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March 11, 2002: Week 2
Home Is Where the Hurt Is

Before discussing the matches further, lets have a look at the scores of all the J1 matches this week

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
9 Mar		0 - 1		Kochi Stadium
9 Mar		0-1(ET)		Kashima Stadium
9 Mar		0 - 1		Toyota Stadium
9 Mar		0 - 1		Kobe Wing
9 Mar		0 - 1		Saitama Stadium
9 Mar		2 - 1		Kashiwa-no-ha
10 Mar		vs		Tokyo Stadium
10 Mar		vs		Nishikyogyoku

0-1

For the second week in a row, Vegalta dominated posession and controlled the pace of the match. Midfielder Teruo Iwamoto is emerging as a very efficient and creative playmaker for the team, while stirkers Marcos and Yoshiteru Yamashita, as well as attacking midfielder Yasushi Fukunaga provided him with three good targets in the box, all day long. Although Vegalta's finishing might have been a bit better, the team did create a lot of opportunities. Anyone who still thought that their first match in the J1 was a fluke should now recognise that the team from Tohoku will be a tough opponent for even the best clubs this year.

On the other side of the ball, Consadole looked much better than they did against Sanfrecce last week, particularly on the defensive end. Hitoshi Morishita and Maxsandro, in particular, managed to turn away a number of good Vegalta chances. On the offensive end, Robson da Silva seems to have nearly recovered his form, and he very nearly put Consadole on top in the first five minutes, with a slashing run into the box. As we expected, Takafumi Ogura got the start as the second striker, and looked somewhat more dangerous than Hiromi Kojima did last week. However, apart from one solid header that Norio Takahashi had to push over the bar, late in the first half, his opportunities to shoot on goal were limited.

Though Vegalta squandered a few first-half opportunities, the team seemed to be in control of the match by half time, and about midway through the second stanza, they finally got their break. Iwamoto drove to the left corner and, as his progress was blocked by two defenders, he managed to loop the ball into the box for Yamashita, who unleashed a solid drive past the keeper, giving Vegalta the margin of victory.

Lineups:
Yohei Sato, Hitoshi Morishita (Gakuya Horii 83), Maxsandro de Oliveira, Kyosuke Yoshikawa, Kensaku Omori, Yasuyuki Konno (Yasuyoshi Nara 78), Biju, Naoki Sakai, Koji Yamase, Robson da Silva, Takafumi Ogura
Norio Takahashi, Yusuke Mori, Ricardo Ribeiro, Norio Omura, Tetsuya Murata (Tomohiro Katanosaka 89), Hajime Moriyasu, Silvinho, Yasushi Fukunaga (Takahiro Yamada 69), Teruo Iwamoto, Yoshiteru Yamashita, Marcos

The Antlers' top striker, Atsushi Yanagisawa has been prone to slow starts and early goal slumps in the past, but in a World Cup year, you would hope that he could find his scoring touch early. This week, though, he had some truly gut-wrenching misses, including a wide-open shot from three meters out, on a deflected centering pass, which he ballooned way over the bar. But he was not the only one to squander opportunities for the Antlers. Takayuki Suzuki had a few misses as well, and his replacement, Tomoyuki Hirase had the biggest howler of the afternoon. After being sent completely free into the box, and feinting the goalkeeper off his feet, he proceeded to send his shot from six meters out sailing into the back stand.

S-Pulse had fewere opportunities, particularly in the first 45 minutes, but after Masaaki Sawanobori came on as a substitute in the second half, the team began to get a few more looks at goal. However, the Antlers defence was much more solid than they were last week, agains FC Tokyo, and even some fine combination plays by Sawanobori and Alessandro Santos failed to give S-Pulse a truly dangerous shot on goal. The Antlers outshot Shimizu by a 2-to-1 margin in this match, and they can only blame their own poor finishing for the final result.

After an exciting, but scoreless 90 mintues, and two periods of frustrating overtime, the match was winding down towards its final minute, when S-Pulse finally got their break. On a counterattack from midfield, Sawanobori fed the ball to Teruyoshi Ito, who had also come on as a second-half substitute. Ito spotted Baron making his break into the box, and flicked the ball over two defenders for the tall Brazilian to run for. Baron was still well beyond the penalty spot, but he made excellent contact, and his header was a line-drive to the top right corner that beat the dive of the keeper, to give S-Pulse a last-second victory.

