seen things slightly differently from reality). Yamane was still doing his ‘hit it first time thing’, to the extent that this really must be either a new Oniki tactic or the case that he’s developed an intense fear of the ball. Perhaps the low-light of the game for me was when Tachibanada burst into the box in the 81st minute with Gomis lurking at the far post and instead of kicking the ball towards the goal, we went backwards and away from the goal instead. Just kind of summed up the match really. That, and the fact that our time wasting started over ten minutes before the final whistle. It was really a surprise that we managed to get our fourth goal actually as there seemed to be a lot more focus on doing anything other than attacking at that stage. Plenty of weird things happened in this game. At the time it felt like one of our worst performances for ages, but somehow we won, even after we had two goals chalked off. Which all sounds like the whinings of a fan spoilt by recent seasons success (not including this or last season obviously!), but blimey, aren’t we getting some luck recently? Long may that continue!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEh9wrvZ0gfUUYFK-EEu7mg8yce_GiBFvIMYZAUEJ5FqaKmWHQSqTqTcCYowoBChT45mcfN61Kitqw0gWIwZi72jr8o5IpdFsBE6-U7OoXo-Aj-75IcajZyUhiaQN5rE2qklkF8QuqrFH13V2sIy9hiGxVYEzTU6U46TG6FRcDdceUcrAiJt1ddQ9c3wi_/s4032/IMG_7780.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEh9wrvZ0gfUUYFK-EEu7mg8yce_GiBFvIMYZAUEJ5FqaKmWHQSqTqTcCYowoBChT45mcfN61Kitqw0gWIwZi72jr8o5IpdFsBE6-U7OoXo-Aj-75IcajZyUhiaQN5rE2qklkF8QuqrFH13V2sIy9hiGxVYEzTU6U46TG6FRcDdceUcrAiJt1ddQ9c3wi_/s320/IMG_7780.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />On to the match officials, all of whom were overshadowed in this game by our old friend VAR. I think I’ve actually stopped moaning every week about VAR recently, which I guess is something of a surprise, as I still intensely hate it. The fact is, it’s clearly here to stay, in spite of the fact that it doesn’t eliminate refereeing errors, the one thing that it was implemented to get rid of. Instead now we have the potential of errors coming from two angles, apparently depending on the seniority of the person on VAR compared to the ref on the field. In this game, I didn’t have any problems with the outcome of the decisions, mostly because I haven’t actually checked most of them, and we didn’t get any replays in the stadium. The amount of times decisions were sent to VAR was crazy though. We had nine minutes of injury time at the end of the second half and I think most of this was for finger on the ear moments when everyone on the pitch and in the stands was just hanging around twiddling their fingers. Some have said that the red card was a bit harsh, but from a quick look at a replay it seems like a stamp on an ankle nowhere near the ball so I think it’s probably fair enough. This seems to be happening to Seko every game recently. Perhaps because he’s so cool on the ball and maybe some opponents have focused on him as being the key player in the middle for us. Every game sees him get booted after he’s already passed the ball and most of the time the refs don’t really even notice. On this occasion, the ref didn’t even give the foul and VAR only intervened when we’d put the ball out of play for Seko to get some treatment. Surprisingly, the linesman nearest to us was so bad that he made the ref look like the star graduate of the refereeing academy. Constantly either behind the play or running on the pitch instead of behind the line (what is it about that in the ACL? Don’t think I’ve ever seen it in a J League game), he was absolutely hopeless. For Yamamura’s goal it was our friend the lino who alerted the ref to the fact that the Pathum players thought there had been a handball. There was no way he could have seen it himself from his position so basically he was just giving them an official line of complaint. If requested, he probably would have taken care of their post-match interviews for them and cleaned their changing room afterwards. To be fair to the ref, he looked as bored and pissed off by the VAR delays as everyone else was. It’s all too easy to focus on the cock ups VAR makes and forget about the absolute ruination of match atmosphere that it’s responsible for. When every possible goal is accompanied by the potential of it being ruled out after an interminable wait, it becomes difficult to know how or when to celebrate. I’m sure there is a lot more initial celebration of goals that are ruled out compared to celebration when goals are awarded after a lengthy delay. I’m also sure that this really is not how delayed gratification works. If you deny yourself the beer till after you’ve deep-cleaned the bathroom it might taste nicer. But if you pour the beer before you start cleaning, by the time you get round to drinking it, it might not taste as nice anymore. Every goal celebration is now undermined by the very real prospect that it could be ruled out and the knowledge that even if it is given, the intervening minutes will have taken the shine of the moment sufficiently that the excitement becomes about as heightened as seeing your number come up on the screen at the post office. The fun of seeing the build up and the ball hitting the net is undermined, the experience being reduced to seeing the result of a toss of a coin broadcast on a massive TV and not even getting to see the bit where they flip it. One last word about the officiating. The ref booked a Pathum player for an obvious dive in the second half. It was one of the best things I’ve seen this season. I can’t remember the last time anyone in the J League got booked for diving. I really wish they’d do it more often and I can think of plenty of players who absolutely deserve those cards!