Kawasaki Frontale 5 - 1 Albirex Niigata
This result was quite a surprise, particularly as it came after one of our worst performances of the season. A shocking game in a normal season would be a big kick up the backside and maybe could be expected to be followed by a bounce back. But we’ve had so many shocking games this year that if we’d had the resulting kicks up the backside I think we would have a terminally damaged arse by now. I couldn’t go to this game due to work, so I guess I have to face facts. All the bad stuff this year is all my fault, it seems. My relentless negativity in the stadium has been bringing the team down. If we get pasted on Tuesday in the ACL that will be the confirmation. As I don’t write much about games I watched online this should be short. As I was working for most of the match and aside from the first 20 minutes I have only seen DAZN’s extended highlights this should be even shorter.
5-1 seems like it might have flattered us. Lots of our shots went in. Most of theirs didn’t. The penalty that set us on our way looked extremely soft and even after we were awarded it we did our best to not score, with the ball only squirming under the keeper. The highlights made it look like Erison had a cracker of a game. If only he’d been played a bit more this season, eh? Our website said that we played 442 but the bit of the game I saw didn’t look massively different from our usual 433. And whilst Wakizaka was nominally on the right wing, it seemed that he and Yamada were swapping spots quite often. It’s great to score some goals though and we’re now eight points clear of the relegation zone, which is considerably more reassuring. BUT, let’s not get carried away. We’ve had brief renaissances before this year and sooner rather than later it turns back into shit. And these new tactics probably surprised the opposition. They certainly surprised me given Oniki’s usual reluctance to change anything. Whether the next opposition are equally surprised will be another thing. Don’t forget that as recently as the ACL game against Ulsan we thought that we had a slightly new approach and that got totally dismantled by Nagoya. I reckon after we’ve given Albirex this pasting they will 100% knock us out of the Levain Cup now.
Next up, Gwangju at home in the ACL on Tuesday, which will make a nice change from our usual way of following up a game against Ulsan with a game against Guangzhou. (Guess that works better when spoken rather than written down, and also I’m not sure if I’m pronouncing the teams’ names properly….). They spanked YFM so hopefully we can avoid the same outcome. To be honest though, most people spank YFM right now. Thanks to them for keeping our spirits up during these difficult times. After the ACL game we are away at Machida next weekend. Would love a win in that game, once again more to upset other people than please myself. It seems that I am quite a petty person. Anyway, we’ll soon see if this was another false dawn. I hope not, but with almost zero evidence to go on as I only watched a tiny bit of this game, I already feel like I’m taking the piss a bit even writing this much so probably should hold back on exclaiming or predicting too much.
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
DF 44. CESAR HAYDAR
DF 13. MIURA Sota
MF 77. YAMAMOTO Yuki
FW 20. YAMADA Shin
FW 9. ERISON
FW 23. MARCINHO (Yellow card 40')
GK 98. YAMAGUCHI Louis
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for ERISON 74')
DF 35. MARUYAMA Yuichi
FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro (on for WAKIZAKA 85')
Goals
ERISON (Frontale) 14' PEN 1-0
ERISON (Frontale) 63' 3-0
YAMADA (Frontale) 65' 4-0
YAMADA (Frontale) 73' 5-0
OTA (Niigata) 86' 5-1
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