Preseason Prognostications
Rumours and Rumblings
Antlers Advance to Asia Final Eight
The Kashima Antlers put in what can only be considered a sluggish performance on Tuesday night, in their Asian Club Championship tie against BEC Tero Sasana. The Thai league champions prevailed 1-0 on a goal in the 54 minute, in a match that was quite chippy but not very exciting from either the Antlers or the home crowd's perspective. Kashima prevailed 3-0 in the first leg of the competition, and thus needed only to avoid conceding more than two goals to advance.
Although fans will no doubt be disappointed by the lack of any real effort by the J.League side, Kashima seemed to view this merely as a formality, and are saving their energies for the quarterfinal round, which kicks off in Korea on February 17-21. The Antlers will face two Korean clubs -- Anyang LG and 2001 champs Suwon Bluewings, as well as China's Dalian in the quarterfinal round-robin, with the top two teams progressing. The schedule for the quarterfinals is as follows:
| Feb 17 | 14:05 | Dalian (CHN) | vs | Kashima |
| Feb 17 | 16:35 | Suwon (KOR) | vs | Anyang LG (KOR) |
| Feb 19 | 14:05 | Kashima | vs | Suwon |
| Feb 19 | 16:35 | Anyang LG (KOR) | vs | Dalian (CHN) |
| Feb 21 | 14:05 | Suwon (KOR) | vs | Dalian (CHN) |
| Feb 21 | 16:35 | Anyang LG (KOR) | vs | Kashima |
This Sets Up Exhausting Preseason Schedule
By qualifying for the Asian Cup quarterfinals, the Kashima Antlers have booked themselves an exhausting schedule for the next few weeks. While most teams will be conducting practice sessions and conducting occasional friendly matches, many of the Kashima players will be involved in an average of nearly one competitive match every two days, during the next two-week period.
The Antlers can only blame their own success for this busy schedule. Seven of the team's starters have been included in the national team's training camp next week. In order to give the players a test in match situations, as well as to raise funds for charity, the national team will hold a round-robin tournament between three groups of 14 players, on February 13. The match will be held at Shizuoka Ecopa Stadium, and is open to the public for an admission price of 1000 yen. All proceeds will go to an Afghan relief fund. The format of the event will be three 45-minute contests pitting each of three squads against the others. Based on simple arithmetic, this means that most of the players will compete for a full 90 minutes. Although this is officially just an intrasquad practice session, Troussier will no doubt view the performances as an important factor in his team selection, so no doubt all of the players involved will be expected to give 100%.
The following day, all of the Antlers players will board a plane for Korea to take part in the Asian Club Championships quarterfinal round (see preceding story). The team will play three matches, on February 17, February 19 and February 21, against three of the top clubs in Asia. After a plane trip home the day after their final Asian Club matcjh, and just one day of rest, the Antlers will take on Shimizu S-Pulse in the Xerox Super Cup -- the annual contest between League Champion and Emperor's Cup-winner that kicks off the season. Though the schedule looks exhausting, many of the players have said that they welcome the challenge. After playing five matches in eleven days, the team should have all the rust cleared away and be in peak form for the season opener against Tokyo Verdy, on March 2.
Ardija the Giant Killer
As any coach on the embarassing side of an upset will tell you, preseason matches dont mean anything. Thanks to a roaring start by J2 club Omiya Ardija, J1 coaches have had plenty of opportunities to trot out this excuse in recent days. Omiya closed a very strong performance for the week with a 3-2 win over Gamba Osaka at Omiya Stadium. This followed victories earlier in the week against Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Vegalta Sendai. Omiya's defence has done a fair job in each of these matches, but the real force behind their wins was a three-striker offence featuring veteran Hisashi Kurosaki and Brazilian youngsters Valdes and Juninho.
Film clips courtesy of Internet Soccer Program J-Ole. Visit their web site at http://www.j-ole.com/ for results and highlights of all J.League matches.
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