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J.League, Week 4
Princes and Pretenders

Kickoff	Home	.	Away
15:30		3-4(ET)
18:30		2 - 1
18:30		5 - 1
19:00		1 - 2(ET)
19:00		3 - 0
19:00		1 - 2
19:00		2-3(ET)
19:00		2 - 4

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1 - 2 (ET)

But after this quick start, Jubilo's offence bogged down. Verdy's young midfield and back line played a very aggressive match, checking the Jubilo midfielders hard and keeping pressure on the ball at all times. Although they picked up a few yellows for rough play, the Verdy squad did a good job of disrupting Jubilo's passing game and preventing any further goals. At half time, Verdy's lineup got even greener, as 17-year-old phenomenon Daigo Kobayashi entered the match in the offensive midfield. The youngster not only created some openings in the Jubilo defence, but also did a good job of backchecking on the Jubilo midfielders, keeping their attack in disarray. In the 53 minute, Verdy won a free kick on the left side, even with the top of the penalty box. Kobayashi lined up and sent a perfectly-placed kick to a leaping Takuya Yamada who headed the ball over the keeper to knot the scores

Though Jubilo increased the pressure steadily as the second half wore on, they were unable to create the final pass that they needed to crack the green wall at the back of Verdy's defence. Regulation time ended with the score still knotted at 1-1. But just a few minutes into the first period of extra time, Gon Nakayama struck once more to put the match away. Once again it was Hattori who got the play rolling, as he found Aleksandr Zivkovic sneaking in at the left post. Zivkovic managed to beat his defender to the end line with a quick burst of speed, and when he dropped the ball back in front of the net, Gon was on the scene as usual to scoop up the lazy pass and drive it into the back of the net.

2- 1

The Reds, who just replaced former coach Tita with another Brazilian, Pita, did not alter their recent strategy, which has been to load the front line with fast, dazzling strikers and try to keep the opponent pinned back. Tuto and Yuichiro Nagai started as the nominal forwards, with Adriano a step back, but still very much committed to offence. The strategy gave Reds the initiative in the early moments, as just three minutes into the match, wing back Shinji Jojo took a pass from Tuto into the box and blasted it to the high right corner, and it was only deflected over the bar by the barest of fingertip margins. Two minutes later, Tuto picked up a ball deep in his own end, saw the keeper well off his line and unleashed a 75-meter blast that was only a shade off target, taking JEF off the hook once again. The Reds strategy did indeed pin JEF back in their own end, producing six corner kicks in the first 15 minutes, but without Shinji Ono's pinpoint provisions, these plays failed to produce anything truly dangerous.

However, the all-out offense strategy proved to be risky, as the team from Ichihara has a number of offensive weapons of its own. JEF hung back on defence for much of the early stages, but were clearly looking for opportunities to get the ball to their ace striker Choi Yong-Soo on the counterattack. The Reds defenders managed to relieve the Korean ace of the ball on his first few runs, but they needed some sparkling defensive plays to do so. Though the momentum of play remained predominantly with the Reds throughout the first 30 minutes, there were signs that JEF were settling down and looking for a chance to make their break. In the 24 minute, Nagai took a long clearance, dribbled over two defenders and broke free on goal. Only a sliding tackle by the retreating wing back pushed the ball away in time to forestall a point-blank shot. But when the score sheet was finally blemished, it came on the JEF United side of the ledger. In the 29 minute, Choi broke downfield after a turnover, as he had been doing for the whole first half. But this time, instead of sending a long pass to the front line, the JEF defence sent Masataka Sakamoto down the left sideline, where he ran into acres of open pasture. Carefully measuring his angle, Sakamoto sent a perfect cross into the box, and Choi ran onto it, heading it home for the first goal.

This changed the pace of the match considerably, as the Reds got flustered and began missing their passes up front. JEF, meanwhile, began playing with more determination, producing more frequent and more dangerous counterattacks. Although the Reds still had a slight edge in possession, the more dangerous chances were falling to Ichihara. Just before half time, Choi got a second tally, as a through pass from Yuki Abe allowed him to round the right edge of the Reds defensive line and send a low, hard shot that caught the inside of the far post and bounded into the net.

When the second half began, the Reds shifted into an even more offensive stance. Tuto retreated a half step to align himself with Adriano, and rookie Tatsuya Tanaka came in at the left forward position. However, it was JEF who nearly padded their score just two minutes in. Choi broke free on a counterattack once again, and beat the keeper with a low rolling shot. But defender Nobuhisa Yamada managed to clear it off the line and save the Reds from digging a deeper hole. After this early scare, though, the Reds started to turn up the pressure on the Ichihara back line. After a few half-chances, Tuto was pulled down in the 25 minute, five meters outside the penalty area. Adriano took the kick and curled it just over the wall and inside the left post to cut the deficit in half.

This strike brought both the Reds players and their cheering section to life. Over the next few minutes, Urawa held the ball almost continuously, and probed the Ichihara defence persistently, looking for an opening. By this time, though, the volume of the rain had increased to a point where both teams were starting to clomp about with the growing lethargy that is frequently seen when players' legs start to feel the effects of sopping wet socks and boots. This seemed to be enough of a handicap to prevent the Reds from breaking the tenacious wall of yellow and green. For that matter, the JEF players were drooping just as much. Their breakouts became fewer and less determined, with many of them failing to even make it over midfield before Urawa regained possession. Choi was the only player showing any offensive intentions whatsoever, and when he was substituted in the 75 minute, it seemed like JEF was content to retreat into a totally defensive shell. For the next 15 minutes, Urawa threw everything they had at the Ichihara goal, but JEF had little interest in doing anything but running out the clock. In the end, the hill proved too steep to climb. Urawa went down to their third loss of the stage, and JEF went away with a 2-1 victory.

3-2

S-Pulse nearly added another goal five minutes later, on a corner kick from the right side. Alex took the kick and sent it to the near post, where Sawanobori set the ball high into the air with a header, the ball carried to the far post, and Ryuzo Morioka volleyed it out of the air, but Marinos keeper Kawaguchi reacted quickly and deflected the ball over the bar. As the first half wore on, Yokohama started to increase its share of possession, as well as field position, but the S-Pulse defence was equal to the task of turning them away. The two teams went in at the half with the score unchanged, at 1-0

When the Marinos came out for the second half, it looked like Lazaroni had spend half time reminding them why they were wearing black. For the first ten minutes or so, they seemed more intent on knocking S-Pulse players off their feet than pursuing the ball. The pressure seemed to be aimed at knocking Shimizu off-stride, and it rattled Sawanobori enough that he responded with a hard push in the Marino player's back after one foul, earning a yellow card. But far from giving Yokohama an edge, this aggression soon backfired. Just ten minutes into the second half, Alex sent a ball to Sawanobori at the top of the box, in what looked like a post play. Two Marinos defenders closed on the S-Pulse captain with extreme prejudice, but feeling the charge coming, Sawanobori let the ball roll through. The two defenders crashed into his back, while the ball rolled untouched to Yoshikiyo Kuboyama, who casually drew the keeper out and then finished off with a point-blank shot.

A mere two minutes later, S-Pulse again sent the ball into the S-Pulse end, and the rattled Marinos defenders failed to pick up Sawanobori in the box. A cross from Daisuke Ichikawa found the veteran midfielder for a sharp header that eluded Kawaguchi and extended the Shimizu lead to 3-0.

Yokohama settled down a bit thereafter, but the damage had been done. S-Pulse remained the more active team, and with a three goal lead, they were more than willing to match Yokohama in a championship wrestling match. As time ran down, both teams began to let the knees and elbows fly. In the end, it was Yokohama who paid the biggest price, as Ryosuke Kijima was red carded for an elbow off the ball in the 83 minute. Then, with two minutes left, Naoki Matsuda lurked behind the keeper and waited for him to drop-kick the ball. As he released it, Matsuda kicked it away from him and the keeper found nothing but air. This must have been rather embarrassing, but it was Matsuda who drew a card for the indiscretion. Fortunately, time expired and both teams were spared any further bruises, with S-Pulse claiming a very physical victory.

3 - 4 (ET)

Noh showed his value early on in this match, breaking through the Consadole defence in the 20 minute and very nearly setting up Lopes for a goal. However, Lopes was unable to chip the ball over the diving keeper, and the early chance went begging. Consadole, by contrast, followed their usual tactic of playing tight defence and looking for forwards Will and Ryuji Bando to create opportunities on the break. This strategy paid off in the 25 minute, as the two players rushed out of midfield and quickly moved the ball to the edge of the box. As the Avispa back line closed in, Will played a one-two with Bando, but the return pass didn't quite spring him free. Following the old adage to "try, try again", Will sent the ball to Bando once more, and this time the return pass set him free a mere six meters out from goal. Will calmly put the ball away to give Sapporo an early lead.

