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July 20, 2003
Tied Up and Seeing Red

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
19 Jul		3-3		Sendai Stadium
19 Jul		3-3		Kashima Stadium
19 Jul		0-0		Ajinomoto Stadium
19 Jul		1-1		Mizuho Stadium
19 Jul		0-2		Nishikyogoku Std.
19 Jul		1-4		Nagai Stadium
20 Jul		1-1		Kashiwa-no-ha Std.
20 Jul		2-2		Iwata Stadium

4 - 1

Following the opening whistle, Cerezo took the initiative, using short passes at midfield and lobs to the front line to create several clear-cut chances. Yoshito Okubo got the first shot on goal, but slightly mishit a header directly in front of net, allowing the keeper to smother it. In the 15 minute, though Yokohama got a break that would significantly affect the nature of the match.

As the Marinos counterattacked through midfield, Tatsuhiko Kubo received a slant pas on the left side, just beyond the penalty area, and set up for a shot on goal. But defensive midfielder Axel was in full retreat, and as Kubo wound up for the kicke, Alex lashed out a foot and flicked the ball away with his toe. Kubo's kick arrived an instant too late, and rather than finding the ball, his instep drove right into the bottom of Alex's boot. The referee was not in a good position to see the play, and when he saw Kubo collapse in a howl of very authentic pain, awarded a free kick at the edge of the box. Though replays show that Alex got nothing but ball, the Marinos were awarded a golden opportuntiy that they did not waste. Daisuke Oku curled a kick into the top left corner and Yokohama took the early lead

This goal offered the Marinos an important cushion, since it allowed them to hang back and look for counterattacking opportunities, and avoid getting involved in a footrace with the swift and tireless Cerezo attack. Both teams had their chances over the remainder of the first half, but Cerezo were forced to press, while the Marinos were able to choose their chances more carefully, and they showed excellent poise in this regard. Good chances were seized, but they did not overextend themselves and five Cerezo a chance to spring a quick counter of their own. As the half wore down, Yokohama won a corner kick on the left side and doubled their advantage when defender Yuji Nakazawa made a perfectly timed run into the box and connected on a diving header at the near post.

In the second half, Cerezo switched to an all-out attacking stance in a desperate bid to get back into the match. Pulling one defensive midfielder and inserting Akinori Nishizawa, a nominal striker, Cerezo started to press deeper and deeper into Marinos territory. However, the strategy had obvious risks as it left the defence open to swift counterattacks. Sure enough, ten minutes after the half a long clearance to Marquinhos sent him into the box unmarked. The keeper did a good jobb of getting off his line, and nearly smothered the chance, but Marquinhos wisely pulled the ball back and slipped it to Akihiro Endo, trailing the play. Endo had a wide open net to shoot at, and made no mistake, extending the lead to 3-0. Just moments later Cerezo's woes were compounded as Yoo Sang-Chul headed home a corner kick from the right side. making the score 4-0 at the one hour mark.

But Cerezo are a team that never stops attacking, and they quickly pulled a goal back on a long feed to Okubo, who beat the offside trap and then played a brilliant first touch to lob the ball over the outrushing keeper. For the next ten minutes, Cerezo pushed furiously to try to create another, but time was on the Marinos' side, and as the clock ticked away, Cerezo's efforts became more and more desperate. Eventually, Coach Okada felt safe enough to make two defensive substitutions and the Cerezo attacks fizzled out against the superior Marinos defence.

Lineups:

Tatsuya Enomoto, Yoo Sang-Chul, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Dutra, Yukihiko Sato (Nobuhisa Shimizu 74), Daisuke Nasu, Yasuhiro Endo, Daisuke Oku (Masahiro Ohashi 86), Marquinhos, Tatsuhiko Kubo (Daisuke Sakata 61).

Daisuke Tada, Satoru Suzuki, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Takuma Koga, Yuji Hironaga (Akinori Nishizawa 39), Axel, Kiyokazu Kudo, Yusuke Sato, Hiroaki Morishima (Nobuki Hara 64), Baron (Takaaki Tokushige 79), Yoshito Okubo .

1 - 1

For a while, it looked like things were going Nagoya's way. The team snatched an early lead in the 4 minute when Chikara Fujimoto danced through three opposing players and slipped a pass to Ueslei about 25 meters out on the right side. Ueslei saw an opening and unleashed a blistering shot that snuck inside the right post before the keeper could react.

But thereafter Nagoya adopted the defensive posture and tactics that has made their team seem almost "Italian" this year (and that comment isnt intended to be a compliment). Unfortunately, a defensive miscue in the 23 minute allowed Masashi Oguro to break free on goal, and Seigo Narazaki cut him down as he tried to race off his line to smother the shot. The referee was a bit harsh in his punishment, showing Narazaki the red plastic rectangle, and when Yasuhito Endo converted from the spot, the match was all even except for the number of personnel on the pitch.

Predictably, Nagoya responded by retreating into a defensive posture, allowing Gamba to dominate the remaining hour of the match in terms of ball possession and scoring opportunities. But despite numerous opportunities, Gamba were unable to crack the Grampus catenaccio and the match ended with a 1-1 score line.

Lineups:

Seigo Narazaki, Masayuki Omori, Andrej Panadic, Masahiro Koga, Kojiro Kaimoto (Keiji Kaimoto 81), Naoshi Nakamuira, Keiji Yoshimura, Kunihiko Takizawa (Ryuta Hara 83), Chikara Fujimoto (Kei Yamaguchi 69), Marques (Masahiro Honda 22), Ueslei, .

Naoki Matsuyo, Masao Kiba, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Noritada Saneyoshi, Toru Irie (Arata Kodama 67), Hideo Hashimoto, Yasuhito Endo, Toru Araiba (Kota Yoshihara 58), Takahiro Futagawa , Masashi Oguro , Satoshi Nakayama (Masanobu Matsunami 58).

3 - 3

In the first half of the match, things seemed to be going very much Kashima's way. Despite the absence of the team's playmaker Mitsuo Ogasawara Kashima created some good offence with Masashi Motoyama Hirase and Koji Nakata sharing the responsibility for running the attack. In the 24 minute, Nakata found Tomoyuki Hirase at the top of the penalty arc in a post-up position, and Hirase slid the ball to Motoyama cutting in from the left wing. Motoyama's drive beat the keeper and the Antlers were in the early lead.

Just five minutes later, a well designed set play doubled the advantage. Taking a corner kick on the left side, Nakata sent a long ball to Akira Narahashi outside the area. and Narahashi lobbed the ball back into the box. Hirase got a head on it and the ball bounced softly into the open right side of the net.

In years past, a two goal lead at half time would have been plenty of cushion of the Antlers to protect, but the aging back line is starting to show signs of decreptitude, and a fired-up Vissel Kobe emerged from the locker room to exploit these weaknesses. Just six minutes after the break, a Kobe push up the right sideline saw a cross into the box blocked -- apparently -- by Yutaka Akita . But after blocking the ball down, Akita swung wildly and completely missed his clearance kick, falling flat on his back. Ryuji Bando could hardly believe his luck, and he snatched the loose ball for a point-blank shot. Two minutes later, though, Motoyama fed Claudicir down the left side for a thunderous finish, and it looked like the Antlers had re-established control.

But as the replay of the Caludicir goal was still playing, Akita made yet another muffed clearance on a centering pass from Harison , giving Oseas another easy finish. Before the Antlers could recover, The best Vissel offensive play of the day saw Hiromi Kojima find space the right corner and volley a lob pass in front of net for Oseas to head home.

Following the equalizer, Toninho Cerezo shuffled his front line to step up the offensive pressure. For a few minutes it looked like the Antlers were on the attack and might pull out the victory after all. But in the 82 minute, as Vissel sprung a counterattack, Naoki Soma tried to steal the ball, and instead knocked knees with Harison, on the break. Though it looked like more of an accident than anything, the referee decided that the counterattack was sufficiently dangerous to award Soma his second yellow card.

Reduced to ten men, the Antlers nevertheless continued to pressure the Kobe goal. But things would get even worse for Kashima. With three minutes left in regulation time, Akita moved into the Kobe penalty area to await a corner kick. As Nakata prepared to take the kick, Masao Tsuchiya grabbed Akita by the front of the shirt to keep him from slipping away. Akita apparently made an attempt to rip himself free of Tsuchiya's grip, but as he swung his arm, Tsuchiya suddenly twisted around, and Akita's forearm caught him squarely in the jaw. Tsuchiya went down in a heap and the referee, assuming that Akita had thrown the forearm intentionally, showed him a red card. Replays suggest that it was probably unintentional, but since Akita already had one yellow, it would be hard to dispute his sending off. Reduce to nine men, the Antlers amazingly were still able to pressure Kobe in the dying minutes of the match, but it proved to be too little, and the match ended in a draw. The Antlers now face the prospect of meeting Cerezo Osaka next weekend with two of their starting defenders excluded from action. Essentially this eliminates them from the title chase.

Lineups:

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 .

Makoto Kakegawa, Yuji Tabuchi (Kazuyoshi Miura 88), Sidiclei, Masao Tsuchiya, Naoto Matsuo, Tomo Sugawara, Yasutoshi Miura (Mitsunori Yabuta 88), Masayuki Okano (Hiromi Kojima 51), Harison, Oseas, Ryuji Bando .

3 - 3

It didnt take long for the fireworks to start, as Verdy showed the smooth precision that their offence is beginning to display under Ardilles. In the 3 minute of play, wing back Masayuki Yanagisawa ran the overlap on the right sideline and crossed a ball into the box. Patrick Mboma, who had his defender on his back, recognised that he could not get off a good shot, and instead dropped the ball into the path of Takuya Yamada, cutting in from the right. Yamada drove his first touch into the low right corner and Verdy had the early lead.

But midway through the period a brillinat through ball from Hisato Sato sent Yoshiteru Yamashita into the clear for an unchallenged drive on goal from the right edge of the penalty arc. The ball eluded the keeper's fingertips and the two teams went in to the locker room with the score tied.

The see-saw battle resumed in the second half, when Naoto Sakurai spotted an opening and released a long drive from midfield that found the net less than a minute after the restart. Vegalta responded with a long, soaring pass from just over the midfield stripe that Marcos caught up with just a meter outside the right post. His header slipped past the keeper and the score was level once again.

With three minutes to play, Verdy got what seemed like the deciding goal when Yamada's cross from the top right corner of the box was volleyed into the net from short range by Kazuki Hiramoto. However, with their hometown faithful urging them on, Vegalta made one last rush, and in injury time, a lob into the box was headed down by Marcos, and Silvinho raced in from the left wing to drive it home, giving Vegalta a well-earned draw. p> Lineups:

Daijiro Takakuwa, Takumi Morikawa (Ichizo Nakata 80), Fabiano, Norio Omura, Yuichi Nemoto, Toshiya Ishii, Silvinho, Yasushi Fukunaga (Teruo Iwamoto 45), Hisato Sato (Nobuyuki Zaizen 62), Yoshiteru Yamashita, Marcos .

Yoshinari Takagi, Masayuki Yanagisawa, Atsushi Yoneyama, Kentaro Hayashi, Atsuhiro Miura, Yasuyuki Kobayashi, Takuya Yamada (Daigo Kobayashi 72), Takeshi Hirano (Hayuma Tanaka 67), Ramon Mendez Hubner, Patrick Mboma, Naoto Sakurai (Kazuki Hiramoto 79) .

0 - 0

Lineups:

Yoichi Doi, Shuhei Tokunaga, Jean Carlo Witte, Teruyuki Moniwa, Jo Kanazawa, Satoru Asari, Masashi Miyazawa (Oh Jang-Eun 83), Naohiro Ishikawa Clesley "Kelly" Guimares, Mitsuhiro Toda (Yuta Baba 56), Yoshiro Abe (Yuhei Momoyama 68).

Takaya Kurokawa, Shohei Ikeda, Emerson, Kazumichi Takaki Naoki Hiraoka 86), Daisuke Ichikawa, Teruyoshi Ito, Tomoyoshi Tsurumi, Alessandro Santos, Yoshikiyo Kuboyama, Ahn Jung-Hwan, Hideaki Kitajima (Kohei Hiramatsu 61).

0 - 2

Lineups:

Naoto Hirai, Kazuhiro Suzuki, Makoto Kakuda, Yuki Hayashi, Kazuki Tejima, Daisuke Nakaharai (Tadamichi Machida 61), Tadashi Nakamura (Daisuke Saito 45), Kiyotaka Ishimaru (Yoshitaka Ono 72), Shingo Suzuki, Daisuke Matsui, Ko Jung-Yoon,.


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.

2 - 2

In the early stages of the match, JEF appeared a bit too tentative, particularly when Jubilo had possession. The failure to pressure the ball allowed Jubilo to exchange short passes and steadily develop a rhythm, which is what makes the team most dangerous. Although JEF's back line did a good job of guarding the final pass, the failure to pressure Jubilo at midfield kept JEF on the back foot, and put all of the pressure on t heir defence. Eventually, they had to pay the price, and the break finally came in the 27 minute. Jubilo won a corner kick on the right side, and Hiroshi Nanami delivered the kick to Ryoichi Maeda at the far post. The U-22 striker eluded his defender and put a header on net that Ryo Kuushino had to dive for. Although the JEF keeper managed to parry the first shot, it bounded directly at Rodrigo Gral who was cherry-picking in front of the goal. Gral headed the rebound just over Kushino's flailing foot and Jubilo had the early lead.

JEF were unable to turn the tide of momentum, leaving Jubilo in firm control through the end of the first half. Although they prevented any further scoring, they went into the locker room clearly feeling as though they had been outplayed. The usual aggression and relentlessness of their counterattacks had been missing, and because there was no pressure on Jubilo's back line, the team from Iwata was able to control midfield. Coach Osim must have provided some very effective pointers during the intermission, because JEF came out in the second half looking far more efficient, and managed to address all of the errors they had made in the first stanza.

From the outset of the second period, midfielders Naotake Hanyu Masataka Sakamoto and Yuki Abe ran tirelessly to pressure Jubilo at midfield, and the opportunities to counterattack in numbers finally began to appear. Five minutes after intermission, JEF made a steal in midfield and Sakamoto took off down the right sideline with Toshiya Fujita in pursuit. As Sakamoto drew level wit hthe box, he made a nice feint to the middle, then used a burst of speed to dash past Fujita and turned into the box. Fujita was badly beaten, and in a desperate attempt to recover, dragged down Sakamoto from behind. Unfortunately, the referee was having none of it, pointing immediately to the spot. the tension in the air was crackling like a summer campfire as Choi Yong-Soo lined up over the ball, and everyone in the stadium anticipated a blistering drive by the powerful JEF striker. Keeper Arno zanZwam guessed right, and dove for the corner as Choi addressed the ball, but the Korean ace played as cheeky, feather-soft lob straight down the middle, and vanZwam could only watch in frustration as it softly floated over his prostrate body and into the back of the net.

The next 20 minutes were a frenzy of activity, as both teams attacked furiously. However, the pressure that JEF was putting on the ball denied Jubilo their usual short passing game, and they were forced into a footrace, which was just what Ichihara wanted. Pressed to the wall, Jubilo began to resort to their less admirable tactics. Norihiro Nishi pulled off a dive and acting job that would have earned a red card for audacity if this writer had been officiating the match, but fortunately the resulting free kick went over the crossbar.

Then, in the 75 minute, Jubilo's gamesmanship finally caught up with them. Gral was caught offside on a long drive buy the keeper, but rather than just accepting the call, both he and Toshihiro Hattori hung around to try to berate the referee into a more favourable frame of mind. As they dithered, Sakamoto rushed to the ball and fired a long pass for Choi, at the right side of the penalty box. Choi outjumped his defender and headed the ball back across the face of goal, to strike partnerSandro Cardosa. Sandro met the ball on the run and headed it inside the right post to give JEF a 2-1 lead.

But Jubilo were by no means cowed by this strike, and responded immediately with a surge of pressure of their own. Following the ensuing kick-off, Hiroshi Nanami fed a pass to Aleksandr Zivkovic in the left corner, and the Russian wing fired a line-drive cross that Maeda met directly in front of net, powering it past the keeper to knot the score once more.

With time running down, JEF had a golden opportunity to snatch victory, as Sandro's cross found Takayuki Chano wide open just five meters from goal. But Chano swung wildly and met nothing but air, and the last big opportunity of the match went begging. Nevertheless, the draw allowed JEF to maintain their spot at the top of the table, putting Jubilo in a very difficult position in the battle for the first-stage title .

Lineups:

Arno vanZwam, Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Norihiro Nishi (Nobuo Kawaguchi 80), Taikai Kawamura, Toshihiro Hattori, Toshiya Fujita (Aleksandr Zivkovic 71), Hiroshi Nanami, Rodrigo Gral, Ryoichi Maeda.

Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Zeljko Milinovic, Takayuki Chano, Masataka Sakamoto, Yuto Sato, Yuki Abe, Shinji Murai , Naotake Hanyu (Satoru Yamagishi 89), Sandro Cardoza , Choi Yong-Soo.

1 - 1

The match against Kashiwa Reysol, this week, serves as a perfect example. The Reds looked vastly superior to their opponent in almost every phase of the game, yet they simply were unable to produce goals. As has happened time and time again this season, Ooft started a 3-5-2 lineup, and watched his team struggle ineffectually for over 55 minutes, because the ysimly lacked the numbers in attack to finish off their numerous opportunities. Reysol, meanwhile, scored on a fine counterattack in which Yuji Unozawa slipped through the Reds defence and fed his strike partner Keiji Tamada for a one-touch cutback shot that left the keeper grasping at air and slipped just inside the right post.

Having conceded Reysol the lead, Ooft brought on Tatsuya Tanaka and switched to a 3-4-3, whereupon Urawa immediately seized complete control of the match and eventually equalised on a blistering drive by Emerson which bounded off the keeper and into the net. How many times does the Reds coaching staff need to watch this chain of events play out before Ooft and Jansen figure out that they should be playing a 3-4-3 formation from the outset? At this point, the crucial question is whether Ooft will figure out this lesson before, or after the Reds front office finally gets fed up and sends him packing. p> Lineups:

Yuta Minami, Mitsuteru Watanabe, Naoya Kondo Norihiro Satsukawa, Tomonori Hirayama, Masayuki Ochiai, Tomokazu Myojin, Ricardinho, Keiji Tamada, Yuji Unozawa, Jesse (Marcio 83) .

Ryuta Tsuzuki, Nedijelko "Ned" Zelic (Satoshi Horinouchi 83), Keisuke Tsuboi, Ichiei Muroi, Takuya Mikami (Tatsuya Tanaka 60), Hideki Uchidate, Keita Suzuki, Tadaaki Hirakawa, Makoto Hasebe, Yuichiro Nagai, Emerson, .

In a week where almost all of the contenders settled for a draw, the Marinos leapt into second place by defeating Cerezo on Saturday. It now appears that the first stage title will be contested by three teams -- JEF United, Yokohama Marinos and Jubilo Iwata. All three teams are within two points of one another, and JEF, the leader, has the most difficult draw in its final two matches. The first stage title is likely to go right down to the wire, so please stay tuned to the Rising Sun News.

Rumours and Rumblings

Hiroyama Moving to Montpelier