<br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbvCoSpa5VRZltWpFIz4BEzUaTm7oWkVJ8JYKlkpt5pi9joADi7V06_rDyKY8QMuqJRqPLF777P-88i6NAu70o0twmq1GDpfy9p1Qjb_cl-G_SSb3KdC86Ue2Cazx-18XSpbSms-jHrq_lgVfIWHFEmQDJJTpycZfoHoE6lBZ_Wwt5abIn0VYnKrDdHozm/s4032/IMG_7782.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbvCoSpa5VRZltWpFIz4BEzUaTm7oWkVJ8JYKlkpt5pi9joADi7V06_rDyKY8QMuqJRqPLF777P-88i6NAu70o0twmq1GDpfy9p1Qjb_cl-G_SSb3KdC86Ue2Cazx-18XSpbSms-jHrq_lgVfIWHFEmQDJJTpycZfoHoE6lBZ_Wwt5abIn0VYnKrDdHozm/s320/IMG_7782.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />I should probably put in this last paragraph something about the Pathum fans who had traveled in reasonable numbers and who did their best to cheer on their team stuck away down in the far corner. I hope they had a nice time in Kawasaki. And also a word about the Pathum players who very graciously waited for our overlong end-of-game celebrations to finish so that they could come round and bow to our fans. One in particular seemed totally amazed at the reception Chanathip got. How nice it is to support a team who clap the opposition at the end of an ACL game, rather than one who hate everyone who ever comes to their stadium. Not mentioning any names… hehe. Next up, Kyoto at home on Sunday, another one of these pointless end of season games. Given that Oniki didn’t make any changes until the 76th minute in this match, you’ve got to think he’ll change the side significantly for that match, right? Hahahahahahaha. After that, almost two weeks till the following game. It’s a good thing we crammed all those matches in early on in the season isn’t it? So now we can have a nice leisurely and excitement undermining run in. I mean, there’s nothing for us to play for in the league anyway, so I guess it doesn’t really matter. But it does seem that most football associations have a knack of finding exactly when the fans don’t want and implementing it every time. The next new innovations will probably be replacing the seats in the stands with thorny bushes, forcing any player who scores or assists a goal to immediately retire and playing the Emperor’s Cup generic ‘uplifting and lightly funky but with plenty of rock guitar solos’ theme song at ear-splitting volume throughout every game, but putting the song back to the beginning every time the ball goes out of play so you never even find out what happens in the middle section (probably a light breakdown with a more mellow but still rocking guitar solo). Looking forward to seeing those changes coming in in 2024! </span></span><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><b> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><b>Team </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span>GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span>DF 13. YAMANE Miki <br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span>DF 4. JESIEL<br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span>DF 31. YAMAMURA Kazuya</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span>DF 2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei</span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span>MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span>(Yellow card 90+4')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span>MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span>MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span>FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro</span><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span>FW 9. LEANDRO DAMIAO</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span>FW 23. MARCINHO</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span>Subs</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span>GK 22. HAYASAKA Yuki<br />GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span>MF 6. JOAO SCHMIDT</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> <span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>(on for SEKO 84')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span>FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> <span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>(on for MARCINHO 84')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>DF 15. TANABE Shuto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>FW 17. TONO Daiya</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;">FW 18. Bafetimbi GOMIS </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>(on for </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>LEANDRO DAMIAO</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> 76')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span>FW 20. YAMADA Shin</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span>FW 24. MYOGAN<br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span>DF 29. TAKAI Kota</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span>FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> <span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>(on for WAKIZAKA 90+5')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span>FW 33. MIYASHIRO Taisei</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> <span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>(on for IENAGA 76')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><b>Goals<br /></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><b><br /></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>WAKIZAKA<span><span><span><span> (Frontale) </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> PEN </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span>16' 1-0</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>CHANATHIP<span><span><span><span> (Pathum) 33' 1-1</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>WAKIZAKA</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> (Frontale)</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> PEN</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> 40' 2-1</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> <br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>CHANATHIP</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> (Pathum) 41' 2-2</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>YAMAMURA<span><span><span><span> (Frontale) 68' 3-2</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /></p></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>MIYASHIRO<span><span><span><span> (Frontale) 90+8' 4-2</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><b><span> </span></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><b><span>Highlights</span></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><b><span> </span></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><h3 style="text-align: center;"></h3>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7e_hphU4LNs?si=drSpgpOW7V2I55r-" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe> Frontale Rabbit Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15829530234472556343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3876552898433234941.post-14756303548620154772023-10-31T11:24:00.001+09:002023-10-31T11:24:08.925+09:00Vs Kashiwa Reysol (away) 29/10/23 J League match 31<h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi81DcEHVoD67PbQnnX3tonF78pXoQU32l79dVUMTvXQr9vV9LuLPyF1NmMsEki_aDB95RJcZHeo4UNVJ03zTyiQkE268idw5eV1cE8E0taNZbssAkt1EDNEl9rQNIB3BGM4YXCTyX9XJonZsINKaIOoWIs18fdsDD_AGACl1OScvbuzLtMHNC4H8lsTPUT/s4032/IMG_7698.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi81DcEHVoD67PbQnnX3tonF78pXoQU32l79dVUMTvXQr9vV9LuLPyF1NmMsEki_aDB95RJcZHeo4UNVJ03zTyiQkE268idw5eV1cE8E0taNZbssAkt1EDNEl9rQNIB3BGM4YXCTyX9XJonZsINKaIOoWIs18fdsDD_AGACl1OScvbuzLtMHNC4H8lsTPUT/s320/IMG_7698.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />Kashiwa Reysol 1 - 1 Kawasaki Frontale</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Our run of three 4-2 wins in a row is over. But don’t worry pattern fans, we now have three consecutive draws away at Kashiwa! Hmm, not quite so thrilling, is it? At least on this occasion we got a goal, unlike two years ago. Kashiwa’s ground seems to be a popular one amongst J League fans. I always say that I suspect this is for people who go there and sit in the home end as they tend to treat the away fans like shit. This year there was a slight improvement as instead of cramming the food and drink into the small area in front of the toilets, they instead put it outside the gates on the bit of grass where you used to have to queue before the days of reserved seating/standing. I guess it might get a bit messy if it rained though. And it normally does rain when we go to Kashiwa. I’m sure no one can forget the year where the rain was so heavy that the match should have been postponed but they instead went ahead and attempted to play a game of football on a heavily waterlogged farmer's field. I presume this was the same year where there were hundreds of people sheltering in the toilets from the typhoon as that was the only place with any kind of cover. But such are our games there that it could easily have been another year. This year, the game was a lot more significant for Kashiwa than it was for us. They really need some points to avoid getting dragged back into the relegation battle. Well, to be honest, they are still in it, I guess, but with games running out and them currently ahead of two teams with only one going down, it probably means that they’re in a decent position. For us, perhaps we were looking at it as a possible dress rehearsal for the Emperor’s Cup final. Jeez… from the first half, I hope not. We have nothing left to play for in the league, but in spite of the hopes of many fans, that doesn’t mean Oniki is going to try any of the younger players. So we went with the usual players, with the one exception being that Ominami was unavailable due to his injury in the last game. (Apparently, it might not be as bad as feared. But at the same time, we are kind running out of games so maybe it won’t have much difference with regard to this season). So, pretty much the same starting players, same formation, same tactics, I wonder what happened in the first half?<br /><br />Unsurprisingly, pretty much the same as in the last few games. We weren’t very good. As usual, lots of lovely possession. Lots of apparently pointless passing. A lack of shots, particularly ones that are on target. The stats say we had one on target in the first half, but once again I don’t remember their keeper having to make any saves. We rode our luck with them having a goal ruled out for offside and hitting the post. Rode it right up until we conceded. It was quite an open game where everything was shared fairly. They had the shots and we had the pointless possession. Gomis had a goal ruled out, (well, actually, not given and then the decision upheld by VAR I think, if that distinction is important), down the other end of the pitch and even I with my bias and my astonishingly bad view from the other end of the stadium felt that it probably was the right decision. Probably also a good thing as it would have been a shame for Gomis’s goal celebration to come down the other end of the pitch and as the result of a VAR overrule. Hope he scores soon though as I think he needs a goal. He had by far his best game for us so far in this match though, and was given not much protection by the ref. More on him later. Gomis hit an absolute belter of a shot in the second half, directly in front of us which hit the join of the post and the bar at a right pelt. It was such an exhilarating moment that it was celebrated almost as much as a goal in our end. If he can start doing that on a regular occasion we have some real fun in store. Well when I say doing that, I mean shooting and the ball going in rather than hitting the post. So, it was a good game for Gomis, I thought. In his first few games the ball seemed to bounce off him a bit, but in his match it was really sticking. Very nice! Not having such a good game, Yamane, who looked more knackered than ever before. Perhaps he doesn’t deal well with flying or something, but every time he got the ball, he seemed like he wanted to get rid of it as quickly as possible by hitting it first time. Perhaps this was another Oniki tactic, (if it was, it didn’t work, as more often than not we lost possession), but yeah, he just looked tired. Jesiel was back (probably should have mentioned that earlier!) and whist it was great to see him back, I suspect that he wouldn’t have been thrown in to the team so quickly had it not been for our continuing defensive injury crisis. You could see that he hadn't played for a long time. Often when he kicked or headed the ball it shot off at a weird angle, as if both his head and boots were pentagon-shaped. But I’m not criticising him or Yamane. One has played way too many games, and one has hardly played in a few years. If I have to moan about something, (aside from the ref naturally), I’d probably say that we were back to the same old plodding tactics again. On the rare occasions that we tried to move the ball forward a bit quicker, pretty much every midfielder misplaced almost every pass. Maybe I should give Kashiwa some credit for cutting out our passes or something, but it was weird that it happened to Seko a lot in the first half, and then to Tachibanada and Joao Schmidt in the second. Don’t remember it happening to Tono, but then again there’s a reason for that…<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxVKe0ehnauCIMgi191FJtRVxaqhPoa4Cz0ivSbCtQDGkW5-sCzXtD2qbBF3ToJpAJs-Arc3972UhGjiXlhmpq3eLTFiWtMNE7rnN3P9eIuYc3fQDRV-rEms3HPFBMCAX4y0S6I7geQjWthp5jAPxRAi94E9s-Fy0g02FvLucyYtAUXo3UtLnWdYlwAFJO/s4032/IMG_7699.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxVKe0ehnauCIMgi191FJtRVxaqhPoa4Cz0ivSbCtQDGkW5-sCzXtD2qbBF3ToJpAJs-Arc3972UhGjiXlhmpq3eLTFiWtMNE7rnN3P9eIuYc3fQDRV-rEms3HPFBMCAX4y0S6I7geQjWthp5jAPxRAi94E9s-Fy0g02FvLucyYtAUXo3UtLnWdYlwAFJO/s320/IMG_7699.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />As he had done on a few occasions recently, Oniki changed one of his central midfielders at half time. On this occasion it was Seko who got the hook, being replaced by Tono, who’d got the hook to be replaced by Seko in the previous game. I don’t know if Oniki is just trying to share the starts between them or he really doesn’t know who he wants to play. In any case, it doesn’t really matter that much as in most games recently, we’re not very good in the first half. Tono lasted eight minutes before he got a straight red after a VAR intervention. Before this has happened he’d been totally clattered by a Kashiwa player after he’d passed the ball and the ref gave nothing, so perhaps he had a sense of injustice in mind. It didn't look like a great tackle at the time, and the VAR replay didn’t make it look much better. I don’t think he really touched their player, who seemed to jump out of the way, but apparently, (and I say apparently because I think I heard a ref talking about this somewhere but can’t fully remember), you don’t actually need to make