Tuesday 19 May 2009

Agent Orange Reports: Ain't No Sunshine In Kashiwa

As I found myself sitting in a cold downpour at Sunday's reserve team friendly at Kashiwa Reysol, wind gusting and youth players wandering around (not watching what was going on, instead playing tickle fight), I thought to myself, "Why the hell am I here?"

It was a practice game and I hauled my lethargic butt out of bed to go watch guys play against other guys in a meaningless encounter. None of them are members of my family, or even close friends. If they saw me on the street, they wouldn't know me. I've only talked with two of them for more than a minute. But on Sunday, I found myself sitting in rain watching a scrimmage. Pathetic.

Game Notes

1. Daisuke Tomita alternated between left central defense and left wing back and looked decent in both. It could possibly be that he's just uncomfortable on the right. Or it could be the lower competition making him look good. Haruki Nishimura looked great again. Distribution wasn't as good as the Verdy match, but his defense was really good. Shunsuke Fukuda looked good marking, he was paired on Tadanari Lee for much of the game and kept the Olympic striker contained.

2. Tomoya Uchida sent a nice corner in to Daisuke Watabe for the lone goal of the game. It was funny to see the shortest two players on the pitch team up for a header on a set play.

3. The three keepers all made nice saves. This is probably the deepest we have been at the keeper position, ever.

4. Three youth players appeared. One was a left-sided defender who had a nice game, didn't do anything spectacular but didn't do anything bad. The second was a forward who had nice speed and good sense of what he wanted to do, but was too weak to hold the ball. He got muscled pretty easily. The third was a combo FW/MF who reminded me of Kota Yoshihara because he kept giving up on runs. Not crazy about that.

Anyhow, Nabisco (Glorified Scrimmage Disguised As A Meaningful Competition That Will Sill Piss Me Off If They Lose) Cup tomorrow against Jubilo Iwata. I really wouldn't mind seeing the same starting XI play - Klemen Lavric paired well with the faster Watabe. I imagine only Kohei Tokita, Ryohei Arai and Takahiro Takagi will see time tomorrow, but with Jang Wae Ryong in charge, who knows.

Orange! At Least I Have An Excuse Not To Go To Shonan For Yet Another Scrimmage!! Football!!!!!!

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