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September 1, 2002
Second Stage, Second Chance

The second stage got off to a cracking start, with some eye-opening surprises, some fiercely-contested scraps and narrow yet important victories by three teams that figure to be in the race for the second stage title.

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
Aug 31		2-2		Atsubetsu
Aug 31		1-2		Sendai Stadium
Aug 31		5-0		Tokyo Stadium
Aug 31		1-0		Jubilo Iwata St.
Aug 31		4-1		Expo '70 Stadium
Aug 31		1-2(ET)		Big Arch
Sep 1		0-1		Ichihara Seaside
Sep 1		3-0		Mizuho Stadium

1 - 0

Two of the biggest problems that Vissel faced in the first stage were a lack of aggressiveness up front and a use of personnel that seemed ill-suited to their capabilities. New coach Hiroshi Matsuda made some significant changes to the lineup and the strategy in this match, and it would be an understatement to say that this took Jubilo by surprise. In the first few minutes of the match Jubilo tried to establish their usual dominance of midfield, with slow and steady central pressure. But Vissel attacked the ball vigorously, with strikers Ryuji Bando and Shoji Jo pressing the ball from behind, and Masayuki Okano racing from one side of the pitch to another like a fox terrier on amphetimines. To restrict the hypnotic short-passing of Jubilo's midfield game even further, defenders Koji Yoshimura and Yukio Tsuchiya were playing an offside trap about three meters to the Vissel side of the midfield stripe! The tactic worked extremely well, taking Jubilo completely off guard and giving Vissel the majority of posession -- and the vast majority of scoring chances -- for the entire first half

Unfortunately for Vissel, they still havent addressed the third problem that dogged them in the first stage, which is an almost uncanny inability to put the ball in the net. Jo sent a perfect centering pass wide of the post in the 15 minute, and in the 20 minute, Ryuji Bando balooned an open shot from the edge of the box over the bar. Then in the 25 minute, Kobe got their best chance of the half, as Okano raced down the right wing and crossed in to a wide-open Bando. But a defender obscured Bando's view for a crucial instant and he ended up knocking the ball over the crossbar with his knee. Kobe kept Jubilo out of their rhythm, and mainly on the defensive for the entire first act, but try as they might, they simply couldnt capitalise on their own good play.

After the half, Vissel maintained the pressure, but Jubilo had used the time in the locker room to sort out the strategy and decide how to respond. In the second half they began using thrusts down the wing more often, and relied more on long passes over the defence, rather than trying to achieve a slow build-up from midfield. Vissel created several more opportunities shortly after the restart, but once again they were unable to put the ball in the net. In the 67 minute, Jubilo's patient approach finally paid off. Toshihiro Hattori made a forward foray down the left wing, and centered the ball to Toshiya Fujita. Before the defensive pressure could arrive, Fujita chipped a lob over the defence which found Nobuo Yamaguchi slanting into the box. Yamaguchi turned sharply to get a step on his defender and let loose a low-angle shot that just eluded the keeper and hit the top of the net.

Try as they might, Vissel were unable to respond to this tally, and although they struggled for the remaining 20 minutes to create opportunities, their lack of scoring ability let them down once more. Not even the late appearance of Oseas Reis dos Santos could help them break the ice, and despite a valiant effort, Vissel crashed to their first defeat of the year, while Jubilo took the first step towards a second-stage trophy.

Lineups:
Arno VanZwam, Hideto Suzuki, Go Oiwa, Makoto Tanaka, Norihiro Nishi, Takashi Fukunishi, Toshihiro Hattori, Toshiya Fujita, Hiroshi Nanami, Naohiro Takahara (Nobuo Kawaguchi 45), Masashi Nakayama
Makoto Kakegawa, Koji Yoshimura, Kunie Kitamoto, Yukio Tsuchiya, Takeshi Hirano, Shigeyoshi Mochizuki, Tomo Sugawara (Oseas 78), Masayuki Okano, Mitsunori Yabuta (Takayuki Yamaguchi 70), Shoji Jo, Ryuji Bando

1 - 2

The Antlers got to business right away, playing crisp, diagonal passes in and out of the post, seeking openings in the Vegalta defence along the edge of the box. Kashima came out with a slightly unusual lineup, playing Masashi Motoyama at striker alongside Atsushi Yanagisawa , and Augusto at attacking midfield, rather than wing back. His usual place was taken by young Jun Uchida .

The strategy was probably well-advised. Vegalta came out with a very physical game plan, checking the ball hard and pressuring all over the field on defence, then looking for swift counters down the wings and long balls to Marcos , the team's ace striker. With the powerful and speedy Augusto at attacking midfield to support the more technical and less physically imposing Motoyama, the Antlers were able to stand up to the pressure and create some good opportunities. About 15 minutes in, the Antlers got their best chance of the first half, as Mitsuo Ogasawara led a breakout, carrying the ball from midfield to the edge of the Vegalta box before slipping a pass to Augusto on the right wing. Augusto's shot was perfectly placed, but the keeper did a good job of cutting down the angle, and he managed to get his fingers on the ball to slow its momentum. A Vegalta defender managed to clear the ball off the line before Yanagisawa could push in the deflection. Later in the half, a long shot by Augusto was tipped over the bar, but despite comfortable control of posession, the Antlers were unable to crack the bruising defence of Vegalta in the first 45 minutes.

