October 3, 2023
This week saw the second round of fixtures in the AFC Champions League, so it was an ideal opportunity for these diaries to make long overdue first report on a game played in Japan.
Kawasaki Frontale Background
Kawasaki has a population of approximately 1.5M and is situated around 40km south of central Tokyo. The side was originally Fujitsu’s works team ( Fujitsu Sports Club ) and the club is still owned by the company, although the name changed in 1997.
Frontale play in the 26,232 capacity Kawasaki Todoroki Stadium, which has a running track around the pitch, and they are known and as Gremio from Japan, as their colours and badge are based on those of the Brazilian club. They are also referred to as the Azzurro Nero ( the blue/blacks ).
The J-League was created in 1992 but Kawasaki Frontale only first played in it in 2000, but were relegated after just one season. They were promoted back for the 2005 season and have been there ever since, becoming champions in 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021. Karou Mitoma played for Kawasaki before being signed by Brighton and Hove Albion in 2021.
Last season they finished in 2nd place, two points behind Yokohama F.Marinos to qualify for this year’s AFC Champions League.
By their own recent standards, Kawasaki have been very poor this season, sitting in 9th place with just 5 games remaining to be played. They have suffered 12 defeats, which is remarkable considering they had lost a total of only 13 games in the previous three seasons. Midfielder Yasuto Wakizaka is their top scorer in the J-League with a paltry 7 goals, and their average attendance this season has been 19,878, compared to 23,272 in 2019, the last season pre-Covid when crowds could attend every game.
Kawasaki Key Players
There are no limits on number of foreigners that a can be signed by a J-League side, but only 5 can be named in Matchday squads. They currently have 4 Brazilians, with the pick of them arguably being striker Leandro Damiao ( 17 caps ) who is in his 5th season with the club. He was the joint top scorer in 2021 J-League with 23 goals and has scored 60 goals in 160+ games in all competitions for Frontale. The three other Brazilians are midfielder Joao Schmidt, defender Jesiel and winger Marcinho.
Kawasaki also have 38 year old French striker Bafetimbi Gomis ( 12 caps ), who played two seasons for Swansea in the English Premier League, as well as for St Etienne, Lyon and Galatasaray amongst others. Another 38 year old is ex-Suwon Bluewings South Korean goal-keeper Sung-ryong Jung ( 67 caps )
Right-back Miki Yamane is their only current Japanese international ( 16 caps ) and was a member of Japan’s 2022 World Cup squad, but didn’t play in any match. Transfermarkt rate him Kawasaki’s most valuable player at €1.6M.
Former internationals in their ranks include defenders Takuma Ominami ( 1 cap ) & Shintaro Kurumaya ( 4 caps ), midfielders Ryoto Oshima ( 7 caps ) & Yasuto Wakizaka ( 4 caps ), and winger Akihiro Ienaga ( 3 caps ), who has played for Mallorca and Ulsan Hyundai.
Ulsan Hyundai Background
Ulsan is located 300 km south-east of South Korean capital Seoul, which takes approximately 4 hours by road. Its football side are owned by Hyundai Motors.
Ulsan won their third K-League title in 2022, with their previous successes being in 1995 and 2002. Ulsan had been runners up in 2019, 2020 and 2021 but this time they finished three points ahead of Jeonbuk Motors, who had won 7 out the past 8 previous K-League titles.
Ulsan are on course to retain their title in the 2023 campaign, currently sitting 8 points clear of Pohang Steelers with 6 matches remaining. Uncapped 33 year-old forward Min-kyu Joo is the K-League’s top scorer with 15 goals, whilst Valeri Qazaishvili has found the net 13 times.
Football in South Korea has featured in these diaries on a number of occasions, but never a match involving Ulsan Hyundai. Instead, their only major mention was back in May 2020 in the round-up of week 1 when the K-League became the first major league to resume after the Covid pandemic, when Ulsan beat Sangju Sangmu 4-0. Brazilian forward Junior Negrao scored twice that day but is now playing in the Chinese Second Division for Sichuan Jiuniu. Dutch defender Dave Bulthuis is still in South Korea but with Suwon Bluewings, whilst Australian centre-back Jason Davidson is now playing in Belgium for Eupen.
