Yep, I know this is absurdly late, so apologies for that. But I just about managed to get it online before our new season starts. Also, I should apologise for that fact that there aren't many responses this year. Quitting Twitter has really impacted my ability to get these blog posts noticed and has cut off the most useful way of getting answers for this. At the same time, it was absolutely the right thing for me to do. FUCK OFF ELON MUSK. Anyway, you're not here to hear my political opinions so let's get on with the answers.
1. Game of season
Winner - Vs. Machida Zelvia (away) 5/10/24 J League match 33
Typical that one of the matches I missed due to being sick was the game of the season. Although some might say that was precisely why it was a good game. My curse was not present so we could play well. Also mentioned were Verdy away in the league, FC Tokyo away in the league, the Super Cup win against Vissel Kobe, (the last time some of our squad players were seen...), and the 4-0 against Shandong in the ACL. I'd personally like to add the home win against Vissel in the league, perhaps because the Super Cup is on in the background whilst I write this and it is bringing back wonderful memories of those two red cards. I bet Thuler is the kind of guy that thinks Elon Musk is cool. Definitely wasn't our best performance but damn it was fun.
2. Player of the season
Winner - YAMADA Shin
Runaway winner here and perhaps not a surprise. Also mentioned were Takai and Sasaki. I'd add Sung-Ryong to that list. Kind of weird that three defensive players have been mentioned!
3. Goal of the season
Winner - YAMADA Shin vs. Avispa Fukuoka away
This one came out on top, if this is the goal the person who said 'That solo goal by Yamada where he dribbled half the length of the field' meant.
There were a few mentions for 'can't remember' and that works for me. The other goals mentioned were:
Bafetimbi GOMIS vs Consadole Sapporo home 2nd goal
MARCINHO vs Machida Zelvia away
4. Disappointment of the season
In a season of numerous disappointments, I'll just list everything mentioned.
- Lack of squad depth
- Oniki
- Losing to Niigata in the cup
- Screwing up the ACL home tie against Shandong at the start of the year, and the failure of both team and coach to adapt and evolve
- Gomis didn’t work out
- Our defense all season + especially the games against Tosu 2:5 and Oita 1:3
5. Villain of the season (anyone, from any team or an official or...)
Winners - Frontale / Fujitsu head execitives / Frontale sporting department
Congratulations to the board/people upstairs for taking this title! At least we won something in 2024. Think this is the first time this has gone to anyone related to our club. But I guess it's not a massive surprise is it? I kind of feel the same way. There have been so many ridiculous decisions made at the club that it's no wonder the 2024 season went down the toilet. I'd say 2025 is a big year for the people upstairs. I'm hoping they have learned something from 2024 and realise that running a football club is not the same as running an electronics company. This all brings back memories of the chairman's speech getting booed at the end of the season ceremony. That was quite funny, albeit quite awkward at the time.
Other honorable mentions go to Machida (naturally), '95% of referees' (damn right) and 'Oita Trinita (Because they kicked us out of Emperor's Cup lol)' (that seems a bit harsh, hehe).
6. Best away trip (if you've done one)
As this clearly a personal thing I'll just list them. I'm in agreement with the last answer which is unsurprising as it came from the person who I attended all the games with. Praise the lord for the distractions of away games in 2024. Without the non-football related stuff and thinking only about the matches, away games would have been a bit of a slog.
- Kashiwa - beautiful sunset, nice Kento equalizer & Cerezo - football was shit but I like Osaka city
- Hokkaido Away
- I wish!
- Machida Zelvia
- All good trips but not good games
7. Best stadium in the J League
Winner - Todoroki
Even in a season where I didn't get many responses Todoroki still comes out on top. I can't deny that the atmosphere is good, but I am still really looking forward to us having a football stadium instead of an athletics stadium. I think that could be an important next step for the club. Also mentioned were, (with my thoughts in brackets after each one), Saitama Stadium (good stadium but pretty shitty to get to and I think the atmosphere is quite often not as good as people say it is), Hiroshima (nice to go to a new stadium and a massive improvement on the old Sanfrecce stadium. Convenient too. However, didn't seem to be that much to do outside of the stadium though (perhaps this has now changed) and our end was quite small), JEF Utd (quite like this one), Sunpro Alwin (this is a good stadium! Transport is a bit of a pain but the views are great) and Sagan Tosu (really going to miss this one. Come on Sagan Tosu and get back to J1! Booze!).
8. Opposition J1 team you like the most
Winner - No-one
Fantastic stuff! I kind of agree. Particularly now Sagan Tosu have gone down. Teams mentioned were Shonan, Sapporo and Tosu, two of whom are now in J2. Last year I felt pretty bad when we (I thought) unjustifiably got a winner against Sagan Tosu almost certainly condemning them to relegation. I can't imagine I will have any feelings like that this year as there isn't really anyone who I would rather didn't go down. They can all get relegated as far as I'm concerned!
9. Opposition J1 team you like the least
Winner - Yokohama F Marinos
Delighted with this outcome too! Of course I've never liked them but since the arrogance of the Postecoglou era they have become next level hateable. Seems weird to think that a few years ago we were both good teams and now both are kind of unknown quantities. Also mentioned were Consadole, FC Tokyo and Kashima, (who were also delightfully snubbed by one respondent who said 'my antipathy for Kashima has faded along with their relevance'. We'll see if that continues under their new manager, whose name I can't quite remember right now.
10. Team you're pleased to see come up
Winner - Fagiano Okayama
This was unanimous, which I guess shows that people like a bit of new blood in the league from time to time. Also, considering the other two options were perpetual yo-yo clubs Shimizu and Yokohama FC, it's no surprise that people went for Okayama. Perhaps anyone trying to get tickets for their tiny away section might change their mind though.
11. Team you're disappointed to see go down
Winner - Consadole Sapporo
Consadole came out top here. Sagan Tosu were in second place and Jubilo also got a vote. I'm not particularly happy about any of them going down as two of them were among the best possible away trips and since they built that new station even Jubilo away has been quite fun. Shame it wasn't Urawa, YFM and Machida going down. Oh and Kashima as well in a surprisingly unheralded quadruple relegation season, a special clause being triggered due to there being too many annoying teams in the league.
12. If you could have any J League player sign for Frontale, who would it be?
Here's a list of everyone mentioned.
- Tomoki Hayakawa (GK, Kashima Antlers)
- Kawasaki from Kyoto
- Verdy’s Taniguchi
- I wanted Savio
- None
- Hiiro Komori (but only when Yamada leaves)
13. Which former Frontale player would you most like to see us re-sign?
Winners - TANIGUCHI Shogo & MIYOSHI Koji
One who played a lot for us and one who didn't play that much and might have unfinished business. Probably unlikely that they feel like coming back any time soon though. Others mentioned were Tanaka Ao, Miyashiro, Okubo in another capacity and Ominami.
14. Favourite Frontale song/player song
Winners - Vai La De Frontale & Yamada Shin
These two came out on top. Also there was a mention for Frontale Rabbit (naturally, this is a favourite of mine too). For Yamada, one person said 'I’d like to know the original song. Maybe you could post original songs YouTube links on the players songs blog posts for lazy people like me, cause most of the time I can’t recognize them (except Jesiel’s Ricky Martin)'. This is a good idea. I'll do it for the new songs and the old ones too if people want. To answer your question, it's this song, but you have to wait quite a long time for the bit we use. Another person said 'The one that is inspired by Sarà perché ti amo'. I had no idea which one this was and on listening to the original here, I was very surprised to compare it to our song here. Actually, I think our version, apparently called 'Ale Kawasaki' which to me looks more like a special beer made for the stadium rather than a rousing call to go for it, is probably now my favourite Frontale song. Well, at least at away games when we're playing well, as it is genuinely quite moving and motivating.
15. Best thing about the J League
A list of things mentioned here:
- Competitiveness
- Stadium experience is nice for everyone. And variety of supporters songs.
