Wednesday 12 August 2020

What Arano Said

Barry BARRY WRITES... 

If you read our previous post, you'll know I was far from enamoured with the way Arano carried on. I've been watching football a long time, but was genuinely surprised at his behaviour. Rough challenges and a bit of needle is one thing, but there's a level of fair play than generally underpins professional sport. What the Sapporo man did was ugly and childish.

Kaneko did have a joke with him after, and they were both all smiles, but things wouldn’t have been so chummy if the keeper had gone the right way. Kaneko tweeted the gist of the exchange:

“Lots of people have been asking what Arano said to me before the penalty. He was like “You’re putting it in the bottom right, aren’t you?” “Kaneko-kun’s* taking it?” “If you score this, how many's that for the season?” for up to a minute. LOL We’re not particularly acquaintances or anything, but after I scored he said “nice goal”.

*kun being an affectionate suffix usually reserved for young boys, or close male mates.

So appearances weren’t deceiving. He was trying to get under his skin and put him off. That's unsportsmanlike conduct, and that's against the rules. I’m not naive enough to think snide comments and distraction tactics don’t go on, but not as flagrant and bare-faced as this. Come on J. League. Crush this before it becomes a regular occurrence.

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