contact to get a red for dangerous play. If this is true, well, we probably can’t argue about it. However, bizarrely it seemed like the ref hadn’t even considered a card till he was told to check the monitor. Tono must be living in fear now, as the last player who got a straight red shortly after coming on was Kozuka and he was soon sent to join a K League relegation battle. Hopefully that doesn’t happen again. I have said it before, but I don’t want Tono playing in midfield. He’s a striker, which might explain the slightly dubious tackle. But Oniki is determined to make him a midfielder it seems. So down to ten men again. I suspect we won’t be winning the fair play award this year. In fact, I think if there is an opposite award to that, we’ll probably get it. (Have just checked red cards and we’re right up there at the top with Kashima Antlers, and when you consider most of theirs are probably for abusing officials and booting things into the stands, we can stand proud in the knowledge that we are the team who have done the most dangerous tackles and denied the most goal scoring opportunities this year. Don’t you dare say we’re not the best at something!) Again, as has happened on numerous occasions this year, we played better with ten men than eleven. I have no idea why this is the case. It did take Oniki several changes to try out a few variations of ten men formations before we finally started going for it, but this is always the case with him. The subs are merely steps to reaching his formation goal. Don’t know why he doesn’t skip these steps and just go to the effective formation in just the one change rather than moving players all over the pitch in the interim, but you know, don’t question the genius, I guess. Some fans definitely thought there was some managerial masterclass display going on apparently, as they sang his name at the end of the game. I think it probably had more to do with the players getting a bit pissed off by the ref and Kashiwa though. Whatever caused it, I don’t care. It was a genuinely fun second half and coming back to draw after getting the red whilst already losing meant like it felt almost like a win. I guess it helps that the number of points we got in the game didn’t really matter. If we’d been in a title race, I wouldn’t have been quite so pleased with a draw. Once again Tachibanada was the goal hero. It’s weird as it seemed like he really couldn’t shoot for a long time, but recently he’s banging them in for fun. Long may that continue! I reckon that in the end we could have easily won the game, as we were threatening a lot more at the end. But at the same time, Kashiwa had missed some good chances, and we probably could have just as easily lost from one of their many counter attacks. So yeah, a draw will do! Particularly when you check the stats and see that we only had nine shots in the whole game and only three on target. Lots of lovely possession though, eh?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiam7MQBd30qpNX03XYdNMQIU1UICa7Z-8c2x2zcCLPSn8MU6fwfB4zWHcEF3FIDQbTGv8_MA_xI-wtEUlI-nF4cc2ooVFObVpD2FcmjlCRgHon4PzvnEQJmB-G4t7MHn8YDrMLKAtEBgD9PfQ0yE1NEcfjtjrljzAnVUNd2w_ZfGm_8V8woj90ymDQUA9F/s4032/IMG_7700.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiam7MQBd30qpNX03XYdNMQIU1UICa7Z-8c2x2zcCLPSn8MU6fwfB4zWHcEF3FIDQbTGv8_MA_xI-wtEUlI-nF4cc2ooVFObVpD2FcmjlCRgHon4PzvnEQJmB-G4t7MHn8YDrMLKAtEBgD9PfQ0yE1NEcfjtjrljzAnVUNd2w_ZfGm_8V8woj90ymDQUA9F/s320/IMG_7700.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><br />It would be remiss of me not to write a little bit about the ref. Previously my comments on Fukushima are that he is a ref that doesn’t like to give out cards and doesn’t even like to give free kicks that often. Since I’ve started keeping track of refs this is the first time he’s given us a card in a long time (the only other occasion was the Super Cup game against Cerezo in 2018!), and in this game too it seemed like he didn’t really want to do that. Previously I’ve faintly praised him for not getting in the way and kind of letting the players get on with the game. I think on this occasion though, he was absolutely useless. Perhaps the reason he doesn’t get in the way is because he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. In this match he looked like he'd mistakenly wandered on to the pitch on the way to the supermarket, even then not realising he was in the middle of a football game, froze to the spot, trying to remember the final item on the shopping list that he thought of at the last minute but hadn’t written down. 'Olive oil…? No…. cabbage…? No… But I think it was something green… Cress…? No, I don’t even like cress… oh maybe it was cress after all. So perhaps I don’t need it. Yes! It was cress! Cross it off the list. Hang on, I think I dropped the list… Where's it gone? Somewhere over towards the yellow area? Hang on, why's there a big yellow area here in the park?' Probably the reason his decision making was so random was perhaps due to him only blowing the whistle to try to imitate the song of a passing bird or sing along to the music running round his head, and then when the players asked him why he blew, he had to quickly make a random decision. 