15 Oct 2007(Mon)

Tokyo, October 12, 2007: The Kawasaki Frontale debate has been – and still is – an interesting one.

Were they right to rest most of their first-choice players for a league match at Kashiwa in between the two legs of their Asian Champions League quarter-final?

Or should they have fielded their strongest side against Reysol as a duty to their fans and to the rest of the J1 teams?

To me the answer is obvious.

Frontale were absolutely within their rights to do what they did, and no one should be telling them who to pick for any match.

In a way it is an insult to the Frontale players who did play to suggest they were not up to the required standard, as they are on the list of professional players and, therefore, available for selection.

In fact, looking through the Frontale team at Kashiwa on September 23, it is still a strong side, and would probably be good enough to stay in J1 if they played every week: Kawashima; Sahara, Kawamura, Ito; Igawa, Yabu, Taniguchi, Francismar, Ohashi; Ganaha, Kurotsu.

This is a good team, even though they lost 4-0 in a second-half collapse. If they had won, or drawn, would anyone have been complaining?

For me it showed how seriously Frontale were taking the Asian Champions League, something some other J.League clubs have not done in the past, contributing to Japan’s poor record.

And it is not as though Reysol were at the top of the table challenging for the title, or at the bottom fighting against relegation. In those circumstances, rival clubs may have had the right to complain. But, still, that is not Frontale’s problem.

They were doing what they thought was best for the club, and trying to win the Asian Champions League, so they should not be put in the dock for this.

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