Friday, June 3, 2011

2011 at the quarterpost

Ohisashiburi.

It was around this time last year when Kashiwa was running roughshod over the rest of J2. Buoyed by the return of Nelsinho after his efforts in 2009 fell just short for survival the wily veteran coach brought back his core, jettisoned some talented but peripheral players, and led the squad to a dominating first place finish in J2.

This year, the squad was touted by most of the pundits in medialand to finish in a solid midtable position. Well, early results have shown the pundits have missed the mark.

In one of the strangest seasons in recent memory (due in large part to the tragic events of March 11th), perennial also-ran Kashiwa being at the top of the J League has to rank right up there as a huge shock. Stats have been overwhelmingly one sided in their favor as well.

For Kashiwa, it starts on defense. After 8 games, the squad is allowing a stingy 4 goals. That stat is a bit misleading though because they allowed 2 to Montedio in their only loss of the season after starting a patchwork back 4. Park Dong Hyuk, the foundation of last years back line, went down in the third game of the season against Kofu. In his place, Tatsuya Masushima has filled in commendably. The team has only allowed 1 goal in the 4 games he's started. The side back duo of Hiroki Sakai and veteran Brazilian Jorge Wagner have been upgrades over the 2009 combo of Yuzo Kobayashi (Yokohama) and Yusuke Murakami.

The offense currently boasts 4 of the top 10 scorers in the J League, starting with 33 year old striker Hideaki Kitajima. Kitajima was seen as an afterthought going into the season but has already managed to match his goal output from last year with 4. The engine of the squad is Leandro Dominguez who can beat teams with pinpoint passes or strikes of his own.

Surprisingly, Kashiwa has been a force on offense while lacking real contributions from last years starting striker duo of Masakatsu Sawa and Ryohei Hayashi. Former Celtic benchwarmer and JEF Chiba starlet Koki Mizuno has yet to make any impact on the team after a midseason transfer last year.

While the team has been a bright point, the fans have not been as successful in representing. During the Kofu game, some fans decided to scream racially tinged obscenities at former Japan youth team member Mike Haavenar. The incident have added to a less than stellar reputation for the Hitachi faithful.

Now the squad starts the tougher part of their schedule, starting with Yokohama on the 11th. Kashima has yet to play any of the other top 5 squads yet this year, how they fare in those matches will determine if they are ready to be contenders.

1 comment:

  1. YO !
    Your Blog is great and I am a Kashiwa fan. If you do not use, can you use it, I will post regularly, it is well done, please !!!!!

    ReplyDelete