ljungberg

The Kawasaki mascot

Finally Saturday came too. I'd been looking forward to this event the whole week and in the afternoon we set off to Kawasaki where Fredrik (or Freddie as he's known as here) Ljungberg would play. Rumour had it he was semi-injured and wouldn't start the game, but I kept my fingers crossed he would come in later or at least be there. Otherwise the whole thing would sort of be pointless. It's not like I went for the football. Ha!

The arena was huge! I mean, sure, maybe not in UK measurements, but the biggest I've been to anyway. Granted, we were standing at the very top on the second floor so could possibly not get further away from the field so maybe that influenced my perception of size, but I was still like a little kid when I first came in: mouth o-shaped, a long outdrawn 'wooow' as the initial reaction.

The game was sold out and the arena was absolutely packed with blue for Kawasaki and orange for Shimizu S-Pulse.

The three mascots for Kawasaki were running around on the field (why do I want to call it a court?) before the game and having the absolute time of their life. One dinosaur/Sony/dolphin, one alien, and one what appeared to be a radish. A tad strange but they looked happy and got the audience going. I particularly liked how they were so cute! In Sweden at least, all the sports clubs have kind of mascots - and they all look evil! My local team at home have a dolphins (Norrköping Dolphins) but it looks more like a shark than anything else. RHUL Bears have an aggressive bear, for example. But these were like cartoon characters, happy and joyful and adorable. Perhaps that says something about the Japanese sports culture, I don't know. All I know is that Kawasaki fans and Shimizu fans rode the same bus to the stadium and there was no problem in that.

 Right, enough about mascots and football, and to the VIP of the evening: Freddie. It looked dismal for a playing viewing, and he was on the bench for a long, long time, not looking to have any intentions of playing. Six players were already warming up, when I saw the coach approach him, gesturing out to the field. Maybe, maybe, maybe...then, finally, he stepped up and changed to play! In the 35th minute of the second half - but still! Even snapped some shots of him without a shirt, but those I'll keep to myself, hehe.

Freddie did well, except missing an open shot right in front of the goal, and the goalkeeper had business elsewhere doing who knows what. Despite this tiny, tiny mistake, he was good, but obviously didn't have much time. You could tell he was frustrated by his co-players, and I understand why. This is the top league in Japan, and it was about the same level as bottom of top Swedish league Allsvenskan, or maybe second league UK.

I waved to him at the end when they were thanking the audience, but he probably didn't see me 'cause he didn't wave back...

Jo x