Agent Orange Reports: One Man Can Make A Mess Out Of A Column

For the three of you out there that actually read this column, I have to apologize. Three of my four major criticisms of Okada and crew doing a terrible job of officiating against Montedio Yamagata turned out to be wrong.

1. Our friend Johann pointed out that indeed you can be offside on a throw-in. Since I've been following the game for a relatively short time, I haven't picked up every rule. I did qualify the remark, but I was wrong.

2. Denis Marques was indeed offside by the slimmest of margins. How the linesman was able to spot the mere millimeters he was off is beyond me, but he nailed it. Good call... I was wrong.

3. Daisuke Tomita did in fact lower his shoulder into the keeper and go in late. Right call and from a tough position.

4. I still think a foul should have been called outside the box or a dive should have been called. That was bad.

So yeah... after further review, I screwed up.

Speaking of screw-ups, why the hell was Yosuke "Six-pack" Kataoka starting as central defender against FC Tokyo yesterday? I know Tomita has been poor, but wow. I have not seen a performance that bad since a certain left back allowed a first-time player to get a hat-trick in one half. Seriously, Kataoka fell down on the first goal, hit Cabore in the face with a cheap elbow and got burned on the second. At least in Yasuhiro Hato's defense, they weren't giving out trading cards of the player before the game.

The guy I did pay money to see, the monstrous Shunsuke Fukuda, had a very credible fifteen minutes as a target forward. He didn't get any shots on goal, but he got back on defense and created space for Mato Neretljak and Yoshihito Fujita up top. I would love to see the kid get some playing time in his natural position, or start as the target forward alongside Naoki Ishihara. He looks like a player and he handled himself well in a tough situation.

Game Notes

1. It was a pretty bold move by the coach to change half the line-up following the loss to Montedio. It almost worked. It was good to see Ryohei Arai back in the line-up. He didn't play great but he looked more confident and more assertive with the ball. Daisuke Watabe wasn't playing bad but the move to Park Won Jae in the second half was definetely the right one. As the game wore on, Park got more and more dangerous, using his speed to force FC Tokyo players to commit yellow card infractions. His crossing and set pieces were excellent as well. He had the corner that Mato got a hold of for the second goal.

2. Kohei Tokita is starting to look like a decent choice at right back. He lacks the skills of Taishi Tsukamoto, but has more speed and covers more ground. I still think Taishi needs to be on the field and maybe using him as a sub for Tomoya Uchida on the wing would work. Uchida looked very good last night. The free kick was something that only one or two guys on the team can do so it was nice to see.

3. Yusuke Murayama looked decent when Park came on. It took him a while but he started to connect with the pacy lefty and that made the team much more dangerous.

4. I don't usually do this, but I'd like to talk about FC Tokyo for a moment [weirdo - Ed]. For sixty minutes, they looked like world beaters, pressing and pushing and getting a lot of dangerous chances through hard work. Naohiro Ishikawa was class out there (big chunk of wooden uselessness wearing a number six Ardija shirt notwithstanding). I've seen guys absolutely whiff on the two first-half goals that he put up, so credit to him. The third goal was a fantasista effort with equal parts luck and quick thinking by the player Tough shot to even get on goal, much less go in.

Inexplicably, the team started timewasting, Yohei Kajiyama being the biggest culprit. I'm not going to go off on a huge tangent on timewasting because everyone does it. I'm sure sometime during the season we will feign injury to preserve a win. I only mention it because it seemed like the rhythm the Gasmen had going was completely wiped out. They had the field spread and probably could have put up one or two more had they kept up the initiative. Had we put in one of the many close second-half chances to tie the score, FC Tokyo would have lost that game, because they stopped playing.

Three Stars

1. Park - I hope that is a glimpse of things to come because he was absolutely magnificent as a midfielder. So dangerous earning corners and crossing the ball.

2. Tomoya Uchida - Another pacy winger who put in a creditable performance. The combination of these two is exactly what is needed to run Jang Wae Ryong's seven-second offense. Out to the corners and cross.

3. Naoki Ishihara - He didn't get on the scoresheet but his workrate and hustle set up the first goal and created chances for more. When I first heard we were signing him, I thought nothing about it but I think a case can start to be made that he is the best Japanese-born striker to wear an Omiya uniform (although Mr Naoto Sakurai was very good before his injuries).

Next up, the team I love to hate: Oooooooitaaaaaaaa!

Orange! Don't even think about losing to Oitaaaaaa! Football!!!!!!!

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