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September 22, 2002
Upsets and Oddities Jumble the Pack

With five matches played in the second stage, it is beginning to look like no team wants to be viewed as the favourite to take the second-stage title. The way things are going, Jubilo Iwata may just make history by being the first team to capture both stages and secure the league championship, without the need for a playoff. But with so many upsets taking place in this stage, it is still an open question whether Jubilo can avoid a similar fate at the hands of an upstart team. Amazingly, the only team with an unbeaten record at this point is Urawa Reds!

But before we begin discussing the results of individual games, here are the complete results of Saturday's matches

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
Sep 21		1-2		Sapporo Dome
Sep 21		3-1		Sendai Stadium
Sep 21		1-0		Kashiwa-no-ha Stadium
Sep 21		1-1		Tokyo Soccer Stad.
Sep 21		1-2		Toyota Stadium
Sep 21		2-1(ET)		Nishikyogoku Stadium
Sep 22		6-1		Iwata Stadium
Sep 22		1-0		Hiroshima Big Arch

1 - 0

Kashima had plenty of chances to get on the scoreboard in this match, with good play creation from deep midfield, especially from Mitsuo Ogasawara and Akira Narahashi . But as has been the case in many recent matches, finishing let them down time and time again.

On the other side of the ball, Reysol are still looking quite disorganised on offense. Individual players have begun to show some signs of improvement. In particular, Brazilian striker Edilson and rookie Yuji Unozawa are beginning to create dangerous chances for the team up front. Reysol also are still one of the most physically punishing teams, and they displayed this capacity in the second half, as they protected a lead. Unfortunately, though, despite their win this week, the team still ooks very helter-skelter, and needs to go back to the basics, trying to develop a concept of team play.

For the second week in a row, Unozawa was behind the team's lone goal. Dribbling through the middle, he took advantage of some weak pressure on the ball to drive for the box, and send a slant pass to Ricardinho making a dash in from the right flank. Ricardinho drilled the ball on his first touch and slipped it between the keeper and the left post to give Reysol all they needed to collect their first victory in 13 matches.

Lineups:
Yuta Minami, Keisuke Nebiki, Toru Nagata, Norihiro Satsukawa, Mitsuteru Watanabe, Cesar Sampaio, Tomonori Hirayama, Tomokazu Myojin, Ricardinho, Edilson, Yuji Unozawa (Nozomu Kato 105), Makoto Sunakawa (Harutaka Ono 52),
Hitoshi Sogahata, Akira Narahashi, Yutaka Akita, Tomohiko Ikeuchi (Takeshi Aoki 69), Jun Uchida, Naoto Honda (Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 69), Koji Nakata, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Augusto, Masashi Motoyama (Takuya Nozawa 75), Atsushi Yanagisawa

1 - 2

This week, the Reds had the added boon of playing Consadole Sapporo, who seem to have already accepted relegation as their fate at the end of this season, and might as well just mail in the results of their matches and save themselves a trip to the stadium. Since midfielder Koji Yamase injured his leg, and was sidelined for perhaps the rest of this season, the team has looked very hapless in midfield. Although Takafumi Ogura and Jadilson both have the individual skills to create goals on their own, and need to be guarded with care, the rest of the team look like they will be right at home in the J2 division, next season.

The Reds got the scoring started just before half time, on a play that highlighted the skills of three players who are starting to shine, this season. Tadaaki Hirakawa, who only got his first start in the J.League at the beginning of the second stage but has played like a seasoned veteran ever since, got the play started with a 60-meter pass from deep in his own end. The ball was placed perfectly in the wide-open spaces of the left side, allowing Yuichiro Nagai to dash from the midfield stripe and collect the ball on the left edge of the box. Nagai, who has looked much more poised in his recent matches, put on a nice move that turned his defender and allowed him to turn the corner and move into the box. Looking up, he spotted Emerson racing in behind the play, and lobbed the ball for the Brazilian speedster to run onto. Emerson accelerated past his defender and caught the ball with a side-boot, flicking a shot that had very little "zing" on it, but nevertheless beat the flat-footed keeper.

The Reds doubled their tally shortly after the break, on another play that was set up by Nagai. This time, the 23-year-old striker found space on the right sideline, and sent his cross to Keita Suzuki at the edge of the penalty arc for a blistering line drive into the right side of the net.

Consadole began to get a few chances later in the second half, as the Reds seemed to take their foot off the accelerator. The team finally did manage to get a goal back on a long lob pass by Jin Sato which allowed Gakuya Horii to use his speed against the aging Masami Ihara . Horii won the race, to no one's surprise, and got a head on the ball to push it past the outrushing keeper. However, that was the only bullet in the Consadole arsenal, and the team went down to yet another defeat, while the Reds shocked even themselves by temporarily advancing to the top of the league table.

Lineups:
Yohei Sato, Jin Sato, Biju, Kensaku Omori (Yushi Soda 92), Naoki Sakai, Yasuyuki Konno, Hitoshi Morishita, Tomohiro Wanami (Srjdaan Baljak 59), Gakuya Horii, Jadilson (Yasuyuki Moriyama 84), Takafumi Ogura,
Nobuhiro Yamagishi, Masami Ihara, Tadaaki Tsuboi, Ichiei Muroi, Nobuhisa Yamada, Hideki Uchidate, Keita Suzuki, Tadaaki Hirakawa, Masahiro Fukuda, Yuichiro Nagai, Emerson

2 - 1

Marinos fans got a further lift in the 32 minute of the first half, as Yokohama got a big break on a rather unusual play. Following a lob into the box, striker Daisuke Sakata was denied a shot on goal by keeper Yoshinari Takagi, who came out of his net to smother the ball. But as Takagi found himself wrapped around both the ball and Sakata's feet, he was unable to latch onto the ball solidly. Somehow, Sakata managed to pry the ball loose without being whistled for a foul, and the loose ball rolled slowly towards the top of the box. With a burst of speed, Daisuke Oku pounced on the loose ball and slammed it into the open net.

But the Marinos continued to look disorganised, even with their captain back in his accustomed position in the back line. Verdy worked the ball well down both wings, and looked for opportunities to slip the ball to Edmundo in the middle of the pitch. Although the big Brazilian was unable to create any goals for his teammates, he did release Kazuki Hiramoto and Naoto Sakurai for several good shots on goal.

As time wore down in the second half, one of Verdy's efforts to create space for Edmundo paid off. After stealing a pass near the midfield stripe, Daigo Kobayashi released the ball quckly for Edmundo, who was isolated one-on-one with a defender. Edmundo took off for goal, using his powerful body to screen off the defender's desperate efforts to drive him away from his course towards the net. But Edmundo simply brushed these challenges aside, and sidestepped the outrushing keeper before tucking a shot neatly away for the equaliser.

Neither team was able to score in extra time, and consequently both had to settle for just one point, leaving the Marinos still in 15th position on the league table and pushing Verdy out of the pack of leaders, at least for the time being.

Lineups:
Yoshinari Takagi, Naoki Soma, Alexandre Lopez, Atsushi Yoneyama, Hayuma Tanaka, Takuya Yamada, Narita Takaki (Yoshiyuki Kobayashi 107), Daigo Kobayashi, Jun Tamano (Naoto Sakurai 45), Edmundo, Kazuki Hiramoto
Tatsuya Enomoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Naza, Yasuhiro Hato, Yoshiharu Ueno (Kunio Nagayama 106), Daisuke Oku (Kazuyoshi Mikami 114), Dutra, Nobuhisa Shimizu (Tatsunori Hisanaga 106), Daisuke Sakata (Tomoyuki Hirase 67), Will

1 - 0

But despite a number of good opportunities on both sides, the match was decided by just a single goal. It came in the 16 minute, on a counterattack by Gamba that moved the ball quickly from the Gamba end out to Toru Araiba on the left wing. Araiba carried the ball to the top left corner of the box and faked once or twice toward net, forcing his defender to shade him to the inside. This gave the speedy midfielder just enough space to accelerate for the end line and cross in to the far side of the box. Magrao, as he has done so many times this season, used his height and good positioning to outleap the defence and head the ball in at the back post. Thereafter, both teams created a number of scoring opportunities, but were unable to hit the net. The match ended with the score unchanged, at 1-0.

Lineups:
Seigo Narazaki, Masahiro Koga, Andrej Panadic, Masayuki Omori, Keiji Kaimoto (Kei Yamaguchi 56), Tomoyuki Sakai, Motohiro Yamaguchi (Ryuta Hara 72), Naoki Hiraoka (Kunihiko Takizawa 56), Naoshi Nakamura, Ivica Vastic, Ueslei
Naoki Matsuyo, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Masao Kiba, Toru Araiba, Toru Araiba, Hideo Hashimoto (Shigeru Morioka 63) (Noritada Saneyoshi 89), Yasuhito Endo, Fabinho, Takahiro Futagawa, Marcelinho (Kota Yoshihara 80), Magrao

2-1(ET)

Vissel got off to a promising start, as Oseas scored a goal in his third consecutive match. In just the 5 minute, Tomo Sugawara lobbed a long, 30-meter pass from the left sideline that gave Oseas a chance to show his individual strength on the ball. Although well marked by a defender, Oseas fended off the challenge while collecting the ball in full sprint and racing for the box, then cut his shot back, out of the path of the advancing keeper and into the low left corner.

Soon after their goal, however, Vissel began to dig themselves a hole with some rather undisciplined challenges on Sanga players. As Kyoto pressed for an equaliser, they were subjected to a number of "proffessional" fouls, which the very experienced Mr. Umemoto was not willing to overlook. The yellow cards quickly began to pile up. Just before half time, Kunie Kitamoto went in for a strong challenge on Daisuke Nakaharai, in the middle of the pitch, and was shown his second yellow of the match, reducing Kobe to ten men.

Despite their disadvantage, Kobe struggled gamely, and were able to maintain a clean ledger through 25 minutes of the second half. But in the 70 minute, just seconds after Oseas was taken off in place of Shoji Jo, the Purple Sanga equalised on a corner kick. Park Ji-Sung took the kick from the left corner and found Shingo Suzuki at the near post. The young midfielder leapt over his defender and flicked the ball on, finding a patch of open net and levelling the scores.

Neither team was able to add to the score in regulation time, but soon after the start of extra time, Kyoto won a free kick at the top of the penalty arc, above the box. Park took the kick and sent it crashing into the wall, but before Vissel could celebrate, the referee's whistle went and he pointed to the spot. Sure enough, the replays showed that Yasutoshi Miura had deliberately extended his arm to block the ball, and had been caught red-handed (or rather, "red-armed"). Teruaki Kurobe slammed in the PK to give Kyoto an extra-time victory.

Lineups:
Naoto Hirai, Kazuhiro Suzuki, Kazuki Teshima, Makoto Kakuta, Tadashi Nakamura (Daisuke Nakaharai 51), Daisuke Saito (Shinya Tomita 72), Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Shingo Suzuki, Park Ji-Sung, Teruaki Kurobe, Daisuke Matsui
Makoto Kakegawa, Yasutoshi Miura Yukio Tsuchiya, Kunie Kitamoto, Toru Irie (Masayuki Okano 88), Sidiclei, Tomo Sugawara, Mitsunori Yabuta, Harison, Ryuji Bando (Kazuyoshi Miura 21), Oseas (Shoji Jo 70)

3 - 1

Vegalta, themselves, have been a bit out of sorts since the World Cup break. After a stirring start to the season, the team has settled into mediocrity, though in Sendai's case, that probably is not much of a surprise, since the team is composed mainly of journeymen players who have bounced around the league without ever achieving stardom. Nevertheless, their hard work made Sendai a tough team to beat early in the year, and the arrival of another such journeyman gave the team a lift this week.

Playing his first match in a Vegalta uniform, veteran defender Masahiro Ando contributed to the team's opening goal with a fine display of dribbling against his former club. Ando took an overlap pass on the right wing and drove for the box, weaving his way through three S-Pulse defenders. As he reached the edge of the penalty area, he fired a low pass to Silvinho, who drove a shot into the open back side of the net.

Midway through the second half, Vegalta added to their tally, on a set play. Silvinho took a corner kick from the left side and his line-drive cross found Norio Omura racing in at the back post for a nice header. S-Pulse then put on a burst of attacking that engendered their best ten minutes of play in the entire match. This surge of momentum was capped, in the 72 minute, by a cross from Alessandro Santos on the left wing, which was headed in by striker Kohei Hiramatsu .

But with 20,000 roaring fans providing them encouragement, Vegalta regained their control of the match, and S-Pulse had no more truly dangerous opportunitied over the final 15 minutes. Indeed, as S-Pulse pushed forward in the dying moments of the match, a counterattack by Silvinho and Yoshiteru Yamashita put the icing on the cake, with Yamashita tapping in the final pass from Silvinho, with not a defender in sight.

Lineups:
Kiyomitsu Kobari, Kenji Suzuki, Ricardo, Norio Omura, Tatsuya Murata, Hitoshi Moriyasu, Toshiyuki Abe (Naoki Chiba 85), Masahiro Ando (Kazuhiro Murakami 89), Silvinho, Yoshiteru Yamashita, Marcos (Shinji Fujiyoshi 86)
Masanori Sanada, Daisuke Ichikawa, Tomohiro Ikeda, Toshihide Saito, Jumpei Takaki, Teruyoshi Ito, Kazuyuki Toda, Yasuhiro Yoshida, Masaaki Sawanobori (Baron 67), Kohei Hiramatsu, Alessandro Santos

1 - 0

Sanfrecce had the better share of possession over the course of this match, and created a number of excellent scoring opportunities, particularly through the set-up work of Tomislav Erceg and the strong presence of Naoya Umeda up front. JEF also looked dangerous at times, with Shinji Murai and Tadayuki Masuda doing the set-up work and Choi Yong-Soo constantly seeking shots up front. In the first 15 half hour of play, both teams had several near-misses and the pace of the match was brisk.

Then, in the 34 minute, JEF got the first big break. Murai Lobbed a ball into the box to Choi, with his back to the goal, and the big Korean striker held the ball in front of him while searching for a lane to the goal, like a basketball player looking to post up his defender. With a sudden burst of speed, Choi put a spin move on Tulio Tanaka and was on the verge of breaking clear when Tulio hauled him to the ground. The referee pointed to the spot, and Choi placed the ball down, preparing to take the kick. But he tried to over-finnesse his shot, and it caught the underside of the crossbar and bounced out of harm's way, leaving the big striker shaking his head in frustration

Just three minutes later, it was Sanfrecce's turn to take a pot-shot from the spot. Erceg carried the ball out of midfield towards the penalty box, and when the defence sagged off him, he decided to try to drive through on goal. As the pressure arrived, Erceg took a headfirst plunge to the turf, and although the contact was not particularly severe, the referee felt obliged to offset his earlier PK call to JEF with a similar chance for Sanfrecce. Tatsuhiko Kubo did a better job of placing his PK than Choi, and Sanfrecce took a 1-0 lead.

