A Weekend of Football Fun in Kyushu: Oita Trinita, Kagoshima United, and Roasso Kumamoto
Checking out some J2 and J3 games!
Hi all, I’m back from my Kyushu trip. This will be more of a casual review rather than a super detailed analysis, so prepare for random thoughts and some bonus tourism reviews but most importantly: lots of photos! All-in-all this was a fantastic trip and the stars really aligned for me to travel all around Kyushu to watch three whole J.League games in a row!
Let’s get started!
Note: I was supposed to release this on Friday night but stuff happened so this post doesn’t take into account tonight’s games on July 29.
Oita Trinita (July 22 vs. Iwaki FC)
Prior to watching a few of their games, I was honestly confused about Oita. A nice heuristic I like to use when scanning league tables (I like keeping tabs on lots of leagues all around the world, especially for those ones I can’t spend time to watch games) is to look at a team’s goal difference. Oita have consistently hovered around zero, at times going into negative despite being in the top 4~6 for most of the season! Was it simply because they weren’t scoring goals despite a good defense or…? You can think up various scenarios of how a team might be performing based on their goal difference so it can be pretty useful, even if it obviously doesn’t give you the full story. I was interested in Yusei Yashiki when I first made plans for this trip but his recent ACL injury dashed those hopes unfortunately…
Oita Trinita play at Resonac Dome which is located around 20~30 minutes away from the main train station by bus. The club makes shuttle bus available from the stadium (and also the return route after the game) so it’s honestly quite easy to get there and back. Even with the athletics track surrounding the field, the sight lines aren’t too bad as the seats are arranged at a pretty steep angle.
The recent games I watched from Oita were:
Fagiano Okayama (Home): 1-0 Win
JEF United (Away): 1-1 Draw
Jubilo Iwata (Away): 1-1 Draw
Roasso Kumamoto (Away): 3-1 Win
Oita either play without a striker with Hiroto Nakagawa and Naoki Nomura playing as floating #10s or they have Samuel up top as a classic target man. The main thing about Oita is their deep possession build-up play where they have lots of rotations throughout their midfielders and defenders to confuse opponent marking and evade the press. Any one of the midfielders like Ikeda, Yumiba, Nakagawa, or Nomura might drop to split the Center Backs. Then the Full Backs can pinch inside to become midfielders themselves, or push up higher out wide or into the half-spaces depending on where the Wingers were positioned. In particular, Katsunori Ueebisu starting out as the nominal Right Back would drift around quite a bit to create space for others or receive the ball himself.
The main threat of this side comes from the Left sided combination of Keita Takahata and Kazuki Fujimoto, who have a very solid partnership out wide. Fujimoto piqued my interest before the Iwaki FC match as from what I saw, he’s a good dribbler but also quite tough physically, regularly beating defenders in duels on the air or ground. With Nomura and Nakagawa’s dropping movements, Fujimoto is usually the one taking up the space centrally and trying to make runs behind the defense as a pseudo-striker (from what I’ve read he’s actually played as a striker a few times this season as well).
Now on to the game itself…. vs. Iwaki FC
If you check the highlights on DAZN, most of the scenes are taken from the 2nd Half and I don’t blame them, there was a whole load of nothing in the 1st Half. Oita looked very nervy for some reason, simple passes weren’t connecting, players just seemed a step or two disconnected from their teammates. This included the goalkeeper Konosuke Nishikawa, who is supposed to be a calm steady presence despite his young age but he didn’t really show it here. Iwaki FC are a very aggressive, physical team that hassles and harries you all over the pitch but even without that element, Oita were simply making lots of errors. Anytime there was even a glimpse of an opportunity to break past Iwaki’s press, a misplaced pass ended the possession before it could really spark to life.
Naoki Nomura was barely able to face forward on the ball and Oita really struggled to progress up the pitch while I’m not sure why Shimotaira decided to play Hiroto Nakagawa against a very strong Iwaki of all teams as his technique wasn’t enough of an advantage to make up for his complete lack of physicality. Simple long balls to Samuel with Fujimoto running on to collect the scraps seemed like Oita’s only real avenue for getting into the final 3rd for a good chunk of the game.
Kenshin Yasuda and Tomoya Ando were players I wanted to focus on while watching and while they had their moments in this game, they didn’t really do a whole lot to convince me of their quality. Yasuda is still only 18 years old though, so some ups-an-downs in form is normal and I imagine I’ve just not watched the right amount of games from him. Shun Ayukawa came on early in the 2nd Half and was immediately creating some semblance of danger unlike everybody else up to that point. Of course, just when I thought his introduction would be the catalyst for Oita’s resurgence, Iwaki scored their 2nd goal right after in the 58th minute.
On the day, Oita looked very mediocre and I didn’t even get to see the interesting bits in possession that I had seen in my preparation for this game. Derlan was quite good though, Oita would not have been able to get close to scraping a draw near the end of the game if it wasn’t for his defending throughout the 90. It was a bit of a disappointing turnout from the fans as well with only 6,500 or so on a weekend game as they usually get more than that on average.
Touristy Stuff:
“The Seven Hells of Beppu” were… also pretty mediocre. I might go as far as call them a tourist trap. Then again, having been to Yellowstone National Park among other places with hot springs and geysers myself, I’m not so easily impressed anymore. On the other hand, I did very much enjoy the “hot sand baths” at Takegawara Onsen. I recommend that for anybody visiting Oita/Beppu.
Kagoshima United (July 23 vs. Ehime FC)
Kagoshima United’s hopes for this season is of course, promotion into J2, which they missed out on last season by a mere agonizing point behind Fujieda MYFC. Kagoshima are once again in the promotion race, although they had been in inconsistent form coming into this game with 3 wins and 3 losses.
Kagoshima United play at the Shiranami Stadium. It’s quite close to the main train station, a short tram ride and a brisk walk (or a slightly longer bus ride from Kumamoto Station). With the way the stadium is constructed, there aren’t any seating behind the goals and unlike other teams, Kagoshima have simply restricted fans from viewing the game from those vantage points. As a result, the hardcore fans are situated slightly awkwardly in a corner of the stadium. However, I didn’t really see this as a bad thing, as the loud and boisterous supporting section was right next to the regular fans. Indeed, having all of the people be squished into the main or back stands on either side of the pitch made the stadium look a lot more full than it actually was.
The recent games I watched from Kagoshima were:
Gainare Tottori (Home): 0-1 Loss
Kataller Toyama (Away): 2-0 Win
Kagoshima are known to be an attacking team and they usually are able to keep the majority of the ball in their games and pin opponents into their own half of the field. They push their Full Backs up quite high to combine with their wide midfielders and cross the ball inside through the usual high crosses but also mixing it up with cut-backs as well.
I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t see Kota Hoshi play against Ehime FC as in the games I watched beforehand he was interesting in-possession as he moved around quite a bit, similar to how Ueebisu was for Oita as I described in a previous section. I don’t think he’s that good defensively though. The veteran Junki Goryo is their best player out on the Right Wing, likes to cut in with his Left foot but he’s very one-footed. Noriaki Fujimoto has been pretty anonymous in all the games I watched. For a guy that was playing at the J1 level on a few years ago, it’s pretty damning indictment of his ability that he not only gets very little shots but a profound lack of touches on the ball per game.
Defensively they aren’t awful but I did have some concerns like how they deal with counterattacks. One thing I did see was that they seem to be weak against diagonal dribbles/runs inside from out wide. Kagoshima’s players become too focused on retreating their lines and give up a ton of space in front of the box and no one steps up to challenge the ball-holder (see Gainare Tottori’s goal from last month as well as the game-winner from Ehime FC). Nakahara and Kimura are good on the ball but they leave the defense exposed at times since they aren’t mobile enough to stamp out fires quickly.
Now onto the game itself… vs. Ehime FC
Kagoshima United started the game off quite brightly in their typical fashion. Mikuto Fukuda looked particularly bright and he scored the opening goal following a cross to the far post by Eisuke Watanabe. In the post-match comments, Fukuda remarked how it was a weakness they saw in their pre-match scouting so things all seemed to be going to plan for Kagoshima United. Despite a few other opportunities, Kagoshima weren’t able to kill the game off and Ehime were able to equalize with a penalty after Soneda was brought down. In the 2nd Half Kagoshima did all they could but were unable to score and then Ehime FC hit them with a sucker punch as Sasaki cut inside from the Right Wing and dribbled all the way into the center of the box to slot in after a bit of a deflection. Kagoshima threw on the likes of Masayoshi Endo, who showed some good touches and dribbling but at the crucial moment poor decision-making led to a sterling opportunity to equalize go down the drain. Meanwhile Seiya Take didn’t do a whole lot despite being the go-to supersub with his speed and directness in the prior games so I was a bit disappointed to not see anything more to spark my interest here as he’s only 18 years old.
