Going to keep this brief, as I’m not in the mood to spend much time thinking or writing about this game. We came up short again. At the final hurdle again. It’s likely that the season is over on all fronts now. It’s going to take a hell of a lot of bouncing back to pick ourselves up for our final three games and I think there’s plenty of us who would be quite happy with the season finishing now. This was a brutally effective performance from Cerezo, knocking lumps out of us and getting away with it most of the time. Nishimura might not be as useless as many of the J League refs but this was another rotten refereeing performance, at least from my point of view. Cerezo beat us by hacking, diving, lumping long balls forward and time wasting. Yeah, I’m bitter. And biased. We dominated the game, but didn’t score and it’s goals that count rather than possession. Their first goal came from an early howler from Edu and their second was a sucker punch as we desperately pushed forward for an equaliser. A beautiful-but-unincisive-passing sandwich made with soft-Cerezo-goal bread. It speaks volumes that we’d had so much of the ball but barely managed to trouble their keeper. We can’t complain about injuries as we had pretty much our first choice 11 on the pitch. Elsinho’s early booking was significant as I think it definitely shackled him. Neto was great in the first half but faded later on. Kengo and Kobayashi had off days. Our approach play was good but the final ball wasn’t there. Our crossing was pretty bad, but not as bad as our shooting. I can’t remember their keeper having to make any tough saves. So, heartbreak at the Saitama Stadium for the second time this season. Perhaps Urawa will beat Kashima tomorrow and then give us the opportunity to mess things up in three competitions in the same venue in one year when we play them away in the league in two games time.
Next up is Gamba Osaka at home in two weeks time. It’s good we have a break, because I can’t find any enthusiasm for football right now and I’m sure plenty of us feel the same way.
Team
GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 18. ELSINHO (Yellow card 6')
DF 5. TANIGUCHI Shogo
DF 23. EDUARDO
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro MF 21. EDUARDO NETO
MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota
MF 13. MIYOSHI Koji
MF 14. NAKAMURA Kengo
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu
Subs GK 30. ARAI Shota
DF 2. NOBORIZATI Kyohei
FW 8. ABE Hiroyuki (on for E. NETO 80')
MF 16. HASEGAWA Tatsuya (on for MIYOSHI 46')
MF 19. MORIYA Kentaro
FW 20. CHINEN Kei (on for ELSINHO 75')
DF 28. ITAKURA Ko
Goals
SUGIMOTO (Cerezo) 1' 1-0
SOUZA (Cerezo) 90+2' 2-0
Highlights
Don't particularly want to watch them, but they're here if you are a masochist
Kawasaki Frontale 3 - 1 Vegalta Sendai (5-4 on agg.)
This was a pretty uncomfortable afternoon at the Todoroki, but at least one with a pleasing outcome. The first and second legs of this tie were at the same time polar opposites and very similar, if that even makes sense. Polar opposites in the sense that Wednesday was a loss that felt like a win, and this match was a win that at times felt quite like a loss. Similar in the way that both games featured the home side dominating the first half and then getting battered in the second half. Both games featured some dubious refereeing with a home player being sent off for two yellows which had a big effect on the game. I guess the significant difference is that we managed to defend a little better when we were under the cosh. But don’t be under any illusions, it was far from comfortable. But yes! We’re there in the final and we’ll play Cerezo Osaka so there will be a new name on the trophy this year. Perhaps contrary to most people’s wishes, I wanted to play Gamba in the final. When the semi-finals were announced and we had just smacked Cerezo in the league, I predicted that it would be a Frontale Cerezo final with the recent 5-1 victory giving them a real desire to win the game. It does seem to be the case that after we give someone a pasting at our place we don’t do so well against them the next time we play them, particularly when it's away. We hammered Kobe at home and then could only manage a probably disastrous (for our title hopes), 0-0 away. We beat Urawa 4-1 and then 3-1 before throwing away our ACL campaign at the Saitama Stadium. I guess at least this game will be on neutral ground, but it’s back to the Saitama Stadium that we’ll be going. I hope that memories of our recent capitulation there won’t play on our minds too much. Anyway, enough of the predictions of doom and gloom and on to the game in hand.
