The Hachi #6: The Miami Mess(i)
Sometimes the grift doesn't pay out.
Thanks for responding to the poll last week — the majority seem to be in favor of Friday with Thursday a close second, which leaves me in a weird position given that my audience is split across a wide range of time zones. At any rate, Friday-ish seems to work, so that’s what I’m going to try to run with.
February didn’t used to be a soccer month in Japan — it was a preseason winter camp month, a planning-your-away-travel month, even a let’s-get-warmed-up-with-the-Super-Cup month.
But over time, the AFC Champions League grew and grew and grew (requiring Japanese teams to play qualifiers in February and eventually January), international match weeks spread, the J.League expanded up to 40 teams and then 60, rising temperatures started to require a summer break, etc. etc. you get the picture.
Because the end of the season can’t really be pushed back any further than it already is, the start has to be pulled forward. That means February soccer, much to my chagrin, is the new normal. But at least these games have been meaningful, whether a trophy, a spot in the ACL or a positive start to the J.League campaign are at stake.
That wasn’t what we got on Wednesday, when Vissel Kobe beat Inter Miami in what was perhaps the most cynically produced club friendly Japan has ever hosted. The only real winner might have been Fanatics, whose store outside the National Stadium was packed two hours before kickoff and seemed to have merch flying off the shelves.
I covered the whole thing in gory detail in my Twitter thread, but we might as well recap the low points:
1. Nobody asked for this
The common thread linking every international club friendly that’s taken place in Japan over the last 20 or so years has been demand, whether it’s fan interest in the visiting teams or sponsor interest in the form of companies wanting to attach their names to the event.
Often, the connective tissue is either a Japanese player — Shinji Kagawa came over as a member of both Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund — or an array of world-class players, such as the galacticos squads of Real Madrid in 2005 or Paris Saint-Germain in 2022.
And when big clubs are without their big stars — such as when Real Madrid and Chelsea played their outrageously overpriced friendly at Saitama Stadium in 2019 — the power of the badge was enough to pack the stands.
But Inter Miami, are not a big club, though they would certainly like to project that image. And on Wednesday they learned the hard way that you have to do more than show up a couple days before kickoff with a handful of aging stars — even if one of them is Lionel Messi, the most famous player in Japan — if you expect anyone to care.
While the stands behind the Inter Miami goal were filled, those behind the Vissel Kobe end were mostly empty — with Vissel fans saving their energy and their travel budget for the 2024 Fujifilm Super Cup that the reigning J1 champions will contest on Feb. 17.
Meanwhile, the back stand only had a handful of sections with noticeable amount of fans, despite many blocks being indicated as half (or more) sold out on the official ticketing site.
In many ways, Wednesday’s dismal attendance — 28,614, just 42% of Kokuritsu’s capacity — was a failure of everyone involved in the promotional side of this game. Cheaper tickets (rather than starting at ¥10,000 / $67) would have helped, and so would any sort of promotion surrounding the match that was more nuanced than “this team with these stars is coming to Japan.”
If there is a positive, it’s that this was a bridge too far for most fans here, showing that the Japanese market has become somewhat more discerning. This is something even PSG learned last year, when their second straight Japan tour generated huge swaths of empty seats in Osaka after Kylian Mbappe was left off the plane.
In contrast to clubs that have a good ground game and know what they’re trying to accomplish in Japan — such as Bayern Munich and Manchester City, whose 2023 tours were resounding successes — I’d like to think this Miami gong show will discourage fly-by-night promoters and bad faith actors from attempting a repeat.
2. Are Vissel Kobe… the good guys?
I’ve never been shy to criticize Vissel Kobe’s more cynical marketing efforts during their superstar era.
Less than a year ago, they hosted a farce of a friendly against Barcelona, which — as I wrote at the time — made a mockery of the Emperor’s Cup and put Barca’s players at risk, all in the name of giving Andres Iniesta one last game in front of a Tokyo crowd.
But on Wednesday they were passengers — quite frankly, Rakuten would have done a far better job of running the show — and despite the cold weather and preseason rust, Vissel looked very solid and composed against a team with so much star power, coming a couple of shots off the woodwork away from putting the game away in regulation time rather than an improvised PK shootout.
We’ll see how they look against Kawasaki Frontale at the Super Cup in a week, and it’s certainly too early to say how difficult their title defense will be, but Vissel certainly won’t be making it easy on the rest of the J1.
3. MLS deserves better in Japan
As Japan’s leading only Major League Soccer advocate/apologist, it was, if nothing else, exciting to have an MLS club travel to Japan for the first time.
Despite its explosive growth — arguably kicked off by Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham’s 2007 arrival at the LA Galaxy —MLS has never established a foothold here, though the league’s business developments (especially all those soccer stadiums that clubs have managed to build) are a subject of envy and admiration within the Japanese sports business community.
The 2023 launch of MLS Season Pass on Apple TV solved the biggest bottleneck, the lack of a domestic broadcaster. The league’s across-the-board 7 p.m. kickoff times are also very advantageous for Japanese viewers. But the lack of promotion from the league means that most soccer fans here are unaware of the service — nevermind interested enough to pay ¥15,000 annually.
A proper tour by Miami — including the promotion of MLS and Season Pass — would have gone a long way toward potentially introducing the league to a new market. Instead, the only activations related to Wednesday’s game were produced by Adidas, who are mostly interested in selling as many pink No. 10 uniforms as they can.
With the recent influx of Japanese players into MLS, including former Samurai Blue defenders Maya Yoshida and Miki Yamane at the Galaxy, goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka at the Vancouver Whitecaps, and Orlando City draftees Riyon Tori and Yutaro Tsukada, MLS is actually in a really strong position to start making overtures to Japan, and I don’t even think Miami’s poor display will be a bad look for the league itself.
A first step is needed though, and hopefully that comes in the form of more friendlies between the two leagues — and some genuine media outreach.
4. The J.League knows its fans
With the season set to kick off in just two weeks, the J.League put out this absolutely fantastic promo video highlighting the matchday experience — complete with English subtitles that, even if a little stiff, still manage to get most of the key points across.
While this spot doesn’t really highlight in-stadium action such as the active support that creates the match atmosphere, it really nails the periphery up to the water’s edge of the entrance gates. Whether it’s derby rivalries playing out in classrooms, kids keeping scrupulous diaries of their favorite XIs, or scran-centric traditions such as the “smuggler’s gate” at Kashima Stadium or fans bringing tupperware to the sausage stand at JEF United Chiba games, this was produced from start to finish with love for the culture.
5. There goes Tokyo
One of my favorite varieties of matchday promotions in Japan is the random movie/anime tie-ups, and there are none bigger than Godzilla himself.
The big man, who has been stomping to box office records and even an Oscar nomination with Godzilla Minus One, is lending his larger-than-life presence to the Feb. 25 Japan Rugby League One game between Black Rams Tokyo and Kobelco Kobe Steelers, who are both fifth in their respective conferences.
According to the Black Rams, attendees will receive a Godzilla Minus One clear file, have a chance to take photos with some sort of backdrop and More To Be Announced.
Not sure what else they have planned, but sure it will be no match for the 2016 Tamagawa Classico, when Godzilla and one of his Shin-Godzilla costars teamed up for a pregame penalty kick against Kawasaki Frontale mascot Fronta-kun.
6. Death shocks boxing world
A storyline that had been ongoing for more than a month has reached a sad conclusion following the announcement of boxer Kazuki Anaguchi’s death at the age of 23.
The bantamweight fighter took on Seiya Tsutsumi in the co-main event to the Inoue-Tapales fight on Dec. 26 at Ariake Arena, going the full 10 rounds despite being knocked down four times.
But after embracing Tsutsumi following the bout, Anaguchi suffered convulsions in his corner and needed to be helped back to the locker room after losing a close but unanimous decision.
Anaguchi fell unconscious before he arrived at a nearby hospital and received an emergency craniotomy, but never came out of his coma.
Here is a unique angle of the Anaguchi-Tsutsumi fight in full, as filmed by a fan in the stands at Ariake Arena.
The Osaka native went 68-6 as an amateur; his loss to Tsutsumi was his first as a pro and came in his seventh bout.
7. Yuta returns to the pack
Forward Yuta Watanabe is back with the team that first gave him a shot at the NBA after being sent to the Memphis Grizzlies in a three-way deal with the Suns and Nets.
The 29-year-old signed with Phoenix last summer but has averaged 3.6 points and 1.6 rebounds per game this season for the Suns, who are currently fifth in the Western Conference with a 31-21 record.
Watanabe joined the Grizzlies on a two-way contract after going unpicked in the 2018 NBA Draft; he spent two seasons there with 33 total appearances before spending two years with the Raptors and one with the Brooklyn Nets.
The Grizzlies are in 13th in the West and a late playoff surge doesn’t appear to be in the cards, meaning little to no hope of seeing Watanabe in the postseason.
The same might not be true of Rui Hachimura, who remained with the LA Lakers (ninth in the West, 27-26) after the trade deadline.
8. Longwatch: How Japan Took Over Baseball
Unless you’re reading this from Southeast Asia or Australia, you are probably spending as much time as you can indoors because the alternative is the air is literally punching your face.
So, whip up your heated beverage of choice and check out this great hour-long video essay by YouTube channel Baseball Doesn’t Exist, which gets into a lot of really fascinating stuff about baseball in Japan and the country’s rise as a powerhouse in the sport.
Stay warm and see you next week!
If a unknown MLS team whose only appeal is semi-retired players can tour in Japan, my team Flamengo can do it too, right 😅😆
Hey! You’re not the only MLS fan here! There’s dozens of us!!
I picked up the Apple pass last year, and then the Timbers decided to absolutely stink out the joint on-field and off. So I’m keeping the powder dry this year (might just watch as much as comes with the standard Apple+ sub). It’s wild that nobody wanted the rights before last year…