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October 7, 2002
Dont Look Back

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, lets take a look at the scores of this week's matches:

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
Oct 5		3-0		Komaba Stadium
Oct 5		2-0		Ichihara Seaside
Oct 5		0-1		Tokyo Soccer Stadium
Oct 5		3-0		Nihondaira Stadium
Oct 5		0-2		Expo 70 Stadium
Oct 5		1-2(ET)		Hiroshima Big Arch
Oct 6		4-1		Kashima Stadium
Oct 6		0-1		Yokohama Intl Stadium

0 - 2

Takahara finally did get on the tally sheet just a few minutes later, though, on a play that added an exclamation point to his league-leading goal total. Masashi Nakayama collected a feed on the right side of the box and looped a long cross for the far post. Though the ball was a bit behind him, Takahara swiveled his body and delivered a stunning overhead kick which, though it had little steam on it, was placed well enough to beat the keeper to the far post.

Gamba had chances of their own, showing that they have the weapons to be a contender if they can only get them all to fire properly. Yasuhito Endo, Marcelinho Carioca and Toru Araiba all have excellent set-up capabilities, whereast the team's leading striker, Magrao, has become one of the most dangerous finishers in the league, excelled only, perhaps, by Takahara himself.

But as Jubilo demonstrated again this week, their offence may be what scores the goals, but it is defence that is winning games for them. Apart from a few half-chances, the back line managed to turn away the Gamba attack time and again. With time running out and Gamba searching desperately for an equaliser, Takahara finally fired the final bullet to put the home team out of its misery. Collecting a long clearance pass on the left sideline, Takahara took the ball to the corner, then sliced rigth between two defenders to make a rush into the box. Before the keeper could get off his line, the Jubilo ace fired a low-angle shot into the roof of the net, and Jubilo clinched victory.

Lineups:
Naoki Matsuyo, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Masao Kiba, Toru Araiba, Toru Araiba, Hideo Hashimoto (Masahiro Matsunami 85), Yasuhito Endo, Fabinho, Takahiro Futagawa (Kota Yoshihara 45), Marcelinho Carioca (Shigeru Morioka 75), Magrao
Hiromasa Yamamoto, Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Norihiro Nishi (Jun Kanazawa 68), Takashi Fukunishi (Takahiro Kawamura 45), Toshihiro Hattori, Toshiya Fujita, Hiroshi Nanami, Naohiro Takahara, Masashi Nakayama (Nobuo Kawaguchi 83)

3 - 0

With the Reds most effective defensive midfielder, Keita Suzuki, away in Busan with the U-21 team, coach Hans Ooft decided to throw out a surprise lineup, with Yuichiro Nagai , Emerson and Tuto taking the field as triple strikers in a 3-4-3 lineup. The speed and ball skills of these three attackers, plus the estimable setup skills of Masahiro Fukuda in the middle, and Hirakawa and Nobuhisa Yamada on the wings, had Vissel in retreat all night long. Though Vissel have looked a lot more competitive since new coach Hiroshi Matsuda took over and restructured the back line, even the ball pressure of Takeshi Hirano and Sidiclei, and the back line play of Yukio Tsuchiya and Kunie Kitamoto, could not keep the Reds at bay for long.

Urawa got the scoring started in the 20 minute, on a play that demonstrated how dangerous the 20-year-old Emerson has become. After collecting a pass at midfield, Emerson put on a burst of speed to split two defenders at midfield, and, as the back line rushed forward to cut off his dash, he pushed the ball into space for Tuto to collect, for a wide-open shot on net. This theme would be repeated throughout the match, as Vissel were repeatedly caught overplaying one or both of the two Brazilians. Ten minutes after the first goal, Nagai started a break from midfield with Tuto on his left and Emerson on his right. Ten meters above the box, as he sent a slant pass to Tuto, two defenders followed the ball and two others rushed to shadow Emerson as he accelerated down the right wing. This left the middle of the pitch wide open for Nagai, who was rewarded with a return pass from Tuto and another easy, uncontested finish.

Just before half time, the third member of the strike force got his tally as well. Once again, the play began as the three forwards took off together on a break. Nagai provided a lead pass for Tuto, who was racing for goal side by side with Emerson. Tuto continued to barrel for the box until the last defender committed himself, and then pushed the ball into open space where the blazing speed of Emerson won him the ball and yet another free shot on goal.

