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August 11, 2003
Second Stage Preview

Rumours and Rumblings

Nabisco Cup Quarterfinal Matchups

In Shizuoka, Shimizu S-Pulse and Gamba Osaka played a fairly offensive-minded match, but neither team had much luck finding the net. Ahn Jung-Hwan gave S-Pulse the lead shortly after half time, but a header by Magrao ten minutes before the end of the match levelled the scores going into the second leg.

The match between FC Tokyo and Urawa Reds was the most exciting of the evening, and drew the largest crowd (over 15,000). A goal by Mitsuhiro Toda midway throug hthe first half gave Tokyo the lead at half time, but in the second half Urawa fought back to equalise, on a lovely finish by Emerson. It looked like the match was headed for a 1-1 draw, but with four minutes remaining Toda made another fine rush on goal and put FC Tokyo back in the lead. With time running out, Urawa brought in an extra attacker, and threw everyone into the attack. The frantic pressure paid off as a corner kick in the final minute of regulation time was headed back across the face of goal by Ichiei Muroi, and rookie Toru Chishima banged it home to knot the score going into the second leg.

In Kashima, the Antlers gave notice that their first-stage performance means nothing, crushing Nagoya Grampus 5-1 and virtually assuring that the will advance to the semifinal round. Euller gave the Antlers a 1-0 halftime edge, but it was midfielders Mitsuo Ogasawara and Koji Nakata who took over the match in the second half, scoring three goals and setting up the final strike by Tomoyuki Hirase while dominating ball possession and creating shots on goal virtually at will. Grampus could do little but watch in awe, scoring a late goal off a bizzarre deflected shot but otherwise offering no indication whatsoever that they can reverse the four-goal edge that Kashima takes into the second leg.

Jomo All-Star Match Won by the East

In the first five or ten minutes of the match ,the West tried to push for a quick score with long basses and aggressive running. The East players seemed a bit less active, but this may simply have reflected greater confidence on their part, and the patience of knowing that they would gain control of the match as soon as the West players ran out of energy. Given the level of talent on the pitch, the match was very high quality, but what was perhaps most interesting was that the teams -- and particularly the East -- played team football, with crisp short passes and good off-the-ball movement, rather than the individual forays one might expect in a match where the players had little experience playing together as a team. The individual skills of West stars Yoshito Okubo, up front as well as Sidiclei and Kazuki Teshima in defence, was impressive, but what made the greatest impression of all, over the course of the first half, was the remarkable fluidity and stability of the East's back three, of Naoki Matsuda, Keisuke Tsuboi and Koji Nakata. The Rising Sun News has tended to take the view that Zico should have a chance to prove whether or not a back four can be effective for the national team. Logically, it makes a great deal of sense for a team that tends to be smaller and less "athletic" than most other national teams. However, the precision and simplicity of the back line play during the first half was, in a word, stunning!! Tsuboi and Matsuda swapped positions between right and central back on the average of once every two minutes, with never the slightest break in fluidity. And all three players took turns surging forward, creating several of the match's most interesting counterattacks. The speed of Tsuboi in covering back against the break stalled every single West counterattack in the first half, while Matsuda and Nakata blanketed the passing lanes with amazing positional instincts. If Matsuda, Tsuboi and Nakata can play this effectively together on a regular basis, then by all means, it may be time for Zico to try out a three back system.

The first goal of the match came on a fine compination play between Nakata and Antlers teammate Mitsuo Ogasawara, who got little recognition from the announcers but was an integral part of all the East's best scoring opportunities. In the 26 mintue, Ogasawara took a pass just beyond the right top corner of the box, and demonstrated his amazing body balance as he fought off the challenges of three players, eventually forcing them to foul him before he could find Patrick Mboma or Choi Yong-Soo in front of net. On the ensuing kick, both Choi and Mboma were blanketed by defenders, but Oga placed a perfect floater over the entire pack of players in front of goal that landed squarely on the head of Nakata, at the far post. Nakata, whi slightly overran the pass, did a good job of twisting his body back against his own momentum and deflecting the baqll into the low right corner of the net.

Five minutes later, Patrick Mboma proficed an individual highlight that would win him the match MVP award, taking a ball at midfield and driving all the way to the top of the penalty arc before releasing a wicked right-footed blast that shot inside the right post before keeper Seigo Narazaki could react.

Shorly after the break, Ogasawara and Mboma combined on a play that very nearly created the third goal, with Oga lobbing a ball onto Mboma's head and the big Cameroonian striker heading the ball down for Ogasawara as he broke for the goal. Sidiclei managed to throw himself into the play, driving both the ball and Ogasawara across the end line. Though the call was a corner kick, not a PK, Ogasawara took his revenge by placing a line drive onto the foot of Takuya Yamada at the near post. Yamada flicked the ball on and it caught the far side of the net.

As time ran down, the East eased off the pressure and began playing a more defensive game, and the West began to produce opportunities of their own. With about ten minutes to go, a corner kick from the left side finally produced a goal, as veteran Kazuyoshi Miura volleyed the ball in at the far post. But the match was already effectively over, and ten minutes later Mboma collected his MVP trophy and a brand new car.

Rosters:

West
Pos.	Name	Team
GK	Seigo Narazaki	Nagoya Grampus
GK	Naoki Matsuyo	Gamba Osaka
DF	Tsuneyasu Miyamoto	Gamba Osaka
DF	Ryuzo Morioka	Shimizu S-Pulse
DF	Daisuke Ichikawa	Shimizu S-Pulse
DF	Hideto Suzuki	Jubilo Iwata
DF	Sidiclei	Vissel Kobe
MF	Yoshito Okubo	Cerezo Osaka
MF	Hideaki Morishima	Cerezo Osaka
MF	Hiroshi Nanami	Jubilo Iwata
MF	Daisuke Matsui	Kyoto Purple Sanga
MF	Takashi Fukunishi	Jubilo Iwata
MF	Yoshito Terakawa	Oita Trinita
FW	Teruaki Kurobe	Kyoto Purple Sanga
FW	Kota Yoshihara	Gamba Osaka
FW	Kazuyoshi Miura	Vissel Kobe