It’s been a disappointing continental run for Central Coast Mariners, as their dreams of succeeding in the AFC Champions League Elite turned to nightmares and saw them eliminated from contention well in advance.
However, it’s not over until the final whistle, and to close out this Asian tour, CCM will take one last flight to Japan and go dolphin hunting when they face Kawasaki Frontale, the winners of the 2023 Emperor’s Cup.
So for one last time, let’s review what happened last time out, size up the Mariners’ next opponent, and explore how the Yellow and Navy can still walk away from this competition with their heads held high.
Shorthanded Mariners can’t quite eke out draw
Faced with Johor Darul Ta’zim, the mightiest side in Malaysia, and a fate already sealed months prior, the Mariners didn’t exactly come out swinging in front of their home fans.
They possessed the ball for just 30% of the first half, had no real chances to score, and in fact made more injury substitutions than shots – Ryan Edmondson, the hat-trick hero in last year’s AFC Cup run, had to leave this one with his arm in a sling.
Just before the halftime whistle, things would change irrevocably, but not in the way the Yellow Army wanted, as keeper Dylan Peraić-Cullen slide-tackled Johor’s Arif Aiman Hanapi just outside the box, thereby denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.
For the second time this tournament, CCM saw their goalie sent off with a straight red, and Adam Pavlesic took the pitch for the first time in any competition since his own carding against Buriram United back in October.
Bergson, the all-time leading goal scorer in JDT history, appeared to immediately capitalize on the ensuing free kick, but VAR found him offside, and Pavlesic would make a save in open play before the referees finally called for halftime after over ten minutes past the standard.
Coming back from the break, the Mariners hoped to take their spark of luck and turn it into a flame of good fortune, and Pavlesic was reaping that.
Despite the Southern Tigers seeing even more of the ball with a man advantage than they had when things were 11-on-11, the Coasties just kept coming up defensively, refuting shot after shot.
But sooner or later, the wall had to crack, and it did in the 64th minute when Hanapi found newly-signed defender Álvaro on a low cross and the Spaniard one-timed it home to finally break the deadlock.
Undaunted, the Mariners went right on the hunt for an answer, and before long, they found one. Provided a free-kick opportunity deep in Johor territory, Mikael Doka served it up high, Brian Kaltack headed it to keep it in bounds, and Alou Kuol crashed in with a flying knee to equalize.
With just twenty minutes plus stoppage time to go, a draw looked very much in the cards. However, Álvaro still lurked, hoping to make the biggest possible splash after over a year of free agency, and in the 79th minute, the Spaniard headed home a cross from Heberty to complete his brace and retake the lead.
Kuol would make one last attempt to match that in stoppage time, but his header sailed high, and the Mariners once again tasted bitter defeat.
Johor, meanwhile, will go on to face Pohang Steelers in Korea, and barring a total defensive collapse and/or Kevin Muscat’s Shanghai Port scoring in bunches, the Tigers will likely go on to the next phase.
Meet Kawasaki Frontale, Japan’s fading but formidable empire
From 2017 to 2021, Kawasaki Frontale were the most unstoppable force in the J1 League, winning four season titles in five years and claiming both the J.League and Super Cups the year they didn’t.
While they’re not quite at those heights anymore, Frontale do have a nose for silverware that exceeds their mid-table standing, which is how they were able to parlay the 2023 Emperor’s Cup into last year’s Super Cup victory and this ACL Elite run, where the Dolphins started slow, but once they clicked.
They started on a tear that hasn’t stopped since. In their last four league stage matches, Kawasaki have won by a combined score of 13-1, making light work of multiple teams the Mariners struggled with, and their latest thrashing of Pohang Steelers officially punched Frontale’s ticket to the knockouts.
The bedrock of Kawasaki’s success has been some of the stingiest defence in Asia – they’ve allowed just four goals against in this league stage, the fewest of any team in the Elite.
Part of that has been stellar play from Korean goalie and Olympic medalist Jung Sung-ryong, and part of that has been defensemen Kota Takai and Sota Miura, a terrifying tandem who both especially popped off in Frontale’s 3-0 victory against Buriram United, with Miura even scoring a goal.
Other backliners of note include Asahi Sasaki, Yuichi Maruyama, Yusuke Sagawa, and Brazilian club mainstay Jesiel.
In the midfield, Yuki Yamamoto has combined his usual defensive strengths with a recent surge in attack, scoring a free kick and assisting against Shandong Taishan and contributing another assist to last week’s beatdown on Pohang.
More towards the front, we find attacking midfielder and team captain Yasuto Wakizaka, an essential piece of the dynasty puzzle who’s only continued to excel since.
While Hinata Yamauchi hasn’t quite shone in Asia yet, he’ll come in off a roaring start to the 2025 J1 League, where he led the charge to a 4-0 win that just might announce Frontale as an early front-runner this year.
Finally, up on the front lines, the clear standout as of late has been Shin Yamada, who notched an assist against Buriram, a goal over Shandong, then did both in the same game against Pohang.
Alongside him, we find the likes of Brazilian winger Marcinho, who scored the deciding goal against Ulsan HD early on, and teenager Soma Kanda, who hasn’t played every match but has come up big with a goal and an assist in his time on the pitch.
The keys to a dignified exit
First things first, the Mariners need to trust Pavlesic in the net. Peraić-Cullen’s red card has forced their hand on that front anyway, but Pavlesic looked significantly sharper here than he had before his big red card, and if that’s not a mirage, he should be able to hold up his end of the bargain here.
As for the outfielders, priority number one has to be taking some kind of bite out of the possession game. When things get as dire as they did against Johor, it effectively puts CCM on the receiving end of the kind of domination they unleashed regularly in last year’s AFC Cup. If they want any sort of agency or control over where this goes, then they’ll need to improve on this front.
Not only will it minimize Frontale’s opportunities, but it’ll put less of a load on the Mariners’ own defensemen – who, as the goal differential probably tells you by now, haven’t done the greatest job of shutting down the constant barrages they’ve been subjected to.
Once they’re in the attacking third, the Mariners need to make absolutely sure they’re not forcing everything through the same faucet.
Alou Kuol may be an essential part of team lore, what with his AFC Cup-clinching goal last May, but against JDT, he was the only Mariner to shoot all night, and against a defence as talent-rich as Kawasaki’s, that’s simply not going to fly.
Mikael Doka. (Photo by Scott Gardiner/Getty Images)
When opportunities arrive, they’ll need as many men involved as possible in order to create opportunities for each other and open up those precious gaps that can lead to goals.
Given the way this ACL Elite campaign has gone, the bar is officially on the floor. After how badly Yokohama F. Marinos bloodied CCM on that last Japan trip, just hanging tough with Kawasaki will be an improvement.
If the Mariners avoid losing, it’ll feel like a triumphant close to this two-year odyssey through Asia – and it will be close because, with this team’s addiction to draws in the A-League, there’s virtually no shot that they challenge the likes of Auckland and Adelaide for the premiership and its accompanying ticket to next year’s edition of this tournament.
If they lose again here, so be it, but if the Mariners give it their all and pounce on a Kawasaki side that could reasonably phone it in, given they won’t finish the league stage below fourth no matter what happens, then CCM can at least say they went down swinging.
Connor Bunnellhttps://https://ift.tt/qawcTeQ Elite preview: After a disappointing campaign, can the Mariners restore some pride against the might of Kawasaki?
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