April 29, 2003
Actors, Antlers and Assorted Apparel
| Date | Home | . | Visitor | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Apr |  | 0-0 |  | Yokohama Int'l |
| 29 Apr |  | 0-1 |  | Kobe Wing Stadium |
| 29 Apr |  | 1-1 |  | Miyagi Stadium |
| 29 Apr |  | 1-5 |  | Ichihara Seaside |
| 29 Apr |  | 0-2 |  | Shizuoka Stadium |
| 29 Apr |  | 0-2 |  | Tokyo Nat'l Stadium |
| 29 Apr |  | 1-2 |  | "Banpaku" Stadium |
| 29 Apr |  | 1-2 |  | Oita Stadium |
1 - 5
In an impressive display of scoring prowess, JEF striker Choi Yong-Soo registered a hat trick for the second time in less than a week, as JEF Ichihara blew the socks off Kyoto Purple Sanga. Kyoto have some cause to claim hardship, due to the absence of two key players -- Makoto Kakuda and Daisuke Matsui -- who were in training with the U-22 squad. However, this does not fully explain the team's weak performance. Kyoto have been out of sorts this season, as they struggle to find a playmaker to replace Park Ji-Sung. But their occasionally sputtering offence has not really been the source of their woes. Rather, it has been the defence which is letting the Purple Sanga down this year.
1 - 5Meanwhile, JEF are on a roll, as is Choi. The team has really come together under the tutelage of Ivica Osim, who has successfully melded the youthful exuberance of players such as Yuto Sato, Shinji Murai, Yuki Abe and Naoto Hanyu with the calm and clever experience of Choi, Takayuki Chano and Eisuke Nakanishi. It didnt take long for JEF's firey offense to break down the Purple Sanga back line. In the 21 minute, Chano surged forward from his wing back position to run the overlap, curling into the box as he outraced a defender. As he turned the corner, he spotted Choi drifting into the box, and laid a soft floater back to the tall Korean striker. Choi's header flew like a bullet into the high right side of the net and JEF were off to the races.
Fifteen minutes later, Sandro Cardoza tried to send Choi through for another shot with a slant pass that led him into the box, but two defenders collapsed on Choi, prying the ball loose. But the opportunistic Hanyu surged in from midfield to drive the loose ball past the diving keeper and JEF had a 2-0 lead to take into the locker room at half time.
Choi wasted no time getting back into the swing of things after half time, though he had a bit of help from sloppy Kyoto defending. In the 52 minute, a Sanga defender tried to clear the ball from the left corner, but played it into wide open space about ten meters outside the box. Choi, who had begun to retreat from his attacking position, was the first player to reach the ball, and as soon as he had posession, he made a sharp turn back towards goal. Seeing that the keeper was out of position, he immediately unleashed a blistering shot from 35 meters, which grazed the retreating keeper's fingertips and slipped inside the left post. A mere five minutes later, Choi completed his hat trick when Murai sent him into the clear with a well-aimed through pass. Choi, who was in full gallop, touched the ball once to slow its momentum and then drilled a low shot into the right corner, giving JEF a 4-0 lead.
Just one mintue after Choi had delivered the fatal blow, Masataka Sakamoto stuck the knife in one last timewith a loop shot from five meters outside the box, which snuck in just under the bar. Kyoto got a consolation goal on a late header by Shingo Suzki, but it hardly mattered, as JEF consolidated their hold on second place in the league table
Lineups:
Naoto Hirai, Kazuhiro Suzuki, Takatoshi Matsumoto, Shigeki Tsujimoto, Yusuke Mori, Daisuke Saito (Makoto Atsuta 68), Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Shingo Suzuki, Ko Jung-Yun (Shinya Tomita 45), Yutaka Tahara (Tadamichi Machida 45), Daisuke Nakaharai.
Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Zeljko Milinovic, Takayuki Chano (Shigeyoshi Mochizuki 63), Satoru Yamagishi, Masataka Sakamoto (Sozo Yuki 77), Yuto Sato, Shinji Murai (Takenori Hayashi 69), Naotake Hanyu, Sandro Cardoza, Choi Yong-Soo
1 - 1
The biggest crowd of the day -- a shade under 35,000 -- packed into Miyagi Stadium to cheer on the local Vegalta Sendai boys as they played host to Jubilo Iwata. They were treated to a very exciting and highly competitive, though rather poorly officiated match. For the second week in a row, Jubilo put on a fine display of ball control yet were unable to create a goal of their own, and had to rely on the assistance of the ever-obliging referees. The match was extremely physical, and it must be said that the officials were hard-pressed to catch every cynical foul and every shirt tug. Nevertheless, one could only shake one's head in disbelief when, ten minutes into the match, Toshiya Fujita launched himself headlong into the penalty box in one of the most blatant dives of recent memory (even more egregious than Masashi Nakayama's performance last week, because at least in that case there was SOME body contact), and the official decided to reward him with a free kick on the edge of the area. Hiroshi Nanami made this gift seem at least partially deserved, with a beautiful free kick that spun over the wall and slipped into the top right corner. Nevertheless, it is hard to believe that this sort of tomfoolery can take place week in and week out, without the league at least issuing some verbal warning to the players. Surely no one who watches the video of Fujita's dive, later this week, can entertain the notion that he was actually fouled. When is the league going to wake up, and start taking action? Though a referee may be honestly fooled by a player diving, those who have the benefit of watching the replays need to start issuing warnings, and perhaps even suspending players who resort to such poor sportsmanship. It can only bring the game into bad repute.
1 - 1In any event, Jubilo justified themselves to some degree over the remainder of the first half with some very precise ball-control and attractive build-up play. Yet even though they dominated the first 45 mintues, Jubilo could not manage to score a goal from the run of play, as both Nakayama and Rodrigo Gral squandered golden opportunities.
In the second half, Vegalta began to reverse the momentum, and when 20-year-old Eder Ceccon entered the match as a substitute striker, the team started to create frequent dangerous opportunities on the counterattack. Some very physical defending, including more than a few cynical fouls, allowed Jubilo to hang onto their lead until late in the match. But in the 81 minute, on a set play that followed a Jubilo foul ten meters outside the box, this sort of cynical play finally caught up with the team from Iwata. Toshiyuki Abe took the kick and lobbed the ball into open space between a line of Vegalta players and the keeper. As Eder raced towards the cross, Hideto Suzuki held him back with what looked like a cross between a half nelson and a hammerlock. Even the most incompetent of referees could not fail to spot such a blatant foul, though Suzuki was let off easy, with only a yellow card. Eder sank his own PK, and gave Vegalta the draw that they probably deserved.
As for Jubilo, it is time for them to stop their game of trying to deceive referees, and start playing real football. There was a time when Jubilo were a very exciting team to watch, and one that other teams could do well to emulate. After what has transpired in the past two weeks, however, Jubilo are quickly acquiring a reputation for deceit, cynicism and poor sportsmanship that rivals even Nestor Piccoli's 2000 edition of Avispa Fukuoka. Surely a team of players as skilled and experienced as Jubilo do not need to adopt such tactics in order to win matches. Enough already!
Lineups:
Arno Van Zwam, Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Norihiro Nishi (Takahiro Kawamura 76), Takashi Fukunishi, Aleksandr Zivkovic (Nobuo Kawaguchi 84), Toshihiro Hattori, Hiroshi Nanami, Rodrigo Gral (Ryoichi Maeda 67), Masashi Nakayama.
Lineups:
Kiyomitsu Kobari, Takumi Morikawa, Fabiano, Norio Omura (Hajime Moriyasu 78), Ichizo Nakata, Toshiya Ishii, Toshiyuki Abe, Silvinho, Teruo Iwamoto, Hisato Sato (Eder 45) (Takayuki Nakahara 86), Yoshiteru Yamashita.
