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May 25, 2003
Closing in for the Stretch Run

Week 10

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
24 May		2-4		Nishikyogoku Std.
24 May		0-2		Miyagi Stadium
24 May		3-2		Ajinomoto Stadium
24 May		0-0		Ichihara Seaside
24 May		1-1		Iwata Stadium
24 May		0-0		Oita Stadium
25 May		0-1		Yokohama Int'l
25 May		1-0		"Banpaku" Stadium

2 - 4

The match started a bit sluggishly, but picked up in the 20 minute or so as both teams began to use attacks down the wing to create penetration. Kyoto's Daisuke Nakaharai just missed connections with Matsui on a cross into the box, and Takeshi Hamada sent a long shot just over the bar, but when the first goal finally came, it was a defensive miscue that produced the tally. In the 31 minute, Okubo dribbled up the left wing and crossed to Yusuke Sato about ten meters above the penalty arc. Sato tried to sent a one-touch feed to Takaaki Tokushige at the right edge of the penalty area, but misconnected and sent a weak grounder in the direction of a Sanga defender. But somehow the defender must have taken his eye off the ball or caught his cleats in the turf, or something, because suddenly the ball was rolling past him and into the open greenery of the penalty area. Tokushige did a double take before realizing that the ball was his for the asking, then dashed in to slam a wide open shot into the high left side of the net.

Just a few minutes after the first goal, Sanga had a golden opportunity to equalise as Matsui used some of his dribbling magic to turn his defender inside out and surge past, into the penalty area. Flailing in desperation, the defender brought Matsui down, conceding a penalty kick. But in a crucial error which may have turned the tide of the match, Matsui shanked his kick and sent it over the crossbar, letting Cerezo off the hook.

The burst of euphoria that Cerezo enjoyed following Kyoto's missed PK suddenly turned the momentum entirely in the Osaka team's favour, and there followed a spell of fluid attacking football which reflects Cerezo Osaka at its very finest. Though they may not have the depth or the defensive capacity to be a championship contender, there is no denying that Cerezo are wonderful to watch when their offense is in full flight. In the 38 minute, a whirlwind attack through midfield spun Sato down the left sideline on a galloping dash that he finished with a long cross to the far side of the penalty area. Hiroaki Morishima slanted across the box to meet the cross, and headed it back across the mouth of goal. Speeding in at the tail end of the play, Okubo soared through the air and nodded the ball in at the left post, producing what was surely the goal of the afternoon.

Thereafter, the match settled down into a bit of a rut. Although Cerezo and the Purple Sanga are both far too active in character to allow the match to stagnate, it was apparent tht Cerezo were beginning to play it cautious, protecting their two-goal lead, whereas Kyoto had difficulty connecting on the final pass, perhaps partly due to the absence of ace striker Teruaki Kurobe.

It wasnt until the 69 minute that the two offences came back to life, though the incident that triggered this surge came out of the blue. Osaka was moving the ball around the edge of the Kyoto penalty area, and Takanori Nunobe received a pass from the left sideline about five meters above the penalty arc. The Kyoto defence was a half-step late arriving, and Nunobe, perhaps spotting a seam, suddenly cut loose with a completely unexpected shot. The ball caught keeper Naoto Hirai off guard, and snuck inside the post beyond his belated diving grasp.

This goal seemed to trigger the reserves of energy in both teams, and the next 20 minutes were a free-for-all of attacking football. In the 80 minute, Okubo put the cap on a brilliant afternoon with a perfectly timed lead pass from the right flank which sent Tokushige through the Kyoto defence and into wide open spaces. Tokushige had time to settle the ball, fake once, then shoot into the low right corner putting Cerezo on an apparently unassailable 4-0 cushion.

But Kyoto werent giving up just yet. Just two minutes later (seconds after Okubo had been substituted), Shingo Suzuki made a penetrating run around the right corner, slicing between two Cerezo defenders like a delicatessan salami slicer through goose liver pate. Spotting the lumbering form of Yutaka Tahara at the top of the box, Suzuki laid a soft pass back to the reserve striker and Tahara thundered it into the back of the net.

