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November 16, 2003
Care to Flip a Coin?

Lets begin by taking a look at the scores from Saturday's matches:

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
15 Nov		1 - 0		Ichihara Seaside
15 Nov		1-2		Yokohama Int'l
15 Nov		1-0		Nihondaira Stadium
15 Nov		1-0		Expo'70 Stadium
15 Nov		2-2		Kobe Wing Stadium
15 Nov		0-0		Oita "Big Eye"
16 Nov		3-1		Sendai Stadium
16 Nov		1-2		Ajinomoto Stadium

1 - 2

Yet as the match began, it looked like it meight be a very bright day for the Marinos. Just three minutes into the match, Tatsuhiko Kubo tore through the Antlers defence and fired a blistering shot into the net, putting his team in the lead before the fans had even warmed up their seats.

However, after the initial surge by Yokohama, the match settled down to a fairly typical contest between these two teams. Though the Antlers have lost a number of key players through injury, the Marinos were also a bit shorthanded in this match, with Naoki Matsda sitting out suspensions. To make matters worse, in the 25 minute Yoo Sang-Chul was shown a straight red card after a ridiculously blatant professional foul. Mr. Matsumura, who has never been a favourite of the Rising Sun News, demonstrated very early on that he was prepared to pull out the plastic rectangles at even the slightest provocation, and Yoo should have had no surprise to be sent to the showers.

Despite the man disadvantage, Yokohama held onto their lead through half time, and their disadvantage was partially balanced moments later, when Akira Narahashi limped off with an injury. But in the second half, Mitsuo Ogasawara began to show what he is capable of doing when sufficiently motivated. Shortly after the restart, he collected a pass about 30 meters from goal, coming back to meet the ball. With a swift spin move he left the closest defender in the dust, then uncorked a whistling line drive that snuck just under the crossbar, grazing the keeper's fingertips but finding the net nonetheless.

Not long thereafter, Ogasawara put on his playmaking hat, sliding a brilliant through ball to Yuichi Nemoto just outside the left post. Nemoto cut the ball back in front of net to Tomoyuki Hirase, who was cherrypicking at the penalty spot, and he managed to slide the ball into an open net (not an easy feat, at least for Hirase) to give Kashima their margin of victory.

Lineups:

Tatsuya Enomoto, Yoo Sang-Chul, Ryuji Kawai, Yuji Nakazawa, Dutra, Yukihiko Sato (Kunio Nagayama 70), Yasuhiro Endo, Daisuke Nasu, Daisuke Oku, Marquinhos, Tatsuhiko Kubo (Daisuke Sakata 65) .

Hitoshi Sogahata, Akira Narahashi (Takuya Nozawa 30), Yutaka Akita, Go Oiwa, Tatsuya Ishikawa, Naoki Honda (Tomohiko Ikeuchi 45), Takeshi Aoki, Fernando, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masaki Fukai (Yuki Nakashima 72), Tomoyuki Hirase .

1 - 0

Try as they might, the Reds simply could not produce a goal, but with time running out, a long lob pass was collected on the left side of the box by Ahn Jung-Hwan, who fired a low ball underneath the outrushing keeper and gave S-Pulse a stunning victory.

Lineups:

Masanori Sanada, Jumpei Takaki, Emerson, Ryuzo Morioka (Kohei Ikeda 87), Tomoyoshi Tsurumi, Teruyoshi Ito, Yasuhiro Yoshida, , Naoki Hiraoka, Masaaki Sawanobori, Ahn Jung-Hwan (Yusuke Kuboyama 89), Tuto .

Ryota Tsuzuki, Keisuke Tsuboi, Ned Zelic, Hideki Uchidate, Nobuhisa Yamada, Keita Suzuki, Makoto Hasebe (Toru Chishima 77), Tadaaki Hirakawa, Koji Yamase, Tatsuya Tanaka, Yuichiro Nagai.

1 - 0

Even if we ignore the PK awarded to Yoo Sang-Chul, for falling down in the penalty area on incidental contact from a defender -- long after the keeper had already stripped him of the ball -- it would be impossible for Cerezo fans to avoid the impression that the referee was crooked after he showed players on their team eight yellow cards and two reds (against just two yellows for JEF United). JEF would prove unable to score a goal of their own, even with a two-player advantage.

