J.League Matchday 29: Yokohama F. Marinos vs. Vissel Kobe & FC Tokyo vs. Gamba Osaka
Addendum to another J.Talk Podcast appearance! Bonus: Japan National Team squad announcement.
Hello, I made another guest appearance on the The J.Talk podcast (subscribe/join!) hosted by Ben Maxwell and Sam Robson (now, Jonny Nicol), so here’s another special newsletter for y’all!
If you have any questions or comments to what I said in the podcast or what I wrote here, please let me know in the comments! You can find the podcast episode here (you should listen to it before you read this issue of the newsletter):
Let’s get started!
Yokohama F. Marinos [0] - [2] Vissel Kobe
Let me start by talking about Kobe’s defending. Yuya Osako and Daiju Sasaki would approach the Center Backs while also blocking passes into the double pivot with their cover shadows. Marinos’ Center Backs plus Goalkeeper Jun Ichimori were still trying to find angles to sneak a pass behind them but that’s where Hotaru Yamaguchi would jump out and prevent them from risking that pass.
It was interesting to see how in defense, only Yamaguchi pushed up to close down one of Marinos’ double-pivot while Takahiro Ogihara largely remained behind, it looked like that old diamond midfield from Kobe at times. Yamaguchi has the legs to quickly come back to sit next to Ogihara, if the ball was played long so it made sense.
Takahiro Ogihara was really good in general. One of Ogihara’s weaknesses is that he’s not very quick nor agile and can’t defend large amounts of space. I mentioned this fact when they announced Kobe signing him in late 2021 but now with those issues largely fixed structural and personnel-wise, this hasn’t been too much of a problem since Ogihara replaced Mitsuki Saito in the past month or so. This is because Kobe are very compact and he has lots of help from Yamaguchi and Sasaki as well as the Center Backs stepping up to cover for him. There were still a few danger moments as players (Nam T.H. in the 85th minute, Yamane in the 47th minute, Yan in the 35th min) were able to turn past him as he’s not very agile but otherwise was very solid.
In general, Vissel Kobe were able to keep the ball in Marinos’ half not just through slick passing from Ogihara but simply picking up loose/2nd balls and trying to keep attacking, not letting Marinos any rest (Good examples: 50th minute, 81st minute, also in lead-up to the penalty). Like I said in the podcast, the game really was decided on how well Kobe were able to win these duels and picking up 2nd/loose balls around the mid-3rd of the field. Normally teams like Kobe get tired in the 2nd Half but Kobe players just kept intensity levels extremely high throughout.
Deeper in their own box, as Marinos were still able to get into the final 3rd (especially in the late game), Yamakawa and Honda didn’t have too much problems. I thought Yuki Honda in particular was really good as both a Center Back shutting down Lopes and Nishimura but also when shifted over the Left Back after Hatsuse’s injury (ex. versus Lopes in the 28th minute, shepherding Yan Mateus really well in the 73rd and 75th minute).
Kobe forward’s movement
Osako and Sasaki were moving in tandem with each other, Sasaki would always be threatening to run in-behind the high line whenever Osako dropped, creating that little bit of hesitation for Eduardo or Ryotaro Tsunoda to track him which in turn gave Osako the little bit of space/time to settle the ball or flick it on. At worst Yamaguchi and others would come running in support to pick up the loose ball. Sasaki scored in the previous game vs. Cerezo from a long lofted ball over the top so Marinos definitely knew he’s a threat (I wish I mentioned this in the podcast, it was in my notes!).
This isn’t just Sasaki but applies to all other players especially Yoshinori Muto as well. All the attacking players make runs to pull opponent defenders around and create these pockets of space for Osako to receive in from long balls or ground passes from players deeper. Osako also drifted wide into areas where it’s not easy for the Center Backs to follow as it would leave too much room centrally, doubling up on Marinos’ full back with the winger.
