Gamba Osaka vs Melbourne Victory: excuses at the ready?
Tuesday, 22 April 08, 02:18 AM
The excuses were flying thick-and-fast in the aftermath of Gamba Osaka's thrilling 4-3 AFC Champions League victory over Melbourne Victory at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne on April 9. They were mainly flying from the mouths of Melbourne apologists, who were quick to point out that Victory were missing Australian international Archie Thompson, that the salary cap had cruelled their chances of beating a "rich" club like Gamba Osaka, and that, given that the A-League is currently in the midst of its long off-season, Melbourne were lacking match fitness.
Some of these statements contained an element of truth, but they masked the fact that Melbourne were beaten on the back of making elementary mistakes. It's notable that for all of the Victory's pre-match claims that they had been "scouting" Gamba games - they were apparently unaware that Yasuhito Endo always looks for captain Satoshi Yamaguchi from corners (which is how Yamaguchi scored in Gamba's clash with Shimizu S-Pulse just three days earlier), or that Takahiro Futagawa is one of the best long-range shooting specialists in Japan.
Perhaps the most irritating claim, however, was the one made by Melbourne fans claiming that their team had been beaten by a "full strength" Gamba line-up. Pardon?
A cursory glance through the Gamba team-sheet for the match at the Telstra Dome reveals that the Osakans were missing defender Akira Kaji and striker Ryuji Bando. Kaji has won over 60 caps for Japan. Bando has seven, but would surely have more had he not been struck down by a series of injuries over the past couple of seasons.
Their replacements were Hideo Hashimoto - an experienced player, but nominally a midfielder, and ex-Oita Trinita striker Masato Yamazaki. In over 250 league appearances in Japanese football, Ryuji Bando has scored more than 80 goals. Yamazaki has made about 80 league appearances. He's scored just three times. Full strength line-up? Not quite.
It's notable that Melbourne fans were so quick to highlight the absence of Archie Thompson but were oblivious to Gamba's own injury woes. Not only does it suggest a lack of grace in defeat, it also highlights that when it comes to Asian football, Australians remain - on the whole, fairly oblivious to the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents. That's not surprising - Japanese fans would be hard pressed to name a single A-League player. Yet their fans are arguably more circumspect when it comes to assessing an opponent in the aftermath of defeat.
Now, as both teams prepare for the return clash at Expo '70 Stadium on the northern outskirts of Osaka, it's Gamba who hold all the ready-made excuse cards. Not only is first choice shot-stopper Yosuke Fujigaya injured, but so too is his deputy Naoki Matsuda. That means that 23-year-old rookie Atsushi Kimura will feature between the posts for the Panasonic-outfit, for what could be a nerve-wracking Champions League debut.
As for Akira Kaji and Ryuji Bando, both were expected to return from injury towards the back end of April, but with Gamba set to play five J. League fixtures over fifteen days at the end of the month, it's unlikely that either man will feature against Melbourne. Indeed Gamba will no doubt have an eye on their upcoming regional derby with Vissel Kobe - a club that seems to exist merely to irritate their Kansai cousins from down the road.
Melbourne captain Kevin Muscat has already proclaimed that his team can't offer any excuses, with the Victory's AFC Champions League campaign hanging in the balance. Noble sentiments from the fiery skipper, but only time will tell if they ring true.
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Towards to the end of the season Melbourne fans were indeed singing the praise of Hernandez and would have loved to see him in action in the slower paced ACL. I do agree with on our propensity to look for excuses when we lose. However, I do believe a lot of that is whipped up by a media who is not fully aware of Asian football. Word is that during the two weeks since the match Melbourne has been working solidly on its defending at set pieces - so hopefully we won't see that type of goal again this week.
Great article as usual. Completely agree: us Aussies seem to regularly take the easy option in blaming other things/people/conditions. It allows us not to make the effort to have constructive thoughts/arguments of our own. IMO there is a laziness in Australian sport analysis in general, and that extends to the media.
I also think the fans' ignorance of Asian football is mainly created by the lack of interest the football media has shown in researching more than the bare basics about Asian teams and leagues. I think it's a bit much to expect the average football fan to spend hours trawling through blogs and forums for scraps on their team's opponents when the journos making a living writing about football don't seem to make the effort themselves.
On that, Scott McIntyre from SBS seems to be the only (paid) football writer making an effort to educate us on Asian football.
Many thanks for your kind words Andy, and I completely agree with you in regard to Scott McIntyre's beleaguered efforts to persuade us Aussies to take more interest in Asian football.
I also think that Jesse Fink is another who takes a more holistic interest in the world game, and who often writes about the merits of Asian football.
LINK
Other than that it's slim pickings, and until the writers get themselves up to scratch then it's obviously tough to expect the fans to do the same.
5 Comments
"It's notable that Melbourne fans were so quick to highlight the absence of Archie Thompson but were oblivious to Gamba's own injury woes. Not only does it suggest a lack of grace in defeat, it also highlights that when it comes to Asian football, Australians remain - on the whole, fairly oblivious to the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents."
- I think you are being a bit harsh on the Melbourne fans here. Most realised that our team was beaten by a better team on the night. We would have liked to see our "full strength" team out on the park. In fact most supporters enjoyed a great quality game (apart from the defending). It also looks like you were also oblivious to the absence of Carlos Hernandez, who was probably more missed than Thompson. See ,it works both ways.
Well said Neil, although I'm not so sure that Melbourne fans were singing the praises of old mate Hernandez throughout the A-League season.
And I certainly do feel as though I'm being a bit harsh on some of the Melbourne fans. But I do worry about our propensity, as Australians, to look first for excuses before we look for solutions to problems (poor defending at set pieces, for example) - particularly when those excuses usually have nothing to do with the problems at hand.