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"Watching" the Nabisco Blindfolded
At this point, it's a little silly for me to talk about the Nabisco Cup games not having access to the games directly. All I have are reports found on the internet, so I thought I'd keep quiet until I actually saw a match. However, the first day of matches brought out some interesting results. I couldn't help but take a peek at the match reports.

For people who have been checking out the results, the Frontale : Verdy game probably grabbed the most interest. A 4 - 4 scoreline at the end, but it turned out that the content of the game was even more incredible than the score indicated.

Frontale came out with gusto. The three players in the front line constantly rotated their positions, leaving Verdy defense in confusion. Verdy knew that Juninho was the dangerous player to watch for, but they were unable to keep their eye on him without allowing space for the other Frontale forwards. From the comments by coaches and players on both sides, perhaps a big factor for the first half's showing could be attributed to motivation. Verdy players admitted that there were discrepancies among the players going into the game -- since this was half of a home&away result some players did not focus in the same way they would have had this been a knockout round. Frontale, on the other hand, had a "nothing to lose" mentality given that they were looking for a first-time win in the J1. Frontale got their first goal at 5 minutes, and from there they rode the wave out in true Frontale fashion, aggressively going after the ball and quickly converting it to the offense. Though Verdy defense had aimed to "sandwich Juninho between the midfield and defense line", the aggresiveness of the Frontale players forced the Verdy defense to slide down. Their plan to sandwich the Frontale forwards fell flat, allowing 4 goals total in the first half.

According to both sides' coaches, the fate of the game lay in the first 15 minutes of the second half. Verdy's Ardiles told his team "if we can get a goal in the first 15 minutes, we still have hope". Frontale's Sekizuka told his team "the first 15 minutes is where you need to focus".

This turned out to be very good advice. And now the mental factor may have flipped over during the halftime. Verdy came on strong, controlling the second half in classic Verdy fashion. After the second goal for Verdy, the memory of Frontale's game against Reds this past week seemed to rear its ugly head. A sense of foreboding contaminated the Frontale spirit. Players lost focus, stopped running, and generally were caught watching the ball. (Frontale had taken a 3-1 lead over Reds at 64 minutes. Pretty nifty stuff for the newcomers against a power team like Reds. Unfortunately, they had not been able to keep that lead, allowing 2 goals in the last 10 minutes to finish in a tie.)

Verdy now had nothing to lose. "We had come back behind 0-3 in the past, so I knew it wasn't impossible," commented Morimoto (Verdy fw). After Verdy packed in the third goal, a sense of inevitability may have sunk into the Frontale players. They could not hang on to the one goal lead.

This was a game I would have loved to watch live. Rather than focusing on strategy and formation, etc., the true game-decider was experience and mental strength. The match reports and comments read like a classic narrative. For Verdy, the memory/experience of this game will become a valuable mental nugget when they find themselves in a tough situation. For Frontale, it was yet another game that showed they did have what it takes to convert their talent into goals at the J1 level -- it's a matter of how long it will take for the team to be able to understand and control themselves mentally as a group.

As a side note, it was really great to hear that fw Takayuki Morimoto (view profile & pic) was subbed in at halftime. From what I've seen of him so far, his potential is above and beyond anyone from the U21 generation -- rather a relief to see someone like this coming up the ranks in the Japanese football scene. He has a refreshing fearlessness that hopefully will not wane as he matures -- along with his obvious skills, it is what will put him in the prima class of footballers. Having gotten a head start by being the youngest player to enter the J1, I really hope that he is able to progress without injury or other distraction. I was also happy to note that he and Washington were able to play 45 minutes together, and Morimoto was able to score two goals for his team-in-need. Washington's high caliber presence will undeniably be a significant factor in Morimoto's growth this year.
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