As time slowly ticked away , Matsui took advantage of a mad scramble in the Cerezo box to snatch a mis-cleared ball and flick it into an open net. But the comeback was far too late in arriving, and the clock ran out on Kyoto's chances, giving Cerezo a well-earned victory.

Lineups:

Naoto Hirai, Kazuhiro Suzuki, Kazuki Teshima (Yutaka Tahara 68), Makoto Kakuda, , Shinya Tomita, Daisuke Saito (Ko Jong-Su 45), Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Shingo Suzuki, Daisuke Nakaharai, Tadamichi Machida, Daisuke Matsui.

Seigo Shimokawa, Joao, Takuma Koga, Yuji Hironaga, Takanori Nunobe, Takeshi Hamada, Takaaki Tokushige, Yusuke Sato, Hiroaki Morishima (Shinobu Ito 74), Akinori Nishizawa (Baron 64), Yoshito Okubo (Yasuo Manaka 82) .

1 - 1

Before we say anything else about this match, we should give credit to Mr. Ota, the referee, for a very good performance. He missed a few calls, and was suckered by diving players into awarding a few fouls that might have been unwarranted, but all in all he resisted the whining appeals of Masashi Nakayama and Rodrigo Gral every time they flopped to the turf, and was as stringent in his foul calls agains Jubilo as he was against Grampus.

Jubilo can have only themselves to blame for losing this match, At last, their incessant gamesmanship caught up to them, as several plays saw Jubilo forwards diving deliberately to the pitch in response to the feeblest challenge, only to see Mr. Ota wave play on, when an honest effort to fight through the defender's challenge might well have produced a goal. Nagoya, meanwhile, played a very clever match, challenging Jubilo players early rather than giving them a chance to run at their defender. Andrej Panadic is establishing himself as one of the class defenders in the league, both physically and mentally. He not only put in a good match himself, but also directed the rest of the Grampus defence like a virtuoso conductor performing a Bach Concerto.

Without the help of dubious officiating, Jubilo's attack was toothless, and by the early stages of the second half, the team was begining to lose its composure. Nagoya had less possession than Jubilo over the course of the match, but relentless ball pursuit by players like Ueslei, Ryuta Hara and Chikara Fujimoto produced occasional dangerous looks at goal.

Finally, in the 73 minute, the deadlock was broken on a perfectly designed set play. Grampus won a corner kick on the right side, and the towering, shining head of Panadic at the near post presented the most obvious and inviting target. As Kei Yamaguchi took the kick and drove the ball for the near post, three defenders all rose alongside Panadic to forestall any shot. But Panadic was just a decoy. He deliberately ducked to allow the ball to sail just milimeters over his head, curling down to Ueslei, unmarked at the near post. Ueslei headed the ball home and Nagoya were in the lead

What followed in the next ten minutes should be videotaped and replayed ceaselessly in the Jubilo Iwata training room for the next six weeks. Despite all their diving, whining and gamesmanship over the first 70 minutes of the match, Jubilo's response after they went behind was the sort of reaction that only true champions can muster. Much as we might criticise the team's play prior to the Grampus goal, over the subsequent ten minutes Jubilo put aside all thoughts of influencing the referee or winning a cheap free kick, and began to play all-out attacking football. The result was truly a pleasure to watch. Indeed, if the team from Iwata would start playing like this for 90 minutes every weekend, they might even begin to receive favourable reviews from the Rising Sun News. After a space of ten minutes in which they threw everything they had at the Nagoya goal, Jubilo capped the surge with a real gem of a goal.

After winning a corner kick on the right side, Hiroshi Nanami sent a ball into the box which was cleared by the Grampus defence. Aleksandr Zivkovic collected the clearance about 30 meters from goal on the right side. As the Nagoya defence began to rush out to clear their own zone, Zivkovic lobbed the ball back in. Nakayama and Gral both raced back along with the defenders, to avoid being caught offside, while Takashi Fukunishi stole in behind them with a delayed rush on net. The result was a wide-open shot for Fukunishi that keeper Seigo Narazaki desperately tried, but failed, to keep out of the net.