1 - 2 
Gamba Osaka and Kashima Antlers both entered this season as strong candidates for a stage victory, and their head-to-head matchup certainly bore out the expectations for both teams. Kashima entered the match at a bit of a disadvantage, with left volante Takeshi Aoki in camp with the U-22 squad, and both midfielder Fernando and left wing back Akira Narahashi sitting out suspensions for accumulated yellow cards. Coach Akira Nishino seemed to have done a good job of preparing his players, as Gamba Osaka were quick to exploit the absence of these key players by attacking down the left wing. For about the first 20 minutes of the match, Toru Araiba and Takahiro Futagawa made one dangerous run down the wing after another, as Narahashi's replacement Jun Uchida hung back uncertainly and failed to provide pressure. Gamba quickly made him pay, using the space on the left to create their first goal. In the 10 minute, Araiba and Masashi Oguro moved in tandem down the left flank as Uchida and Naoto Honda shadowed them at a distance. Oguro apparently decided that if the Antlers' defenders were going to give him space, he might as well use it. With a quick step forward, Oguro ripped off a shot that slammed off the near post. The rebound fell right to Futagawa, who saw that keeper Hitoshi Sogahata had reacted to the shot, and was not yet back in position. He lobbed a ball over Sogahata's head, which caught the far post and bounded into the open, back side of the net.
1 - 2 The Antlers responded to the goal like the championship contenders they are, moving the ball smoothly through midfield and looking for the equalizer. However, the Antlers offence is still not functioning well in the absence of Atsushi Yanagisawa. His replacement, Tomoyuki Hirase, has been worse than useless, and although the midfield, led by Koji Nakata and Mitsuo Ogasawara, is still one of the most creative in the league, there has been no one up front to finish off the opportunities. But persistence pays off, and Ogasawara is probably the most persistent player in the league. After Hirase had squandered three or four of his passes, Oga turned his aim to Masashi Motoyama, who has also been injured and was making his first start of the season. In the 22 minute, Ogasawara sliced the Gamba defence open like a master sushi chef fileting a mackerel. His pass zipped through a tiny seam in the defence and sent Motoyama away for a one-on-one with the keeper. Motoyama settled the ball well, with his chest, and allowed Naoki Matsuyo to commit himself before sliding a soft roller into the right corner.
The remainder of the contest was like a chess match, as both teams probed and pushed while being careful not to open themselves to the counterattack. Following the first goal, Uchida did a much better job of covering the left wing, gaining confidence as the match went on. Gamba still was able to create some chances on the overlap, but the central defence, supported by some fime play by Sogahata, was able to turn away Gamba's shots. On the other side, Kashima controlled the ball well at midfield, but simply couldnt produce shots until, finally, Yanagisawa came in to replace the hapless Hirase. Though he is reportedly still only at 75%, Yanagisawa was far more effective than Hirase at unsettling Gamba's back line, and when young Masaki Fukai joined him a few minutes later, the Antlers finally began to get some dangerous shots on goal
But as regulation time expired, it looked like the match would end in a draw. Then, in the first minute of injury time, Fukai put on a brilliant individual move that left two defenders in the dust and put him through into the box. Defender Tsuneyasu Miyamoto made a feet-first lunge to try to cut him off, but Fukai pushed the ball into space and was knocked to the turf by Miyamoto's sliding tackle. The referee pointed to the spot, and Euller made no mistake with his PK, giving the Antlers a narrow, last-second victory.
Lineups:
Naoki Matsuyo, Masao Kiba, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Francisco "Chiqui" Arce (Shigeru Morioka 74), Toru Araiba, Hideo Hashimoto, Yasuhito Endo, Takahiro Futagawa, Masashi Oguro (Masanobu Matsunami 87), Magrao.
