The Rising Sun News -- Ticket Travails
The most serious trouble involved the on-line sale of tickets, which was expected to ease the burden on standard ticket distribution channels. It appears that the web sites were not tested sufficiently, and when it came time to launch operations it turned out that the servers in San Francisco and Amsterdam failed to operate properly. At first officials said that the delay would only last a few days, but now there are reports that Internet ticket sales may be suspended altogether. This is a story that will no doubt remain in the headlines for some time to come.
| Since prospective applicants were unable to apply for tickets on line, the demand for application forms distributed by the post office was overwhelming. In both Japan and Korea, official distribution sites quickly ran out of forms, and soon found themselves beseiged by angry citizens demanding applications. Demand was apparently so high that someone offered an application form on an internet auction site. Believe it on not, there were actually a number of bids, and the price went as high as Y4,000 before the site operators pulled the plug on the auction. JAWOC and KOWOC announced that they each would immediately print an additional 2 million application forms. Observers are predicting that there will be around 6-7 million applications each in Japan and Korea, with less than 700,000 tickets available. To make matters worse, in Japan only about half of those will be offered to the general public; the rest are reserved for league and corporate sponsors or fan club members. |  Application form: Someone was apparently prepared |
Bad Blood
| A "friendly" preseason match between Avispa Fukuoka and Kashiwa Reysol had to be abandoned a few minutes from full time after the teams were involved in a full-scale brawl. The match was an ill-tempered affair from the start, but the fireworks erupted in the dying minutes of the second half. As Reysol striker Hideaki Kitajima dove for a corner kick and went to the ground, he was kicked deliberately by Avispa defender Takashi Maeda. Although Maeda was immediately shown a red card, the referee's quick action was not enough to prevent a brawl that cleared both benches, and even featured a brief punch-up between Reysol goalkeeper coach Mario and Avispa head coach Nestor Piccoli. The only player to take any serious damage was Kitajima, who emerged with a cut lip and black eye. The match was called off and all the spectators were given refunds. |  |
While the JFL intends to investigate, and indicated that its initial stance was to blame both teams, clearly Reysol are taking the offensive with formal protests and official descriptions of the incident lodged by the team as well as separately by several staff members. Reysol coach Akira Nishino told reporters that Piccoli has a history of serial profanity, and that throughout the recent match he was screaming insults to the Reysol bench -- in particular shouting insults at GK coach Mario calling him "monkey" in Portuguese. Avispa's chances of avoiding censure look dim. Last year they received the most cautions and dismissals of any team in the league, and just a few days before, following a practice match against Omiya Ardija, the Ardija officials reportedly filed a complaint with the league against Avispa for rough play. Fortunately, Reysol and Avispa do not play again until the final match of the first stage, by which time hopefully tempers will have cooled off
Other Match Results
4 - 0 
Because Yokohama were without a few key players, it is a little bit difficult to draw a clear conclusion from this match. Does it suggest that the Marinos have lost their competitiveness, or does it reflect the major improvement in quality at Oita following the acquisition of key players like Lorenzo Stahlens, Andrej Kubica and Choi Mon-Sik? Perhaps a little bit of both. Whatever the case may be, Yokohama cannot be feeling good about its prospects after being crushed by a J2 team. Yokohama played without Shunsuke Nakamura, NaokiMatsuda and Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, all of whom have minor injuries of one sort or another and are being rested to ensure that they are in shape for the national team training camp which begins on February 18. Be that as it may, Yokohama looked totally hapless in this match. Oita on the other hand seemed to be very competititve. Lorenzo Stahelens started at volante, and did a good job of coordinating the defence. Yokohama was almost completely without offensive opportunities in this match. On the other side of the field, Andrej Kubica tried to dispel the doubts about his scoring ability that emerged during his stint with Urawa Reds. The Polish striker, who was the league high scorer when he played in Israel, got off to a quick start this year, scoring two goals against a confused Yokohama defence. The other two goals were scored by Takayuki Yoshida and Takyua Jinno -- another striker with something to prove ofter he was unceremoniously dropped by FC Tokyo at the end of last year. While it is still just the preseason, if Oita maintains this sort of performance for the full year, they should be a favourite to win promotion to the J1 division in 2002.
2 - 0 
Both teams were without key players, including Santos and Watada for Kobe and ace striker Takahiko Kubo for Hiroshima. In general, though, this match could not dispel the view of many observers that Kobe and Hiroshima will be struggling just to finish in the middle of the table this year. Kobe clearly has the most to worry about. The star power of Kazu may be enough to attract more fans, but it has yet to show signs of producing goals. Kazu's best effort came on a free kick in the first half, and even that went astray. Hiroshima looked someawhat better, even without their top goal-scorer. Considering the two goals scored, there is at least some hope that they have emerged from the excessively defensive strategy introduced by Eddie Thompson, who was replaced at the end of last season.
4 - 1 
FC Tokyo made wholesale changes to its lineup at the end of last year, so there will be a great deal of interest in how the new additions contribute to team performance in 2001. Certainly if this match was any indication, the trades made in the offseason were well-considered. Former national team and Nagoya Grampus striker Wagner lopes got off the mark with two goals, and the other two scores came from newcomers as well -- veteran midfielders Fumitake Miura, acquired from Jubilo Iwata in January, and Takahiro Shimotaira, who played for Kashiwa Reysol last year. The team pressed aggressively throughout the match, and showed that they will be a very offensive-minded club this year. On the other side of the ball, Shimizu S-Pulse were able to collect only a single goal, scored from the penalty spot by Alex. In 2000, FC Tokyo turned in the best performance ever by a team newly added to the J.League. The positive performance by Tokyo's three veteran acquisitions suggests that they will be a true contender this year.
Three Strikes and Youre . . .
Unfortunately for S-Pulse, its woes did not end with the crushing loss to Tokyo FC. Just two days later the team lost another practice match to Ulsan Hyundai, of Korea by a score of 3 - 0. Any illusion that this reflected the Korean team's strength, rather than Shimizu's weakness was dispelled a few days later when Hyundai lost to Cerezo Osaka despite the fact that Cerezo were without three of their usual starters. To round out a truly depressing week, S-Pulse dropped a third practice match by a score of 2 - 1 to second-division club Albirex Niigata. Even that score line does not reflect how poorly S-Pulse played. With just a week and a half to go before they face Kashima Antlers in the traditional season kick-off exhibition match, S-Pulse had better find some answers soon. At the moment, if nothing changes in their performance, they seem to be looking ahead to a very long and disappointing season.
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