'CRESS!!! Sorry, I mean free kick. Who to? Errrmmm, the team with the taller goalkeeper'. Actually, all this moaning is just because he missed what was one of the foulest of foul throws I have ever seen and failed to punish Kashiwa’s winger for a blatant dive. So to be honest, I should probably not moan so much, as most refs probably don’t know what constitutes a foul throw and hell will freeze over before a J League ref gives a yellow card for a dive. So he probably isn’t that bad. But on this occasion he seemed particularly bewildered by where he was and what was going on around him. <br /><br />So a 1-1 draw against the odds in a generally pointless game. It was fun to get frustrated about the ref, but ultimately the result was probably right as we weren’t very good for most of the game and they were as bad at taking chances as we were. It’s a point that is ultimately pointless (Yes, I enjoyed that unintentional play on words!) for us, and perhaps ok but not that good for them. Personally, I want YFC to go down after getting irritated by some of their fans being arseholes on Twitter. It seems that your enemy’s enemy is not necessarily your friend. Particularly as they have now got rid of all of our old players. It’s pretty tight down there though, and it looks like their game against Shonan will be crucial. Good luck to Abe, Nakano and Mawatari in that game! Kashiwa look like they have the toughest run in though… Anyway, this is all veering dangerously close to being an informative and balanced look at the current J League situation. Screw all of them! Next up, Pathum in the ACL at Todoroki after we’ve had a bit over a week off. Hopefully we can win that game, which on paper is probably the easiest of all our ACL group games. Definitely a defeat coming then! Then after that we have Kyoto and Kashima at home before finishing off the league campaign by getting absolutely smashed on shochu in the stands away at Sagan Tosu. Me that is, not the team, although the game is meaningless, so if the players want to, why not, eh?</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><b> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span><b>Team </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 13. YAMANE Miki <br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 31. YAMAMURA Kazuya</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span></span></span></span>DF 4. JESIEL<br /></span></div><div>DF 2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei<br /></div><div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 16. SEKO Tatsuki</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #ffd966;"> <br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 18. Bafetimbi GOMIS</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 23. MARCINHO</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>Subs</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>GK 99. KAMIFUKUMOTO Naoto</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;">MF 6. JOAO SCHMIDT</span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> (on for MARCINHO 59')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> (on for GOMIS 82')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 17. TONO Daiya </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: red;"> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">(Red card 54')</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> (on for SEKO 46')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>DF 29. TAKAI Kota</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 30. SEGAWA Yusuke</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> (on for NOBORIZATO 68')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>FW 33. MIYASHIRO Taisei </span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span>(on for IENAGA 68')</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">My Frontale Man Of The Match</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The second half was pretty gutsy and showed that a lot of our players really care about winning even when the game is kind of pointless. But we did only score once and only shoot nine times, so with that in mind, I'll give it somewhat randomly to... <br /></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>Bafetimbi GOMIS - Purely for the improvement since his last game and the shot that was almost an amazing goal.<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><span> </span></span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><b>Goals</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><b> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>YAMADA (</span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>Kashiwa</span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>) 40' 1-0</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>TACHIBANADA (</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>Frontale</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span>) 70' 1-1</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span><b>Highlights</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></p></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"></h3>
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