#169 Second place just won't cut it!

“Giant killing, or one of the J1's elite?”

The home match against Kawasaki, which DAZN has been hyping up like crazy, is finally upon us this weekend. Sure, they finished 2nd last year and have been winning titles for the past few years. Of course, I fully support Rikizo's philosophy of treating every opponent as the strongest enemy, but it's no fun to be too reverent. I won't go as far as saying, “Let's attack them with the sprinklers!” but let's go out there and do this!! The matchup between Soiya and Marcinho is going to be intense. I'm sure our cool Taro will be able to exploit the space on both sides of their anchor, Tachibana.

Now, regarding the home match hype illustration, when I think of Kawasaki City, I think of the world-renowned Fujitsu. They are famous for developing Japan's top supercomputer, 'Fugaku,' in collaboration with RIKEN. Kawasaki City is close to Tokyo, even within Kanagawa Prefecture, and other major companies like Ajinomoto, Kawasaki Kasei, and Fuji Sash have their headquarters there.

The company in Niigata that rivals Fujitsu is our very own Albirex supporter, NAMICS! NAMICS develops and manufactures electrochemical materials and provides cutting-edge materials in five fields: S.E.E.D.S (Semiconductors, Energy, Electronics, Devices, and Systems). In other words, “work that is even further upstream than supercomputers” is what they do. It's something we can be proud of to the world that we are supported by such an amazing company! With their expertise in the opposing technologies of 'conductivity' and 'insulation,' NAMICS will help us secure a victory this match too!!

Actually, I was cutting it close with this illustration. It wasn't because of the Levain Cup match against Fukuoka... the reason is that this is the second one I've drawn!! Yes, I had actually drawn another illustration, but right before uploading it, I realized I had made a major mistake due to a misunderstanding.

“Wait, the motorcycle manufacturer KAWASAKI is a company from Akashi City, Hyogo Prefecture!!”

I had assumed it was in Kawasaki City (why, I don't know). Maybe it was because Kengo Nakamura used to do BKB (Bike Kawasaki Bike) gags in his goal celebrations, but for some reason, I had this image of 'Kawasaki City = Motorcycles.' By the way, isn't BKB also from Hyogo Prefecture? (How terrible!). So, I decided not to worry about the motorcycle theme I had already put in the calendar and just redrew it from scratch.

For the sake of self-deprecation, I'll upload the illustration with the major mistake as well.

For the Kawasaki motorcycle theme (which is wrong), I had him riding a child's motorcycle, and since the show 'Sore Snow Man ni Yarasetekudasai' I watched on Sunday happened to be about Kawasaki City gourmet food, I drew in the Casserole Spaghetti from 'Monalizan,' which was said to be the most recommended dish on the show!

I thought about doing Italian to rival Monalizan... but I had already used that idea during the Akita match last year to rival Yokote Yakisoba (I could have gone with Friend after Mikazuki, but still), so I simply drew in my recommended Italian dish in Niigata. It's the edamame pizza from 'La Trattoria Estorto,' a so-called farm-to-table restaurant run by Takagi Farm!! This is incredibly delicious, so I highly recommend it. Since it's edamame, you can only eat it in the summer, but I hope all the away supporters coming to Niigata will try it!! Besides Takagi Farm, there are many recommended farm-to-table restaurants in Niigata, so it's worth looking them up.

Also, to rival the Kawasaki motorcycle theme (which is wrong, I tell you), Nyapota is riding a child's tractor since it's a farm-to-table restaurant.

Alright then, let's win the Kawasaki match and get our first home victory of the season!!