Hitoshi Sogahata, Jun Uchida, Yutaka Akita, Go Oiwa, Naoki Soma, Koji Nakata, Naoto Honda, Masashi Motoyama (Masaaki Fukai 63), Mitsuo Ogasawara (Takuya Ishikawa 78), Tomoyuki Hirase (Atsushi Yanagisawa 62), Euller .
0 - 0
Nagoya Grampus are currently undefeated in six matches, yet find themselves in the bottom half of the league table after they recorded their fifth consecutive draw on Tuesday afternoon. As one commentator queried toward the end of the match, it is hard to decide whether this is a team that just cant lose, or a team that just cant win.
0 - 0Fortunately for the nearly 25,000 fans who showed up at Yokoham Stadium to watch the contest, it was a bit more interesting than the score line indicates. Indeed, both teams had quite a few opportunities to score. However, the two most valuable players in the match were the respective keepers, Tatsuya Enomoto and Seigo Narazaki, who each pulled off at least three fine saves on point-blank shots. In the end, neither team was able to shake the nylon, and the match ended in a scoreless draw
Lineups:
Tatsuya Enomoto, Yasuhiro Hato, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Dutra, Yukihiko Sato, Daisuke Nasu, Yasuhiro Endo, Daisuke Oku, Marquinhos (Daisuke Sakata 66), Tatsuhiko Kubo.
Seigo Narazaki, Masayuki Omori, Andrej Panadic, Masahiro Koga, Tomoyuki Sakai (Tetsuya Okayama 78), Keiji Yoshimura, Naoshi Nakamura, Kunihiko Takizawa, Chikara Fujimoto (Ryuta Hara 85), Ivica Vastic, Ueslei.
0 - 2
Though Shimizu S-Pulse finally got their first win, on Saturday, the team is still very much in disarray, and they were back to their struggling ways by Tuesday, unable to tally a goal against Kashiwa Reysol. Meanwhile, Reysol's youngsters are justifying the faith that coach Marco Aurelio showed when he cleaned house at the end of last year and put a group of teenagers into the team's core positions. They still are subject to mistakes which cost them matches against top opponents, but against a team like S-Pulse, the Young Guns have more than enough firepower to prevail.
0 - 2 This week, Reysol added yet another young face to the offence, as 22-year-old Brazilian Marcio Ferreira Nobre stepped into the playmaker role, and had an immediate impact on his team's performance. Reysol started the match in much the way they have approached their previous contests -- by making aggressive individual forays into opposing territory and trying to break down the S-Pulse defence on the dribble. This threw Shimizu onto the back foot from the very outset, and about the only offensive opportunities they had were created by the individual play of Ahn Jung Hwan. Reysol failed to finish a few golden oppoprtunities in the opening stages, but in the 24 minute, a corner kick by Keiji Tamada, from the right side, found Mitsuteru Watanabe at the near post. Watanabe collided with the ball and the keeper at the same moment, and missed his header, but the ball bounded into net off his shoulder (or perhaps the keeper's arm), and Reysol had a 1-0 advantage.
Ten minutes later, Marcio made a lovely zig-zagging run down the right wing, turned towards the box, and then delivered a precise drop pass for Tamada, racing in from midfield. Tamada was a half step ahead of his defender, so he was able to settle the ball with one touch and then slide it under the outrushing keeper to double Reysol's advantage.
In the second half, S-Pulse brought in Alessandro Santos, who started on the bench for the second consecutive match. However, unlike last week this did little to change the complexion of the match. Whereas Reysol's kids are using individualistic play to create a very dangerous team synergy, the individualism of Alex, Ahn and Daisuke Ichikawa seems to be totally misdirected, and merely scatter's the team's energies. Though S-Pulse managed to control a bit more of possession in the second half, their scoring opportunities were few and far between, and Reysol walked off with a well-deserved win.
Takaya Kurokawa, Daisuke Ichikawa, Shohei Ikeda, Ryuzo Morioka, Jun Muramatsu (Kazumishi Takaki 60), Yasuhiro Yoshida, Tomoyoshi Tsurumi, Teruyoshi Ito, Masaaki Sawanobori (Hideaki Kitajima 67), Yoshikiyo Kuboyama (Alessandro Santos 45), Ahn Jung-Hwan.