After half time, the openings in the Vegalta defence began to grow wider, and the Antlers were clearly on the verge of their first goal. In the 50 minute, Augusto broke into the box and his defender could do nothing but foul him from behind. Unfortunately for Kashima, the referee turned a blind eye, and the chance went by the boards. But less than a minute later, Motoyama made a drive for the box and was undercut by a defender. Motoyama went down heavily, in what might have been "simulation", but having ignored a clear PK call less than a minute earlier, the referee decided to make this call against Vegalta.

Ogasawara and Koji Nakata lined up over the ball, just two meters outside the box. Ogasawara has been deadly from this range on many occasions in the past, and the keeper was clearly cheating a bit towards the side of the left-footed kicker. But as Oga took his first step, Nakata -- who was closer to the ball -- unleashed a quick shot which curled perfectly over the wall. The keeper, who didnt see the shot until it was halfway to goal, was leaning the wrong way and couldnt reverse his momentum. He simply watched as the ball flew inside the left post to give the Antlers the lead.

About five minutes after the first goal, Kashima made another foray into the Vegalta end. Following a corner kick and clearance, Augusto picked up the loose ball on the left sideline and lobbed it for the far post. Defender Yutaka Akita , who had moved forward for the corner kick and was still in the penalty area, headed the ball back across the face of goal to Nakata. As the keeper and defenders reacted to him, Nakata headed the ball down, right onto the foot of Yanagisawa, who volleyed it into the net to double Kashima's lead.

The match seemed to be going all the Antlers' way, but in the 70 minute, Vegalta climbed back into the match. A long pass out of the defence sent Marcos away on a break, and as he approached the box, he fed the ball to Takahiro Yamada . Young Jun Uchida rushed to cover, but in one of his few errors of the entire match, he overplayed his man. The wily veteran, Yamada, cut the ball back and allowed Nozawa to go sailing past. Yamada had only the keeper to beat, but perhaps recalling Hitoshi Sogahata's reputation as a "ball magnet", he faked the shot at the near post and instead pushed the ball square to Yoshiteru Yamashita who was cutting for goal. Yamashita had only to side-foot the ball into the wide-open net, and Vegalta were back within striking distance.

But at this point, the Antlers displayed the reason why they are defending champions. Tightening up their defence and playing ball control, they exchanged crisp and clean short-range passes in the attacking zone, barely even giving Vegalta a chance to touch the ball. With ten minutes left to play, Silvinho allowed his frustrations to get the better of him, and went in with spikes held high as he tried to pry the ball away from Motoyama. The referee was having none of that, and despite the fact that Motoyama had released the ball into the box for an Antlers advantage, he blew the play dead and gave Silvinho a free pass to the shower room. With a man advantage, the Antlers' ball control was even more effective than before, and though their handful of half-chances towards the end of the match went astray, they never allowed Vegalta to move the ball beyond the midfield stripe for the final ten minutes of the match. Although the Antlers will need to defeat some tougher opponents than Sendai if they hope to win the second-stage crown, they certainly gave notice that they plan to be a top contender for the title

Lineups:
Norio Takahashi, Kenji Suzuki, Norio Omura, Ricardo, Tatsuya Murata, Hitoshi Moriyasu (Tomohiro Murakami 85), Silvinho, Nobuyuki Zaizen (Takahiro Yamada 60), Teruo Iwamoto, Yoshiteru Yamashita (Shinya Mitsuoka 89), Marcos
Hitoshi Sogahata, Akira Narahashi, Yutaka Akita, Fabiano, Jun Uchida, Naoto Honda (Takeshi Aoki 69), Koji Nakata, Augusto, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama (Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 89), Atsushi Yanagisawa (Euller 69)

4 - 1

Gamba came out with their ears laid back and ready for a fight from the first tap of the ball. Just two minutes in, a feed from Yasuhito Endo put Kota Yoshihara into the box for a shot that flew just over the bar. But not long after this first foray, Gamba did open the scoring, on a pretty combination play that epitomizes the attacking strategy that Osaka adopted in this match. Yoshihara moved the ball out of midfield, and fired a pass down the wing that Shigeru Morioka carried into the wide-open spaces on the right sideline. Morioka lobbed his cross for the far post, and found Tsuneyasu Miyamoto , who had snuck forward out of his defensive position to find an opening in the Marinos defensive zone. Miyamoto outjumped his defender and made good contact, sending the ball past the reach of the keeper for Gamba's first goal.

Shortly thereafter, Gamba doubled their lead when Naoki Matsuda was beaten into the box by Yoshihara, and knocked the diminutive striker off his feet with a late challenge. Magrao slammed home the penalty kick, and Gamba were up by two goals.

Marinos ace Will Robson Andrade tried to get his team back into the match, with a powerful and well-placed free kick from ten meters outside the top right corner of the box. His shot looped over the wall and surprised the keeper, curling just inside the near post to cut the deficit to 2-1.

But this match would belong to Osaka. Soon after Will's goal, Naza made a defensive error, and undercut his man after the ball was already gone. The referee decided that the foul merited a yellow card, which meant that Naza was on his way to the locker room. Taking umbrage at the call, Matsuda said something unpleasant to the man in stripes, and earned a second booking as well. With the two man advantage and a huge wave of momentum behind them, Gamba quickly added to their lead. Endo set up the goal with a long cross into the box, and Yoshihara hit a lovely volley that flashed past the motionless keeper and into the nylon. Late in the match, Magrao added to his league-leading goal tally with his second of the match, collecting a sharp grounder that Yoshihara crossed in front of the net, and pushing it past the dive of the keeper.

Lineups:
Naoki Matsuyo, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (Noritada Saneyoshi 58), Masao Kiba, Toru Araiba (Satoshi Nakayama 72), Shigeru Morioka (Toshihiro Matsushita 82), Yasuhito Endo, Fabinho, Takahiro Futagawa, Kota Yoshihara , Magrao
Tatsuya Enomoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Naza, Naoki Matsuda, Naza, Yasuhiro Hato, Yoshiharu Ueno, Akihiro Endo (Kunio Nagayama 19), Dutra, Daisuke Oku, Nobuhisa Shimizu (Tomoyuki Hirase 82), Will

5 - 0

Whether or not the Purple Sanga players managed to forget, it was clear that Verdy had strong memories of the previous match, and from the very first tap of the ball, they were out to get some measure of revenge. Both teams set off at a furious pace, chasing every ball and contesting every pass. Perhaps the clearest sign that Verdy are a reviving team was the fact that even Edmundo was running hard off the ball, trying to create space for his teammates.

It didnt take long for the Verdy attack to draw first blood. In the 7 minute, Edmundo took a pass from Daigo Kobayashi, spun around one Kyoto player and headed for the box. As three defenders advanced to meet him, Edmundo slipped a pretty pass to Kazuki Hiramoto , overlapping on the right wing. The pass was perfectly weighted, rolling lazily into the box as Hiramoto sped around the flank and straight at goal. He met the ball about six meters from goal, with a narrow angle on net but no one to beat except the keeper. The shot was well placed, curling around the keeper's lunge and just inside the far post.

The remainder of the first half was a fast-paced, no-holds-barred melee, with both teams throwing themselves into attack and defending desperately. Verdy's two U-21 standouts, Daigo Kobayashi and Hayuma Tanaka were particularly impressive for Verdy, running the overlap extremely well on the right side. As the announcers noted several times, Verdy's strategy was to get the ball to Edmundo in a central midfield position. As soon as he had a clear handle on the ball, players on both wings would put their heads down and race for goal, knowing that there was little danger of Edmundo giving up the ball and allowing a counterattack into their vacated position. This strategy worked well at creating opportunities, though Kyoto managed to fend off the attacks and prevent additional goals for most of the first half.

On the other side of the ball, Kyoto tried repeatedly to penetrate through the middle, with Park Ji-Sung , Shingo Suzuki and Daisuke Matsui looking to create openings, and Teruaki Kurobe serving as the main target in the box. But Verdy did a fine job on the defensive end as well. Keeper Yoshinari Takaki had perhaps his best match ever, saving two blistering shots from the edge of the box, one by Suzuki and one by Park. On Kyoto's best chance of the match, a free kick from the edge of the box, Takaki saved the shot and then, when the rebound was put on net a second time, Alexandre Lopez saved it off the line, with a left-footed stab.

As the first half neared its end, Verdy got a free kick about eight meters beyond the penalty area, directly in front of goal. Edmundo lined up over the ball and sent a blistering kick over the wall. The shot came back off the left upright, but Takuya Yamada alertly raced into the box and chipped in the rebound.

As the second half began, the Verdy team looked like a tightly coiled spring, waiting to unwind on the attack. Kyoto held the ball for much of the first five minutes, but when the men in green launched a counterattack, it was like a surging green wave that rolled right over the defence. It was just a matter of time before another goal came. Fifteen minutes into the second stanza, the break came, though in a slightly unexpected way. After a surge of players towards the goal mouth, the ball was cleared towards the edge of the box, and Verdy's Yamada chased after the rebound. Daisuke Nakaharai rushed back to try to clear, but when it looked like Yamada might reach the ball first, he made an ill-advised attempt to flick the bouncing ball away with an upraised boot. The two players collided just inside the penalty area, and Nakaharai's cleats drove straight into the portion of Yamada's anatomy where it was sure to make the greatest impression. Yamada went down in a howl of pain, and referee Masayoshi Okada, wincing visibly in sympathy for the stricken Verdy player, pointed to the penalty spot. As Yamada retreated to the sidelines to "shake off" the pain, Edmundo fired a cannon shot from the penalty spot to put Verdy up 3-0.

At this point, the match was clearly in Verdy's pocket, and play began to get sloppy as both teams went a bit overboard in their attempts to create goals out of nothing. Coach Lori Sandri responded by bringing in the more mature Naoto Sakurai at attacking midfield to try to calm down play a bit. Five mintues after coming on, Sakurai created the first of what would be two goals that should be credited largely to him. As Edmundo carried the ball forward from midfield, Sakurai cut across his path and collected a through pass just in front of the last line of defenders. Rather than pull the ball back and wait for Edmundo to cut for net, as the last two defenders clearly expected, Sakurai accelerated and tried to race right between the two. They reacted too late, managing only to knock him off his feet a meter beyond the box. Edmundo took the free kick, and sent a sizzling grounder for the right post. Although the keeper reacted in time, he was unable to hold onto the ball, and Hiramoto swooped in to tap home the rebound.

Then, with just three minutes to play, Sakurai made another wild dash through the defence. Hideki Nagai , a late substitute at midfield, spotted Sakurai taking off, and led him perfectly, sending him away on goal a half step ahead of his defender. As Sakurai raced down the left side for almost 30 meters, his eyes were permanently fixed on Edmundo, who was making a dash for the opposite post. With every step, he feinted to the right, as if about to release the pass that would put Edmundo clear on goal, and with each feint, the keeper leaned further and further in that direction. Just as he reached the keeper, Sakurai made one last feint . . . . but he let the ball continue rolling straight on towards the left post. The keeper was leaning so far to the right, anticipating the pass for Edmundo that he could only watch helplessly as the ball and Sakurai rushed past just inches away. Sakurai then calmly tucked the ball into the empty net to close out a stirring victory for Verdy.

