Fagiano Okayama 0 - 0 Kawasaki Frontale
Well I guess you could never say that 2025 Frontale is dull and predictable. Although perhaps our football has at times been like that. After walloping Shanghai Shenhua and progressing in the ACL, I guess some people might have thought this would be an easy victory. But of course that wasn’t the case. At the same time, the reputation of Okayama being dull cloggers, extremely defensive and really physical might also have been a common prediction. So maybe this game might have been more like Kyoto at home part 2. Well, that didn’t quite pan out either, did it? Okayama would have been worthy winners, so coming away with a point is a big positive for us. As I write this I’m desperately trying not to fall asleep on a train to Matsuyama. The fact that I’m on a train to a new city is however helping matters when I think about how I feel about this game. Had it come at home and I had to go to work tomorrow, I might have been a bit peed off. But with the holiday only just starting it’s hard to get angry about what was admittedly quite a poor performance. As I’m still quite busy this month, this post is once again kind of brief. But that is also in part due to there not being many positive things to write about in this match.
Us -
A similar team to the one against Shanghai but with no Oshima, which makes complete sense. Yamamoto came in for him and to be honest didn’t do that well. But exactly the same can be said about pretty much everyone. Marcinho had a bad day, and just couldn’t really get going. Wakizaka was pretty much non-existent. Every one of our players was giving the ball away for fun. Normally I’d moan about it being a terrible pitch or a different type of ball here, and whilst some players’ comments seems to be suggesting there was something a bit weird about the pitch, Okayama didn’t seem to have any trouble with it. And maybe a weird pitch doesn’t explain why we often just kicked the ball straight off the side of it. We were definitely having an off day, almost to a man. Our passing was horrible. Time after time we lost the ball under not much pressure whilst trying to build from the back. Nothing stuck up front either. The defence, from the point of view of the result, stood firm, but it was very much a surprise it did, and this was perhaps more due to the opposition than us. The first half we were out possessed 60-40% and were out shot 12 to 2 and didn’t get either of ours on target. In the second half we rallied slightly shooting eight times but still Okayama out shot us 10 to 8, our 64% possession contributing to our improved shot count but also perhaps contributing to the fact that we let them shoot ten times. We did finally get that magical first shot on target though. It came in the 82nd minute and sadly was also our last shot on target. Clearly this wasn’t a great day for us, and it does seem that we’re going to have an up and down 2025. Don’t think I’m pinning it on Hasebe though as in this match the players clearly weren’t up to it. If it wasn’t for an amazing save from Yamaguchi we could easily have lost. And probably would have deserved to. So with that in mind, coming away with a point is a very good thing, I think.
Them -
At the station there was a sign welcoming people getting off the Shinkansen to Okayama, the sunniest city in Japan. Naturally it pissed it down almost constantly from when we arrived till late on in the second half. Okayama were always going to be dull, right? Except they weren’t. They were really good and nothing like the bores I’d been told they might be. Perhaps really good is over-egging the pudding slightly as thankfully, they were as bad at shooting as we were at retaining the ball and getting out of our own half. But full credit to Okayama. If you told someone who knew nothing about the J League that one of these teams came up last year and the other was the champions a few years ago they’d almost certainly get the teams the wrong way round. Also, as Okayama are unbeaten at home this year, maybe a draw’s a good result? At the same time they’ve lost to YFC, and also to Urawa who seem to be a bit shite so perhaps a draw isn’t a good result? One thing’s for sure, the league is all over the place this year. Seems like there are plenty of teams winning and losing games they shouldn’t, so maybe that bodes well for it being an exciting season. And somewhat strangely, I thought this was a kind of exciting game. Perhaps not for the right reasons, but at least an exciting 0-0 draw when we play shit is better than some of the other more likely and considerably more depressing outcomes.
Ref -
In spite of having some preconceptions of the ref, I can’t say he got that much wrong in this game. I thought the yellow cards he gave us were a bit harsh, but when again I would, wouldn’t I? He and his linesman did appear to miss Lucao booting Maruyama in the head, but I haven’t watched it back so I might be wrong about that. This point should probably have been in the ‘them’ section , but Lucao seemed like a player who when he was a youngster always practiced ball skills and weight training but never had any friends to practice passing with or enough space to set up a goal to practice shooting. He was a beast and we couldn’t really deal with him, but thankfully he couldn’t pass or shoot for toffee, (at least in this match). Maybe it was the pitch... Anyway, shockingly no real complaints or comments about the ref apart from a weird gesture he did a few times, both arms aloft and opening and closing his hands as if he was performing an air puppet show. Kind of weird, but if I can’t complain about his reffing that’s got to be a good thing.
So a point gained in what was an entertaining game of extremely low quality. I must say, it’s nice to visit a new stadium and once again go complete when it comes to visiting all the stadiums in J1. It’s also good when you can walk to the stadium from the station. The ground wasn’t as bad as I might have expected. There’s a running track but the views were decent enough. The away section did wobble quite a bit when fans were jumping though which was slightly disconcerting. As was the rhythmic squeaking sound you could hear under the stand when that was happening. But presumably as Japan is somewhat earthquake ready country, the wobble is ok as it means it’s not going to fall to pieces and fall down. I had a fun time. And now we all get a nice break! No games for almost two weeks. The next match will be the Tamagawa Classico away version on the 29th. I think we need a rest so the break is welcome. Perhaps it will also give Hasebe some time to work with the players and tweak things a little further. There have been highs already this year, but an at least equal amount of treading-water-just-as-bad-and-dull-as-last-year games too. Fingers crossed our new manager can tip the balance a little further towards the former over the coming months!
Us -
A similar team to the one against Shanghai but with no Oshima, which makes complete sense. Yamamoto came in for him and to be honest didn’t do that well. But exactly the same can be said about pretty much everyone. Marcinho had a bad day, and just couldn’t really get going. Wakizaka was pretty much non-existent. Every one of our players was giving the ball away for fun. Normally I’d moan about it being a terrible pitch or a different type of ball here, and whilst some players’ comments seems to be suggesting there was something a bit weird about the pitch, Okayama didn’t seem to have any trouble with it. And maybe a weird pitch doesn’t explain why we often just kicked the ball straight off the side of it. We were definitely having an off day, almost to a man. Our passing was horrible. Time after time we lost the ball under not much pressure whilst trying to build from the back. Nothing stuck up front either. The defence, from the point of view of the result, stood firm, but it was very much a surprise it did, and this was perhaps more due to the opposition than us. The first half we were out possessed 60-40% and were out shot 12 to 2 and didn’t get either of ours on target. In the second half we rallied slightly shooting eight times but still Okayama out shot us 10 to 8, our 64% possession contributing to our improved shot count but also perhaps contributing to the fact that we let them shoot ten times. We did finally get that magical first shot on target though. It came in the 82nd minute and sadly was also our last shot on target. Clearly this wasn’t a great day for us, and it does seem that we’re going to have an up and down 2025. Don’t think I’m pinning it on Hasebe though as in this match the players clearly weren’t up to it. If it wasn’t for an amazing save from Yamaguchi we could easily have lost. And probably would have deserved to. So with that in mind, coming away with a point is a very good thing, I think.
Them -
At the station there was a sign welcoming people getting off the Shinkansen to Okayama, the sunniest city in Japan. Naturally it pissed it down almost constantly from when we arrived till late on in the second half. Okayama were always going to be dull, right? Except they weren’t. They were really good and nothing like the bores I’d been told they might be. Perhaps really good is over-egging the pudding slightly as thankfully, they were as bad at shooting as we were at retaining the ball and getting out of our own half. But full credit to Okayama. If you told someone who knew nothing about the J League that one of these teams came up last year and the other was the champions a few years ago they’d almost certainly get the teams the wrong way round. Also, as Okayama are unbeaten at home this year, maybe a draw’s a good result? At the same time they’ve lost to YFC, and also to Urawa who seem to be a bit shite so perhaps a draw isn’t a good result? One thing’s for sure, the league is all over the place this year. Seems like there are plenty of teams winning and losing games they shouldn’t, so maybe that bodes well for it being an exciting season. And somewhat strangely, I thought this was a kind of exciting game. Perhaps not for the right reasons, but at least an exciting 0-0 draw when we play shit is better than some of the other more likely and considerably more depressing outcomes.
Ref -
In spite of having some preconceptions of the ref, I can’t say he got that much wrong in this game. I thought the yellow cards he gave us were a bit harsh, but when again I would, wouldn’t I? He and his linesman did appear to miss Lucao booting Maruyama in the head, but I haven’t watched it back so I might be wrong about that. This point should probably have been in the ‘them’ section , but Lucao seemed like a player who when he was a youngster always practiced ball skills and weight training but never had any friends to practice passing with or enough space to set up a goal to practice shooting. He was a beast and we couldn’t really deal with him, but thankfully he couldn’t pass or shoot for toffee, (at least in this match). Maybe it was the pitch... Anyway, shockingly no real complaints or comments about the ref apart from a weird gesture he did a few times, both arms aloft and opening and closing his hands as if he was performing an air puppet show. Kind of weird, but if I can’t complain about his reffing that’s got to be a good thing.
So a point gained in what was an entertaining game of extremely low quality. I must say, it’s nice to visit a new stadium and once again go complete when it comes to visiting all the stadiums in J1. It’s also good when you can walk to the stadium from the station. The ground wasn’t as bad as I might have expected. There’s a running track but the views were decent enough. The away section did wobble quite a bit when fans were jumping though which was slightly disconcerting. As was the rhythmic squeaking sound you could hear under the stand when that was happening. But presumably as Japan is somewhat earthquake ready country, the wobble is ok as it means it’s not going to fall to pieces and fall down. I had a fun time. And now we all get a nice break! No games for almost two weeks. The next match will be the Tamagawa Classico away version on the 29th. I think we need a rest so the break is welcome. Perhaps it will also give Hasebe some time to work with the players and tweak things a little further. There have been highs already this year, but an at least equal amount of treading-water-just-as-bad-and-dull-as-last-year games too. Fingers crossed our new manager can tip the balance a little further towards the former over the coming months!
Team
GK 98. YAMAGUCHI Louis
DF 5. SASAKI Asahi
DF 2. TAKAI Kota
DF 35. MARUYAMA Yuichi
DF 13. MIURA Sota
MF 19. KAWAHARA So
MF 6. YAMAMOTO Yuki
MF 17. ITO Tatsuya (Yellow card 43')
MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
MF 23. MARCINHO
FW 9. ERISON (Yellow card 41')
Subs
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento
MF 16. OZEKI Yuto (on for YAMAMOTO 62')
FW 18. SEGAWA Yusuke (on for KAWAHARA 84')
FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for ERISON 62')
FW 24. MIYAGI Ten (on for MARCINHO 75')
DF 31. VAN WERMESKERKEN Sai
FW 41. IENAGA Akihiro (on for ITO 62')
DF 44. CESAR HAYDAR
My Frontale Man Of The Match
Pretty much crap all round in this match but given that without his intervention we would have lost, it goes to…
YAMAGUCHI Louis - one amazing save, clawing the ball back with his right hand just as it was about to cross the line. Bravo!
YAMAGUCHI Louis - one amazing save, clawing the ball back with his right hand just as it was about to cross the line. Bravo!
Goals
Not today... (actually, considering the way the game went, that's probably a good thing)
Highlights
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