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April 21, 2002: Week 7
The Pause that Refreshes

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
20 Apr		1-3		Miyagi Stadium
20 Apr		3-0		Expo '70 Stadium
20 Apr		1-3		Iwata Stadium
20 Apr		2-1(ET)		Tokyo Stadium
20 Apr		1-0(ET)		Kashiwa-no-ha
20 Apr		0-1		Mizuho Stadium
21 Apr		3-1		Sendai Stadium
21 Apr		0-0		Big Arch

Both teams were cautious over the remaining 40+ minutes of the first haolf, and considering the fact that they possess two of the best defensive lines in the league, there were few scoring opportunities despite some active ball movement on both sides. However, as they emerged from their respective locker rooms for the second half, both teams abandoned caution and girded their loins for what was to be a real battle.

Just moments after the second-half kickoff, Toshihiro Hattorigot Jubilo level on a sparkling individual effort. As the Marinos tried to clear their own zone, Hattori rushed in, muscled a Marino defender off the ball, and pried it free. Though he was only a meter or so outside the box, he immediately recognised that he had no support, because all the other Jubilo players had begun to retreat on defence. So rather than wait for something to develop, Hattori took one step into space and uncorked a screaming line drive. The ball had absolutely no spin on it, and like a Phil Niekro knuckle-ball, it wobbled through the air, eluding the dive of Tatsuya Enomoto and ricocheting off the right post and into the net.

The eqalizing goal seemed to be a signal for both teams to let it all hang out, and over the next 20 minutes or so, both teams raced from one end of the field to the other in a frenzy of attacking action. The players from both sides threw themselves at the ball with such abandon that the referee was forced to award seven yellow cards over the space of just 20 minutes, and nine cards in total. In fact, the number of scoring chances was so large and the pace of play so rapid that it would be impossible to recount all of the opportunities in this report. At one point, Jubilo forward Masashi Nakayama threw himself headlong though the air at a high ball into the box and ended up crashing into the right goalpost, bloodying his nose and giving the team doctors a brief scare. But it was Yokohama who finally broke the tie. After winning a corner kick on the left side, Nakamura sent a perfectly-weighted ball to the middle, meeting the leap of Naoki Matsuda for a point-blank header. But a brilliant kick save by Arno vanZwam pushed the ball around the post. Nakamura took the ball back and lined up another corner kick from the same spot. This time his target was Yuji "Bomberhead" Nakazawa, at the near post. Leaping over the defence, he powered the ball past the dive of vanZwam, and Yokohama had the lead once more.

Although Jubilo attacked desperatly, trying to get back into the game, the energy expended in the wild burst of attacking just after half time was taking its toll. As time ran down, and the exhausted players from Iwata overextended themselves, seeking an equalizer, Will managed to get behind the defence on a counterattack and break free for an open shot on goal. He made the opportunity count with a bullet into the low left corner, and the Marinos leapt past Jubilo to go into the break at the top of the table.

Lineups:
Arno VanZwam, Hideto Suzuki , Makoto Tanaka, Go Oiwa, Norihiro Nishi (Nobuo Kawaguchi 76), Takashi Fukunishi, Toshihiro Hattori, Toshiya Fujita, Hiroshi Nanami, Masashi Nakayama, Rodrigo Gral (Ryoichi Maeda 79)
Tatsuya Enomoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Shogo Kobara, Naoki Matsuda, Yasuhiro Hato, Yoshiharu Ueno , Daisuke Oku, Dutra, Shunsuke Nakamura, Norihisa Shiumizu (Daisuke Sakata 89), Will (Tatsunori Hisanaga 88)

1-3

The Antlers got the scoring started in the 15 minute, after a blistering series of five shots on goal. First, Mitsuo Ogasawara made a rare rush into the box, and only a desperage lunge by Consadole keeper Yohei Sato kept the ball out of the net. But Ogasawara collected the rebound, turned and chipped it back out to Tomoyuki Hirase for a drive from the edge of the box. Three Consadole defenders had managed to line up in the un-tended net, and one blocked Hirase's drive, but Masashi Motoyama picked up the rebound and took another blast at goal. This one was tipped over the bar by Sato. On the subsequent corner kick, Takayuki Suzuki fired a shot on net, which was blocked by Sato, but Koji Nakata slipped in at the left post to pop in the rebound and put the Antlers in the lead.

