What is the difference between today's Yokohama Mariners and the group stage when they were in Yangtaishan?
Reporter Han Bing reported that the last two seats in the top four of the AFC Champions League East Asia were released yesterday: Ulsan HD won the Kofu Wind Forest and will stage a Korean Hyundai derby with Jeonbuk Hyundai. But Chinese fans are more concerned about another game, where Yokohama Mariners narrowly defeated Bangkok United in 120 minutes to advance - the only remaining seedling of China and Japan in the quarterfinals of the AFC Champions League, will meet again after the group stage. Can the Taishan team, which has just reversed the defeat against Kawasaki Frontale, deliver a satisfactory answer to the fans in the face of the Yokohama Mariners who had beaten them twice in the group stage?
In this AFC Champions League, a total of 3 teams from the J-League entered the round of 16, but Kawasaki Frontale and Kofu Fenglin were eliminated by Shandong Taishan and Ulsan Hyundai respectively. Japanese fans pinned their hopes of advancing to the last eight on Yokohama Mariner, the runner-up of last season's J1 League, but yesterday at Nissan Stadium, Yokohama Mariners fought hard for 120 minutes to narrowly beat Bangkok United with one penalty.
In the two-legged duel in the 1/8 finals, the Yokohama Mariners were helpless against their Thai opponents in 180 minutes of regular time. In the first leg, Yokohama Mariners led by two goals in the opening 24 minutes, but were drawn by Bangkok United in the 92nd minute.
Yokohama Mariners, who returned home in the second leg, were hoping to go all out and have a quick victory, with 37 shots in 120 minutes, three times as many as Bangkok United (13). Yokohama Mariners took seven times as many corners as Bangkok United (21 to 3) and had 68 per cent possession. However, the performance of the Brazilian trident Elber López Mateus, who performed well against Shandong Taishan in the group stage, was really unsatisfactory. With the exception of Lopes who hit the post, just five of his 37 attempts were on target. Right winger Mateus and South Korean striker Nam Tae-hee were replaced after only one hour of play, and the winning penalty was also made by post-00 striker Yusa Murakami, who was replaced before the end of regular time.
Despite the disappointing process, advancing to the quarter-finals was the best result for Yokohama Mariner in the AFC Champions League - since their first appearance in the AFC Champions League in 1996, the Asian Club Cup, the predecessor of the AFC Champions League, Yokohama Mariner has reached the group stage four times and the round of 16 twice, and this time the quarter-finals are a historic breakthrough. However, for the J League, this is also the embarrassment of only one Japanese team in the top 8 since the 2021 season.
After the game, the new coach of the Yokohama Mariners, Colwill, also had to smile bitterly and say that despite the first official victory in charge, he was actually very frustrated. Because Yokohama Mariners wasted too many scoring opportunities, they could have sealed the win without having to stay up to extra time. Compared with the three warm-up games with a total of 360 minutes and as many as 16 goals, the real guns of the two AFC Champions League games made the prospects of the Yokohama fans team in the new season even more pessimistic.
However, for Shandong Taishan, the top 8 opponent, Yokohama Mariners still maintain a certain psychological advantage, and the two-legged matchup in the AFC Champions League group stage that ended last year, they completed the double kill of Taishan, including the final round of home victory over Taishan who lacked Fellaini and Moisés, which also made Shandong fans break out in a cold sweat.
Compared with the main team that defeated Shandong Taishan in the group stage of the AFC Champions League last year, the Yokohama Mariners, who narrowly defeated Bangkok United in overtime, have changed a lot. First of all, senior coach Muscat left the team to coach Shanghai Port, the new coach Colwill had no experience in coaching a top league team independently, and was only an assistant coach of the Celtics in the Soviet Super League before taking office at the end of last year, and his coaching resume is obviously not comparable to Muscat, who led the team to win the J-League championship.
In terms of player lineup, the biggest change in the new season of Yokohama Mariner is the defensive line, last year's main goalkeeper against Shandong Taishan Jun Ichimori and central defender Ryotaro Tsunoda have left the team, and left-back Kato Saint and Yoshio Haixia, who started in two legs, have also sat on the bench, and this campaign was replaced by American-Japanese mixed-race goalkeeper Pope, central defender Takumi Uejima and left-back Taiki Watanabe. Among them, Pope, Watanabe Taiki, and left-back Ren Kato in the away game against Bangkok United are all new signings for the season. In addition, striker Takuma Nishimura, who came off the bench against Shandong Taishan last year, joined Servette of the Swiss Super League on loan.
Although the main framework of the midfield has not changed, the main force of the defensive line has changed 3 of the 5 positions, and it is obviously not enough to run in. The three pre-season games were against J-League lower-tier teams, scoring 16 goals and conceding as many as eight. Including the 2 games in the AFC Champions League, a total of 10 goals were conceded in 570 minutes. In the first leg of the quarterfinals on March 6, the Yokohama Mariners' main right-back key Matsubara, who was previously suspended, will also be absent. The main central defender Takumi Ueshima received 2 yellow cards, and if he eats 1 more, he will be suspended in the second leg. In addition, there are as many as 6 injured players in the Yokohama Mariners team, almost all of them concentrated in the defensive line.
It was not without chance for Cressan, who had an excellent performance in the two Kawasaki Frontales, new signing Kazaishvili, and knife defender Judson.
However, after the Yokohama Mariners were promoted, they were taken care of by the official schedule of the J-League. Originally, the Yokohama Mariner had to play 5 games in 18 days between February 25 and March 13, but in order to better prepare for the AFC Champions League alone, the J-League official announced last night that the third round of the Yokohama Mariner vs. Gamba Osaka between the two legs of the AFC Champions League 1/4 finals was postponed from March 9 to April 10. This means that the Yokohama Mariner will play one less game than Shandong Taishan between the two legs of the AFC Champions League - the second consecutive Sino-Japanese duel in the AFC Champions League knockout round, and the Yokohama Mariner has "taken the lead" without fighting.