But it was too good to last. Just moments after the tying goal, Gral tried to slip into the penalty area following a long feed, and when he saw he could not reach the ball, he threw himself on his face and screamed petulantly for a free kick. Moments later Hideto Suzuki slammed into a Nagoya midfielder from behind and ripped the ball away, then threw his hands wide with a shriek of protest when the referee's whistle blew. Once again, it seemed like the team was auditioning for the sequel to the movie "Bend it Like Beckham". But unfortunately for Jubilo, Mr. Ota had already seen the previews to "Fake it like Rivaldo", and was not interested in an encore.

And that is how the match ended. Nagoya maintain their unbeaten record, though with six draws from ten matches they remain in fourth place and may fall back again to fifth if the Marinos win on Sunday. Jubilo maintain a narrow margin at the top of the table, but have received warning that they need to start playing real football if they hope to maintain that lead when the season resumes for the final five matches of the first stage

Lineups:

Arno Van Zwam, Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Taikai Kamimoto, Norihiro Nishi (Aleksandr Zivkovic 55), Takashi Fukunishi, Toshihiro Hattori, Hiroshi Nanami (Ryoichi Maeda 82), Toshiya Fujita (Nobuo Kawaguchi 77), Rodrigo Gral, Masashi Nakayama.

Seigo Narazaki, Masayuki Omori, Andrej Panadic, Masahiro Koga, Tomoyuki Sakai, Kei Yamaguchi (Keiji Kaimoto 75), Keiji Yoshimura, Kunihiko Takizawa, Chikara Fujimoto, Ryuta Hara (Tetsuya Okayama 83), Ueslei.

0 - 2

Part of the problem, surely, is the inability of strikers Atsushi Yanagisawa and Tomoyuki Hirase to put the ball in the net. One often gets the feeling that if the Antlers had a competent finisher on their team -- someone like Gamba Osaka's Magrao or JEF United's Choi Yong-Soo -- they would be averaging five or six goals a match. In the first ten minutes alone, the brilliant set-up efforts of Mitsuo Ogasawara provided Hirase with not one but TWO chances to shoot from less than five meters with no defender in the vicinity, and both times he managed to shank the shot.

But even with the score still 0-0, Vegalta played like condemned prisoners awaiting the guillotine. They defended energetically, but could not even begin to generate scoring opportunities of their own. It was simply a matter of waiting for the killing blow to strike. Regardless of whether one was rooting for Kashima or Sendai, it was an agonizing and suspenseful wait.

At last, in the 70 minute, Ogasawara found a teammate who was able to hit the net. Driving through midfield, the Antlers playmaker surged forward until he had drawn three defenders, then slid a lead pass off to his left for Masashi Motoyama. The diminutive midfielder made a cutback just as he received the ball to get a half step of space between himself and the last defender, then drove a low grounder into the left corner.

Toninho Cerezo immediately pulled Hirase and replaced him with the tall and more defensively adept Claudicir, but one wonders what might have happened if the tall Brazilian had started in place of Hirase at striker. Using his height and good sense of positioning, Claudicir began producing numerous post play opportunities which narrowly missed turning into goals. Then, on a corner kick in the 81 minute, Claudicir screened the Vegalta keeper enough to prevent him from latching onto Ogasawara's cross. The ball slipped out of his hands and fell at Claudicir's feet. The big Brazilian immediately toed the ball over the line to put the match out of reach.

A report on this match would not be complete without providing credit where credit is due to the match referee, Mr. Kawakami. As one of the league's "special referees" ("special", apparently, is J.League jargon for "especially bad"), Mr. Kawakami provided a brilliant example of how J.League referees call a match. He ignored four blatant PK offenses -- one for Vegalta and three for the Antlers, and ignored at least six yellow card offences by Vegalta defender Toshihiro Yahata, who had already received one yellow and would have had to leave the match if he received one more. The most blatant of these took place late in the match, after Antlers replacement striker Masaki Fukai received a long breakaway pass and was isolated on Yahata, far from any other defenders. Not one to be subtle, Yahata repeatedly threw his arms around Fukai and dragged him bodily to the pitch. Each time, Fukai squirmed out of the Vegalta player's grasp, struggled to his feet and tried again to break away, but each time Yahata pulled him down again, with all the technique of an American football linebacker. Only after Fukai had finally managed to struggle into the penalty box did Mr. Kawakami blow his whistle, and awarded a foul (no yellow card) back near one of the first of the infractions, rather than in the penalty box, where the last of the fouls occured.

Shame on you Mr. Kawakami. You have the dubious honor of winning the Rising Sun News "Incompetent Official of the Week" award. We will be presenting this award every week, from now on, to provide a continuing reminder of the unfinished business that the J.League has to deal with -- cleaning up its horrendous officiating system.

Lineups:

Kiyomitsu Kobari, Susumu Watanabe, Toshihiro Yahata, Ichizo Nakata, Yuichi Nemoto, Toshiya Ishii (Hitoshi Moriyasu 74), Silvinho, Toshiyuki Abe, Teruo Iwamoto, Hisato Sato (Eder 72), Yoshiteru Yamashita.

Hitoshi Sogahata, Akira Narahashi, Yutaka Akita, Go Oiwa, Naoki Soma, Koji Nakata, Naoto Honda (Takeshi Aoki 19), Masashi Motoyama (Masaaki Fukai 72), Mitsuo Ogasawara , Tomoyuki Hirase (Claudicir 79), Atsushi Yanagisawa.

3 - 2

In the early stages of the match, though, it looked like the result was going to go very much the other way. Vissel came out with a very busy attack that had Verdy on the ropes for much of the first half. Just five minutes into the contest, Vissel struck first on a lovely shot from the perimeter. Brazilian ace Oseas moved the ball to the fringe of the area on the left side, then played a ball across the top of the box to Mitsunori Yabuta , at the top of the penalty arc. Yabuta spotted a seam in the Verdy defence, and as soon as the ball arrived he uncorked a drive that screeched into the top right corner.

Vissel kept up the pressure, and had one or two more opportunities within the first 12 minutes. However, the tide would turn quite suddenly in the 13 minute of the match. Takuya Yamada carried a ball across midfield and passed off to Mboma, who was shadowed by two defenders. At the feet of any other J.League forward, the ball would have been innocuous, but the Mboma is quickly finding his form, and he needed no invitation to put the ball on net. With a sudden burst of speed, Mboma surged between the two defenders and then launched a rocket from 35 meters that sent splinters flying from the crossbar as it ricocheted down and into the net.

Eight minutes later, Mboma provided a virtual replay, though from slightly closer range. Again he bulled his way through two defenders and again he snapped off a deadly shot. This time, Makoto Kakegawa manaaged to get a hand on the ball, but all he coud do was deflect it around the post for a corner kick. The kick was taken by Ramon Mendes Hubner, who sent a delicate lob for the far post where Yugo Ichiyanagi was sneaking in through the back door. Ichiyanagi headed back across goal to beat the keeper's lunge, and double the score line.

For the next 15 minutes or so, the match was again dominated by Vissel. Harison got off three or four shots of which two were very close calls for the Verdy keeper. But shortly before half time, Verdy added one more goal on another play that seemed to come out of the blue. In the 37 minute, Naoto Sakurai received an inlet pass at the top left corner of the box. Though he was double covered, neither Vissel defender had established a very solid position, and Sakurai tried to flick the ball on and spin past his defenders into the box. Tomo Sugawara was just a bit late in reacting, and his flailing kick caught Sakurai in the knee, knocking him to the turf andd conceding a PK. Ramon collected from the penalty spot and Verdy went into the locker room with a 3-1 lead.

Just moments after the restart, Vissel got a big break as Ichiyanagi made a slightly overzealous tackle and picked up his second yellow of the match. Reduced to ten men, Verdy spent the rest of the match defending desperately against a continuous Vissel attack. But keeper Yoshinari Takagi had a fine performance at the heart of the scrambling Verdy defence, and allowed only one late goal, collected again by Yabuta. Verdy hung on for their second win in a row, and began moving their season's performance back into the realm of respectability.

Lineups:

Yoshinari Takagi, Yugo Ichiyanagi, Masayuki Yanagisawa, Atsushi Yoneyama, Atsuhiro Miura, Shingo Nejime, Takuya Yamada, Kentaro Hayashi, Ramon Mendez Hubner (Kazunari Iio 89), Naoto Sakurai (Kazuki Hiramoto 86), Patrick Mboma (Daigo Kobayashi 84).

Makoto Kakegawa, Yuji Tabuchi, Sidiclei, Yukio Tsuchiya, Tomo Sugawara (Masayuki Okano 52), Yasutoshi Miura, Takayuki Yamaguchi (Kazuhiro Mori 72), Mitsunori Yabuta, Harison, Kazuyoshi Miura (Ryuji Bando 60) , Oseas.

0 - 0

But you would be wrong. Just 8,000 fans showed up at Ichihara Seaside Stadium to take in the match. It is probably unfair to blame the deadlock that resulted on the crowd. Both teams played hard and play went from end to end with the ball ending up in the net at least one time (FC Tokyo's goal was disallowed for an offside call). But in the end, the final score was exactly what the JEF fans deserved for continuously failing to get behind their team. Neither team was able to break duck, and as a result JEF lose a point on the field of other contenders.

Lineups:

Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Zeljko Milinovic, Takayuki Chano , Masataka Sakamoto, Yuto Sato, Yuki Abe, Shinji Murai (Satoru Yamagishi 82), Naotake Hanyu, Sandro Cardoza (Takenori Hayashi 74) , Choi Yong-Soo.

Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Jean Carlo Witte, Teruyuki Moniwa, Jo Kanazawa, Fumitake Miura, Masashi Miyazawa, Naohiro Ishikawa, Mitsuhiro Toda (Norio Suzuki 81), Yoshiro Abe, Amaral (Yuta Baba 72).

0 - 0

Lineups:

Hayato Okanaka, Daiki Wakamatsu, Sandro Chaves Rosa, Takashi Miki, Kojio Arimura, Takashi Umeda (Tomoaki Komorida 18), , Yoshito Terakawa, Tomohisa Yoshida, Rodrigo Mendes, Andradinha (Yoshihiro Uchimura 84), Daiki Takamatsu (Teppei Nishiyama 79) .

Yuta Minami, Naoya Kondo (Shinya Tanoue 79), Norihiro Satsukawa, Toru Nagata, Tomonori Hirayama, Shigenori Hagimura, Tomokazu Myojin, Takahiro Shimotaira, Juche, Marcio (Tatsuya Tanizawa 73), Keiji Tamada (Kisho Yano 89)

0 - 1

The match that they were treated to was deserving of the long rivalry as well. Despite the low score line, the match produced almost continuous excitement as play swung back and forth from one end of the pitch to the other. Only fate prevented a much higher scoring match, as the woodwork at both ends took a pounding and both keepers handled their share of shots. The first half was played with high intensity and strict defensive control by both teams. One often hears such matches described as a "chess match", and that description might fit if we were talking about a chess match between two extremely aggressive opponents, with a five-second time limit between moves. Keisuke Tsuboi continues to impress with his speed, fine positioning and fierce defensive intensity, and Ned Zelic had a fine match as well before he limped off with a hamstring strain midway through the second half. On the other end, Naoki Matsuda and Yuji Nakazawa played as if deliberately trying to send a message to Zico, who left both off his roster for the upcoming national team match with Korea.

As the second half began, the intensity rose a notch higher, and both offences began pushing just a bit harder for a tally. The Marinos got the first really dangerous chance after keeper Ryuta Tsuzuki rushed out of his net to try to clear a long ball, and got caught in no-man's land when Tatsuhiko Kubo beat him to the ball. But Kubo rushed his next move, firing the ball across the open face of goal before his teammates could move into position, and the ball rolled all the way to the opposite side ofthe penalty box where it was cleared by Ichiei Muroi.

Thes set off a see-saw rush from end to end which saw two clear shots on goal of the Reds and one for the Marinos, followed instantly by a breakout in the opposite direction. On the third Marinos trip downfield, though, a crucial mistake allowed Keita Suzuki to step into the passing lane and steal the ball just as all of the Marinos players were in full sprint towards the Urawa goal. He instantly fired a pass to the wing for Emerson, who turned on the jets and zooomed down the right sideline with two Marinos defenders in desperate pursuit. But the player who turned this rush into a goal was Koji Yamase, who dashed at a full sprint for over 80 meters from the edge of the Reds penalty box, trailing the play. As Emerson curled into the box and towards the right post, the Marinos defenders finally caught up, and the keeper moved over to cut off his angle. But Emerson had been tracking Yamase's progress all the way from midfield, and at the last second he rolled the ball softly towards the penalty spot for the young midfielder to volley home.

