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July 13, 2003
Cinderella Dressed in Yella

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
12 Jul		0-1		Saitama Stadium
12 Jul		5-1		Ichihara Seaside
12 Jul		3-1		Ajinomoto Stadium
12 Jul		2-1		Yokohama Int'l
12 Jul		2-0		Kusanagi Stadium
12 Jul		0-3		Kobe Wing Stadium
13 Jul		vs		"Banpaku" Stadium
13 Jul		vs		Oita Stadium

5 - 1

But JEF seemed to show no ill effects from their lack of fan support, at least on this particular evening. Of course, it is hard to go wrong when your opponent is as generous as Vegalta were on Saturday night. In the 16 minute, they set the stage for a long and painful night when an errant back pass from a Vegalta defender fell right in front of Choi Yong-Soo and the big Korean striker swooped in to snatch the ball and, without even pausing to say "thank you very much", strode into the penalty box unmarked for an easy finish.

Just five minutes later, another Vegalta error allowed JEF to double the score line. Ichihara won a free kick about 35 meters out, straigth away from goal. Choi took the kick and sent a powerful blast straight at the keeper. Although the low, stinging drive was a a bit hard to handle, it was the sort of kick that any decent keeper should be able to either smother or kick clear. But Daijiro Takakuwa muffed the save, and the ball bounced directly into the path of Naotake Hanyu, who drove it into the roof of the net. Coach Osim, on the bench, was shown laughing in bemusement, unable to believe that his teamA's opponent was making it so easy.

Six minutes later, JEF got yet another soft goal, though this time Zeljko Milinovic deserves credit for good positioning and reflexes. JEF won a corner kick on the left side, and the ball was centered directly in front of goal, to where Milinovic was double covered by two Vegalta defenders. Fabiano went for the clearance, but was a bit off balace and his kick missed completely. Milinovic had just a split second to react as the ball came through, but managed to deflect it on net. Takakuwa dove, and got a hand on the softly bounding ball, but merely pushed it into his own net.

As the period drew to a close, JEF finally put together a sparkling play that helped to justify the score line. Masataka Sakamoto pounced on a loose ball in the Vegalta end and slid a pass to Choi, posting up at the top of the penalty arc. Choi felt his man on his back, and made a quick spin move to turn on goal, and at exactly the same moment, Satoru Yamagishi cut towards net. Choi slipped a very pretty pass through the defence and Yamagishi was into the clear, for a point-blank shot that he slid underneath the keeper giving JEF a trememdous 4-0 advantage at half time.

In the second half, Vegalta started to play a bit more effectively, and threatened on two or three occasions. Interestingly enough, perhaps the most dangerous opportunities were created by Hisato Sato, who is on a one-year loan from JEF to Vegalta, this season. Fifteen minutes into the second half, Sato finally got the goal that he seemed to deserve, as Silvinho was pulled down in the penalty box and Sato collected the PK. But this simply incited a counteroffensive by JEF United, with Sakamoto sending a cross from the left sideline to an unmarked Choi, whose powerful head closed out the scoring.

Lineups:

Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Zeljko Milinovic, Eisuke Nakanishi, Satoru Yamagishi (Shigeyoshi Mochizuki 81), Takayuki Chano, Masataka Sakamoto (86), Shinji Murai (Takashi Rakuyama 78), Naotake Hanyu, Sandro Cardoza (Takenori Hayashi 78), Choi Yong-Soo.

Daijiro Takakuwa, Takumi Morikawa, Fabiano, Norio Omura, Yuichi Nemoto, Silvinho, Hajime Moriyasu (Ichizo Nakata 78), Toshiyuki Abe (Yasushi Fukunaga 45), Nobuyuki Zaizen (Naoki Chiba 78), Hisato Sato, Yoshiteru Yamashita (Takayuki Nakahara 84).

2 - 0

But the biggest headache of all, no doubt, came from the men dressed in stripes. This was probably to be expected when Mr.Matsumura was named as the head referee. Reportedly, Carlos Dunga once observed, after being sent off by Matsumura for disputing a horrendous call, "I dont want to call Matsumura an incompetent referee. That would be an insult to other incompetent referees" The Antlers were clearly suffering a letdown after their key contest last week, played poorly for most of the match, and probably deserved to lose to the very lively and aggressive S-Pulse. But poor calls from the officials made the job that much more difficult.

For the first 20 minutes of the match, the Antlers seemed to have the upper hand, though Tomoyuki Hirase continues to demonstrate that he is one of the most incompetent strikers in the league. Hopefully his truly awful performance in this match will see him relegated to the bench for good. He was replaced by Takayuki Suzuki early in the second half, and the Antlers clearly looked more dangerous with Suzuki up front than with Hirase in that position. Then, against the run of play, S-Pulse got a counterattack, and Yoshikiyo Kuboyama broke down the center of the pitch with Tuto on his right. The Antlers back line executed what looked like a perfect offside trap, with the last two defenders collapsing on Kuboyama just as Tuto began to accelerate down the wing. Kuboyama managed to push the ball between the two defenders, but Tuto was at least two steps offside . . .

. . . but inexplicably, the linesman's flag stayed down. As Toninho Cerezo screamed and gesticulated on the sideline, Tuto collected the ball, faked the keeper to the ground and then slid the ball into the net. Though the replays showed that Cerezo had a legitimate beef, the play stood, and S-Pulse had a 1-0 lead.

S-Pulse took encouragement from the goal, and began to play with a great deal of energy, whereas the Antlers attack looked lifeless and unispired. The rest of the first half was largely controlled by Shimizu, and for their lack of spirit in this stretch alone, the Antlers probably deserved the loss. But they might still have escaped with a point or more, had it not been for some further interference from the officials. With the entry of Suzuki for Hirase early in the second half, the Antlers began to put on some pressure, and created a few good scoring chances. In fact, it looked like they would have the equalizer when Suzuki turned the corner on the left side and was knocked to the turf by defender Shohei Ikeda , who was clearly beaten. But Mr. Matsumura waved play on and the apparent PK was not awarded. Then, in the 74 minute, as Mitsuo Ogasawara was shadowing Alex Santos across the middle of the pitch, Santos suddenly reversed his field and Ogasawara accidentally caught him with his boot, knocking him to the turf. Amazingly, although the foul looked inocuous and almost accidental Mr. Matsumura pulled out a yellow card, Ogasawara's second of the match, and the Antlers were reduced to ten men.

At this point, the match was effectively over. The Antlers had been playing poorly throughout the match, whereas S-Pulse were at the top of their game. Without their ace playmaker and with a one man disadvantage, the Antlers had little chance of turning the tide. Just five minutes after Ogasawara had been sent off, Daisuke Ichikawa broke down the right sideline on a counterattack and crossed in to Ahn, who headed the ball on net. His shot caught the crossbar and ricocheted back, but Tuto was in position to stuff home the rebound, and S-Pulse solidified their victory.

Lineups:

Takaya Kurokawa, Shohei Ikeda, Emerson, Kazumichi Takaki, Daisuke Ichikawa, Yasuhiro Yoshida, Teruyoshi Ito, Tomoyoshi Tsurumi, Alessandro Santos, Yoshikiyo Kuboyama, Ahn Jung-Hwan, Tuto.

Hitoshi Sogahata, Akira Narahashi, Yutaka Akita, Go Oiwa, Naoki Soma (Masaki Fukai 65), Koji Nakata, Fernando, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama (Claudicir 54), Tomoyuki Hirase (Takayuki Suzuki 54), Euller .

0 - 1

Urawa's attack was clearly hurt by the absence of Emerson, who was sitting out a suspension for accumulated yellow cards, and although Tatsuya Tanaka made some good runs as his replacement, he also demonstrated why he has been confined to bench duty, appearing only as a second-half substitute. Tanaka ran out of gas after about 30 minuytes, and was almost invisible in the second half.