Defender Tae-Hwan Kim ( 21 caps ) and winger Chung-Yong Lee ( 89 caps, and formerly with Crystal Palace and Bolton Wanderers ) are still with the club but of the other players mentioned in the report, Bit-Garam Yoon is now with Suwon FC, In-Sung Kim is at Pohang Steelers and midfielder Jin-Ho Shin now plays for Incheon United.
Ulsan Hyundai Key Players
The foreign legion at Ulsan currently consists of portly, bearded ex-Paks Hungarian striker Martin Adam ( 15 caps ), who featured in these diaries back in 2021, Swedish midfielder Darijan Bojanic ( 2 caps ), ex-Vitesse Arnhem Georgian midfielder Valeri Qazaishvili ( 62 caps ), Swedish forward Gustav Ludwigson and Japanese winger Ataru Esaka ( 1 cap ).
There are seven current South Korean internationals in their squad, namely keeper Hyeon- woo Jo ( 23 caps ), defenders Young-Gwon Kim ( 102 caps, and goals in 2018 World Cup against Germany and in 2022 against Portugal ), Tae-Hwan Kim ( 21 caps ), Seung-hyun Jung ( 15 caps ), Young Woo Seol ( 1 cap ), midfielder Dong Gyeong Lee ( 8 caps and ex-Schalke and Hansa Rostock ) & forward Won-Sang Um ( 7 caps )
Previous Meetings
This is the 10th time Kawasaki have qualified for AFC Champions League, with their best performances being two quarter-final appearances ( in 2009 & 2017 ) but on five occasions they have failed to get out of their group.
Ulsan Hyundai were AFC Champions League champions in 2012 & 2020 and semi-finalists in 2006 & 2021. This year is the 11th time they have qualified for the AFC Champions League.
The two sides have now been drawn against each other on 6 occasions, with 9 matches played to-date. Ulsan have held the upper hand, having won all 4 home group meetings ( in 2014, 2018, 2019 and 2022 ) but they had never won in Japan, with three draws, and a defeat in 2014. The clubs also met in the last 16 in 2021, and after a 0-0 draw in South Korea, Ulsan won 3-2 on penalties.
So far in this year’s competition, Ulsan beat Pathum United 3-1 at home with a hat-trick by Martin Adam, whilst Frontale won 1-0 at Malaysian champions Johor Darul Ta’zim with Marcinho getting the goal.
Matchday Information
Bet365.com, who live streamed the match, made Kawasaki 6/5 favourites, with Ulsan at 2/1, and the draw at 13/5. The odd probably reflected home advantage and the historical results rather the respective places in the league tables.
At the 19.00 local time kick-off, the weather was dry and the temperature around 23 degrees. Ticket prices ranged from 3,200 to 7,400 Yen ( £18 - £40 )
Kawasaki made three changes to their starting XI against Johor DT, with Yamamura, Leandro Damiao and Segawa coming into the side as they switched from a 4-5-1 formation to 4-4-2. Ulsan made 4 changes from their first match, with hat-trick hero Adam and Bojanic dropping to the bench as 5 Kims started for them.
The referee and his assistants were from Saudi Arabia.
Ulsan were playing in an all-white kit rather than their usual yellow and blue stripes, perhaps trying to channel their inner Real Madrid, whilst Kawasaki were in blue shirts with black trim with black shorts and socks.
Both sides had their players names on the back of their shirts in roman script, although Ulsan’s players had their two first names, or in the case of their Europeans, just the player’s Christian name rather than surnames.
Match Report
The match had barely been going for 30 seconds when the referee stopped play for an off-the-ball incident involving the two number 23s, Marcinho and Tae-Hwan Kim. Perhaps they were arguing over who deserved to wear the number, but after a VAR check for a red card, no decision was made and the game restarted with a drop ball to Ulsan.
With 6 minutes played, Segawa turned inside the Ulsan area but his left-footed shot from 10 yards went over the bar. Yamane then played in a good ball from the right touch-line for Wakizaka to show good control to bring the ball down , then turn DG Lee inside out, but sadly for him sliced horrible wide from 12 yards.
The home side had started well, and the pressure continued as Damiao’s shot on the turn was narrowly deflected wide, and when the subsequent corner was headed clear, Tachibanda blazed 10 feet over from 25 yards.
With 12 minutes gone, another ball in the right from Yamane was met by the diving Damiao, but the header from 8 yards went several feet wide.
The two number 23s continued their niggles with the referee largely content to let them get on with it. However, in the 23rd minute the referee finally lost patience with the battle of the number 23s, and showed Kim a yellow card after he had clattered into Marcinho.