Lineups:
Yoshinari Takagi, Naoki Soma, Alexandre Lopez, Atsushi Yoneyama, Hayuma Tanaka, Takuya Yamada, Edmundo, Narita Takaki (Yasuyuki Kobayashi 72), Daigo Kobayashi (Hideki Nagai 85), Marquinhos (Naoto Sakurai 66), Kazuki Hiramoto
Naoto Hirai, Makoto Kakuta, Kazuki Teshima, Kazuhiro Suzuki, , Daisuke Saito (Shinya Tomita 65), Tadashi Nakamura (Daisuke Nakaharai 45), Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Shingo Suzuki, Park Ji-Sung, Teruaki Kurobe, Daisuke Matsui (Yusaku Ueno 69)

1-2(ET)

The Reds played a much better match than they had throughout most of the first stage, maintaining good ball control at midfield and looking for openings in the Sanfrecce defence. But Sanfrecce actually created the more dangerous chances, with counterattacks that outpaced the sluggish Reds defence. Rookie Keisuke Tsuboi and Ichiei Muroi did a good job of covering the flanks, but the aging Masami Ihara continues to be the Reds weak link. He was repeatedly outrun by Milo and Susumu Oki on counterattacks up the middle. But when Sanfrecce finally scored, it was on a set play. Hiroshima took a corner kick from the right side, which was cleared from the box, but fell back to the initial kicker, Kazuyuki Morisaki . Sending the ball into the box a second time, "The Younger" Morisaki found Oki free at the far post, for an open header that put Sanfrecce in the lead

The lead would last less than a minute, though, as Urawa came right back with a surging attack of their own. Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel drove down the left flank and cut a low line drive pass into the box, which Tanaka flicked into the net on the first touch. The two teams went in at half time with the score all even.

The second half began with end-to-end action, featuring narrow misses at both goals. But fate began to turn against Hiroshima as striker Oki wrenched his knee on one of these scoring opportunities, and had to be helped off the field. With ace Tatsuhiko Kubo sitting out a red card suspension, this left the team with few options at striker. Midway through the second half, the situation would get worse, as Yuki Matsushita , perhaps out of frustration at having been dribbled to distraction by Tanaka all match long, spiked the young Reds striker in the foot, in what the referee judged to be a deliberate and flagrant foul. Matsushita received an immediate red, and Sanfrecce were reduced to ten men.

But despite the man advantage, and several good opportunities, Urawa were unable to capitalise with a goal. It must be said, though, that Sanfrecce received help from the referee, who seemed reluctant to call anything against Hiroshima in the wake of his harsh call on Matsushita. In the most serious of these non-calls, Keita Suzuki burst into the penalty box ahead of his defender in the 80 minute, and was blatantly hauled down from behind, yet play was waved on.

Regulation time ended with the score still 1-1, but Urawa was wearing down the undermanned Hiroshima defence, and it was clear that they could not hold out much longer. The killing blow came in the 106 minute. Yuichiro Nagai , who came on as a late sub, used his fresh legs to beat the Sanfrecce defence down the left flank. WIth his path to the left post cut off, Nagai started to pull the ball back, but as the defence followed, he flicked a back heel to Hideki Uchidate who was running the overlap. Uchidate took the ball to the end line and crossed back in front of goal. Steaming into the boxl, Tuto slammed the cross into the net and raced to the mob of cheering Reds supporters in the end zone to reward one of them by throwing his jersey into the stands.

Lineups:
Nobuhiro Yamagishi, Masami Ihara, Tadaaki Tsuboi, Ichiei Muroi, Hideki Uchidate, Nobuhisa Yamada, Tadaaki Hirakawa, Keita Suzuki, Masahiro Fukuda (Yuichiro Nagai 75), Tuto, Tatsuya Tanaka
Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano, Michel Pensee Billong, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Kota Hattori, Naoya Umeda (Jun Ideguchi 58), Kazuyuki Morisaki, Milo (Kentaro Sawada 80), Yuki Matsushita, Genki Nakayama (Chikara Fujimoto 91), Susumu Oki (Yutaka Takahashi 52)

2 - 2

Reysol's strategy seemed to be based on short passes between the "Brazilian triangle" of Edilson at forward, Cesar Sampaio and Ricardinho at midfield. Consadole on the other hand looked to counterattack, with long balls and dashes down the wing by Jadilson, Baljak and Hitoshi Morishita. The defence on both sides was very physical, but like most other elements of the match, rather sloppy

Sapporo got the first break of the match in the 20 minute, when Jadilson turned the corner on the left wing and chipped a ball into the box. Keeper Yuta Minami rushed out to collect it, but he collided with his own teammate just as he reached the ball, and the rebound squirted away from him. Takafumi Ogura was in a good position to take advantage of this lapse, and pounced on the ball before Minami could recover, tapping it into the net from point-blank range.

In the second half, Consadole came out with a great deal of intensity, beating Reysol to the ball and generally controlling the pace of the game. About ten minutes after the break, this aggressive play finally created a second goal. After breaking up a Reysol attack deep in their end, several Consadole players took off upfield and Jadilson managed to clear the ball to Baljak, who was off to the races, dribbling some 60 meters just one step ahead of his defender. Baljak carried the ball nearly to the end line, on the left wing, waiting for support to get into the box. Kensaku Omori headed for the goal, looking for the cross, and drawing Reysol's last two defenders. But Baljak spotted Ogura trailing the play, and looped his cross over everyone's head for the far post. Ogura read the pass perfectly, and was able to run onto it at full pace. Minami made a frantic attempt to rush off his line and block the header that he knew was coming, but Ogura headed the ball down, slipping it under Minami's flailing legs and into the net.