Nevertheless, Urawa seemed to have the upper hand, urged on by their raucous supporters. Yuichiro Nagai and Nobuhisa Yamada both came close with shots early in the second half, and Keita Suzuki collected a clearance from a corner kick just outside the penalty arc and sent a screaming drive just over the crossbar. But in the end, it was a Tokyo set play that would decide the match. In the 84 minute, Tokyo got a corner kick on the left side, and Ishikawa sent the ball for the far post. Defender Teruyuki Moniwa outjumped his defender to head the ball back across the face of goal, and Kelly drove a volley just inside the left post to give FC Tokyo the victory.

Lineups:

Norihiro Yamagishi, Nedijelko "Ned" Zelic, Keisuke Tsuboi, Ichiei Muroi, Nobuhisa Yamada, Hideki Uchidate, Keita Suzuki, Tadaaki Hirakawa, Makoto Hasebe, Yuichiro Nagai (Toru Chishima 60), Tatsuya Tanaka.

Yoichi Doi, Shuhei Tokunaga, Jean Carlo Witte, Teruyuki Moniwa, Jo Kanazawa, Fumitake Miura (Satoru Asari 51), Masashi Miyazawa, Naohiro Ishiukawa Clesley "Kelly" Guimares, Mitsuhiro Toda (Yuta Baba 70), Yoshiro Abe (Amaral 53).

0 - 3

When the two teams came out for the second half, though, Nagoya suddenly seemed to catch fire. Ten minutes after the intermission, Marques beat his man at midfield and slipped a perfect pass through the last line of defence to rookie midfielder Keiji Yoshimura. The former universiade star slid the ball inside the left post for his first J.League goal, giving Grampus the lead. Less than ten munutes later, Kunihiko Takizawa received a ball on the left wing and studied the penalty area looking for a teammate. As he scanned the opportunities, he apparebtly noticed that the Vissel keeper was cheating off his line, waiting for the high cross. Takizawa hit a left-footed line drive with the outside of his boot, curling it just inside the far post before the keeper could retreat to make the save.

The final goal of the match was a piece of dazzling pass work between Marques and Ueslei. The two both were in full flight towards net, and as they approached the last line of defenders, Ueslei played a one-two from the top of the penalty arc. But when Marques' return pass left him with a man still to beat, Ueslei one-timed it back to continue the sequence, three-four. Marques' second return pass met Ueslei right on the bootlaces, for an easy volley into the top of the net.

Lineups:

Makoto Kakegawa, Yuji Tabuchi, Sidiclei, Kunie Kitamoto, Naoto Matsuo, Tomo Sugawara, Takayuki Yamaguchi (Hiromi Kojima 63), Masayuki Okano, Harison, Oseas, Kazuyoshi Miura (Ryuji Bando 63) .

Seigo Narazaki, Masayuki Omori, Andrej Panadic, Masahiro Koga, Masahiro Kaimoto (Keiji Kaimoto 81), Keiji Yoshimura, Kei Yamaguchi, Kunihiko Takizawa, Chikara Fujimoto, Marques (Ryuta Hara 82), Ueslei, (Ryoji Ujihara 87), .

2 - 1

Lineups:

Tatsuya Enomoto, Yoo Sang-Chul, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Dutra, Yukihiko Sato (Nobuhisa Shimizu 55), Daisuke Nasu, Yasuhiro Endo (Masahiro Ohashi 81), Daisuke Oku, Marquinhos , Tatsuhiko Kubo (Daisuke Sakata 64).

Naoto Hirai, Kazuhiro Suzuki, Makoto Kakuda, Yuki Hayashi, Kazuki Tejima, Takayuki Ono (Yusuke Mori 55), Tadashi Nakamura, Kiyotaka Ishimaru (Tadamichi Machida 87), Shingo Suzuki, Ko Jung-Yoon, Daisuke Nakaharai (Daisuke Saito 65).

3 - 1

Lineups:

Yoshinari Takagi, Masayuki Yanagisawa, Atsushi Yoneyama, Kentaro Hayashi, Atsuhiro Miura, Daigo Kobayashi, Takuya Yamada, Takeshi Hirano, Ramon Mendez Hubner, Naoto Sakurai (Hayuma Tanaka 76), Kazuki Hiramoto (Patrick Mboma 45) .

Yuta Minami, Mitsuteru Watanabe (Naoya Kondo 71), Norihiro Satsukawa, Masayuki Ochiai, Tomonori Hirayama, Takahiro Shimotaira, Tomokazu Myojin (Keisuke Nebiki 45), Ricardinho, Jesse, Marcio (Kisho Yano 73), Keiji Tamada (Yuta Nagai 69) .

0 - 2

The increase in fan support may have more than a little to do with the sort of football that both teams are playing this year. Despite the miserable conditions, the two teams played attacking football for the full 90 minutes, and provided continuous excitement. The star of the show, as is usually the case these days, was U-22 striker Yoshito Okubo, who recently broke into the national team and now is beginning to stamp his own private label on the Cerezo team. Okubo was in fine form on Sunday night, dashing around Gamba the penalty area and creating havoc wherever he went. Early in the first half, Okubo chased a high bounding ball towards the left post with two defenders on his heels. Screening off the defenders, both of whom were nearly twice his size, Okubo settled the ball, then tried to put an overhead kick on net. Though the ball sailed wide, this was indicative of Okubo's agressive, goal-hungry play throughout the evening.

But Gamba were pressing the attack as well. Particularly in the early stages of the second half, Masashi Oguro, Yasuhito Endo and Magrao put several dangerous shots on goal, and only some very good saves by Seigo Shimokawa kept the match scoreless. By the midpoint of the period, though, the momentum began to shift towards Cerezo, and just as Gamba replaced Toru Araiba in a bid to step up the offensive pressure, disaster struck.

Cerezo won a free kick just on the Gamba side of midfield, and defender Hiroshige Yanagimoto, who moved from Gamba to Cerezo at the start of this season, took the kick. His long arching pass was headed on by Akinori Nishizawa, and as the keeper moved off his line to collect the looping header, Okubo dashed pell-mell into the box. With his patented brand of wildly flailing body control, which seems purely accidental until you have seen him display it for several matches in succession, Okubo lashed out his right foot to to deflect the ball slightly, making it harder for the keeper to catch, then swung his body in front of the keeper to smother his punched clearance. Trapping the ball with his lower back, Okubo completed his 360-degree spin without losing balance, and then chipped the ball into the net from point-blank range.

The goal seemed to shatter the confidence of the Gamba players, and despite a few counterthrusts, Cerezo began to seize the offensive initiative. Five minutes after the first goal, Cerezo won a corner kick on the right side, and as the cross came in, defender Tsuneyasu Miyamoto headed the ball directly into his own net, making him the undisputed league leader in own goals. You could see the heads drop from one end of the pitch to the other, and Gamba were a whipped team for the final 15 minutes of play. With their win, Cerezo finally move into the top half of the table, and seem to be moving in a positive direction. It will be very interesting to see what they can do in the second stage.

Lineups:

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.

Naoki Matsuyo, Masao Kiba, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Toshihiro Matsushita (Satoshi Nakayama 45), Hideo Hashimoto, Yasuhito Endo, Toru Araiba (Arata Kodama 72), Takahiro Futagawa , Masashi Oguro (Masanobu Matsunami 85), Magrao.

4 - 0

Ten minutes later, it was Gral's turn to benefit from the good set-up work of a teammate. Toshiya Fujita took a pass from Hiroshi Nanami at the right edge of the penalty arc and threaded it through three defenders to Gral. The Brazilian ace was unable to trap it cleanly, but it bounded off a defender's foot and right into Gral's path toward goal. Gral settled it once more, then slid it underneath the keeper for a 2-0 advantage.