Ulsan’s first decent attack saw DG Lee cut in from the right and shoot left-footed from just outside the area, and although the effort was straight at the keeper, Jung fumbled with the ball going through his legs, but the keeper was able to recover to avoid any further embarrassment.
Ulsan were slowly getting into the game, and after slipping past a marker, GS Lee had a long-range attempt blocked by Ominami.
Frontale then produced their best move of the match to-date when Wakizaka played a lovely ball down the right touch-line for Segawa to run onto and his great cross flashed across the face of the goal, but Damiao failed to anticipate and the chance went begging.
After 35 minutes Yamane then got into another good position down the right and from his low ball across the 18-yard line, Marcinho managed to get ahead of a defender, but his shot lacked power and keeper Jo made a bit of a meal of making a routine diving save.
Ulsan were content to see out the rest of the half, passing amongst themselves, mostly in their own half, without ever threatening. At times it was like watching Brighton under Graham Potter !
At the interval the statistics showed that Ulsan had enjoyed 52% of the possession but they had not come close to scoring. However, they would have been satisfied that they had weathered the early storm from Kawasaki.
Frontale were again on the front foot early in the second half and Segawa was brought down near the corner flag by Cho. Wakizaka’s free kick found Marcinho on the 6-yard line but his header was blocked by Cho, and as Segawa attempted to blast the rebound from a tight angle, both Cho and KH Kim bravely got in the way to made a joint block.
In an effort to change the pattern of the game, Ulsan made a double substitution bringing on the veteran Chung-Yong Lee and Martin Adam. The Hungarian striker certainly hadn’t lost any weight since being in South Korea, and was still built like a rugby prop forward, or even Irish Ryder Cup golfer Shane Lowry ! He would certainly have a considerable weight advantage over his Japanese marker.
Ulsan then forced consecutive corners, but after the second one was cleared, Marcinho broke quickly to have only one defender to beat, but his extravagant back-heel to play in Damiao was poor and the Ulsan defence was able to get back and cover.
Marcinho then played a fancy flick into the 6 yard area but Damiao ran into KH Lim rather than get to the ball.
Ulsan then surprised the Kawasaki back-line by playing a long ball forward as a change from the tippy-tappy, and Esaka was put in space down the left. His lay back to Qazaishvili enabled a first time cross to be played into the area but Adam was unable to get onto the end of it.
The show-boating from Marcinho continue with a ball with the outside of his right foot from the left hand side, but Segawa sliced wide from close to the penalty spot.
With 66 minutes played, Damiao spun past YG Kim and with only the keeper to beat he should have scored, but instead he shot against the legs of the keeper and off for a corner.
With just over 20 minutes remaining Marcinho was substituted, and on his way off the pitch received a big hug from Kim after their battles.
The visitors still had a lot of possession without giving the Kawasaki keeper anything to do, and it was Kawasaki that continued to look closest to scoring. Wakizaka got past MK Kim but the long-range low shot was comfortably saved, and a wild, attempted volley by Segawa flew towards the corner flag. That was his last piece of action as he was promptly replaced by Gomis.
The experienced French striker was soon involved, trying to get ahead of two defenders to a chip into the 6 yard box, and all three players crashed to the floor. The free-kick was awarded to Ulsan.
With the clock ticking towards the red zone, it looked like Ulsan would hold out for a point, but Tono teed up Tachibanda, and Kawasaki captain’s 25-yard effort flew into the keeper’s bottom right hand corner for an expected and sensational winner.
With only three minutes of added time to be played, Ulsan never looked like grabbing an equaliser, and if they had it probably would have been ill-deserved. Having hardly created any chances worthy of the name, the final score was ultimately a fair result. Kawasaki though need to improve their finishing.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGHgFtMrIL8
Kawasaki Frontale : Jung - Yamane, Ominami, Yamamura, Noborizato – Tachibanada, Wakizaka, Seko ( Tono ), Marcinho ( Miyashiro ) – Leandro Damiao ( Yamada ), Segawa ( Gomis )
Ulsan Hyundai : Jo – TH Kim, KH Kim, YG Kim, Cho ( Ludwigson ) – Esaka ( MK Joo ), GS Lee, DG Lee ( CY Lee ), MK Kim, Qazaishvili – JH Kim ( Adam )
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