The match moved into its final ten minutes with Consadole still holding the momentum and a two-goal lead. But suddenly, as they have done time and again this season, Sapporo somehow lost the script and let the match slip away. Reysol brought in young Keiji Tamada, a 21-year-old striker who has seen little action in the past, but who put on a more impressive performance than just about any other Reysol player over the course of the match. Just a few minutes after coming on, Tamada snuck away from his defender and managed to catch Ricardinho's eye as he carried the ball towards midfield. Ricardinho let loose a rainbow lob that Tamada ran underneath and trapped perfectly just three meters outside the box, killing the bounce and flicking it past the last defender all in one motion. Keeper Yosuke Fujigaya raced off his line, but Tamada calmly settled the ball with a second touch, then rolled it underneath the outrushing keeper and into the corner of the net.

Although this dramatically threw the momentum of the match in Reysol's favour, it still looked like Consadole could hang on and prevent an equalizer. But with only a minute to play, Biju, who has been a detriment to his team all year long, committed a crucial blunder. A Consadole player went down injured, andthe referee failed to see it, following a rush of Reysol players upfield. Hoping to stop the action, Biju committed a deliberate hand ball, somehow forgetting that he had already picked up a yellow card early in the match. The referee, quite rightly, showed him another card and sent him off to the showers.

Knowing that this was their last chance to equalise, Reysol sent all ten field players into attack, lining them up about three meters outside the penalty area. Ricardinho took the kick and played a soft lob into the box as nine yellow-shirted attackers rushed in a wave towards goal. The person to get his head on the gall first was Kensuke Nebiki, whose shot just barely eluded the keeper, slipped under the bar and put Reysol back on even terms

With a man advantage and all the momentum on their side, it looked for a moment like Reysol would be able to capture the win in extra time, but like Consadole, this team seems to be inventing new ways to beatthemselves. Just two minutes after extra time began, Consadole got a sudden counterattack that looked like it might create danger. Rather than take a chance, Cesar Sampaio wrapped his arms around the Sapporo player and pulled him to a stop, in the sort of cynical "professional foul" that some referees reward with an immediate red card. Sampaio was fortunate this time, getting away with only a yellow, but as Reysol pushed forward for the kill, Consadole cleared the ball once again, and Jadilson took off on a dramatic, individualistic run that beat two Reysol players and was only cut off by Sampaio about three meters from the box. Jadilson tried to run right past Sampaio, but rather than contest his drive for the box legally, Sampaio once again committed a cynical foul, using a lowered shoulder to drive him off the ball. Taken out of context, this play was no worse than any of the dozens of fouls committed over the course of the match, but coming a mere three minutes after Sampaio's "two-armed tackle", this sort of cynicism was more than the referee could accept. He brandished a second yellow card and sent Sampaio marching for the exit.

With both teams reduced to ten men and 100 minutes of football already in the books, fatigue became the key factor. Jadilson and Edilson created a few nail-biting opportunities for each of their respective teams, but unfortunately the supporting cast was not up to the job of putting the ball in net. Former Nagoya Grampus striker Yasuyuki Moriyama came on in extra time, but it quickly became apparent that he still has not recovered from a serious hamstring injury, and he was replaced just 9 minutes later. The match petered out in a 2-2 draw. For two teams that badly need every point they can collect in order to avoid relegation, one or more of these teams may look back upon this match with regret at the end of this season.

Lineups:
Yosuke Fujigaya, Yasuyuki Konno, Jin Sato, Kensaku Omori, Yoshikiyo Nishida, Hitoshi Morishita, Biju, Jadilson, Tomoaki Matsukawa (Tomohiro Wanami 69), Srjdan Baljak (Yushi Soda 79), Takafumi Ogura (Yasuyuki Moriyama 96) (Tsuyoshi Furukawa 107)
Yuta Minami, Takeshi Watanabe, Mitsuteru Watanabe (Arata Moriyama 54), Keisuke Nebiki, Cesar Sampaio, Tomonori Hirayama, Tomokazu Myojin, Ricardinho (Norihiro Satsukawa 116), Harutaka Ono (Nozomu Kato 75), Hideaki Kitajima (Keiji Tamada 62), Edilson,

3 - 0

Though it may be unfair and inapproppriate to judge a team on the basis of a single match, after watching this contest there seems to be little doubt, that these two teams will not be raising any trophies this season. Nagoya looked the better of the two, but even that is not saying much. This match has to be ranked up there among the worst J.League contests of all time. For those who were fortunate enough not to have watched it, no amount of scorn or denigration could possibly do it justice.

Both teams came out onto the pitch as if preparing for a game of gateball. And even that is a compliment, since few senior citizens miss as many wickets as Nagoya and Shimizu did on this evening. In the first half, especially, every single pass over 10 meters was off target. Play was aimless, passionless, pointless. . . truly painful to watch. The only break from the monotony was provided by one or two runs by Ueslei in pursuit of long, arching passes, but more often than not, those passes sailed 10 meters over the touch line before touching down. Mixed in among the midfield exchanges of balls directly at the feet of an opponent, or the 50-meter moon shots aimed at someone in the second row of the stands, there were countless cynical fouls and equally cynical dives. those players who were more than 10 meters away from the ball stood around listlessly, as if discussing with their opponents where to meet up for drinks after the match. Readers have probably gotten the drift, by now, but in hyperbolic conclusion, there are rumours that the J.League is changing the policy on punitive actions for players who accumulate too many yellow cards. Rather than suspending them from the next match, the League has decided to lock them in a room for 24 hours and force them to watch continuous reruns of the first half of the Grampus-S-Pulse match.

The first goal of this so-called football match came midway through the first half, on a suitably pathetic play. After two meaningless passes from opponent to opponent, an S-Pulse player discovered that it was his turn to take a whack at the ball, from slightly inside his penalty area. Swinging his leg wildly, he managed to bloop the ball weakly about five meters, where it fell right at the feet of Ivica Vastic . Vastic, one of only three or four players on the night whose OPTA rating was not a negative number, settled the ball once and -- since no defender bothered to run towards him -- decided to take a shot at goal. The ball was well placed, eluding the keeper's dive and putting Nagoya in front.

Nagoya's second goal was even more bizarre. Five minutes into the second half, coach Zdravko Zemunovic finally decided that he had to bring in Alex Santos , since he surely could do no worse than the other S-Pulse players were doing at that point. Nagoya had just won a free kick about 35 meters from goal, and S-Pulse brought their star midfielder in. As 21 of the 22 players on the pitch milled about like post office workers on their coffee break, Vastic decided that he might as well take the free kick. As he unleashed the 35-meter blast, S-Pulse keeper Masanori Sanada glanced up in surprise, as if astonished to discover that a football match was taking place. The ball sailed past him and into the top corner of the net, as every S-Pulse player (and to be fair, most of the Grampus players as well) scratched their heads wondering what had happened.

Thi final Grampus goal put a suitable cap on a truly abominable evening. Ten minutes from full time, keeper Seigo Narazaki took a goal kick from the corner of the three meter box. His long blast sailed down field as everyone from both teams watched in bemusement. The ball bounced once, ten meters on the S-Pulse side of midfield, and blooped over Ueslei's shoulder as he began runnuing for goal. Two S-Pulse defenders belatedly began to chase him, but he strolled right between them, volleyed the ball just before it could take a second bounce, and drove it underneath the flailing keeper and into the net.

Lineups:
Seigo Narazaki, Masahiro Koga, Andrej Panadic, Masayuki Omori, Tetsuya Okayama, Tomoyuki Sakai (Kei Yamaguchi 76), Motohiro Yamaguchi, Naoki Hiraoka (Kunihiko Takizawa 59), Naoshi Nakamura (Ryuta Hara 84), Ivica Vastic, Ueslei ,
Masanori Sanada, Tomohiro Ikeda, Katsumi Oenoki, Toshihide Saito, Daisuke Ichikawa, Teruyoshi Ito, Kazuyuki Toda, Yasuhiro Yoshida, Kohei Hiramatsu (Alessandro Santos 84), Masaaki Sawanobori, Baron (Yoshikiyo Kuboyama 73)

0 - 1

JEF United have been creating more danger on offense since the return of their ace striker, Korean national team member Choi Yong-Soo, and their strategy in this match focused largely on ways to feed the ball to Choi. Though the team's buildup was excellent in the first half, a combinantion of good defence by Tokyo and poor finishing by JEF prevented them from scoring. The first half, which was dominated by the home team, ended with no score.

Shortly after the break, coach Hiromi Hara decided that the only way to spark the Tokyo offence was to bring in "The King Of Tokyo", Amaral, who continues to be an essential element of the FC Tokyo attack despite his advancing age. Soon after the substitution, Tokyo had captured the offensive initiative, and were starting to create scoring chances of their own. The second half was an exhausting duel between two primarily offense-oriented teams, and provided good entertainment value for the sparse crowd of 6,000 at Ichihara Seaside. In the end, though, the match was decided on a single goal created by the two leading actors of Tokyo's midfield, Clesley "Kelly" Guimares and Naohiro Ishikawa . Kelly drove up the right flank until his progress was cut off by a JEF defender, then lobbed a high ball of Ishikawa and took off for the right post. The young Tokyo wing read Kelly's intentions perfectly, heading the ball back into his path towards goal, and allowing Kelly to slam a low drive into the left corner, to give Tokyo their margin of victory.

Lineups:
Ryo Kushino, Takayuki Chano, Zelko Milinovic, Eisuke Nakanishi, Masataka Sakamoto, Yuki Abe, Shigetoshi Hasebe (Takenori Hayashi 84), Shinji Murai (Naotake Hanyu 66), Shinichi Muto (Lubomir Moravcik 69), Katsutomo Oshiba, Choi Yong-Soo
Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji (Takayuki Komine 78), Jean Carlo Witte, Teruyuki Moniwa, Tetsuya Ito, Takahiko Shimotaira, Masashi Miyazawa, Naohiro Ishikawa, Kelly, Mitsuhiro Toda (Yuta Baba 80), Kenji Fukuda (Amaral 55)

After just one match, the league table does not have a great deal of meaning, but on an interesting historical note, Verdy currently hold the top spot in the league table for the first time since early 1997. Though it is probably too soon to predict that the Buzzard has risen from the grave, this may be an omen of interesting things to happen in the second stage. Here are the standings as of September 1.

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

J2 Watch -- A Four-Horse Race

Following the World Cup break, Albirex Niigata were the hottest team in the J2, making up 12 points on the early leaders, Oita Trinita and taking over first place in the standings. However, in their last three matches they have stumbled a bit. The team's post-World Cup rush was driven mainly by the fine performances of Brazilian strikers Marx and Beto. However, Beto (Valberto Amorim dos Santos) has missed the past few matches with a leg injury, and Marx was also sidelined for the team's Saturday contest against Mito Hollyhock, which Niigata lost by a score of 2-1. Albirex have a fairly solid midfield, anchored by two journeymen veterans Yoshito Terakawa, who played several seasons at JEF Ichihara, and Katsuyuki Miyazawa, who came up through the Urawa Reds organisation. The defence is also quite competitive, but in the final analysis, the team rests heavily on the shoulders of its two Brazilians. If Beto and Marx are absent for any extended period of time, the simply cannot produce enough goals to keep pace with Trinita or Cerezo. The condition of these two players will therefore be a major focus for Albirex fans in the coming weeks.

Cerezo Osaka moved temporarily into second place in the league table with a 1-0 win over Montedio Yamagata, this weekend, though they were assisted by a typhoon which prevented Oita from playing their scheduled match. Nevertheless, Cerezo have put their season back on track after a very unimpressive start. Considering the depth on the team, they were the favourites to win the J2 crown at the start of the season, and that status has not changed.

What has changed is the chemistry of the team, which used to be viewed as the J2 club with two World Cup members -- Hiroaki Morishima and Akinori Nishizawa. Today, the club is moving to a different beat altogether. In fact, if they were a band, Cerezo could call themselves "Yoshi and the Flaming Pinks". Second-year midfielder Yoshito Okubo has taken over as the dominant presence on this club, scoring a remarkable 12 goals from his position at central midfield, second in the league and six more than any other J2 midfielder. And his accuracy is almost unbelievable. His 12 goals have come on just 40 shots!!!! This compares with 11 goals in 113 shots by Kawasaki Frontale's Bentinho (hardly a slouch himself). As Okubo has matured and gradually established himself as the playmaker and dominant presence of this club, Cerezo have become a much better team. Since he is facing only second-class competition this year, it is still too soon to say how good Okubo really is. But based on the statistics alone, the 20-year-old has to be viewed as one of Japan's most promising youngsters.

Oita Trinita dashed out to a huge early lead in the second division, but since the World Cup break, their performance has been mediocre. Part of the problem was an injury to J2 scoring leader Andradinha, who missed several matches with a badly sprained ankle, and is only now returning to top form. They temporarily slipped to third place in the league table, due to the fact that their match on Saturday against Avispa Fukuoka was blown away by a typhoon, and was not played until September 3. However, in the make-up match they overcame Avispa comfortably and returned to the top of the table, albeit by just a single point.

Trinita have been the J2's hard luck case since the league was founded. In every season since 1999, Oita have finished just a few points shy of the promotion zone. In fact, the team failed to win promotion in the last match of the season twice in the past three years. This season, the team adopted a strategy that has been used to good effect by FC Tokyo and Vegalta Sendai in their campaigns to win promotion to the J1. Although the team still has a number of promising youngsters, the core of the team is built on players with substantial experience on J1 clubs, but who had been relegated to a reserve role. Thus, the team features players such as former Gamba Osaka keeper Hayato Okanaka, Avispa Fukuoka midfielder Tomoaki Komorida and Sanfrecce Hiroshima midfielder Iwao Yamane. Despite their recent slump, which has allowed Albirex, Cerezo and Frontale to climb back into contention, Oita has a solid core of experienced players, and will be a top contender for promotion.

The final contender, Kawasaki Frontale, got off to a horrendous start despite having what looked (on paper) to be a fairly competitive team. One problem may simply have been that the team had too many mature players who were brought to Kawasaki from other clubs last year. This could explain why the team had difficulty working as a unit earlier in the season. As the stretch run begins, however, Kawasaki have one advantage and one disadvantage compared with most rivals. On the positive side, the team features more players with prior J1 experience than any other team except Cerezo Osaka. This should contribute to stability and veteran professionalism down the stretch. On the other hand, Kawasaki has the highest average age of any J2 team. Not that Frontale are a collection of old geezers, but the age question could have an impact as the exhaustion of a 44-match schedule starts to sink in. In any event, with 12 points separating them from the top of the table, Frontale need to put on a spurt fairly soon if they hope to win promotion.

Here are the J2 standings as of 1 September:

.	Team	Pts	GP	W	D	L	GDif	GF	GA
1	Albirex Niigata	57	28	17	6	5	+21	48	27
2	Cerezo Osaka	56	28	16	8	4	+23	56	33
3	Oita Trinita	55	27	16	7	4	+19	38	19
4	Kawasaki Frontale	49	28	14	7	7	+9	45	36
5	Omiya Ardija	40	28	10	10	8	+10	35	25
6	Shonan Bellmare	37	28	9	10	9	-5	29	34
7	Avispa Fukuoka	32	27	8	8	11	+2	34	32
8	Ventforet Kofu	32	28	8	8	12	-11	28	39
9	Mito Hollyhock	28	28	8	4	16	-12	32	44
10	Sagan Tosu	25	28	5	10	13	-15	26	41
11	Montedio Yamagata	24	28	5	9	14	-16	20	36
12	Yokohama FC	19	28	4	7	17	-25	25	50

Rumours and Rumblings

Tokyo Company Helps Ahn Buy His Freedom

Ahn provided fuel for the speculative conflagration during his press conference in Seoul on Monday. Although he declined to name names, he did admit that he is in negotiation with a club and very close to an agreement. He then noted that the team was "in the Tokyo area, which is something I wanted." He also noted that the team was having trouble attracting fans and hoped he could help raise attendance, and that his presence might help the team avoid relegation.