Yuta Minami, Mitsuteru Watanabe, Norihiro Satsukawa, Toru Nagata, Tomonori Hirayama, Tomokazu Myojin, Ricardinho, Tadatoshi Matsuda (Harutaka Ono 78), Marcio, Keiji Tamada (Kisho Yano 89)
0 - 1
If anyone had doubts about how much right wing Naohiro Ishikawa adds to FC Tokyo, it was clearly demonstrated by his absence, on Tuesday. FC Tokyo traveled to Kobe's Wing Stadium without both Ishikawa and defender Teruyuki Moniwa, who will be in action on Tursday night against Myanmar. Though Tokyo's Brazilian duo of Amaral and Clesly "Kelly" Guimares both know how to create offense, without Ishikawa to provide the cutting edge with his slashing runs, Tokyo's offense was rather pedestrian, and certainly not a big threat to the solid back line of Vissel Kobe.
0 - 1 Unfortunately, though Vissel are doing better than we expected this season, thanks mainly to their quality defending, the offence continues to sputter. The team's ace striker, Oseas, has occasional flashes of quality, but when he has an off day, the Vissel attack breaks down, as it did on Tuesday.
In the end, a lone goal created by Amaral and finished off by a rookie who still has not captured enough attention to win a call-up to the U-22 squad, were all that Tokyo needed. With 15 minutes to play, Amaral made a nice feint to beat his defender down the right wing. As he curled into the penalty box, he spotted Yoshiro Abe at the right edge of the penalty arc and laid off a drop pass. Abe lofted a looping shot that soared over the last defender and the keeper, and slipped into the top left corner to clinch victory for FC Tokyo.
Makoto Kakegawa, Sidiclei, Kunie Kitamoto (Yukio Tsuchiya 80), Yuji Tabuchi, Tomo Sugawara, Koji Yoshimura (Kazuhiro Mori 84), Harison, Takayuki Yamaguchi, Mitsunori Yabuta (Masaya Nishitani 76), (Kazuyoshi Miura 72), Ryuji Bando, Oseas.
Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Jean Carlo Witte, Ryuji Fujiyama, Jo Kanazawa, Satoru Asari, Fumitake Miura (Shuhei Tokunaga 89), Yoshiro Abe (Yohei Kajiyama 89), Mitsuhiro Toda (Yuta Baba 62), Clesley "Kelly" Guimares, Amaral.
0 - 2 
With two of their key players, Tatsuya Tanaka and
Keita Suzuki, on national team duty for the U-22 squad, The Urawa Reds entered Tokyo's National Stadium with a somewhat makeshift lineup, yet for the third week in a row, they demonstrated an ability to create offence quickly. In the 13 minute, Urawa moved out to a quick lead as a wing run by Nobuhisa Yamada fed Yuichiro Nagai at the penalty spot, and the tall forward posted up on his defender, dropping the ball back to Koji Yamase at the top of the box. Yamase, getting his first start since a devastating knee injury cut short his season in early 2002, showed that he is swiftly recovering the form that he showed at Consadole Sapporo. Yamase used his first touch to fire a wicked blast wtih the outside of his right foot, which curled just inside the left post for his second goal in two matches.
0 - 2 Twenty minutes later, the Reds doubled their advantage as Nagai's cross from the left corner found Emerson open in front of goal, and the Brazilian ace headed it home for a 2-0 lead.
After conceding six goals on Saturday to Cerezo Osaka, the Reds defence were not about to repeat the performance, particularly against an offence that is struggling as badly as Tokyo Verdy have been doing lately. The remainder of the match was a rather dull affair, as the Reds attack ran out of steam (Emerson still looks to be well below 100%) and Verdy were unable to create much of anything against the hard-working Reds defenders. The match petered out into a lot of distracted chasing of long balls, and the score line of 2-0 held up, giving the Reds their second win of the season and consigning Verdy to the bottom of the league table.
