5 Nov 2009(Thu)

November 4, 2009: It's difficult to work out which is the bigger surprise: the recovery of FC Tokyo or the failure of Kawasaki Frontale to win the Nabisco Cup this season.

In the opening months of the campaign, FC Tokyo were in all sorts of trouble and losing on a regular basis before the international break in late May.

On more than one occasion, but particularly after a “home” defeat to JEF United at the National Stadium, I thought manager Hiroshi Jofuku was in danger of losing his job. The players were listless and lacked motivation, and the fans were uncharacteristically subdued.

But “JFK” managed to turn things round, and already their season can be regarded as a success with this second Nabisco Cup triumph, no matter where they finish in the league.

Of course the goals of Ishikawa – in the form of his life until his recent knee injury against Reysol – played a big part in the revival, as did the central defensive pairing of Konno and Bruno Quadros. With Konno settled at the back, the athletic, wiry teenager Yonemoto has established himself alongside Kajiyama in the midfield engine room, and cleaned up with the New Hero-MVP double to give the club a season's bonus.

Really, I think it's been a remarkable turnaround by Tokyo from their patchy form of April and May, as it needs a strong will and character to beat a top, tough team like Frontale these days.

Despite their lack of a trophy, Frontale went into the final as favourites, but came up short again.

This was another surprise for me, as I thought they had turned the corner in crunch games with their J1 victory over Omiya Ardija at Saitama Stadium recently. This was a big match in their challenge for the league title, and a fixture they had lost, at NACK5 Stadium, in similar circumstances the previous season.

Captain Kengo Nakamura thought so, too, and said as much after the game, but when it came to the Nabisco Cup final they failed to produce.

This must be a very worrying factor for their fans, as the team must regroup quickly and try and push on to win their first league championship.

This is still well within their grasp, as their last four fixtures are JEF at home, Oita away, Albirex at home and Reysol away on the final day of the season. They are good enough to take all 12 points here, but each game will feel like a cup final with the pressure mounting – and Frontale just don't like cup finals.

ends