Kawasaki Frontale v Montedio Yamagata

Pre-season friendly: Sat, 21st February 2009

	3 - 2
JUNINHO 08' TASAKA 101', 134'		HASEGAWA 35' KIFUJI 118'

Venue: International Seaside Entrance Plaza, Miyazaki

Kawasaki Frontale v Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Pre-season friendly: Fri, 20th February 2009

	2 - 3
VITOR JUNIOR 38' SUGIURA 124'		KUWADA 8' MAKINO 35' YOKOTAKE 73'

Venue: Seagaia Event Square, Miyazaki

Kawasaki Frontale v Omiya Ardija

Pre-season friendly: Tue, 17th February 2009

	0 - 4
		ICHIKAWA 21', 33' FUJIMOTO 44' LAVRIC 84'

Venue: Undo Koen, Miyazaki

Kengo and Shuhei Terada were welcomed back to the Frontale fold with a 4-0 spanking at the hands of Omiya Ardija on Tuesday afternoon.

Back in sunny Miyazaki, a near full-strength side conceded their first match of the 2009 pre-season - and with some style. Still, I'm a firm believer that if you're going to get embarrassed by J1 opponents, better to do it when it doesn't count.

The line-up looks a little strange on paper, with Mori and Yamagishi playing either side of Terada and Ito in a back four. Yusuke Tasaka up front with Chong Tese and Kurotsu is also something of a novelty. But the midfield of Kengo, Taniguchi and Vitor Junior is certainly what you'd expect to see starting against Kashiwa next month.

I suppose you could also point to Aizawa in goal instead of Kawashima as a weakness, but I'd hazard that it was the experimental defense that brought about the one-sided result.

A B-Team was also in action with two 45-minute games against J2's FC Gifu and Hoyo Atletico Elan of the Oita Prefectural League. The Gifu game was lost 1-0, but they managed to overcome the Oita amateurs 2-0 with Noborizato and Kimura getting their names on the scoresheet again. Yokoyama continues to feature in midfield...watch this space!

P.S. If you're in need of a good chuckle, check out the latest offering from the hilarious Agent Orange on 'Go! Go! Omiya Ardija'. Amidst all the vitriol there's even some words of praise for the Frontale faithful (well, the Japanese ones at least!).

Kawasaki Frontale v Shonan Bellmare

Pre-season friendly: Sat, 14th February 2009

	2 - 0
ANONYMOUS TRAINEE 105' NOBORIZATO 108'

Venue: Todoroki Stadium

Frontale maintained their 100% pre-season record with a 2-0 victory over J2's Shonan Bellmare on Saturday.

All the post-match talk surrounded young Kyohei Noborizato who registered his first goal as a professional player. And, by all accounts, it was a fairly dazzling effort.

The 18-year-old midfielder signed from Kagawa Nishi High School at the end of last year and was set to star in the national high school championship in January before injury ruled him out in the early stages.

Instead it was Kashima Antlers' recent acquisition Yuya Osako who went on to take the limelight in that competition and become labelled as Japan's brightest young prospect. But with both players opening their professional accounts this weekend the press has been quick to draw comparisons between the two.

Slightly dubious as to what stock should be put in this kind of press hype. Personally, I'd like to know more about Anonymous Trainee - he sounds like a real talent!

Kawasaki Frontale v FC Tokyo

Pre-season friendly: Wed, 11th February 2009

	4 - 1
KUKINO 11', 40' KUROTSU 46' KIMURA 139'		KONDO 104'

Venue: Todoroki Stadium

Another game of four quarters, although this time 35 minutes each as opposed to the half-hour chunks against Nagasaki (just in case anyone was wondering whether Yuji Kimura was the only man still playing when he scored in the 139th minute!).

Played behind closed doors, this match saw more of Frontale's second-string frontmen sharing the spoils and staking their claims to those all important spots on the subs' bench in what will be a packed 2009 schedule.

Kukino's already registered a few J.League goals in seasons past, and Kurotsu's obviously a well-established member of the team, but it would be nice to see Kimura get a chance to show what he can do at the top level this year. He's shown remarkable potential with some of his perfomances in the Satellite League and will hopefully have ample opportunity to impress Sekizuka this pre-season.

One other point of interest is that Tomonobu Yokoyama has been listed as playing in midfield for both pre-season games so far. Is Sekizuka looking to shore things up at the back by converting the young centre-back into a holding midfielder? In the few games he played last season he certainly looked very comfortable on the ball.

Kawasaki Frontale v V-Varen Nagasaki

Pre-season friendly: Fri, 6th February 2009

	5 - 0
TANIGUCHI 11' CHONG 31' TASAKA 36' YAJIMA 61' SUGIURA 67'

Venue: Nishikibaru, Miyazaki

Don't know if Frontale have been brushing up on Roman numerals over the winter holidays, but they contrived to stick V goals past V-Varen Nagasaki (recently promoted to the JFL - Japan's 3rd division) in their first pre-season outing of 2009.

The game was played over 4 quarters with most of the squad getting a run out. There was no Kengo, Kawashima or Terada (due to their involvement in the Japan squad set to face Australia on Wednesday) and both Juninho and Renatinho were rested. However, Vitor Junior played the first half and Chong Tese got his name on the scoresheet before jetting off to join the North Korean squad for their World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia.

Nice to see new-/old-boy Yajima notching one up so quickly. Hopefully he'll be able to put some pressure on last season's front three and make sure they're earning their places in the starting line-up.

2009 J1 Match Schedule

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue
1	07/03/2009 Sat. @ 16:00	Kashiwa Reysol	Todoroki
2	14/03/2009 Sat. @ 14:00	Vissel Kobe	Kobe Wing
3	22/03/2009 Sun. @ 16:00	JEF United	Fukuda Denshi
4	04/04/2009 Sat. @ 15:00	Nagoya Grampus	Todoroki
5	12/04/2009 Sun. @ 13:00	Shimizu S-Pulse	Outsourcing
6	18/04/2009 Sat. @ 16:00	Omiya Ardija	Todoroki
7	26/04/2009 Sun. @ 13:00	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Big Arch
8	29/04/2009 Wed. @ 13:00	Kyoto Sanga FC	Todoroki
9	02/05/2009 Sat. @ 15:00	Yokohama F Marinos	Nissan
11	10/05/2009 Sun. @ 14:00	Urawa Reds	Saitama
12	16/05/2009 Sat. @ 15:00	Jubilo Iwata	Todoroki
13	24/05/2009 Sun. @ 14:00	FC Tokyo	Ajinomoto
14	20/06/2009 Sat. @ 15:00	Oita Trinita	Todoroki
15	28/06/2009 Sun. @ 13:00	Montedio Yamagata	Yamagata Park
10	01/07/2009 Wed. @ 19:00	Gamba Osaka	Todoroki
16	05/07/2009 Sun. @ 19:00	Kashima Antlers	Todoroki
17	11/07/2009 Sat. @ 19:00	Albirex Niigata	Big Swan
18	18/07/2009 Sat. @ 18:00	Vissel Kobe	Todoroki
19	26/07/2009 Sun. @ 18:00	Kyoto Sanga FC	Nishikyogoku
20	01/08/2009 Sat. @ 19:00	FC Tokyo	Todoroki
21	15/08/2009 Sat. @ 19:00	Nagoya Grampus	Mizuho
22	19/08/2009 Wed. @ 19:00	Jubilo Iwata	Yamaha
23	23/08/2009 Sun. @ 19:00	Montedio Yamagata	Todoroki
24	30/08/2009 Sun. @ 19:00	Shimizu S-Pulse	Todoroki
25	12/09/2009 Sat. @ TBA	Kashima Antlers	Kashima
26	19/09/2009 Sat. @ TBA	Urawa Reds	Todoroki
27	26/09/2009 Sat. @ TBA	Gamba Osaka	Expo '70
28	04/10/2009 Sun. @ TBA	Yokohama F Marinos	Todoroki
29	17/10/2009 Sat. @ TBA	Omiya Ardija	Saitama
30	24/10/2009 Sat. @ TBA	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Todoroki
31	08/11/2009 Sun. @ TBA	JEF United	Todoroki
32	22/11/2009 Sun. @ TBA	Oita Trinita	Big Eye
33	28/11/2009 Sat. @ TBA	Albirex Niigata	Todoroki
34	05/12/2009 Sat. @ TBA	Kashiwa Reysol	Hitachi