December 21, 2003
Emperor"s Cup Provides a Christmas Feast
1 - 4
Though perhaps not as nail-biting as some of the other clashes on this particular afternoon, the first matchup of the day, between Kashima Antlers and Yokohama Marinos clearly dished up the highest quality football of the day. Indeed, the draw for this year's Emperor's Cup will probably disappoint some people, as arguably the two best teams remaining in the tournament were forced to play head-to-head in a quarterfinal contest. Though this might have been a better show if it had taken place on New Year's Day, in the cup final, at least the location was correct, since the two teams met at Tokyo's National Stadium, which will also host the final on January 1. The stands were packed, and though the Antlers support was slightly more vocal, both teams had huge contingents of supporters on hand, providing a cacophonous background to the contest.
1 - 4Interestingly enough, the NHK announcers seem to have annointed the Marinos as the favourites from the outset, and at times their undisguised cheerleading for Yokohama became an annoyance. Although they may have won this year's league title by capturing both stages, it was a bit hard to understand why the announcers cast their lot for the Marinos even before kickoff, since Kashima have a far better historical record in cup competitions, and are also one of the few teams that has a superior won-lost record against the Marinos over the course of J.League history. Perhaps the most important jinx of all is the two teams' record at National Stadium. If one includes their 3-0 victory in the 2001 League Championship match, Kashima have beaten Yokohama 8 of the 9 times that they have played in this particular venue.
This match would make it 9 out of 10, as the Marinos' "jinx" in National Stadium continued. The tone for the match was set just 5 minutes after kickoff, when Takeshi Aoki fed a pass to captain Mitsuo Ogasawara on the left flank, and Oga casually waited for a teammate to move into position before lobbing a pinpoint pass onto the head of Masashi Motoyama. Though three Marinos defenders were in the box, Ogasawara's cross found the seam and the speedy midfielder split it wide open, heading a shot home from point-blank range.
Even after the Marinos slipped 0-1 behind, the announcers continued to rave about the exploits of Tatsuhiko Kubo, Yukihiko Sato and Daisuke Sakata, aparently oblivious to the fact that, while the Marinos were indeed producing some good build-up play around the perimeter, none of their inlet passes were able to crack the Antlers' back line, and Kashima were creating quick outlet passes on the counterattack which threatened to split the Marinos defence wide open.
The play that probably decided this match came in the 26 minute, and true to patter, it came on a quick counter after a Marinos build-up sequence broke down with a headed clearance from the Antlers back line. A long outlet pass sent Motoyama down the right side, and as he drew level with the top of the penalty arc, he crossed to Ogasawara directly in the center of the pitch. Ogasawara saw the retreating Marinos defenders collapse towards him, and while faking a drive on goal, played an equisitely delicate one-touch pass to Aoki, breaking towards goal from the opposite side of the box. The pass left all but one of the Marinos defenders with their knickers around their ankles, and a nice cutback by Aoki put the final defender on his back, making the actual shot on goal a mere formality. The Antlers were now two goals in front.
Yokohama tried to push for a quick response, but this may have been ill advised as just three minutes later, yet another swift counterattack would produce the killing blow. This time, left wing back Jun Uchida broke up the Marinos buildup, and made a dash across midfield on his own. As he crossed midfield, he fed a pass to Masaki Fukai, isolated against a single defender about 20 meters out, on the right side of the penalty area. Fukai faced towards goal, as if preparing to take on the defender one-on-one, but as Uchida continued his dash down the sideline, Fukai suddenly pushed the ball into space, for Uchida to run the overlap. Uchida dashed past in a flash, and his cross was completely uncontested. He managed to spot Ogasawara at the opposite side of the box, and floated a soft pass that Oga had plenty of time to line up, before heading into the nylon. The stuned Marinos found themselves 3-0 down with less than 30 minutes played.
To their credit, Yokohama refused to admit defeat so early in a match. But no team comes back from a 3-0 deficit against the Antlers, and by half time it was quite apparent that Kashima would be more than happy to just allow the clock to run its course, and claim their ticket to the semifinals. Though Yokohama had an edge in possession, particularly in the first 20 minutes of the second half, nothing they could do would break down the tenacious Antlers defence. The most they could manage was a fortunate and somewhat disputable free kick at the top right corner of the Antlers box (the linesman indicated twice to the referee that he did not think it was a foul, but the referee stuck to his guns, waving off the linesman's signals and awarding Yokohama the kick). Dutra played a perfect shot into the top left corner, cutting the deficit to 3-1.
But a mere five minutes later, the Antlers fought back to claim a free kick of their own, just to the left of the penalty arc, about 20 meters out. Ogasawara played a low, flat drive for the far post as a herd of Anters dashed towards goal. In actuality, it was a Marinos defender who managed to get a head on the ball, but it made little difference, as the ball found the back of the net and restored the deficit to three goals.
Thereafter the Marinos shoulders seemed to droop as the result became clear. Though Yokohama deserve credit for continuing to push for a goal over the remaining 20 minutes, it was actually the Antlers who came closest to scoring on their occasional counters, against just one or two defenders, in the final minutes. Though the match was a fairly easy win for Kashima, one cannot help but feel sorry for the Marinos, who played well enough to defeat at least four or five of the other teams that were in action on this particular afternoon. It may be a bit too early to start crowning a champion, but we suspect that this match may go down as the "true" final of this year's Emperor's Cup.
3 - 0
If Yokohama and Kashima were the two most impressive teams remaining in this tournament, contenders number three and four were also unfortunate enough to be drawn head-to-head in the serendipitous luck of the draw. Based on their performances over the past season, as well as on the quality of the match they produced on Tuesday afternoon, Jubilo Iwata and Tokyo Verdy are perhaps the best qualified teams to claim parity with the Antlers or Marinos. They also played a match which ended in a rather one-sided score line. But the quality of play over the course of this contest reflected well on both teams.
3 - 0 Though Jubilo seemed to have a slight edge in possession over the first half hour of this contest, Verdy actually had the most dangerous scoring opportunities, and as half time drew near, it began to look as if the Tokyo team wer on the verge of a goal. But in the 40 minute a spectacluar bit of teamwork produced the first goal for Jubilo. The speedy Nobuo Kawaguchi outran his defender down the left sideline and crossed into the box. Rodrigo Gral, at the far post, was in the best position for the cross but had two tall Verdy defenders right in his face. Rather than trying to put the ball on net, Gral headed down, and back across the face of goal. Hiroshi Nanami read the play perfectly, dashing in just ahead of the keeper to slam the ball home at the left post.
Verdy immediately surged back, and on the stroke of half time they seemed to have leveled the contest. Patrick Mboma made a fine run into the box and was toppled by the goalkeeper in a desperate last effort to prevent a shot on goal. But Atsuhiro Miura sent the subsequent PK directly at the keeper, and then compounded his error by sending the rebound wide of the right post. Jubilo went to the locker room with their 1-0 advantage intact.
In the second half, Verdy emerged with a concerted push for the equaliser, but when it did not materialise, their play became increasingly desperate and disjointed. By the midpoint of the second half, Verdy's wild efforts at counterattacks were beginning to look amateurish, and Jubilo were starting to produce seriously dangerous opportunities on the counter. In the 71 minute, Jubilo got the crucial tally, as Gral worked his way free from his defender At the right post and Nanami found him with a perfect cross. Thereafter it was all downhill, as Verdy's efforts grew increasingly desperate and Jubilo simply concentrated on riding out the string. With a minute gone in injury time, a long clearance by Jubilo produced a 3-on-1 in which Gral eventually sidestepped the floundering keeper and tucked a shot into an empty net, to close out the scoring.
1 - 0
The match between JEF United Ichihara and Shimizu S-Pulse was the low point of the day, as the two teams bumbled their way about the pitch for 90 minutes without a goal. The quality of play was so poor that one could not help but feel sorry for the Marinos and Verdy, who would surely still be in the competition if they had faced either one of these two teams. JEF, at least, had something of an excuse, as they were playing without both ace striker Choi Yong-Soo and midfielder Yuki Abe. Yet even so, the number of flubbed passes and missed traps reached the point where it almost began to assume the nature of a farce.
1 - 0 Fittingly, the contest was finally decided in extra time on a bungled play by a JEF defender. A long ball from the S-Pulse back line fell right to Teruaki Kobayashi, but the defender swung wildly at the ball and his "clearance" bounded about 30 centimeters to the right, falling right at the feet of Kohei Hiramatsu. The S-Pulse striker could hardly believe his luck, but he manged to suppress his shock long enough to take three steps into the JEF penalty box and tuck the ball ino the open net. And so, JEF drop out of the competition. S-Pulse have a history of good fortune in the Emperor's Cup, but if they play anything like they did in this match, they too will be heading home for the holidays after they face Jublio, next week.
3 - 2
The most exciting match of the day took place in Hiroshima's "Big Arch" Stadium, where Kansai rivals Cerezo Osaka and Vissel Kobe faced off in front of a noisy and enthusiastic crowd. Both teams have been living dangerously i this tournament. Last Saturday Vissel blew a two-goal lead only to win their match against FC Tokyo on penalty kicks, whereas Cerezo conceded two goals to Gamba Osaka before fighting back to a 3-2 victory. This match would replay Saturday's events for both teams, in what quickly turned into a brutal physical clash, with both teams dishing out hard hits and the referee compounding the situation with truly inexplicable officiating.
3 - 2 As was the case on Saturday, against Gamba, Cerezo were slow out of the blocks, conceding two goals in the first 11 minutes. Both came on corner kicks as Vissel players were left almost completely unmarked. First it was Kazu Miura's turn to head a short line drive in at the near post. Just four minutes later, a corner kick from the opposite side found Sidiclei's shiny forehead, directly in front of goal, and he nodded the ball into the nylon.
After their ignominious start, Cerezo began to get their act together, generating some pressure with quick passes through midfied. However, Vissel managed to keep them from getting any real scoring chances with ferocious defending -- some might say overly ferocious. The referee was letting almost everything go, in the first half, and after Yoshito Okubo had been taken down twice by studs-up tackles, he predioctably began to lose his cool and retaliate in kind. But the dying moment of the first half, both teams were knocking each other to the turf at every opportunity, and two players -- Vissel's Kunie Kitamoto and Cerezo's Akinori Nishizawa -- had been forced to take an early shower after hard tackles put them out of commission.
In the second half, Cerezo's offense came to life, in part because captain Hiroaki Morishima and striker Baron came on as a substitutions, but also in part because Okubo was spending more time trying to create goals and less time trying to pound on Vissel defenders. Cerezo intensified the offensive pressure, and dominated the second half offensively, but with fifteen minutes to play they still had not scored. However, as the match wore down the referee suddenly began to dish out yellow cards by the handful for plays that he had been waving on in the first half, and though both teams collected their share, the impact was greater on Vissel, whose physical play up to that point had been one of the few things holding Cerezo at bay. In the 79 minute, Cerezo finally got on the scoreboard as Baron looped a pass over the defence and Morishima dashed through to slot it into the low right corner. Though they still had the lead, this goal seemed to crush Vissel's spirits, and the defence which had done such a fine job all afternoon suddenly collapsed. Five minutes later, a corner kick to the near post was headed on by Morishima, and Baron poked it in with an extended boot, at the far post. Then, just two minutes later and a minute before full time, Morishima lobbed a pass from the right sideline to Baron at the top of the penalty arc, and the big Brazilian fired off a quick shot. The ball was deflected on its way towards goal, but this completely wrong-footed the keeper, and as he floundered on the ground, the ball spun slowly into the left corner, giving Cerezo the victory.
Below is a full list of results for the quarterfinal round, and the tournament table, thus far.
| Yokohama Marinos | 1 - 4 | Kashima Antlers |
| Cerezo Osaka | 3 - 2 | Vissel Kobe |
| JEF United | 0 - 1 | Shimizu S-Pulse |
| Jubilo Iwata | 3 - 0 | Tokyo Verdy |
Rumours and Rumblings
Trading Season Starts Early
In about a week, the Rising Sun News will begin its regular coverage of what we like to call "horse-trading season", that time of year when teams scramble for the relatively small pool of players who are released by their former teams but still seem talented enough to find a position elsewhere. Although every season brings one or two "big deals", this season the activity has started early, and the headlines are larger than in most past years. This is partly because a large number of talented veterans were released by former clubs, who seem to be going for a younger look next year.
Although we intend to begin regular reporting on the moves made by each club, some time in early January, several high-profile moves have already been announced, which are newsworthy enough to report separately. Therefore, we have compiled a (very incomplete) list of some roster moves that have already been confirmed, or at least discussed in enough detail to make them seem almost certain at this point.
No one is likely to be surprised that Urawa Reds were one of the first clubs into the transfer market. With over a week to go in 2003, the team has already announced two fairly major acquisitions for next season. Of course, we have already reported on the team's signing of Guido Buchwald and Gert Engels to serve next season as the general manager and head coach, respectively. This week the team followed up with the news that it has signed Marcus Lyuji Tulio Tanaka, a Brazil-born but ethnically Japanese defender who recently gained Japanese citizenship. Tulio, as he prefers to be called, had a rather undistinguished two years at Sanfrecce Hiroshima, which acquired him at the tender age of 19 and played him in central defence. However, at age 21, he showed far greater promise in his role as a side back at Mito Hollyhock, last year. Tulio is tall, has excellent speed, and though his defensive skills may be a bit weak for a central defender, at side back he seems to be quite effective on defence and dangerous moving forward in support of the attack. The acquisition would certainly seem to indicate that Buchwald/Engels plan to play a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-3 formation next year, since Tulio is best suited to a wing back role.
A day earlier, the Reds announced another signing, this time at midfield. The team acquired former national team defensive back Tomoyuki Sakai from Nagoya Grampus. Sakai has seen less action at Nagoya this year, but he is still well regarded as a solid midfield presence, and was one of the stars with former club JEF United. Sakai's signing also would tend to point towards a 4-4-2 philosophy, since Urawa already have one top-quality volante in Keita Suzuki, and probably would not acquire Sakai merely for backup purposes.
Another fairly big move involves the signing of veteran Kashima Antlers defender Yutaka Akita by Nagoya Grampus. Kashima told Akita a few weeks ago that they planned to release him after the Emperor's Cup, allowing talented youngsters like Tomohiko Ikeuchi to emerge from the veteran's very large shadow. Nagoya is Akita's home town, and he apparently plans to return to his old home after his playing days are over. Grampus can probably use a solid center back next season. Although Andrej Panadic did a fine job patrolling the back line for Nagoya in 2003, he was unable to do the entire job by himself, and as a result Grampus frequently gave away "soft" goals. With Akita on board, Grampus could be within reach of a title next season.
One other 'big" story involves the transfer of Choi Yong-Soo from JEF United to Kyoto Purple Sanga. Kyoto have indicated that they are going to release ace striker Teruaki Kurobe next year, but few expected them to land such a high-profile replacement, particularly this soon. It is also hard to understand why JEF would part with a player who has provided two-thirds (if not more) of their offence over the past three seasons. Maybe JEF are strapped for money, and need to use the transfer of Choi (on a one-year rental contract) to generate cash for other acquisitions. One is naturally reluctant to second-guess Ivica Osim, who has done wonders with the club over the past year. However, from our perspective this looks like a blunder. Without Choi's finishing prowess, JEF would have been just a mediocre club in 2003, and we think there is a strong risk that his departure will doom any chance of a title next season. However, we will just have to wait and see what other cards Osim has up his sleeve before making a judgement on whether this is a good or a bad move.
J.League Annual Awards
At the J.League's annual awards ceremony, last week, a lot of uncomfortable young men sat around in stiff, formal tuxedos, listened to boring, semi-rehearsed speeches and drank a lot of champagne as the league announced the awards for the best players of 2003. The event is a bit of a farce, and it would probably be more meaningful if the awards were just announced in a news release each year. However, that would deprive the sports media of a chance to fill up their morning editions with quotes from every semi-famous individual with even an indirect association with the sport of football.
While the ceremony itself may be a waste of cheap confetti, the awards are quite highly prized, and usually fairly good selections, apart from their understandable bias towards whatever team won the championship. This season, though Marinos players were in abundance, the selection committee managed to restrain themselves from picking a Marinos MVP (since their title was truly a team effort, this would have been close to impossible). The MVP trophy actually went to Urawa Reds striker Emerson, who certainly had a major impact for his team. The Marinos contented themselves with rookie of the year honors for Daisuke Nasu and the coach of the year prize for Takeshi Okada -- perhaps the most well-deserved award of the night.
Below is a full list of the major awards:
| ||
| MVP | Emerson | Urawa Reds |
| Rookie of the Year | Daisuke Nasu | Yokohama Marinos |
| Golden Boot | Ueslei | Nagoya Grampus |
| Coach of the Year | Takeshi Okada | Yokohama Marinos |
| Fair Play Award | Yuichi Nemoto | Vegalta Sendai |
| Referee of the Year | Toru Kamikawa | -- |
Best Eleven | ||
| GK | Seigo Narazaki | Nagoya Grampus |
| DF | Naoki Matsuda | Yokohama Marinos |
| Keisuke Tsuboi | Urawa Reds | |
| Dutra | Yokohama Marinos | |
| MF | Mitsuo Ogasawara | Kashima Antlers |
| Takashi Fukunishi | Jubilo Iwata | |
| Daisuke Oku | Yokohama Marinos | |
| Tomoya Fujita | Jubilo Iwata | |
| FW | Emerson | Urawa Reds |
| Tatsuhiko Kubo | Yokohama Marinos | |
| Ueslei | Nagoya Grampus | |
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