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September 30, 2002
Revenge of the Upstarts

One of the main themes of the week was the absence of key players from many teams. Some were gone on national team duty, with the U-21 squad which is currently at the Asian Games in Korea. Other teams have long lists of casualties, and the mounting injuries have forced them to rely on reserve players. But this was not the reason for the strong performance of "upstarts", since as a rule, the teams that were missing the most players were the teams that won their matches this week. So lets take a look at the action, beginning with the scores of this week's matches.

Week 6

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
Sep 28		3-2		Kashima Stadium
Sep 28		2-1(ET)		Saitama Soccer Stadium
Sep 28		1-0		Kashiwa-no-ha Stadium
Sep 28		3-2		Tokyo Soccer Stadium
Sep 28		2-1(ET)		Yokohama Intl. Stadium
Sep 28		3-2(ET)		Kobe U. Stadium
Sep 29		0-1(ET)		Sapporo Dome
Sep 29		2-0		Nishikyogoku Stadium

2-1(ET)

Unfortunately, even the charmed Korean midfielder could not restore S-Pulse's fortunes, particularly against a team that is quickly beginning to look like a real contender. Although the Urawa Reds were without two key youngsters, in Keita Suzuki and Tatsuya Tanaka (both of whom are at the Asian Games), they nevertheless dominated a team from Shimizu which features nine current or former national team members. Though a lack of good finishing kept the game close, it was surprising how much better the young and well-coordinated Reds team played, compared with the disjointed, ball-hogging antics of the Wingheads.

S-Pulse tried to develop a midfield passing game early on, but in the two key matchups on the wings, Alessandro Santos and Daisuke Ichikawa were completely dominated by Tadaaki Hirakawa and Nobuhisa Yamada. After the Reds established control of the game's pace, around the 10 minute, it became impossible to count the number of times that Yamada or Hirakawa carried the ball far into attack from the wing, and then moved the ball swiftly to strikers Yuichiro Nagai and Emerson , often by way of crisp drop passes to veteran Masahiro Fukuda , who played a masterful match in the playmaker role.

On the other side, S-Pulse relied almost entirely on long aimless passes to Kohei Hiramatsu up front, or individualistic dribbling by Santos, who seemed too intent on showing off his ball skills to even notice where his teammates were. On the opposite wing, Ichikawa was so thoroughly outplaed by Hirakawa that he became almost invisible following the first few sequences of play in the first half.

The only problem the Reds were having was on the finish. Despite a number of good chances, they were unable to score in the first half, and this gave S-Pulse a last chance to make something happen through the introduction of Ahn Jung-Hwan. The Korean playmaker was subbed in at the 55 minute mark, and almost immediately put on a display to energise his team. On his first touch of the ball, Ahn played a perfect lead pass over some 50 meters to Hiramatsu, sending him away into the right corner. But unfortunately his cross was a bit off target and Santos could only bloop a weak shot over the bar. Ahn had a near miss five minutes later, when he just barely failed to het his head on a Hiramatsu cross directly in front of net.

Nevertheless, the momentum was turning, albeit briefly, and S-Pulse managed to capitalise before it swung around once more. In the 73 minute, Hiramatsu cut into the box, and when his path to goal was cut off, dropped the ball to Santos at the top of the penalty arc. Santos immediately sent it back in, with a slicking through pass to Jumpei Takaki. It appeared that Takaki (as well as Hiramatsu) was offside, though Masami Ihara made it a closer call than necessary by failing to clear the zone on Hiramatsu's drop pass. Whatever the case may be, the referee played on, and Takaki had an easy, uncontested shot from close range to put S-Pulse in the lead.

Having dominated the match for almost the entire first 75 minutes, the Reds now found themselves a goal down. But perhaps the greatest sign of their maturing skills and development as a team was that they immediately went back to work using the same effective, workmanlike strategy, never once displaying the signs of panic that were typical of Reds teams in the past. Hans Ooft threw in Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel and Toshiya Ishii to bolster the attack, and the team got right back to business. In the 83 minute, Urawa got the break they needed, when Emerson -- by far the most frequently fouled player in the J.League -- showed the merits of his amazing acceleration (S-Pulse collected eight yellows in this match, all but two of them on plays in which desperate defenders were forced to foul Emerson). The Brazilian speedster took a quick slant pass from Yamada and simply blew past Toshihide Saito like a Maserati drop-starting against a fully loaded Daihatsu dump truck at a stop light. Saito panicked and threw his arms around Emerson, dragging him to the ground. The referee quickly produced Saito's second yellow card of the match, and although his teammates argued at his dismissal, the foul was of the sort that often produces immediate red cards, so there was really no question about the decision to reduce S-Pulse to ten men.

Taking the free kick from just outside the right corner of the area, the Reds swiftly capitalised. Yamada's initial lob into the box was deflected by a defender, but two Reds players kept it alive, heading the ball around the box until Ishii managed to get a boot on it and drive it just inside the left post.

Now S-Pulse were in full retreat, and the Reds were unfortunate not to get the winner just before the end of regulation. A lovely cross to the left post was driven milimeters wide of the upright by Emerson, in the dying moments, but in the end, the match moved on to extra time. It didnt take long for the Reds to finish off the ten-man team from Shimizu, though. Just seven minutes into extra time, Yamada put on a display of dribbling that outdid anything that Santos had displayed in this is match, turning three defenders inside-out before cutting the ball to Tuto directly in front of goal. Tuto used a first-time dummy to get his defender off balance, then drilled a shot into the low right corner to give Urawa the victory and leave them as the only undefeated team in the second stage.

Lineups:
Nobuhiro Yamagishi, Masami Ihara, Tadaaki Tsuboi, Ichiei Muroi, Nobuhisa Yamada, Hideki Uchidate, Masaki Tsuchihashi (Toshiya Ishii 67), Tadaaki Hirakawa, Masahiro Fukuda (Tuto 75), Yuichiro Nagai, Emerson
Masanori Sanada, Daisuke Ichikawa, Peceli, Toshihide Saito, Jumpei Takaki, Teruyoshi Ito (Baron 81), Kazuyuki Toda, Yasuhiro Yoshida (Takuma Koga 42), Masaaki Sawanobori (Ahn Jung-Hwan 56), Kohei Hiramatsu, Alessandro Santos

3 - 2

The score line of this match is very deceptive, since Verdy dominated for all but a few short spells. It is difficult to say exactly who deserves the credit, whether it be the dour and unflappable ace Edmundo, or the equally dour and loud-voiced coach Lori Paulo Sandri. But something has transformed the Verdy players, particularly the youngsters. Players like Daigo Kobayashi, Kazuki Hiramoto and Jun Tamano played this match like seasoned veterans, and their air of confidence and professionalism hung over the field like a heavy September fog. Regardless of where the team finishes this season, it is clear that the young generation at Verdy has grown up, and they will be a force to be reckoned with in future seasons.

Though Verdy had the upper hand early in this match, it was Nagoya who struck first on a nice set play in the 8 minute. After winning a corner kick on the right side, striker Ivica Vastic centered the ball for his partner Ueslei . The big Brazilian headed the ball on to the far post, and Masahiro Koga headed it into the net.

Though the goal gave Grampus a brief burst of energy, by midway through the first half, Verdy were in control of both ball possession and momentum. Their repeated thrusts through the middle of the Nagoya defence, and overlaps down the flanks, eventually paid off just before half time, on a set play very similar to Nagoya's score. Daigo Kobayashi took a corner kick from the right side and found Atsushi Yoneyama at the edge of the box. The defender pushed the ball on for the far post, where Yoshiyuki Kobayashi finished it off with a simple tap-in.

Shortly after half time Verdy moved into the lead, after a nice individual play by Edmundo. After a long Verdy pass went astray in the right corner, Edmundo refused to give up on it, chasing back to harry the Grampus defender. Blocking the clearance pass, Edmundo managed to collect the loose ball, and then play a pretty one-two with Hiramoto to get free just outside the box. Edmundo's blistering shot was blocked by the keeper, but Naoto Sakurai swooped in at the far post to knock in the rebound.

In the 70 minute, another steal by Edmundo gave Verdy their third goal. snatching a contested ball on the right side of the Grampus box, Edmundo dropped a pass for Sakurai, breaking on net. Sakurai stepped around the last defender, who could do nothing but knock the Verdy striker off his feet, and concede a PK. Edmundo finished off the penalty and Verdy were on their way to victory.

Grampus managed to make the score line look respectable with a late goal, as Motohiro Yamaguchi collected a clearance on the edge of the box and fired a long shot through the crowd of players and into the left side of the net. But Verdy controlled the final few minutes of play and went off with a well-deserved win.

