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October 21, 2002
Weeding out the Field

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
Oct 19		2-1(ET)		Saitama Stadium
Oct 19		3-2(ET)		Tokyo Soccer Stadium
Oct 19		2 - 0		Yokohama Intl. Stadium
Oct 19		2 - 1		Nihondaira Stadium
Oct 19		1 - 0		Expo '70 Stadium
Oct 19		0 - 0		Hiroshima Big Arch
Oct 20		2-3(ET)		Sendai Stadium
Oct 20		2-1		Ichihara Seaside

2-1(ET)

With Yuichiro Nagai suffering a slight injury, Tatsuya Tanaka , fresh from his silver medal performance at the Asian Games in Busan, took Nagai's place, joining Emerson and Tuto in the Reds' three-man front line. Urawa got off to a powerful start, outshooting their opponents 10-2 in the first half, but were held at bay by some decent goaltending and an unusual defensive set which saw Masahiro Koga , Tomoyuki Sakai and Masayuki Omori marking Emerson, Tanaka and Tuto in a man-to-man blanket defence, with Andrej Panadic roaming in back as the libero. Although this forced Nagoya to rely almost exclusively on long balls to the strikers, for offence, it did manage to quiet the usually explosive front line of the Reds.

There were signs that Nagoya's blanket defence might actually pay off, when a long ball was cleared to Grampus ace Ueslei, midway through the second half, and the Brazilian striker put on a display of individual brilliance. Taking the ball from left to right across the top of the penalty arc, Ueslei waited to find a tiny seam between the last two Reds defenders, then put on a quick burst of acceleration and released a shot before the keeper expected it. The shot just managed to sneak under Nobuhiro Yamagishi's glove and inside the far post.

But after having dominated possession and creating the bulk of scoring opportunities for most of this match, the Reds were not about to let one goal discourage them. with ten minutes still on the clock, Tatsuya Tanaka finally managed to elude the attentions of Sakai, turning the corner on the right side and firing a cross into the box. Two defenders quickly collapsed on Tuto, and the big forward's shot was smothered, but the ball bounced loose to Masahiro Fukuda , completely unmarked at the top right corner of the box. The veteran quickly uncorked a blast that slid inside the right post and drew Urawa level once again.

For the final ten minutes, the Reds pushed relentlessly towards the Grampus net, as both fatigue and discouragement began to shred Nagoya's defensive blanket. Though Grampus managed to hang on through the end of regulation time, it was clear that the team was on the ropes, and just awaiting the knockout punch.

One minute after the start of extra time, the final blow arrived. Tuto and Emerson took off upfield on a counterattack, racing away from the leg-weary Nagoya defenders. Tuto waited for Panadic to commit to his side of the field, then crossed the ball for Emerson at the top of the penalty arc. Emerson managed to hop over the desperate, sliding tackle of his defender, then settled the ball and measured the net calmly, with plenty of time to shoot. Seigo Narazaki was stranded on his line, and could only stand and wait, hoping to anticipate the shot. But Emerson placed it well, in the high left corner, and the huge Saitama Stadium crowd erupted, celebrating a second week on top of the league table.

Lineups:
Nobuhiro Yamagishi, Masami Ihara, Tadaaki Tsuboi, Ichiei Muroi, Hideki Uchidate, Nobuhisa Yamada, Tadaaki Hirakawa, Masahiro Fukuda, Tuto, Tatsuya Tanaka, Emerson
Seigo Narazaki, Masahiro Koga, Andrej Panadic, Masayuki Omori, Tetsuya Okayama, Tomoyuki Sakai, Motohiro Yamaguchi (Ryuta Hara 86), Naoki Hiraoka (Kunihiko Takizawa 70), Naoshi Nakamura, Ivica Vastic, Ueslei

2 - 0

The Antlers were an easy mark for the revenge-seeking Marinos. This week Akira Narahashi and Mitsuo Ogasawara joined Euller Fabiano and Masashi Motoyama on thi injury list, forcing Toninho Cerezo to even greater efforts of creativity in trying to fill out his lineup card. Despite the difficulty that they have been having with their offence in recent matches, the Marinos had little difficulty breaking down the depleted Antlers defence. In particular, Yokohama's ace striker Will finally broke out of a slump and began showing the sort of slick, attacking form that made him a golden boot winner at Consadole Sapporo.

It didnt take long for the big Brazilian to get his scoring show started. In the 7 minute, will received a cross from Yoshiharu Ueno about five meters outside the box on the right side. With a sudden spurt, Will weaved delicately through three Antlers defenders and sent a crisp shot across the face of goal, into the low left corner.

Just 20 minutes later, Will was at it again, this time on the left side of the penalty area. The Yokohama ace made a quick cut through the defence and fired off a shot before the keeper could react, sliding the ball inside the post to double Nagoya's lead.

The Antlers can be credited for refusing to give up despite going two goals down early. By the end of the half, they were beginning to get some scoring opportunities at the Marinos end. But Kashima have been nearly as inept as the Marinos in creating goals this season, and without the support of key weapons like Motoyama, Ogasawara and Narahashi, the offensive pushes that they managed to generate in the second half all withered in front of goal. The defeat drops the Antlers out of the top tier of contenders, and may spell the end of their title hopes in the second stage.

Lineups:
Tatsuya Enomoto, Kunio Nagayama, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Dutra, Yasuhiro Hato, Yoshiharu Ueno (Kazuyoshi Mikami 89), Yasuhiro Endo, Daisuke Oku (Tomoyuki Hirase 88), Nobuhisa Shimizu (Tatsunori Hisanaga 77), Will
Hitoshi Sogahata, Jun Uchida, Yutaka Akita, Tomohiko Ikeuchi (Junji Nishizawa 68) Takuya Ishikawa, Koji Kumagai, Naoto Honda (Yoshiyuki Hasegawa 45), Koji Nakata, Takuya Nozawa (Takeshi Aoki 66), Augusto, Atsushi Yanagisawa

2 - 1

The huge crowd did not have to wait long for the show to begin. Before even a full minute had expired on the stadium clock, S-Pulse had already blotched the score sheet. In their first forward foray of the match, the S-Pulse defence cleared a long ball for Ahn Jung-Hwan at midfield, and the Korean ace flicked a lovely lead pass on to Santos, who was in full sprint towards the Purple Sanga goal. Santos simply had to settle the ball and then pick his spot, firing past the keeper to put S-Pulse up 1-0.

S-Pulse doubled the advantage just before half time, on a relatively similar play. This time, Ahn carried the ball out of midfield and lobbed a pass to Masaaki Sawanobori , just outside the box on the left side. Sawanobori flicked the ball on with a high kick that caught the Kyoto defence as motionless as Mt. Fuji, allowing Santos to sprint free once more into the wide open spaces of the Purple Sanga penalty box, step past the scrambling keeper and tuck the ball into the back of the net.

Kyoto managed a late goal, in the 80 minute, on a cross from Makoto Atsuta that Yusaku Ueno managed to pry away from a defender and flick into the net. But Kyoto never really got their offense together in this match, and S-Pulse had a fairly comfortable cruise to victory.

Lineups:
Keisuke Hada, Daisuke Ichikawa, Shohei Ikeda, Toshihide Saito, Jumpei Takaki, Kohei Hiramatsu (Keisuke Ota 45), Yasuhiro Yoshida, Kazuyuki Toda, Masaaki Sawanobori, Ahn Jung-Hwan (Baron 88), Alessandro Santos
Naoto Hirai, Kazuhiro Suzuki, Takatoshi Matsumoto, Shigeki Tsujimoto, Daisuke Nakaharai (Yutaka Tahara 67), Daisuke Saito, Park Ji-Sung, Shingo Suzuki, Makoto Atsuta, Yusaku Ueno, Shinya Tomita

2-1(ET)

Though FC Tokyo has been in a bit of a slump recently, one factor in their weak performances, of late, became quickly apparent, as Naohiro Ishikawa, recently returned from the Asian Games in Busan, put on a display of offensive prowess early in this match. Twice in the first ten minutes he shredded the Vissel defence and provided pinpoint crosses to teammates, though both shots were saved. Nevertheless, FC Tokyo were looking very dangerous, and it looked like they would be the first to get on the score sheet.

But Vissel was not entirely stagnant either, and in the 25 minute, they demonstrated their ability to create quick offense on the wings, as well. Harison made a foray down the right side, and as the defender came out to meet him, he slipped a perfect ball behind the defence to Naoya Saeki, dashing through into space. Saeki cut the ball towards the box, and although it was tipped away from Oseas by a defender, Shigeyoshi Mochizuki was on hand to drive it home.

FC Tokyo didnt waste any time in replying. Just a couple minutes after the Vissel goal, Masashi Miyazawa found Clesley "Kelly" Guimares at the top right corner of the penalty box with an inlet pass. Kelly felt the approach of defender Saeki and swiftly pulled the ball out of harm's way. As Saeki sailed past, he clipped Kelly on the leg just hard enough to convince the referee that a PK was warranted. Amaral sank the penalty kick and the scores were level once more

Just after the half, FC Tokyo surged into the lead on a corner kick from the right side. Ishikawa's kick found defender Jean Carlo Witte at the near post for a header on net. A defender trapped the ball between his legs right in the goal mouth, and eventually managed to shuffle it out, but the assistant referee indicated, quite correctly, that the ball had crossed the line, and the goal was awarded.

Once again, it didnt take long for the other team to equalise. Vissel needed just two minutes to make their comeback. Harison carried a ball across the top of the box, and flicked a quick slant to Ryuji Bando, posting up at the top of the box. Bando fought off a challenge by two defenders, and although he was eventually muscled off the ball, it squirted free to Oseas, for a blistering shot from ten meters. The two teams were back to level terms, and would remain that way for the remainder of regulation time.

Just one minute into the first period of extra time, though, Tokyo finally prevailed. Reserve striker Kenji Fukuda lobbed a ball into the box for Amaral, and although the defence managed to break up his efforts to turn for a shot, pushing the ball away from the veteran striker, it rolled to Miyazawa at the edge of the box, for a wide-open shot. Miyazawa saw the wide open right side of goal, and made no mistake, side-footing a shot inside the right post to lift his team to victory.

Lineups:
Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Jean Carlo Witte, Teruyuki Moniwa, Satoru Asari, Masashi Miyazawa, Naohiro Ishikawa, Kelly Guimares, Ryuji Fujiyama, Amaral, Mitsuhiro Toda (Kenji Fukuda 68)
Makoto Kakegawa, Tomo Sugawara, Yukio Tsuchiya, Kunie Kitamoto, Takeshi Hirano, Sidiclei, Naoya Saeki, Shigeyoshi Mochizuki, Harison, Ryuji Bando, Oseas

1 - 0

Not that Gamba were having a bad day, either. The team seemed to be creating offensive pressure well throughout the first half, but they simply could not break down the Consadole defence. Meanwhile, the occasional wild counterattack by Takafumi Ogura kept Gamba's defence honest. There was little to separate the two teams at half time.

Early in the second half, the introduction of Marcelinho Carioca as the playmaker in midfield finally began to break down Consadole's back line. Nevertheless, Gamba required a Sapporo mental error in order to get on the board. In the 61 minute, Marcelinho lobbed a ball into the box for his favourite target, Magrao. As Kensaku Omori struggled to hold off the towering striker, he stuck out his hand and knocked the ball away, a blunder which the referee easily spotted. Magrao finished off the PK and Sapporo fell to their seventh straight loss in the second stage.

Lineups:
Naoki Matsuyo, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Noritada Saneyoshi, Masao Kiba, Toru Araiba, Hideo Hashimoto (Marcelinho 45), Yasuhito Endo, Fabinho (Shigeru Morioka 89), Takahiro Futagawa, Kota Yoshihara (Masashi Oguro 72), Magrao
Yohei Sato, Jin Sato, Tsuyoshi Furukawa, Biju, Kensaku Omori, Hitoshi Morishita, Keisuke Yoshikawa (Yushi Soda 70), Kohei Nishida, Tomohiro Wanami, Takafumi Ogura (Tomokazu Hirama 84) Naoki Sakai (Gakuya Horii 63)

0 - 0

Lineups:
Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano, Kenichi Uemura, Kosuke Yatsuda (Marcus Tulio Tanaka 89), Kota Hattori, Kentaro Sawada (Hiroyoshi Kuwabara 101), Koji Morisaki, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Chikara Fujimoto (Naoya Naruo 111), Tomislav Erceg, Tatsuhiko Kubo
Yoshinari Takagi, Alexandre Lopez, Atsushi Yoneyama, Masayuki Yanagisawa, Hayuma Tanaka, Takuya Yamada, Kentaro Hayashi, Atsuhiro Miura (Naoto Sakurai 63), Yasuyuki Kobayashi (Narita Takaki 69), Edmundo, Kazuki Hiramoto (Hayato Yano 70)

2-3(ET)

Sendai have been struggling in the second stage, but as many teams have discovered to their regret this season, when you enter Sendai Stadium, you should make certain that you finish off the home team quickly and efficiently. If you let them hang around too long, they have the ability to steal a win. And they certainly deserved to get one this week. Though they were clearly outmatched in terms of skill by the Jubilo squad, Vegalta battled gamely throughout , and made their handful of opportunities count -- that is, when Okada was not preventing them from doing so.

