{"id":2918,"date":"2022-10-27T23:35:30","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T13:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theasiangame.net\/?p=2918"},"modified":"2026-09-24T21:46:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T12:16:38","slug":"mauk-and-okayama-channel-momotaro-in-promotion-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiangame.net\/ro\/mauk-and-okayama-channel-momotaro-in-promotion-push\/","title":{"rendered":"Mauk and Okayama channel Momotaro in promotion push"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okayama, nestled between Osaka and Hiroshima in central Japan, is a prefecture that\u2019s far more often associated with one of the nation\u2019s most beloved fables rather than its football team.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The story of Momotaro<\/em> is one that every Japanese child knows where a young boy is found by an elderly couple floating down a river inside a peach; he then grows up and travels to foreign lands in the company of a talking dog, monkey and pheasant, slays the foreign demons, and returns home to great acclaim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That underdog story is very much one that mirrors that of the local football club, J2\u2019s Fagiano Okayama, who are in the midst of their best ever season and just three matches away from being promoted to J1 for the first time in their history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A large part of the success this year is down to two Australian imports in the form of current Socceroo Mitch Duke and former Young Socceroo and Olyroo Stefan Mauk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Asian Game<\/em><\/strong> recently travelled to Okayama to catch up with Mauk where we spent the afternoon strolling the canals that line the city and threading the ties between the outsider tales of Momotaro<\/em> and Fagiano Okayama, a club that, as Mauk, notes are in the midst of an historic season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I first came I didn\u2019t know what to expect,” Mauk reflected, “but as soon as I arrived a lot of the fans and the staff were always talking about how they wanted to fight to reach J1 given that we\u2019ve invested a lot of money, there\u2019s more foreign players that came in this year as well so everyone within the club and the fans specifically were aiming for that promotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure what other clubs thought as to whether that was realistic or not but when I first got here I quickly realised it\u2019s a very tough league with a lot of big clubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that in the first half of the year we may have got lucky with some results but the longer that the year has gone and given we play a style which is very aggressive defensively we were able to catch a lot of teams out that want to overplay and we\u2019ve finished third which is the best in the club\u2019s history and we\u2019ve done really well for a club of this size.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That third-placed finish means that although Okayama missed out on the two direct promotion spots to the top flight they\u2019re now entering a three-week playoff period that starts this week with a sudden death encounter against Montedio Yamagata, coached by a fellow Australian in Peter Cklamovski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The format is a slightly unusual one in that the higher ranked team (Okayama in this case) has home advantage and only needs a draw to progress to the next round, but Mauk knows exactly what\u2019s at stake for a club the size of Okayama that may not often get the chance to compete in the playoffs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverybody realises that next year the teams that come down from J1 will be bigger and spend more money so it\u2019s going to be even harder to go up, so this is a great opportunity for the club to get that first promotion to J1, especially with the way that the playoff system works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Disastrous debut for \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfaStefan Mauk as he received a red card for THIS.
pic.twitter.com\/ZXQPN05ZyW<\/a><\/p>— J. Football Now (@j_football_now) March 13, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>