ACL 2013 Group Stage vs Muangthong United

First home game for the 2013 ACL against Thai Premier League Champion Muangthong United. Again I couldn't go the the stadium so watched it over TV at G+. The stadium was filled with 20K+ fans hoping for Reds to win.

The starters has changed as promised by manager Petrovic that we will make turn over with the extremely tight schedule this season. Sekiguchi, Hirakawa, Marcio, and Nasu started for the first time this season. The game was completely one side, with Reds holding ball possession through out the game. Muangthong lost 1 player with 2 yellow cards in 1st half which made the game even more favorable for the home team. 4 Goals were from Kashiwagi, Sekiguchi, Haraguchi, and own goal. The only problem was that we lost 1 goal to Muangthong which was absolutely unnecessary, although it might have been a good thing to have some issues to mend. We could have also scored more especially from Koriki as he is the only FW in the game and playing for 3 matches already. He is playing great assisting others score goal but as a FW he needs to score, hopefully it will come soon.

All in all, great game, looking forward to the next match against Oita in Kyushu this weekend. I will watch it over TV.

J-League 2013 Game 2 vs Nagoya Gampus

First game at our home stadium Saitama Stadium for the 2013 season. I couldn't go to the stadium, unfortunately but was able to watch it live on Skapa online streaming service. I would want to review about the service some other time.

The match itself was 1-0 win against Nagoya. The starters were exactly the same as the previous match against Hiroshima. Sadly Tulio was injured and was not on the field today. The result was minimum score for a win but the match itself was completely dominated by the Reds. There was maybe one big chance for Nagoya but other than that defense was almost perfect and Reds held the ball for majority of the game. The goal was by Ugajin left outfielder who has been maintaining good condition from preseason matches, assisted by Koroki. It was a perfect goal started from a pass from Suzuki to Koriki. Koroki trapping the ball free with his back towards the Nagoya goal, quickly turned around and a great pass behind the Nagoya defense line to Ugajin. Ugajin with his right leg kicked the ball to the opposite side net, Nagoya GK Narasaki jumped for the ball but unable to touch it. Towards the end Marcio replaced Genki and Nasu replaced Kashiwagi closing the game perfectly. One thing that needs improvement is free kick there was maybe 3 or 4 kicks right outside the penalty area. but none of the kicks was even close to scoring. 1-0 score is pretty dangerous it could have been a draw with the simplest mitakes and Reds play-style of building up from the GK is a risky strategy. I do think we need more goals to win the league.

Great match, hopefully Koroki will score soon and we will have more goals from free kicks. For tonight let's celebrate the great win against Nogoya. Next match is ACL against Muangthong United at hour home stadium on Tuesday!

Japan Times Article - Ugajin sends Reds to second consecutive triumph to start season

J-League 2013 Game 1 vs Sanfrecce Hiroshima

First J-League match of the season. Watched it on TV (NHK) at home with couple of my Reds friends. Great start for the season for the Reds 1-2 winner at Hiroshima! Overall ball possession was good,  the 2 goals were both by Kashiwagi and Haraguchi. The first goal was assisted by Haraguchi and scored by Kashiwagi, the second goal was other way around. The only lost goal was direct free kick by Koji Moriwaki, hit the bar and went in, was nothing the GK Kato could have done about it.

Koroki was the starting center FW, quite a surprise as we were told that he was injured and hadn't played against Guangzou on Tuesday.  The other members were as expected. I would have expected a goal from Koroki but, not this time. The Reds player were very focused and the winning factor was didn't let Hiroshima's ace striker Hisato Sato score or play well in the game. What's most important is 3points earned from Hiroshima in a away game, and believe it or not it's actually the first time that Reds (in it's 20 years history in the J-League) won the opening away match. What a start!

Next match is against Nagoya Grampus at our home, Saitama Stadium. Tulio is injured in the match against Jubilo Iwata which is a good sign, although I wished to see him play at Saitama.

ACL 2013 Group Stage vs Guangzou Evergrande

3-0 Loser in their home stadium at Guangzhou  First match of the season and I have to say its not a good start. I watched it on G+ live at home, unable to make it to Guangzhou this time. I was surprised there was a live broadcast on my Cable TV, never watched the channel before as it is mainly broadcasting baseball and I don't like the Tokyo Giants which is both owned by NTV/Yomiuri group. The stadium was great it was completely packed with extremely loud crown it almost felt like a National Team playing against each other. I wished I was there.

The starters for Reds were as expected, Shinzo Koroki had a minor injury so Petrovic decided to go with Genki Haraguchi as the FW. Other than that it was the usual gang form the pre-season matches.  Guangzou had a pretty impressive starter 3 foreign attacker and the rest are all China national team members according to the TV announcer. Barrios who scored the first goal used to play with Shinji Kagawa in Dortmund (Germany) so quite familiar to the Japanese audience. Reds was playing pretty good until we lost 1 goal from losing the ball in mid-field. After that the game was Guangzhou's and they scored two more goals mainly from our own mistakes. Trying to keep the ball is a good strategy but I don't think in a away environment like this it is less effective as the player are under strong pressure and make mistakes to lose the ball in our won field. Especially after we lost 1 goal we should have thought of doing something else, but then again I also understand that Petrovic sticks with his plan throughout the game.

Couple of good things that I took from the game was that Sakano replacing Marcio during the second half and played FW was quite good. I had little expectation for him as Reds was less successful with university graduates especially for FW. The other thing was although we lost the game it wasn't as bad as the score shows. If we scored the first goal we had a good chance of winning the game. We have to switch to the next match on Saturday  should be a easier opponent compared to Guangzhou and easier stadium to play as well.

Keita Suzuki

In this blog I am posting articles about the key players in Urawa Reds. I want to start with Keita Suzuki as he is probably the longest player, constantly playing as a starter in the team. Also the game captain for the past several years since 2009.

Keita (as we all call him) joined Reds in 2000 from Tōkai University Fuzoku Shōyō High School and has been playing for the Reds throughout his professional career. 2013 would be his 14th season with the Reds. His position throughout his career has been defensive midfielder and has played in the Japanese National Team from 2006 to 2008 (28 matches).

Keita's strength is in managing the game where he is constantly running for the team avoiding dangerous situations. He is usually covering for defensive players when they go into the opponents field, and he is rarely seen in a offensive position. But during 2012 season he scored one goal which is very rare but with the new system introduced by Mihailo Petrovic he maybe scoring more goals in 2013. He is born on July 8th, 1981, will be 32 in 2013. Hopefully he will continue to play with the Reds for few more years until he retires.

Keita has been quite unlucky in a sense where he lost his position in the National Team in 2008 when he had a bad flu and also was not chosen to be playing in the Athens Olympic in 2004, although he contributed a lot in the  qualification matches. I would say he is sometimes not as valued as he should be because he does not contribute that much to offense. He usually needs a good offensive partner in midfield or defense for him to shine, and I think is a good match with Tomoaki Makino currently with Reds.

Keita has had number 13 ever since he started in Reds, also in the National Team. Not quite sure why he likes the number. He is married to a fashion model Hiroko Hatano and has one daughter.

Wikipedia: Keita Suzuki

Season Review - 2012

J-League Division1 regular season runs from March all the way through December in a year so it fits within a calendar year. I want to review each year time to time in my blog.
 
Year 2012 was a successful year considering the previous years and it's actually the main reason I started this blog. Reds made it 3rd place in the league which makes us qualify for the AFC Champions League! Quite honestly this result was huge surprise to me as the Reds actually almost fell to J2 (J-League Second Division) the previous year (2011) coming in 15th place, barely staying in J1. Here are some of the key factors that made impact in 2012 and how I look back at the year.
 
What made the most difference was hiring a new coach. Mihailo Petrovic clearly revitalized the team with his new formation and proven strategy. He led the Sanrecce Hiroshima for 5years before he came to Urawa Reds and Sanrecce became the League champion in 2012 based on his formation and strategy. I think I will write a separate article about him so I will leave it with that for now.
 
We didn't make much difference to the players other than recruiting Tomoaki Makino from 1FC Koeln in Germany, who actually played in Sanrecce Hiroshima until middle of 2011. He was really critical player to materialise Petrovic's strategy as a player that can play offence while being a stopper. He also created a great atmosphere within the team and the club being a very open minded, entertaining character. His fantastic free kick during the second half of the last match (against Nogoya Ganpus) would be remembered by myself and Urawa supporters for many years to come. Although he was rented from the 1FC Koeln in 2012 he made a decision to come fully to Urawa Reds in 2013 which is really great.
 
Above are the two factors that I think changed the team in 2012, but the success of attaining 3rd place actually came from outside and not within the team. Reds had 55points at the end of the year which in 2011 that would have been 6th place, in 2010 that would have been 5th place. So the most crucial part of the success was that the League itself was countervailing and Reds was the lucky one to be 3rd with such low points.
 
2012 was a important year of change for the Reds and most importantly we came 3rd place in the League, qualifying for the AFC Champions League.

About This Blog

This blog as the title indicates is my blog on Urawa Red Diamonds. Or Urawa Reds in short. I plan to post a separate article to introduce the team, but Urawa Reds is a professional soccer team that play in the Japanese J-League Division 1. I have been following and cheering for the team since the J-League started in 1993, but this year (2013) they are participating in the AFC Champions League for the third time since 2007 (which we became Champion) and thought it would be a good opportunity to start writing a blog about the Reds in English.

I hope to write couple of articles a week, especially around the ACL matches where Reds play against other Asian teams which probably would be the most traffic that would generate English readers. Through this blog I hope to interact with fans from the other teams that Reds play against in Asia and of course also with English speaking/writing supporters of Reds. There are very few English resources available about the J-League in general and I hope to be able to contribute by providing some first person perspective on the Japanese football/soccer scene.

Hope you enjoy the blog and please feel free to send me feedback on the comment and you can also reach me through e-mail (ken.urawa at gmail.com) as well as twitter @ken.urawa

Enjoy!

Ken