Urawa 3 - Sepahan 1 - Fans - 0
Monday, 10 December 07, 06:54 AM · Comments(0)
Where were the fans? This apparently vast, massive army of Urawa fans? They weren't at Toyota Stadium.
A number of factors contributed to the swathe of empty seats visible throughout the 33,263 crowd at Toyota Stadium tonight.
The first is that the city of Nagoya lies around 400km (249 miles) from Urawa's home town of Saitama.
If this fixture had been played at the National Stadium in Tokyo - a favourite stamping ground of Urawa's, the match would have been sold out weeks in advance.
The second, and perhaps more important factor, was that this match was played on a weeknight. Had the game taken place on a Sunday afternoon - instead of a Monday night, then thousands more Urawa fans would invariably have made the long journey to Nagoya.
Yet I can't help but feel that the unsavoury jeering aimed at opposition players by Urawa fans is also a contributing factor for any neutral fans weighing up the decision to make their way to Toyota Stadium on a cold December night. Indeed, Urawa's self-proclaimed role as the "Manchester United of Japanese football" probably contains an unintended swipe - Urawa are as hated in Japan as they are popular.
The Urawa fans who did make their way to Toyota Stadium were in their usual fine voice - on their day, there's no louder bunch of fans in Japanese football. Yet their penchant for booing away teams and the number of self-styled "hooligans" who call Urawa their team, no doubt saw some football fans put their feet up and watch this match on TV from the comfort of their homes.
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Follow the adventures of me, SM, and the two Tokyo Blogging contest winners, manogil and MikeTuckerman, as we take on Japan and cover the FIFA Club World Cup 2007. News, Reviews, Photos and hopefully a few interviews!
