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August 4, 2002
Into the Final Stretch

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
3 Aug		2-3		Sapporo Dome
3 Aug		4-2		Sendai Stadium
3 Aug		1-3		Kashiwa-no-ha
3 Aug		1-2		Tokyo Stadium
3 Aug		5-4(ET)		Iwata Stadium
3 Aug		2-1		Toyota Stadium
4 Aug		1-1		Nishikyogyoku
4 Aug		0-2		Kobe Wing

5-4 (ET)

The see-saw battle got off to a quick start, as Gamba struck first in the 4 minute. Although the team's playmaker, Marcelinho Carioca, was out on accumulated yellow cards, throughout the match Gamba did a good job of penetrating down the flanks. The first goal was set up by one such run by Kota Yoshihara. The diminutive striker cauhgt up to a long feed from midfield, carried it down the right wing and then crossed into the box, where the towering Magrao was lurking, as is his habit. The cross was placed perfectly, and Magrao was able to outjump his defender to head the ball home and give Gamba the early lead.

It took Jubilo almost 30 minutes to respond, in what turned out to be the longest goal drought of the match. Finally, about ten minutes before half time, Jubilo got a break on a counterattack, and Aleksandr Zivkovic used a burst of speed to create an opening for himself at the edge of the box. His cannon-like shot hit the crossbar and bounded back into the field of play, but Masashi "Gon" Nakayama collected it just to the right of goal and headed it back in front of the goal mouth. With the keeper and defence all scrambling for position, Naohiro Takahara was able to slice towards goal with no defender to challenge him, and head the ball into the back of the net.

From this point on, the goals began to come fast and furious. Just before the half time whistle, Gamba retook the lead. Midfielder Yasuhito Endo chipped a looping pass to Magrao , just to the right of goal. Although the pass was a bit too long for Magrao to get a shot on goal, he was able to head it back in front of the net, where Yoshihara took a quick shot that caught keeper Arno VanZwam leaning the wrong way, and slipped through his fingers to give Gamba a half time advantage.

But soon after the intermission, Jubilo were back on level terms. This time it was Takashi Fukunishi who got the inch of space needed to unleash a long shot, and his drive found the nylon. But it didnt take long for Gamba to resume their lead. Endo once again picked up a ball at the edge of the box, but with his passing options closed down, he elected to dribble along the top of the box looking for an opening. Just as he reached the edge of the circle, he saw an opening and released a powerful drive that slipped just inside the left post.

Six minutes after regaining the lead, Gamba appeared to put the match out of reach, as Yoshihara was pulled down in the box and the referee awarded a PK, which was collected by Magrao. But with a two goal lead and ten minutes to go, Gamba got a bit sloppy, failing to preserve their advantage with steady pressure, and thus allowing Jubilo to get back into the match. They got a big assist from the referee, as well, as Takahara took a blatant dive in the penalty area and was rewarded with a PK, to reduce the lead to just one goal.

As the final seconds ticked away, Jubilo won a corner kick on the right side. All ten Jubilo field players moved forward for the kick, and as the kick flashed across the face of goal, Toshihiro Hattori outjumped everyone else to head the ball in at the near post.

Shortly after the match moved into extra time, Norihiro Nishi set up the climactic finish to the evening, picking up a loose ball at the edge of the box and firing what might have been a pass into the box. Defender Tsuneyasu Miyamoto reacted to the ball, but was off balance, and instead of blocking the ball, he merely deflected it into his own net, giving Jubilo the victory.

Lineups:
Arno VanZwam, Takahiro Yamanishi , Go Oiwa, Makoto Tanaka, Takashi Fukunishi, Toshihiro Hattori (Taikai Uemoto 90), Toshiya Fujita (Nobuo Kawaguchi 76), Aleksandr Zivkovic (Norihiro Nishi 76), Hiroshi Nanami, Naohiro Takahara, Masashi Nakayama
Ryota Tsuzuki, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Masao Kiba, Toru Araiba (Masayuki Matsunami 59), Shigeru Morioka (Hiroshige Yanagimoto 72), Yasuhito Endo, Fabinho, Takahiro Futagawa, Kota Yoshihara , Magrao

1-3

This season, the big story at FC Tokyo has been the emergence of a new generation of youngsters, such as Mitsuhiro Toda, Naohiro Ishikawa, Masashi Miyazawa, Teruyuki Moniwa and "Kelly" Guimares. However, on this particular evening, the spotlight was entirely on the aging, but still reigning "King of Tokyo", Amaral. The grand old man may have slowed a step in his old age, but even at 35, Amaral can still perform magic on the pitch. In the 38 minute of the match, he showed a glimpse of that magic in the first of what would be three goals on the night. As Tokyo worked the ball out of their end, Kelly carried the ball to the edge of the box and spotted Amaral making a cut for goal, He lobbed a soft chip shot that allowed Amaral to make his run, and "The King" finished it off in style, soaring through the air above the penalty spot like Michael Jordan, and snapping his head forward to drill the ball into the left corner.