That was to be the only goal of the match. In the second half, Choi repeatedly beat the hapless defending of Tulio, but his shots were either off target, or handled by the nimble Takashi Shimoda . Sanfrecce created a number of good chances as well, especially when Chikara Fujimoto came on as a substitute in the latter stages of the second half. In the end, though, the PK goal was all that separated the two teams, and Sanfrecce claimed victory

Lineups:
Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano, Michel Pensee Billong, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Kota Hattori, Naoya Umeda (Yuki Matsushita 63), Kazuyuki Morisaki, Koji Morisaki, Yutaka Takahashi (Chikara Fujimoto 76), Tatsuhiko Kubo, Tomislav Erceg
Ryo Kushino, Takayuki Chano, Zelko Milinovic, Eisuke Nakanishi, Masataka Sakamoto (Mitsutoshi Watada 82), Yuki Abe, Yuto Sato, Shinji Murai (Takenori Hayashi 63), Shigetoshi Hasebe, Tadayuki Masuda (Shinichi Muto 70), Choi Yong-Soo

6 - 1

There is very little that can be said about this match except that it was never even the least bit in doubt. Jubilo grabbed the lead in the very first minute of the match, thanks to a goal by Toshiya Fujita , and for FC Tokyo, it simply got worse from then on. When Takahara scored the first of his four in the 15 minute, it still looked as though the match might remain close. Mitsuhiro Toda had a few chances in the first half, and although Naohiro Ishikawa was a bit off form due to an injury sustained the previous week, he had a hand in some decent opportunities for Tokyo early on.

But at half time, Toda was taken off, inexplicably, for Kenji Fukuda , and Ishikawa retired soon afterwards as his injury began to show its effect. Amaral, meanwhile, had a frustrating night, and with Tokyo's three main weapons all misfiring, Jubilo went on a rampage. Takahara added a goal just after half time, and another fifteen minutes into the second stanza, putting on a fine show that confirmed his place as the best forward in Japan, at the moment.

Fukuda struck back with FC Tokyo's lone goal of the match, but in the 85 minute Satoru Asari was sent off for a second yellow card, and the floodgates opened completely. Jubilo added two more goals in the final five minutes, and might have scored even more if not for some overenthusiastic shots by unmarked players.

Lineups:

Hiromasa Yamamoto, Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Norihiro Nishi (Nobuo Kawaguchi 78), Takahiro Kawamura, Toshihiro Hattori, Toshiya Fujita, Hiroshi Nanami (Jun Kanazawa 74), Naohiro Takahara, Masashi Nakayama
Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Jean Carlo Witte, Tetsuya Ito, Teruyuki Moniwa, Takahiko Shimotaira (Satoru Asari 38), Masashi Miyazawa, Naohiro Ishikawa (Tetsuhiro Kina 67), Kelly, Mitsuhiro Toda (Kenji Fukuda 45), Amaral

Their crushing victory over FC Tokyo moves Jubilo into uncontested control of first place in the league table, though there are no less than four other teams within a single victory of the League's top spot.

.	Team	Pts	GP	W (90/ET)	D	L	GDif	GF	GA
1	Jubilo Iwata	12	5	4 (4-0)	0	1	+8	12	4
2	Gamba Osaka	11	5	4 (3-1)	0	1	+5	8	3
3	Urawa Reds	11	5	4 (2-2)	1	0	+4	8	4
4	Kashima Antlers	9	5	3 (3-0)	0	2	+1	8	7
5	FC Tokyo	9	5	3 (3-0)	0	2	-3	6	9
6	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	8	5	3 (2-1)	0	2	+1	6	5
7	Kyoto Purple Sanga	8	5	3 (2-1)	0	2	-3	5	8
8	Tokyo Verdy 1969	7	5	2 (2-0)	1	2	+5	11	6
9	Nagoya Grampus	7	5	2 (2-0)	1	2	+2	7	5
10	Kashiwa Reysol	6	5	1 (1-0)	3	1	+0	5	5
11	Vegalta Sendai	6	5	2 (2-0)	0	3	-1	6	7
12	Vissel Kobe	6	5	2 (2-0)	0	3	-1	5	6
13	JEF United Ichihara	3	5	1 (1-0)	0	4	-3	4	7
14	Yokohama Marinos	3	5	1 (0-1)	1	3	-4	4	8
15	Shimizu S-Pulse	3	5	1 (1-0)	0	4	-7	3	10
16	Consadole Sapporo	1	5	0 (0-0)	1	4	-4	4	8

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

U-21 Hopefuls Train for Asian Games

One telling fact which illustrates the huge difference from the Troussier erea is the way that Zico seems to have won his point. After a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Jubilo Iwata, it was clearly apparent that the U-21 kids needed both a proven scorer, and a merciless taskmaster who would not accept lax play from his teammates. Since Okubo is currently both the J2's leading scorer and the most dominant personality on the Cerezo Osaka club -- and Nemoto is not far behind in either category -- the league decision to exclude J2 players from the Asian Games was starting to look like a fatal, self-inflicted wound that might even dash Japan's hopes of playing in the Athens olympics.

If we had still been under Troussier's watch, fans would have been preparing themselves for a loud and ugly scene as Troussier threw a public tantrum to cow the League into accepting his demands. But with Zico at the reins, we were spared any such histrionics. Instead, the team roster, including three J2 players, was released to the press without even the slightest comment about the League's earlier exclusion of J2 players. It would seem that either Zico got to the bureacrats with some behind-the-scenes cajoling, or he simply did an end run by naming J2 players to the squad, and they were too embarassed to object. Whichever the case may be, it is nice to see that Japan's new national team bosses can deal with the mundane organisational challenges of running a team without resorting to wild tirades and conflicts with the JFA and J.League. Now the only question is whether they can do as good a job in preparing their players to win football matches.

One interesting feature of the U-21 roster is the categorisation of players. There has been a great deal of discussion about what sort of system Zico will use in his national teams, with the vast majority of pundits assuming that a 4-4-2 will be the basic template for Zico-era squads. However, the identification of player positions, as listed in the official roster, seems to point towards a 3-5-2 lineup. To illustrate this point, lets take a look at the roster, by position. First of all, here is the roster as published in most of the national newspapers this week:

Even someone who is unfamiliar with the characteristics of each player would be able to see that this lineup has too many midfielders and too few defenders to support a 4-4-2 lineup. Those who know the personnel a bit better will marvel at the fact that players who were literally designed by their creator to play wing back, such as Hayuma Tanaka and Yuichi Komano, have been listed as midfielders. What exactly is the explanation?

The Rising Sun News is assuming that this is simply another example of Zico's quiet, elusive character. He has always been a man of few words who plays his cards close to the vest. (The best example of this is a comment that he supposedly made to reporters fishing for news on the full national team lineup. After announcing that he plans to call all overseas players for the Jamaica match, reporters asked him what he could tell them about any other players who might be in the squad. Zico stated with an impassive expression, "all of the others will come from J.League teams"). In our opinion Zico is simply listing his players according to their "orthodox" positions -- that is, the positions that everyone assumes they would play if Japan was still following the Troussier "flat three" system. The actual formation and strategy will not be on display until the team takes the field in Busan. However, assuming that he does play a 4-4-2, the table below is probably a better listing of the players by position:

Vegalta Counting the Casualties

In order to replace Watanabe in the back line, Sendai reached a transfer agreement with Yokohama Marinos, which will send Yokohama's highly promising rookie, Masahiro Kazama, to Sendai for a period of four months (through January 31, 2003). The 20-year-old defender has looked good in his brief appearances for Yokohama recently, while captain Naoki Matsuda was serving a disciplinary suspension. However, the quality of the Marinos starting back line has prevented the talented youngster from getting first-team action, and Yokohama apparently wants to give him more opportunities to play at a competitive level.

Japan Invited to "France 2003"

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