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August 31, 2003
How the Mighty are Fallen

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Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
30 Aug		1-0		Kashima Stadium
30 Aug		2-0		Komaba Stadium
30 Aug		1-1		Kashiwa-no-ha Stadium
30 Aug		4-1		Ajinomoto Stadium
30 Aug		3-1		Nihondaira Stadium
30 Aug		1-3		Mizuho Stadium
30 Aug		1-0		Nishikyogoku
30 Aug		4-2		Nagai Stadium

4 - 1

The Marinos have been hurt somewhat by injuries in the second stage, with striker Tatsuhiko Kubo having missed all three matches, and defenders Naoki Matsuda and Yuji Nakazawa missing parts of the past two contests. But even so, this does not look like the same team which emerged on top during the first half of the season. The usually-solid Marinos back line crumbled under the Tokyo assault, and their attack also looked like a pale imitation of its first-stage form.

Tokyo got off to a quick start in the 16 minute when veteran midfielder Fumitake Miura dashed in on a double-team to steal the ball from a Marinos defender. He immediately dished off to Ishikawa, who raced down the right wing to the edge of the box, then fired a pinpoint cross to Yoshiro Abe dashing into the box. Abe was double-covered,. but he had a half-step on the defenders and just managed to get a boot on the ball and volley it just inside the right post. Barely four minutes later, Ishikawa was at it again, this time forging down the right sideline on his own initiative before crossing to Jo Kanazawa> at the far post for an easy volley into the open side of the net.

Tokyo's advantage would grow further at the half-hour mark, and once again Ishikawa made the key play. An exchange of passes with Clesley "Kelly" Guimares put Ishikawa into the box, but a good play by the Marinos defender stripped him of the ball. Refusing to giive up on the play, Ishikawa chased back and made a steal of his own, ripping the ball away and feeding it to Abe at the right edge of the box. Abe's cross met Mitsuhiro Toda at the far post, and the midfielder headed the ball down to give the frantic keeper no chance.

The Marinos were shell-shocked by this furious assault, and seemed to have no answer of their own. However, a fortunate sequence allowed them to get one goal back before half time. As the first half reached injury time, rookie Yutaro Abe made a slanting run across the top of the penalty arc which turned his defender the wrong way, and a desperate last-ditch stab at the ball brought Abe down. Dutra took the free kick from a meter outside the box, and sent it curling into the top left corner to close out the half on a more encouraging note.

But that was all the Marinos could muster in this match. Though they were a bit more effective in controlling the ball in the second stanza, this probably just reflected the fact that FC Tokyo eased off their swarming midfield press. Even so, Yokohama could produce no more goals, whereas Tokyo added one more at the hour mark. This time it was Masashi Miyazawa, rather than Ishikawa, who made the dash down the right flank. As he turned into the box, he decided to take his chances and fired a shot for the near post. The ball caught the defenders napping, and glanced off a Marinos leg and into the net. With this, the first stage champions fell to their first defeat of the second stage, and now have only two points from three matches, which almost nullifies their hopes of a double stage championship.

Lineups:

Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Jean Carlo Witte, Teruyuki Moniwa, Jo Kanazawa, Fumitake Miura (Satoru Asari 60), Masashi Miyazawa, Naohiro Ishikawa (Yusuke Kondo 87), Mitsuhiro Toda (Oh Jang-Eun 71), Clesley "Kelly" Guimares, Yoshiro Abe .

Tetsuya Enomoto, Shogo Kobara, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda (Ryuji Kawai 21), Dutra, Yukihiko Sato, Daisuke Nasu, Yasuhiro Endo (Yutaro Abe 31), Yoo Sang-Chul, Marquinhos (Kazuki Sato 67) , Daisuke Sakata.

1 - 0

But even if Jubilo were their own worst enemy on Saturday evening, it was also apparent that Kyoto are starting to recover from the funk that followed the dismissal of coach Gert Engels. Teruaki Kurobe's return to the lineup has helped, but the key to the resurgence has been Andre Luis de Sousa Silva (Biju), who spent two seasons at Consadole Sapporo, and was signed by Kyoto at the start of the second stage. In Biju, the Purple Sanga have finally found a player who can fill the shoes of Park Ji-Sung, providing the speedy midfield push that the team needs to ignite their counterattack. Even while Jubilo were at full strength, Kyoto's counterattacks were sweeping through the Iwata defensive half like a typhoon, and the two best scoring chances of the first half both went to Kyoto. Only some fine saves by Arno vanZwam kept the match scoreless.

With a minute to play in the first half, Jubilo committed the first of two inexcusable blunders that would ensure their demise. As Takashi Fukunishi tried to work the ball across midfield, Biju came in from behind with an attempt to steal. Fukunishi turned away just in time, and Biju crashed into his back, sending both players to the pitch. Though clearly a foul, the play was well within the bounds of a normal, competitive challenge. So Fukunishi's reaction can only be explained by a very testy temper. While still lying on his back, the Jubilo volante drew back his boot and drove a cleated kick into Biju's back. Fukunishi already had a yellow, collected on a gratuitous professional foul early in the match. But that mattered little, since Mr. Kashiwabara went straight for the red, sending Fukunishi to the locker room a minute ahead of his teammates.

In the second half, as Kyoto started to build their attack and take over the match momentum, a second blunder reduced Jubilo to just nine men. In the 61 minute, Kiyotaka Ishimaru made a surge down the right sideline, and as Aleksandr Zivkovic came up to challenge, Ishimaru put on a brilliant fake that turned the defender inside out and allowed him to dash past. Unwilling to accept defeat, Zivkovic sput around and grabbed the tail of Ishimaru's shirt, pulling him off his feet. For a player with one yellow already, this was an ill-advised move, and Zivkovic was soon joining Fukunishi in the locker room.

Ten minutes later, Kyoto broke through the depleted Jubilo defence and got the crucial tally. The score came on a beautiful counterattack, in which a flock Kyoto players swept through the Jubilo defence like the Purple Sanga of last season. As Kyoto broke out of midfield, Ishimaru fired a ball towards the middle and Kurobe headed it on to Tadamichi Machida in the left corner. Machida turned in towards the box and fired a low line drive that Biju headed like a bullet, inside the near post, leaving vanZwam with no prayer of saving it. Thereafter, Kyoto used their numerical superiority to hold the ball and run out the clock, sending Jubilo to their second loss in three matches. To make matters bleaker, Jubilo will have to do without Fukunishi and Zivkovic next week, against Cerezo Osaka.

Lineups:

Naoto Hirai, Makoto Kakuda, Yuki Hayashi, Daisuke Saito, Shingo Suzuki, Daisuke Nakaharai, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Biju, Tadashi Nakamura (Tadamichi Machida 57), Ko Jung-Yoon (Shinya Tomita 81), Teruyuki Kurobe (Takayuki Ono 36) .

Arno Van Zwam, Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Norihiro Nishi (Nobuo Kawaguchi 73), Takashi Fukunishi, Toshihiro Hattori, Aleksandr Zivkovic, Hiroshi Nanami (Sho Naruoka 73), Rodrigo Gral , Ryoichi Maeda (Naoya Kikuchi 64).

1 - 0

The match started out fairly well for Kashima. Although strikers Euller and Tomoyuki Hirase continue to waste good scoring opportunities at a record-setting pace, Hirase actually managed to find the net in the 29 minute, heading home a lovely cross from Mitsuo Ogasawara. Meanwhile, Trinita had difficulty generating offence, relying mainly on long balls to Will, up front. Though one clever exchange of passes between Will and Yoshito Terakawa at the end of the first half produced a lob shot that caught the crossbar, that was the closest that Oita would get to scoring in this match.

Following Nakata's injury, Toninho Cerezo brought on both Naoto Honda and Takeshi Aoki to stiffen the defensive midfield. With a one-goal cushion to ride on, this adjustment allowed the Antlers to dominate possession and avoid any serious Trinita threats. However, it remains to be seen whether this team, already bereft of effective finishers in the front line, can produce enough of an offensive surge in Nakata's absence to remain in contention during the rest of the second stage.

