---

September 18, 2002
Return to Parity

J.League teams face a busy schedule this week, with three matches in the space of eight days. The mid-week contests included two "derby" matches, pitting the two teams from Tokyo and the two Shizuoka clubs in head-to head matches. Though most of the league's top contenders won their matches, creating a large pack of teams all on nine points, there was one huge upset, as Vissel Kobe knocked Nagoya Grampus out of the top spot.

But before we look at the details, here are the complete results of Wednesday's matches

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
Sep 18		2-1		Kashima Stadium
Sep 18		1-1		KomabaStadium
Sep 18		3-1		Ichihara Seaside Stad.
Sep 18		2-1		Tokyo Soccer Stadium
Sep 18		1-0		Yokohama Intl. Stadium
Sep 18		0-2		Shizuoka Stadium
Sep 18		1-0		Expo '70 Stadium
Sep 18		2-0		Kobe Wing Stadium

2 - 1

From the outset of the match, Kashima displayed better ball control and were the more dangerous team, with Kyoto hanging on through desperate defending. In the 2 minute of the match, Mitsuo Ogasawara sent a blast off the crossbar, and five minutes later, Motoyama burst into the box only to be hauled down from behind, but the referee waved play on. Kyoto concentrated on plugging up the middle and looking for long outlet passes to Park Ji-Sung and Daisuke Nakaharai, whose individual skills provided the Purple Sanga with their most dangerous opportunities. The Antlers' control of possession seemed to make them a bit complacent, though, and the first goal of the match would come against the run of play.

In the 29 minute, Kyoto got one of their frequent counterattacks, with the ball released to Nakaharai at midfield. The big midfielder dribbled towards the left side of the box, but seemed to be well contained. Spotting Park on the opposite side, Nakaharai lobbed a long cross, and although Uchida had position on Park, he hung back a bit, as if expecting the Korean ace to settle the ball before attempting a move on goal. As so many opponents have learned, it is deadly to leave Park with space to operate, and he quickly made Uchida pay. Rather than trapping the long cross, Park put on a burst of speed and headed it back across the face of goal. The keeper was caught moving for the near post, and could only watch helplessly as Park's shot slipped inside the left post to put Kyoto in the lead.

The goal did not change the flow of play, however, and the Antlers almost immediately were back to work creating pressure through the middle and overlapping on the wings. It took just four minutes for this pressure to pay off. After a foul on the right sideline, level with the top of the box, Ogasawara send a long kick for the far post, and Koji Nakata sliced in behind the defence to head home the equaliser.

The remainder of the first half was scoreless, and there was little change to the strategy. The most notable events were a sequence of niggling fouls which the referee somehow construed as occasions to award yellow cards. Several of this week's matches were plagued by inconsistent referees, and even the two NHK announcers lapsed into a long discussion critical of recent J.League officiating. At one point, coach Gert Engels leapt off the Purple Sanga bench in outrage at a yellow card call, and earned himself an ejection.

The second half got off on a very similar note to the first. A nice back-set by Augusto nearly put the Antlers in the lead, as Naoto Honda blasted a shot just wide of the right post. Ten minutes in, the Purple Sanga got their best chance of the second half, as Uchida once again played too far off his man, and Teruaki Kurobe was able to get off a solid header from close range. Unfortunately his shot was a bit wide, and that would be the closest Kyoto came to scoring over the remainder of the match.

Kashima scored the winner ten minutes into the second half, on a corner kich from the right side. Ogasawara sent in a short kick, and young Tomohiko Ikeuchi headed it for the near post, collecting his first J.League goal. Kyoto put on a flurry of pressure immediately after conceding the lead, but within ten minutes the Antlers had restored control of midfield, and the Purple Sanga were forced to spend more of their time trying to avoid a third Antlers tally to put much energy into the attack. Eventually, time ran out on the visitors and Kashima claimed a share of the J.League lead.

Lineups:
Naoto Hirai, Makoto Kakuta, Kazuki Teshima, Kazuhiro Suzuki (Yusaku Ueno 87), Tadashi Nakamura, Daisuke Saito (Shinya Tomita 75), Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Shingo Suzuki, Park Ji-Sung, Teruaki Kurobe, Daisuke Nakaharai (An Hyo-Yong 66)
Hitoshi Sogahata, Akira Narahashi, Yutaka Akita, Tomohiko Ikeuchi, Jun Uchida, Naoto Honda, Koji Nakata, Augusto, Mitsuo Ogasawara (Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 88), Masashi Motoyama (Koji Kumagai 83), Atsushi Yanagisawa,

1 - 1

Just eight minutes into the match, 19-year-old striker Yuji Unozawa hurtled through the penalty area, knocking a ball free of the defenders and tucking it into the net before anyone could react. The Reds were taken completely off guard, and it took them some time to recover their poise and begin to get a majority share of possession. However, in the closing minutes of the first half, Urawa were knocking on the door, and soon after the restart, they finally got the score level once again.

In the 49 minute, Emerson exchanged balls with Tadaaki Hirakawa, and sent the young right wing down the left side on the overlap. Hirakawa outpaced his defender and turned into the box, forcing the Reysol defence to collapse. Spotting Hideki Uchidate on the opposite side, Hirakawa lofted a lob over the defence, and Uchidate met it with a strong volley into the back of the net.

That was all the scoring that either team would manage in this match. Tatsuya Tanaka was clearly hauled down from behind in the penalty box, just after the start of extra time, and there were numerous other calls on the fringes of the Reysol box that the referee saw fit to ignore. On the whole, though, Reysol were too physically imposing for the Reds strikers to break down, particularly when the officials were allowing such physical play to take place. Both Tanaka and Emerson showed their sparkling moves and speed, but they clearly are at a disadvantage when the defence decides to put a body on them. In the end, the match petered out in a 1-1 draw, leaving Urawa as the only undefeated team in the league, albeit a point adrift of several other teams on points.

Lineups:
Nobuhiro Yamagishi, Masami Ihara, Tadaaki Tsuboi, Ichiei Muroi, Nobuhisa Yamada, Hideki Uchidate, Keita Suzuki, Tadaaki Hirakawa, Masahiro Fukuda, Yuichiro Nagai (Tatsuya Tanaka 70), Emerson
Yuta Minami, Shinya Tanoue, Takeshi Watanabe, Keisuke Nebiki (Nozomu Kato 105), Tomonori Hirayama, Tomokazu Myojin, Norihiro Satsukawa, Ricardinho, Makoto Sunakawa (Harutaka Ono 52), Edilson, Yuji Unozawa

2 - 1

Though the emerging youngsters on both clubs was a point of interest, this match evolved into a duel between two veteran Brazilians, who directed the attacks for their respective squads. When all was said and done, FC Tokyo's wily old fox, Amaral, justified his nickname as the "King of Tokyo.

Verdy actually got the scoring started, on a lovely set-up play by Kazuki Hiramoto . The young striker cut through the Tokyo defence on the left side of the box and cut the ball back for Edmundo, who was unguarded at a spot inside the penalty arc. "The Animal" is deadly from this range even on free kicks, with a big wall in front. To leave him unguarded in such a position during the run of play is suicide, and Edmundo made sure to end the suffering with a thunderous blast right down the middle.

Edmundo continued to be the prime focus of Verdy attacks, but it was his opposite number, Amaral, who turned in a maestro's performance orchestrating the FC Tokyo offence. Nearly every dangerous thrust went through his boots, and though the old man may have lost much of his speed, he seems to be able to find space nearly anywhere on the pitch. Amaral equalised on a PK, after Alexandre Lopez turned the wrong way on an attempted clearance, and was forced to cut down Mitsuhiro Toda, who stole the ball from him in the box.

With the score all even at 1-1, midway through the second half, Amaral started off a pretty combination play that clinched victory for Tokyo. Amaral played a lob into the box for Toda, just as Clesley "Kelly" Guimares started to break for goal. Toda just had to nod the ball down into Kelly's path, and the young Brazilian had a wide-open shot from five meters that he easily tucked away for the winning goal.

Lineups:
Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Jean Carlo Witte, Tetsuya Ito, Teruyuki Moniwa, Takahiko Shimotaira, Masashi Miyazawa, Naohiro Ishikawa (Tetsuhiro Kina 20), Kelly, Mitsuhiro Toda (Kenji Fukuda 61), Amaral (Satoru Asari 85)
Yoshinari Takagi, Naoki Soma, Alexandre Lopez, Atsushi Yoneyama, Masayuki Yanagisawa, Takuya Yamada, Edmundo, Narita Takaki (Atsuhiro Miura 77), Daigo Kobayashi, Naoto Sakurai (Hideki Nagai 64), Kazuki Hiramoto (Jun Tamano 77)

3 - 1

Though JEF delivered a crushing defeat to their visitors from Sendai, the most notable, and most tragic thing about this match was the paltry crowd of just 3,000 at Ichihara Seaside Stadium -- more than half of them Vegalta supporters who made the long journey down from Tohoku. Following an early goal by Tadatoshi Masuda, Vegalta managed to equalise just after half time, on a strike by their ace, Marcos.

But the Vegalta fans would go home disappointed, as Choi Yong-Soo struck midway through the second half to put JEF in front to stay, and Shinji Murai finished off Vegalta's hopes with a late counterattack and goal.

Lineups:
Kiyomitsu Kobari, Kenji Suzuki, Ricardo, Norio Omura, Tatsuya Murata, Hitoshi Moriyasu (Naoki Chiba 78), Toshiyuki Abe, Teruo Iwamoto, Silvinho, Yoshiteru Yamashita (Nobuyuki Zaizen 86), Marcos
Ryo Kushino, Takayuki Chano, Zelko Milinovic, Eisuke Nakanishi, Masataka Sakamoto, Yuki Abe (Daisuke Saito 89), Yuto Sato, Shinji Murai, Tadayuki Masuda (Takenori Hayashi 58), Katsutomo Oshiba (Shigetoshi Hasebe 21), Choi Yong-Soo

0 - 2

Jubilo are having no such difficulties, despite their loss to the Urawa Reds last week. In the match against Shimizu, Jubilo applied almost continuous pressure on the S-Pulse defensive midfield, and Masashi Nakayama scored a goal on either side of the half time break to give Jubilo a comfortable win.

Lineups:
Masanori Sanada, Daisuke Ichikawa, Tomohiro Ikeda, Toshihide Saito, Takuma Koga (Jumpei Takaki 73), Teruyoshi Ito (Yoshikiyo Kuboyama 81), Kazuyuki Toda, Yasuhiro Yoshida, Alessandro Santos, Masaaki Sawanobori, Kohei Hiramatsu (Baron 45)
Hiromasa Yamamoto, Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Norihiro Nishi (Takahiro Kawamura 80), Takashi Fukunishi, Toshihiro Hattori, Toshiya Fujita, Hiroshi Nanami (Jun Kanazawa 88), Naohiro Takahara (Nobuo Kawaguchi 85), Masashi Nakayama

2 - 0

On the other end, Vissel got a boost once again from their two recent acquisitions, Harison and Oseas. For the second match in a row, both Brazilians collected goals to give the team a 2-0 victory and knock Grampus out of the top slot.

Lineups:
Makoto Kakegawa, Yasutoshi Miura Yukio Tsuchiya, Kunie Kitamoto, Sidiclei, Takeshi Hirano, Sidiclei, Tomo Sugawara, Mitsunori Yabuta, Harison, Ryuji Bando (Shoji Jo 69), Oseas
Seigo Narazaki, Masahiro Koga, Andrej Panadic, Masayuki Omori, Tetsuya Okayama (Keiji Kaimoto 72), Tomoyuki Sakai, Motohiro Yamaguchi, Kunihiko Takizawa (Naoki Hiraoka 80), Naoshi Nakamura, Ueslei, Ryuta Hara (Atsushi Katagiri 58)

1 - 0

Lineups:
Naoki Matsuyo, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Masao Kiba, Toru Araiba, Toru Araiba, Hideo Hashimoto (Masanobu Matsunami 77), Yasuhito Endo, Fabinho, Takahiro Futagawa, Kota Yoshihara (Marcelinho 56), Magrao
Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano, Michel Pensee Billong, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Kota Hattori, Yuki Matsushita, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Koji Morisaki, Chikara Fujimoto (Tatsuhiko Kubo, 63), Yutaka Takahashi (Hiroto Mogi 77), Tomislav Erceg (Naoya Umeda 81)

1-0(ET)

There is very little that could be said about this match, except that it demostrated how little opposition either team can mount to the league's better clubs. The Marinos seem to have fallen completely apart following the departure of Shunsuke Nakamura, whereas Sapporo have been drifting belly-up since the season started. The only notable thing about this match was that Tomoyuki Hirase scored his first goal since joining Yokohama from the Kashima Antlers, to give the Marinos a golden-goal victory.

Lineups:
Tatsuya Enomoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Yasuhiro Hato, Naza, Tatsunori Hisanaga, Yoshiharu Ueno, Daisuke Oku, Dutra, Nobuhisa Shimizu (Kunio Nagayama 50), Daisuke Sakata (Tomoyuki Hirase 99), Will
Yohei Sato, Jin Sato (Yasuyuki Moriyama 92), Biju, Kensaku Omori, Naoki Sakai (Ryuji Tabuchi 86), Yasuyuki Konno, Hitoshi Morishita, Tomohiro Wanami (Tomoaki Matsukawa 59), Gakuya Horii (Kazushi Sugayama 105), Jadilson, Yushi Soda,

1

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

Note: Scoring is three points for a win in regulation time, two points for a win in extra time and one point for a draw

Rumours and Rumblings

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.

Send all questions, comments and queries to: