The Game: 04/03/07

Today's game was as abysmal as the weather. I was asked today why I come to the games and told how dedicated I was to make it to every game. Truth is, I'm hooked and if I don't come, my Sundays are that much quieter. The interest of watching how the dynamics between a group of men work is fascinating. I may just stand and watch, with the minimal vocal support, but in all honesty, you get sucked into it one way or another, whether you're shouting your support or just hissing under your breath.

Most of this season has seen the team work well at times. There have been some great passes and some brilliant team work. There have been pairings where the two players seem to connect well and work together (Batou and Deejay, Ryu and Ken - naturally, Jubei and Kaji) and there are times when pairings don't work (surprisingly, for some reason I just feel that Kaji and Ashitaka have lost that connection - could it be because Ashitaka doesn't play as often? Have they lost that spark or chemistry?). Somehow though, there is always a team effort, things work, the players work for each other (albeit they're sometimes a little silent about it), but there are those times when you see a spark, a great pass is made and the witty play is made. It's like watching a sketch, a great live comedy sketch, it's all about giving a line with the right timing and that's what it is with this team. Or at least that's what most of the season was...

Today for some reason the boys seemed to have lost that connection in the first half (I could have sworn I saw Ryu counting on his fingers as he held the ball between two opposing players). The boys seemed keen on giving each other back passes that made Aramaki lose his temper about it towards the end. Maybe it was the turf that the boys were playing on, maybe it was the bad weather, or possibly a combination of both, it just seemed that (especially in the first half) the boys were afraid to connect with the ball (kind of like the way the Saudi team played against Germany in the 2002 world cup). A lot of slipping was involved, a lot of misses were involved and a lot of missed connections between their feet and the ball was involved.

The other team managed to get all five goals in the first half, and although I wanted to yell "don't lose heart" after the third goal, you could see how some of them had already given up. Togasan really just lost all hope after the fourth goal and it was heart breaking. When Deejay came off the pitch at the end of the game, maybe it was that rain, but I could have sworn he was welling up. The fact that the game had an audience probably didn't help, but the ref was even worse and was enough to want me to own a small hand gun. It was hard not to feel that was siding for the opposing team and the fact that he only stopped blowing his whistle every six seconds towards the end of the second half because his throat was a little dry.

Shinji was also back, and although he's lost a little of his speed, he hasn't lost his ability to state the obvious when it comes to the team. His skills of motivation were revised today as he was asked to be a little more positive, unlike his usual bouts of "what the f!ck was that?!".

The problem is, today I don't think it would be fair of me to pick on one person or many of them. It would be unfair of me to criticise each of them as they all suffered from the result of the first half and managed to redeem themselves in the second half by not allowing the other team anymore chances. From the sidelines it looked painful, I can only imagine how heartbreaking it must have been to see it on from the pitch.