Post by shrewinjapan on Dec 5, 2004 23:01:06 GMT 1
I had a good time last night at the game. Final score was Yokohama Marinos 1 Urawa Reds 0 in front of a crowd of 64,899. A few photos (camera battery ran out before kick-off 
) here...
benedict-matthews.fotopic.net/c355367.html
Afraid my camera is a couple of years old and therefore, in terms of digital cameras, older than the ark. No zoom so I had to use the lowest res mode with max digital zoom. In other words they are crap, sorry
As for the stadium, well the atmosphere was good. Some "theater" as Mattsnapper would say - all the lights in the stadium off for a few minutes until the teams came out etc. "Smoke & Mirrors" Jamo? Pretty near full stadium, about 50:50 for each team. Lots of women (yeah many beautiful young ladies Matt) & kids. Near constant singing, jumping up and down and flag waving - all of it positive chants for the teams. There is little or no agressive chanting against the opposition/ref/players here in Japan. That is good and bad - safe friendly environment but a little hollow and passionless. Most of the chants are started by guys with megaphones. We had unreserved seat tickets for the home end behind the goal, but when we arrived 30 mins before KO it was already impossible to find a seat so we ended up standing ;D at the very back in the nosebleed section. It is a nice stadium, but basically a massive concrete bowl with a large athletics area, so the pitch is miles away and the acoustics are rather muffled.
As for the game itself, well it wasn't too good. The best teams in Japan would probably struggle in the Championship. Lots of fast and technically capable players but there seemed no pattern or obvious tactics to their play. They lack power to their game and a lot of their passing was to be honest abysmal. Everything is rushed - players seem to think they have to make a killer pass or beat a few men every time they get the ball. We were just crying out for them to slow down, think about it and play a square ball to a team mate now and again. My mate, a Leeds fan, reckons any manager with simple tactics and a David Batty type midfielder would go far in J-League.
This is getting a bit long so I'll stop now. Sorry for boring anyone
) here...benedict-matthews.fotopic.net/c355367.html
Afraid my camera is a couple of years old and therefore, in terms of digital cameras, older than the ark. No zoom so I had to use the lowest res mode with max digital zoom. In other words they are crap, sorry
As for the stadium, well the atmosphere was good. Some "theater" as Mattsnapper would say - all the lights in the stadium off for a few minutes until the teams came out etc. "Smoke & Mirrors" Jamo? Pretty near full stadium, about 50:50 for each team. Lots of women (yeah many beautiful young ladies Matt) & kids. Near constant singing, jumping up and down and flag waving - all of it positive chants for the teams. There is little or no agressive chanting against the opposition/ref/players here in Japan. That is good and bad - safe friendly environment but a little hollow and passionless. Most of the chants are started by guys with megaphones. We had unreserved seat tickets for the home end behind the goal, but when we arrived 30 mins before KO it was already impossible to find a seat so we ended up standing ;D at the very back in the nosebleed section. It is a nice stadium, but basically a massive concrete bowl with a large athletics area, so the pitch is miles away and the acoustics are rather muffled.
As for the game itself, well it wasn't too good. The best teams in Japan would probably struggle in the Championship. Lots of fast and technically capable players but there seemed no pattern or obvious tactics to their play. They lack power to their game and a lot of their passing was to be honest abysmal. Everything is rushed - players seem to think they have to make a killer pass or beat a few men every time they get the ball. We were just crying out for them to slow down, think about it and play a square ball to a team mate now and again. My mate, a Leeds fan, reckons any manager with simple tactics and a David Batty type midfielder would go far in J-League.
This is getting a bit long so I'll stop now. Sorry for boring anyone
colleagues, a Leeds fan from Nottingham. Very smart kid too - Oxford grad.
