Who's there to counter the loss of Kashiwagi's creative spark? ... Apart from constant long balls to Sato in the box. I think he should easily be considered the most valuable Japanese striker currently available. That pre-season video (against Kusatsu?) looks like he hasn't lost that freak goalscoring instinct.
Obviously there is no direct replacement. So Petrovic is experimenting with trying to balance that out with a different formation, and I will feel better when Mikic and his accurate crosses are back in the equation. Otherwise the creativity and improvisation will fall to the other creative players (Aoyama in DMF, Makino and Stoyanov at the back). The remaining midfielders are decent at carving out their own chances but not so great at integrating with Hisato. Honestly I don't fancy our chances until the midfield is better balanced.
So do you see the tried-and-true 4-5-1 (or perhaps 3-6-1 at home) staying in place, despite the link between Hisato and the midfield missing a little bit? Or do you reckon an extra forward would be needed to give them a bit more force?
Petrovic tried Tadanari Lee up front with Hisato (3-6-1 to 3-5-2) in the ACL match against Shandong Luneng, but it didn't really work. Amusingly, the matchday programme had the team playing the normal formation with the Morisaki twins in the team, but when the teams were announced Koji was missing and Tadanari Lee was included. It's a toss-up as to whether Petrovic does the same again to try to get the players used to it and make it work, or if he reverts to 3-6-1. I expect he'll try to stick with one or the other, and if it still doesn't work out (by May possibly, or maybe during the World Cup break) Sanfrecce should get their chequebook out and bring in a replacement. I guess what is really surprising is that this hasn't happened already, since they already have the prize money in hand from last season. Petrovic must have known that the side was well-balanced last season but prone to stuttering and miscommunication when influential players were missing. I have a nasty feeling that when Kashiwagi went, Sanfrecce's 2008 & 09 mojo went with him.
1-1 draw vs. Shimizu to start the season. S-Pulse equalized in injury time, so all things considered a disappointing result after holding the lead for 86 minutes (Sato PK 4').
I watched the Hiroshima S-Pulse game on the box yesterday and I thought Hiroshima were, in the first half, a really hard team to break down. The second half was a different story though, and 1-1 was probably fair. Not impressed with the Bulgarian number 2 Stoyanov. On no less than three occasions (maybe more - the signal cut out for a good chunk of the first half) he went to ground under the slightest of physical challenges; rolling around like he'd been shot. It's not like he's a small bloke, either.
Stoyanov's trickery was an interesting counterpoint to Johnsen and Ono's attempts to bully the referees, to be sure. It's starting to seem like the most obvious thing Japanese players learn from playing in Europe is how to work the referees over, and Japanese referees don't seem to know how to deal with it.
Petrovic: "Our strongest line-up is ready to face Pohang." Setting your sights high is one thing, but this is getting silly. If Yamagishi has to play then it's obviously not our strongest line-up.
After re-reading the summary of the IFAB meeting in Wales last Saturday, it appears that they are thinking about making some (probably minor) changes to penalty kicks. I wonder if a video of the "penalty pantomime" against Shimizu will turn up during the debate. All changes to the Laws will be confirmed or rejected after 18 May.
I was just wondering, is it likely we will see some Hiroshima fans in Adelaide for the Champions League game next week?
Sanfrecce have teamed up with a local travel agent to offer packages to all the away games in the ACL, so it's likely that there will be a few. I can't promise any (native) English-speaking ones though since I've only met one other non-Japanese regular and we don't keep in touch.
Nakabayashi made some stupid mistakes last season that cost us points. At the moment Nishikawa seems to be at about the same level. :/
Sanfrecce Hiroshima FC 5 -2 FC Banik Ostrava 6' Tomoaki MAKINO 13' Hisato Sato 42' Hisato Sato 62' ISSEI TAKAYANAGI 65' Shinichiro Kuwada
I always hope Sanfrecce do well. My family is from Hiroshima and still lives in the prefecture, but somehow I became a Jubilo fan... Still after Jubilo crashes out I always cheer for Sanfrecce next (of course for baseball Carp are my number one team!).
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQmFa4SvFSM&playnext_from=TL&videos=c72UbwUsSuY&feature=sub"]YouTube- 20100630 0629 TM ?????????vs??????????[/ame] What a FK by Makino.
Likely another European team who thought: "Oh, haha, a Japanese team..." Makino and Sato are clearly prospects for the NT.
Not to be negative, but I think this was Sato's last chance. He'll be 32 in 2014, which puts him on the bubble in a position that's got a lot of young talent coming through.
I wouldn't mind it if he was given the chance for next year's Asian Cup, but I don't think he's been as amazing as he was last season. At least, not whenever I've seen him. The loss of Kashiwagi had a bigger impact on his performance than expected?