Shortly after half time, Reysol managed to equalize as striker Hideaki Kitajima made a cut into the box and fired a low angle shot that managed to slip underneath the keeper. But Reysol have misfired on both offense and defence all season long, and on this particular evening, they showed little sign that they were prepared to close down the King of Tokyo.

Ten minutes after Reysol's equalizer, Amaral put FC Tokyo in front to stay. This time the provider was Ishikawa, who made one of his patented, slashing runs down the right sideline and towards the box. As the defence scrambled to cut him off, Ishikawa chipped the ball over the pack and once again, Amaral sailed through the air to head it home. With 15 minutes to play, Amaral completed his hat trick with a right-footed drive from just beyond the right post, which slipped under the keeper and into the back of the net.

Lineups:

Motohiro Yoshida, Takeshi Watanabe, Kensuke Nebiki, Takumi Morikawa, Mitsuteru Watanabe, Shigenori Hagimura, Tomonori Hirayama, Shunta Nagai (Tomokazu Myojin 69), Makoto Sunakawa (Keiji Tamada 78), Hideaki Kitajima, Edilson
Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Jean Carlo Witte, Teruyuki Moniwa, Tetsuya Ito, Ryuji Fujiyama, Takahiko Shimotaira, Masashi Miyazawa (Tetsuhiro Kina 69), Naohiro Ishikawa, Kelly, Mitsuhiro Toda, Amaral

1-2

Tokyo Verdy, meanwhile, are lying squarely in the relegation zone, and the sluggish play they got from ace Edmundo on Saturday night does not bode well for the team's hopes of staying in the top division. However, there was a ray of light in this match, provided by young Hayuma Tanaka, who has been a revelation in the past few weeks, since joining Verdy on a transfer from Yokohama Marinos. This week, the 20-year-old putative midfielder was started at right wing back in a 4-4-2 formation. Not only did Tanaka show surprisingly good defensive sensibilities, but he also did an excellent job of running the wing, and creating scoring chances. Shortly after half time, Tanaka scored a consolation goal for Verdy, and the flank runs by he and Naoki Soma briefly hinted at the prospect that Verdy might get back into the match. But in the end, poor finishing and the solid defense of JEF United prevented Verdy from making a match of it, and JEF rolled to a comfortable victory.

Lineups:
Daijiro Takakuwa, Naoki Soma, Alexandre Lopez, Atsushi Yoneyama, Hayuma Tanaka, Takuya Yamada, Tsuyoshi Kitazawa (Naoto Sakurai 45), Daigo Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki Kobayashi (Marquinhos 74), Edmundo, Kazuki Hiramoto (Seitaro Tomizawa 81)
Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Zelko Milinovic, Eisuke Nakanishi, Masataka Sakamoto, Yuki Abe, Shinichi Muto (Takenori Hayashi 89), Shinji Murai, Tadatoshi Masuda (Shigetoshi Hasebe 60), Katsutomo Oshiba, Naotake Hanyu, Choi Yong-Soo

2-1

In addition to the majestic surroundings, the 35,000 fans were treated to some fine football on the field, as well. The Antlers got the match off to a quick start in the 10 minute, as Mitsuo Ogasawara released a perfectly weighted lead pass for Masashi Motoyama, and the speedy midfielder raced for the right post and fired a sharp-angled shot into the far corner.

However, just a few minutes later, a very unfortunate collision at midfield forced Koji Kumagai to retire, and his place was taken by young Takeshi Aoki. The Antlers were already playing without Akira Narahashi, due to accumulated yellow cards, and the additional loss of Kumagai produced a fatal weakness in the right side of the Antlers defence which Nagoya would soon exploit.

In the 25 minute, Ivica Vastic carried the ball towards the left corner of the box, and as the defence failed to react to his penetration, he had room to slip a well-timed slant pass to Motohiro Yamaguchi, cutting for goal. Yamaguchi was ahead of his defender as he collected the pass, and he released his shot quickly into the low left corner, before the keeper could get off his line to cut down the angle.

Midway through the second half, Nagoya got the deciding goal on a slightly flukish play. Ueslei carried the ball out of midfield, and once again, the Antlers defence was slow to cut down his angle towards goal. Seeing the opening, Ueslei released a long shot from outside the box. It initially looked like Hitoshi Sogahata had the shot covered, but it deflected off a defender on its way towards goal, changing the trajectory just enough to beat Sogahata into the right corner.