Vegalta got off to an early lead on a breakaway goal by Marcos. But Jubilo dominated ball possession from that moment on, and used steady pressure and some excellent ball movement around the box to equalise just before half time. In the 40 minute, Toshiya Fujita carried a ball to the right baseline corner of the penalty box, and when his path to goal was blocked by two defenders, dropped the ball back to Takahiro Kawamura , who had more space to work with in the right corner. Kawamura lobbed a cross into the box and found Masashi Nakayama directly in front of net. Nakayama headed the ball down and his shot crept across the goal line before the keeper could scramble back into position.

In the second half, Jubilo continued to apply the pressure, but Vegalta hung around with some dogged defending and a little bit of luck on some wild scrambles in front of the net. But midway through the period, the insertion of Takahiro Yamada and Teruo Iwamoto, on the two wings, began to create some dangerous counterattacking chances. In the 73 minute, Vegalta's midfield playmaker Silvinho picked up the ball after trailing just such a break, and decided to try his luck with a long shot from about 30 meters. Although Hiromasa Yamamoto reacted in time, he was unable to latch onto the blistering drive, and the rehis deflection bounded high into the open center of the penalty box. Yoshiteru Yamashita reacted quickly, dashing onto the loose ball and heading it into the low right corner.

At this point, Okada began to get more actively involved, with a series of calls that may be difficult to justify, if Vegalta decides to lodge a protest. Five minutes after Vegalta's go-ahead goal, as Jubilo threw their entire team forward looking for an equaliser, a sudden counterattack sent Marcos away down the right wing and Iwamoto opposite him, on the left. With both defensers on his side of the field. Marcos lobbed a long ball for Iwamoto to run for, leading the midfield ace perfectly. But just as he began sizing up the goal to consider his shot, Iwamoto heard a whistle, and realized in complete bewilderment that Okada had blown him offside. A replay of the video shows not one, but two Jubilo defenders behind Iwamoto when the pass was released, and the linesman's flag stayed down until AFTER Okada had blown the whistle. Yet there was nothing Vegalta could do but retreat to their own end to await the next Jubilo attack.

Jubilo eventually did manage to equalise, on a pretty shot by Norihiro Nishi . Taking a pass from Fujita at the top of the penalty arc, Nishi pivoted quickly and fired a long shot that caught the keeper off guard, and slipped inside the right post.

With the seconds running out in regulation time, Jubilo played a series of corner kicks that were desperately cleared by Vegalta, but on the final one in the series, Toshihiro Hattori headed over the bar and it looked like the final whistle was imminent. As he walked away from the play, Hideto Suzuki deliberately kicked defender Norio Omura in the back of the ankle, and when Omura spun around angrily and threw up an arm. Suzuki flung himself to the ground, clutching his face and writhing in agony. Omura, who is enough of a veteran to know when he is the victim of dirty attempt to win a PK, began shouting furiously, demanding that Okada card Suzuki for simulation. The incident was self-explanatory on video. Suzuki's kick in the ankle was caught on film, and Omura barely touched him with his forearm when Suzuki went into his broken nose imitation. Yet Okada settled on a yellow for Omura, for protesting too loudly.

The climax of this travesty was yet to come, however. After the first overtime ended without a score, Jubilo kicked off for the second golden goal session, and just moments into the period, lobbed a long pass to Nakayama, who was offside. The linesman raised his flag, but since a Vegalta player collected the ball and cleared it, Okada decided to play on. This might have been an acceptable call if the clearance had fallen to a Vegalta player and moved upfield, but Fukunishi pounced on the clearance and drove it back into the Vegalta end, while most of the Vegalta players were standing flat-footed, obviously expecting play to be stopped. Instead, Nakayama collected the ball and drove a shot over the keeper and into the net. The entire Vegalta coaching staff left the bench, shouting at Okada in protest, since there could be little doubt that the presence of an offsides flag being waved by the linesman had caused Vegalta players to give up on the play. But Okada insisted that he had "played advantage" . . . or perhaps in this case it would be more accurate to say "played disadvantage". Jubilo gets the win, and two points, but considering the nature of their victory, they have no business being pleased with the result.

On a side note, just this week Tokyo Verdy's Edmundo gave an extended interview with Weekly Soccer Magazine, one of the leading soccer publications in Japan. When asked the obligatory question about how well J.League players are developing, in terms of international quality, Edmundo was almost effusive. Players are improving more rapidly than in perhaps any other league in the world, Edmundo stated. Though they still have a few things to learn, particularly in terms of team coordination and tactics, Japanese soccer players are quickly approaching a "world class level".

"There's only one problem", the Brazilian veteran continued. Japanese players are subject to careful scrutiny, and if they dont make the grade, they are out of the lineup, if not out of the team. But Japanese referees have been consistently bad, since the league started. Not only has there been no improvement whatsoever, but referees are not scrutinized or subjected to performance reviews when they screw up. TV stations need to start replaying bad referee calls on videotape, pointing out why the call was incorrect and making sure that all of the viewers know that it was a blown call. Referees who make mistakes repeatedly need to be demoted to lower divisions, or fired altogether. Until that happens, the J.League will always continue to be a second rate league.

On this point, the Rising Sun News agrees wholeheartedly.

Lineups:
Norio Takahashi, Kenji Suzuki (Takahiro Yamada 68), Ricardo, Norio Omura, Tatsuya Murata, Hitoshi Moriyasu (Naoki Chiba 105), Masahiro Ando, Kazuhiro Murakami (Teruo Iwamoto 63), Silvinho (Nobuyuki Zaizen 90), Yoshiteru Yamashita, Marcos
Hiromasa Yamamoto, Hideto Suzuki, Go Oiwa, Takahiro Yamanishi, Takahiro Kawamura (Nobuo Kawaguchi 78), Takashi Fukunishi, Toshihiro Hattori, Toshiya Fujita, Hiroshi Nanami (Jun Kanazawa 70), Rodrigo Gral (Norihiro Nishi 70), Masashi Nakayama

2 - 1

This is actually far less than the match deserved. The two teams played a lively contest that seesawed back and forth in terms of momentum until JEF's Korean ace Choi Yong-Soo sealed victory for his team with a lovely strike ten minutes from full time. The match also featured a good special interest story, as Reysol's Yuji Unozawa, a 19-year-old dynamo who was inexplicably left off Japan's U-20 team for the Asian Youth Championships, continued his heroic exploits with a goal in the 4 minute of the match.

But then again, the papers are probably right. Nobody cares. The real pity is that neither one of these two unloved, undersupported clubs will be demoted to the J2 this season, and the press will have them around to ignore next year, as well.

Yuta Minami, Takeshi Watanabe (Taro Sugawara 80), Norihiro Satsukawa, Keisuke Nebiki, Mitsuteru Watanabe, Cesar Sampaio, Tomonori Hirayama, Tomokazu Myojin, Ricardinho, Yuji Unozawa (Shinya Tanoue 75), Edilson
Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Eisuke Nakanishi, Megumu Yoshida, Masataka Sakamoto (Takenori Hayashi 65), Yuki Abe, Shinichi Muto, Shinji Murai, Naotake Hanyu (Takayuki Chano 88), Katsutomo Oshiba, Choi Yong-Soo

Following their losses this week, Kashima Antlers and Kyoto Purple Sanga have slipped six points behind league leaders Urawa Reds, and thus are probably out of contention for a second stage title. That still leaves four teams in close contention, though. Jubilo Iwata lie two points adrift of the Reds, and both Tokyo Verdy and Gamba Osaka are hanging around as well, just four points back.

.	Team	Pts	GP	W (90/ET)	D	L	GDif	GF	GA
1	Urawa Reds	21	9	8 (4-4)	1	0	+12	19	7
2	Jubilo Iwata	19	9	7 (5-2)	0	2	+11	19	8
3	Tokyo Verdy	17	9	5 (5-0)	2	2	+10	18	8
4	Gamba Osaka	17	9	6 (5-1)	0	3	+9	17	8
5	Kashima Antlers	15	9	5 (5-0)	0	4	+2	15	13
6	FC Tokyo	14	9	5 (4-1)	0	4	+0	14	14
7	Kyoto Purple Sanga	14	9	5 (4-1)	0	4	-4	10	14
8	Kashiwa Reysol	12	9	3 (3-0)	3	3	+0	8	8
9	Yokohama Marinos	11	9	4 (2-2)	1	4	-1	9	10
10	Vissel Kobe	11	9	4 (3-1)	0	5	-3	11	14
11	Nagoya Grampus	10	9	3 (3-0)	1	5	-1	14	15
12	JEF United Ichihara	9	9	3 (3-0)	0	6	-4	10	14
13	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	9	9	3 (2-1)	1	5	-4	8	12
14	Shimizu S-Pulse	9	9	3 (3-0)	0	6	-6	9	15
15	Vegalta Sendai	8	9	3 (2-1)	0	6	-8	10	18
16	Consadole Sapporo	1	9	0 (0-0)	1	8	-13	4	17

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

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