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J.League Week 10 - The Drama and the Glory

Kickoff	Home	.	Away
15:00		2 - 1 (ET)
15:00		3 - 2 (ET)
16:00		3 - 2 (ET)
16:00		4 - 1
16:00		0 - 2
18:30		1 - 2
19:00		1 - 2
13 Jun		vs

2 - 1 (ET)

The match got off to an uneven start. The Jubilo midfield clearly missed the coordinating abilities of Nanami, and former Nagoya Grampus star Takeshi Hirano simply didnt seem to be on the same page as the rest of his teammates. However, it was Sapporo who were at the greater disadvantage. They did their best to play the sort of counterattacking style that S-Pulse used to good effect last week, but on every play that looked like it might create a dangerous scoring opportunity, there was no one up front to finish it off, and the chances went begging every time. Jubilo came closest in the first half, when a cross to the left post by Masashi "Gon" Nakayama was banged off the post by Norihiro Nishi, and the rebound fell right to Toshiya Fujita, with a wide open net in front of him. However, Fujita rushed his shot, and sent it over the crossbar. The first half ended with no score, but Jubilo seemed to be the team in control of the match

That would change, however, in the 57 minute. As the two teams came out for the second half, Jubilo once again began putting on the pressure, albeit sloppy, from midfield. Consadole had one or two counters, but nothing that appeared too dangerous. Then, on one of its few forward rushes, Consadole's Ryuji Bando broke free on the right wing, and as he tried to turn the corner, Jubilo defender Makoto Tanaka tackled him low. The foul was fairly obvious, but not all that severe, so Tanaka was shocked to see the referee approaching him with a card. With one yellow already in the books, this resulted in Tanaka's departure, and reduced Jubilo to ten men.

Suddenly, the Consadole counterattacks that had been coming up one man short all afternoon were cut loose, and the team began to create good scoring chances. In the 63 minute, defender Ryuji Tabuchi led a counterattack down the right wing, and as he rounded the final Jubilo defender, he sent a cross to the far post. Tomohiro Wanami was camped out in perfect position, just beyond reach of the keeper and completely unmarked, and with plenty of time to set up, he drilled a perfect header past Arno vanZwam to put Sapporo ahead.

Jubilo fought back valiantly throughout the second half, but with one fewer man and no Nanami to coordinate the midfield, they were unable to create many truly dangerous opportunities, while on the other end, they had to retreat in a rush time and again to try to halt the swift Sapporo counterattacks.

Regulation time ended, and the referee was looking at his watch with a look on his face that made it clear that the final whistle was just seconds away, when suddenly Jubilo pulled a bit of magic out of its hat, causing a goal to appear out of thin air. Defender Toshihiro Hattori collected the ball just outside his penalty box, took a step forward, and then launched it on a moonshot trajectory for Nakayama andNaohiro Takahara, some seventy meters downfield. As the ball arched down towards the goal, the two Jubilo forwards rushed on parallel tracks to the ball. For a second, it looked as if Nakayama would get to the ball first, but before the ball reached him he was cut down brutally from behind. The ball took one high bounce, and as three players converged on it, Takahara shouldered his way between both his defender and the keeper to head the ball home.

The aftermath of the play bears noting, as it was one ofthe best officiating calls of the season. Former World Cup referee Masayoshi Okada strolled slowly towards the goal, clearly mulling over the events, which had happened right in front of him. He might well have decided do disallow the goal, since Takahara had shoved his defender in getting to the ball, but if that were the case, he couldnt ignore the foul from behind on Nakayama, and would have to award a free kick at point blank range, with time already expired. After delaying for nearly ten seconds, Okada blew his whistle and pointed to the center circle for the goal, and then blew again to announce full time.

Though Sapporo still had a man advantage as the game went to extra time, it was clear that the psychological shock of Jubilo's hail mary strike had taked its toll. Sapporo had one or two chances, but it was 10-man Jubilo that began to put on the pressure. Finally, in the 12 minute of extra time, the break came. Jubilo won a free kick about 20 metres out on the right side. Fujita lined up the shot and sent a well-placed ball to the far post, where defender Go Oiwa sailed over his defender and headed the ball home to seal the victory for Jubilo.

