Running Out Of Gas...

Shimizu 3-0 FC Tokyo

Nabisco Cup Semi Final 2nd Leg

That could hardly have gone worse. FC Tokyo bowed out of the Cracker Cup with a hugely disappointing 3-0 loss at Shimizu on Saturday. The tie was technically in the balance until second half stoppage time, as we needed a single goal to send it into extra time with Shimizu 2-0 up on the day, but that goal never looked like coming and S-Pulse sealed it in the 96th minute after Genki Omae's third goal of the game from the penalty spot following Masato Morishige's red card.

That will see Morishige suspended for Saturday's trip to Cerezo Osaka, but lets deal with the game at hand. Mr. Popovic was forced into two changes to the XI, with Shuichi Gonda and Hideto Takahashi away with the national team in Europe, so Hitoshi Shiota came in in goal and Kenta Mukuhara replaced Takahashi and lined-up at right back, with Yuhei Tokunaga shifting over into the centre. There were three other changes too, with the inclusions I ripped the manager on last week, Jang Hyun Soo, Naotake Hanyu and Kazuma Watanabe all out (Hanyu due to injury), and Yuichi Maruyama (at left back), Takuji Yonemoto and Edmilson coming in, with Yohei Kajiyama starting in the hole and Lucas on the left of midfield. There was also a spot on the bench for Sota Hirayama, his first matchday involvement since the end of April.

Things were fairly cagey in the early stages, and Edmilson spurned a great chance just before the ten minute mark when he stubbed his toe (see above) in the act of shooting, his effort sailing into the side netting from a great position on the left of the box. For the next fifteen minutes we held them comfortably at arm's length, then Omae scored his first, heading back across Shiota after we failed to clear a free kick and Toshiyuki Takagi crossed from the right.

1-0 down at half time we were still well and truly in it, and 11 minutes into the second half Nemanja Vucicevic came on for the ineffectual Edmilson, with Lucas moving up front. Just five minutes later though Shimizu doubled their lead on the day after we were horribly caught out on a counter-attack. A long cross-field ball from the left found Omae one-on-one against Maruyama, and he turned our makeshift fullback inside out on a dribble to the top of the box, before firing through Maruyama's legs and inside Shiota's right-hand post.

We still needed just a single goal to restore parity in the tie, but the only options the manager had to turn things around were Hirayama and Watanabe...hardly inspiring and obviously very similar players. As it was Yonemoto got the hook for Big Sota six minutes after the second goal, but while the big man held the ball up fairly well and looked to play in the likes of Naohiro Ishikawa and Vucicevic, we were limited to half chances, with Nao uncharacteristically wasteful.

Our last roll of the dice saw Watanabe come on for Ishikawa in the 90th minute, and even though Shimizu's ridiculous time-wasting throughout the second half saw five minutes added-on, we never looked like it, and salt was rubbed into the wound when Morishige clumsily took out S-Pulse sub Atomu Nabeta right at the death and Omae scored from the spot.

So no trip back to Kokuritsu for us this season, and probably just as well as we have six important league games left, starting with Cerezo away, who have won their last three games 3-2, on Saturday evening. Hopefully the manager can get the players up for that, and then with three of our last five at home our chances of a top half finish are still alive.

Up the Gas!

The Popo Horror Show

Kashima 5-1 FC Tokyo

J1 Matchday 28

What a disgraceful performance. If you've come here looking for a silver lining or flowery words of praise then you've come to the wrong place. If you're offended by criticism of the manager or the players, because all 'good supporters' should always support the team, even when they're dreadful, then I suggest you hit the 'X' in the top right corner of your browser now.

FC Tokyo travelled up to Kashima on Saturday afternoon and got battered, blowing a legitimate chance to move into the top six against a team with much more to play for, granted, but also under far more pressure. I'll sum up the game in a paragraph and then vent, as I feel the manager completely bollocksed it up at the selection table, exposing us in both midfield and defence.