Just before the half, a defensive blunder by Trinita gifted Jubilo with their third goal. Sandro Chaves Rosa took a back pass and pushed it wide, intending to run onto it himself but failed to notice Ryoichi Maeda lurking along the left sideline. Maeda raced in and snatched the ball away before Sandro could clear, and suddenly he was off on an uncontested run for goal. Trinita's veteran keeper Hayato Okanaka played the ball very well, shepherding Maeda to the left post and then smothering his shot, but Maeda pulled the rebound away before Okanaka could collect it, and pushed the ball across the face of goal. It might have found the back post without any help, but Gral decided not to take chances, and stuffed it in himself to put Jubilo up 3-0 at the half..

In the second stanza, Oita looked a bit more competitive, threatening Jubilo on occasion and avoiding any more serious breakdowns on defence. But with just a minute left to play, a long centering pass into the box by Nobuo Kawaguchi fell right onto the left boot of Aleksandr Zivkovic. The substitute striker drove a shot high into the nylon and Jubilo had their final margin of victory.

Lineups:

Toshiyasu Takahara, Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Norihiro Nishi (Nobuo Kawaguchi 80), Takashi Fukunishi (Taikai Kawamura 63), Toshihiro Hattori, Toshiya Fujita (Aleksandr Zivkovic 70), Hiroshi Nanami, Rodrigo Gral, Ryoichi Maeda.

Hayato Okanaka, Tetsuya Yamazaki, Sandro Chaves Rosa, Takashi Miki, Koji Arimura (Yoshiaki Komorida 53), Yoshito Terakawa, Takashi Umeda (Yoshihiro Uchimura 71), Shinichi Muto (Shota Matsuhashi 78), Rodrigo Mendes, Taskahiro Yoshida, Daiki Takamatsu.

With their victory and the Antlers loss, JEF United move one point further into the lead, whileJubvi Jubilo Iwata move into second place, two points back. Yokohama Marinos are third, three points off the pace, while Nagoya Grampus and the Antlers are still within reach, at four points back. A great deal will be roding on the result of the match between JEF and Jubilo next weekend, with the winner setting itself up for what should be an easy final two matches and a stage victory. On the other hand, a draw would throw the race into chaos, with possibly as many as six teams within three points of first place. Stay tuned!

Nabisco Cup First Round Concludes

In pool A, Vissel Kobe traveled to a packed Komaba Stadium for a collision with the Urawa Reds for the second qualification spot in the pool (though as we will note below, Verdy still had a mathematical chance to qualify). Needing only a draw to secure the second spot in the group, Vissel understandably played a cautious and rather defensive match on hostile territory, but continuous pressure by the Reds finally cracked their dogged defensive wall in the 74 minute, when a beautiful one-touch drop pass by Nobuhisa Yamada set up U-22 volante Keita Suzuki for a blistering drive from 25 meters. The ball found the low left corner and the Reds advanced as the second team in Pool A.

Meanwhile, Jubilo Iwata fielded most of their rookies and second-year players in their match against Tokyo Verdy, having already clinched a spot in the quarterfinal round and wanting to rest their players for the key matchup against JEF this weekend. Though nominally a "B" team, Jubilo has some very impressive youngsters on the squad including U-20 stars Sho Naruoka, Kentaro Oi and Naoki Kikuchi, as well as U-22 strikers Ryoichi Maeda and Yasumasa Nishino. Verdy, who entered the match knowing that they needed to win by at least four goals in order to have a chance at progressing, gave it their all, and Patrick Mboma had a particularly impressive outing, scoring his first hat trick in a Verdy uniform. But Jubilo's youngsters proved to be no pushover, with both Nishino and Maeda tallying in the second half to cut the final margin to just one goal. Jubilo thus advance as the winner of Pool A, with Urawa Reds moving to the quarterfinal round as the number two team in the pool.