Even though on record it shows that it was Chiyotanda's handball that gifted Urawa with a penalty kick which resulted in the equaliser in the 8min of injury time, wouldn't it have more meaning and substance if it was Tulio's handball? One of Urawa's favourite son, until he decieded to leave (for greener pastures?) one and a half seasons ago, showing that he still has a soft spot for the Reds. Just as @MarioUrawa tweeted "thanks Tulio, I knew you still love us". See what could have been?
Either way coming away with a draw with the last kick of the game, away from home against last years champions is a result which is acceptable, but the performance in general still needs some work, but going in the right direction. Firstly it was good to see Haraguchi back in Reds, rather than Samurai Blue. Besides the Fukuoka game, his attacking play have been missed by the Reds. Even though he started on the bench, he came on in the 26min, for Richardes who had concussion, and gave us a more determined attack.
No offence to Hara and to a certain extent Tatsuya, but they were dull and really didn't do much for the attack tonight. Having Genki, Mazola and Umesaki come on, our attack appeared more defined and looked more likely to score. One thing we do lack however is a "target man" striker; someone who can hold up the ball for Genki and Mazola to come forward from the wing. That's something that we are really lacking and need to address, if not that our attack will remain blunt. Mazola needs to be congratulated on keeping his compossure when taking the penalty, wouldn't have been easy, but he took it well.
As for our defence, I still believe it's solid enough. Spira, Nagata in the middle along with Shunki at fullback have been doing a good job for us. All that we need is for Ugajin to perform week in week out; I think right now he's going through what the American call a sophomore slump, Hirakawa at the moment is serviceable but going forward a backline of Shunki-Spira-Nagata-Ugajin would be solid for years to come (that's if we can keep them).
Finally our midfield; the only thing I want to say is "no more Nobuhisa!". He's had his chance and even led us to our only J-1 title, but he isn't what he use to be. We tried him at CB last year with Tsuboi; never again, and now we have him in the midfield. I know Kashiwagi isn't performing well, but I'd rather see Keita as the lone holding/defensive midfielder with Naoki and Kashiwagi/Kojima in front of him. But no, we presist with Nobu Yamada.
This is similar to the rant I had last year with Ponte. We can't have players on the field for what they have done at the club over 2 years ago. I know some people don't agree with me on this and I know that Nobuhisa has been loyal to the Reds for many years (many of them good years), but there is a time when we need to pass the baton on to the next generation of players. Ok lets get this straight, I'm not saying cut him from the team and say goodbye see you later so long, but we need to give the younger guys like Kojima, Naoki, and to a certain extent Aoyama a chance with Nobu mentoring them. If we don't, well Nobu can't continue playing forever.
Anyways, this is how we lined up against Nagoya
GK: Kato
DF: Takahashi; Spiranovic; Nagata; Hirakawa
MF: Keita; Nobuhisa; Naoki; Richardes; Hara
FW: Tatsuya
Subs
26min Richardes > Haraguchi
61min Keita > Mazola
77min Tatsuya > Umesaki
Up next is Gamba Osaka on Saturday. It's been a while since we've have no midweek game, so we should be able to field our strongest XI barring injury. Finally, keep an eye out for my first contriution to Asian Football Feast this week!
No comments:
Post a Comment