19 May 2005(Thu)

Call it the Ono Corner Kick.

No, not Shinji.

Takeshi.

Anyone who was at Kumagaya Athletic Stadium on Saturday--and there weren't many of us--couldn't fail to notice a rather radical Sanfrecce Hiroshima corner routine during the second half against Omiya Ardija.

As the Sanfrecce player prepared to take a corner on the left side, only one teammate was in the Omiya penalty area.

Were Sanfrecce protecting an away point with the score at 0-0?

No they weren't, as another five or six players were lined up some 10 metres outside the box, and when the corner came over they charged forward in a group.

It was like two sides going into battle, and clashing in the middle ground.

Nothing came of the kick, but Sanfrecce would win the game in second-half stoppage time with a well-struck shot on the run by substitute Shunsuke Maeda.

But back to that corner.

After the game, Sanfrecce's manager, Takeshi Ono, explained that it was the second time his team had used such a tactic this season. The first one had been against Yokohama F Marinos, for the same reasons.

"It is my original move," he said, with a smile.

"Omiya have some very tall and strong players, 1.87 or 1.88 metres, so I wanted to separate my players from their markers. I didn't want any contact before the kick."

Mmm, interesting.

It was certainly amusing to see the Omiya defenders, all looking around for someone to mark but with hardly anyone in sight.

Anyway, it provided a little bit of warmth on a dull afternoon. It was cold and windy and overcast, and the floodlights were needed, despite it being a 3pm kick-off in the middle of May.

The pitch was not in good condition, either, which is unusual for the J.League.

Long before the kick-off, a team of groundstaff was needed to pick up small pebbles from the grass. It looked like North Korea had just played there.

When the game kicked off, the surface was sandy in some areas but hard in others, making for an awkward bounce of the ball.

"It was very bad," said Ono. "The pitch condition is fair to both teams but not to the spectators.

"If the pitch was better, both teams could play more exciting, technical and tactical football."

There's talk that Omiya Stadium might not be used after this season because of its small capacity, but Kumagaya is surely more at risk.

ends