Ehime didn’t really do anything in this game, I wasn’t very impressed by them. Their xG for the game comes out to 1.29 but you have to realize this is including the penalty so in open-play it was a paltry 0.5-ish or so. There were still players that did leave an impression on me. Left Back Tatsuya Yamaguchi engaged in lots of shenanigans like faking an injury to waste time to earn the ire of Kagoshima fans. I did enjoy a particular set of fans around me who would take it upon themselves to make fun of him at every opportunity (prior to his time-wasting, he had his sleeves rolled up incredibly high along with his shorts pulled up as well which had drawn their attention initially). Young Aussie striker, Ben Duncan, came on late in the 2nd Half and fought for every scrap he could get as the game was fully tilted against Ehime FC at that point. I was surprised to see Reysol’s Yugo Masukake come on for Yoneda as I forgot he came to Ehime on loan. He really didn’t do a whole lot though…
I do think this current Kagoshima side would struggle in J2 if they get promoted. They don’t make their quality in J3 count enough and aren’t able to really turn the screws on their opponent when they have their tails up. You can imagine how this might hurt them against much better opposition where they’ll have even less of the ball and fewer opportunities to take chances. For an attacking team they don’t have too many goals from any one particular player (looking at you, Mr. Fujimoto), it’s spread around with numerous players tied at 3. That’s not necessarily a bad thing of course, but there’s no one that the team can rely on to finish the plethora of chances that they create which has been the main worry from what I’ve seen. Still, another season in J2 would give this club a big boost financially and I’ve grown quite fond of the club in the past month. Before this weekend’s fixtures, they are 5 points behind 2nd place Kataller Toyama as Ehime FC’s win pulls them 7 points clear of Kagoshima in 1st place so it’s going to be tough. There’s still quite a lot of games left to play though!
All-in-all, it was a fantastic atmosphere, the game had the most fans in attendance across the 3 teams I watched despite being in J3! If only I wasn’t such a bad luck omen then on another day I think Kagoshima could’ve easily taken 3 points.
Touristy Stuff:
Kagoshima is definitely the place I enjoyed the most from my trip. Very easy to get around by bus or tram. Lots to see and do. Sengan-en is a really interesting site to visit as you can learn a lot about the history of Japan’s industrialization in the late 1800s. There were also quite a few museums I didn’t have the time to visit along with Sakurajima (a volcanic island, now a peninsula) so I will definitely be back for more! I got very lucky and there happened to be a festival occurring on the day I was there called the Ogionsa Festival. I took quite a few videos that I shared on Twitter if you’re interested.
Roasso Kumamoto (July 24 vs. Fagiano Okayama)
After they were a shot-on-the-post away from beating Kyoto Sanga in the promotion play-off last season, Kumamoto had quite a few of their good players taken away by hungry J1 clubs such as Naohiro Sugiyama (Gamba Osaka), Koki Sakamoto (Yokohama FC), Toshiki Takahashi (Urawa Reds), and So Kawahara (Sagan Tosu). So naturally it’s been a bit of a struggle for them this season as they had to make quite a few moves in the market while keeping their unique system intact. I think they have recruited quite well in that the likes of Rimu Matsuoka, Takuya Shimamura, and Daichi Ishikawa (who is now unavailable for the rest of the season due to injury after 9 goals in 17 games) have all fitted in quite well. Yutaka Michiwaki has been making waves recently as the 17 year old has made some bright cameos, scoring two goals (including the game-winner) in the Emperor’s Cup 3rd round tie against regional rivals, Sagan Tosu just a few weeks ago.
Roasso Kumamoto play at the Egao Kenko Stadium, which is located quite far from the main train station and can be a bit of a slog to get to. Indeed, my trip there was marred by a thunderstorm that shut down the one, single, only train line leading to the stadium (well, and you still have to take a bus from that train station…). I had to share a taxi with a fellow stranded match goer from the city center to get to the stadium...
The recent games I watched from Kumamoto were:
Fujieda MYFC (Away): 4-0 Win
Jubilo Iwata (Home): 0-2 Loss
Tokyo Verdy (Home): 0-1 Loss
Oita Trinita (Home): 1-3 Loss
Roasso Kumamoto are tactically interesting, they employ both a back 3 and a midfield diamond. The wide midfielders can act as Full Backs, Wing Backs, Center Midfielders, or even rotating as Wingers. The usual single pivot, Shouhei Kamimura, frequently drops into the back-line to create a back 4, then the rest of the team shuffles around to find gaps in the opponent’s shape to receive the ball and play some quick combinations to get up the pitch. Kohei Kuroki and Ryotaro Onishi turn into Full Backs and are quite adept at carrying the ball past the halfway line and finding vertical passes.
