Kawasaki Frontale Crowned J-League Champions
Sean Carroll
There was plenty of drama once again at the climax of the J1 season, as Kawasaki Frontale earned belated revenge over Kashima Antlers to lift their first ever major piece of silverware - or more accurately, cardboard-ware - to become 2017 champions on goal difference.
Kawasaki were pipped to the first stage title and then knocked out of the post-season play-offs by Kashima in 2016, but a fantastic 15-game unbeaten run to end this year's campaign saw Toru Oniki's side reel in the J.League's most decorated club over the final weeks of the season, making up an eight-point deficit and surging to the top of the rankings for the first time all year on the final day of the season after hammering Omiya Ardija 5-0.
That result alone wouldn't have been enough for Frontale if Kashima had also won away to Jubilo Iwata, with the Ibaraki side heading into the last round of games two points clear at the summit but with an inferior goal difference.
The scales still looked weighted in favour of Go Oiwa's eight-time champions though, and Antlers would have kept their hands on the title if they had beaten Kashiwa Reysol at home on the previous weekend or if Frontale had failed to pick up all three points away to newly-crowned (and possibly still hung over) Asian champions Urawa Reds in their midweek game in hand. A stodgy 1-0 win for Frontale in Saitama, however, ensured the battle would continue to the very last whistle.
And even as Kawasaki cruised past already-relegated Omiya the destination of the trophy remained up in the air, with any potential Kashima goal in Iwata being enough to ensure they would deny Frontale again and keep hold of their title.
"We didn't really have any information on the pitch about what was going on in the other game, even at 3- or 4-0," Akihiro Ienaga said after claiming three assists as Kawasaki kept up their end of the bargain against his former side.
"The players who came off the bench told us that it was still a draw (in Iwata) but just one goal (from Kashima) would have prevented us from getting this title, so we didn't know until right at the end."
Hat-trick hero Yu Kobayashi was also preoccupied with events elsewhere.
"At full time I was really concerned about the Kashima result," the Frontale captain said.
"I didn't think I'd be thinking about it during the game, but with around 10 minutes to go I asked the bench what the score was and they told me it was 0-0. Our win was pretty much decided by that point and so I was just hoping that one way or another it would finish like that. Just before the end our bench seemed really delighted so I thought 'it must have finished (in Iwata)' and then when the whistle went here all kinds of emotions flooded out, including plenty of tears."
Once they had been wiped away Kawasaki finally got their hands on the J.League shield - sort of. With the real thing down in Shizuoka waiting to be raised aloft for the ninth time by Kashima, who's game did ultimately end 0-0, the actual champions had to make do with a printed replacement.
"Unfortunately we didn't have the real shield, which would have been nice," Kobayashi said. "But I guess the cardboard version was 'typical Frontale' in a way."
That it was, with the Kanagawa side having earned a reputation as the bridesmaids of the J.League since joining the top flight for the first time in 2000, finishing as runners-up eight times across the three domestic competitions but never winning anything.
This year brought plenty of heartache in that respect too, with Frontale starting 2017 by losing the Emperor's Cup final on New Year's Day to Antlers - them again - going down 2-0 to Cerezo Osaka in the Levain Cup final, and also surrendering a 4-1 aggregate lead to go out of the Asian Champions League to Urawa Reds at the quarter-final stage.
"Speaking totally honestly after losing the Levain Cup final it felt almost as if the team was finished, but I'm so pleased by the fact we didn't give up and kept fighting right to the end," Kobayashi, who went on to be voted as the season's MVP and also pick up the top scorer award thanks to his feats on the last day of the season, concluded.
And nobody was happier - nor had more people happy for him - than Kengo Nakamura.
The one-club man has been a regular in the Frontale side since 2003, experiencing far more than his fair share of hurt as the club were pipped to title after title.
"If we hadn't been able to do it this time then I think things would have been really difficult from now on," the 37-year-old said. "But the fact we were able to achieve this result provides affirmation of our style of football - more than anything I'm happy that we were able to prove that it's possible to win by playing this type of football.
"The scenes today were amazing, the greatest thing. I have been putting in all this effort in order to see that scenery."
The view wasn't quite so pleasing over in picturesque Yamanashi, however, and despite Lins' superb 96th-minute 1-0 winner for Ventforet Kofu over Vegalta Sendai Tatsuma Yoshida's side's five-year stint in J1 was brought to an end as Shimizu S-Pulse came from a goal down to win 3-1 away to Vissel Kobe and just about clinch survival.
That left Ventforet following Albirex Niigata and Omiya Ardija through the trapdoor, with J2 champions Shonan Bellmare and runners-up V-Varen Nagasaki earning automatic promotion to the top flight - Shonan as the latest act in their yo-yo performance between the two tiers and Varen doing so for the first time in their history.
The final promoted side were Nagoya Grampus, who just about made it back up into J1 courtesy of a 0-0 draw at home to Avispa Fukuoka in the play-off final (the rules state that the higher-ranked team over the regular season only need draw to be claimed the victor).
That means Yahiro Kazama, who laid the foundations for Kawasaki's success before departing for Nagoya at the end of last season, will also be back in the top flight next year, and he is sure to get a warm welcome by the reigning champions and their fans at Todoroki Stadium in 2018.
Copyright: Sean Carroll & Soccerphile.com
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