Unsurprisingly, after the first half on Wednesday, Oniki decided to go with a back four from the start. Kurumaya is still away with the national team. Hopefully he’ll get a chance in the next Japan game as it will be pretty annoying if he’s been taken away from us when we have a couple of crucial games to just sit on the national team bench and be patted on the head by Halilhodzic. Nobori was in from the start this time, with Nara and Taniguchi in the middle and Elsinho on the right. Itakura was dropped to the bench. Because of this, Miyoshi found himself starting on the right, (the rules of this competition stipulate that one under 21 player has to be in the starting line-up). He’s been a bit of a mystery recently, not even getting on the bench, but he seems to be back, and back with a bit of a bang judging by his performance in this game. To his left, in the middle of the pitch, was Kengo and Ienaga was on the left. Kobayashi was up front and the defensive midfielders were Neto and Moriya. Morimoto made it back to the bench and he was joined there by Wednesday’s goal scoring hero Chinen, and Arai, Tasaka, Hasegawa, Rhayner and Itakura. Unlike Wednesday we started fairly well. Sendai seemed to be playing a similar game to us, passing the ball around and building things up slowly. Perhaps they were trying to protect their lead a little, with every minute taken up without us scoring meaning they were one step closer to going through. The referee roulette this time gave us Iemoto, who of course is on my referee blacklist (who isn’t?). His main contribution to the game seemed to be a desire to play on all the time, in almost any situation, with very few fouls being penalised with a free kick (although looking at the stats, there did seem to be a fair few given in the first half, so that shows how much I know). We received two yellows in the first half, both of which were given from a surprisingly long distance and very quickly. I can’t comment on the challenges as I saw them from even further away than the ref did. Of course the only reason I am mentioning these is because of Nara picking up a yellow in both halves. I was slightly concerned that one of our centre backs got a yellow in the 14th minute. A booking so early in the game does put you at risk, especially when you’re playing against the despicable Crislan (of course, I’d say this, but his penalty run up and general fouliness is still irking me). We were making some good chances but a combination of poor finishing and decent goalkeeping was keeping us at bay. But we made the breakthrough on 28 minutes and it was through Miyoshi. He picked up the ball on the wing, laid it off to Moriya, who passed to Kengo. Kengo put Miyoshi through with a lovely backheel and Miyoshi finished neatly at the near post. It was a nice goal and put us ahead in the game and overall. Whilst the tie was still even, we were in front on away goals. Things were still precarious though as any Sendai goal would put us behind again. Whilst we were still singing the definitely overlong goal celebration song, Sendai went up the other end and put the ball in the net. It was Frontale loan player Nakano who scored, but the goal was ruled out for a foul Crislan made on Sung-Ryong. No booking for him though. Given that this is the Levain cup, we have those extra goal line officials. Not sure if they spotted the infringement, but I think pretty much any off the ball contact on the keeper counts as a foul. It was a big relief certainly and a bit of a let off. The game was end to end at this stage. Neither team wanted the scoreline to stay the way it was. They needed a goal to win and we needed a goal to give ourselves some breathing space. As end to end suggests, the game was a little ragged with both teams being stretched and not playing their best football in defence. The half finished with an equal amount of shots for both teams, but I think we’d had the better of it. We were certainly in for an interesting second half. Sure we had the advantage, but it was a slim one, and we also have a history and some recent experience of choking. Fingers were crossed.
The second half started with no changes and Miyoshi sending a shot whistling past the post. Miyoshi does definitely seem to offer us something that our other strikers don’t. I’m not saying he’s greedy, but he definitely has a sharp focus on scoring. He made up for his miss a few minutes later when we went two up. This time it was a Kobayashi dummy that sent us through on goal. Elsinho’s shot was saved by the keeper but Miyoshi was there to turn the rebound home. All was good in the world. They now needed two goals, as one would have us still ahead on away goals. Little were we to know that the whole feel of the match would turn soon afterwards. Nakano, who seemed determined to make his mark on the match, and apparently rule out any chance of returning to us after his loan, received the ball and went past Nara. There was the slightest of contact and he went down. Nara’s immediate reaction suggested that he knew what was coming, and plenty of Sendai players were on hand to help the ref make his decision. The second yellow came out and then the red, brandished with a slight smirk by Iemoto. Not sure about that. I wish I could remember the first yellow better. The second seemed a little harsh, but I guess if contact was made it was probably going to be given. Nakano certainly seemed to go down easily though. He’d previously fallen over running towards goal earlier in the game, so maybe he had a problem with his boots… But anyway, the situation was pretty reminiscent of the first leg where Sendai lost a player to a couple of yellows. This was a defender rather than a striker though, was a lot earlier in the game and meant that Itakura would be coming on in the centre of the defence. Moriya was sacrificed which meant Kengo dropped back a little. So, down to ten men for almost half a game in the second leg of a cup competition. Recent memories were way too prominent in my mind, so I guess the players were thinking the same thing. We started sending the ball long again from goal kicks and free kicks. I know we had one less player, but this has failed to be an effective tactic time and time again this season, so I don’t know why we are persisting with it. As has been the case pretty much every time we've done it, the ball was being won by them and coming straight back at us. Our defending was starting to get a bit desperate. Ienaga was doing a great job at both ends of the pitch, helping out in defence but also using his strength to try to hold on to the ball. We were still making chances, but we were having to stop a lot more of their chances. Crislan was making his presence felt in the way he knows best, crashing in late on Sung-Ryong, “challenging for the ball” but conveniently leaving a boot in. He really is a nasty piece of work. I think it’s fair to say that we were doing a little time wasting though, so perhaps the result of some of his challenges weren’t quite as bad as it might have looked. Hasegawa came on for Miyoshi. A good idea I think, as although they are similar players, it made sense to freshen things up a little and give the defenders a new challenge on our occasional breakaways. But it was mainly one way traffic. Oniki made our final change on 83 minutes, bringing Rhayner on for Kobayashi. Rhayner, like Neto, is very good on the ball but doesn’t seem to be that good at shooting, but his arrival definitely released a bit of pressure. We were giving them something to worry about as we had a bit of pace and guile about our breakaways. Slightly against the run of play, we scored again. With only four players up against seven defenders Neto threaded a pass to Hasegawa, who took a touch and then bent the ball into the top corner. Cue wild celebrations, but it wasn’t over. A goal for them would send us to extra time and we still had six minutes of injury time to deal with. But we hung on and we were through to the final against Cerezo Osaka in a few weeks.
