On 5th March, 2011, I was in Osaka to watch Gamba Osaka kick-off the
2011 J League season against local rivals Cerezo Osaka. Six days after the home
side's 2-1 win, the Tohoku Earthquake struck, delaying the season for a month.
Gamba went on the finish third that season, followed in fourth by Vegalta
Sendai, a relatively recent addition to the J League Division 1 surprising against
the odds: The team from the region most impacted by the resulting tsunami.
Douglas Hurcombe and Geoff Trodd's documentary tells the story of the
team rising from recently promoted no-hopers to league runners-up the following
2012 season, naturally serving as a metaphor for the people of the local community
overcoming natural disaster to rebuild their lives.
This story is split into three parts: To start, the story of the
earthquake and tsunami themselves, with interviews from local Vegalta fans that
had their lives torn apart by the disaster. Secondly, the focus shifts to the
re-start of the J League season in the aftermath, with Vegalta's away trip to Kawasaki
Frontale their first match. Going a goal down, the Vegalta side, backed by
their emotional fans complete a fairy-tale comeback to win 2-1 in the final
minutes. The concluding part looks at the 2012 season, the Vegalta players and
fans having played their part in helping to rebuild the community, raising
money and going out to various towns and villages in the area. Though perhaps
their biggest contribution to the community was building on the club's most
successful campaign of 2011 to go one step further, nearly taking the title
itself.
Much is made of the Tohoku people's stoic, 'country-bumpkin' mentality
and how this benefited them in the aftermath of the disaster. Indeed, the fans
interviewed who had family members and friends killed show a coming to terms
with what happened, emphasised by their desire for the Frontale game to go
ahead, fans turning up in their thousands only weeks after their homes were
destroyed; and the emotional season-closing message from the then manager,
Makoto Teguramori.
A relatively low-key documentary by a British-based group, this recalls
Neil Cantwell and Tim Grabham's 'KanZeOn', a documentary about traditional
Japanese music. Focusing largely on interviews with the fans, players and
manager involved, and Gary Lineker, it keeps things relatively simple and
doesn't force sentimentality on what is an emotive subject. Any emotion intended
is from a largely punk soundtrack, to reflect the more boisterous aspects of Japanese
football fan culture.
Up until 1992 when the J League formed, football teams, very much like
baseball teams in Japan, were owned by companies. The formation of the
professional J League was to eliminate this corporate association, with teams
to be named after their location and form a bond with the local community. Enthusiasm,
as Gary Lineker testifies to, was big among fans.
Vegalta Sendai, founded in 1988 as the Tohoku Electric Power Co. Soccer
Club, were part of a J League expansion, switching to the professional league in
Division 2 in 1999 under their current name. However, due to limited success,
the team struggled to gain any great affinity with the local community. Though
being established in Division 1 from 2010 onwards and the 2011 earthquake
created this bond, with the Vegalta success giving the community a distraction,
an inspiration and a wider sense of community.
The complete fairy tale ending would be that Vegalta would have won the
2012 season, around only eighteen months since the disaster itself. Though this
was not to be, Sanfrecce Hiroshima taking that honour. Though, unlike the
Leicester City story (Gary Lineker's interview clearly done before last
season's victory), their failure makes the story more human, and puts the perspective
back onto the community itself and how far they had been able to come in such a
short period of time.
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