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April 15, 2002: Week 6
Consistency, What Consistency?

Unfortunately, due to time commitments, this week's report will have to be rather abbreviated, but let's begin with a look at the scores of this week's matches.

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
13 Apr		1-2(ET)		Atsubetsu
13 Apr		5-0		Expo '70 Stadium
13 Apr		0-2		Big Arch
13 Apr		1-1		Tokyo Stadium
13 Apr		2-0		Toyota Stadium
13 Apr		2-0		Shizuoka Ecopa
14 Apr		1-1		Ichihara Seaside
14 Apr		1-2(ET)		Miyagi Stadium

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2-0

Despite the above comments, this was a very closely fought match. Both teams know one another very well, and despite some good ball movement and attacking work on both sides, neither team could create a real scoring opportunity. About the best chance of the first half came in the 35 minute, when Mitsuo Ogasawara stole a poor clearance pass in the penalty box and almost beat the keeper to the deflection, at the right post. Just before half time, Jubilo finally got on the board, though the Antlers would have good reason to dispute the goal. In the 44 minute, Toshiya Fujita played a nice one-two with Masashi Nakayama, and although Nakayama's return was a bit too far out in front, and was cut off by Koji Kumagai, Fujita fought for the ball and pried it free from Kumagai. At this point, Mr. Fernandez Marin, a very theatrical but utterly incompetent head referee, blew his whistle and pointed upfield. The replay from two separate angles clearly shows that he was blowing a foul and indicating Antlers ball. To be sure, the replay also shows clearly that the call would have been incorrect. Fujita did NOT foul Kumagai when he stole the ball, and therefore, his subsequent shot and goal should have been legitimate. But as the rules of the game clearly state, if the referee blows his whistle, the play must end. Even if he later decides that he made a bad call, he cannot allow the subsequent play to stand. Be that as it may, Mr. Fernandes Marin suddenly changed his mind, and denied to the protesting Antlers that he had blown the whistle (video evidence to the contrary).

In the second half, the Antlers made a strong attempt to get back in the match, but although they controlled possession for most of the period, they seemed to lack ideas on offense, and Jubilo's defenders were far too wily and experienced to allow an easy goal. As time ran down in the match, Jubilo got a second goal on a corner kick from the left side, which was headed in on an impressive, acrobatic leap by Takashi Fukunishi, which sealed Jubilo's victory.

Lineups:
Arno VanZwam, Hideto Suzuki , Makoto Tanaka, Go Oiwa, Norihiro Nishi, Takashi Fukunishi, Toshihiro Hattori, Toshiya Fujita, Hiroshi Nanami (Jo Kanazawa 77), Masashi Nakayama (Nobuo Kawaguchi 78), Rodrigo Gral
Hitoshi Sogahata, Fabiano, Yutaka Akita, Akira Narahashi, Augusto, Koji Nakata, Koji Kumagai, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama, Atsushi Yanagisawa, Takayuki Suzuki (Tomoyuki Hirase 77)

Although Reysol had a handful of chances to get on the board, overall they were outplayed by their hosts for the entire match. Certainly, part of Kashiwa's offensive woes were related to the fact that Yoo Sang-Chul had to leave early in the first half with an injury. However, the team simly looked flat throughout the match. Nagoya got on the board first in the 37 minute, on a goal by Tarik Oulida. Then, as time ran down and Reysol became even more desperate in their attacking, Nagoya got their insurance goal in the 85 minute, on a strike by Naoshi Nakamura.

Lineups:

Seigo Narazaki, Junji Nishizawa, Yasunari Hiraoka, Masahiro Koga, Tetsuya Okayama, Tomoyuki Sakai, Tarik Oulida, Yusuke Nakatani (Kunihiko Takizawa 86), Naoshi Nakamura, Ueslei, Marcelo (Yasuyuki Moriyama 84)
Yuta Minami, Takeshi Watanabe, Kensuke Nebiki, Norihiro Satsukawa, Tomokazu Myojin (Makoto Sunakawa 85), Mitsuteru Watanabe, Cesar Sampaio, Tomonori Hirayama, Harutaka Ono, Yoo Sang-Chul (Hideaki Kitajima 35), Hwang Sun-Hong (Nozomu Kato 56)

Matsui put Sanga in the lead shortly after half time, and Kyoto then withstood the Consadole efforts to equalise until just six minutes from full time, when Hitoshi Morishita finally collected the equalizer. But early in the second overtime, Yusaku Ueno snatched a golden goal to give Kyoto its second straight victory.

Lineups:
Yohei Sato, Yasuyuki Konno, Kyosuke Yoshikawa, Kensaku Omori , Ryuji Tabuchi (Naoki Sakai 64), Tomohiro Wanami, Hitoshi Morishita, Biju, Koji Yamase, Hiromi Kojima (Masashi Masuda 78), Robson (Takafumi Ogura 53)
Naoto Hirai, Kazuki Teshima, Kazuhiro Suzuki, Makoto Kakuda, Makoto Atsuta (Daisuke Nakaharai 87), Tadashi Nakamura, Kiyotaka Ishimaru (Daisuke Saito 45), Shingo Suzuki, Park Choi-Son, Daisuke Matsui (Tomoaki Matsukawa 98), Yusaku Ueno

The only two goals of the match came early in the day, with Daniel putting Kobe in front in the 26 minute and Marquinhos equalizing for Verdy just seven minutes later. Thereafter, the match bogged down. Although both teams were very active, the play was sloppy on both ends and neither team could put together enough good passes to create many truly dangerous shots on goal.

Lineups:

Makoto Kakegawa, Koji Yoshimura, Sidiclei, Yukio Tsuchiya, Shigeyoshi Mochizuki, Masayuki Okano (Koji Maeda 93), Ataliba (Naoya Saeki 45), Takeshi Hirano (Masaya Nishitani 37), Daniel (Shoji Jo 75), Kazu Miura, Ryuji Bando Takahiro Shibasaki, Takuya Kawaguchi, Seitaro Tomizawa (Naoko Sakurai 90), Atsushi Yoneyama, Takuya Yamada, Yoshihiro Nishida (Masayuki Yanagisawa 53), Naoki Soma, Michiyasu Nagata (Kazuki Hiramoto 72), Daigo Kobayashi (Kentaro Hayashi 72), Edmundo, Marquinhos

Lineups:
Takashi Shimoda, Michel Pensee Billong, Shinya Kawashima, Yuichi Komano, Kentaro Sawada (Hiroyoshi Kuwabara 85), Naoya Umeda, Kazuyuki Morisaki (Hiroto Mogi 89), Milo, Chikara Fujimoto, Susumu Oki, Tatsuhiko Kubo (Koji Morisaki 73)
Tatsuya Enomoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Shogo Kobara, Naoki Matsuda, Yasuhiro Hato, Yoshiharu Ueno , Daisuke Oku, Dutra, Shunsuke Nakamura, Ryosuke Kijima (Daisuke Sakada 66) (Tatsunori Hisanaga 88), Will

Lineups:
Ryota Tsuzuki, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Noritada Saneyoshi (Shigeru Morioka 59), Masao Kiba (Satoshi Yamaguchi 79), Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Yasuhito Endo, Toru Araiba, Marcelinho Carioca, Hideo Hashimoto, Kota Yoshihara, Masanobu Matsunami (Satoshi Nakayama 75)
Yoichi Doi, Minoru Kobayashi (Takayuki Komine 63), Teruyuki Moniwa, Tetsuya Ito, Takahiko Shimotaira, Satoru Asari, Masashi Miyazawa, Yukihiko Sato (Oh Jang-Eun 54), Marcelo, Masamitsu Kobayashi (Mitsuhiro Toda 45) , Amaral

Yet in tune with our theme of the week, this match highlighted the lact of any correlation between a team's recent performance and the results of this match. The Reds, who have just a single win from five matches, dominated play for long stretches against Vegalta, who were undefeated going into this match. The contest got off to a rollicking start. In the 9 minute, an exchange between Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel and Masahiro Fukuda pulled the defence out too far, and a chip pass over the last defender gave the speedy Emerson a ball to chase into empty space behind the Vegalta defence. The keeper rushed out of his net, but Emerson beat him to the ball by half a step and lofted the ball over his flailing arms and into the open net.

Momentum seemed to be on the side of the visitors, but as they did throughout the match, Vegalta managed occasional counterattacks that penetrated deep into Reds territory, and on one such play, ten minutes later, the home team equalised. Teruo Iwamoto carried a ball into the left corner and got just enough of an opening to lob it into the box for the two forwards, Yoshiteru Yamashita and Marcos. As the Reds keeper Yohei Nishibe tried to gollect the high ball, Yamashita collided with him in what looked like a charge, but the referee -- for one of the few times all afternoon -- left his whistle in his pocket and Marcos was able to collect the loose ball for a point-blank shot on net.

Sadly, for both teams, the chap selected to officiate this match seemed to have no clue whatsoever. Swedish referee Refe Sunder managed to hand out ten yellow cards on the afternoon (five for each team), most of which seemed totally extraneous. The flow of play was fast and furious, to be sure, but there were few really unnecessary fouls. Yet Sunder seemed intent on demolishing the flow of the match by blowing his whistle for shoulder charges and incidental contact. One wonders where the J.League is finding these foreign refs, who are supposedly providing an "example" of how to officiate a match for others to follow. To this observer's eyes, you could have picked a person at random from the stands, and gotten a better officiating performance.

In any event, the next 70 minutes of the match were a true delight to any football fan. Both teams defended tenaciously, yet they never sagged back in a preventative shell. Both were constantly looking for chances to attack, and apart from the occasional interruption by Mr. Sunder, the action flowed swiftly and smoothly from one end of the field to the other. In general, it was Urawa who held the upper hand. It looks like the influence of Hans Ooft is finally beginning to tell, as the Reds played possibly the most technically precise and disciplined match of the team's history. The offense is still a bit out of synch, and the midfielders occasionally seem unsure what to do with the ball, but if the team continues to improve in the direction demonstrated by their last two matches, the Reds may finally be on their way to becoming a contender. Vegalta, meanwhile, looked a bit less impressive than they did in their first five wins, but they remained very aggressive, and solid on defence. Meanwhile, Yamashita, Marcos and Iwamoto generated a number of dangerous opportunities on the counterattack.

Though both teams had many close calls, the score remained 1-1 at the end of regulation time. The first extra time period kicked off to ear-splitting roars from both the Vegalta and Reds galleries. Urawa continued to dominate posession, but Vegalta nearly scored first on a counterattack and cross for Marcos that was just barely headed away by defender Tadaaki Tsuboi. Ten minutes into the extra session, Emerson was fouled on the right side, just ten meters from midfield in the Vegalta zone. As trainers tended Emerson, Urawa took the kick. The ball came to the veteran team captain, Fukuda, just outside the penalty area, and he flicked the ball to Tuto just as the defence collapsed on him. Tuto provided a perfect one-two post play, and the return pass came to Fukuda just as he cleared the last defender. The ball was a bit out in front of him, but the veteran midfielder got to it just milimeters ahead of the outrushing keeper, and chipped the ball over his head to secure victory.

Lineups:
Norio Takahashi, Yusuke Mori, Ricardo Ribeiro, Norio Omura, Tetsuya Murata (Tomohiro Katanosaka 89), Hajime Moriyasu, Silvinho, Yasushi Fukunaga (Takahiro Yamada 30), Teruo Iwamoto, Yoshiteru Yamashita, Marcos
Yohei Nishibe, Tadaaki Tsuboi, Masami Ihara, Hideki Uchidate, Nobuhisa Yamada, Keita Suzuki, Ryuji Michiki , Harison, Masahiro Fukuda, Tuto, Emerson

Lineups:
Ryo Kushino, Eisuke Nakanishi, Zeljko Milinovic, Takayuki Chano, Masataka Sakamoto, Yuki Abe, Shinichi Muto, Shinji Murai, Edin Mujcin (Takenori Hayashi 84), Katsutomo Oshiba, Mitsutoshi Watada (Tasdatoshi Masuda 94)
Takaya Kurokawa, Tomohiro Ikeda, Katsumi Oenoki, Takuma Koga, Daisuke Ichikawa, Kazuyuki Toda, Kohei Hiramatsu, Yasuhiro Yoshida, Alessandro Santos, Masaaki Sawanobori (Yoshikiyo Kuboyama 115), Cvitanovic (Takayuki Yokoyama 58), Baron

With Vegalta Sendai's loss to Urawa Reds, Jubilo move three points ahead of the pack, and are l;ooking like the team to beat this season. Yokohama Marinos remain two points back while Vegalta fall to third place.

Rumours and Rumblings

Marinos to Set Sail for China

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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