Emerson very nearly doubled the score just seconds later, as he finished off another dash from midfield with a blast that left the crossbar quivering. Momentum was swinging in the Reds direction, and it was clear that the Marinos needed to do something to turn the tide. But the effort would backfire, just seven minutes after Yamase's goal. As the Marinos tried to mount a drive of their own, defender Matsuda pushed forward to support the attack, to within a few meters of the penalty arc. As he carried the ball towards the middle of the pitch, he turned his back to screen one Reds defender. but failed to notice Nobuhisa Yamada sneaking in from the opposite side. With a sudden rush, Yamada raced past and snatched the ball away, turning upfield to see three Reds sprinters preparing to launch themselves against just one remaining Marinos defender. Acting on instinct rather than consideration, Matsuda lashed out a boot and tripped up Yamada before he could dash away. Though it was not a particularly hard fould, the referee quite rightly showed Matsuda his second yellow card for preventing a clear-cut Reds breakaway. Reduced to ten men, and without their defensive leader, the Marinos could do little over the final 20 minutes of the match except fend off the Reds attack. In the 83 minute Hans Ooft pulled striker Yuichiro Nagai for a fifth defender, and the match was effectively over.

Lineups:

Tatsuya Enomoto, Yasuhiro Hato, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Kazuyoshi Mikaki (Kunio Nagayama 78), Yukihiko Sato (Sotaro Yasunaga 78), Daisuke Nasu, Yasuhiro Endo, Daisuke Oku, Nobuhisa Shimizu (Daisuke Sakata 60), Tatsuhiko Kubo.

Ryuta Tsuzuki, Nedijelko "Ned" Zelic (Satoshi Horinouchi 57), Keisuke Tsuboi, Ichiei Muroi, Nobuhisa Yamada, Keita Suzuki, Hideki Uchidate, Tadaaki Hirakawa, Koji Yamase, Yuichiro Nagai (Makoto Hasebe 83), Emerson.

1 - 0

Coach Hiromi Hara must have said something to his playersat half time, because from the start of the second half, Gamba strikers and midfielders began to take on their opponents and try to penetrate., This created a few more scoring opportunities, but as poor as the S-Pukse offense was playing, their back line held up quite well. A few ticks past the one hour mark, Hara made an offensive-minded adjustment bringing in both Araiba and young striker Satoshi Nakayama . This quickly created more pressure on the S-Pulse back line, but when the crucial goal finally came, it was from a rather unexpected play.

In the 65 minute, Magrao posted up at midfield and fed the ball off to Masashi Oguro on the right sideline. Oguro was still 40 meters from goal, but he seemed to spot the keeper straying off his line and lofted a long loop shot . . . or was it a cross? . . . In any event, the ball sailed over the keeper's head and snuck in just under the crossbar to put Gamba on top.

S-Pulse responded by bringing Ahn Jung Hwan off the bench and playing a three-striker line. But even this failed to produce much in the way of goal-scoring opportunities. With ten minutes to go, Gamba brought in a defensive reserve for Magrao and settled back to run out the clock.

Lineups:

Naoki Matsuyo, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Noritada Saneyoshi, Shigeru Morioka, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Hideo Hashimoto(Satoshi Nakayama 60), Yasuhito Endo, Takahiro Futagawa (Toru Araiba 60), Masashi Oguro, Magrao (Yuki Matsushita 80).

Takaya Kurokawa, Daisuke Ichikawa, Shohei Ikeda, Ryuzo Morioka, Kazumichi Takaki Teruyoshi Ito, Yasuhiro Yoshida (Jumpei Takagi), Tomoyoshi Tsurumi, Masaaki Sawanobori (Hideaki Kitajima 75), Alessandro Santos, Kohei Hiramatsu (Ahn Jung-Hwan 72).

