Both Kawasaki and Kashiwa lost today. Never really watched the Kawasaki match but Kashiwa's defence was atrocious imo. They were vulnerable to Jeonbuk's long balls to their forwards and poor on set pieces. Which was weird, considering they were pretty good on set pieces in their 2015 ACL campaign
Kashiwa's defence is really damn poor. I wonder how they managed to get an ACL spot last year, I think maybe Jubilo Iwata or Yokohama can do better in the ACL. Kawasaki are also not doing well now, currently down 0-2 to Ulsan, might be worse by end of the match.
They got some very interesting players there though, in both Nakayama and Nakatani, and the goalkeeper Nakamura as well is one to watch. Seems they have gone away from 2 holding midfielders as they used to, and only play with Otani there now with KBK and Esaka a little bit further up, so might be that they are not yet used to the new formation. Overall, Cerezo and Kashima are off to good starts, but there are no easy games in this year's ACL, except maybe vs Kitchee...
You know anything about this sudden change? Shimotaira has been there since 2 years ago, I doubt he would suddenly change his style all of a sudden. Either way, I am not impressed with their defence. They get caught up in one on one situations a lot and gave away a lot of free kicks in dangerous position. Their defensive set-pieces are very disorganized. They also are poor in offensive set-pieces imo, I remember in the 2015 ACL season, they scored quite a number of clutch goals in set pieces, they are lacking that this season. Nakayama should be tried in DM imo, hasn't impressed me playing full-back this season.
Hopefully Kashima can finally do well in the ACL this year, Kashiwa and Kawasaki have been disappointing so far. Funny how, Kashiwa who usually do the best among the Japanese teams in the ACL is doing so poorly this season. Kashima unlike Cerezo, has enough depth in their bench to focus on both competitions. Hopefully, they don't meet any of Guangzhou/Jeonbuk/SIPG so soon. They will definitely be the favourite against Kashima and definitely imo.
Hopefully, Kashima will go far this year. They are still a bit unorganized from what I have seen. Then again, there was no Misao or Pedro Junior, which are pretty important to Kashima iirc. Surprisingly, they dealt with the high balls pretty well. Ueda, especially was good in the air. I hope Nishino can find a way to utilize it in the WC.
Tianjin is the only "star-studded" team left now in the competition, but Jeonbuk seems an equally tough opponent. Interesting to see that all 4 teams from East are from either group E or H. Don't think Suwon will get past the next round, but I think Kashima's chances are equal to Jeonbuk and Tianjin's. In the West Zone Al Duhail have been in incredible form so far with 8 wins out of 8 possible including 2 blow-out wins against a strong team like Al Ain so they look like a serious contender for the title too.
2-0! that's a great result and they got 1 foot in the semifinal now. Avoiding goals against was very important, and it means if Kashima scores one in China Tianjin needs 4. Why didn't Modeste play btw?
Kashima were definitely the better team but Tianjin has had a few clear cut chances as well. Kashima need to buck up their defense as well as capitalizing on their chances. They missed a few good chances.
I didn't see the matches but according to Alan over at j-soccer.com Kashima could and should have won 5-0 or more. Let's hope 2-0 is enough.
Indeed. As I said earlier Endo wasted 3 clear-cut opportunities, 2 of them with the goal at his mercy.
Kashima advanced to the semi-finals for the first time. They will face the Suwon-Jeonbuk winner of tonight. I hope Suwon can be as I think Jeonbuk are the more dangerous team as compared to Suwon, they lost the first round as a few of their first team starters were taken for the Asian Games last month. On another note, Suzuki has improved quite a bit. I realised that he is more comfortable with the ball at his feet, he is better at stopping the ball and holding onto the ball as compared to the past. I hope that Machida can play more too, I don't really quite like Inukai but then Machida has to do more to take away the starting spot from Inukai as well.
Lol Suwon 2-0 Kashima in less than 10 mins. Not looking good on Kashima. Ueda leaving with the absence of Leo Silva and Gen Shoji really showed. Suwon looking extremely dangerous with their set-pieces and counter-attacks. Kashima's defense is very poor imo thus far. I think Kashima should try letting Machida start in the 2nd leg.
Wow Kashima 3-2 at the end. Nice comeback. Go Oiwa deserves credit for his mid-game subsitutions and adjustments. Kashima is surprisingly at 3rd in the league despite having to having ACL duties at the same time as well.
Come on, that is not true and it makes me think you haven't watched a single Kashima-game the last 2 months and base your comments solely on those first 10 minutes vs Suwon. Leo Silva is still very much alive and scored a stunner vs Kobe just 4 days ago. Fact is Kashima is a lot better now than what they were before the World Cup. In the league they lost 6 out of the 14 matches before WC, and have only lost 3 out of 14 matches since. They've also won all their cup-games, and advanced to the semifinal of ACL. All 3 losses in the league came against at that time the no.1 form team (Tokyo, Nagoya and Kawasaki), and all 3 were very narrow or last-minute losses. They have struggled with injuries the whole season, and it's true they needed to make a few adjustments after Ueda left but their defence and overall balance of the team have arguably never looked better than what it looks now (this season that is). Obviously Shoji is still their best defender, but players like Inukai and the new signing Jung (from Sagan) have really stepped up. Only Kawasaki and Urawa have taken more points in the league since Ueda left and Shoji got injured, and their defensive record has been fairly ok too except for the 2-4 loss and 3-3 draw vs Nagoya and Iwata.
You may be right. I haven't really watched the J league and only watch the ACL recently. Hence, I only know that Leo Silva is suspended from the previous ACL game against Tianjin. Kashima will be more defensively solid in the 2nd leg when he returns. Nevertheless, I hope that Machida can be given more chances to start, I really feel that he has quite a bit of potential in him to be a starter in the J-League. He can replace Ueda's aerial threat imo as he is pretty tall. Tho, he still needs to improve more to be a sure starter tho.
1st time Kashima ever reached the final iirc. Kashima has came from behind in both legs to win and draw the matches respectively. They deserve credit for it.