Lineups:
Seigo Narazaki, Masahiro Koga, Andrej Panadic, Masayuki Omori, Tetsuya Okayama (Keiji Kaimoto 89), Tomoyuki Sakai, Motohiro Yamaguchi, Yusuke Nakatani, Naoshi Nakamura, Ivica Vastic, Ueslei
Hitoshi Sogahata, Jun Uchida, Yutaka Akita, Fabiano, Augusto, Koji Kumagai (Takeshi Aoki 25), Koji Nakata, Mitsuo Ogasawara (Takuya Nozawa 77), Masashi Motoyama, Atsushi Yanagisawa (Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 71), Euller

4-2

However, Sendai let down their guard for a five-minute stretch in the second half, and the ever-explosive Sanfrecce Hiroshima quickly got back into the match. Goals by Kazuyuki "the Elder" Morisaki and Chikara Fujimoto, just three minutes apart, levelled the scores and put the Sendai crowd on the edge of their seats.

But in the final ten minutes of the match, Vegalta finished off their opponents with an offensive rush, as strikers Marcos and Yoshiteru Yamashita each collected a goal to give their team its first win since the World Cup Break.

Lineups:
Norio Takahashi, Yusuke Mori, Norio Omura, Ricardo, Tatsuya Murata, Hitoshi Moriyasu (Naoki Chiba 89), Silvinho, Nobuyuki Zaizen (Takahiro Yamada 74), Teruo Iwamoto, Yoshiteru Yamashita. Marcos
Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano,Jun Ideguchi, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Kota Hattori, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Kentaro Sawada, Yuki Matsushita (Yoshiro Nakamura 73), Chikara Fujimoto, Susumu Oki (Hiroto Mogi 85), Tatsuhiko Kubo

S-Pulse got off to a rather surprising early lead on a long drive by Yasuhiro Yoshida which seemed outrageously optimistic when it left his boot, yet somehow managed to slip under the bar and beyond the outstretched fingers of the keeper. Sapporo responded quickly, as midfielder Koji Yamase, who has been carrying almost the entire burden of offense for Sapporo, recently, collected a centering pass from Jadilson and fired a shot into the low left corner.

Just before half time, Consadole took the lead on a goal by Takafumi Ogura, and Sapporo managed to hold off continuous S-Pulse pressure for much of the second half, However, just as they did against Yokohama Marinos, last week, Consadole collapsed in the final few minutes and let their opponent off the hook. In the 81 minute, midfield veteran Masaaki Sawanobori found Daisuke Ichikawa breaking into the box from the right wing, and Ichikawa drilled a low-angle shot inside the far post. Then, just two minutes later, Sawanobori unleashed a blistering drive from outside the box which slipped into the top corner to give S-Pulse victory.

Lineups:
Yohei Sato, Yasuyuki Konno, Jin Sato, Kensaku Omori, Hitoshi Morishita, Yoshikiyo Nishida (Naoki Sakai 57), Biju, Koji Yamase, Jadilson (Yushi Soda 87), Srjdan Baljak, Takafumi Ogura
Masanori Sanada, Tomohiro Ikeda, Toshihide Saito, Takuma Koga, Daisuke Ichikawa, Kohei Hiramatsu, Teruyoshi Ito, Yasuhiro Yoshida, Alessandro Santos, Masaaki Sawanobori (Takayuki Yokoyama 86), Yoshikiyo Kuboyama (Baron 55)

0-2

Urawa got the scoring started in the 34 minute, when midfilder Masahiro Fukuda unleashed a sizzling blast from over 25 meters which sailed into the left corner of goal for his 90th career goal. Vissel's new coach Hiroshi Matsuda has made a few changes to his lineup, but these had no visible impact on the team's toothless performance. Although Urawa seemed a bit sluggish themselves, at times, their opponent never really threatened the Reds goal

Midway through the second half, young striker Tatsuya Tanaka made a strong individual run into the box and snapped off a shot that beat Makoto Kakegawa and gave the Reds an insurance goal. After than, it was simply a matter of waiting out the dying minutes, as Vissel never once threatened to get back into the match. Unless the team makes some major improvements, and soon, Vissel could be looking at possible relegation at the end of this season.

Lineups:
Nobuhiro Yamagishi, Masami Ihara, Tadaaki Tsuboi, Hideki Uchidate, Tadaaki Hirakawa, Keita Suzuki, Harison, Ryuuji Michiki, Masahiro Fukuda (Toshiya Ishii 45), Tatsuya Tanaka, Tuto
Makoto Kakegawa, Koji Yoshimura, Sidiclei, Yukio Tsuchiya, Tomo Sugawara, Naoya Saeki, Masayuki Okano, Shigeyoshi Mochizuki (Daniel 65), Takeshi Hirano, Mitsunori Yabuta (Shoji Jo 45), Kazu Miura

1-1

Though the Marinos were viewed as the favourite going into this match, Kyoto are a very hungry, up-and-coming team, who have been truly energized by coach Gert Engels. Despite their extreme youth, this team tryly believes in themselves, and the buoyant attitude of the players was evident from the outset, as Kyoto simpy outran Yokohama for the first 45 minutes. The Marinos defence helf firm for the most part, but the Purple Sanga attack force, particularly Park Ji-Sung, Daisuke Matsui and Teruaki Kurobe staged one offensive thrust after another, keeping the Marinos on the back foot throughout the first half. Kyoto finally broke the ice in the 36 minute, when a nice chip into the box by Matsui found Park in the center of the penalty area with only Naoki Matsuda between him and the goal. Park tried to flick the ball past Matsuda to open up space for a shot, and although Matsuda was well positioned defensively, the ball caromed off his arm, and the referee pointed to the penalty spot. Matsui converted to put Kyoto in the lead.

The score line would remain that way until half time, as Kyoto retained most of the momentum, but were unable to create any more cracks in the Marinos defence. Shortly after the intermission, a surge of attacking pressure by the Marinos paid off, as Will was able to collect a ball just five meters from goal, bull his way around two defenders and release a shot that just barely squeezed past the keeper to knot the score.

The remaining 30 minutes of regulation time were a pounding, end-to-end see-saw battle that saw both clubs stage exciting thrusts into the opponent's zone, but neither one get off a truly dangerous shot. By the time regulation play expired and the match moved into extra time, both teams were so physically drained that they were no longer able to pass straight, and the final 30 minutes of play was an almost farcical struggle against exhaustion that surged from one end of the field to the other without really developing any coherence. Not surprisingly, the two keepers were the only two players left on the pitch who were not totally knackered. This allowed them to prevail in the rare cases where an offensive thrust created a scoring opportunity. And so, the match eventually petered out into an exhausted stalemate, and the final whistle left the two teams deadlocked at a goal apiece. Lineups:
Tatsuya Enomoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Yasuhiro Hato, Kunio Nagayama, Yoshiharu Ueno, Dutra, Akihiro Endo (Kazuyoshi Mikami 93), Daisuke Oku (Daisuke Nasu 107), Nobuhisa Shimizu (Tomoyuki Hirase 74), Will (Daisuke Sakata 95)
Naoto Hirai, Makoto Kakuta, Kazuki Teshima, Kazuhiro Suzuki, Tadashi Nakamura (Shinya Tomita 78), Daisuke Saito, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Shingo Suzuki, Park Ji-Sung (Daisuke Nakaharai 72), Teruaki Kurobe (Yusaku Ueno 110), Daisuke Matsui

By salvaging a draw, the Marinos moved out to a one point lead over Jublio Iwata, but their margin of safety is now gone. The final three matches of the season promise to be a wild race to the wire between the two clubs, and even Gamba Osaka are not yet entirely out of the running. Here is how the standings look with three matches left to play

.	Team	Pts	GP	W (90/ET)	D	L	GDif	GF	GA
1	Yokohama Marinos	29	12	10 (7-3)	2	0	+15	24	9
2	Jubilo Iwata	28	12	10 (7-3)	1	1	+16	31	15
3	Gamba Osaka	24	12	8 (7-1)	1	3	+15	31	16
4	Nagoya Grampus	20	12	7 (6-1)	0	5	+5	20	15
5	Vegalta Sendai	20	12	7 (6-1)	0	5	+4	21	17
6	Kyoto Purple Sanga	19	12	7 (4-3)	1	4	+6	21	15
7	Kashima Antlers	18	12	6 (6-0)	0	6	-1	15	16
8	FC Tokyo	17	12	5 (5-0)	2	5	+0	20	20
9	Shimizu S-Pulse	17	12	6 (3-3)	2	4	-4	14	18
10	Urawa Reds	14	12	5 (3-2)	1	6	+1	19	18
11	JEF United Ichihara	14	12	4 (3-1)	3	5	-6	15	21
12	Kashiwa Reysol	11	12	4 (3-1)	0	8	-7	16	23
13	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	10	12	3 (3-0)	1	8	-9	13	22
14	Tokyo Verdy	9	12	3 (2-1)	1	8	-8	12	20
15	Vissel Kobe	7	12	2 (2-0)	1	9	-9	8	17
16	Consadole Sapporo	3	12	1 (1-0)	0	11	-18	13	31

Rumours and Rumblings

Japan Youth Squads Named

The JFA apparently decided to make a clear separation between the U-21 squad and the U-19 squad, dictating to the coaches who made the selections that no U-19 players could be included in the U-21 squad. Although this eliminates one or two players who probably have the talent to make the team, there is more than enough talent in the 20-21 age rank to produce a very high quality team. Lets begin by looking at this elder squad.