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August 22, 2004

Fireworks on an August Evening

Lets start by looking at the scores of this week's matches.

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
21 Aug		7-2		Saitama Stadium
21 Aug		1-2		Ajinomoto Stadium
21 Aug		2-1		Hiroshima Big Arch
21 Aug		0-3		Kashiwa-no-ha Std.
21 Aug		2-1		Yokohama Int'l
21 Aug		3-3		Niigata "Big Swan"
21 Aug		1-2		Yamaha (Iwata) St.
21 Aug		2-1		"Banpaku" Stadium

1 - 2

This week's contest against Grampus was an even better depiction of the problems Jubilo face than last week's draw with Oita Trinita. For the second week in a row, a group of younger and hungrier opponents pressed Jubilo from the opening kick and eventually wore them down. It took Grampus almost an hour to wear them down, but Jubilo were clearly on the back foot from the start of the contest, with Nagoya dominating play for much of the contest. It only the superior experience and professionalism of the Jubilo veterans that kept them in the match unitl after half time.

With Ueslei taking a break from the J.League this weekend, his younger brother Jorginho took over as the strike team partner of Marques, and though he failed to score any goals himself, he was one of the key factors in this win, keeping Jubilo on the back foot constantly with his dashing runs. Forced to compete in a constant footrace with Marques and Jorginho, Jubilo's entire back line, as well as defensive midfielders Takashi Fukunishi and Toshihiro Hattori, spend tomst of this contest deep in their own end, unable to provide support for the offence. Meanwhile, the "double Nakas" in midfield, Yusuke Nakatani and Naoshi Nakamura, teamed up with another Brazilian newcomer, Claiton dos Santos, to keep constant pressure on the ball. But the end of the first half, Jubilo were clearly running out of gas, and it seemed just a matter of time before Grampus finally got the break they needed.

Sure enough, just ten minutes after the break, Marques took a long outlet pass and surged into Jubilo territory, with Jorginho matching his pace on the opposite wing. As he neared the box, Marques slowed his pace slightly and spotted Nakamura dashint forward into the open seam between the midfield and back line, created by Jubilo's efforts to double-team both himself and Jorginho. A rolling grounder top the top of the penalty arc set the table for Nakazawa, and the midfielder served the main course with a drive into the low left corner.

Jubilo tried to fight back, but they simply didnt seem to have the pace or the continuity of Jubilo teams of old, and their offensive efforts all fell well short of goal. With ten minutes remaining, a counterattack produced a very similar goal rush to Nagoya's firt goal, only on the opposite side of the pitch. This time it was Kojiro Kaimoto carrying the ball forward on the overlap, and his drop pass to the penalty arc found Claiton, shadowed by two defenders but with plenty of space to operate. Spotting a tiny seam uin the defence, Claiton launched a looping drive that curled into the high right corner, giving him his first J.League goal.

As the clock wound down to injury time, Jubilo finally brought in enough reserves and threw enough bodies to penetrate the Grampus defence (though Rodrigo Gral also benefitted from a bit of sheer luck, as the centering pass from Robert Cullen volleyed off his knee and into the left side of the net.

As his teammates dashed back towards the midfield line to get the restart, Gral spent almost an entire minute hotdogging and celebrating his goal, pulling a mask out of his shin guard and dancing for the crowd while the rest of the Jubilo players screamed at him to get back to midfield so the ball could be put back into play. Of course, there is no knowing whether the extre 60 seconds of time would have made any difference, but it the Jubilo coach is wise, he will put an end to Gral's ridiculous post-goal displays once and for all. The fact that they are in poor taste and annoying to both oppositiion and neutral obserevers is a fact that has been blatantly obvious for a long time. Now, these antics are starting to hurt even his own team. About the only thing that benefits from such hot-dogging is Gral's own ego, and without a doubt, that is big enough already.

Lineups:

Yohei Sato, Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Sho Naruoka (Norihiro Nishi 59), Takashi Fukunishi, Toshihiro Hattori, Toshiya Fujita (Robert Cullen 75), Hiroshi Nanami, Rodrigo Gral, Ryoichi Maeda (Masashi Nakayama 80).

Seigo Narazaki, Yusuke Igawa (Makoto Kakuda 70), Yutaka Akita, Masahiro Koga, Kojiro Kaimoto, Keiji Yoshimura, Claiton dos Santos, Yusuke Nakatani (Kei Yamaguchi 73), Naoshi Nakamura, Jorginho (Yohei Toyota 67), Marques .

7 - 2

Urawa got the match off to a blistering pace as Emerson drilled a shot to put the team in the lead 11 minutes after the kickoff, and over the next ten minutes Yuichiro Nagai exploded for two goals, as he and Emerson ran through the Verdy defence like wind across the Musashi plains. But midway through the half, Urawa suffered a temporary lapse and Verdy fought their way back into the contest. Atsuhiro Miura pulled one goal back just short of the half-hour mark, and Kazuki Hiramoto cut the deficit to one goal, on the stroke of half time.

But the Reds must have received a good motivational lecture at half time, because it took Nagai less than ten minutes to complete his hat trick, on a wild 2-on-2 breakaway with Emerson. No sooner had the huge crowd finished celebrating than Koji Yamase pushed the lead to 5-2, drilling a shot through the defence after a penetrating run by Nobuhisa Yamada scrambled the deck. Ten minutes later Yamase had a brace, as Nagai and Emerson dashed through the Verdy defence once more, but unselfishly dropped the ball to the trailer, Yamase, for an even easier finish.

With time running down, Emerson gifted Yamase with a hat trick, playing an uncanny one-touch loop pass over the defence as Yamase dashed into the box, untouched. The young midfielder slammed the ball home from the penalty spot to close out a double-hat-trick performance for the Reds, and a feast of goal-scoring enjoyment for the Saitama Red Army.

Lineups:

Ryota Tsuzuki, Ozalan Alpay, Satoshi Horinouchi, Hideki Uchidate, Nobuhisa Yamada, Makoto Hasebe (Tomoyuki Sakai 80), Alex Santos, Koji Yamase, Keita Suzuki, Yuichiro Nagai, Emerson .

Yoshinari Takagi, Takushi Yoneyama, Kenta Togawa (Nozomu Hiroyama 45), Claudio Ubeda, Takuya Yamada (Daigo Kobayashi 62), Kentaro Hayashi, Atsuhiro Miura, Takeshi Hirano (Daigo Kobayashi 24), Yoshiyuki Kobayashi, Naoto Sakurai (Takayuki Morimoto 73), Kazuki Hiramoto .

2 - 1

Lineups:

Naoki Matsuyo, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Sidiclei, Noritada Saneyoshi, Hideo Hashimoto, Yasuhito Endo, Mitsuteru Watanabe (Shigeru Morioka 67), Fernandinho (Tsuneyasu Miyamoto 74), Takahiro Futagawa, Masashi Oguro, Satoshi Nakayama (Kota Yoshihara 79) .

Hideaki Ozawa, Akira Narahashi, Seiji Kaneko, Go Oiwa, Toru Araiba, Fernando, Koji Nakata, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama Daiki Iwamasa 84), Tatsuya Ishikawa, Takuya Nozawa (Baron 75), Takayuki Suzuki .

2 - 1

Full report will be posted later

Lineups:

Tatsuya Enomoto, Eisuke Nakanishi, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Hayuma Tanaka, Yasuhiro Endo, Yoshiharu Ueno, Dutra, Daisuke Oku (Masahiro Ohashi 89), Daisuke Sakata (Tatsuhiko Kubo 56), Ahn Jung-Hwan, (Sotaro Yasunaga 85).

Hayato Okanaka, Koji Yoshimura, Sandro Chavez Rosa, Patrick Zwaanswijk, Yuichi Nemoto, Takashi Umeda, Tomoaki Komorida (Haruki Seto 70), Taku Harada, Takayuki Yoshida, Teppei Nishiyama (Kazuyoshi Mikami 89), Magno Alves.

2 - 1

Lineups:

Takashi Shimoda, Norio Omura, Ricardo Ribeiro, Megumu Yoshida (Hiroto Mogi 76), Issei Takayanagi, Beto, Ri Han-Jae (Tatsuro Kimura 63), Kazuyuki Morisaki, Kota Hattori, Genki Nakayama, Kohei Morita (Susumu Oki 16) .

Keisuke Hada, Tomi Shimomura, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Takahito Chiba, Ryu Saito (Takanori Nunobe 59), Kiyokazu Kudo, Hiroaki Morishima, Takeshi Hamada (Mario Garba 87), Takaaki Tokushige (Takuya Kokeguchi 53), Akinori Nishizawa, Tatsuya Furuhashi .

3 - 3

Zeljko Milinovic Marquinhos

Lineups:

Yosuke Nozawa, An Yeon-Ha, Hikaru Mita, Naoto Matsuo, Motohiro Yamaguchi, Isao Honma, Yoshito Terakawa (Susumu Umeyama 76), Shingo Suzuki, Edmilson, Oseas (Yusaku Ueno 67), Fabinho (Keisuke Kurihara 76) .

Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Zeljko Milinovic, Takayuki Chano, Masataka Sakamoto, Koji Nakashima (Takenori Hayashi 59), Yuto Sato, Shinji Murai, Satoru Yamagishi (Kohei Kudo 26), Sandro Cardoza, Marquinhos (Seiichiro Maki 84), .

1 - 2

Full report will be posted later

Lineups:

Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Jean Carlo Witte, Ryuji Fujiyama, Jo Kanazawa, Fumitake Miura (Ryuji Masushima 81), Yohei Kajiyama, Ryoichi Kurisawa, Lucas Severino, Clesley "Kelly" Guimares (Yoshiro Abe 66), Yuta Baba (Yusuke Kondo 79) .

Yohei Nishibe, Ryuzo Morioka, Toshihide Saito, Tomomi Tsurumi, Keisuke Ota, Teruyoshi Ito (Kohei Hiramatsu 74), Kazuyuki Toda, Daisuke Ichikawa (Jumpei Takaki 66), Araujo, Hideaki Kitajima, Yoshikiyo Kuboyama (Masaaki Sawanobori 60) .

0 - 3

Lineups:

Erikson Noguchi Pinto, Sota Nakazawa, Mitsuru Nagata, Naoya Kondo, Takehiro Namida, Hidekazu Otani (Takeshi Watanabe 83), Tomokazu Myojin, Takehito Shigehara (Tadatoshi Masuda 69), Ze Roberto, Keiji Tamada, Yoshiteru Yamashita (Tatsuya Yazawa 69) .

Fumiya Iwamaru, Yukio Tsuchiya (Mitsutoshi Watada 82), Hiroyuki Komoto, Kunie Kitamoto, Roger, Hiromi Kojima, Naoya Saeki, Pavel Horvath, Tomoyuki Hirase (Chikara Fujimoto 71), Patrick Mboma, Ryuji Bando .

After two weeks, the Urawa Reds, Yokohama Marinos and Gamba Osaka all still have perfect records, with the Reds in first place thanks to their dominant goal-scoring results.

Rumours and Rumblings