However, I do think that they can get stuck once they are in the final 3rd. Teams like Jubilo Iwata and Tokyo Verdy simply dropped off fairly quickly and let Kuroki/Onishi carry the ball while they retreated into a 4-4 block. By surrounding and closing off the tight spaces from which Kumamoto players like to combine in suffocated their attack and forced them down blind alleys or recycle the ball backwards.
The fact that Kumamoto play a back 3 and that their midfielders like to squeeze together into small areas do mean they can be susceptible to quick switches of play. While Roasso Kumamoto try to mitigate this with their counter-press, if that’s broken it leads to a lot of room for opponents on the opposite side to exploit.
Now, onto the game itself…
Kumamoto were very hard-pressed by Okayama in the first 7 or so minutes and it was one-way traffic as Kumamoto could barely get out of their own half. Taishi Semba (on-loan from Sanfrecce Hiroshima) looked bright as his ball-progression from carrying the ball into the final 3rd provided a lot of threat. Around the 25th minute, Yudai Tanaka did a nice little spinning maneuver after receiving the ball at the top of the box from a Kodai Sano pass to then poke the ball past Tashiro to score the opening goal for Okayama. After conceding the goal Kumamoto started playing better and got into their usual rhythm of long possession sequences from the back-line. Shun Ito’s dropping movements were really sharp and while not everything came off, his tireless off-ball work helped Kumamoto gain more control as he provided an option for lay-offs and flick-ons after receiving the ball from the defenders.
Takuya Shimamura was probably my man of the match. He would drift into the half-spaces or even take up central positions between the lines when Ito dropped deeper like his shot in the 15th minute as well as his assist for Takemoto’s goal in the 40th minute. His good dribbling ability in open and tight spaces make him a good ball progressor from the mid-3rd or as a creator in the final 3rd. Unfortunately, he lost a lot of his unpredictability when shifted to the Left Wing in the 2nd Half as Aihara came on to play on the Right Wing as he stopped ghosting around into open spaces and kept his positioning on the side-line which was rather disappointing.
Rei Hirakawa didn’t get enough opportunities on the ball facing forward and all too frequently he would receive the ball outside Fagiano’s block or with his back-to-goal and not in a position to really do damage. Overall, the 2nd Half was much better from Roasso until around the 70th minute when their momentum kind of petered out and then Okayama won it via an absolute worldie from Yuya Fukumoto to curl it into the far corner from outside the box in injury time. Fairly standard Monday night smash-and-grab, I suppose.
I don’t have too much to say about Fagiano Okayama, after coming close to promotion last year they really hit a rut and are wallowing in mid-table. Although it has to be said that they are still within touching distance of a play-off spot and the fact that they’ve only lost 5 times this season (the 3rd fewest in the league) makes me think if they can fix a few things they’ll be properly back in the promotion fight again. Solomon Sakuragawa was his usual boisterous self while Stefan Mauk buzzed around close to him to latch on to any loose balls but neither were particularly threatening in this game. Jordy Buijs is quite good at the J2 level, I thought he had a very good game. It’s a shame that he doesn’t seem to want to go to J1 considering he purposely moved away from Kyoto Sanga after their promotion. Despite his assist for the first goal, I didn’t get to see the best of Kodai Sano, which was a shame as a lot of acquaintances on Twitter have been raving about him from his performances in various youth international tournaments. Currently, I can’t say much about him although readers of this newsletter know how much I like his older brother, Kaishu, who plays for Kashima Antlers. Maybe Kodai will join him in J1 soon or possibly just go straight to Europe?
There was only just short of 3000 fans at the stadium but it makes sense since the game was held on a Monday night for some reason (not complaining though, myself!). It probably didn’t help that the thunderstorm that blew in hours before kickoff stranded quite a few people including me.
Touristy Stuff:
The main attraction was Kumamoto Castle, one of the grandest castles in all of Japan. Unfortunately, most of it is still under renovation due to the devastation caused by the 2016 earthquake so I didn’t get to see it in all its glory.
This was a pretty fun for me as it was my first ever time in Kyushu. Traveling via Planes, Trains, & Automobiles over long distances did take quite a lot out of me though especially with the short turnaround as I hopped between cities quickly. I always need to take vacations from my vacations! While I have steadily been increasing the amount of J2 that I’ve been watching I had only rarely watched J3 up until a month ago. I think it was good experience to re-calibrate my expectations to take into account different “average/standard” levels when I’m assessing players and teams.
Now that I’ve spent a considerable amount of time watching these three Kyushu teams, I probably will continue to see how they do throughout the rest of the season. As you saw, I went 0-3 for the home teams so maybe I’ll simply watch them from afar rather than jinx them with my presence again this year!