Positives and negatives. Let’s start negative. This was not a great performance. Sure, the sending off changed the game, and we dealt better with it this time, compared to the Urawa disaster, but it was still hearts in the mouth stuff for almost 45 minutes. Certainly, if we hadn’t given ourselves such a mountain to climb from the first half of the first leg, things would have been easier. Nara’s red card means he’ll be banned for the final, which is horrible for him and not great for us. He’s been playing well recently and will be a big miss. I guess this means that Edu will come in, and that in turn probably means Rhayner won’t be taking part. Although the performance wasn’t the best, I think I’ll leave it there for negatives as we won and we’re through. Positives. Great reaction from Miyoshi, coming in after a long time without playing. His goals weren’t spectacular, but it’s nice that he put two away, boosting his confidence and giving Oniki something to think about. Another good performance from Sung-Ryong, keeping us alive on a few occasions. Ienaga was great, particularly when we were up against it towards the end. Lovely goal from Hasegawa and good work from him and Rhayner to ease the pressure a little at the end. The biggest positive has to be that we’re though to the final. It was nowhere near as smooth a ride as we had against FC Tokyo and we looked pretty awful at times in this tie, but we made it. It was for the most part a thoroughly uncomfortable game to watch in the stands, but we did our job and we have a chance to win our first trophy. As I said above, I’m a little worried about playing Cerezo, as they’ll have revenge on their mind and our apparently innate high level of chokability means that we can’t take anything for granted. The final is not too far away, (November 4th) and who knows what will happen in between now and then. Perhaps Abe will be back. We should have Kurumaya too. But also we could lose some others. Whilst the games aren’t coming quite so rapidly as they were a couple of months ago, we still have four matches in between now and then.
Next up, we play Sendai again, at home again, but this time in the league. It’s another must win for us to keep the pressure on Kashima. Let’s hopefully keep the momentum going and avoid any slip ups. This season could still be a huge success or another year of painful second place, (or worse), finishes. The treble is on, but so is another trophyless season. Fingers crossed it’s the former! Go Frontale!
FW 9. MORIMOTO Takayuki
MF 16. HASEGAWA Tatsuya (on for MIYOSHI 66')
FW 20. CHINEN Kei
MF 22. RHAYNER (on for KOBAYASHI 83')
DF 28. ITAKURA Ko (on for MORIYA 56')
My Frontale Man Of The Match
A few players in contention for this in this game. It was a bit of a backs against the wall effort, particularly in the second half but we stood up much better than we did in the first half of the first leg. Sung-Ryong made some important saves and had to deal with some rough treatment. Hasegawa scored a beauty and his combination with Rhayner eased the pressure late on. I’m having real trouble deciding between two players though, so I think I’m going to cop out and give it to both of them. After all, I’ve given it to the whole team before and also to no one before, so I guess I can do what I want.
MIYOSHI Koji & IENAGA Akihiro - Two goals after ages out of the squad from Miyoshi is a real statement of intent. He has a real desire to score and a willingness to shoot which we sometimes lack. Ienaga had a understated but dominant game. Did everything he was supposed to do, gave us options up front on and off the ball and tackled back fantastically in the second half. Really looks like he’s enjoying his football with us too now. Long may that continue!
It was as great to have another opportunity to go to Sendai this season. It’s one of my favourite grounds and the city and supporters are great. It didn’t however feel so great at half time, trailing 3-0 and with us putting in an ACL-away-to-Urawa type performance but without the slight consolation of having scored. This was the first of three consecutive matches against Vegalta and ended up being a thoroughly strange match. It was a real game of two halves. Sure we have a few key players missing for various reasons, but the first 45 minutes were pretty shocking. We almost made up for it with a spirited second half, which has left the tie set up nicely for the second leg. Let’s hope we don’t stumble again in that match.
With Kurumaya away on international duty, Oniki went with the same back three (Itakura, Taniguchi, Nara), we used against Shimizu in the Emperor’s Cup. In that game it worked a treat. Not exactly the case against Sendai. Sung-Ryong was in goal. In front of the back three were Neto and Moriya, with Elsinho and Hasegawa playing on the wings. Then we had Kengo and Ienaga, with Kobayashi up front. On the bench were Arai, Noborizato, Tasaka, Miyoshi, Chinen, Rhayner and Kano. We started badly, very shaky and giving the ball away a lot. I don’t know if we were struggling with the surface, which looked a little long, or whether we were just having an off day, but the majority of our passes were badly off target. Sendai were pressing us and weren’t letting us have much time on the ball, but we should be used to that happening and we don’t usually play so badly when it does. Sendai seemed to be more up for the game. They were hungry and first to every loose ball. We looked like we’d just eaten a heavy meal; not at all hungry and very sluggish. Things weren’t clicking up front, but we were really struggling playing the ball out of defence. Neither Neto nor Moriya were having a good game. Itakura was trying to bring the ball out as he had done so well against Shimizu but wasn’t having much luck. Early on we had a few major let-offs with poor finishing from Sendai forwards and great goalkeeping from Sung-Ryong. Unfortunately that luck wasn’t to last. The first goal we conceded was a soft one. Neto was robbed in the centre of our half. He complained to the ref, but I can’t really see anything on the replay. They comfortably passed it around our defence and the finish went past the dive of Sung-Ryong. It looked like a bit of a soft goal. Our defence and the two defensive midfielders were not doing very well, static and very narrow, all in the same area, leaving huge gaps. Soon we were two down. A nice flick sent their right back through and his cross totally evaded all the defenders in our tightly packed defence. Much too easy for them. They had two unmarked strikers in the box. No idea what we were doing. Their third was a penalty. I was worried that the ref who was having a slightly bizarre and inconsistent game, might send off Sung-Ryong as he took out Crislan who was clear through on goal but he settled for a yellow and a penalty, in spite of Crislan doing his best to get the red. The attack came from a miscontrol and miscommunication between Neto and Taniguchi in the centre circle. I’m not sure Sung-Ryong needed to slide into him, but I’m in no way blaming him. Crislan was clearly looking for the penalty, playing the ball wide and tripping himself over the prone keeper. No complaints though. The ref had no choice and it clearly was a penalty. Crislan did one of those annoying run-ups where the taker practically stops. I know it’s within the rules, but I really hate those kind of penalties. He was doing a decent job of making tatters of our defence but it was the penalty run-up that turned me against him. His play isn’t exactly the most exhilarating, but it is effective. Damn him. So, three down at half time, and whilst this is a two legged tie and we were only a quarter of the way through, it still felt like we had a mountain to climb. We’d been awful, and to only be losing by three was a bit of a relief. They’d had plenty of chances and we’d flapped around a lot and created very little. So far so bad. In spite of the poor performance, we cheered the team off the pitch. It certainly wasn’t going to help booing them (and of course this isn't the Frontale way), and there was a strange atmosphere in the stand. It felt to me like we knew we’d played terribly, but there wasn’t any despondency. We knew we were going to give our all in the second half.
The second half started with a change that we’d all seen coming. Nobori had been warming up furiously for the last 15 minutes or so of the first half. It was clear that the back three wasn’t working for us on this occasion, so we needed to change things. Nobori came on for Itakura. There were certainly others who could have made way, but in a tough situation this, I guess it made sense to keep the more experienced players on the pitch. Nobori went in at left back and Elsinho dropped back to right back. Further up the pitch, Hasegawa continued on the left and Ienaga went out a little wider on the right. The new formation seemed to give us a bit more solidity, but we were still sloppy, still giving the back away with wayward passing. As we came back into the game a little, the tension on the pitch began to increase. It wasn’t a dirty game, but there were a few more meaty tackles going in. Sendai were trying to slow things down with a bit of time wasting. Crislan seemed to have been mortally wounded, having to leave the pitch on a stretcher. At full time though he was revived from his coma in order to do a post match interview. Every free kick or goal kick was pondered over. Completely understandable but a little frustrating. It seemed that the ball boys had been briefed to do the same. Instead of balls being thrown to the player about to restart play, they were rolled maybe halfway, killing a few more seconds. The Frontale subs noticed and every time the ball went out near them Tasaka would be on the spot, immediately returning the ball directly to whoever needed it. I guess he’s played in most positions for us at one time or another so now he thought he’d give being a ball boy a try. On 70 minutes Oniki made the brave call of bringing on Chinen for Hasegawa. I guess this would normally be the Morimoto sub, but who knows where he has disappeared to recently? Chinen had an almost immediate affect, winning the corner that our first goal came from. The goal was a beautiful header by Nara after an angled run from a Kengo corner. The comeback was on.
The goal transformed our players who had admittedly come out for the second half in a lot better state than the first. But still the goal took them up another level. We were back attacking with vigour and making plenty of chances. Kobayashi hit the bar with a header. The noise in the stand was immense. Kengo couldn’t even do the arm waving thing he likes to do. We were all screaming out our songs. Then Vegalta were down to 10 men with their striker, (and according to Kobayashi, biggest threat), Ishihara being sent off for a second yellow. I can’t remember the first yellow, but the second one seemed fair enough. He jumped for a header and planted his knee in the back of our player. The usual online Frontale haters seem to think it wasn’t a sending off, but if he hadn’t already been booked I think it was an easy yellow to give, and I don’t think yellow cards should be considered in relation to previous cards given in the game. It always irritates me that a keeper given a yellow for time wasting (which I haven’t seen in a while, to be honest), can then waste time at will, knowing he won’t be given another yellow and get dismissed for further time wasting. I think that if it’s a yellow card offence, it should get a yellow, regardless of the circumstances. I think we’d all love a bit of consistency in applying the rules. This season seems to have been a particularly bad refereeing season. Anyway.... There were a few borderline calls coming from the linesman and this was further cranking up the tension. One resulted in half the Frontale bench and staff arguing their case with the apparently visually impaired assistant. It looked like the translator for the Brazilian players was going to get sent off. He seemed furious. Tasaka too was pretty angry and he ended up getting booked whilst not on the pitch, presumably condemning him to being an unused sub. It was around this time that the ref totally lost control of the match. Pretty much all of his decisions were being contested vociferously by one team or the other. With the extra man we were piling forward. They were playing with pretty much no one up front but occasionally threatened on the counter attack. Sung-Ryong had to make a couple of great saves to keep us alive. We were doing our best but the goal wasn’t quite coming. On 85 minutes, Kano came on for Moriya, completing a set of substitutions that I don’t think many could have predicted before the game. Once again he did a decent job in his brief cameo appearance. There were five minutes of injury time to be played. We still weren’t in a very good position but at least we had an away goal and had clawed something back. Then, with just a minute of injury time left we scored again. Ienaga put in a great curving cross to the far post, Kobayashi headed it back across goal and Chinen was there to head home his first senior goal. Amazing! On the replay he looked pretty cool jogging back for the restart but he does crack a little smile. A vital goal. We had a couple more chances but nothing came from them. The final whistle was blown but we continued singing loudly, congratulating the players on a good second half and for getting us back in the tie. It was all quite emotional actually! The players looked like they appreciated the support. We’d lost, but somehow it felt like a win. I think we probably feel a lot more optimistic about the second leg than Sendai do now. But it’s nowhere near over. A goal from them on Sunday will leave us with a mountain to climb. It certainly felt a lot better at full time than half time though!
Positives and negatives. Let’s start negative. Terrible, terrible first half where we couldn’t pass or control the ball and where our defence were narrow, immobile and static. The same tactics worked fine against Shimizu but were really not up to the job in this game. Sub par performances from too many players. Neto and Moriya were both having off days, things weren’t working up front and perhaps Sung-Ryong could have done a little better for a couple of the goals. It's weird, but it does seem that if more than one of our players is having a bad day, pretty much all of them are. But, moving on to the positives, the second half was a big improvement. Still not as good as we’d like to play, but giving the circumstances a decent effort. Two goals mean we’re back in the tie. Nobori really made a difference when he came on. Hope he’s fit enough to play some part on Sunday. Chinen scoring his first goal should be great for his confidence. With Morimoto not around at the moment, he could be a very important plan B for us. The team spirit seems good too. We responded pretty well to a disastrous first half which I guess means Oniki said and did the right thing at half time. Of course it would be better to have done this from the start but.... One last positive, although it’s kind of a negative thing to say, is that Sendai’s Ishihara will be banned for the next game. Hopefully that should cut off some of the service for Crislan. But to be honest, I think its probably better for us to concentrate on getting our own game up to scratch first, as we can’t afford any more halves like the first one we had in this game.
So, next up is the second leg at Todoroki on Sunday. We follow this with another home game against Sendai the following Saturday. Two wins in these games are pretty crucial for us, so let’s keep our fingers crossed. Go Frontale!
MF 22. RHAYNER
MF 25. KANO Kenta (on for MORIYA 85')
My Frontale Man Of The Match
From the first half, probably no-one! But the more spirited performance in the second half means that I am able to give it to someone. Nobori made a big difference when he came on, but this could have been in part due to the formation change. Given the circumstances, I'll give it to...
CHINEN Kei - His first senior goal so added significance. He also won the corner for the first goal. Did a good job of unsettling a Vegalta defence that had been dealing with us fairly easily up to that point. But yeah, mainly because it was his first goal.
Well, that was a lot of fun, wasn't it? Perhaps one of the most enjoyable football weekends ever, as not only did we smash our neighbours 5-1 at their place, but Leyton Orient also won handsomely, beating Guiseley 4-1. Admittedly, the second half might not be of much interest to readers of this blog, but it does seem to be the case that my two teams rarely win on the same weekend, so maybe the result of Orient is more closely linked to Frontale than it might seem. We knew we were in a pretty good position after winning the first leg 2-0 and not letting them get an away goal. In reality, all we probably needed to do to progress was get an away goal for ourselves which would leave them requiring four and us not scoring again. Sure we've made some defensive howlers at some stages this season, but aside from the home game against Jubilo, I don't think we've let in four. Hopefully, this result might be a good omen for next Wednesday, when we head to Urawa in the second round of the ACL with another two goal lead to 'defend'. Unfortunately, they got an away goal so it could be a bit more difficult. Also, I suspect that Urawa might play a bit better than FC Tokyo, a team who many tipped for the title at the start of the season, but now have pretty much nothing to play for with three months of the season remaining. Schadenfreude is a not particularly graceful emotion, but the fact that there's a word for it, suggests that it's a feeling that has some place in the modern world.
The team selection perhaps hints that we went into the game knowing one goal would probably see us through. We resorted to something more resembling our usual first choice starting eleven. Perhaps the (very welcome) absence of a midweek game for us this week also meant that there was less need to rest players. In a way, it's a shame that some of the fringe players couldn't get another run out, but the morale boost a win like this gives could potentially be pretty useful too, I guess. From a title point of view, it's a shame that we couldn't have done a bit better against them in the league games, but let's not get too greedy. Sung-Ryong returned in goal. That's where my thoughts and the website's thoughts diverge. I think that we played with a back four of Elsinho, Edu, Nara and Kurumaya, with Itakura and Oshima in front of them, and Kengo, Ienaga, Kobayashi and Abe ahead of them. The Frontale website says a back three of Edu, Nara and Itakura, with Oshima and Kengo ahead. I guess it's much of a muchness though, as one of our defensive midfielders is always dropping very deep, alongside the centre backs. My notes for this game were fairly brief again. As I had had a fairly subdued first leg due to not really being able to talk last Wednesday, I decided to make up for it by singing as loud and as much as I possibly could. Also the frequency of our attacks and goals meant that there wasn't much dead time to get the phone out and note anything. As on Wednesday, the game started off fairly evenly and both teams were a little sloppy. Okubo looked more bothered than last week, but this didn't really translate into any dangerous attacks for them. I guess due to them needing plenty of goals they were attacking quite a lot, but we didn't look particularly uncomfortable and were able to deal with everything they threw at us. And we managed to score first, effectively finishing off the tie. On 28 minutes Abe put us ahead. It came from a counter attack and a nice pass from Kengo, and was a calm finish, smashed into the top far corner. 2 minutes later he doubled our lead, playing a one-two with Kobayashi and then slotting it into the bottom corner in plenty of space. The look on Okubo's face on the highlights video perfectly sums up the situation that FC Tokyo were in at this stage. On 38 minutes they made an early sub, which was apparently tactical. Never a particularly reassuring sight if it's your team doing it, but if it changes the flow of the game, fair enough. Sadly for them it didn't. Two minutes later we were three ahead with Elsinho chiming in with a goal. It was another sweeping passing move, a shot from Itakura being only parried by the keeper and sitting up perfectly for Elsinho to slot home. It's probably fair to say that by this stage we were probably going to be alright, with them needing six goals to triumph. A hugely satisfying first half and a great atmosphere in the stands.
The second half started with a substitution, Taniguchi on for Ienaga. I think we really did switch to a back three then. Although I guess people of the Frontale website opinion might say that he went into the defensive midfield position and Kengo pushed up. Guess it's all pretty much the same anyway, as our formation is usually fairly fluid. Total football etc.... It didn't take long for us to get our fourth, and it was Abe securing his hat-trick. Haven't seen one of them from one of our players for a while and apparently the first one of his career. Good for him! This was the result of a 50 pass move apparently (or possibly that was one of the other goals...), finishing up with an Elsinho cross and Abe putting the ball away through the legs of the defender and past the keeper into the corner. The shocking thing about most of our goals is that for the majority of them, FC Tokyo had plenty of defenders around, but we seemed to be finding space with ease. I'll put this down to our excellence rather than any poor performance from them. Even with a six goal lead I still found it possible to pick holes in the ref's performance. I tell you, it's a skill I have. As far as I was concerned he seemed to be trying to even things up with a lot of decisions going Tokyo's way. He also seemed to be time wasting. With the ball played out by us for an injury, he demanded the FC Tokyo player retake the throw from the correct position, a metre or so away, in spite of the fact that they were throwing the ball back to us. Completely baffling why he would do that. A minute after Abe's goal FC Tokyo made another sub in an attempt to claw their way back. Much like the first sub, it was answered by us almost immediately scoring again. I tell you, them subs were super. It was Elsinho again and brought up the possibility of us perhaps having two hat-tricks in the same game. A long ball was sent through to Kobayashi. He passed it to an advancing Elsinho who neatly chipped it over their keeper. Quite an enjoyable finish. Immediately after this goal they made their third and final sub, but sadly this time we weren't able to score immediately afterwards. Clearly the game was finished as a contest, and to be honest, I was getting pretty fatigued from high-fiving. Tasaka came on for Nara on 65 minutes, perhaps because Nara had been booked in the first half and there was no need to give them a lifeline by going down to 10 men. Things were petering out a little but we were still making chances. On 80 minutes, we were overjoyed to see Kano Kenta on for Itakura, who'd had a great game. He seems really well loved by the fans and it was great to see him get some pitch time. During one attack he agonisingly hit the bar. It would have been great to see him score and he did a decent job during his short time on the pitch. Elsinho was desperately going for his hat-trick, shooting when he possibly could have squared it to someone in a better position, but I don't think anyone would hold that against him. As sure as night follows day, Okubo turned up in injury time to score a consolation goal for them. Typical Okubo! And I have to say it was a pretty good goal, but perhaps we weren't that bothered at that stage. Can't say it really took much gloss off the performance though. It was a fantastic day for Frontale and consequently there was a very enjoyable large scale Vai La Frontale at the end. That'll all do nicely thanks!
Positives and positives. I'm not even going to entertain the thought that there was anything negative about this game. Great to see Abe and Elsinho scoring for fun. It's a bit of a fake comparison, but just compare our front men from last season and this season. Last year we had Okubo, contributing a little going forward, nothing at the back, a lot of negativity and drawing a huge salary. This year we have Abe, scoring for fun, in the form of his life, tackling back almost as much as he is bursting forward, and have a squad who are supporting each other and seem to really like each other. I swear I even saw the shy guy Ienaga smile recently. There seems to be just a really good feeling round the club at the moment. Which is pretty much the opposite of FC Tokyo, who have loads of cash but don't seem to be able to buy a win. I'm pretty sure I said plenty of times before the season that FC Tokyo were making a mistake with Okubo and that the people who thought he'd bring them the title were wrong. But it's not nice to gloat, so I won't mention it again... probably. We're through to the next round where we'll meet Sendai, which means I have another opportunity to go to one of my favourite grounds and cities again. We're in the semi-final. I'm not saying anything further about that. I guess the final big positive is no Wednesday game this week. Let's hope the players can get a bit of a rest and be fresh for next Saturday.
Next up are Yokohama F Marinos at home. We definitely owe them a beating after the horrible game at their place earlier this year. They are also just above us in the table, so this is a crucial one. Fingers crossed! After that we're looking to make more cup progress away at Urawa next Wednesday in the ACL. Fingers crossed for that one too! This is a great time to be a Frontale fan at the moment and long may that continue! Go Frontale!
They all played pretty well to be honest but it's hard to look much further past one player, (sorry Elsinho).Also, I didn't really notice during the match, but Itakura had a hand in most of the goals, so he was probably pretty close to getting it too. That's pretty satisfying.
ABE Hiroyuki
-But, can't really look past the hat-trick I guess, and all of the goals were nice finishes. Bravo!Apologies for the weak visual pun in the picture. I'm running out of ideas for these photos.
After a disappointing result against Kofu on Sunday, I wasn’t quite sure if I was looking forward to this game. Depending on the result it would be an opportunity to get back on track, or perhaps to push me further into despair. It’s the third time we have met FC Tokyo so far this season and it’s fair to say that things haven’t really gone our way so far, with a heavy defeat at their place and then a lacklustre draw at home. We got somewhere close to getting a bit of revenge with this game, but the tie is not over yet and the second leg is coming round pretty fast, so we'll see.
From the team line-ups it was clear to see that the teams had different feelings about this cup. We’re still alive in four competitions, although the league is slipping away from us a little at the moment. Consequently, we made plenty of changes from our usual starting eleven. In fact the only players to keep their place from Sunday were Nara, Neto and Ienaga so we were making good use of our squad for a change. In contrast, this is FC Tokyo’s only realistic chance of winning anything this year, so they went with a pretty strong line up. I’m not sure what the ‘new challenge’ Okubo was looking for when he said he had to leave us for FC Tokyo, but I wonder if he’s getting it. If he wanted to not win any trophies he could have just stayed with us! Although, as I’m sure I made clear last year on this blog, I was delighted when he left as he seemed to be really over the hill and was becoming a real negative influence on the squad. His 90 minutes in this game showed us that he hasn’t changed much from last season. Mainly walking around the pitch with his hands on his hips, occasionally crumpling to the floor at the slightest touch and getting in at least a good solid 75 minutes of whinging. Anyway, I’m going to move on from Okubo as I may be starting to sound bitter! Arai started between the sticks and we tried a three man defense in front of him of Nara, Edu and Itakura. Neto played his usual defensive midfield role and had Moriya beside him. Ahead of them were Hasegawa on the left and Tasaka on the right, with Ienaga in the middle a little behind Morimoto and Rhayner where he wanted to be, it seemed. This formation doesn’t quite agree with what the Frontale website says, but this is how I saw it. On the beach we had some regulars to call on if things started to go wrong (Sung-Ryong, Kengo, Kurumaya, Kobayashi, Abe, Oshima) and Kano, back again from the wilderness. We started the game fairly decently, although our passing wasn’t quite working, but let’s blame that on the new system. Tokyo seemed to be having the same problem. There was a lot of possession lost, rather than possession being won. Tokyo seemed to be lining up with a formation resembling 5-3-2, with pretty much everyone behind the ball when we had possession. We were being our usual patient selves, rolling the ball across the back line and waiting for opportunities. Ienaga was having a decent night, with some lovely turns and passes but his shooting wasn’t quite working. The ref was Kimura, a name that I have in the back of my head, which means he must be bad, but I can’t remember exactly why. He was giving some dodgy decisions though, and of course I think he was giving the majority of the free kicks to FC Tokyo. Rhayner was through on goal, hacked down and nothing was given (at the other end of the pitch, so I can’t be too sure, but…), Okubo was tackled just outside our box, right in front of us and completely fairly as far as I’m concerned and the ref gave him a free kick. In fact as the half wore on, any tackle on Okubo was being given as a foul. I’m sure referees are influenced by his reputation, but I’m equally sure that I am not going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Not fair, I know, but hey, it’s my blog! Half time came with us looking fairly comfortable but lacking a spark. I feel we were playing a bit too narrow. Everything seemed to be going through the middle and given how many players they had back, it was all a bit congested. But, I was satisfied enough.
The second half started with no changes for us. I think Oniki was hoping to see out the majority of the game without having to use the first teamers. The first note I have for the second half says ‘the ref is on drugs’. There were a few second half incidents that made me think this. One was when Rhayner jumped for a long ball we’d punted forward (very out of character for us, I admit!), got flattened by the defender and conceded a foul. As sure as night follows day, he was booked. I don’t know what it is about him, but he picks up yellows all the time and it usually seems to be when he is fouled. I’m pretty sure he isn't chatting back to the ref. I can only imagine officials don’t like him for some reason. There was an amazing statistic I saw the other day that said he’d received six yellow cards this season but only committed three fouls. Add another one to the first column. The other bit of refereeing incompetence was when he stopped a Frontale attack for an FC Tokyo injury (fair enough), but didn’t let the physio on and then rolled the ball to the FC Tokyo defence for the drop ball restart. This seemed so weird that I can’t imagine I have correctly understood what happened. But in the J League, or in this case, in the J League’s least prestigious cup, I guess we should expect the unexpected from referees. Thankfully, we scored a couple of goals in the second half, so I’ve got something to write about aside from complaining about the ref and Okubo. Our first was Ienaga from the penalty spot. Fresh from earning a penalty at the weekend, this time he converted, with a lovely finish low into the corner. The penalty was won by Morimoto and I haven’t seen the replay yet, but there was a hell of a scramble in the box and I was certainly claiming for it. [Have seen the replay now and it seems pretty clear to me]. I thought Ienaga also got taken out shortly before actually, but it seemed only I thought that one should have been given. The ref took a ridiculous time micro-adjusting the ball on the spot. So much that Ienaga lifted it clear off the pitch and placed it back down again. It really looked like he was trying to put him off. Then, the ref had a face off with the keeper, trying to get him back on his line and finally an FC Tokyo player wandered into the box to apparently complain about a Frontale player being in the box. All in all, I’m amazed Ienaga managed to keep his nerve and put away the penalty so calmly. Our second goal came on the 90th minute and was pleasing as we’d had a few decent chances in the minutes before which we’d failed to convert. Ienaga received the ball on the edge of the box, turned, drove in and smacked the ball into the far corner with his left boot. Well played him! Aside from these few incidents, the second half was quite like the first with a fair bit of sloppiness from both teams. Arai had to make a good save from Okubo and we had a few worrying moments, but I’d say on the whole that we were pretty much in control. We made a few changes in the last ten minutes, but I think this was more to run down the clock rather than alter anything tactically. Kobayashi had a couple of opportunities in the seven or eight minutes he was on the pitch and at the end, I felt it was more likely that we’d score again, rather than Tokyo getting one back. First part of the job is done.
Positives and negatives. Positives first. Well, the result was good. We’re in a decent position going into the next leg and they didn’t manage to score any away goals. Big positive is that we rotated a little and gave some people a rest and some others a chance. If we are going to keep our run going in four competitions, we definitely need to use some more players. Judging from the starting line-up, it seems that maybe the Levain Cup isn’t our priority, although conversely it could be the one which we have the most chance of winning. Good to see Ienaga get a couple more goals. His second finish in particular showed that he might be building up some confidence and form. There were some other good performances too. Morimoto did a good job of leading the line again and also after the game looked pretty sharp sporting a pair of sunglasses provided by the game sponsors. There are some good photos on twitter of various players wearing various types of eyewear. Certainly much better pictures than the ones I took. Rhayner once again showed us what he can do. I was particularly impressed with the way he won back possession quite a few times in the game. The back three looked pretty solid, only being breached once I think. Although I wonder if this formation is a bit too attacking to be adopted more regularly, (the two centre backs on the sides were often pushing up way past the half way line). All in all, a solid enough performance and a good result. Negatives. It seemed again that we weren’t putting away our chances, or even getting them on target most of the time. Passing was a bit sloppy at times. But to be honest, not too much to moan about.
Next up, we have the second leg, away to FC Tokyo on Sunday. Let’s hope we can progress to the final. After that, we’re back at home the following weekend for the visit of Yokohama F Marinos, currently one place above us in the table. I guess it’s a must win and we owe them for the horrible game at their place earlier in the season. Go Frontale!
Subs GK 1. Sung-Ryong JUNG
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro (on for HASEGAWA 82')
FW 8. ABE Hiroyuki (on for RHAYNER 90+1')
MF 10. OSHIMA Ryota
FW 11. KOBAYASHI Yu (on for MORIMOTO 86')
MF 14. NAKAMURA Kengo
MF 25. KANO Kenta
My Frontale Man Of The Match
Few decent performances. Rhayner was all over the pitch and got involved a lot. Great save from Arai from Okubo but probably didn't have much else to do. Fairly solid defence. Morimoto did a good job of leading the line and won the penalty. I hate to be one of those people who just gives it to the goal scorer, but...
IENAGA Akihiro - His penalty was coolly taken in spite of all the distractions, lovely finish for his other goal and was creating chances all night.
Cerezo Osaka 2 - 0 Kawasaki Frontale