Lineups:

Hitoshi Sogahata, Akira Narahashi, Yutaka Akita, Go Oiwa, Naoki Soma, Koji Nakata (Naoto Honda 50), Fernando, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama (Takeshi Aoki 58), Tomoyuki Hirase (Tatsuya Ishikawa 84), Euller .

Hayato Okanaka, Tetsuya Yamazaki, Sandro Chaves Rosa, Takashi Miki, Koji Arimura, Yoshito Terakawa (Haruki Seto 83), Takashi Umeda, Teppei Nishiyama (Keita Kanemoto 65), Taskahiro Yoshida, Will, Daiki Takamatsu (Robson 45) .

1 - 3

For a while, though, it looked like JEF might stumble against Nagoya Grampus, who took the initiative in the first half and kept it for most of the first 45 mintues. Nagoya have been having some difficulties in midfield, but the strike team of Ueslei and Marques certainly have the firepower to do the job on their own, when necessary. In the 30 minute, Marques did just that, taking a ball down the senter of the field, feinting past a few defenders and then ripping a shot from the edge of the box that Ryo Kushino was just able to save with a fingertip deflection. But the rebound fell to Yusuke Nakatani for an easy tap-in over the prostrate keeper.

Grampus held off JEF's attempts to equalise until the final seconds of injury time in the first half. But in the final play of the first stanza, Yuki Abe placed a free kick from 35 meters directly onto the head of striker Sandro Cardosa. The Brazilian flicked the ball past Seigo Narazaki to knot the score.

JEF came out with a surge after half time and Naoto Hanyu quickly put them in the lead, with a drive into the low corner just two minutes after the restart. Thereafter, Nagoya was forced to play catchup, and this suited JEF just fine. The boys from Ichihara simply hung back and waited for opportunities to counterattack, and in the end, this produced another goal for Sandro with just over ten minutes to play, putting the match out of reach.

Lineups:

Seigo Narazaki, Masayuki Omori, Chon Yong-Dae, Masahiro Koga, Tomoyuki Sakai, Keiji Yoshimura (Ryuta Hara 74), Kunihiko Takizawa (Chikara Fujimoto 61), Yusuke Nakatani (Kojiro Kaimoto 80), Tetsuya Okayama, Marques, Ueslei .
Hideaki Tominaga
Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Zeljko Milinovic, Eisuke Nakanishi, Masataka Sakamoto, Yuto Sato, Yuki Abe, Shinji Murai , Naotake Hanyu (Takayuki Chano 88), Sandro Cardoza (Katsutomo Oshiba 80), Choi Yong-Soo (Takenori Hayashi 89) .

2 - 0

On this occasion, it took 43 minutes for the team to get warmed up. Prior to that, the Reds dominated possession and field position, but really did not produce any serious scoring chances. But with two minutes to go before the half, Tatsuya Tanaka took a pass down the left side and put on a brilliant inside fake that left his defender spinning in the wind. Taking the ball to the end line, Tanaka crossed to Koji Yamase at the far post for a powerful header, and the Reds took a one-goal advantage into the locker room.

The second half was even more lopsided than the first, with Urawa dominating possession, sometimes preventing Vissel from achieving a clean posession fof five to ten minutes at a stretch. Early in the period, Nobuhisa Yamada, who was having an off night, redeemed himself for several bad crosses, making a nice blind-side steal at the right side of the Vissel penalty box and dropping the ball back to Emerson./ The speedy Brazilian put on one of his individual displays, freezing his defender, then taking two quick steps into the clear and driving a low line drive into the left corner.

Lineups:

Ryota Tsuzuki, Keisuke Tsuboi, Yuri Nikiforov, Ichiei Muroi (Makoto Hasebe 45), Nobuhisa Yamada, Hideki Uchidate, Keita Suzuki, Tadaaki Hirakawa, Koji Yamase (Satoshi Horinouchi 86), Tatsuya Tanaka, Emerson.

Makoto Kakegawa, Koji Yoshimura, Yukio Tsuchiya, Sidiclei, Kunie Kitamoto, Naoto Matsuo, Masayuki Okano (Kazuyoshi Miura 77), Tomo Sugawara, (Yasutoshi Miura 45), Mitsunori Yabuta (Kazuhiro Mori 56), Oseas , Ryuji Bando .