Just before half time, Consadole doubled their lead, on a typically Consadole play. After a long clearance, Will and Bando fought through the Avispa defensive challenge at the edge of the box, in a wild scramble that sent the ball ricocheting among many players' legs. In the end, though, the ball rolled free to Koji Yamase, who stepped over the diving keeper and popped the ball into the back of the net.

But this was to be a match of wild momentum swings. Fifteen minutes into the second half, after an exchange of innocuous-looking passes just outside the Consadole penalty box, Pavel Badea suddenly decided to unleash a shot, and it just eluded the outstretched fingers of the keeper to cut the deficit in half. Ten minutes later, a long breakout by Sapporo put Bando into the clear, and he raced for the penalty box. The keeper came off his line and seemed to be in good position to try to stifle a shot, but feeling feeling some incidental contact from the pursuing defender, Bando decided to take a dive, and his performance was convincing enough to cause the the referee to award a PK. Will bagged the shot from the spot to extend the lead to two goals once more.

With just ten minutes to play, things looked bad for Avispa, but then an almost casual centering pass from Naito found Claudio Biaggio inexplicably unmarked at the far post. Biaggio calmly headed the ball inside the post to put Avispa back in contention. As the clock ticked away into injury time, Avispa made one last despearate rush on goal. Although Consadole shut down the first probing drive, Badea took the ball back out to the right top corner of the box and curled a hopeful pass for the far post. With a lunge, Wagner Lopes met the pass with a diving header and sent the match into extra time

Avispa's recent acquisitions had pulled them back into the match even after it seemed out of reach, and they were also closely involved in the finale that helped put Avispa over the top. With seven minutes gone in the extra time period, Noh made a break on goal that forced the Sapporo defence to knock the ball over the end line. The corner was taken on the left side by Yasutoshi Miura. Instead of sending in a cross, he played a short pass to Noh, then rushed for the high corner of the penalty box to collect the return pass. Sighting Baggio and Lopes both at the far post, he looped the ball into traffic and let his two big Brazilians do the rest. Lopes jumped the highest, heading the ball inside the right post to clinch a dramatic win.

5 - 1

In the second half, the floodgates opened and the Reysol attack swept Cerezo away. Two minutes after the restart, Hideaki Kitajima received a pass at the right edge of the box. Turning back to free himself from twso defenders, Kitajima dropped the ball for Yoo Sang-Chul , cutting towards the net, and Yoo blasted a shot past the keeper to double the Reysol lead.

Cereso managed to stave off the floodwaters for another 30 minutes, but with 15 minutes left, Reysol blew the match open on a nice bit of passing on the left side. Yoo carried the ball to the end line, and then pulled it back to a wide-open Tomonori Hirayama, who was trailing the play. Hirayama centered the ball and found two wide-open Reysol players behind their defenders. Hwang Sun-Hong did the honors, heading the ball inside the far post to get the avalanche rolling.

Just five minutes later, a towering drive from keeper Yuta Minami sailed the length of the field to Hwang, who let the ball bounce once, then fired on net. The keeper managed to block Hwang's drive, but Nozomu Kato swooped in to clean up the rebound, raising the Reysol lead to four. Three minutes after that, rookie striker Taro Hasegawa displayed his flashy dribbling, cutting through three Cerezo defenders at the left post before looping a shot to the far corner. Cerezo managed a consolation goal in the dying seconds of injury time, but it hardly mattered as the team from Osaka are now deep in the cellar of the league, and headed for almost certain relegation.

2 - 4

However, the first team to score was Sanfrecce, who showed some offensive dazzle of their own throught the evening. Just four minutes in, striker Tatsuhiko Kubo broke down the right wing and, after turning his defender around, rolled the ball into the penalty box. Chikara Fujimoto caught up with the ball and dropped it to striker Susumu Oki for what should have been an easy shot. Unfortunately, Oki got his feet tangled up and couldnt pull the trigger. Rather than panicking, though, he spotted Australian midfielder Stephen Corica traling the play, and dropped the ball into his path. Corica's blast was taken in full stride, and keeperSeigo Narazaki never had a chance.