In these cases, other players were making runs inside to make up for the absence of Osako in central areas, like in the lead-up to the corner kick that resulted in the 2nd goal. What I really failed to mention in the podcast was talking about how to stop Vissel Kobe. I was re-watching the Kobe vs. Sanfrecce game really closely last week because that was a game where Kobe really struggled even with Osako and Muto available. I thought Sho Sasaki and Hayato Araki had fantastic games against Muto and Osako while Sanfrecce’s press really put Kobe’s back-line under pressure and made it hard for the likes of Honda and Hatsuse to play more accurate long balls into the attackers to make it ever so easier for them. So to stop Kobe you need a combination of a really good press (which to be fair, I think Marinos did) but then you need your defenders to be at their absolute best physically in the air and on the ground to be able to restrict Kobe attacker’s ability to settle the ball in the middle 3rd of the pitch while the midfielders need to beat Kobe’s midfielders to the 2nd/loose balls. Easier said than done of course but Sanfrecce (and a few other teams) have been able to do it.
Marinos’ build-up problems
As I mentioned on the podcast, I thought Marinos were too vertical at times. They would go straight up wide from the Center Back or Goalkeeper to the Full Back then directly to the Winger, trying to score with the attackers only and there was little support from midfielders as they were too far back. Of course, this was mainly because in the center, Nishimura and Lopes would try to drop, then have wingers make the runs behind the defense but Marinos were shut down from that initial vertical pass as Yamakawa and Honda did really well to prevent Nishimura/Lopes from settling the ball.
So, a common sight throughout the 1st Half was Eduardo passes directly to Nagato and then the build-up stalling there. Neither Center Back could really find Riku Yamane or Kota Watanabe as they were carefully guarded by Osako and Sasaki so they only had the option to go long or spread it out wide. Also, Nagato would usually receive the ball when neither Elber nor Nishimura were ready to make a run or open so things got stuck there…
Let me go over that 13th minute sequence of play that I talked about in length on the podcast. Marinos are really good at stretching opponents horizontally and vertically.
First they’ll play quick passes from the Goalkeeper or Center Back out to the Full Back that stretches the opponent’s shape horizontally (tempo here is important to create that sense of danger and force the opponent to quickly shift over).
Then as the Full Back is receiving it, the Marinos Wingers and Striker usually make runs behind the opponent defenders and pushes the defense lines backwards. So that’s stretching the opponent vertically.
Now that you’ve done that lots of space opens up back inside from where the Full Back is… because the opponent Center Midfielders have shifted over to the wide areas and the attackers who were pressing your defenders are still further forward. This area is where guys like Takuma Nishimura or one of the center midfielders like Kota Watanabe like to receive because then they have a lot of room to work in.
From here, the Marinos player receiving the ball inside in lots of space have quite a few options:
They can carry the ball up into the final 3rd, the space created by their teammates pushing the opponent’s defense backwards.
They can quickly play a through ball into these teammates who are already making a run.
They can switch it across to the “weaker” side as the opponent had tried to shift over quickly to compensate when the Marinos Full Back originally received the ball out wide.
This is also why Marinos usually keep their wingers up high rather than having them pull back to help defend, to create these situations that pulls the opponent lines apart and creates space for their central players to do dangerous things. It makes them weaker defensively but as I said in the podcast, it’s a risk that they are willing to take on because of the rewards it provides in attack.
However, Marinos couldn’t do this in this game because Kobe’s wide players worked really hard and they were usually able to catch up to the Marinos Full Backs receiving, like in this case it was Nanasei Iino that was right on top of Nagato and pressuring him so Nagato didn’t have the time to find Nishimura back inside on the halfway line. Then you also had Ogihara and Yamaguchi running back to close Nishimura down too so that option wasn’t available anyway. The only option was down the line to Elber but Sakai was ready and there to intercept.
So often good defending comes from simply eliminating (or at least reducing) the attacking team’s choices and making it simple for the defender to focus on the lone remaining threat, rather than the actual quality of the individual action to win the ball itself (good sliding tackle, brave headed clearance, etc.). Marinos are usually the kings of making defenses hesitate as they provide their opponents with a lot of options to think about but not this time…
Instead of passing it directly to the Full Backs from the Center Backs, Marinos looked much more dangerous when they were able to find the Full Backs behind the Kobe press via the Center Midfielders or Striker dropping like Lopes in the 11th minute but as mentioned numerous times throughout the podcast, Kobe made it hard for them to thread passes up centrally from the build-up so that didn’t happen as often as they would’ve liked. When Matsubara or Nagato received the ball in certain gaps (the area between Kobe’s winger and Kobe’s Full backs especially) then the Kobe Full Backs were forced into a dilemma where he had to choose whether to:
Push up to challenge, fully knowing he’s leaving behind Yan/Elber space to run into against the Center Backs.
Or he keeps in line with his Center Backs but allow Nagato/Matsubara to carry the ball up the field, hoping that the Wide Midfielders are quick enough to track back and help.
Usually even against teams who do really well to block Marinos centrally, Marinos’ double-pivot (whoever they are that day), can find ways to receive the ball under pressure and turn away or quickly combine to escape that pressure but they couldn’t do that in this game. It’s a really interesting aspect of Marinos’ play to watch how the double pivot moves around and attempt to evade a press but we barely saw that in this game. This is why it became very predictable from Marinos in the 1st Half, all they had was trying to play it long or play it across to the Full Backs directly until later on in the game because those central options were closed off to them.
The few real success that I could note was Riku Yamane’s clever turn past Yamaguchi in the 47th~48th minute where Marinos were able to pull off a really good attack, getting quickly into the final 3rd as they burst past Yamaguchi and Ogihara. However, Kobe tracked back really well as in this scene Muto was sprinting to stop Yan Mateus before he got into the box and by that time both Ogihara and Yamaguchi were back in the box to help too. Even in these rare times when Marinos were able to speed up the tempo and were able to get into the final 3rd, that advantage was nullified by how hard Kobe were working to get back!
I could see what Marinos were trying to do — their usual build-up patterns, but simply put, Kobe were better on the day, they read Marinos’ intentions, they studied them well and had the strength, aggression to win the ball or simply prevent Marinos from constructing their attacks where they wanted to from the first place. In the first half, Kobe tried to be more aggressive but in the 2nd half, already taking the 2-0 lead they simply kept the line and Sakai/Hatsuse marked Marinos’ wingers and denied them the space to run into.
A thing I didn’t get to mention was how Marinos’ Center Backs couldn’t get involved in possession past the half-line as they usually do. In the 1st Half, Tsunoda had one through-pass into Lopes in the 15th minute but that was about it, I think? Compare this game to the times in the reverse fixture back in April where Shinnosuke Hatanaka was able to play some good passes that punched holes between the gaps of Kobe’s lines to create danger. Marinos simply couldn’t push Kobe back as often to allow that space for the Center Backs to push up beyond the half-line. It was really only late in the game but that’s more because Kobe were fine with retreating and denying space in their defensive 3rd.
Kobe’s set-pieces
It might be easy to say that both of Kobe’s goals only came from crosses/set-pieces and not open-play. However, Marinos are very weak in these sort of situations and have given up nearly 50% of their goals from either set-pieces or crosses so that was clearly exploited by Kobe. Like I talked about in the podcast, Kobe are clearly working on various set-piece routines like for the 2nd goal where Yuki Honda was acting as a “blocker” for Muto. Funnily enough, it was actually Osako inadvertently blocking Kota Watanabe in the end but the process there was clearly seen. I don’t think it’s fair to say “oh they didn’t score in open-play” when the fact is that Vissel Kobe played some really nice football through Marinos to get into these positions in the first place, like the lead up to the corner kick for 2nd goal.
It was a pretty disappointing end to the game with Kobe determined to sit back and counter, conserving their energy with Osako being taken off somewhat early for Jean-Patric around the hour mark. After the game I was surprised to see that Kobe had more shots than Marinos in the last 10~15 minutes of the game!
Unfortunately, there’s a three week break until the next league game. It kills the momentum in what should be an exciting title race, Manager Yoshida said in the post-match interview that Kobe have two training games scheduled but it’s just not the same level of intensity. After such an exciting lead-up to and the fall-out from this game, it’s really disappointing. The only good thing about the three week break is that for Kobe, Sasaki and Hatsuse’s injuries have time to heal!
Manager Post-Match Comments: Kevin Muscat (Marinos) & Takayuki Yoshida (Kobe)
Player Post-Match Comments: Kota Watanabe & Riku Yamane (Marinos), Yuya Osako (Kobe)
MD 29: FC Tokyo [3] - [0] Gamba Osaka
Next is the game I was at the Ajinomoto Stadium in attendance for, FC Tokyo vs. Gamba Osaka. I do want to mention that I thought the pitch condition was pretty awful with lots of potholes and clumps of dirt lying all over the field.