Kashima had numerous chances in the first half to extend their lead, but aggressive defending by Consadole and a little help from the officials, who allowed Consadole considerable lattitude when it came to fouling players from behind, kept them from scoring. It wasnt until shortly after the break that Kashima finally managed to collect a second tally. Ogasawara sent a lob into the box that Hirase caught up with, just ahead of the keeper. Though he managed to squander several such chances over the course of the match, this time his shot was on target, and the Antlers were up by two goals. It looked like Kashima were going to ease off and let the match end with this score line, as they eased the offensive pressure a bit over the next twenty minutes. But with about ten minutes to go in the match, a rare counterattack by Consadole caught the defence too far out. A high ball was headed on by Hiroshi Soda, sending Tatsunori Arai through a narrow gap in the defence for an open shot. Arai placed the ball well, in the low corner of the net just beyond the keeper's reach.

The home crowd came alive following the goal, apparently hoping that Consadole could get back into the match. However, after eighty minutes of turning a blind eye to some truly horrendous fouls, the referee Mr. Matsuzaki suddenly realized that if Sapporo were to win, there was at least an outside chance that the Antlers might ask the league to review the tape of the game. Since his pathetic officiating had included ignoring two unmistakeable fouls on Suzuki in the penalty box, he seemed to experience a sudden change of heart, and began actually blowing his whistle in response to the fouls committed by Consadole players. This produced three consecutive free kicks for the Antlers, one of which was collected by Hirase in the penalty box, where he was pulled down by his defender. To make matters worse for Consadole, Biju was shown a second yellow for protesting the PK call, though to be fair, his repeated fouls on Motoyama over the course of the match should have earned him a ticket to the showers much earlier.

Not surprisingly, given his accuracy over the course of the match, Hirase managed to miss the subsequent PK, giving Consadole life for a bit longer. However, just a few minutes later, substitute striker Yoshiyuki Hasegawa headed home a corner kick and the Antlers had a secure cushion once more. After holding the ball for the final two or three minutes, the whistle sounded and the Antlers walked off with a well-deserved victory.

Lineups:
Hitoshi Sogahata, Fabiano, Yutaka Akita, Akira Narahashi, Augusto, Koji Nakata, Koji Kumagai, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama (Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 88), Tomoyuki Hirase, Takayuki Suzuki (Jun Uchida 88)
Yohei Sato, Yasuyuki Konno, Kyosuke Yoshikawa, Hiroshi Soda, Ryuji Tabuchi, Biju, Hitoshi Morishita (Tatsunori Arai 70), Kensaku Omori, Koji Yamase, Tomohiro Hirama (Hiromi Kojima 61), Takafumi Ogura (Hiroshi Kichise 81),

Gamba could do hardly anything right during the first half, although they did manage to keep JEF from scoring. The closest JEF came to a goal came in about the 30 minute, when a good one-two combination between Takayuki Chano and Mitsutoshi Watada at midfield created a shot that forced keeper Ryota Tsuzuki to make a diving save.

But when the team emerged from the dressing room for the second half, the personality transformation had taken place, and it was hard to believe that we were watching the same team. Marcelinho Carioca was suddenly dancing about the field like Rudolph Nureyev, pirouetting here and pliseying there, leaving the outmatched JEF defenders scatterd in his wake. Meanwhile, after stumbling about for 45 minutes, Toru Araiba suddenly looked like Carl Lewis, streaking away from defenders as he tore down the wing. In the 52 minute, a delicate chip from Marcelinho, after some fancy dribbling on the left flank, put Yasuhito Endo into the box for an unchallenged shot inside the right post.. A mere six minutes later, Shigeru Morioka received a centering pass from Araiba and unleashed a rocket from the top of the circle, which sailed past the keeper for Gamba's second goal

Marcelinho's balletic moves were on display again in the 83 minute, as he danced his way into the box before looping the ball to Masanobu Matsunami, who thrust a powerful header into the top of the net, closing out the scoring.

Lineups:
Ryota Tsuzuki, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Noritada Saneyoshi (Satoshi Yamaguchi 64), Masao Kiba, Hiroshige Yanagimoto (Shigeru Morioka 45), Yasuhito Endo, Toru Araiba, Marcelinho Carioca, Hideo Hashimoto, Kota Yoshihara (Masanobu Matsunami45), Magrao
Ryo Kushino, Eisuke Nakanishi (Megumu Yoshida 45), Zeljko Milinovic, Takayuki Chano, Masataka Sakamoto (Tasdatoshi Masuda 62), Yuki Abe, Shinichi Muto, Shinji Murai, Naotake Hanyu, Katsutomo Oshiba, Mitsutoshi Watada (Takenori Hayashi 62)

With just seconds left to play in injury time, Verdy made a last-gasp foray into the Reds end, and the ever-dangerous Edmundo bulled his way into the box to drive home the equalizer. The last-second goal deflated Urawa completely, and they looked completely disheartened in the overtime period. With 26,000 fans in Tokyo Soccer Stadium cheering madly, Edmundo again used his physical prowess to storm into the box and cross the ball for Hideki Nagai, who tapped it in at the far post and gave Verdy the golden-goal victory.

Lineups:
Daijiro Takakuwa, Takuya Kawaguchi, Atsushi Yoneyama, Seitaro Tomizawa, Takuya Yamada, Kentaro Hayashi (Tsuyoshi Kitazawa 90), Masayuki Yanagisawa (Narita Takaki 66), Naoki Soma, Daigo Kobayashi (Hideki Nagai 58), Kazuki Hiramoto (Yuki Sano 58), Daigo Kobayashi, Edmundo
Yohei Nishibe, Tadaaki Tsuboi, Masami Ihara, Hideki Uchidate, Nobuhisa Yamada, Keita Suzuki, Ryuji Michiki, Harison (Toshiyuki Abe 45), Masahiro Fukuda, Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel (Tatsuya Tanaka 87), Marcio "Emerson" Passos

Lineups:
Yuta Minami, Takeshi Watanabe, Shigenori Hagimura, Norihiro Satsukawa, Tomokazu Myojin, Mitsuteru Watanabe, Cesar Sampaio (Kensuke Nebiki 105), Tomonori Hirayama, Harutaka Ono, Yoo Sang-Chul, Hideaki Kitajima (Nozomu Kato 85)
Makoto Kakegawa, Koji Yoshimura, Koji Maeda, Tomo Sugawara (Takeshi Hirano 84), Naoya Saeki (Shigeyoshi Mochizuki 96), Masayuki Okano (Mitsunori Yabuta 84), Ataliba, Masaya Nishitani (Kunie Kitamoto 106), Daniel , Shoji Jo, Ryuji Bando

The only score of the match came in the 75 minute, when the Grampus defence failed to clear a cross by Daisuke Matsui, and Mitsuaki Kurobe put a toe to it, stabbing the ball past Seigo Narazaki to give the Purple Sanga the winning goal.

Lineups:
Seigo Narazaki, Junji Nishizawa, Yasunari Hiraoka, Masahiro Koga, Tetsuya Okayama, Tomoyuki Sakai, Tarik Oulida, Yusuke Nakatani (Kunihiko Takizawa 69), Naoshi Nakamura (Yasuyuki Moriyama 56), Ueslei, Marcelo
Naoto Hirai, Kazuki Teshima, Kazuhiro Suzuki, Makoto Kakuda, Tadashi Nakamura, Park Choi-Son, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Shingo Suzuki, An Hyo-Yong (Daisuke Nakaharai 70), Daisuke Matsui (Yusaku Ueno 89), Mitsuaki Kurobe

It didnt take long for the team to double their advantage. Just a short time later, Ricardo Riberio unleashed a long pass from his own end, which was chased down by Yoshiteru Yamashita. The fleet-footed striker cut into the box and hooked a shot just inside the left post.

FC Tokyo managed to get one goal back, on a shot from the edge of the box by Kelly, but Vegalta recaptured their margin on a play that demonstrated the growing rapport between Yamashita and his strike partners Marcos and midfielder Iwamoto. After a nice exchange at midfield, Iwamoto put a ball through the defence which Yamashita caught up with just before the keeper, and his little chip fell into the net to put the game out of reach.

Lineups:
Kiyoshi Kobara, Yusuke Mori, Ricardo Ribeiro, Norio Omura, Tetsuya Murata, Hajime Moriyasu, Silvinho, Takahiro Yamada (Tomohiro Murakami 89), Teruo Iwamoto, Yoshiteru Yamashita, Shinji Fujiyoshi (Naoyuki Zaizen 56)
Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji Jean Carlo Witte, Tetsuya Ito, Ryuji Fujiyama, , Satoru Asari (Takahiko Shimotaira 37), Masashi Miyazawa, Daisuke Hoshi (Kenju Fukuda 72), Kelly, Mitsuhiro Toda (Yukihiko Sato 68), Amaral

Lineups:
Takaya Kurokawa, Tomohiro Ikeda, Katsumi Oenoki, Takuma Koga, Daisuke Ichikawa, Kazuyuki Toda, Yasuhiro Yoshida, Alessandro Santos, Kohei Hiramatsu (Takayuki Yokoyama 115), Masaaki Sawanobori (Ctivanovic 67), Baron
Takashi Shimoda, Michel Pensee Billong, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Yuichi Komano, Kentaro Sawada (Masaya Kawashima 13), Hiroyoshi Kuwabara, Naoya Umeda (Yoshiro Nakamura 90), Kazuyuki Morisaki, Chikara Fujimoto (Hiroto Mogi 113), Susumu Oki (Koji Morisaki 59), Tatsuhiko Kubo

With Jubilo Iwata's loss to Yokokama, the Marinos move to the top of the table, though. Vegalta and Jubilo are both just one point back.

Rumours and Rumblings

Takahara Out Of World Cup Picture?

Doctors are still not sure how long Takahara will be sidelined. A medical commentator for the Sports Nippon newspaper was quoted as saying that it was possible the thrombosis might dissolve in a few weeks, but there have been cases where such clots have persisted for months. Hospital and team officials initially indicated that his chances of recovering in time for the world cup were "no better than 50 : 50". However, Takahara surprised everyone by going straight from the hospital, following his discharge, to a sports training facility where he has been jogging regularly and taking shots on goal. Takahara himself says he intends to be back at 100% by mid-May.

Japan Players On the Mend

Meanwhile, keeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi underwent an MRI exam shortly after arriving back in Japan from England. His knee has suffered some slight ligament damage, but doctors indicated that his prognosis for recovery was excellent, and that he could take part in competitive matches "within two weeks". That news appears to rule out a start in either of the Kirin Cup matches, but it would seem that Kawaguchi will be back to full fitness in time for the World Cup.

The player who still presents the greatest concern is S-Pulse defender Ryuzo Morioka. After meeting with team officials and trainers at the J-Village training center, Morioka met the press and confirmed that he is not yet ready to take part in Japan's Kirin Cup preparations, but he did go through a two-hour workout and plans to start aggressive aerobics training to try to speed his recovery. There is a possibility that he could be included in the squad that leaves for a European tour no May 5, and the indications are very good that he will be able to play by mid-May, at the latest.

Portsmouth's Prosinecki Proposal Possible, but Still Pending

Clearly, something odd is going on, but it is hard to say yet whether the more reliable information is coming from the Prosinecki camp, or the Grampus camp. Though the initial reports claim that Nagoya came to Prosinecki with an offer in the neighborhood of 500 million yen, based on the way that the news has come out, it seems far more likely that the initial approach was probably made by either Prosinecki's agent, or by Portsmouth, and it is Grampus who are trying to negotiate more favorable terms. The most recent comments by the Prosinecki camp lend weight to this interpretation, as they are claiming that Nagoya doesnt want to confirm a deal "because of the effect it will have on the other foreign players on the team, whose positions may be at risk". This comment seems to have been based on the erroneous interpretation that Japan's league rules allow a team to carry only three foreign players (in fact, under J.League rules, a team can carry as many foreign players as it likes, but it can only include three in its roster card for each match).

The deal itself seems very likely to go through, as Nagoya are floundering this season, and desperate for a player who can orchestrate plays effectively. Regardless of who actually approached who, a transfer would probably benefit all involved. Given the close association of Dragan "Pixy" Stojkovic with the Grampus organization, the team is probably well aware of Prosinecki's abilities and potential value to the team. Therefore, confirmation is probably only a few days away.

Sandri Gets Vote of Confidence from Verdy

Does the Team Bus Have Ejection Seats, Too?

Errrrrhhhhh . . . somebody tell me that this was all just a badly-timed April Fool's joke. Did anybody bother to tell the English FA that early June is one of the most comfortable times of the year, temperature-wise, in most of Japan? Will it really be necessary to address problems of heat and humidity, when the average temperature -- even in Osaka on June 12 -- is around 30-35 degrees celcius in mid-afternoon? The World Cup is not being held in August, when admittedly, the heat and humidity of Japan's cities can be quite oppressive. In fact, even if England manage to avoid elimination until the third or fourth week of June, temperatures are not likely to be oppressive, since they usually do not start to rise above 35 until some time in July.

But this seems to be par for the course among the British, who have also filled up reels and reels of newsprint with stories about the dreaded "rainy season" in Japan. I suppose "NASA scientists" are already hard at work developing a special cleat that will allow players to deal with the horrrendous dounpours they are anticipating. Of course, nobody bothered to find out what sort of connditions they can actually expect in June. The "rainy season" that affects Japan and Korea each year, is caused by a stationary front, which stalls over the area at about this time each year, and keeps skies cloudy and drizzly for days or even weeks at a time. However, since it is a stationary front, and not a storm front, the actual volume of rain that falls on a typical day during the "rainy season" is just 2-3 milimeters. In terms of total rain volume, June actually ranks BELOW average for all months of the year.

Though people in Japan are still scratching their heads about this latest revalation, I suppose Argentina can take heart from the news. When the Brits show up in Sapporo at 8PM in their special "ice jackets", they will be so stiff from the cold that they will barely be able to move. We at the Rising Sun News would like to ask the England team to use discretion, however, and not try out the specially designed bumper-mounted machine guns or oil-slick-creating equipment on their team bus, while driving to the stadium. The traffic will be bad enough as it is

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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