{"id":791,"date":"2019-11-07T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T22:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theasiangame.net\/?p=791"},"modified":"2026-09-23T13:24:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T03:54:49","slug":"will-the-real-urawa-reds-please-stand-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiangame.net\/ro\/will-the-real-urawa-reds-please-stand-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the real Urawa Reds please stand up"},"content":{"rendered":"
If you only watch Urawa play in continental\ncompetition you could be forgiven for thinking that they\u2019re amongst the best\nAsian club teams going round \u2013 confident, with control and occasional verve in\nattack and a well organized and commanding edge to their defensive work.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
If you only watch them domestically you\ncould be forgiven in thinking how they might get on in the second division next\nyear \u2013 a mess organisationally, frequently ripped apart in transition and \u2013\noutside of Shinzo Koroki \u2013 with barely a goal threat in sight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In all my years of following Asian football\nI can\u2019t recall a bigger disparity between not only results but also the way\nthat a team plays between their domestic league and the ACL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed in the 12 AFC Champions League\nmatches they\u2019ve played they\u2019ve earned almost as many wins as they have in\nvirtually an entire season of J. League action \u2013 half a dozen on the continent\nand just nine back at home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s hard to get a grasp on just who the\nreal Reds are \u2013 the woeful side that\u2019s just five points clear of relegation in\nthe league or the impressive one that\u2019s rolled Ulsan, Shanghai SIPG and\nGuangzhou Evergrande on their way to the ACL final?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Much of the split personality involving the\nclub can perhaps be traced right back to pre-season this year where they opted\nfor a highly unusual preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With serial title winner Oswaldo Oliveira\nat the helm Reds chose not to play a single competitive pre-season clash with\nthe mantra from the coach being that as they will play upwards of 60 matches in\n2019 they needed to ease their way into the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That assumed lengthy runs in both domestic cups as well as extended ACL success alongside their regular league duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFabricio celebrates after scoring against Guangzhou Evergrande in the semi-final<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Whilst the ACL has obviously been the\nshining light, their participation in both domestic cups ended early with\nelimination from the Levain Cup at the first time of asking, after a bye into\nthe second round, before they were rolled in the Round of 16 in the Emperor\u2019s\nCup by an amateur side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The real worry on that limited preparation\nwas the sluggish way that they started the calendar year: a loss in the\nseason-opening Super Cup was followed by just the one win in their first three\nleague matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a decent run in April, they lost all\nfour J. League matches in May against teams that are mostly struggling near the\nbottom of the standings and that was enough for management to terminate the\nBrazilian\u2019s contract and install the rather gruff and slick haired Tsuyoshi\nOtsuki for his second stint at the helm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since that time he\u2019s won \u2013 wait for it \u2013\njust four times in 19 league matches and that\u2019s clearly nobody\u2019s idea of a good\ntime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As an aside this is another obvious flaw in\nthe AFC\u2019s annual prize giving fiesta where, win or lose the ACL final, the odds\nare as short as you\u2019ll find that Otsuki will be the man collecting the gong for\nCoach of the Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least this comedy is consistent after\nTakafumi Hori won just five of his 19 matches in charge at Urawa in 2017,\nincluding winning just three of the six matches he took charge of in the ACL\nyet was still \u2013 to the bemusement of the continent – named Coach of the Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To complete the club\u2019s miserable time of\nthings in the league, Otsuki was involved in a bizarre incident in the J. League\nlast week where a Kashima player strayed into his technical area during the pair\u2019s\nclash in Ibaraki and was then promptly shoved in the chest by the coach and\nsent tumbling to the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That led to a touchline ban and a hefty\nclub-imposed fine, and was surely a symptom of the underlying issues that are\nbubbling away at Reds, with the talk being that they\u2019ve already held\ndiscussions with other coaches as they prepare to move on from Otsuki next\nseason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Against that backdrop their run of success\nin the ACL has been nothing short of exceptional if not completely unexpected\nand out of character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both the coach himself and the players have struggled to find a considered reason for their vastly different form in the two competitions but have often mentioned that it\u2019s both a tactically and mentally different challenge in playing on the continent and that\u2019s about as sound an explanation as you\u2019ll hear. <\/p>\n\n\n\nShinzo Koroki is the star of the team<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
