In a weird way it all began with a pre-season friendly. The sort of game that tends to wipe itself from the memory as soon as it’s finished, sometimes even earlier. A sweltering July night in the Tokyo outskirts. Yokohama F Marinos v Manchester City at the Nissan Stadium for an entirely made-up trophy called the EuroJapan Cup. But in retrospect, it is the moment when a convivial Australian coach called Ange Postecoglou begins his journey to the Premier League.
It’s 2019 and Postecoglou is halfway through his second season in Japan. His first, charitably put, was a mixed bag. There was a cup final but also one of the worst league finishes in the club’s history. There has been relentless attacking football and remorseless defensive collapses. A first relegation from the J-League has been narrowly avoided. But the top brass at Yokohama like the direction of travel. Now, against their parent club and the mothership of the City Football Group, we are about to discover why.