Lineups:
Hitoshi Sogahata, Fabiano, Yutaka Akita, Akira Narahashi, Augusto, Koji Nakata, Koji Kumagai Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 90), Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama, Atsushi Yanagisawa (Tomohiko Ikeuchi 81), Takayuki Suzuki (Tomoyuki Hirase 73)
Takaya Kurokawa, Tomohiro Ikeda, Katsumi Oenoki, Takuma Koga, Daisuke Ichikawa (Teruyoshi Ito 72), Kazuyuki Toda, Yasuhiro Yoshida, Alessandro Santos, Yoshikiyo Kuboyama (Masaaki Sawanobori 57), Kohei Hiramatsu (Takayuki Yokoyama 104), Baron

The goal was one of the few lapses that the Reds displayed all afternoon. Although veteran Masami Ihara continues to show his age, rookie Tadaaki Tsuboi did a fine job of controlling the back line, and his strong performance suggests that Urawa may soon be able to put Ihara out to pasture. Kobayashi's goal came on a play that the defence could do little about. A stray pass at midfield was intercepted by Satoru Asari, and he lobbed a ball into the box. The two deep defenders, Tsuboi and Ihara, quite rightly reacted to the steal by closing down Tokyo's two Brazilians, Amaral and Kelly, but the lob cleared the entire defence and fell between the Reds keeper Yohei Nishibe, and Kobayashi, who slipped in behind the defence. Nishibe froze on his line in an instant of uncertainty, not knowing whether to rush the ball or try to play the shot, and Kobayashi deflected the lob just out of his reach, at the right post.

Just five minutes after the goal, Tokyo were reduced to ten men, as Takahiko Shimotaira was quite rightly given a second yellow. For the second match in a row, the Reds' speed created a clear breakaway opportunity and Shimotaira hauled Nobuhisa Yamada down from behind rather than let him race free down the wing.

Unfortunately, as was the case a week ago, the Reds simply couldnt get the ball into the net even with the man advantage. They dominated the match for the remaining 35 minutes of play, with libero Ihara playing much of that time span at the half-way line, and Tokyo reduced to packing their penalty box and fending off Reds thrusts. However, despite a few close calls, Urawa simply couldnt break down the Tokyo defence. Their pressure was good, and they got a number of looks at goal. But somehow, there simply wasnt enough communication and creativity to exploit their advantage. After withstanding a withering attack for the final minutes, Tokyo were saved by the referee's whistle, and walked off 1-0 victors.

Lineups:
Yohei Nishibe, Tadaaki Tsuboi, Masami Ihara, Hideki Uchidate, Nobuhisa Yamada (Yuichiro Nagai 85), Keita Suzuki, Masaki Tsuchihashi (Tatsuya Tanaka 81), Shinji Jojo, Harison (Tuto 60), Masahiro Fukuda, Emerson
Yoichi Doi, Minoru Kobayashi, Jean Carlo Witte, Tetsuya Ito (Kenji FUkuda 84), Takahiko Shimotaira, Fumitake Miura (Satoru Asari 39), Masashi Miyazawa, Daisuke Hoshi (Takayuki Komine 58), Masamitsu Kobayashi, Kelly, Amaral

JEF had a fewer number of shots, and a slight disadvantage in posession, expecially in the second half, but when they did have the ball, the team seemed to flow smoothly towards the Vissel goal mouth, with all of the team members clearly operating out of the same playbook. The roles on the JEF United team appear to be clearly understood, with Choi Yong-Soo perpetually lurking in front of goal and a host of creative midfielders supplying him with encouraging passes. Vissel, on the other hand, showed a helter-skelter pace that threatened the JEF defence at times, but never produced any really dangerous shots.

JEF got the winner late in the first half, when Shinichi Muto collected a clearance from the Kobe box, and carried it towards the corner flag with a defender in pursuit. As he reached the end line, Muto pivoted sharply and fired a line drive into the box. Muto surely could not have seen Choi in front of net, but he didnt need to. The understanding between members of this team is so good that he simply knew Choi would be in the box, cherry-picking. Choi reacted well to the pass, splitting two defenders and heading the ball just inside the far post, giving JEF what would be the eventual winning goal.