The second half was a bit more sedate, as Kobe came out with a more defensive attitude, and the Reds seemed satisfied with the three-goal lead that they had already assumed. The most notable plays of the second session came at the defensive end of the field, where Tsuboi put on a highlight show of man-marking. Time and again, Vissel tried to get the ball to their ace striker, Oseas, but Tsuboi was clinging to the big Brazilian like a soaking wet sweatshirt, allowing him only one shot in the entire match, and that a desperate overhead kick taken when he received a ball just to the left of goal, and Tsuboi simply refused to allow him to turn around to face the net. Based on this fine performance, it seems highly likely that the youngster will be getting a call-up for the Jamaica match, and could even see his first action as a member of the national team!

Lineups:
Nobuhiro Yamagishi, Masami Ihara, Tadaaki Tsuboi, Hideki Uchidate, Nobuhisa Yamada, Toshiya Ishii, Tadaaki Hirakawa, Masahiro Fukuda, Tuto, Yuichiro Nagai, Emerson
Makoto Kakegawa, Tomo Sugawara, Yukio Tsuchiya, Kunie Kitamoto, Takeshi Hirano, Sidiclei, Naoya Saeki, Harison, Mitsunori Yabuta (Masayuki Okano 24) (Toru Irie 55), Shoji Jo, Oseas

0 - 2

Though many doubted whether he could make the adjustment effectively, "The Animal" has clearly been tamed by his new team. Formerly known as a wildly impetuous striker with even less restraint on the field than he showed off it, Edmundo has matured into a calm and steadying influence -- indeed, a true role model in every way -- for his young apprentices. Under his tutelage, players like Daigo Kobayashi, Kazuki Hiramoto and Jun Tamano are playing with a degree of confidence and precision that nobody would have expected even as recently as the start of this year. Their opponents on Saturday, JEF United, never stood a chance in this match. They certainly could not count on a boost from the home crowd, as Ichihara Seaside stadium managed to attract a paltry 4,000 fans. The weakness of JEF's supporters was matched by their play on the field. Thought there are several players who show signs of promise, they lack the cohesion and assuredness that Verdy are showing these days.

Tokyo took the lead in the 21 minute, on a fine individual play by one of the team's last remaining old-timers. Veteran midfielder Atsuhiro Miura collected a lob pass from Kobayashi in the right corner, turned his defender the wrong way, and rushed into the box. As the keeper and defenders tried to collapse on him, Miura quickly released a low-angle shot that snuck in under the crossbar, putting Verdy in the driver's seat.

Though Verdy failed to increase their lead for the next 75 minutes, they controlled possession and the tempo of the match, allowing JEF only infrequent counterattacks and long balls for ace striker Choi Yong-Soo, which were all comfortably turned away by the Verdy defence. With time running down, Edmundo collected a pass from Naoto Sakurai at the top right corner of the penalty area. Pausing a second to freeze his defender, Edmundo made a quick move for the end line and then hooked a powerful shot across the face of goal, which slid inside the far post and gave Verdy a 2-0 margin of victory.

Lineups:
Tomonori Tateishi, Takayuki Chano, Zelko Milinovic, Daisuke Saito, Masataka Sakamoto (Tadayuki Masuda 89), Shigetoshi Hasebe, Yuto Sato (Naotake Hanyu 58), Shinji Murai, Katsutomo Oshiba, Takenori Hayashi, (Mitsutoshi Watada 73), Choi Yong-Soo
Yoshinari Takagi, Naoki Soma, Alexandre Lopez, Atsushi Yoneyama, Masayuki Yanagisawa, Takuya Yamada, Kentaro Hayashi, Atsuhiro Miura (Naoto Sakurai 58), Daigo Kobayashi (Narita Takaki 45), Edmundo, Kazuki Hiramoto (Hayato Yano 80)

3 - 0

S-Pulse played a very offensive formation in this match, perhaps partly a reflection of their opponent. Ahn and Baron started up front, with Alessandro Santos and Kohei Hiramatsu at the wings. Yet with all this firepower up front, the star of this match was Srdan Peceli , who started at left wing back.

The pitch at Nihondaira was in horrendous condition, apparently as a result of many high-school matches played there recently. Though the footing seemed to be reasonably solid, the grass was torn to shreds, and the entire field was a patchwork of bumpy bald spots, so inundated with fertiliser that it looked as if snow had fallen the previous evening. Whether or not this had an impact on play is hard to determine, but S-Pulse certainly seemed to be better prepared for the conditions than their opponents.

S-Pulse got the scoring started early, on a corner kick from the left side in the 8 minute . The ball was centered to Baron, whose header at the near post was blocked, but the ball fell to Santos, just to the left of goal. Santos dropped a pass back to Peceli, who unleashed a blast from the top of the area that threaded through the crowd of defenders and into the low left corner. Just three minutes later, S-Pulse doubled their lead, on a nice combination play. Daisuke Ichikawa carried the ball down the right side and crossed in to Baron at the far post. This time Baron headed the ball down for Santos, who only had to tap in the sitter from point-blank range.

Consadole had a frustrating afternoon, creating occasional counterattacks but lacking the coordination to turn them into decent shots. S-Pulse closed the lid on Consadole's coffin with five minutes remaining. Once again it was Peceli who moved forward on a corner kick, and outjumped the pack directly in front of goal to head home his second goal of the match, and close out the scoring.

Lineups:
Keisuke Hada, Daisuke Ichikawa, Peceli, Toshihide Saito, Jumpei Takaki, Kohei Hiramatsu (Masaaki Sawanobori 71), Katsumi Oenoki, Yasuhiro Yoshida, Alessandro Santos (Jun Muramatsu 89), Baron, Ahn Jung-Hwan (Takayuki Yokoyama 64)
Yohei Sato, Jin Sato, Biju, Kensaku Omori (Yasusyuki Moriyama 71), Naoki Sakai (Ryuji Tabuchi 25), Hitoshi Morishita, Tomohiro Wanami, Takafumi Ogura, Gakuya Horii, Yushi Soda, Tomokazu Hirama (Kazushi Soyama 25)

0 - 1

There was plenty of sloppy play on both sides, and when Masashi Miyazawa headed a high ball away from the keeper for Amaral to tap in, it looked as if the keeper had just misplayed the ball. But the referee called a keeper charge on Miyazawa and disallowed the goal. Just a few minutes later, Takayuki Komine was shown a second yellow card for a foul that looked rather harmless, but the referee apparently thought it was worth a ticket to the showers. Reduced to ten men, FC Tokyo played defensively for most of the rest of the match, and it looked like the match was headed for extra time.

But with five minutes to play, Mitsuteru Watanabe saved the 19,000 fans at Tokyo Soccer Stadium from another 30 minutes of deadly boredom, getting his head on a centering cross from Ricardinho and knocking it into the high left corner to give Reysol the victory.

Lineups:
Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Jean Carlo Witte, Takayuki Komine, Ryuji Fujiyama, Takahiko Shimotaira, Tetsuhiro Kina (Satoru Asari 67), Yukihiko Sato (Kenji Fukuda 86), Kelly, Mitsuhiro Toda, Amaral
Yuta Minami, Keisuke Nebiki, Mitsuteru Watanabe, Tomonori Hirayama, Norihiro Satsukawa, Cesar Sampaio, Ricardinho (Takeshi Watanabe 89), Tomokazu Myojin, Harutaka Ono (Nozomu Kato 61) , Yuji Unozawa (Taro Sugawara 79), Edilson

1- 2 (ET)

But for all Hiroshima's offensive efforts, it was Vegalta who got on the board first. Silvinho took a free kick from about 35 meters out, and found Marcos just outside the right post, for a header that slipped in under the bar.

Though both teams threatened several times, that goal remained the difference between the two teams until late in the second half, when a similar set play by Hiroshima gave Tulio Tanaka a chance to do something useful for his team, at long last. The tall defender headed the ball down and into the low left corner to send the match into extra time.

But it was Sendai who would emerge with the final tally, as substitute striker Shinji Fujiyoshi , who had just entered the match as a late substitute, got on the end of a long pass from Naoki Chiba and headed in the winner.

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
Kiyomitsu Kobari, Kenji Suzuki, Ricardo, Norio Omura, Tatsuya Murata, Hitoshi Moriyasu (Naoki Chiba 111), Toshiyuki Abe (Takahiro Yamada 60), Masahiro Ando (Kazuhiro Murakami 79), Silvinho, Yoshiteru Yamashita (Shinji Fujiyoshi 114), Marcos

4 - 1

Kashima are drastically short of strikers, with Euller in the infirmary and Tomoyuki Hirase on loan to the Yokohama Marinos. This week, their fill-in forward Masashi Motoyama was also unable to start, due to an ankle injury, leaving Atsushi Yanagisawa all alone up front, in a makeshift 4-5-1 lineup. But this hardly seemed to matter, as the Antlers got all the offensive support they needed from the team's deep and talented midfield. Yanagisawa has been in a terrible goal slump this season, and looking at his statistics, one might wonder why he continues to get the call as the Antlers' ace up front. But this week the national team striker showed how much he can do for his team even when he is not scoring goals himself. In fact, 15 minutes into the match, Yanagisawa created the Antlers' first goal of the match on a brilliant play in which he never even touched the ball!

Leading a surging counterattack down the left side, midfield general Mitsuo Ogasawara was fouled about six meters beyond and to the left of the penalty area. Putting the ball down quickly, Oga fired a pass in for Yanagisawa at the left post. As the sizzling grounder approached, Yanagisawa took a quick glance over his shoulder and saw both the last defender and the keeper shadowing him tightly, ready to pounce. Realizing that the net was completely untended, and the ball headed straight for it, Yanagisawa dummied a lunge for the ball, then let it roll right through his legs. Both the defender and keeper took the bait, hook, line and sinker, throwing themselves at Yanagisawa's feet while the ball rolled casually inside the far post. The goal was credited to Ogasawara, without even an assist for the player who made it happen.

Grampus struggled to come back, but the equaliser eluded them through the end of the first 45 minutes. The closest chance came on a breakaway in which Ueslei beat an offside trap and raced after a long pass, but Hitoshi Sogahata was quickly off his line, and Ueslei only had one touch of the ball to shoot. Sogahata blocked the blast with his foot, and the rebound was cleared away by a retreating defender.

Early in the second half, Grampus finally did level the scores, on a well-executed play. In the 50 minute, Ueslei fed his strike partner Ivica Vastic into the left corner, as two Nagoya midfielders angled into the box. Vastic looped a pinpoint cross for the far post, where Tetsuya Okayama had a half-step on his defender. With Sogahata blocking his chances for a direct shot, Okayama volleyed the ball back in front of goal, where Naoki Hiraoka had a wide-open tap-in to bring Grampus level.

But the Antlers were in fine form despite their makeshift lineup, and they were soon pressing for another tally. Just five minutes after Nagoya's equaliser, Ogasawara played a long ball down the right side for Akira Narahashi , on one of his patented overlap plays. Turning in towards goal, Narahashi sent a smooth grounder for Yanagisawa two meters from the right post. Again, Yanagisawa felt the defender and keeper closing in, and as the ball arrived, played a quick flick with the outside of his boot that sent a soft roller to Augusto , wide open at the top of the box. With a completely open net and no defender in sight, Augusto simply had to chip the ball softly into the nylon.

With Grampus overextending themselves in search of another equaliser, things started to open up at the back of Nagoya's defence, and as the second half wore on, the Antlers began to get numerous counterattacking opportunities. In the 76 minute, Augusto took off down the left sideline on a counterattack, flicking the ball past a defender to race unguarded into the left corner. As he turned and carried the ball into the box, Yanagisawa made a cut for the near post, once again drawing the keeper and two defenders. Augusto opted to sent a long pass across the field to Koji Kumagai , just inside the top right corner of the penalty area. Kumagai had all sorts of time, as well as an open net, allowing him to trap Augusto's cross and measure his shot carefully, for the low right corner.

With time running down, Grampus began to wither, and the final few minutes were a barrage of Antlers attacks around the perimeter of the box. In the 85 minute, Ogasawara tried to squeeze an inlet pass to Kumagai on the right of the penalty arc, but when the pass was deflected back to him, he pushed it back to the other side of the arc, where Yanagisawa was marked by a lone defender. Yanagisawa faked for goal to freeze the defender, then rolled the ball for Augusto, running an overlap for the left post. Augusto's shot was blocked by Seigo Narazaki, but Augusto managed to push the rebound across the face of goal. Ogasawara pounced on it and fired a blistering shot into the open side of the net, adding the final touches to the score sheet.

Lineups:
Hitoshi Sogahata, Akira Narahashi, Yutaka Akita, Tomohiko Ikeuchi (Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 89), Jun Uchida , Naoto Honda, Koji Nakata, Koji Kumagai (Junji Nishizawa 89), Mitsuo Ogasawara, Augusto, Atsushi Yanagisawa
Seigo Narazaki, Masahiro Koga, Andrej Panadic, Masayuki Omori, Tetsuya Okayama, Tomoyuki Sakai (Ryuta Hara 77), Motohiro Yamaguchi, Naoki Hiraoka (Kunihiko Takizawa 66), Naoshi Nakamura, Ivica Vastic, Ueslei

0 - 1

Yokohama got one of their most dangerous shots of the match just five minutes in, when Dutra lobbed a ball for Will, who managed to flick it on and beat his defender. But with the keeper rushing out of net, Will had to rush his shot, and pulled it to the left of the upright. Thereafter, the Marinos moved the ball around Kyoto's defensive perimeter with smooth and flawless passing, but they seemed so hypnotised by the rhythm of their own ball movement that they never were able to penetrate the outer ring, or get off a shot on target.

Purple Sanga's best opportunities of the first half were created by the smooth dribbling of both Park and midfielder Shingo Suzuki . In the 8 minute, Park weaved his way through three defenders before pushing a weak pass for Kurobe at the left post. But the keeper reached the ball a step ahead of Kurobe and covered it well. Just before half time, Suzuki made a similar individual foray down the left sideline and crossed in for Kurobe directly in front of goal. But Kurobe's first shot came back off the crossbar, and when he headed the rebound on goal for a second time, keeper Tatsuya Enomoto was able to flick it over the bar.

The second half was even more frustrating than the first, especially for Marinos coach Lori Paulo Sandri, who noted at half time that "ball possession doesnt do us any good if we dont take shots on goal. Unfortunately, the Marinos failed to address Sandri's critiques, creating even fewer shots on goal in the second half than they did in the first. Kyoto, meanwhile, hung tight through the 75 minute, playing a largely defensive strategy with only occasional butsts of counterattacking pressure. As the game moved into the final fifteen minutes, though, the Purple Sanga began to counter with greater vigour, and pressure the ball more intensely. As he has done throughout the season, coach Gert Engels rotated three attacking players midway through the second half, to have a fresh set of legs on offense in the dying minutes. This strategy paid off in the 87 minute, as Kurobe fired a shot from the right edge of the box which Enomoto could only deflect away from the high left corner. The rebound fell just a bit beyond his reach, and before he could fall on it, Daisuke Nakaharai dashed in and flung himself headlong for the bounding ball. His diving header popped over Enomoto's flailing arms and into the back of the net, to give the Purple Sanga victory.

Lineups:
Tatsuya Enomoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Yasuhiro Hato, Kunio Nagayama, Yoshiharu Ueno, Yasuhiro Endo (Tatsunori Hisanaga 86), Dutra, Daisuke Oku, Nobuhisa Shimizu (Tomoyuki Hirase 72), Will
Naoto Hirai, Kazuhiro Suzuki, Kazuki Teshima, Shigeki Tsujimoto, Tadashi Nakamura, Daisuke Saito, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Shingo Suzuki, Shinya Tomita (Daisuke Nakaharai 67), Park Ji-Sung (Makoto Atsuta 78), Teruaki Kurobe (Yusaku Ueno 89)

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	17	7	6 (5-1)	0	1	+11	15	4
2	Urawa Reds	16	7	6 (3-3)	1	0	+8	13	5
3	Kashima Antlers	15	7	5 (5-0)	0	2	+5	15	10
4	Kyoto Purple Sanga	14	7	5 (4-1)	0	2	+0	8	8
5	Tokyo Verdy	13	7	4 (4-0)	1	2	+8	16	8
6	Kashiwa Reysol	12	7	3 (3-0)	3	1	+2	7	5
7	Gamba Osaka	11	7	4 (3-1)	0	3	+2	10	8
8	FC Tokyo	9	7	3 (3-0)	0	4	-5	7	12
9	Vegalta Sendai	8	7	3 (2-1)	0	4	-1	8	9
10	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	8	7	3 (2-1)	0	4	-2	7	9
11	Vissel Kobe	8	7	3 (2-1)	0	4	-3	8	11
12	Nagoya Grampus	7	7	2 (2-0)	1	4	-2	10	12
13	Yokohama Marinos	6	7	2 (1-1)	1	4	-4	6	10
14	Shimizu S-Pulse	6	7	2 (2-0)	0	5	-5	7	12
15	JEF United Ichihara	3	7	1 (1-0)	0	6	-6	6	12
16	Consadole Sapporo	1	7	0 (0-0)	1	6	-8	4	12

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

New Radiant Loses its Lustre in Shimizu

Ahn Jung-Hwan got the match started with his first goal in an S-Pulse uniform, putting Shimizu up 1-0 at the break. Playing eleven men behind the ball allowed the Maldives champions to keep the game close at half time, but in the second 45 minutes things began to open up, and Shimizu lowered the boom. Ahn scored his second goal, followed by two strikes from Alessandro Santos and a pair from Baron. Just for good measure, a New Radiant player added a seventh goal with a shot into his own net, apparently not wanting S-Pulse players to be the only ones registered on the score sheet.

With a 7-0 lead from the first leg, S-Pulse look to be a safe bet for advancement, though it is unlikely that the team will pass up a chance to travel to the Maldives in November, for the return leg. Coach Zemunovic will no doubt be hoping that the players dont fall asleep on the beach and miss the start of the match.

Marinos Ask Lazaroni to Walk the Plank

The Marinos have not yet indicated who will take over as their new head coach, though team director Shimojo will serve as the fill-in manager until a permanent coach is hired. Rumours are already running wild around the Bay City, with former national team and Consadole Sapporo boss, Takeshi Okada, as the most frequently mentioned candidate.

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