Kawasaki Frontale UK (川崎フロンターレ): urawa reds

Monday, April 19, 2010

Urawa Reds 3-0 Kawasaki Frontale

Competition: J.League - Division 1
Date: Sunday, 18th April 2010 (16:00 kick off)
Venue: Saitama Stadium
Attendance: 46,313

Scoresheet:

HOSOGAI 07'
TANAKA 08'
HORINOUCHI 72'

Teamsheet:

GK KAWASHIMA
DF MORI
DF IGAWA
DF TERADA
DF KOMIYAMA
MF INAMOTO
MF TANIGUCHI (replaced by NOBORIZATO 73')
MF TASAKA (replaced by NAKAMURA 46')
FW KUROTSU (replaced by VITOR JUNIOR 46')
FW CHONG
FW RENATINHO (yellow card 59')

Comment:

Bad result, but take heart - this performance was light years ahead of some other recent losses.

Conceding two goals in as many minutes at the very start of an away fixture is hardly a recipe for success. But, apart from this (albeit fairly major) blip, Frontale honestly weren't too bad.

I'm not going to attempt to excuse the two-goal head-start presented to the hosts. Hajime Hosogai's opener had some welly behind it, but it was straight at Eiji. Unfortunately the big fella botched his punch and the ball ended up skewing off his gloves into the top corner. Unlucky or careless? Probably a bit of both...okay, probably slightly more the latter.

Then within seconds, perhaps still in shock at Eiji's rare blunder, the Frontale midfield was carved open by a simple give-and-go. Tatsuya Tanaka bore down on a back-tracking defence and unleashed a 20-yarder into the very same corner. It was a good strike (Eiji had no chance this time) but the defending was positively vaporous.

To their credit Frontale responded strongly, mounting a spell of concerted pressure. Kurotsu hit the woodwork (although Kashiwagi did the same at the other end moments later) and the Urawa keeper made a couple of decent saves.

It was vital for the visitors to claw something back before the break, and sadly it took an erroneous offside flag to prevent them from doing so.

Renatinho won a free-kick at the corner of the penalty box. He then sent in a dangerous delivery that found Igawa at the back-post via an Urawa head. The centre-back made no mistake with his finish, but his celebrations were curtailed by a raised flag on the far side. The referee's assistant must have deemed the flick-on to have come off a Frontale player, rendering Igawa offside. Bad decision.

Had Igawa's goal been allowed to stand, there could have been a very different outcome to this match. But when the game resumed after the interval the longer the two-goal margin remained, the more open Frontale were forced to leave themselves at the back.

Now, is it just me, or do you hate it when football officials choose to atone for their mistakes by giving an equally bad call the other way? Well, there was another example of this on Sunday.

In the second half, the referee almost gifted Frontale a way back into the game when he pointed to the penalty spot for a dubious foul on Chong Tese. The challenge wasn't inside the area, and in any case I'm not entirely sure the defender did anything wrong.

However, Renatinho's spot-kick was a tame one. And, to add insult to injury, he somehow managed to slice the rebound over the crossbar. It was at this stage that I think most fans accepted it was just going to be one of those days.

As the clock ticked on, with Frontale's all-out attack mode beginning to wane (and the referee deciding that Renatinho's tumbling no longer deserved the benefit of the doubt), Urawa were finding all kinds of space on the break. It was the unlikely Satoshi Horinouchi - brought on to shore up the home defence - who drove home the final nail, arriving late in the box to convert the rebound after Eiji had made another good stop. 3-0. Game over.

Unlike the recent embarrassment in Yokohama, coach Takahata was blameless on this occasion. He did the sensible thing by bringing on the big guns of Kengo and Vitor at half time (earlier than he was probably planning). He even had Noborizato on the touchline stripped and ready to bolster his tiring strikeforce at the precise moment Urawa's third went in. Again, just one of those days.

Important that the team bounces back against Vissel Kobe on Saturday. And then it's crunch time in the ACL on Wednesday with a must-win game in Beijing. Never a dull moment!

Highlights:

To follow...

Sunday, September 20, 2009

[+/-]

Kawasaki Frontale v Urawa Reds

J.League Division 1: Sat, 19th September 2009

	0 - 2
		PONTE 67' SUZUKI 80'

Venue: Todoroki Stadium
Attendance: 22,390

Frontale's unbeaten home run finally came to end on Saturday as they lost 2-0 to a stubborn, but largely unimpressive, Urawa Reds.

Robson Ponte put the visitors ahead in fortuitous fashion, floating in a free-kick that missed everyone before somehow finding its way inside Eiji's left post. Keita Suzuki then added some undeserved gloss to the scoreline with a low drive from the edge of the box.

Reds manager, Volker Finke, had obviously done his homework, forging a game plan designed to nullify Frontale's strength on the counter. It made for a very dull opening half as neither team was prepared to commit sufficient numbers to attack. Entirely understandable from Finke's perspective, given Urawa's recent form. Less so from Sekizuka's.

It was all very similar to the performance against S-Pulse a few weeks back. Although, whereas S-Pulse played the better football and probably deserved more than their single point, Urawa offered very little up front and should count themselves lucky to get all three. That's not to say that a home win would have been any more deserved.

What Frontale really missed yesterday was a midfield runner prepared to get forward and create space for the 3 strikers. However, with Kengo orchestrating from deep and Taniguchi weighed down with defensive responsibilty, neither Yabu nor Tasaka (his 2nd half replacement) was really up to the job. Nor does it bode particluarly well that Vitor Junior, the one man who might have excelled at the task, was once again missing from the bench.

It's hard to say what was most disappointing about this rather limp-wristed performance and result. The loss of concentration that gifted the visitors the all-important opening goal? The continued refusal to take more risks against defence-minded opponents (until a goal down)? Or wasting yet another golden opportunity to close the gap on Kashima?

Still, looking on the bright side, it's not like any ground has actually been lost in the title race. And Saturday's events should act as a timely wake-up call ahead of the ACL quarter-finals. The good news for Frontale is that Dragan Stojkovic's charges are unlikely to be quite so defensive in their approach.

Monday, May 11, 2009

[+/-]

Urawa Reds v Kawasaki Frontale

J.League Division 1: Sun, 10th May 2009

	2 - 3
EDMILSON 31' TANAKA 64'		JUNINHO 57' RENATINHO (pen.) 73' CHONG 76' VITOR (sent off 89')

Venue: Saitama Stadium
Attendance: 51,594

Frontale claimed their first away win of the season at the expense of Urawa Reds on Sunday, putting an end to the Saitama side's nine-game unbeaten run.

In a match filled with incident and intrigue, Frontale twice fought back from behind before wrapping up the three points courtesy of second-half goals from Juninho, Renatinho and Chong Tese.

Things got off to a bad start when Terada hobbled off after just 20 minutes. (A centre-back pairing of Igawa and Kikuchi seemed like a recipe for disaster, but the two acquitted themselves remarkably well in an all-round strong team performance.) And it got worse when a failed corner clearance gave the Reds the lead - Edmilson stooping to head in off the post after a mistimed leap from Yokoyama had left the rest of the defence flat-footed.

However, in retrospect, this was probably the best thing that could have happened. Frontale were forced to abandon their cautious approach and it was now Urawa who sat back inviting pressure.

There were a couple of half chances before the break. Juninho prodded an effort inches wide and a blistering 30-yard effort from the unlikely Kikuchi forced a decent save from Reds keeper, Ryota Tsuzuki. But the scoreline remained unchanged as the teams went in at half-time.

The momentum was very much still with Frontale in the second half. But after 10 minutes, with a breakthrough proving elusive, Sekizuka made the decisive step of taking off Murakami, switching Mori to the left, Igawa to the right, Yokoyama to centre-back, and bringing on Renatinho to spice up the attack.

Within minutes of the reshuffle the equaliser arrived. Mori, now on the left, made a penetrating run and laid the ball up to Chong Tese at the edge of the Urawa box. The Korean had been looking out of sorts thus far, but he laid off perfectly for the advancing Juninho to arc the ball into the net.

No longer content to sit back, the Reds brought on Naohiro Takahara to add some experience up front and started to display more of the attacking intent they'd shown in the opening quarter. And it was from Takahara's intelligent movement that the home side quickly regained the lead.

Still coming to terms with the recent changes, the Frontale defence was thrown into disarray when Takahara ran into an offside position to receive a throw-in. Kikuchi failed to track one of the Urawa runners and the ball fell nicely for Tulio to rifle into the top corner from 12 yards out.

However, the long spell of superiority Frontale had been enjoying brought with it a brimful of self-belief. And it wasn't long before some Brazilian magic had the game square again.

With 20 minutes left on the clock, Renatinho made a jinking run down the right before playing a neat pass inside to Juninho. A desperate lunge from Tulio caught the elder Brazilian's ankle just inside the penalty area and the referee showed no hesitation in pointing to the spot (despite fierce protests from Tulio et al.).

Renatinho stepped up confidently to dispatch the penalty and level things up. But the impish striker's work wasn't done yet.

After surviving another wave of Reds pressure, Kengo received the ball deep in his own half and unleashed a 60-yard pass to Renatinho. The pacy frontman killed the ball with a single touch while simultaneously holding off the attentions of Keisuke Tsuboi. He then had the wherewithal to look up and pick out Chong (whose marker, Tulio, had given up the chase) for a simple tap-in.

The game ended on a sour note. Although happily it was the home team who came away smelling of vinegar.

Deep into injury time, Urawa refused to return possession after Frontale had put the ball out so that Tanigichi could get attention for cramp (admittedly he was probably laying it on a bit thick). Realising they weren't going to put the ball out of play, Renatinho went in for a tackle which the referee somehow deemed a foul, awarding the Reds a free kick in a dangerous position.

The entire Frontale team and staff were incensed that such unsportsmanlike behaviour should be rewarded. And amidst all the belly-aching, Vitor talked his way to a second yellow card and a one-match ban.

I'd normally be prepared to get much more vitriolic over an incident like this (and if the result had been different, I probably would). But too much good happened in this game to let the under-hand tactics of a team of spoilt brats ruin it.

Last season's win against Urawa proved a landmark in a very successful campaign for Frontale. If they can consolidate with a home win against Jubilo next week, this result could well turn out to be equally important.