Lineups:
Makoto Kakegawa, Sidiclei, Yukio Tsuchiya, Kunie Kitamoto (Takeshi Hirano 76), Shigeyoshi Mochizuki, Ataliba, Masaya Nishitani (Daniel 76), Masayuki Okano (Koji Yoshimura 86), Kazu Miura, Ryuji Bando, Shoji Jo
Ryo Kushino, Eisuke Nakanishi, Zelko Milinovic, Takayuki Chano, Masataka Sakamoto, Shinichi Muto, Shigetoshi Hasebe, Edin Mujcin, Shinji Murai, Katsutomo Oshiba (Takenori Hauashi 89), Choi Yong-Soo

Nagoya had a slight advantange in the number of scoring opportunities, but most of these came on set plays, rather than the run of play. Nagoya seemed determined to keep the Marinos forwards out of shooting range, even if that meant fouling them before they could reach the box. In the end, though, this strategy would backfire. After a sluggish 89 minutes, it looked as though the match might go to extra time. However, with the clock running down, Nagoya once again fouled a Marinos attacker just beyond the penalty area, and Shunsuke Nakamura and Willlined up to prepare for the free kick. Although Nakamura is the usual free kick specialist for Yokohama, in this particular match, Will had taken most of the shots from free kicks. On this occasion, the ball was just beyond the top right corner of the box, in a position where one would expect the right-footer, Will, to take the kick once again. But this time, it was Nakamura who got the call, and his shot was perfectly placed, curling over the wall and sneaking in below the crossbar before Seigo Narazaki could get a clear look at it. Nagoya thus struggled to their second narrow victory in a row, while Grampus suffered their second defeat of the season.

Lineups:
Seigo Narazaki, Yasunari Hiraoka, Masayuki Omori, Masahiro Koga, Tetsuya Okayama, Tomoyuki Sakai, Masahiro Yamaguchi, Yusuke Nakatani (Naoshi Nakamura 65), Kunihiko Takizawa, Ueslei, Marcelo (Yasuyuki Moriyama 65)
Tatsuya Enomoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Naza, Shogo Kobara, Yasuhiro Hato, Yoshiharu Ueno, Akihiro Endo, Kazuya Mikami (Tatsunori Hisanaga 84), Shunsuke Nakamura, Will, Nobuhisa Shimizu (Kotaro Yasunaga 83)

Kashiwa Reysol was the only home team to snatch a victory this week, and it was not an easy win. Reysol looked quite a bit more coherent in this match than they did last week, stringing together passes well at midfield and putting good pressure on the Hiroshima forwards. Sanfrecce, on the other hand, showed none of the energy that they did last week against Consadole. Their defending was fairly solid, but the two forwards, in particular failed to find their form.

The match started out a bit sloppily, with a lot of errant passes exchanged at midfield and some ineffective runs by both teams. Reysol did a much better job of covering their men this week, and neither Tatsuhiko Kubo nor Susumu Oki saw much of the ball. On the other hand, Reysol were not creating many opportunities of their own, either. After a fairly uneventful 20 minutes, though, the match started to come alive on a set play by Kashiwa. After Sanfrecce cleared a ball over their own end line, Harutaka Ono took a corner kick from the left side. With most the forwards running for the far post, Cesar Sampaio found space direcly in front of net, and he leapt high to head home the first goal of the match.

This seemed to light a fire under the Reysol offence, and they spend the next 20 minutes charging at Sanfrecce's net. The ball movement from midfield was quite effective, and with Hwang Sun-Hong back in the lineup, Kashiwa had a much better target for their centering passes. Hwang nearly doubled the lead ten minutes later, sending a shot off the crossbar, and fellow Korean Yoo Sang-Chul also tested the woodwork on a header. But against the run of play, Hiroshima would get back in the match

Shortly before half time, Shigenori Hagimura got a bit sloppy with the ball in the back line, and passed straight to Chikara Fujimoto The Hiroshima midfielder snatched the ball and broke for the box, as keeper Yuta Minami came off his line and the remaining two defenders scrambled back. As they approached, Fujimoto suddenly scooped the ball off the turf, and send a looping lob over Minami's head, and into the open goal mouth.