With many of the J. League teams relegated\nto the second division bouncing straight back up again there\u2019s a slight air of\npredictability around much of the league and its recycled coaches \u2013 not to\nmention the atmosphere at most grounds in the nation being very familiar from\none to the next, whereas in Asia everything is new again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Different weather, different conditions in\nand around matchdays to contend with, different styles of play and new tactical\nchallenges for the coaching and playing staff to overcome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Full credit to Urawa for having navigated\nthose waters so impressively and it wouldn\u2019t surprise at all to see them go on\nand complete the job in the two-legged final that starts this weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The loss of goalkeeper Shusaku Nishikawa\nfor the first leg is a blow but after having rotated virtually their entire\nregular XI for the midweek league loss at home to Kawasaki Frontale on Tuesday\nthey\u2019ll be freshly rested for that first leg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They even took the unusual step of rotating\nNishikawa from the previous league encounter to give the backup keeper, Haruki\nFukushima, a chance to play with some of the XI that he will be together with in\nthe cauldron in Riyadh on the weekend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both on paper and in the evidence provided\non the pitch, this isn\u2019t a star-studded side bristling with talent and ready to\ncomplete their domination of the tournament, but it’s a functional and highly\nexperienced one that may just be good enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tomoaki Makino has been a solid presence\ndefensively and whilst Takuya Iwanami is a dependable foil the club has\nstruggled to find a consistent third central defender in the 3-4-2-1 that they\nalmost always play, with both Daisuke Suzuki and Mauricio taking turns in that\nrole.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDaisuke Suzuki will need to fire to keep the Al Hilal attack quiet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Takuya Aoki has just returned from injury and may not be fit enough to start in the first leg which could see veteran Yuki Abe start alongside the functional Ewerton in the central roles with the impressive Daiki Hashioka (arguably their second most important player) and Takahiro Sekine in the wide midfield\/wingback roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yuki Muto is still injured which means that\nFabricio and Kazuki Nagasawa will line up as the two number tens and try to\nprovide service for the undisputable star of the campaign in the veteran Koroki,\nwhose entire career has been a lesson in maximizing the talents that you\u2019re\nborn with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blessed with neither pace nor size the now 33-year-old is one of the smartest Japanese players of his generation in and around the box with the vision to make fine runs off the ball, fantastic positioning in advanced areas and a deadly eye for goal \u2013 if he fires so too do Reds, if not the club almost always struggles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s now over to Al Hilal to try and find a\nway to contain him and if they can that will go a long way to deciding the\ncontest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As always with Reds there\u2019s the sense that\nthere might not be many goals in the two-legged final and it could well be one\nor two decisive moments that decide the tie \u2013 in Koroki they have just the\nbig-game kind of player needed to settle things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether they win or not it\u2019s hard to mount an argument that they\u2019re Asia\u2019s \u2018best\u2019 team, heck they\u2019re not even in the top dozen teams in their own league, but there\u2019s every chance come late evening on November 24 that they could have their name carved on the ACL trophy for the second time in three years and that\u2019s a fantastic achievement whichever way you look at \u2013 and the club\u2019s fans hope they won\u2019t be toasting that success at grounds across Japan in the second division next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you only watch Urawa play in continental competition you could be forgiven for thinking that they\u2019re amongst the best Asian club teams going round \u2013 confident, with control and occasional verve in attack and a well organized and commanding edge to their defensive work. If you only watch them domestically you could be forgiven […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_gspb_post_css":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[19,514,134,120],"class_list":["post-791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","tag-afc-champions-league-elite","tag-club-football","tag-j-league","tag-urawa-reds"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"yoast_head":"\n
Will the real Urawa Reds please stand up - The Asian Game<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theasiangame.net\/ro\/will-the-real-urawa-reds-please-stand-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ro_RO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will the real Urawa Reds please stand up - The Asian Game\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you only watch Urawa play in continental competition you could be forgiven for thinking that they\u2019re amongst the best Asian club teams going round \u2013 confident, with control and occasional verve in attack and a well organized and commanding edge to their defensive work. 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