This was another game where we saw how much of a “momentum” team FC Tokyo are. If they can get into a groove of things they can play with a lot more confidence than usual. It’ll be nice if they could always start off this way as in this game against Gamba I thought they were pretty poor until the first goal in the 36th minute. It’s very weird to see Tokyo actually having the joint 4th best goal tally alongside Kawasaki Frontale and Kashima Antlers but the 6 goal haul in the last two games have helped considerably. The gap between 4th best goals scored and 4th worst is actually only a 6 goal difference, it’s very peculiar… If you look at xG For, Tokyo are slightly lower in the table though, which makes sense. Again, “momentum” and “streaky” is how I’d describe Tokyo in general, not just in attack.
Gamba are now tied worst goals conceded with 53 alongside Sapporo and Shonan with Yokohama FC conceding one less. Then there’s a huge 12 goal gap with FC Tokyo and Kashiwa Reysol tied 5th and 6th worst with 40 goals conceded apiece. Gamba’s defending is their weak point, obviously, and in particular I think they are set up really poorly against counterattacks. As Jonny and I talked about on the podcast, I’ve never really seen anything good come from Ryu Takao and I’m hoping for their sake that Riku Handa comes back from injury soon. Any team’s position on the J.League table and stats categories can vary wildly off of one result since there’s usually not a whole lot separating teams, so it’s hard to make judgments until the dust has settled at the end of the season.
Putting simple stats aside, a positive is that I could see the intention behind FC Tokyo’s build-up play with both Kuryu Matsuki and Riki Harakawa taking turns dropping into the back-line, just wide of the Center Backs to take advantage of Gamba’s front two being narrow in their defensive shape. Gamba made it easy as they didn’t really try to press Tokyo, which gave Trevisan and Masato Morishige the time and space to pick out passes into midfield.
Of course, this is also because Gamba usually prefer to win the ball in the midfield, as that’s where their best players are and from there they can launch counterattacks through Juan Alano’s ball carrying, Issam Jebali’s cleverness (of course, neither started this game), Yuki Yamamoto’s passing, and then the Full Backs bombing up the wing on the overlap to support.
However, a lot of the times they were quite passive. I do feel like with Takashi Usami playing up top, you really do lose any modicum of pressing in this team as he can’t quite lead the line in neither attack nor defense. Usami did have some nice bits of play when Gamba were able to find him into his feet but all too often, especially in the 2nd Half he became quite anonymous and couldn’t win or keep the ball when challenged.
Gamba in the first 30 minutes or so were really good because they found good spaces within Tokyo’s structure. They made good use of the numbers advantage in midfield (3v2 as FC Tokyo are 4-4-2 in their defensive shape), passing the ball from side-to-side and forcing Matsuki and Harakawa to shift over to one side. Then quickly Neta Lavi or Yuki Yamamoto would find players on the opposite side and Gamba were able to charge into the final 3rd with speed. I thought Yuki Yamamoto was very good this game, he is an excellent passer, knows how to position himself in dangerous spaces, and was one of the few Gamba players that weren’t being bullied by FC Tokyo either. I thought Dawhan was oddly quiet during this game as I thought he’d relish the physical battle in midfield but perhaps the early Yellow Card he earned in the 11th minute neutered his influence somewhat.
I was quite worried about how many times Matsuki and Harakawa were bypassed but Gamba simply couldn’t finish off their chances… and slowly Tokyo started catching Gamba players and winning the ball off them directly, man-to-man. When it came to duels and physical match-ups Gamba didn’t really stand a chance and that’s slowly how Tokyo were able to get to grips in the game. The problem for Tokyo is that it doesn’t matter if they have strong players if they go up against teams with players that are either as strong or stronger than they are (like Avispa, Kashima, Nagoya) or teams that can play smartly around them, play in areas where Tokyo can’t catch their opponents like Sagan Tosu in the first half last week or Gamba for a good chunk of this game. I think Tokyo have gotten lucky in the past two games where the opponents weren’t able to finish Tokyo off quickly. If Juan Alano was available and Issam Jebali was fully fit and ready then I think this game could’ve gone very differently.
The opening goal came from a really nice clever bit of combination play in the final 3rd from FC Tokyo with Harakawa sneaking away from Lavi’s mark to receive a pass inside the box as the “3rd man” in the sequence of possession. Gamba’s players all decide to ball-watch as the pass slid across into the box from the Right Wing which contributed to Harakwa ghosting in. Harakawa still had a bit to do and he showed some quick feet to skip past Kwon and slot it under Highashiguchi, a wonderful finish.