Sanfrecce looked much fresher in the second half, buoyed by their equaliser. But despite some good set-up work at midfield, Oki and Kubo were missing in action this weekend, and all the preparatory work of Fujimoto, Kazuya Morisaki, and twin brother Koji Morisaki came to nothing. As the second half wore on, Kashima regained the momentum, and as time began to run down, they again had some threatening chances that were only turned away Thanks to some fine saves by Takashi Shimoda. Finally, in the 81 minute, Tomonori Hirayama played a nice one-two with Hwang on the left side, then centered the ball for Mitsuteru Watanabe, who broke into the box and slammed the ball into the nylon for the deciding goal.

Lineups:
Yuta Minami, Shigenori Hagimura, Takeshi Watanabe, Norihiro Satsukawa, Tomokazu Myojin, Mitsuteru Watanabe, Cesar Sampaio, Tomonori Hirayama, Harutaka Ono, Yoo Sang-Chul, Hwang Sun-Hong
Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano, Michel Pensee Billong, Shinya Kawashima, Kentaro Sawada (Tulio Tanaka 56), Naoya Umeda, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Koji Morisaki, Chikara Fujimoto, Susumu Oki, Tatsuhiko Kubo

Gamba were playing without Kota Yoshihara, who came down with a severe cold on the day of the match, but it looked like the entire team was a bit under the weather. If not for the fact that Kyoto were so much worse, Gamba really did not do much to deserve a win.

In the 31 minute, Marcelinho picked up the ball in open space on the right wing and lofted it into the box for Hideo Hashimoto and Magrao. The Kyoto defence was slow to react, and after Hashimoto flicked it on, Magrao shot out a long leg at the far post to toe it over the line.

After the goal, the match settled down into a sluggish exchange of posession, with only a few real chances, and most of those on the Kyoto end. However, their finishing was not sharp, and though Ryota Tsuzuki saw a lot of the ball, he was never really tested. Finally, in the third minute of injury time, as Kyoto were throwing everyone forward in a futile attempt to equalise, Marcelinho picked up a clearance, carried it to the opposite end line and crossed in for Yasushi Endo. As the keeper rushed off his line, Endo chested the ball down to Magrao at the near post for an easy tap-in just before the final whistle.

Lineups:
Ryota Tsuzuki, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Noritada Saneyoshi (Shin Asahina 71), Masao Kiba, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Yasuhito Endo, Toru Araiba, Marcelinho Carioca, Takahiro Futagawa (Masanobu Matsunami 65), Hideo Hashimoto, Giuliano "Magrao" Aranda
Hideaki Ueno, Jin Sato, Kazuhiro Suzuki, Kazuki Teshima, Makoto Kakuda, Daisuke Nakaharai (Daisume Matsui 58), Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Park Choi-Son (Makoto Atsuta 67), An Hyo-Yong (Yusaku Ueno 81), Shingo Suzuki, Teruaki Kurobe

Just five minutes later, a goal from a href="../../jleague/jubilo/kanazawa.html">Jo Kanazawa put Jubilo in the lead. Kanazawa picked up a deflection of FUjita's shot from the top of the box, and drilled it underneath the keeper. A poor play on defence gifted Verdy with an own goal as time ran down, but just before the final whistle, Verdy returned the favor by fouling in the box and allowing a href="../../jleague/jubilo/fujita.html">Toshiya Fujita to claim the final goal on a PK

Lineups:
Arno VanZwam, Go Oiwa, Hideto Suzuki, Takahiro Yamanishi, Takahiro Kawamura (Nobuo Kawaguchi 60), Takashi Fukunishi, Jo Kanazawa, Toshiya Fujita, Aleksandr Zivkovic, Masashi Nakayama, Naohiro Takahara
Daijiro Takakuwa, Takuya Kawaguchi, Kentaro Hayashi, Atsushi Yoneyama, Takuya Yamada, Koichi Sugiyama, Toshimi Kikuchi, Yoshiyuki Kobayashi (Seitaro Tomisawa 82), Michiyasu Osada, Naoto Sakurai (Keiji Ishizuka 65), Marquinhos

Based on their victory on Sunday, Jubilo join FC Tokyo at the top of the table, based on goal difference. Five teams still boast unblemished records, while seven teams have yet to collect their first win.

Rumours and Rumblings

Ned Zelic Leaves Kyoto in the Lurch

Edmundo Rehabilitation Could Take Months

Schedule Change Clears Ono for NT Duty

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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