3 - 2(ET)

As the kickoff was taken, thousands of fans in the upper levels of the new 42,000-seat stadium unleashed a cascade of confetti which fluttered down on the field. Although the intention was surely just a celebratory gesture, it turned out to have a real bearing on the match. With the wind swirling from one end of the stadium to the other, the paper quickly accumulated in deep "drifts" which were so deep and hazardous that players were actually finding it difficult to handle the ball in certain areas of the field. Players were slipping on the paper, and even losing the ball as they tried to dribble through the "snow drifts". Despite the almost farcical nature of the first 20-30 minutes of the match, both teams were clearly dead serious, and the play was intensely physical right from the start.

The Antlers started the match aggressively, with some exciting play up front, especially by playmaker Mitsuo Ogasawara, who was taking over the director's role from the injured Bismarck, and striker Atsushi Yanagisawa, who seems to have recovered his form after a long goal slump. On defence, however, the rookies in the back line looked very shaky, and they were tested several times early by Reysol's ace striker Hwang Sun-Hong. In just the 16 minute, a rookie mistake cost Kashima dearly, as Kashiwa took a free kick from about 35 meters out, and defender Yoshiro Nakamura let Hwang get behind him to collect the ball in point-blank range of the goal. Reserve keeper Jun Sogahata came out, but couldnt fend off the shot, as Hwang's blast put Reysol in the lead. As both teams battled against the swirling drifts of confetti, that was the only truly dangerous chance of the first half, though the bizarre field conditions provided a number of interesting moments.

With a difficult pitch and a tight match between to fierce rivals, the game started to get ugly. In the 40 minute, as Ogasawara leapt high for a ball, Hwang Sun-Hong plowed into him in what appeared to be a deliberate charge, sending the midfielder crashing down on his elbow. Ogasawara had to be stretchered off with a broken arm, leaving Antlers coach Toninho Cerezo in a quandry. The only players he had on his bench, due to the host of injuries that Kashima has suffered this year, were a defender, a goalkeeper and two forwards -- Takayuki Suzuki and veteran Yoshiyuki Hasegawa. Throwing caution to the wind, Cerezo brought in Suzuki and had his team shift into a 3-4-3 alignment.

Yet while the loss of Ogasawara was quite a blow (he is likely to be out of action for at least two months), it seemed to be just the wake-up call the Antlers needed. When the teams returned from their half time break, the groundskeepers had cleared the field of debris, but no sooner had they taken the pitch than the heavens opened up and a drenching rain began to fall. The young defenders seemed to lose the tentativeness they showed in the first half, and began throwing themselves at Reysol strikers, picking up a number of fouls in the process, but eliminating Reysol's fast breaks. On the other end, Suzuki and Yanagisawa began running wild, and the crowd began to get caught up in the momentum as well. Reysol players also started to throw their weight around, and several yellow cards were awarded. It was clear that the game was heating up to a boil, In the 71 minute, Yanagisawa finally got the break he was looking for, picking up a nice feed from Akira Narahashi and beating his defender to go one-on-one with Reysol keeper Yuta Minami. As Yanagisawa flicked the ball past the keeper, Minami pulled him down, conceding a penalty. Yanagisawa sank the PK himself to put the scores level.

In the 77 minute, the Antlers were off to the races again. This time, midfielder Yasuto Honda found Toshiyuki Hirase in open space in the right corner. Hirase settled the ball near the end line, and sent a centering pass to Suzuki and Yanagisawa in the middle. The cross cleared Suzuki and Reysol's lone defender, and found Yanagisawa five meters out from goal. Yanagisawa had to go to his knees to meet the ball, but he headed it just beyond Minami's reach to give Kashima a one goal lead.

Yet Reysol were not finished, by any stretch of the imagination. Coach Nishino brought in speedster Makoto Sunkawa to inject some speed in the midfield, and it took just a minute for the team from Kashiwa to respond. After another bit of careless play in the Antlers defence, Sunakawa collected the ball and raced for the left post. He sent a low pass that skidded through the damp penalty area. Hwang, trying to get a shot off, swung and missed, but the ball skidded off his foot and straight to Harutaka Ono. Ono drilled a shot high into the roof of the net before the keeper could react, and the scores were all even once more.

With just five minutes to go, Cerezo clearly needed to do something to keep the pressure on Reysol, yet as mentioned before, he was all out of creative midfielders. So casting all caution to the wind, he made a fateful decision, pulling defensive midfielder Koji Kumagai, and bringing in the grizzled veteran striker, Hasegawa. This move left the Antlers playing a 4 -2- 4, which despite the gaps in the midfield, seemed to befuddle Reysol completely. Kashima continued to push the ball in towards the Reysol goal, and though they were unable to collect a tally in regular time, it looked like they had their opponents on the ropes. The two teams came out for extra time with the momentum clearly on the home team's side. . .

. . . but disaster would strike just two minutes into the extra time period. As the Antlers pressed in on goal, a clearance sent Hwang away into the undermanned defence. Breaking past his defender, he pushed the ball beyond Sogahata as the keeper rushed out to cut down the angle, and Sogahata was forced to pull him down. The referee awarded a PK, and it looked as if Reysol were on the brink of victory.

Yet fate would turn one more time in this seesaw battle. As Hwang took the kick, Sogahata guessed correctly and smothered the shot to the left corner. The 36,000 Antlers fans, who were faithfully braving the downpour, breathed a heavy sigh of relief. With seven minutes gone in extra time, the final bit of drama played itself out. Yoshiro Nakamura, who had a relatively quiet match at left volante, collected a harmless looking ball on the left sideline and started to move towards the penalty area. But on the far side of the field, Nakamura spotted the wily veteran Hasegawa, preparing to make his run. Nakamura lofted the ball for the far post, and Hasegawa raced in towards it, diving headlong and drilling a header past Minami to clinch a breathtaking victory.

1 - 2

Urawa, who were playing without captain and offensive coordinator Shinji Ono, who collecdted his third yellow card that week and was forced to serve a suspension. Nevertheless, the team showed good pace at the outset of the match, creating several good opportunities on exchanges up front between midfielders Adriano and Masaki Tsuchihashi, and strikers Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel and Yuichiro Nagai. The Reds seemed to be rolling along fairly well when a breakdown in the defence suddenly upset their wagon. As Tsuchihashi dribbled out of his end, the ball was broken up by Yasuhito Endo. Reds defender Tsutomu Nishino misplayed the bounding ball, and allowed Gamba's dangerous Croatian striker Nino Bule to collect it on the right sideline with just one defender left to beat. Bule made a beautiful individual play, driving into the penalty area, then making enough of a stutter step to beat his man to the end line. Bule then rocketed a low-angle shot that caught keeper Yohei Nishibe by surprise, smoking just over his right shoulder and into the net.

The Reds tried to bounce back, and continued to have fairly good posession, but once again, displayed a crucial disorganisation at the back. In the 25 minute, national team volante Junichi Inamoto found wide open space on the right sideline, and had plenty of time to line up a centering pass. Nino Bule once again showed his scoring flair, as he found a seam in the Reds defence and headed the ball in for his second goal of the night.

Although the second goal gave Gamba the upper hand for the remainder of the first half, Reds came out in the second half with the same spark they showed in the first, while Gamba seemed more content to just pack their defence and sit on their two-goal lead. This defensive strategy seemed to work fairly well. Although the Reds had an advantage in posession, they seemed unable to create the openings in Gamba's defence that were needed to score, in the absence of their playmaker, Ono. Finally, about 20 minutes into the second stanza, Urawa won a free kick six meters outside the penalty area on the left side. Adriano took the free kick, which curled low towards the near post and was deflected into the net by Masami Iihara.

The Reds brought in rookie striker Tatsuya Tanaka midway through the stanza, and then added speedster Masayuki Okano with ten minutes to go, in an effort to break down the Gamba defensive wall. However, Gamba countered by replacing forward Hiromi Kojima with a fifth defender, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, and were able to stave off the Reds attacks despite having very little success on the offensive end of the field. The closest Urawa came was a shot that deflected off the right post by Hideki Uchidate with about five minutes to go, but the Gamba defence held, and they collected their fifth win of the year.

4 - 1

JEF got the game rolling in their favor in just the 14 minute, when Vissel keeper Makoto Kakegawa was unable to handle a hard cross by Choi Yong-Soo. In the ensuing scramble in front of the net, defender Sidiclei was unable to clear the ball, and after several wild bounces, Katsutomo Oshiba finally managed to push it over the goal line.

JEF added to their tally just three minutes later, as Choi took a slant pass and tried to cut through the defence. Choi was tripped up just outside the penalty area, but the ball rolled free to Edo Mujcin and the referee played on. Mujcin, with three defenders closing in on his back, sized up the keeper and sent a low, hard shot underneath him and into the back of the net.

The game then bogged down into a test of defenses until midway through the second half, when Kobe scored on a pretty set play from a corner kick. The kick came in low to the near post, where Shigeyoshi Mochizuki popped it up and over the pack of defenders in front of goal. The ball sailed to the far post, where Mitsunori Yabuta pounced on it and drove it through a milling group of defenders and into the net.

However, JEF wasted little time in restoring their two-goal lead. Just a few minutes later, Edo Mujcin took a free kick from just outside the penalty box on the right side. His shot was perfectly placed, curling just inside the near post to the high right corner of the net, and keeper Kakegawa never had a chance.

Youngster Takenori Hayashi, a late substitute at forward, closed out the scoring with an incredibly cheeky goal in the 87 minute. Hayashi collected a long clearance pass behind the defence, and was off to the races with two defenders on his back. The keeper came out to the edge of his box, hoping to slow Hayashi enough for the defenders to overtake him, but instead of accelerating, Hayashi pulled the ball back and veered to his left, then pushed the ball almost casually towards the net. The speed of the slow grounder was just enough to elude Kakegawa as he frantically tried to retreat, and the ball rolled softly into the corner of the goal.

2 - 3(ET)

Avispa dominated play for much of the match, but it wasnt until early in the second half that they finally got the equalizer, on a free kick from the right sideline. Pavel Badea took the kick and put the ball onto the head of Tatsunori Hisanaga, who leapt high to direct the ball on net and knot the scores. A miscue at the back gave Avispa the winner, as the Tokyo keeper cleared the ball directly to Pavel Badea. Badea sent a pass to wide open Yoshiteru Yamashita, who calmly slotted the ball into the net and sealed Avispa's victory.

2 - 1

2 - 0

Marinos' second goal came on a corner kick from the right side which found defender Masahiro Kazuma inexplicably unmarked just three metres from goal. Kazuma headed the ball over the keeper to close out the scoring.

Jubilo Iwata's victory over Consadole gives them a big cushion, as Shimizu S-Pulse and Nagoya Grampus did not play. S-Pulse is still in Saudi Arabia taking part in the Asian Cup-Winners' Cup, and their match with Nagoya will be made up on June 16. While this gives both teams a game in hand to try to erase the huge lead that now separates Jubilo from the rest of the pack, only one of the two can collect points from this contest. Jubilo is therefore sitting pretty with an eight point advantage and just five matches to play. Not only that, Jubilo now has a month off during the Confederation Cup matches in which to rest and recuperate. There is a good chance that Hiroshi Nanami will be recovered by the time they face Kashiwa Reysol in their next contest, on June 16.

.	Team	Pts	GP	W (90/ET)	D	L	GD	GF	GA
1		26	10	9 (8-1)	0	1	16	23	7
2		18	9	7 (4-3)	0	2	7	17	10
3		17	10	6 (5-1)	0	4	5	21	16
4		16	9	6 (3-3)	1	2	3	14	11
5		16	10	5 (5-0)	1	4	0	13	13
6		14	10	5 (4-1)	0	5	-2	12	14
7		13	10	5 (3-2)	0	5	3	19	16
8		13	10	5 (3-2)	0	5	1	19	18
9		13	10	5 (3-2)	0	5	-2	13	15
10		12	10	4 (3-1)	1	5	-2	14	16
11		12	10	4 (3-1)	1	5	-4	10	14
12		11	10	4 (3-1)	0	6	-5	10	15
13		10	10	3 (3-0)	1	6	-4	10	14
14		9	10	3 (2-1)	1	3	-4	14	18
15		8	10	2 (2-0)	2	6	-4	14	18
16		5	10	2 (1-1)	0	8	-8	12	20

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Brazil 2 - 0

Keep in mind, this IS the same Tokyo Verdy that now sits dead last in the J.League. And if that werent enough, the team was playing without three of its best players. Defender Yuji Nakazawa and midfielder Atsuhiro Miura are training with the Japanese national team, and forward Kazunari Iio is in France with the U-20 squad.

So whoever this team in yellow was, they demonstrated the ability to manage a narrow win over Japan's weakest club team, playing minus its tree top players. Somebody remind me of what country this team comes from again . . .

Brazil, you say???

A likely story. Maybe that guy standing on the sidelines was indeed Emerson Leao, a former coach of both Verdy and the Japanese national team. But it is very hard to believe that the eleven players who took the field in Tokyo Soccer Stadium were actually a soccer team representing Brazil. For the first 45 minutes of the match, they were struggling just to avoid going down a goal to the team in Verdy Green. Veteran striker Nobuhiro Takeda went close twice in the first half, and in general, the team from Tokyo put on one of their most impressive showings this year. On the other side of the ball, even an Amazonian three-toed sloth could have counted the number of Brazil's scoring chances on a single hand.

In the second half, the team wearing yellow (don't say Brazil, that just wouldn't make any sense) started to create a few more scoring opportunities. Washington even managed to put the canary-colored side on the scoreboard in the 51 minute with a counterattack that sent him away all alone on the keeper. But Verdy stayed right in the match, and nearly equalised midway through the second half on a nice run by Naoto Sakurai, and then again on a nice exchange between Kenji Ishizuka and Masakiyo Maezono.

Finally, five mintues from full time, Brazil managed to put the game away, as a sophomoric mistake by substitute keeper Shinkichi Kikuchi allowed Julio Batista top get to a high ball into the box for a header and the second goal. Until then, it looked more likely that Verdy would equalise than Brazil would score the second.

Of course, Brazil may have just been trying to fool all of its Confederation Cup opponents. Maybe they brought a junior high school team from Brazil, had them suit up in the national team uniforms and play Verdy, so that everyone is lulled into a false sense of security. Maybe the REAL Brazil team will show up in Japan next week. . .

They certainly had better do so. Because if the team that played against Verdy on Saturday night is the same one that takes the field next weekend against Cameroon, Japan and Canada, you can be sure that they will be taking an early flight back to South America.

Canada 2 - 0

Canada came out with a more traditional 3-5-2 in the second half, and used speed and strength on the wings to create several opportunities early on. Nottingham Forest midfielder Jim Brennan put Canada on the board with a strike in the 12 minute, and Werder Bremen's Paul Stalteri added to the tally just 3 minutes later. However, former Urawa Reds coach Holger Osieck was cautious about the result, noting that "there were many points that I didnt like to see" in Canada's performance on Monday night. The team will face Japan in the opening match on Thursday, in Niigata's new 43,000-seat stadium.

Toulon Under-20 Tournament

Japan stumbled in its initial match, against Poland. After playing their opponents closely for the first half, the defence fell apart in the second, and Japan went down 3-1. However, the team rebounded against the host country. Yokohama Marinos Midfielder Naohiro Ishikawa put Japan in the lead with a strike in the 36 minute, after receiving an inlet pass from forward Koji Yamase. Although France knotted the score just before half time, Japan was able to hang on for a 1-1 draw. Below is a full list of the players taking part in the trip to France: