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May 5, 2004

Children's Day

But lets back up a bit and take the events of the afternoon in sequence, since this was certainly a fine afternoon for football. For starters, here are the scores of Wednesday's matches.

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
5 May		1-2		Kobe Universiade
5 May		0-2		Kashiwa-no-ha Std.
5 May		2-1		Yamaha (Iwata) St.
5 May		1-0		Saitama Stadium
5 May		2-1		Ajinomoto Stadium
5 May		1-1		Mizuho Stadium
5 May		1-2		Nagai Stadium

Note: The match between Yokohama Marinos and Shimizu S-Pulse was rescheduled due to a conflict with the Asian Champions League schedule, and will be played on May 12

1 - 0

Though the official attendance fell a bit short of the J.League record of 62,000, that didnt detract from the roar of the supporters or the spectacle of the event. Indeed, the fans -- with their competing chants echoing through the rafters -- provided most of the action in this match. Unfortunately, both teams were missing key players, and it was visible in the performance of both offences. While the speed of striker Emerson was a threat all afternoon, the absence of his strike partner, Tatsuya Tanaka took away the one player on the team who can produce good penetration. As a result, the Reds attack was fast and furious, but only on rare occasions managed to penetrate through the Antlers' back line. The Antlers, meanwhile, continue to miss key contributors such as Koji Nakata, Akira Narahashi and Masaki Fukai. Although they did a bit better at creating penetration, their finishing was poor, and the result was a rather defensive, relatively uneventful affair that might well have ended in a scoreless draw.

But midway through the second half, Emerson's speed and tireless efforts to outrun the Antlers back line finally produced an opening, as a quick rush around the left wing beat one defender and gave him a clear path into the box from the left side. As he approached the near post, the keeper and one defender came out to cut him off, and it looked like yet another Reds rush might stall justs short of goal. But Emerson made a fine cutback to get around the defender, and pulled the ball back across his body, with a hard snap-shot towards the near post. Hitoshi Sogahata was leaning the wrong way, and the ball just snuck in between his feet, and the left upright.

Shortly after this goal, Antlers midfielder Fernando made a foolish challenge on a Reds player, trying to snatch the ball away from behind -- a relatively innocuous foul, it seemed, but one that a player with one yellow card shouldnt make in the first place. The referee decided it was worth a second yellow, and the Antlers were reduced to ten men, effectively clinching the Reds win. Though the victory may not have had the 'flair" and "action" that Urawa likes to provide for its faithful fans, they certainly will take the three points, which moves them level on points with JEF and Marinos as they chase after first-place Jubilo Iwata

Lineups:

Hitoshi Sogahata, Jun Uchida, Seiji Kaneko, Go Oiwa, Tatsuya Ishikawa (Daiki Iwamasa 68), Toru Araiba, Fernando, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Chikashi Masuda (Tomoyuki Hirase 59), Masashi Motoyama, Fabio Junior (Yuki Nakajima 78) .

Ryota Tsuzuki, Ichiei Muroi (Hideki Uchidate 77), Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Keisuke Tsuboi, Tadaaki Hirakawa, Tomoyuki Sakai, Alex Santos, Keita Suzuki, Makoto Hasebe (Nobuhisa Yamada 88), Koji Yamase, Emerson.

2 - 1

The close call they had in Wednesday's home contest against Trinita is a good reflection of the problems Jubilo are having. Though they continue to demonstrate fine midfield passing skills and an excellent attacking strategy, their energy level seems to be dropping as the season wears on. As was the case against S-Pulse, Trinita used hard pressure on the ball and quick dashes into the passing lanes to make steals in midfield and create counterattacking opportunities. The superior energy level of the visitors also kept Jubilo from producing many scoring opportunities in the first half. At the break, the match was still scoreless, and Trinita looked to be on track to claim at least one point from this contest.

But shortly after the restart, a nice bit of one-touch passing snapped the Trinita defence before they had fully regained their composure for the second half. On the very first trip down the pitch, defender Hideto Suzuki pushed forward on the wing, and took an overlap pass from midfield, then lobbed it into the middle for Takashi Fukunishi, at the intersection of the penalty arc and the top left side of the penalty box. Fukunishi prepared to trap the ball down, but at the last second spotted Toshiya Fujita making a dash in from midfield. Fukunishi made a one-touch "pass" with his chest, dropping the ball right on Fujita's bootlaces while he was still in full sprint. Fujita needed just one touch to settle the ball, then ripped a shot past the keeper to give Jubilo the lead.

But Trinita were far from intimidated by the goal, and soon were pushing back with pressure of their own. Ten minutes into the second half, a booming, 50-meter pass from Richard Witsche found Ryosuke Kijima at the edge of the box, and the powerful midfielder-turned-striker outmuscled his defender, surged into the box and looped a shot over the outrushing keeper and into the top left corner.

But Jubilo still had one more bullet in the arsenal, and minutes after conceding the equaliser, another overlapping run on the right by Suzuki produced a cross to the far post, which Ryoichi Maeda just barely managed to catch up with, lunging forward to toe the bounding ball home from point-blank range.

Lineups:

Yohei Sato, Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Naoya Kikuchi, Norihiro Nishi (Nobuo Kawaguchi 79), Takashi Fukinishi Takahiro Kawamura 66), Toshihiro Hattori, Toshiya Fujita, Hiroshi Nanami (Sho Naruoka 78), Ryoichi Maeda, Masashi Nakayama (Robert Cullen 75).

Riki Takasaki, Tetsuya Yamazaki, Kazuyoshi Mikami, Sandro Chavez Rosa, Takashi Miki (Yuichi Nemoto 65), Richard Witsche, Tomoaki Komorida, Shota Matsuhashi (Magno Alves 83), Ryosuke Kijima, Daiki Takamatsu .

2 - 1

After making history last month, as the youngest player ever to step onto the pitch in a J.League match (a few days shy of 15 years, 11 months), Morimoto had two or three less-than-stellar outings, and coach Ossie Ardilles moved the youngster back to the bench lest he be accused of overextending the junior-high-school boy's capabilities in order to win publicity. But even though he dropped out of the starting lineup, those of us who had seen the kid's moves could tell that we would eventually be hearing more from him. Sure enough, just days short of his sixteenth birthday, Morimoto is again in the headlines, and this time it looks like the story will have a bit more "staying power".

The match itself started out looking a bit bleak for the home side. JEF United have been playing very aggressive football, this season, under coach Ivica Osim, and with both of Verdy's top offensive weapons -- Morimoto and Patrick Mboma -- starting the match on the bench, the first half was dominated by JEF United, both in ball possession, scoring opportunities, and on the scoreboard. JEF took an early lead in the 22 minute on a typical JEF counterattack, with five players all throwing themselves fowrard to create a rush towards the Verdy goal. As defenders dropped off to cover his teammates, Sandro Cardoza carried the ball from midfield up the left side, almost to the top of the penalty box, then turned right, to drift across the top of the penalty arc, looking for an open teammate. But as he reached the center of the pitch, Sanndro realised that the most open target of all was the goal mouth itself, which gaped open as the keeper drifted a bit too far to his left. Santos drilled a hot grounder towards the left corner, and the keeper, caught off guard, reacted too late to stop it sneaking inside the post.

Though JEF failed to add to their lead, they continued to dominate play, even after Mboma came on in the second half (which added a bit to Verdy's possession time, but didnt generate many chances). Indeed, as the stadium clock wound down to 15 minutes remaining, JEF seemed totally in control, despite the fact that they led by a lone goal. It was not until Morimoto took the pitch, in the 77 minute, that the tide began to turn.

Just seconds later, a bit of ball work out of midfield sent Mboma on a run towards the right post. JEF's defence broke up the drive, but it was the first sign of life all afternoon from the Verdy offence. In the 81 minute, Daigo Kobayashi tried to make a foray around the left wing, but when his path was cut off, he sent the ball back out to Atsuhiro Miura, about five meters beyond the top of the penalty arc. When no JEF defender arrived to pick him up, Miura apparently decided that if Sandro could hit the net from this range, so could he. His shot was well struck, and rocketed into the high left corner before the keeper even saw it coming. Suddenly, Verdy were on level terms, and the crescendo of support from the home crowd brought a surge of adrenaline, and momentum to the men in green. With three minutes remaining in regulation time, Yoshiyuki Kobayashidrove around the right wing and sent a low line drive into the box. With a burst of speed, Morimoto dashed past his defender and into the penalty area, throwing himself headlong for a diving header that short-hopped underneath the diving grasp of the keeper, and hit the back of the net.

The crowd behind goal erupted, as they greeted their new hero, who made a curtain call at the edge of the stands before running back to his team's bench and leaping into the arms of the coaches. Japan has a new rookie record-holder, who at aged 15 years, 11 months and twenty-some days, breaks Junichi Inamoto's record as the J.League's youngest goal-scorer ever by more than a full year!

We can only hope that there will be many more to come in this exciting young man's career.

Lineups:

Yoshinari Takagi, Takushi Yoneyama, Kenta Togawa, Claudio Ubeda, Takuya Yamada, Kentaro Hayashi, Takeshi Hirano (Daigo Kobayashi 71), Atsuhiro Miura, Yoshiyuki Kobayashi, Kazuki Hiramoto (Takayuki Morimoto 77), Kazunori Iio (Patrick Mboma 45).

Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Zeljko Milinovic, Takayuki Chano, Masataka Sakamoto, Yuto Sato, Yuki Abe, Shinji Murai, Naotake Hanyu (Satoru Yamagishi 89), Seiichiro Maki, Sandro Cardoza .

0 - 2

Gamba, meanwhile, have finally switched to a four-back defence, as the Rising Sun News predicted at the start of the season. We always felt that, eventually, coach Nishino would recognise that Sidiclei is most valuable as a big, powerful defensive force, balancing the clever but vertically-challenged Tsuneyasu Miyamoto. Sure enough, in the last three matches Gamba have employed a 4-4-2 with Arata Kodama and Mitsuteru Watanabe playing the two wing back positions. In this match, the defence looked quite solid (though the lack of coordination in the Reysol front line may have produced a flattering picture). Reysol had few scoring chances to speak of, apart from one fine individual effort by Dudu, late in the second half, which hit the base of the left post and then was cleared off the line by the defence.

Yet Gamba were also unable to produce much offence, despite having the better part of possession and field position. It wasnt until the 55 minute that a long lead pass from behind the midfield stripe sent Kota Yoshihara away on a dash. The diminutive striker improbably outjumped a Reysol defender to the first high bound, headed it on into the box for himself, and then followed up with a low, hard drive underneath the outrushing keeper.

Reysol tried to produce an equaliser, but as the second half wore on, Gamba seemed to solidify their grip on the match. In the 70 minute, another long lead pass and break by Yoshihara saw the Gamba speedster once again dash into the clear, and this time Yuta Minami's effort to dash off his line and clear produced a collision that sent Yoshihara flying head over heels. Minami might have gotten a tiny bit of the ball, as well, but the dramatic nature of Yoshihara's tumble left the referee with no second thoughts. Without hesitation he went straight for a red card, and pointed to the penalty spot for good measure. Magrao sank the PK and with a man advantage, Gamba's victory was essentially sewed up.

Lineups:

Yuta Minami, Takeshi Watanabe (Naoya Kondo 45), Mitsuru Nagata, Sota Nakazawa, Yasuhiro Hato, Takahiro Shimotaira, Tomokazu Myojin (Minoru Suganuma 80), Tatsuya Tanizawa, Dudu, Ricardinho, Yuji Unozawa (Kenta Shimizu 69) .

Naoki Matsuyo, Mitsuteru Watanabe (Takahiro Futagawa 39), Sidiclei, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Arata Kodama (Noritada Saneyoshi 87), Toshihiro Matsushita , Satoshi Yamaguchi, Yasuhito Endo, , Fernandinho (Masashi Oguro 78), Kota Yoshihara, Magrao .
Hideo Hashimoto

1 - 1

Grampus came out with a great deal of pressure, and dominated the early stages of the match, with 12 shots and 9 corner kicks in the first half alone. However, despite some close calls, they were unable to find the net. Albirex, meanwhile, stuck to their strategy of compressing the pitch, playing tight defence with an active offside tram, and then seeking to produce a handful of quality chances from the counterattack. Unfortunately for the fighting snow geese, their offence failed to make much of their occasional chances, as Nagoya's defence held very firm. It was not until playmaker Fabinho came on, in the second half, that Albirex started to counterattack with any precision, but after he and Yusaku Ueno came on in place of Yoshito Terakawa and Hiroshi Morita, the opportunities began to multiply, with Nagoya losingsome of their early edge in possession and shots on net. It was not until the final ten minutes of play, though, that the scoreless deadlock was broken. After coming painfully close with a long-range shot, just moments earlier, Fabinho led a counterattack rush down the right sideline, firing a low cross just as he drew level with the top of the penalty box. Ueno dashed for the near post, a half-step ahead of the keeper, and as the ball arrived, put on a balletic move, pulling the ball out of the keeper's grasp with his heel as he did a 360-degree pirouette. His momentum carried him headlong into the right post, but he managed to scuff the ball into the open net, with the outside of his left boot, before clanging heavily into the woodwork (great gymnastic technique, but he still has to work on that dismount . . . )

As time ran down, it looked like Albirex might get their first win away from home since joining the top-flight. But with just minutes to go before the final whistle, a Grampus free kick from just outside the box snatched away their chance for victory, as Kojiro Kaimoto ran onto the ball and slammed it home to salvage a draw for the home team.