3 - 1

Lineups:

Takaya Kurokawa, Shohei Ikeda (Kazumichi Takagi 61), Emerson, Ryuzo Morioka, Daisuke Ichikawa, Teruyoshi Ito, Tomoyoshi Tsurumi (Kota Sugiyama 73), Alessandro Santos, Yoshikiyo Kuboyama Hideaki Kitajima (Tuto 45), Ahn Jung-Hwan .

Yoshinari Takagi, Masayuki Yanagisawa, Kentaro Hayashi, Atsushi Yoneyama, Atsuhiro Miura, Ramon Mendez Hubner, Yasuyuki Kobayashi, Takuya Yamada, Takeshi Hirano, Naoto Sakurai , Patrick Mboma (Kazunori Iio 12) (Alexandre Lopes 45)

1 - 1

Gamba clearly missed the presence of Magrao in the front line. Although midfielders Takahiro Futagawa and Yasuhito Endo worked well with their strikers to exchange balls around the perimeter, neither Masashi Oguro nor Kota Yoshihara were able to put many shots on net. Nevertheless, Gamba did get onthe board late in the first half, when Endo played a ball into the left corner for Futagawa, and cut for the right post. The return pass from Futagawa was perfectly placed, right on his left boot for a point-blank finish.

Reysol, meanwhile, struggled to maintain possession, but when they did get a chance to counterattack, the individual play of Ricardinho and Keiji Tamada produced several dangerous scoring chances. On the second half, Reysol brought in young Kisho Yano , who added a third prong to the attack, and this brought Reysol the equaliser soon after half time. Though severely outnumberd in a 2-on-4 break, Tamada fed a ball to Ricardinho at the top of the penalty arc, then dashed around the Brazilian set-up man to make a run into the box. All four defenders collapsed on Ricardinho, who somehow managed to hold onto the ball and push it through into open space. Tamada ran onto it and had an uncontested drive from five meters that curled inside the left post to equalise the score.

Thereafter, the two teams traded punch and counterpunch, but never were able to produce seriously dangerous chances, and the match fizzled out into a 1-1 draw.

Lineups:

Yuta Minami, Toru Watanabe (Kisho Yano 68), Norihiro Satsukawa, Naoya Kondo, Mitsuteru Watanabe, Toru Nagata, Tomokazu Myojin, Tomonori Hirayama, Ricardinho, Jesse, Keiji Tamada .

Naoki Matsuyo, Noritada Saneyoshi, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Masao Kiba, Hideo Hashimoto, Satoshi Yamaguchi (Francisco Arce 64), Yasuhito Endo, Takahiro Futagawa (Toru Irie 86), Masashi Oguro, Kota Yoshihara (Toru Araiba 64), Satoshi Nakayama.

4 - 2

Lineups:

Daisuke Tada, Satoru Suzuki, Joao, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Takanori Nunobe (Takeshi Hamada 45), Axel, Nobuki Hara, Kiyokazu Kudo, (Yusuke Sato 45), Hiroaki Morishima (Takaaki Tokushige 76), Baron, Yoshito Okubo .

Daijiro Takakuwa, Takayuki Komine, Fabiano (Kazuhiro Murakami 40), Norio Omura, Yuichi Nemoto, Hitoshi Moriyasu, Shigeyoshi Mochizuki, Silvinho, Teruo Iwamoto, Yoshiteru Yamashita, Hisato Sato (Kenji Fukuda 67).

And so, JEF United emerge as the only team to win all of its first three matches, taking sole possession of first place, while the Urawa Reds move into second place on the strength of their superior goal difference. Meanwhil,e, traditional powers Jubilo Iwata and Yokohama Marinos have both slipped into the lower end of the table. Though Kashima Antlers are still just a goal-difference behind the Reds, the loss of Nakata could seriously dent their hopes in the second stage. This may leave the field wide open for an upstart to claim the second stage crown, though it is still early, and only time will tell for sure whether the "new guard" can maintain their performance over the full course of the season.