Agent Orange Reports: Salaryman Fiesta

What do you get when you combine a bunch of salarymen with a 300-yen Nama-Biiru night? Wacky hijinks, that's for sure! And by wacky hijinks, I mean the overpowering smell of beer, tobacco, BO and overflowing toilet, combined with a hint of vomit*. Just great, I always imagined what it would be like to watch a game while riding the local train and Omiya nailed it!

In fact, they had it right down to the smelly salaryman sitting next to me with his legs spread wide open, so that you have to sit on one half of your seat so that you don't get the stench on you; that stink doesn't go away for days. And to end the night, I went to use the facilities and saw that someone couldn't handle all his Nama-Biiru and left a deposit in one of the sinks. Just like my local station.

Anyhow 6900 and change for a midweek Nabisco Cup game against Jubilo ain't bad, so I'll tolerate the smell.

The Wisdom Of Jang

The Nabisco Cup has been good for me personally because I can watch the game with a more detached eye. One thing that jumped out at me was a shift of Park Won Jae, Yasuhiro Hato and Kohei Tokita early in the contest. Jubilo was attacking the wings pretty heavily, getting shots up and looking tough. At a throw-in, coach Jang Wae Ryong had Hato shift over to right back, Park dropped down to left back and Tokita took the midfield spot. Moments later, Tokita earned a penalty for Omiya and that was the game.

Is Jang trying to get Omiya to play "total football"? Did I just mention Omiya and "total football" in the same sentence? Maybe it's not quite that, but the new man in charge does have a penchant for flexibility - to wit, players who appeared in the Jubilo Nabisco Cup game or were on the bench:

GK Takagi
LB Hato (can switch to right back)
CB Kataoka (can switch to center mid)
CB Mato (attacking defender)
RB Tokita (can play the wing)
LM Park (can play LB)
CM Hashimoto (can play the wing)
CM Kanazawa (can play the wing)
RM Fujimoto (can play CM and FW)
FW Ishihara (can play wing)
FW Fujita (defensive forward)

RM Uchida (can play CM)
CB Fukuda (can play FW)
LM Denis Marques (can play FW)
MF Saito (can play center back)
FW Watabe (can play wing)

Look at players who are on the outs right now:

RB Tsukamoto
CM Kobayashi
CM Arai
FW Lavric

That is, all guys who play predominately one position. In the practice games, they play one position. A guy like Yusuke Murayama is on the bench because he is able to slot in to all four defensive roles. Daisuke Tomita is now re-learning the side back position because he wants to play. I'm guessing versatility is the coin of the realm. I'm hoping a certain bingo king can ask this question if he sees the head man at training next week.

Game Notes

Not a great game but we got the result. That's a good lesson to learn.

1. The defense looked better when Park slotted back. It looked like the plan was for Park and Mato Neretljak to shadow Lee Heun So and not give him a decent shot and it worked to perfection. Yosuke Kataoka and Hato were assigned to the less dangerous Ryoichi Maeda and handled him. The mids kind of got worked by Gilsinho and Norihiro Nishi.

2. The offense was a bit rough tonight. Mato almost added a second on a header but other than that there were no real dangerous chances.

3. Takahiro Takagi was excellent. He made some nice saves except for one near bungle. Very composed.

Three Stars

1. Mato Neretljak - If he had like played that in the J1 game in Iwata, we'd be in a better league position.

2. Takahiro Takagi - One goal conceded in 3 Nabisco Cup games. Koji Ezumi should start looking over his shoulder a bit.

3. Park Won Jae - Much improved. If he's going to play defense, let him play there and get comfortable. Leave him alone and give him the time to acclimatise.

And Finally...

FC Japan gives us hope in their latest column by waxing effusively over our next opponents**. The curse must continue!

Orange! If we keep playing like this in the Nabisco Cup I might have to buy even more tickets!! Football!!!

* I imagine that's the smell of David Beckham's cologne, but I am not sure. If you wear Beckham cologne, would you write in so we can mock you openly? Thanks.

** Fuck Urawa!

*