On the basis of these three comments, the most obvious conclusion would be that Ahn is bound for Tokyo Verdy. But since Verdy already has three foreign players who all hold key roles in the team, some have speculated that the club could be either JEF United Ichihara or Shimizu S-Pulse. S-Pulse has an open spot for a foreign player, and could definitely use the assistance in improving their second-stage performance, though it would be hard to describe the team as "facing possible relegation". JEF, likewise, could probably fit Ahn into their lineup as a foreign player, since Lubo Moravcik has not figured much in the team's strategy since joining the club after the World Cup. JEF also are badly in need of a drawing card to help get fans into the seats of Ichihara Seaside stadium. But like S-Pulse, JEF are not in a position that justifies the description "facing possible relegation". Based on Ahn's three comments, most of the smart money is betting on a transfer to Tokyo Verdy.

As of last week, the stalemate between Perugia and Ahn, as well as Ahn's former club Busan I.cons, stood as follows. Busan were Ahn's official team of record, and refused to release him to Perugia without Ahn's agreement, but Perugia legally still had the right of first refusal for signing Ahn to a full transfer. The two clubs and Ahn were hoping to resolve the tug-of-war by having an English club purchase Perugia's right of first refusal for US$3.1 million, and sign the player. However, the British Home Office scotched this deal by refusing Ahn a working visa. With the transfer window in most European leagues closing, it looked like Ahn would be stuck in limbo for the rest of the year, unable to play for Busan and unwilling to play for Perugia .

But a Tokyo-based sports management comapny, Professional Management Co., Ltd., helped the player win his freedom from Perugia and is now in the process of negotiating a deal that would allow Ahn to play on loan for a J.League club until the end of 2002. Under the deal, Professional Management will pay the US$3.1 million transfer fee to Perugia thus ending their claims on the player. Perugia have confirmed that this fee has already been paid, so Ahn is now a free man! In return, Ahn has agreed to repay the US$3.1 million amount to Professional Management, most likely by allowing the company to claim the transfer fee he receives from whatever club signs him next year. But this gives him far more flexibility in deciding for himself who to negotiate with and where he wants to play. Ahn noted that "most leagues in Europe have already started, so it will be very hard to find a club. Until the next chance to move to Europe arrives, I want to try playing in Japan, to have a brand new experience."

Though Sports Management have given Ahn a big assist by helping him escape from the legal morass involving Perugia, this was certainly not done out of pure altruism. In addition to the high probability that the company can recoup its investment by next January, with the transfer fee Ahn collects from his next club, Sports Management will also receive a huge publicity boost. At the moment, the company indicates that it is talking to "several" J.League teams that are interested in signing Ahn to a rental contract through the end of 2002, but it declined to give any names. Ahn is already famous in Japan thanks to his World Cup exploits, so in addition to the prospect of a J.League rental contract, the company indicates that it is trying to find Ahn commercial endorsement contracts, for TV and newspaper ads.

"I will be going to Korea for a press conference tomorrow", said Ahn in a meeting with Japanese journalists, "but I hope to be back in Japan in a few days. The J.League already started its season (on August 31), but with luck, I can negotiate a contract and join a team by the middle of this month. I am really looking forward to a chance to make my debut in Japan".

Endo Injures Ankle, Matsuda Injures Reputation

If the loss of two important midfielder was not bad enough, it now appears that captain Naoki Matsuda may be suspended for several matches as a result of his temper tantrum in the same match. After the referee showed a second yellow card to his teammate, Naza, Matsuda said something uncomplimentary to the man in black, and was ejected from the match. To make matters worse, Matsuda tore off his uniform and captain's armband and flung them angrily on the turf before storming off to the dressing room. The J.League disciplinary committee will meet to discuss his punishment on Tuesday, but most people expect at least a two-match suspension. Thus, the Marinos will be without Matsuda, Endo and Naza for their match this weekend, and probably will miss Endo and Matsuda in their subsequent match, on September 21.

Morioka Undergoes Ankle Surgery

Pay-Per-View Killed the Video Star

In its place, the League will be introducing a new service, "J's Goal", which will allow users to download 5-minute highlight reels of the recent matches, at 500 yen a pop (a bit over US$4.00). Those not willing to shell out 500 yen for a brief, non-reviewable streaming video -- thats right, if you want to watch the same clip a second time, you have to pay another 500 yen!!!! -- will still be able to view very brief goal clips, but not until three days after the match, and only at a 28.8K transmission speed. Furthermore, the clips will not be archived, as they were at J-Ole, but will be removed after a week and replaced with the clips of the next week's matches.

Perhaps no one should be surprised that the League has let greed overtake their desire to provide information to the public, and generate support for the J.League. Perhaps there really ARE people out there who will be willing to pay 500 yen to watch a 5-minute highlight reel that they could watch on the evening news, instead. If so, more power to rampant capitalism. But one would expect the League to at least show a bit more respect for fans than to suddenly pull the plug on a highly popular web site without even so much as a notice to tell people why their browser keeps giving them a "404 Error, File not Found" message.

With deep regrets, the Rising Sun News will be deleting the (now functionless) video links from individual player pages over the next few days. We encourage those who once valued this excellent web resource to send your letters of complaint to the J.League office:

Shin-Nikko bldg., 2-10-1 Toranomon,
Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0001
E-mail: j-league@www.dentsu.co.jp

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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