And so, the J.League goes into its summer break with six teams all hanging within striking distance of the league leader, Jubilo Iwata. Jubilo have a one-point edge going into the last five matches of the season, but have by far the hardest road to the winner's tape, with matches against both second-place JEF United and third-place Kashima Antlers scheduled, as well as difficult away contests against Kashiwa Reysol and FC Tokyo. JEF United are just one point back and have a fairly easy path to the finish line, with Jubilo as the only real contender on their schedule. The Antlers, two points back, have an even easier schedule with a crucial match against Jubilo as soon as the season resumes, followed by contests against four teams that are all in the lower half of the table. Nagoya Grampus and Yokohama Marinos are also still in the hunt, lying four points off the pace.

Rumours and Rumblings

Yanagisawa Celebrates Birthday with Italian Vacation

Since Sampdoria have already indicated that they are prepared to accept the transfer fee conditions that the Antlers' are asking, these discussions will most likely focus on determining the specific date of the transfer. Although Sampdoria may very well want Yanagisawa to come to Italy some time in early or mid-July, the J.League first stage resumes on July 5 and runs through August 2. It seems unlikely that the Serie A club would allow Yanagisawa to finish the season for Antlers, as this would prevent him from preparing with his new teammates for the 2003-04 Serie A campaign. But then again, Yanagisawa was not able to play a real "farewell" match for the Antlers fans, since the deal was still undecided.

What better way to provide a good send-off for the Italy-bound star -- and win Sampdoria some free publicity as well -- than to have Yanagisawa play a home match against the Antlers' long-time rivals Jubilo Iwata, on July 5, as his last match in an Antlers' uniform? We believe that the two teams will probably reach an accord to ensure that this happens. It is possible, though unlikely, that the Antlers will convince Sampdoria to wait until after the Vissel Kobe match at Antlers stadium, on July 19. But considering the publicity value of a Yanagisawa send-off, televised nationwide in Japan, and against a top opponent in a match which just might decide the league title, we think that Sampdoria will agree to wait at least until early July.

The Wizard of Ossie Returns to Tokyo

Ardilles is a well-known coach in Japan, having served twice before as the top man on a J.League club, though the reputation he has gained will depend a lot on who you ask. Ardilles achieved excellent results at Shimizu S-Pulse during the mid-1990s, and though he never was able to lead them to any silverware, he is credited with designing a very successful squad on a slim budget with few resources.

However, in his second stint in the J.League, as the head coach of Yokohama Marinos, he constantly clashed with management, calling them "tigtwads" (in one of his most complementary comments), and exuding such an additude of defeatism and gloom that the team had to send him packing midway through the 2001 season in order to avoid the threat of relegation.

It is hard to say which of these two faces will be on display when Ossie takes over as the head coach of Tokyo Verdy, though one would have to say that the prospects are better this time around than they were with the Marinos. Since he is joining in midseason, there will be little reason for Ardilles to gripe about the personnel or the team's efforts to sign star players. Furthermore, although Verdy have only one real "star", in Patrick Mboma, they do have a large contingent of highly promising youngsters. If Ossie can do as good a job moulding this unit as he did with the young S-Pulse squad of the mid-1990s, Verdy could be back on the road to respectability. In any event, the team certainly cannot do any worse than they did under Coach Lori, so he should enjoy a honeymoon period of sorts, with the team, for at least the rest of the 2003 season.

Shinji Ono Named AFC Player of 2002

Not that Ono does not deserve the award. On the contrary, his performance in helping Feyenoord to the UEFA Cup championship in 2002 alone would probably have clinched him the title. Only one other Asian player in history (Cha Bum-Kun) has ever taken part in a European championship event. Add to that his appearance in the 2002 World Cup, and Ono was an easy choice. The only problem is that Shinji has been injured, ill, and out of the limelight for most of 2003, as Feyenoord struggled in the Eredivisie this season. Based on their recent performances, many other players might seem like better choices. One can only hope that the AFC will move up their selection process by a few months, in the future, to avoid this sort of situation in future years.

Not surprisingly, Korea dominated most of the other awards based on their performance in the World Cup. They clinched both best team and best coach (for Guus Hiddink). Lee Chun-Soo, who was a member of the Korean WC2002 squad, won best young player of the year -- a title that Ono won in 1998.