Lineups:
Yoshinari Takagi, Takuya Yamada, Naoki Soma, Masayuki Yanagisawa, Atsushi Yoneyama, Kentaro Hayashi, Yoshiyuki Kobayashi, Daigo Kobayashi, Jun Tamano (Naoto Sakurai 45), Edmundo, Kazuki Hiramoto (Takuya Kawaguchi 82)
Seigo Narazaki, Masahiro Koga, Andrej Panadic, Masayuki Omori, Tetsuya Okayama, Kei Yamaguchi, Motohiro Yamaguchi, Naoki Hiraoka (Taku Harada 78), Kunihiko Takizawa (Ryuta Hara 63), Ivica Vastic, Ueslei

3 - 2

Early on, this match looked like it might be an Antlers romp. Throughout the first half, Kashima dominated possession and created change after chance with crisp ball movement at midfield and slicing passes through the defence. However, striker Atsushi Yanagisawa is in a goal slump of unparallelled proportions, and he managed to flub every golden opportunity that came his way in the first 40 minutes, including two nearly uncontested breakaways.

Just before the half ended, the Antlers' pressure finally did bring rewards. Koji Nakata sent a well-placed lob into the box, and diminutive Masashi Motoyama , who had position on the ball, was bowled over by defender Takayuki Chano. Yanagisawa finally was able to break his scoreless streak on the subsequent PK, and the Antlers were 1-0 up at half time.

As the second half began, the Antlers went to work methodically pressing for a second goal, and it looked like the match was clearly in their grasp. But the team got a bit sloppy after their first few possessions, and a defensive lapse for about ten minutes put them in a real jam. In the 58 minute, Shinji Murai picked up a long clearance pass about 30 meters out from goal, and when the defence failed to close in on him quickly, he decided to try a long shot. The ball surely would have been handled easily by the keeper, but halfway to the goal it struck Yuto Sato in the back and took a wild deflection, slipping inside the post opposite the one that Hitoshi Sogahata was covering.

The goal gave JEF a boost of confidence, and the Antlers, by contrast, failed to respond immediately. In fact, an even worse defensive miscue would soon follow. Once again, a long clearance pass from the JEF defence set up the play. for some reason, Sogahata and inexperienced defender Tomohiko Ikeuchi got their signals crossed, and when the ball bounced past Ikeuchi, Sogahata was forced to rush out of his box to try to clear it. The clearance fell directly to Takenori Hayashi , who alertly fired a soft lob in the direction of the untended net, before the defenders could retreat to cover up for the stranded Sogahata.

Once they had relinquished the lead, though, the Antlers seemed to regain their bearings, and for the final 20 minutes of the match, they showed what they are capable of when they are playing well. Toninho Cerezo brought in two key players to bolster the offence, Koji Kumagai and Yoshiyuki Hasegawa. The next 20 minutes brought a barrage of Antlers attacks which put JEF entirely on the defensive, and provided one scoring opportunity after another. In the 74 minute, a foul 35 meters out on the left gave the Antlers a chance for a set play, and Motoyama provided a perfect ball to the far post which Koji Nakata headed back across the face of net and into the left corner. Then, with regulation time running down, Akira Narahashi made a nice overlap down the right wing and crossed the ball into the box. It was a bit off target, but Hasegawa managed to head it on for the far post, and Augusto swooped in to head the ball home and complete the comeback.

Lineups:
Hitoshi Sogahata, Akira Narahashi, Yutaka Akita, Tomohiko Ikeuchi (Koji Kumagai 70), Jun Uchida, Naoto Honda (Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 70), Koji Nakata, Mitsuo Ogasawara (Junji Nishizawa 89), Augusto, Masashi Motoyama, Atsushi Yanagisawa
Ryo Kushino, Takayuki Chano, Daisuke Saito, Zelko Milinovic, Eisuke Nakanishi, Masataka Sakamoto, Shigetoshi Hasebe (Naotake Hanyu 89), Yuto Sato, Shinji Murai, Takenori Hayashi,(Tadayuki Masuda 80), Choi Yong-Soo

2 - 1

But while the Marinos got off the majority of the shots, it was FC Tokyo who drew first blood. In the 10 minute, Masashi Miyazawa provided a well-placed lob into the box for Amaral, and "The King of Tokyo" stooped low to head a shot into the low left corner. Yokohama replied just before the half, on a corner kick from the left side. The cross was well placed, and Will rose out of the pack directly in front of goal to head it home.

The remainder of the match was frustrating for both teams. Despite a multitude of opportunities, neither one could get the ball into the net. Just as it appeared that the match was going into extra time, though, the Marinos got a break on a freaky play. Daisuke Oku collected a cross at the top of the box, directly in front of goal. Though slightly off balance, he released a shot on goal as he fell to the ground. The ball was blocked by a defender and deflected straight back. Though he was lying flat on his back, Oku managed to swivel his legs and get off a second shot, which slipped through a forest of legs and into the goal to give the Marinos victory.

Lineups:
Tatsuya Enomoto, Shogo Kobara (Tatsunori Hisanaga 55), Naoki Matsuda, Naza, Yasuhiro Hato, Kunio Nagayama (Daisuke Sakata 69), Dutra, Yoshiharu Ueno, Daisuke Oku, Nobuhisa Shimizu, Will
Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Jean Carlo Witte, Tetsuya Ito, Ryuji Fujiyama, Takahiko Shimotaira, Masashi Miyazawa, Yukihiko Sato (Takayuki Komine 67), Kelly, Mitsuhiro Toda (Kenji Fukuda 76), Amaral

3-2(ET)

Kobe got the scoring started just before half time on perfect cross by Takeshi Hirano, a former national team player who saw little action under former coach Ryoichi Kawakatsu, but has looked impressive since the transformation of the club, in the second stage. Hirano's cross found Oseas directly in front of goal, and the big, cornrowed striker had an easy finish with a powerful header.

Shortly after the half, Gamba equalised on a powerful blast by Yasuhito Endo from about 30 meters, which caught the keeper napping and found the back of the net. Kobe reclaimed the lead in the 71 minute, on a fine individual move by Naoya Saeki. The midfielder received a pass on the left side of the box with his back to the goal, and put on a lovely spin move that beat the defender and gave him an open sjhot from ten meters. Saeki placed his shot well, in the high, opposite corner of the net. But Gamba struck right back, with Marcelinho Carioca placing a delicate chip onto the head of Gamba's scoring ace, Magrao. The towering center forward powered his header past the keeper to knot the score and send the match into extra time.

No sooner had the golden goal period kicked off than Hirano provided another splendid feed, slicing through the defence to Shoji Jo on the top right corner of the penalty area. The much-maligned Jo turned and fired, and his shot snuck inside the far post to give him his first goal in over a year, and lift Vissel to their third straight victory, moving them well clear of the relegation zone.

Lineups:
Makoto Kakegawa, Yasutoshi Miura (Naoya Saeki 52) Yukio Tsuchiya, Shuusuke Tsubouchi (Toru Irie 66), Takeshi Hirano (Takayuki Yamaguchi 90), Sidiclei, Tomo Sugawara, Masayuki Okano, Mitsunori Yabuta, Ryuji Bando (Shoji Jo 60), Oseas
Naoki Matsuyo, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Masao Kiba, Toru Araiba, Toru Araiba, Shigeru Morioka (Masahiro Matsunami 80), Yasuhito Endo, Fabinho, Takahiro Futagawa, Marcelinho Carioca, Magrao

1- 0

The officiating was as bad as the play of the two teams, with numerous yellow cards for meaningless infractions, though it must be said that Vegalta and Reysol are the two most heavily carded teams in the league. Furthermore, a clear penalty kick for Vegalta in the dying moments of the match was ignored, and the referee blew full time just as Vegalta had won a corner kick, and were throwing ten men forward to try for one last shot. In any event, Reysol will welcome the three points, which move them a bit closer to safety in the battle against relegation.

Lineups:
Yuta Minami, Keisuke Nebiki, Toru Nagata, Norihiro Satsukawa, Mitsuteru Watanabe, Cesar Sampaio (Takeshi Watanabe 71), Tomonori Hirayama, Tomokazu Myojin, Ricardinho (Nozomu Kato 89), Edilson, Yuji Unozawa (Harutaka Ono 84)
Kiyomitsu Kobari, Kenji Suzuki, Ricardo, Norio Omura, Tatsuya Murata, Hitoshi Moriyasu, Toshiyuki Abe (Kazuhiro Murakami 79), Masahiro Ando, Silvinho, Yoshiteru Yamashita (Masaru Otomo 83), Marcos (Shinji Fujiyoshi 86)

0-1(ET)

The second half was a very different match indeed. Jubilo obviously discussed Consadole's strategy at half time, and made the necessary adjustments. Rather than trying to string together an excessive number of short passes, the players began taking on their opponents on the dribble, passing off only after drawing at least one additional defender. This immediately destroyed Consadole's efforts to compress the field and cut off passing lanes, since the superior dribbling skills of the Jubilo players allowed them to offset the advantage of playing in a compressed space. As a result, most of the second half was played deep in Consadole territory, with Jubilo creating chance after scoring chance.

But although they were now winning the battle for possession and offensive opportunity, Jubilo were quickly losing their composure. The fierce pace of the first half had worn both teams down. With each shot that was blocked by the fine play of keeper Yohei Sato or the back-line patrolling of libero Biju, Jubilo seemed to grow more frustrated. After one sequence in which Naohiro Takahara and Toshiya Fujita both hit the woodwork in a space of under five minutes, the Jubilo team looked to be on the verge of snapping. Indeed, after one hard tackle by Biju late in regulation time, Takahara allowed Biju to goad him into a prolonged shouting match, apparently oblivious to the fact that the Consadole defender was simply using this as a tactic to waste time. The tactic worked, as Jubilo were simply too keyed up to find the net. Regulation time ended with the score 0-0.

As extra time began, though, there was somewhat of a change in atmosphere. Jubilo no longer played as if they were racing against the clock. Indeed, they had been outplaying Consadole completely since the start of the second half, and with 30 minutes of time to score a golden goal, some of the pressure was off them. Consadole, on the other hand, had put up a valiant struggle, but they were at the end of their stamina. Only late substitutes Jadilson and Srjdan Baljak were still able to chase the ball. The rest of the players were on their final reserves of energyu, and it didnt take long for them to collapse. Seven minutes into extra time, Takahara drove into the penalty area and his momentum towards goal forced the last two defenders to collapse on him. The ace striker waited until the very last second and then pushed the ball square to Masashi Nakayama. The veteran was wide open less than ten meters from goal, and all he had to do was slip the ball past the outrushing keeper to give Jubilo the winning goal.

Lineups:
Yohei Sato, Jin Sato, Biju, Kensaku Omori, Naoki Sakai, Yasuyuki Konno, Hitoshi Morishita, Tomohiro Wanami (Srjdan Baljak 85), Gakuya Horii, Tomokazu Hirama (Jadilson 72), Yushi Soda (Yuki Tazawa 84), Takafumi Ogura,
Hiromasa Yamamoto, Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Norihiro Nishi (Nobuo Kawaguchi 78), Toshihiro Hattori, Toshiya Fujita, Jun Kanazawa (Hiroshi Nanami 74), Naohiro Takahara, Masashi Nakayama

2 - 0

Park Ji-Sung , who was playing his last match for a few weeks, and will join his Korean teammates at the Asian Games at midweek, put on quite a show, breaking down the Sanfrecce defence by repeatedly blowing by Michel Pensee Billong and slashing into the box. In the latter stages of both the first and second halves, Park linked up with Teruaki Kurobe on startlingly similar plays. In both cases, a lead pass from midfield sent Park for the left post, and in both cases, Park rounded Billong before pushing the ball across the face of goal for Kurobe, trailing the play. Both times, the bleach-haired striker simply had to side-foot the ball into the open net.

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
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

Following their win on Sunday, Jubilo return to the top of the table. Since they were unable to win their match in regulation time, though, they find themselves with several hungry competitors breathing down their necks. Urawa Reds, who are still unbeaten in the second stage, sit one point off the pace, Kashima Antlers are two points back and Gamba Osaka and Kyoto Purple Sanga are both just three points behind.

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

Antlers & Reds are Golden in Nabisco Cup Semis

2-1(ET)

2-3(ET)

Interestingly enough, their opponent in this match, Gamba Osaka, have a similar record of disappointment. In fact, Gamba are now the only team among the J.League's ten original members that has never taken part in a championship match of any kind. This disappointment will be hard to swallow for Gamba fans. For a while, it looked like they were on their way to victory in front of a home crowd at Expo '70 Memorial ("Banpaku") Stadium. After Emerson gave the Reds an early lead, Gamba came roaring back, with their towering striker Magrao scoring two goals to give them a 2-1 lead at half time.

However, the Reds have been very much a second-half team this season, and are particularly deadly in extra time matches (since the start of the second stage, the team, has won no less than five matches by "golden goals", and has yet to lose a match in extra time). Sure enough, the team's ace striker, Emerson, knotted the score shortly after half time on a penalty kick, after being hauled down in the area. When the match moved into extra time, the fleet-footed Brazilian finished off his hat trick in the 107 minute, and carried his club into the Nabisco Cup final.

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