2007 In Review - The Lows

Not exactly the bits that made the season fun but, probably, the bits MOIST could write the most about. We do enjoy a good rant and rave (not the type with whistles, white gloves and Dutch Gabba music, you understand) but in the interest of our sanity we're going to try and keep the sad parts of the season brief. Hey, less cheering from the back, you buggers.

Home Discomforts
Rumour has it that to challenge for the title we need to turn around 7 losses into 7 wins. One very obvious place to start this would be at home. Our home form in 2007 was nothing short of shocking. In 18 home games we only won 7, the same as we won away, drew 2 and, horrifically, lost 8. 8 home losses! That was the joint 13th worst home amount of home losses and gave us the joint 11th worst home form. A selection of the teams we dropped points to is like a who's who of relegation fodder and mid-table mediocrity: Kobe, Nagoya, FC Tokyo, Omiya, Hiroshima and Reysol. Now, of course, these last 3 seasons we have been nothing more than mid-table mediocrity personified but the point is we have to be able to beat teams like those 6 at home or else we're never going to get that fourth star. Right there are 16 points we dropped at home. Those 16 points would have seen us finish in 4th, a point off Gamba, and that vital 4th Champions League spot.

The Lost Art of Man Management or How I Choose My Team
Hayano is a strange man and my grinding wheel took one hell of a battering from my large collection of axes this season. So much so that by the end of the season I had almost grown fond of the big buffoon. Almost. If you've been keeping track of MOIST for the course of the season you should know all the major problems we had with Mr Relegation, so we won't dwell on them for too long here. A brief re-cap then, if you will:
Treatment of Mike and substitutions in general: We'd be losing yet he'd still wait until the 87th minute to give Mike a run-out. The poor lad just didn't get a chance. It was clear, on a number of occassions when he came on, that he had the ability to change the game by worrying the opposition's defence but usually it was too little too late. Indeed, this seemed to be the problem with his substitution policy full stop. More than once he wouldn't use his full quota of subs whether we were winning convincingly or losing and needed to change the game. To MOIST that just seemed stupid.
Random team selections: Nabisco Cup semi-final, 1st leg. Biggest game of the season so why not throw on Inui up front for the first time. Wow, surprised that one didn't work out. Have two solid left backs and Hayuma who is playing well at right back so why not just shove Nasu in anywhere out of position, sit back, cross your fingers and hope for the best. Wow, surprised that one didn't work out. Sign Marcus and then start the season with some bizarre 4-3-3 formation and plug away at it despite the fact it clearly isn't working. Wow, surprised that one didn't work out.
Blame everyone but yourself for losses: It wasn't like Inui, Nasu et al didn't try their best after Hayano had hatched his mad plans and thrown them into battle. Well, unless you listened to Hayano give his post match interview it wasn't. It was never his fault. The players didn't understand the system, didn't do his plan, didn't blah blah blah blah blah.
Congratulate yourself on someone else's job well done: Of course, when we did score or when we did win it was a managerial masterstoke of proportions you mortals couldn't understand.

Foreign Devils
Marcus - What a waste of time, money, effort and fabric to make his XXXXXXL shirt. Why, oh, why did we not let Verdy keep him? Nothing more to say about this waste of space, I hope no-one was foolish enough to go out and buy his shirt.
Eltinho - Could be 23, could be 19. Could be a left-back, could be a centre-midfielder, could be a left-wing. Could be the new Dutra, could be the new Marcus. Played for 45 minutes all season and didn't do so badly. Scored a few goals in the Satellite League, too. Overall, though, a complete waste of a foreign spot.
Marques - The only foreign goalscorer all season with one lone goal in the Nabisco Cup. Apparently ist is the first time a foreign player has not scored in the league for the Marinos. Impressed on occassion but did nothing more than what Shimizu was capable off and was able to finish as badly as Shimizu, too. Overall, would have been fine as a third foreigner but was a waste as our supposedly best one.
We can only hope that the powers that be decide to bring in some worthwhile foreign talent next year.








And that is that. 2007 in a rather large nutshell. MOIST is going on holiday for a week but tune in around the New Year for our take on the coming and goings of the off-season.