Lineups:
Yoshinari Takagi, Takuya Yamada, Alexandre Lopes, Takeshi Hirano, Yugo Ichiyanagi, Kentaro Hayashi, Atsuhiro Miura, Ramon Mendez Hubner, Daigo Kobayashi, Shingo Nejime (Jun Tamano 61), Patrick Mboma (Kazuki Hiramoto 61)
Norihiro Yamagishi, Nedijelko "Ned" Zelic, Keisuke Tsuboi, Ichiei Muroi, Nobuhisa Yamada, Hideki Uchidate, Tadaaki Hirakawa, Koji Yamase, Makoto Hasebe, Yuichiro Nagai (Toru Chishima 72), Emerson.
1 - 2 
Though several teams were disadvantaged by the loss of their U-22 players this week, surely no team gave up as much as Cerezo Osaka, whose diminutive striker Yoshito Okubo has quickly established himself as one of the most feared players in the league. Nevertheless, Cerezo have a number of scoring weapons in addition to Okubo, and they had more than enough firepower to overcome struggling Oita Trinita.
1 - 2 Oita managed to get out to an early lead, on a free kick from about 12 meters outside the area, as Rodrigo Mendes laid a cross onto the head of Takahiro Yoshida. However, despite being reduced to ten men early in the contest following a red card to Ryu Saito, Cerezo had the majority of opportunities to score, and got back on level terms just after half time when Hiroaki Morishima's cross was headed home by Takaaki Tokushige. Tokushige's head would contribute an assist, as well, as he leapt high for a cross in the 80 minute and headed the ball back in front of net. As the keeper and two Cerezo players all lunged for the ball, Akinori Nishizawa's toe maked contact first, and the ball squirted into the net to give Cerezo a late victory.
Lineups:
Hayato Okanaka, Tetsuya Yamazaki, Sandro Chaves Rosa, Takashi Miki, Koji Arimura, Tetsuro Uki (Andradinha 75), Takashi Umeda, Taskahiro Yoshida, Yoshito Terakawa (Yoshihiro Uchimura 80), Rodrigo Mendes (Haruki Seto 82), Daiki Takamatsu.
Seigo Shimokawa, Satoru Suzuki, Joao, Ryu Saito, Takanori Nunobe, Yuji Hironaga, Kiyokazu Kudo, Yusuke Sato (Baron 69), Takaaki Tokushige, Hiroaki Morishima (Yasushi Kita 80), Akinori Nishizawa.
With their last-second win over Gamba, the Antlers hang on to first place, while JEF move into sole possession of second place. The Marinos, Vegalta and Jubilo are all four points off the pace.
| . | Team | Pts | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GDif |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kashima Antlers | 15 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 4 | +6 |
| 2 | JEF United Ichihara | 13 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 17 | 9 | +8 |
| 3 | Yokohama Marinos | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 6 | +4 |
| 4 | Vegalta Sendai | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 6 | +2 |
| 4 | Jubilo Iwata | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 6 | +2 |
| 6 | Cerezo Osaka | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 13 | +2 |
| 7 | Kashiwa Reysol | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 7 | +2 |
| 8 | Gamba Osaka | 8 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 10 | +1 |
| 9 | Nagoya Grampus | 8 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 4 | +1 |
| 10 | FC Tokyo | 8 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 6 | -1 |
| 11 | Urawa Reds | 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 10 | -1 |
| 12 | Vissel Kobe | 6 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 6 | -1 |
| 13 | Oita Trinita | 6 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 10 | -4 |
| 14 | Shimizu S-Pulse | 4 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 14 | -4 |
| 15 | Tokyo Verdy | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 11 | -8 |
| 16 | Kyoto Purple Sanga | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 13 | -9 |
Send all questions, comments and queries to: