Kawasaki Frontale 2012 League Issue Shirt

KAWASAKI FRONTALE - LEAGUE ISSUE SHIRT 2012

Kawasaki Frontale are the pride of Kawasaki, the industrial city wedged between Tokyo and Yokohama, and trace their roots to 1955 and the Fujitsu company side. They turned professional under the name Frontale, an Italian word suggesting a team forever pressing forward, and have long made the compact Todoroki Athletics Stadium one of the noisiest, most family-friendly grounds in the country, dolphin mascots and all. For years they were the great nearly-men of Japanese football, always thereabouts yet never quite winning, before the trophies finally poured in from 2017 onwards.

In 2012 that glory was still on the horizon. It proved a season of transition, during which this classy league issue shirt was worn, and one that saw upheaval in the dugout as Naoki Soma stepped aside, caretaker Tatsuya Mochizuki steadied the ship, and the influential Yahiro Kazama arrived to begin his possession-obsessed rebuild. Kawasaki finished eighth in the eighteen-team J1 with 50 points from 34 games, a respectable if unspectacular mid-table return.

There was little cup joy to soften the league grind. Frontale went out of the J.League Cup at the group stage, finishing well down their section, and bowed out of the Emperor's Cup in the fourth round. The league offered its share of drama, though, from a breathless 4-3 win over Jubilo Iwata to a thumping 4-2 defeat of Urawa Red Diamonds in November, when Brazilian playmaker Renato helped himself to a hat-trick that included two free-kicks.

The heartbeat, as ever, was Kengo Nakamura, the one-club maestro in the number 14 whose passing set the tempo for a generation at Todoroki. Renatinho was signed that year and a young Yu Kobayashi was beginning to emerge up front, years before he became the club's record scorer and a J1 Golden Boot winner. It was a squad quietly assembling the pieces for greatness.