4 Aug 2008(Mon)

August 2, 2008: A waste of time and money, or a useful exercise for all concerned?

There are two ways of looking at the Urawa Reds-Bayern Munich match the other night, and I will try to be positive and say that, yes, it was just about worth all the effort and the expense.

A crowd of 27,292 was low by Urawa's standards but still not bad for a Thursday night friendly at Saitama Stadium, and the visitors put on a good show in winning 4-2.

They got the job done early, with two goals inside the first 20 minutes, and added a third before the break against a very ragged Reds side who did not do themselves justice at all in the first half.

The second half livened up a bit as Reds came back, and Yuki Abe's spectacular overhead kick to close the scoring 10 minutes from time sent everyone home happy.

All in all, then, a decent night's entertainment, and a glimpse of the power and precision of the mighty Bavarians.

Much of the pre-match talk had focused on who was not coming -- Ribery, Toni, Borowski -- but there was still plenty of quality in all areas of the pitch. Bayern did not need any help, but Reds gave it to them anyway with some poor defending and lethargic cross-field passing. It is not uncommon to see players in the J.League make casual, risky passes across field deep in their own half, inviting an interception and sucker punch from the opposition, but they are not punished as ruthlessly as they were by Bayern the other night.

It was not all bad news for Urawa, though. Keita Suzuki looks like he is coming back to peak condition -- his pass to Soma to set up Umesaki's goal was a gem -- and Sergio Escudero appears ready for a run in the first team with his energy and bustle.

Reds manager Gert Engels also praised the performances of teenagers Shunki Takahashi and Genki Haraguchi, the latter having turned only 17 as recently as May 9.
It was refreshing to see Takahashi hitting a shot on the run when he found some space on the right, and hopefully he will continue to do this and not follow the bad habit of wanting an extra touch before shooting.

One small complaint about post-match protocol.
There was an unnecessarily long delay after the final whistle and before the awards ceremony, and I thought it would have been a nice gesture for the Bayern players to walk round the pitch and thank the fans who had stayed to the bitter end.

Although many fans were on their way home by the time Bayern received the trophy and Podolski his MVP prize of 3,000 Euros, many more had remained to cheer the players.

A relaxed lap of honour by the two teams together would have been a fitting conclusion to the occasion, but the Bayern players disappeared down the tunnel, apart from five who performed "warm-down" drills on the pitch.

Shame that. The fans deserved more.

ends