Lineups:

Seigo Narazaki, Masayuki Omori, Yutaka Akita, Masahiro Koga, Kojiro Kaimoto, Kei Yamaguchi (Tetsuya Okayama 62), Keiji Yoshimura, Yusuke Nakatani (Keiji Watanabe 72), Naoshi Nakamura (Harutaka Ono 80), Ueslei, Marques .

Yosuke Nozawa, Yasushi Kita (Hikaru Mita 73), Anderson Luis da Silva, An Yeon-Ha, Katsuyuki Miyazawa, Yoshito Terakawa (Fabinho 45), Hiroyoshi Kuwabara, Motohiro Yamaguchi, Shingo Suzuki, Edmilson, Hiroshi Morita (Yusaku Ueno 57).
Kentaro Suzuki,

1 - 2

But by midway through the first half, the momentum began to swing back the other way, raising questions once again about the stamina of this team. For the past two seasons, Kobe has consistently demonstrated a tendency to wilt in the second half of a match adn on this occasion, the lethargy seemed to set in even before half time. Unlike last year, the team can no longer blame it onthe aging legs of its players -- indeed, Vissel is now one of the younger teams in the league particularly when the old warhorse, Kazu Miura is not on the pitch. Yet bu the start of the second half, FC Tokyo were clearly beginning to take over control, as Vissel players seemed to run out of gas.

In the 50 minute, a free kick from Naohiro Ishikawa found his Olympic teammate Yasuyuki Konno directly in front of goal, for a running header which knotted the scores. Less than 15 minutes later, FC Tokyo took the lead, as Konno took a long lead pass from Yohei Kajiyama and raced away from the Vissel defence, drilling a shot as he reached the top left corner of the box which caught the opposite corner, and gave Tokyo the advantage.

Though Vissel showed breif signs of revival as the match ran down, they never regained the energy or attacking pressure that they displayed in the first quarter of the match, and as a result, went down to defeat.

Lineups:

Makoto Kakegawa, Park Kang-Jo (Kazutaka Murase 85), Yukio Tsuchiya, Kunie Kitamoto, Roger, Hiromi Kojima, Koji Yoshimura, Shosuke Tsubouchi, (Naoto Matsuo 65), Chikara Fujimoto, Leandro, Ryuji Bando .

Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Teruaki Moniwa, Jean Carlo Witte, Ryuji Fujiyama, Yasuyuki Konno, Satoru Asari, Naohiro Ishikawa (Oh Jang-Eun 72), Yohei Kajiyama (Yuta Baba 89), Mitsuhiro Toda, Lucas Severino (Yoshiro Abe 53) .

1 - 2

Sure enough, the match produced some excellent drama, even if most of it did occur in the final three minutes of play. Both teams were unable to produce a goal in the first half, but shortly after the restart, Sanfrecce won a free kick on the left sideline, about five meters out from the top of the penalty area. As a pack of players all dashed into the box, Cesar Sampaio sent a low line drive that Kazuyuki "The Elder" Morisaki headed inside the near post.

It looked like that would be the only score of the match, as the seconds ticked down towards the final whistle. But with just over a minute left on the clock, Tadaaki Tokushige made a quick overlap around the right side, and when no defenders came out to cut him off, turned into the box for a low-angle shot than just managed to beat the keeper into the near corner.

But no sooner had the Cerezo players finished celebrating than Koji "The Younger" Morisaki made an almost identical penetration run to the top right corner of the penalty box and drilled a shot that ricocheted off the keeper's glove and into the top of the net. With that, Sanfrecce claimed their first victory of the season, and Cerezo tumbled into the league cellar.

Lineups:

(Takashi Miki 58), Tomohiko Ito, Takaaki Tokushige, Takahito Chiba, Davorim Kablar, Yusuke Sato (Noriyuki Sakamoto 71), Hiroaki Morishima, Tomi Shimomura (Kenichi Uemura, Kiyokazu Kudo (Takuya Kokeguchi 61), Akinori Nishizawa (Junya Yamashiro 61), Yoshito Okubo, Kruno Lovrek .

Takashi Shimoda, Mitsuyuki Yoshihiro (Yuki Tamura 79), Ricardo Ribeiro, Megumu Yoshida, Yuichi Komano, Ri Han-Jae, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Koji Morisaki, Cesar Sampaio, Kota Hattori, Thiago Honorio .

And so, the pack behind the leaders narrows a bit, but Jubilo maintain a good cushion over their rivals. Of course, Yokohama Marinos still have a match in hand, which will be made up next Wednesday .

Rumours and Rumblings