- Away days
- The emphasis on fun for everyone involved
- Safety at games
- Great atmosphere and fair play
16. Worst thing about the J League
And another list here:
- Easily letting go of players at overly affordable prices and too focused on punishing ungovernable supporters
- Locals not allowed to do middle finger :(
- Not allowed to make fun of the opponent
- Fans get too easily offended over minor decorum issues
- Expensive shirts
- More and more teams changing their nice looking logos to simple and soulless ones
17. Any final thoughts on Oniki?
I'll get my thoughts out of the way first here. Clearly Oniki was a great manager for us. Equally clearly, he stayed too long, and I think this was down to both him and the club. Of course I was irritated by Oniki's inflexibility, and his apparent unshakeable belief in a plan A that hadn't worked for a long time. It's a shame he stayed those extra few seasons though and I think he'd agree with that in hindsight. But it was nice that he could finish up his time with us with some genuinely fun matches at the end. As he's gone to Kashima, I'll stop short of wishing him good luck though... 😉
Here's what other people thought:
- Legendary. Nothing but respect for Oniki-kantoku
- Thanks for everything, too bad he didn’t leave one year earlier
- A lot of respect for him but he went at the right time
- He clearly hit a wall - his methods clearly worked for a squad with the talent to win the league, but he struggled to remediate basic issues in buildup, pressing, etc. which were frankly achievable by any J1 club and we often looked poor against far lower-ranked teams. You can hear it in the players' camp comments recently - that Hasebe is drilling them on getting the fundamentals right ("当たり前の事をやる"). Obviously Oniki is a legend and perhaps he would be well suited to a national team role, where the players are not going to need much needling about basic issues.
- Nice personality, thanks for the titles but he should have gone last season
- I started watching Frontale when the team was at their best under him, so I really respect him for achieving so much. The last few seasons were not really good, so it was best for him and us to part ways. I don't like his transfer destination, but I still wish him all the best.
18. And how do you feel about Hasebe being the new manager?
Again, I'll kick this off, but this time with a bit less detail. Basically, who knows what it will be like. I think the situation in his previous jobs is so different that it's difficult to know what will change and what will stay from his managerial style so far. Clearly though we needed a change and I'll be right behind him... until I find something to moan about. Presumably quite soon into the season. But I dunno, I'd say I'm cautiously optimistic. Other people said:
- Curious to see how Hasebe-kantoku will do his things with the team
- No expectations, wait and see
- I’m excited
- It certainly looks promising! I think worrying about Hasebe deploying defensive or long ball tactics akin to his Avispa sides is frankly a bit superficial. He seems like a coach who will build a solid foundation (see above), then aim to play football which suits the characteristics of the squad. Hasebe has also paid some lip service to respecting the club's existing "philosophy", whatever that may be.
- Positive
- Has achieved much with Avispa, when I always thought they would immediately go down to J2 again. I'm looking forward to what he can do with us next season (but I hope we don't end up being an extremely defensive team)
19. Trophy you would like to win the most next year
Winner - ACL
I guess most people said this because the question says 'most like to win'. Whether it is realistic or not, well, time will tell. One person said the ACL because 'everyone keeps saying Japanese teams don't care about the ACL...' and I totally agree with this. Would be nice to go one step further than YF*choke*M did last year. Also mentioned were the league and the Emperor's Cup. No surprise that no-one said the Levain Cup I guess, hehe.
20. What’s your prediction for next season?
Here's a list. Personally, I haven't got a clue.
- Slight positive progress
- Win ACL-E
- Early drop in domestic cups, 4~6 rank in J1
- Finish top 5, one cup
- Top 3 finish and reach the Saudi bubble round in ACLE
- League title
- Hasebe surely needs some time to settle in. Also it's hard to say because we still don't know who will actually stay with us and we haven't even signed anyone besides Noda in this transfer window (we had some exciting coaching team signings though). So hoping for the best and hopefully most of our players stay! (Sorry, I took so long to post this that this answer is a bit out of date now...)
21. How did you feel about VAR in 2024? And any thoughts on J League referees?
If I had to answer this briefly I guess I'd say that the refs are still woefully bad, and whilst I hate VAR and would love to see it binned, it's no surprise it's looks awful when you consider who is administering it. Basically I guess I'm in full agreement with this first comment.
- VAR is shit and J.League refs are too
- A bit too punishing
- Nonsense and takes too long
- I don't have a strong take on VAR. In the aggregate I think it reduces egregious errors. Refs are poorly calibrated (i.e. inconsistent) - I feel like they show the players/coaches too much respect if anything and lose control often.
- No strong feeling
- Referees are not good at all and VAR still takes way too long in most instances. If VAR would be faster, I wouldn't mind it though.
22. Any other comments
I always ask this question but people just end up saying nice things about the blog. To list them here would seem a bit self-indulgent, but thanks to those who said nice things.
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