The stage was set in the 8 minute, when Yasushi Kita fouled a JEF player and, when the whistle blew, kicked the ball about three meters, directly to a JEF player. There could be no question, both from the strength of the kick and the fact that the JEF player immediately touched it down and prepared to resume play, that this was simply a pass to the opposing team in recognition of the fact that he had indeed committed a foul. But the referee remarkably pulled out a yellow card, supposedly for "delay of game" (how passing the ball directly to the feet of an opponent "delays" the game is a question for which we have no answer). Mr. Anazawa would compound the error, however. As he pulled the card from his pocket, Yoshito Okubo said (and this is quite audible on the game tape) "Hey, you must be joking?" (Oy! jodan ja nai desu ka?). For this "provocative" outburst, Okubo received a yellow as well

Okubo would later be sent off for a second yellow -- once again, for protesting a horrible call. This time his comments ("so, are you being paid for this?") were a bit less excusable, but after watching Mr Anazawa's performance, it seemed like a legitimate question. If the league had any shred of decency, they would reverse the suspension. Insead, they opted to make Okubo sit out for the remainder of the season, with a two-match suspension. The man who should be sidelined for a few weeks, however, is not Okubo, but Mr. Anazawa. He, along with several other J.League referees, are the ones who are bringing the game into disrepute!

We would add more, but there are no words to adequately express the travesty of J.League officiating.

Lineups:

Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Takayuki Chano (Katsutomo Oshiba 73), Yuki Sozo, Masataka Sakamoto, Yuki Abe, Yuto Sato, Shinji Murai, Satoru Yamagishi, Koji Nakashima (Takenori Hayashi 70), Sandro Cardoza (Seiichiro Maki 81), Choi Yong-Soo.

Daisuke Tada, Yasushi Kita, Satoru Suzuki, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Takanori Nunobe, Takeshi Hamada, Kiyokazu Kudo (Takaaki Tokushige 76), Ryu Saito, Yusuke Sato, Yoshito Okubo, Baron (Noriyuki Sakai 85), Akinori Nishizawa (Axel 63).

1 - 0

Lineups:

Naoki Matsuyo, Masao Kiba, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Toru Irie, Hideo Hashimoto, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Yasuhito Endo, Masashi Oguro, Takahiro Futagawa, Magrao, Kota Yoshihara (Harison 73) .

Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Teruyuki Moniwa, Jean Carlo Witte, Jo Kanazawa, Fumitake Miura (Kunio Suzuki 68), Naohiro Ishikawa, Masashi Miyazawa, Clesley "Kelly" Guimares, Mitsuhiro Toda (Yoshiro Abe 80), Amaral .

0 - 0

Lineups:

Seigo Narazaki, Masayuki Omori, Andrej Panadic, Masahiro Koga, Kojiro Kaimoto (Kei Yamaguchi 89) , Keiji Yoshimura, Kunihiko Takizawa (Tetsuya Okayama 53), Yusuke Nakatani, Naoshi Nakamura, (Ryuta Hara 71), Ueslei, Marques.

Hayato Okanaka, Tetsuya Yamazaki, Daiki Wakamatsu, Takashi Miki, Tomohiro Katanosaka (Tomoaki Komorida 84), Edmilson (Takashi Umeda 60), Haruki Seto, Yoshito Terakawa, Teppei Nishiyama, Will (Ryosuke Kijima 70), Daiki Takamatsu .

2 - 2

Lineups:

Makoto Kakegawa, Koji Yoshimura, Yukio Tsuchiya, Kunie Kitamoto, Naoto Matsuo, Sidiclei, Mitsunori Yabuta, Park Kang-Jo (Takayuki Yamaguchi 69), Bismarck (Masaya Nishitani 69), Kazuyoshi Miura, Oseas (Masayuki Okano 45) .

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 .

3 - 1

Kyoto, who are also facing the threat of relegation, put up a good fight, but with a packed house at Sendai Stadium all rooting for the home team, they found themselves outplayed from start to finish.

The man of the match for Vegalta was striker Hisato Sato, who scored a double with two fine finishes. Midway through the first half, Sato broke into the clear on a counterattack, collected a long pass from Teruo Iwamoto and held off a defender who was quite literally climbing over his back, before tucking the ball into the low right corner.

Sato's second strike, early in the second half, was an even more impressive shot, as he chansed another long lead pass and played a delicate lob shot with his first touch, stranding the keeper at the edge of his box and squeezing the ball just underneath the crossbar. This goal pretty much took the wind out of Kyoto's sails, though they threw everyone forward in a desparate bid to get a goal back. But with time running down, Shigeyoshi Mochizuki put the final nail in the coffin with an improbable, 35-meter lob shot that the keeper could only watch in disbelief as it soared over the defensive pack and caught the top left corner of goal.

Kyoto got a late consolation goal, when Regilio "Reggie" Simons headed in a corner kick in the first minute of injury time. But Vegalta claimed all three points and thus closed the distance with their two main rivals for relegation -- Sanga and Oita Trinita.

Lineups:

Kiyomitsu Kobari, Kazuhiro Murakami, Masahiro Kazuma, Susumu Watanabe, Yuichi Nemoto, Silvinho, Toshiya Ishii, Shigeyoshi Mochizuki (Nobuyuki Zaizen 88), Teruo Iwamoto, Hisato Sato (Kim Dong-Ju 82), Yoshiteru Yamashita.

Naoto Hirai, Makoto Kakuda, Daisuke Saito, Kazuki Teshima, Shingo Suzuki, Shinya Tomita, Tadashi Nakamura (Daisuke Nakaharai 66), Biju, Daisuke Matsui, Regillio "Reggie" Simons, Teruyuki Kurobe.

1 - 2

Verdy got off the mark early on a brilliant play by Patrick Mboma who took a pass with his back to goal, put on a spin move that would make even Kobe Bryant jealous, and took off for goal. As the last two defenders desperately tried to cut off his drive, he fed the ball to Kazuki Hiramoto on the left wing for an easy finish.

But thereafter, Jubilo dominated possession and created by far the better chances. Even so, Verdy hung on to their lead until the final ten minutes, when Jubilo brought in the ebuillent veteran Masashi Nakayama for his first appearance in over six months. This gave Jubilo an instant surg of adrenaline, and shortly after Nakayama took the field, Rodrigo Gral scored the equaliser with a header off a corner kick.

With time running down, Verdy got extremely conservative, falling back into a defensive shell, but this played right into Jubilo's hands. Four minuts from full time, a nice slide pass by Nakayama to Yasumasa Nishino gave the U-20 star an open look at goal. He ripped shot for the near post which was deflected by a Verdy defender, but the ball caromed into the right side of the Verdy net to give Jubilo victory, and raise them to the top of the table.

Lineups:

Hiromasa Yamamoto, Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Sho Naruoka (Nobuo Kawaguchi 67), Takashi Fukinishi, Toshihiro Hattori, Aleksandr Zivkovic, Hiroshi Nanami (Yasumasa Nishino 76), Rodrigo Gral, Ryoichi Maeda (Masashi Nakayama 80).

Yoshinari Takagi, Masayuki Yanagisawa, Alexandre Paes Lopes, Takushi Yoneyama, Atsuhiro Miura, Kentaro Hayashi, Shingo Nejime, Takuya Yamada Ramon Mendez Hubner (Takeshi Hirano 24) (Daigo Kobayashi 61), Kazuki Hiramoto (Naoto Sakurai 73), Patrick Mboma .

With their victory over Tokyo Verdy, Jubilo leapfrog into first place, a point ahead of the second-place team on 23 points. However, there are, amazingly, eight teams within three points of first place. The Urawa Reds and JEF United stand a point back, Kashima Antlers are all alone at 21 points while FC Tokyo, Tokyo Verdy, Gamba Osaka and Yokohama Marinos stand level at 20. Even Nagoya Grampus and Shimizu S-Pulse are still in the running, mathematically at least. With two weeks left, only one thing can be said with certainty -- the winner will not be known until the final week of the season.

Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the table, the struggle to avoid relegation now seems to have been narrowed to three teams. Vissel Kobe still are at risk, but with Oita Trinita and Vegalta Sendai playing each other on the final week of the season, Vissel can probably reach safety with just a single point from their final two matches . OitaTrinita are a point ahead of Kyoto and Vegalta Sendai, but this is hardly a meaningful margin, especially since Oita aand Sentai play head to head in the final week. It looks like the relegation race will go down to the wire just like the contest for the league crown, so tune in next week for all the news.

Rumours and Rumblings

Sanfrecce Clinch Promotion

Albirex Niigata, after leading the league for most of the season and at one point building what looked like an insurmountable lead, now find their season boiling dowwn to the final home match of the season. There is little doubt that "Big Swan" stadium will be sold out for the match against Montedio Yamagata this Saturday. A draw is all Niigata need to win promotion, but if they should lose, and Kawasaki Frontale defeat Hiroshima, Frontale would advance on their superior goal difference. A great deal is at stake, and both of the season-ending matches should be wonderful spectacles for J.League fans.