The 2nd goal came from Adailton dropping a bit deeper to receive, then playing a nice lofted ball into Diego Oliveira who took advantage of the lackadaisical response to a simple long ball by both Gamba Center Backs, Kwon and Sato. This sort of play from Adailton is something we saw quite a lot of during Albert’s time at FC Tokyo and while he’s not going to be threading the needle in the final 3rd, I think the Brazilian is quite an underrated passer in these situations where he can look up and loft passes from deep. You’ll also notice that the 2nd goal came from a relatively long spell of Tokyo possession because again, Gamba really weren’t applying a whole lot of pressure and Tokyo were able to circulate it around the back-line undisturbed to then make some probing passes into the midfield.
The 2nd Half went as described in the podcast episode. Again, Kota Tawaratsumida is having quite an impact despite losing his starting position to Adailton in the past few games. I believe Nakagawa’s Yellow Card in this game means he’s out for the next one so it’s like Tawaratsumida will start next week. I really do need to get around to writing up something about him (among quite a number of other players across the J.League).
We didn’t have time to discuss this on the podcast but Jonny was going to ask me about Gamba’s squad and where they go from here. I didn’t have enough time to come up with too many concrete examples but my general impression is that Gamba have already spent considerable amount of money over the past few windows and putting aside the quality of the players, most positions are fairly deep. I think the most cost-effective way is to improve existing players and get them up to the standard needed. Examples include players like Naohiro Sugiyama (who’s completely disappeared in the 2nd Half of the season), new signing Shinya Nakano, Yusei Egawa, among others. I’ve liked what I’ve seen from Hiroto Yamami in the past. He’s quick dribbler, good striker of the ball (crossing, shooting), and clearly useful on counterattacks… but what else does he have? He hasn’t quite made the step up we expected in the past two years to cement himself consistently into the starting XI under multiple managers.
If you were to press me for new signings, then off the top of my head:
Before the summer, I would’ve recommended Kodai Sano or Masaya Shibayama.
Yota Komi would be another good wing option. Shunsuke Mito is probably going to Europe if he were to leave Albirex so I’m ruling him out for Gamba and the rest of the J.League.
Daiya Tono can play a mix of different positions but might be too similar to what Juan Alano is already doing in the squad?
There’s been a big question over Gamba’s Center Backs as Kwon and Miura are supposed to be good defensively even if they lack ball skills (Kwon is simply just bad at both in my opinion), while Fukuoka and Sato are kind of the opposite… This is difficult as most good ones are already at other J1 teams (Tsunoda, Fujii) or they would be in Europe already.
I had a big ol’ rant written up about FC Tokyo after the Sagan Tosu game that I shared with some people in the J-Talk LINE group. I also posted it on Twitter… Below is an edited, very trimmed down version from after the Gamba game:
When Albert Puig was fired back in June, the General Manager Mitsushiro Obara in an interview had the gall/nerve to say that the “squad was fine”. The article will then go on to note that the feeling among FC Tokyo’s hierarchy was that:
“We currently have players that have the ability to play possession football, and we simply haven’t been able to get that out of them.”
… and they then hired Peter Cklamovski to build upon the foundations on that squad, even though Cklamovski is a very different manager in play style to Puig in the first place. I think anybody who’s watched FC Tokyo in the past two years would know how much nonsense that statement is. It’s all very odd.
It’s all talk about “philosophy” and “vision” from MIXI and the people FC Tokyo have hired, but I don’t see any actual tangible process and of course then that’s not leading to any actual result on the pitch. I could forgive Tokyo doing poorly in mid-table for a few years if there are signs of progress but there simply aren’t. This is why I don’t consider FC Tokyo to be a “serious” club, you look at clubs around the world nowadays and they are so much more “professional” and the very best have clear outlooks and processes from top-down that align the interests and goals of the fans, club, players, manager, sporting director, etc. but Tokyo don’t have that and to be honest most J.League teams don’t have this either. If someone with the track record of Albert Puig couldn’t change the structure of the club, then I have a hard time believing that Peter Cklamovski would be able to. In any case, I am usually fine with the club and the sporting director controlling transfers more than the manager. All too often, the club hires different types of managers that buy >>their<< players which means when that manager gets axed, the new guy wants a completely different set of players, etc. That cycle then continues every few years which means there’s always tons of deadwood in the squad. Unfortunately, with FC Tokyo I remain skeptical that the people at the top have a coherent vision or that they taking the steps to move forward with it, by actually backing managers with signings that make sense, not just for that particular manager but in terms of the long-term strategy of the club. As Ben and I discussed on the podcast, there hasn't been enough squad turnover from the "old guard" of Kenta Hasegawa's time at FC Tokyo. You ideally want player’s legs to go on somebody else’s pitch… if the old players stop being able to perform at a club, that’s their own fault for not moving them on sooner.
