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September 23, 2004

Tokyo Thursday

The one team that stood to benefit most from these upsets, Yokohama Marinos (the fist stage champion), suffered some problems of their own, though for the most part the damage was self-inflicted. We will get to that story shortly, but the important point is that apart from the Tokyo duo, the only team in contention that gained any ground was JEF United Ichihara. Eight teams are now within six points -- a single head-to-head victory -- of the league leading Urawa Reds. Hang onto your seats, folks. This promises to be a wild ride.

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
23 Sep		2-2		Tokyo Nat'l Stadium
23 Sep		3-2		Niigata "Big Swan"
23 Sep		2-0		Ichihara Seaside
23 Sep		5-2		Mizuho Stadium
23 Sep		1-3		"Banpaku" Stadium
23 Sep		0-0		Kashima Stadium
23 Sep		1-0		Ajinomoto Stadium
23 Sep		1-1		Yamaha (Iwata) St.

1 - 0

While Yamase was certainly an important player for the Reds, his absence from this match may not have been as big a blow as the loss of Buchwald. In his absence (and that of Yamase), the Reds started a rather awkward lineup which, from the opening kickoff, was clearly not working. Gert Engels was uncharacteristically slow to change his strategy, perhaps because he had been left with instructions from Buchwald, and was reluctant to make adjustments. This may have been the crucial weaknesss for Urawa, who found themselves facing a very effective midfield press from FC Tokyo, and did not make the necessary adjustments to overcome this tactic until it was too late.

In addition to the loss of Yamase, in this contest the Reds also missed Alex Santos and Yuichiro Nagai. Both were listed in the starting lineup, but neither one showed up for the match. This may have been partly due to the odd lineup that the Reds played, with Santos in the middle of a three-man front line. But whatever the reason, these two keuy players rarely touched the ball, and when they did, it was mainly to give it away immediately to their opponents.

So far our focus has been almost entirely on the poor performance of the Reds. But that is only half of the story in this match. FC Tokyo have been woefully inconsistent this year, but the team is slowly beginning to come together as the young stars gain experience and learn one another's playing styles. Tokyo have one of the youngest lineups in the league, and though they could probably benefit from some truly top-class coaching (we consider Hiromi Hara to be a decent coach, but certainly not a brilliant one). they are starting to pick up the finer points of the game on their own. It may take another year or two for these youngsters to reach their full potential, but they are definitely a contender for future glory. On a given day, they can beat just about anyone.

Although the Reds produced some early opportunities in this match, the strong midfield pressure and some good defending by back-line players like Jean Carlo Witte and Teruaki Moniwa kept the Reds at bay. As noted earlier, Gert Engels was hesitant to move Santos to his more accustomes spot on the wing, and give Emerson more freedom to switch positions, up front. This may have been a crucial mistake, since the only thing Tokyo needed to solidify their concentration was a single goal.

That finally came in the 52 minute. Coach Hara brought on striker Lucas Severino as an early second-half substitute, to try to produce a few chances up front. Though Tokyo had done a fine job of keeping the Reds off balance, their scoring chances in the first half were limited to a handful. Just moments after Lucas came onto the field, Tokyo won a corner kick on the right side, and playmaker Yasuyuki Konno placed a perfect cross onto the forehead of Lucas for a short-range header, just inside the near post.

That was the only score Tokyo would need. As time ran down, the Reds finally made some lineup adjustments, and started to produce scoring chances down the stretch. But Tokyo were very efficient in protecting their lead, and hung on for the victory.

1 - 3

Many have already heard about the exploints of Verdy's 16-year-old striker, Takayuki Morimoto, but with Morimoto away in Malasia, with the U-19 team, the "star newcomer" this week was a recent university graduate, Takahito Soma, who is beginning to establish himself as a key contributor in deep midfield. Soma got the scoring started in this contest with a brilliant shot from the left corner. Taking an overlap pass from Kazuki Hiramoto on the left sideline, Soma turned towards the top left corner of the box, measured the distance, and send a curling right-footed shot just over the fingertips of the Gamba keeper and off the inside of the far post. The ball ricocheted into the net to give Tokyo the early lead.

Gamba spent the rest of the half pressing for the equaliser, but despite a few good chances, including one blistering shot by Masashi Oguro /a> that came back off the crossbar, Verdy maintained their lead at the half. During the break, Gamba coach Akira Nishino apparently relented in his decision to keep Tsuneyasu Miyamoto /a> on the bench, while Sidiclei handles the chorse in the center of the Gamba back line. But the results that followed Miyamoto's substitution, at half time, suggest that despite second-guessing from members of the media, perhaps Nishino DOES know what he is doing in starting Sidiclei ahead of Miyamoto. As soon as the Japan national team captain took the pitch, with Sidiclei moving to midfield, the Gamba defence collapsed.

Five minutes after the restart, Daigo Kobayashi ran a basketball-like "pick and roll" play, collecting the ball from Hiramoto as he posted up at the top of the box. Miyamoto failed to read the play, allowing Kobayashi an open look at goal. Though the shot was deflected by Yasuhito Endo /a>, racing back to cover, the deflection fell at the feet of veteran Takeshi Hirano, who was cherry-picking at the far post, Hirano had an easy tap-in to put Verdy up by two goals. Ten minutes later, the Gamba defence was again shredded, with Hirano taking a drop pass from the right wing, in the middle of the penalty arc, and feeding it on to Soma who was slanting in from the left. Nobody picked up Soma, and he had a wide-open shot from almost exactly the same spot as his first goal. This time he sent the ball low and hard, slipping it undreneath the keeper and putting Verdy in a commanding 3-0 lead.

Gamba did their best to generate a comeback, but all they could manage was one late consolation goal on a free kick from the right side of the box. Satoru Yamaguchi placed a soft header into the top left corner, but unfortunately that was the only time that Gamba would hit the nylon in this contest. Verdy stonewalled the rest of the way, and claimed their third win of the stage.

1 - 1

Jubilo's poor form this year was even clearer in this contest, as they managed to make Reysol look good. The Jubilo attack has steadily deteriorated over the past few months as age seems to be catching up with the veterans with remarkable swiftness. And though Reysol did not produce much offence on their end, either, they did enough to collect only their second point of this stage.

Jubilo managed to take an early lead on what was admittedly a beautiful shot by Hiroshi Nanami. A headed clearance from the Reysol area looped high in the air, and fell into a wide-open space about seven meters outside the box, almost straight away from goal. Nanami timed the ball's flight carefully, stepped forward and slammed a full volley in to the top right corner. This temporarily allowed the home fans to forget their team's recent troubles, but unfortunately it was just one shining highlight in an otherwise dull performance.

Shortly before half time, Toshiaki Haji lobbed a pass into the box for Keiji Tamada , and as Tamada ran onto it, preparing for a shot, Takashi Fukunishi threw a flagrant karate-style side kick straight into Tamada's thigh. Though the referee inexplicably failed to send off Fukunishi for what was perhaps the most blatant red card offence of the season, he did award a penalty kick which Tamada drilled into the low right corner, to level the score line at the half.

Neither team was able to produce any goals in the second half, and the contest faded away into pusillanimity, with the two teams adding a point apiece to their records. Reysol now trail Jubilo on goal difference for the worst record in the League -- each team has just three points from six matches.

2 - 2

Yokohama actually got off to a strong start in this contest, FIfteen minutes into the contest, as Yokohama worked the ball up the left side, Yukio Tsuchiya came in hard from behind Daisuke Oku, and was called for a foul. Tsuchiya paused for a moment to argue the call with the referee, but this was a fatal error. Oku quickly put the ball back into play, and Daisuke Sakata took off on a dash into the open area, to the let of the penalty box, that had been vacated by Tsuchiya. A quick lob pass from Eisuke Nakanishi sent Sakata into the clear, before Tsuchiya could race back into coverage, and as the keeper came off his line, Sakata chipped a cheeky lob shot over his head and into the back of the net.

Fifteen minutes later, another long lob pass from the Marinos back line sent Ahn Jung-Hwan into the box. This time the defence arrived, but Ahn managed to fight off the challenge and screen the ball with his body, then chip another loop shot over Seiji Honda, as he dashed off his line. As the two teams went into the locker room, the Marinos seemed to be in command, and Vissel looked to be in for a disappointing afternoon.

But just five minutes after the break, Yuzo Kurihara got into a tussle with Ryuji Bando in the right corner, and lost his temper. In a very unusual display (at least in the J.League), Kurihara grabbed Bando by the shoulders and pushed him to the ground. Mr. Okutani rushed in with no hesitation, and produced an immediate red card. Though we often feel that Okutani -- a Pierluigi Collina wannabe -- tends to be rach in dishing out cards, in this case the call was completely justified, and there is a good chance that Kurihara will be suspended for more than one match, considering the severity of his outburst. Not long afterward, Bando dealt the Marinos another blow, running onto a cross from Roger and senting a fdiving header into the low left corner to pull Vissel back within a goal.

Things would only get worse for the Marinos. In the 72 minute, Tatsuhiko Kubo objected to a bit of shoving by the Vissel defenders, and lashed out a boot to kick Kunie Kitamoto in the leg. The fracas occurred away from the ball, but one of the linesmen saw the entire incident. Mr. Okutani again showed commendable judgement, blowing play dead and going over to his assistant referees to find out what they had seen. After hearing the linesman's story, he presented Kubo with a red ticket to the showers, reducing Yokohama to just nine men.

Vissel threw in an extra attacker to step up the pressure on the Marinos, and this succeeded partially, as substitute Mitsutoshi Watada drilled a shot from the top left corner of the penalty box, pulling Vissel even. But that was all the offence they could manage, as the Marinos desperately fought off the late flurry and rescued one point from the contest. Nevertheless, the Marinos will have to be careful, as reputations for unsportsmanlike play are easy to earn in this League. Though the Marinos should have the depth to defeat Cerezo Osaka next week, even with Kubo and Kurihara suspended from the contest, they may find themselves on the shortend of future officiating if they continue to display this sort of petulance.

Despite dropping their match against FC Tokyo, the Urawa Reds maintain their spot at the top of the league table, two points ahead of second-place Gamba Osaka. The Marinos gained a point, but still lag the Reds by four points, while JEF United moved into third place, level with Gamba on points, thanks to their win over Oita Trinita.

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