It took less than 15 minutes for Nagoya to level the score. In the 17 minute, Ueslei collected the ball just on the Hiroshima side of midfield, posted his defender up, and then sent a perfect lead pass to Yasuyuki Moriyama , streaking for the right post. Moriyama turned the corner and got off a low-angle shot that slid underneath the keeper and bounded into the net

Midway through the period, Hiroshima edged in front once more, on a brilliant pass by Fujimoto. His back-heel to Corica set up the midfielder for a wide open shot from point-blank range. However, Nagoya rushed back to knot the scores again less than five mintues later. On this play, midfielder Tetsuya Okayama did most of the work on his own, collecting a pass just outside the penalty area and then bursting through three defenders to fire a low shot past the keeper The two teams went in at half time wtih the scores all even. Tomoyuki Sakai sent a high cross into the box from the right sideline. A Sanfrecce defender managed to clear, but the ball fell right to volante Motohiro Yamaguchi , who met the ball in full stride and blasted a right footed bullet into the back of the net.. Ten minutes later, Nagoya's new signing a href="../../jleague/grampus/marcelo.html">Marcelo Lopez closed out the scoring with his first J.League goal, on a pretty pass from Moriyama. After taking a pass from Ueslei towards the left post, Moriyama saw Marcelo trailing the play, and dropped a back heel for him to collect ten meters from goal. Marcelo slammed the ball inside the far post to give Nagoya a 4-2 victory.

2 - 3 (ET)

Kashima got off to a quick start, and put heavy pressure on the Vissel goal. It took less than ten minutes to get on the scoreboard. After an initial drive and inlet pass by Koji Nakata was cleared by the Kobe defence, striker Atsushi Yanagisawapicked up the loose ball and slid it to a wide-open Mitsuo Ogasawara. Noting that the keeper had moved off his line, Ogasawara looped a shot over his head and into the open net.

The Antlers dominated the remainder of the half, and came close to scoring on a couple of occasions. In fact, the referee let Vissel off the hook at least once and perhaps twice, as apparent fouls by Sidiclei in the penalty area were waved on. However, with five minutes to go in the first half, the Antlers at last got a call to go their way, and won a free kick just outside the box on the left side. Bismarck lined up the shot and found Takayuki Suzuki rising out of the pack to head in the floating cross.

Kashima was so dominant in the first half that one can perhaps understand a bit of a let-up in the second stanza. However, Kashima nearly dug themselves into a deep hole. The team took their foot off the gas pedal and by the time they tried to resume the acceleration they discovered that their attack had stalled. Bit by bit, the momentum began to swing in Kobe's direction, and byt the midpoint of the second half, Vissel were giving as good as they got. The big play that turned the momentum strongly in Kobe's favor came in the 73 minute, when Daniel drove down the left side and sent a centering pass to Mitsutoshi Watada. He settled the ball and then blasted a shot past the dive of Sogahata. At this point, the Antlers made some questionable substitutions, bringing in the aging and inconsistent Yasuto Honda for Ogasawara and replacing striker Suzuki with another midfielder in Masashi Motoyama. As it so often does, this defensive strategy backfired when, in the 85 minute, Kazu Miura took a throw in from Watada on the left side, feinted one way and the4n turned towards the line, pulling the ball across the face of goal. Good fortune was smiling on Kobe, as reserve striker Mitsunori Yabuta appeared at the far post to stab at the slow roller and finish it off. Neither team was able to score in the first overtime period, despite a few good chances from both teams, and it looked as if the match was headed for a 2-2 draw. However, about midway through the second overtime period, the Antlers won a free kick about 30 meters out on the right side. Once again, Bismarck lined up the kick caregfully, and he laid the ball nicely to Motoyama, who drilled his shot and lifted the Antlers to their fourth consecutive victory.

Elsewhere

Though the Antlers had to struggle for their victory this week, they are now the only unbeaten team, and advance to a two-point lead over Nagoya Grampus and JEF Ichihara. Jubilo Iwata is three points back. So, as the title of this week's report suggested, we are seeing a return to the order of things in the J.League. Apart from JEF, who have demonstrated that their advance to the ranks of contenders is truly deserved, the other teams jostling for position in the top half of the pack are traditional J.League powers. Surely the question on everyone's mind at the moment is whether the Antlers can hang on to their current spot, and set up another historic battle with arch-rivals Jubilo in the league championship series. At any rate, here is what the standings look like after four weeks:

Rumours and Rumblings

Kawaguchi Makes Port Call at Portsmouth

Based on the performance of other clubs, it seems that Yokohama can probably clinch a spot clear of the relegation zone with two more victories, meaning that Kawaguchi could be available for a trade as early as October, when the national team will be in England anyway in order to play a friendly match against Nigeria. Most people are betting that a transfer will go through some time in October, or early November at the latest.

JEF Popularity Poses Parking Problem

In response, the club announced that it intends to start construction shortly on a parking lot in the near vicinity of the park, which will accomodate about 1000 vehicles. JEF, which has recorded the lowest home attendance of any J.League club for the past 4 consecutive years, will be hoping that the new parking lot can help them break that unenviable record this season.