Kashima won 5-1. Dutra scored in the 18th minute, volleying home from inside the box after Shuichi Gonda could only parry away a cross into our area. Gaku Shibasaki made it 2-0 with a neat finish 20 minutes later. In the first minute of the second half Lucas smacked a superb volley straight at the keeper, and then ten minutes later Naohiro Ishikawa spurned a good chance for us when he fired high and wide. Antlers killed the game off with two goals in two minutes, the first coming from Yasushi Endo in the 69th minute, then Dutra took a lovely pass from Yuya Osako and stroked home. Hideto Takahashi made it 4-1 with his first J1 goal with seven minutes left, but Dutra completed his hat-trick with a superb long range strike in the 87th minute. Well done Kashima, you completely outplayed us. The loss saw us drop from 8th back to 10th.

Right. I was extremely surprised when I saw our XI, which contained three changes from the team which beat Iwata at home the previous Saturday. Jang Hyun Soo, who had been impressive at centre half for the last half hour last week, was named at left back, with Kenta Mukuhara, who the manager seems to have lost confidence in, dropped. Naotake Hanyu came in for Takuji Yonemoto, which meant a reshuffle in midfield, with Aria Hasegawa and Yohei Kajiyama in the centre, Ishikawa in his usual position on the right, Roswell on the left and Lucas in the hole behind.....Kazuma Watanabe, who replaced Edmilson.

All three changes puzzled me. All season on The J-Talk Podcast my guests have been saying how important momentum is in the J.League, and they're absolutely right, and any we had after the Iwata win was almost entirely wiped away with this XI we put out. Lets start from the front and work backwards:

• Why was Edmilson dropped?

   Sure, he'd only started three of the seven games he's appeared in since joining us, but he'd scored in two straight games and while still unfit you can see he's been making progress in that regard and lasted until the 80th minute last week.
   Kazuma, meanwhile, had made five starts all season and not scored a single goal in those games. He was impressive in his ten-minute cameo last time out of course, as he set up Nema's winner, but to throw him in for his first start in two months ahead of a player who'd scored in consecutive games appeared a very strange decision, and as it panned out Kazuma had no impact whatsoever before making way for Edgy in the 57th minute.

• Hanyu's inclusion threw off the balance of the team.

Roswell did very well to get himself fit after four months out, but he just can't do it at this level anymore.
   He remains very popular with the supporters but sentiment should mean nothing when he offers next to nothing going forward. As it was, he had to go off injured after 35 minutes and was replaced by Yone, which saw Casual move forward into the hole, Lucas to the striker's role and Kazuma to the left of midfield.
   The main problem I had with Hanyu's selection was that it meant we played without a true holding midfielder for, I'm almost certain, the first time this season. Yone's form has been patchy at best over the past month, but in Aria and Casual we started two players in centre mid who are far better going forward and are, to put it nicely, not the best at winning the ball back. How many times had they started a game together in the centre this season? Off the top of my head I'd say none, and it certainly seemed that way as they appeared to have little idea how to play together.
   We'll come onto Jang in a moment, but if the manager wanted to start him here and didn't fancy Yone in centre mid, why not play the South Korean at centre half and return Hideto Takahashi to midfield alongside Aria? (I'd have preferred Casual, but Aria is never getting dropped no matter how poorly he plays.)
   And I haven't even brought up the fact that Roswell's inclusion means that Nemanja Vucicevic is still yet to make his first start for us despite being our best player for the previous three games...

• Why, oh, why, play Jang at left back?

   I've no idea why Mukuhara has fallen out of favour, perhaps the manager held him accountable for the cross Yuichi Komano put in for Iwata's disallowed goal last week, but over both Yuichi Maruyama and Jang, who have both played left back recently, he offers decent delivery from wide areas, something of a goal threat (just ask Urawa), and is, most importantly, a full back by trade.
   Jang had played some right back for us earlier in the season of course, but he's a centre back and will hopefully develop into an excellent one. After his strong half hour against Iwata he would've no doubt felt a boost of confidence, but that will have been torn to shreds here, as he had no idea how to deal with the movement and pace of Yasushi Endo in particular, but also the other Kashima forwards who stretched our entire back line with intelligent runs pretty much the whole game.
  As I mentioned above, Jang would've been a good selection in the centre, but I fear for us on Saturday at Shimizu in the Cracker Cup 2nd leg if he's named at full back again.

Mr. Popovic clearly erred in my opinion in the changes he made. This late in the season there shouldn't be this need to make wholesale changes, especially after we had played so well in the previous game and a half (as annoyed as I was after the Classico loss, remember, we dominated that game).

I have no idea what XI we'll see on Saturday, but I hope the manager puts these mistakes right. Come on Tokyo, let's get back to Kokuritsu!

Good Game, Good Score

FC Tokyo 2-1 Iwata

J1 Matchday 27

After the Classico disappointment of a week ago, FC Tokyo rebounded in the best possible way, coming from behind to defeat fourth-placed Iwata on Saturday in one of the most entertaining games we've seen at Aji Sta this season. Second half goals from Edmilson and Nemanja Vucicevic did the trick, after Iwata had taken an early lead.

Mr Popovic made two changes to the XI, bringing in Kenta Mukuhara for Yuichi Maruyama at left back, and naming Edmilson up-front, with Lucas shifting to the left of midfield and Naotake Hanyu dropping back to the bench. We had a great chance in the 5th minute when Captain Casual sent a rasping volley on target that the 'keeper almost made a hash of, but four minutes later we were behind after a mid-range cross from the right from their captain Hiroki Yamada was headed-in at the far post by Minoru Suganuma.

And its fair to say that for the rest of the first half they were the better team. Hideto Takahashi hit the post with a header from Naohiro Ishikawa's corner in the 26th minute, and Lucas had a header on target in stoppage time, but apart from those two chances Iwata held us comfortably at arm's length, and something needed to be done...and the manager did something!

On came Nemanja Vucicevic for the second half, replacing Takuji Yonemoto, and almost instantly we were transformed, as Nema's direct, no-nonsense style saw us look far more threatening. Nine minutes into the second 45 we were level, after Nao raced onto Aria Hasegawa's excellent through ball down the left channel and fired in a first-time cross to meet Nema's intelligent run across the box. Nema flicked the ball for the far post, the 'keeper got down well but spilled a relatively easy take and johnny-on-the-spot Edmilson fired in the rebound from six yards out.

Just three minutes later, as I was still waiting for my post-goal tweet to go through, Iwata made what looked like the perfect response to our equaliser when Ryoichi Maeda headed in a superb Yuichi Komano cross, but somewhat luckily for us the linesman's flag went up for a veeerrrry close offside (replays showed it was just the right decision). The next 20 minutes were fairly open as both sides went in search of a potential winner, but in the last ten minutes of the game we assumed control, and the introduction of Kazuma Watanabe (on for Edmilson) had a lot to do with that.

And then, with five minutes left, we took the lead, and again Aria started the move with another measured through ball that Watanabe's marker might have done better with. As it was Kazuma showed good control, and from almost right on the byline on the right cut the ball back to around the penalty spot, Lucas drew his defender closer to goal and Nema raced onto the ball in space, opened up his body and stroked a first-time finish with his left foot high into the net. Superb team goal, great strike from Nema, and my favourite whipping-boy Aria deserves credit for the role he played in helping to set up both goals.

There were still five minutes to play, but through that time and the five minutes of stoppage time the ref played we were fairly comfortable, and at the final whistle the home crowd celebrated an excellent team win. Nema did the hero interview, but clearly needs some work on his sha-sha-shaaaas, maybe the boys can train him up on that at Kodaira this week. The win saw us move up to 8th, and we're now just two points behind Iwata with seven to play. This weekend we visit Kashima.

Up the Gas!