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August 18, 2003
Second to None

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
16 Aug		1-0		Kashima Stadium
16 Aug		2-1		Ajinomoto Stadium
16 Aug		3-1		Saitama Stadium
16 Aug		2-1		Kashiwa-no-ha
16 Aug		2-2		Yokohama Int'l Stadium
16 Aug		2-2		Nihondaira Stadium
17 Aug		vs		Expo'70 Stadium
17 Aug		vs		Kobe Wing Stadium

3 - 1

Urawa started Emerson and Tatsuya Tanaka up front, since Yuichiro Nagai was sidelined by injury, but as we have noted several times in the past, this probably represents a more effective pairing than Emerson and Nagai. In the latter case, the two strikers frequently outrun their midfield support, and the result is a fast but relatively ineffective offence. The return of Koji Yamase to the center midfield spot also helped a great deal. Although he was not involved in any of the scores, Yamase did a far better job of linking defence and attack than either Makoto Hasebe or Hideki Uchidate did during the first stage.

The Reds came out with a flurry of attacking that had the home crowd enthusiastically involved throughout the match, and produced the first score early on, from a lovely piece of passing work by the attack squad. In the 13 minute, Nobuhisa Yamada pushed up the right sideline with Tanaka shadowing him. As four Jubilo defenders corralled the two, it looked like Yamada might have to pull the ball back, but with a perfect display of timing, Yamada cut for the middle while Tanaka took off down the wing. Three defenders reacted to Yamada as he made his feint to mthe middle, but at the last possible second he fired a long lead pass for the right edge of the penalty box. Tanaka caught up with it just inside the area, and three steps from the end line. As the defender closed in and the keeper came out to cut down the angle, Tanaka spun around and pushed the ball back into the open space at the top of the box. Emerson streaked in from the opposite side, leaving the only other defender in the vicinity in a cloud of dust, and blasted a shot into the open net.

The Reds controlled the match for the remainder of the first half, and although neither team could score, Jubilo was forced to concentrate more on defending than on trying to stage a comeback. As the second half began, Jubilo came out with a surge of pressure, trying to create the equaliser. Although this created more pressure of the Reds back line, it also began to open up the field for counterattacks by Emerson and Tanaka. In the 66 minute, one such break sent Tanaka off to the races on the right sideline, with Emerson shadowing him at the center of the pitch. Tanaka outraced his man to the corner, then pulled the ball back for Emerson. Tte pass was well placed, just behind the last defender who slipped on the wet surface trying to change direction. As a result, Emerson collected the ball eight meters from goal with no defender in sight. Calmly waiting for keeper Arno VanZwam to make the first move, Emerson picked his spot and tucked the ball into the low right corner to put the Reds up 2-0.

The next 20 minutes brought the most sustained Jubilo pressure of the entire match, though they had to throw everyone but their central midfielders into attack in order to create the pressure. Emerson very nearly completed his hat trick on two occasions when a cleared ball gave the Reds one-on-one or two-on-two counterattacking opportunites. At the other end, defenders Keisuke Tsuboi, Ichiei Muroi and newcomer Yuri Nikiforov did a fine job of containing the Jubilo pressure, cutting off almost all of the attempted through passes and generally forcing Jubilo to try their luck from the perimiter. With time running out, Jubilo made one last big push, with Ryoichi Maeda and Rodrigo Gral driving almost to the edge of the three yard box. With his progress blocked, Gral turned and dropped the ball back towards Norihiro Nishi, inside the penalty arc and guarded by Hideki Uchidate. Both players reacted to the ball, collided just inside the box, and went to the ground in a heap. Though it looked more like incidental contact than a foul, the referee (who was too far away to see the incident clearly at any rate) gave Jubilo the benefit of the doubt, and awarded a penalty kick. Gral struck from the PK spot and Jubilo were back to within a goal.

As injury time neared, Jubilo gathered for one last push, but almost before they could organise their play, a stray pass was cleared towards midfield, where Emerson and Tanaka were waiting, poised for a counterthrust. With a sudden surge, the race was on, three Jubilo defenders backpedaling furiously while Emerson and Tanaka accelerated towards goal. Tanaka made a fine adjustment, allowing Emerson to cross in front of him, slanting the right, then cutting back in the opposie direction at a full sprint. Emerson waited until all three defenders wer leaning his way, then laid the ball into space for Tanaka to run onto. The diminutive Reds striker dashed away from the pack, collected the ball at the edge of the box and then calmly tucked it underneath the outrushingvanZwam for the final goal of the match.

Lineups:

Norihiro Yamagishi, Keisuke Tsuboi, Yuri Nikiforov, Ichiei Muroi, Nobuhisa Yamada, Hideki Uchidate, Keita Suzuki (Makoto Hasebe 60), Tadaaki Hirakawa, Koji Yamase (Satoshi Horinouchi 78), Tatsuya Tanaka, Emerson.

Arno Van Zwam, Naoya Kikuchi (Taikai Kawamura 89), Makoto Tanaka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Norihiro Nishi, Takashi Fukunishi (Nobuo Kawaguchi 69), Toshihiro Hattori, Sho Naruoka (Yasumasa Nishino 78), Hiroshi Nanami, Rodrigo Gral, Ryoichi Maeda.

2 - 2

Unfortunately, despite some fairly good build-up work by Verdy, the first half belonged to the Marinos. Yokohama seem to have taken a great deal of confidence from their first-half title, and they played a remarkably fluid team offence, at least for the first 45 minutes, attacking in waves that had little respect for traditional player positioning. Both Naoki Matsuda and Yuji Nakazawa surged forward on attack with regularity, with Matsuda sometimes even leading the attack. Though this created a lot of fluidity in the match, it was the individual play of striker Marquinhos that produced both Yokohama goals. In the 27 minute, the speedy Brazilian took a ball just on the Verdy side of midfield and drove through the middle, feinting twice to step past defenders. While he was still about 30 meters from goal, Marquinhos spotted an opening and fired a long blast that slipped just inside the rgth post to put the Marinos in front.

Ten minutes later, Daisuke Oku provided a nice long ball to Marquinhos that beat the offside trap, catching the Verdy defender racing out just as Marquinhos made his dash for goal. The Brazilian ace had plenty of time to settle the ball, measure the keeper and drive a shot that caught the inside of the far post and bounded into the net.

At half time, the situation looked rather bleak for Verdy, but as the second stanza began, the team came out with renewed energy, and quickly pulled a goal back. Just two minutes after the restart, Patrick Mboma posted up just beyond the penalty arc and lobbed a pass for veteran Takeshi Hirano, cutting in at the left edge of the box. Yoo Sang-Chul managed to leap high enough to get a head on the ball, but the deflection fell right at the feet of Naoto Sakurai , who drove a shot to the right of the flat-footed keeper and pulled Verdy back to within a goal. Ten minutes later, Verdy equalised on what was easily the most dramatic goal of the match. Mboma was sent into space on a counterattack with a long ball from midfield. Though Mboma had a half-step lead, he was shadowed closely by Nakazawa, and was still too far towards the right sideline to have any promising angle on the goal. But just as Nakazawa and the keeper made their move to bottle him up on the right end line, Mboma lashed out a long leg and somehow cut the ball back into the center of the penalty area. Sakurai, who had been trailing the play, raced into the wide open spaces in front of goal and had an easy finish to knot the score.

Thoguh both teams pressed for the winning goal, they seemed too evenly matched to break the deadlock over the final 30 minutes of the match, and so both teams had to settle for a single point from their first match of the stage.

Lineups:

Tatsuya Enomoto, Yoo Sang-Chul, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Dutra, Yukihiko Sato (Kazuki Sato 85), Daisuke Nasu, Yasuhiro Endo, Daisuke Oku (Yasuhiro Hato 70), Marquinhos (Daisuke Sakata 80), Tatsuhiko Kubo .

Yoshinari Takagi, Masayuki Yanagisawa, Kentaro Hayashi, Atsushi Yoneyama, Atsuhiro Miura, Hayuma Tanaka (Ramon Mendez Hubner 45), Yasuyuki Kobayashi, Takuya Yamada, Takeshi Hirano, Naoto Sakurai (Kazuki Hiramoto 85), Patrick Mboma

1 - 0

On a very wet pitch, both teams had some difficulty with ball control in the first half, but Nagoya spent most of the match backpedaling whereas the Antlers might easily have been up a goal if either Euller or Tomoyuki Hirase had been able to finish off the opportunities created by the Antlers midfield. Later in the match, when young Masaki Fukai entered the match, he seemd to generate a bit more danger, but in general, the Antlers front line continues to be their big problem. Nagoya's best opportunities generally came when Marques was able to dribble one-on-one towards goal, but the Antlers defence did a good job of providing support, and few of his runs created any real danger.

Though the Antlers' two wayward strikers continued to waste opportunities, early in the second half, the Antlers got the only goal they would need on a set play. Kashima won a free kick directly out from the top left corner of the box, about 30 meters from goal. Ogasawara took the kick, and blasted a world-class drive that swerved over the wall and hooked into the top left corner, leaving keeper Seigo Narazaki no chance whatsoever.

The remaining 30 minutes of the match was rather uneventful, with Kashima controlling possession and field position but unable to add to their score and Nagoya making increasingly desperate forays down the wings which never developed into a real scoring chance. And Nelsinho's nightmares are likely to continue as the two teams meet AGAIN on August 27, in the second leg of their Nabisco Cup matchup.

Lineups:

Hitoshi Sogahata, Akira Narahashi, Yutaka Akita, Go Oiwa, Naoki Soma, Koji Nakata, Fernando, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama (Takeshi Aoki 68), Tomoyuki Hirase (Masaki Fukai 72), Euller (Tomohiko Ikeuchi 89).
Lineups:

Seigo Narazaki, Masayuki Omori, Chon Yong-Dae, Hideaki Tominaga, Kojiro Kaimoto (Tomoyuki Sakai 62), Keiji Yoshimura, Kunihiko Takizawa, Yusuke Nakatani, Naoshi Nakamura (Tetsuya Okayama 75), Marques, Ueslei .

2 - 1

Both Tokyo and Cerezo are young teams that can put on a good show one week and then succumb to youthful mistakes the next. In the first stage, Amaral saw relatively little action as the years beganto take their toll on his physical condition. However, when he does play he still is the undisputed King, at least at FC Tokyo. The home team got off to a flying start in the 26 minute with what was probably the highlight play of the day. Naohiro Ishikawa played a beautifully timed one-two on the right sideline with rookie Shuhei Tokunaga, sending him into the corner with a lead pass. Tokunaga sent his first touch of the ball screaming for the right post, and Amaral dashed in for a diving header that flashed just inside the post.

Cerezo had been controlling momentum up to that point, and the goal took them aback, resulting in a period of confused play that limited scoring opportunities over the remainder of the first half. In the second half, though, Cerezo came out and generated some good pressure, though it took them until the 76 minute to equalise. Young Nobuki Hara took a corner kick from the left side, and although the initial cross was headed out, he collected the ball on the sideline and sent it into the pack a second time. This cross was on target, finding Takanori Nunobe at the far post for an open header.

But with the match winding down towards full time, Tokyo sprang one last attack. A long ball from the defence found Amaral posting up on the left side. The King of Tokyo leaped over his defender to head the ball on, sending Yoshiro Abe away on goal. Abe had to race to reach the ball ahead of the outrushing keeper, but he saw the opening that this provided, and he flicked his first touch high into the air, floating the ball over the stranded keeper and spftly into the back of the net.

Lineups:

Yoichi Doi, Shuhei Tokunaga, Ryuji Fujiyama, Teruyuki Moniwa, Jo Kanazawa, Fumitake Miura (Satoru Asari 68),, Masashi Miyazawa (Yoshiro Abe 84), Naohiro Ishikawa (Oh Jang-Eun 65), Mitsuhiro Toda, Clesley "Kelly" Guimares, Amaral.

Daisuke Tada, Satoru Suzuki, Joao, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Takanori Nunobe, Axel (Takuma Koga 61), Kiyokazu Kudo, Yusuke Sato (Nobuki Hara 53), Hiroaki Morishima, Baron, Yoshito Okubo (Takaaki Tokushige 86) .

2 - 2

Vegalta equalised wshortly after the break as Hisato Sato sent a lead pass for Yoshiteru Yamashita. A retreating S-Pulse defender managed to get a foot on the ball, but he merely deflected it into his own net.

In the 63 minute, a fine shot by Teruo Iwamoto put Vegalta in the lead, but ten minutes later, defender Emerson headed home a corner kick and S-Pulse salvaged a draw.

Lineups:

Takaya Kurokawa, Shohei Ikeda, Emerson, Ryuzo Morioka, Daisuke Ichikawa, Teruyoshi Ito, Tomoyoshi Tsurumi, Alessandro Santos, Yoshikiyo Kuboyama Hideaki Kitajima (Keisuke Ota 71), Ahn Jung-Hwan .

Daijiro Takakuwa, Takayuki Komine, Fabiano, Norio Omura, Yuichi Nemoto, Toshiya Ishii, Shigeyoshi Mochizuki, Yasushi Fukunaga (Silvinho 61), Teruo Iwamoto, Yoshiteru Yamashita (Kazuhiro Murakami 85), Marcos (Hisato Sato 10) ,

2 - 1

Lineups:

Yuta Minami, Naoya Kondo (Masayuki Ochiai 71), Norihiro Satsukawa, Toru Nagata, Yuta Nagia, Tomokazu Myojin, Takahiro Shimotaira (Tatsuya Tanizawa 45), Ricardinho, Jesse (Kisho Yano 68), Marcio, Keiji Tamada .

Naoto Hirai, Makoto Kakuda, Yuki Hayashi, Kazuki Tejima, Shingo Suzuki, Shinya Tomita (Yusuke Mori 55), Tadashi Nakamura, Kiyotaka Ishimaru (Takayuki Ono 55), Ko Jung-Yoon, Daisuke Nakaharai (Kazuhiro Suzuki 86), Daisuke Matsui, .

0 - 1

The only area where Kobe looked competitive was on defence. But even then it was only the case in the first half. By the midpoint of the second half, JEF were starting to show signs of life, while the Vissel defence was pushed back to a line of six, or even seven players at the edge of their own penalty area. Perhaps the strategy was to stonewall JEF and look for chances to counter, but even if this were the case, the team looked disappointingly lethargic. Only the final five minutes of this match provided any real excitement.

With five minutes to play, Kobe won a throw-in on the right sideline. The ball was inbounded to theendge of the box and Oseas headed it on, towards goal. Ryuji Bando raced in and managed to tie up the goalkeeper, but lost track of the ball in the scuffle. As Bando looked around frantically, the ball bounced right next to him, inches from the goal line. At last Bando spotted the ball and tried to push it across the line, but by this time Takayuki Chano had arrived in support, and he was able to clear the ball off the line.

On the very next sequence, JEF cleared the ball to Naotake Hanyu on the right sideline, and he fired a ball for the near post. The Kobe defence was slow to react, and substitute Takenori Hayashi raced in to make a sliding volley, deflecting the ball just inside the near post. And so, JEF captured a narrow, and extremely fortunate win to begin their second stage campaign.

Lineups:

Makoto Kakegawa, Yuji Tabuchi, Sidiclei, Yukio Tsuchiya, Kunie Kitamoto, Sidiclei, Koji Yoshimura, Tomo Sugawara, Harison (Hiromi Kojima 80), Mitsunori Yabuta, Oseas, Kazuyoshi Miura (Ryuji Bando 68) .

Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Zeljko Milinovic, Takayuki Chano (Takenori Hayashi 67), Eisuke Nakanishi, Yuto Sato, Yuki Abe, Masataka Sakamoto, Shinji Murai (Katsutomo Oshiba 78), Naotake Hanyu, Sandro Cardoza (Satoru Yamagishi 89) .

1 - 0

Lineups:

Naoki Matsuyo, Noritada Saneyoshi, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Masao Kiba, Hideo Hashimoto, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Yasuhito Endo, Toru Araiba (Toru Irie 60), Takahiro Futagawa (Francisco Arce 86), Masashi Oguro (Kota Yoshihara 80), Magrao.

Hayato Okanaka, Tetsuya Yamazaki, Sandro Chaves Rosa, Takashi Miki, Tomohiro Katanosaka (Rodrigo 61), Yoshito Terakawa, Takashi Umeda, Teppei Nishiyama, Shinichi Muto (Will Robson Andrade 45), Taskahiro Yoshida, Daiki Takamatsu (Koji Arimura 72) .

Although the league table does not have much meaning at present, with just one match in the books, it is rather interesting to see Urawa Reds on top, and Jubilo Iwata at the bottom. No doubt this will change as the season wears on.