I also have concerns about the big questions surrounding a potential new stadium (or converting the National Stadium, among other ideas) as well as the whole "dynamic pricing" scheme that FC Tokyo tried over the summer. The latter went poorly in my opinion as attendance was quite low for the Tosu and Avispa games while the tickets I got for the Gamba game were cheaper than the original listed price! I'm not quite sure what the club is gaining here by doing this...
I cut out a lot of the specifics from the original, especially in terms of the actual performance on the pitch, as I’ll save that for FC Tokyo’s section in the season end review. Will there be some progress shown in the last few games of the season with nothing else to play for…?
Japan National Team
While I’m here, I can also talk about the squad announcement for the Canada (Oct. 13th) and Tunisia (Oct. 17th) friendlies.
Not a huge amount of changes with most of the squad fairly settled now in my opinion ahead of the Asian Cup. Most of the changes have come at the fringes of the squad or in positions like Goalkeeper and Left Back where things are regularly in flux. The big absences are Ritsu Doan and Daichi Kamada due to their “condition” (a catch-all term that’s purposefully vague, a very Japanese response). Some of the other missing European-based players include: Koji Miyoshi, Tsuyoshi Watanabe, Ayumu Seko, Shuto Machino, Yuki Soma, and Kanya Fujimoto.
Kanya Fujimoto probably doesn’t play well enough nor for a good enough team to get ahead of the likes of Kamada/Kubo/Minamino in a very crowded #10 spot.
Tsuyoshi Watanabe can definitely be useful now, in my opinion. Either in a Back 3 or 4. But Koki Machida is doing well (and Left Footed), Shogo Taniguchi is still keeping a hold on the “veteran guy” spot, Yuta Nakayama has extra utility at Full Back, so there’s no room for him unfortunately.
Shuto Machino hasn’t been doing great at Holstein Kiel despite a decent start.
I do feel like Koji Miyoshi, who’s been doing fairly decent at Birmingham will get called back up at some point after the Asian Cup if he keeps up his form so far. Injuries have blighted his time in Europe but there’s a good player in there for sure who can play all the positions behind the striker.
It’s nice to see Zion Suzuki in the team, I thought even with his good performances for Sint-Truiden so far he would’ve been kept with the U-22s because they need to keep the team together for the Olympic qualifiers (U-23 Asian Cup) next year. A surprise, to be a sure, but a welcome one. Interestingly enough, with the absences of Daniel Schmidt (career in limbo as his move away from STVV broke down) and Kosuke Nakamura (still injured from the Turkiye game), it’s Keisuke Osako who is the most “senior” goalkeeper of the squad this time around with 5 caps.
From the J.League, players like Takumu Kawamura miss out due to injury. No call-ups for Yasuto Wakisaka, Ryoya Morishita, Haruya Fujii, among others (Yuta Higuchi) either. It might simply be due to their team’s involvement in cup competitions throughout this international break?
After this round of games there are no friendlies until autumn 2025! I find that unfortunate as the 2nd round of AFC World Cup qualifying is a waste of time and even the 3rd round is diluted a bit now with the fact that there will be three groups instead of two (so more good teams spread out) due to the expansion of the World Cup from 2026 onward. Moriyasu’s selections make it seem as though he’ll simply be doing more rotation and trying new/J.League based players out during those 2nd round qualifiers next year after the Asian Cup instead.
I wonder if an AFC Nations League might work? Japan, South Korea, Australia, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Oman/Uzbekistan will likely comprise the top “League A”, split into two groups. This might provide more equal opponents and a better way to “raise the floor” of the quality of play for everybody in Asia? Travel times/distances are definitely a concern though… Just an idle thought!
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading!