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September 26, 2004

Dont Rain On My Parade

When Urawa Reds, Gamba Osaka and Yokohama Marinos all stumbled in their matches on Thursday, it allowed some of the teams that are a bit further back in the pack an opportunity to make the table a bit tighter. As a result, a great deal was riding on this week's crucial matchup between the two leaders, Reds and Gamba, with not only Gamba, but all of the other contenders hoping for an opportunity to move a bit closer to the runaway leaders. But despite facing some adversity over the past two weeks, the Reds refused to allow a bit of stormy weather distract them from their pursuit of their first-ever league championship. Though it is still fairly early in the stage, the Reds are threatening to run away from the pack. Starting with Sunday's contest against Gamba, the Reds have back-to-back matches against four of the five leading contenders (Gamba, JEF United, Yokohama Marinos and Kashima Antlers). If they emerge from this stretch of contests without dropping any points, they will be unstoppable. But looking at it from the other angle, this is a perfect opportunity for their rivals to make up ground. Round one went to the Reds, but the battle is far from over.

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
26 Sep		2-1		Komaba Stadium
26 Sep		1-2		Kobe Wing Stadium
26 Sep		0-1		Ajinomoto Stadium
26 Sep		2-4		Nihondaira Stadium
26 Sep		3-0		Hiroshima Big Arch
26 Sep		PPD.		Kumamoto Stadium
26 Sep		0-0		Kashiwa-no-ha Std.
26 Sep		1-1		Nagai Stadium

2 - 1

As things turned out, Komaba was packed to the rafters, with a capacity crowd of almost 20,000 fans turning out, braving a persistent autumn rain that continued from start to finish of this match. Although the rain was not heavy enough to affect the pitch conditions that much, it did have an impact on the pace of play, forcing the Reds to be a bit less free-wheeling in their atacks. This may have provided a slight benefit to Gamba, but far more important for the Reds was the fact that coach Guido Buchwald was back in town. Buchwald returned to Germany for his father's funeral, and missed the Reds' match on Thursday. Perhaps it is no coincidence that this was the team's first loss in the second stage. As soon as Buchwald arrived back in Urawa, he set to work shuffling the lineup to adjust to the loss of Koji Yamase, to a season-ending knee injury, and also of his replacement at midfield playmaker, Makoto Hasebe, who broke his little toe in Thursday's match and may be out for the next month. Alpay Ozalan also missed the match due to injury, though his absence is not likely to be prolonged.

Though the loss of these players was a major blow to the team, it may just have a silver lining, based on the fact that the Reds now have no choice but to adopt the lineup that we think they should have been employing from the very start -- a 4-3-3 with Emerson , Tatsuya Tanaka and Yuichiro Nagai all on the pitch at the same time. Though this lineup may be a bit risky from a defensive standpoint, the Reds attack gives them so much speed and firepower up front that opposing teams will be hesitant to try to exploit the situation, by pushing forward in the middle.

Sure enough, though Gamba did a reasonably good job of keeping the Reds' front three in check, they were not able to create too many counterattacking chances of their own, since the defensive midfield was rarely able to move forward in support. The one big counterattack that they did produce, early in the second half, was actually outmanned. It was mainly due to a mistake by Fabio "Nene" de Brito, who got suckered by Masashi Oguro . Following a Gamba steal in their own end, Oguro retreated towards midfield, and Nene followed, apparently thinking he might have a chance to dash forward for a midfield steal. But Oguro cleverly waited until Nene was just a step behind him, then suddenly wheeled about and dashed for the corner. Nene was caught flatfooted, and a long pass by Yasuhito Endo sent Oguro away on a wide-open sprint. Fernandinho was double-covered in the middle, but Oguro placed his pass perfectly, and Fernandinho was able to get his toe on it first, slipping it just around the keeper and just barely crossing the goal line before Marcus "Tulio" Tanaka arrived to clear it away.

Despite the early mistake, the Reds wasted no time in getting back to business, and their offensive pressure was fierce, particularly in the second half. Indeed, it is a credit to the Gamba defence that they held Urawa to just two goals. The equaliser came just ten minutes after Gamba's early goal, on a corner kick from the left side. Alex Santos noticed that Gamba were pqacking the box, and there was some space just outside the box. He made eye contact with Nobuhisa Yamada and dropped the ball for the top left corner of the box. Yamada sent a rising blast that slipped inside the far post and leveled the score line.

The deciding goal came shortly after the break, and it was a picture-perfect example of how the three-man front can demolish defences. Keita Suzuki started the rush with a steal just on his own side of midfield. As he surged forward, he played the ball forward to Emerson, then overlapped into the left corner. Emerson fed Nobuhisa Yamada on a slant towards towards the left post, but when the defence forced him wide, Yamada dropped the ball for Suzuki in the corner and joined Emerson, Tanaka and Nagai in flooding the box. There was now way that the defenders could pick up everyone, and Suzuki did a fine job of reading the defence and picking our the open man. His long lob found Nagai in the far top corner of the box, and Nagai drove a half-volley into the low right corner.

Urawa nearly extended their lead on one or two occasions, but as the match wore on, Gamba began to push forward looking for the equaliser. But while they did create a few chances, they also opened the back up for counterattacks by the Reds, and were forced into a delicate balancing act, unable to push too hard on offence for fear of giving the Reds another goal on the counter. In the end, the Gamba attacks fell short, and Urawa extended their lead at the top of the table to five points, putting them in a strong position as they prepare for key clashes against JEF, Marinos and Antlers in their next three matches.

Lineups:

Ryota Tsuzuki, Hideki Uchidate, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Fabio "Nene" de Brito, Takuya Yamada, Tomoyuki Sakai, Keita Suzuki, Alex Santos, Tatsuya Tanaka (Satoshi Horinouchi 87), Yuichiro Nagai, Emerson.

Naoki Matsuyo, Satoru Yamaguchi, Sidiclei, Noritada Saneyoshi, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Takahiro Futagawa, Yasuhito Endo (Masanobu Matsunami 84), Hideo Hashimoto (Kota Yoshihara 71),, Akihiro Ienaga (Satoshi Nakayama 45), Masashi Oguro Fernandinho .

1 - 1

Nevertheless, the Marinos got off on the wrong foot, in this contest. Just two minutes after kickoff, a chip into the box from the right wing by Hiroaki Morishima was headed down by Akinori Nishizawa., and Miodrag "Miki" Andjelkovic, who started the match in place of Cerezo's injured ace, Yoshito Okubo. The ball vell perfectly for Miki, who drilled the short-hop into the net and gave Certezo an early lead.

Perhaps because of their unfortunate start, the Marinos looked a bit out of sorts in the early stages. It was not until the latter stages of the first half that their offence began producing a significant quantity of scoring opportunities. As half time approached, Daisuke Sakata and Ahn Jung-Hwan both got opportunities to shoot from short range, but failed to finish off the opportunities, allowing Cerezo to cling to their narrow lead at the half.

Just seconds after the restart, though, the Cerezo defence suffered its most serious lapse of the match. A long ball straight from the kickoff sent Sakata dashing into the clear. Though the ball was a bit long, forcing Sakata to chase it all the way to the end line, the young Marinos striker used a clever back-heel to slip the ball to Ahn, cutting in behind the play. Ahn had a clear shot from the corner of the three-yard box, and he rolled it softly into the far corner.

As time ran down to the final whistle, both teams put their heads down and began pressing for the winning goal. The result was some wild action in the final five minutes. But Morishima squandered a wide-open counterattacking break, sending his shot straight at the keeper. Moments later, Matsuda had a deflection drop right at his feet, less than three meters out from goal, but sent his shot spinning over the crossbar. Neither team managed to break the deadlock, and as a consequence, the Marinos slipped even further behind the Reds in the race for the second-stage crown.

Lineups:

Tomohiko Ito, Tomi Shimomura, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Kenichi Uemura, Kensaku Omori, Takanori Nunobe, Kiyokazu Kudo, Hiroaki Morishima (Mario Garba 76), Tatsuya Furuhashi, Akinori Nishizawa, Miodrag "Miki" Andjelkovic (Noriyuki Sakamoto 49) (Takeshi Hamada 84).

Tatsuya Enomoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Daisuke Nasu, Hayuma Tanaka (Yukihiko Sato 80), Yasuhiro Endo, Yoshiharu Ueno, Masahiro Ohashi (Eisuke Nakanishi 68), Daisuke Oku (Sotaro Yasunaga 80), Ahn Jung-Hwan, Daisuke Sakata.

0 - 0

It remained that way for a full 90 minutes, as neither team seemed able to produce a truly dangerous offensive opportunity. The scoreless draw will probaby satisfy Reysol, who claimed just their third point of the stage. For JEF, however, this makes next week's contest against the Reds a must-win situation. Anything less than three points will probably eliminate them from contention altogether.

Lineups:

Yuta Minami, Takeshi Watanabe, Norihiro Satsukawa, Mitsuru Nagata, Naoya Kondo, Takahiro Shimotaira Hidekazu Otani, Tadatoshi Masuda (Tatsuya Tanizawa 60), Harutaka Ono (Takehito Shigehara 71), Toshiaki Haji, Keiji Tamada, .

Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Zeljko Milinovic, Takayuki Chano, Masataka Sakamoto, Yuki Abe, Yuto Sato, Shinji Murai, Naotake Hanyu (Sozo Yuki 87), Marquinhos (Takenori Hayashi 68), Sandro Cardoza (Seiichiro Maki 45) .

0 - 1

FC Tokyo, meanwhile, have been inconsistent this year, but when they do get their game together, they can be a formidable opponent. Like the Antlers, they have a solid defence that keeps most matches close. Unlike the Antlers, they rely less on patient build-up, and more on intense, trapping pressure at midfield followed by quick, efficiently executed counterattacks. In the early stages of this contest, the two teams played a sort of chess match, with the two disparate offences each looking to use their own particular skills to create an opening, but both defences doing a fine job of turning away these efforts before they could produce a dangerous shot.

As the first half wore on, FC Tokyo began to step up their pressure on the ball, and this created one or two half-chances. However, the Antlers did not make the mistakes they were guilty of in several recent contests, when it seemed that impatience cost them on the defensive end. By patiently moving the ball around the perimeter and forcing the FC Tokyo midfielders to run, they gradually began to wear down their opponent. The back line of Jean Carlo Witte , Teruaki Moniwa and Jo Kanazawa continued to contain even the best efforts of the Antlers strike pair, Takayuki Suzuki and Baron. However, as the half hour mark passed and the Tokyo midfield began to tire, midfielders Mitsuo Ogasawara and Masashi Motoyama started to find more space to work with, just behind the front line.

When the goal finally arrived, however, both of the strikers were involved. Ogasawara sent Suzuki on an overlap into the left corner, and he crossed to his strike partner, Baron, directly in front of goal. Baron was well covered, but he managed to get a head on the cross and knock it high in the air. As Baron and his two defenders fell in a tangle of bodies, Fernando dashed forward from midfield and drilled the loose ball into the nylon.

Once they had the lead, the Antlers began to employ their keep-away tactics to full effect, forcing FC Tokyo to throw more and more players forward to pressure the ball. This naturally opened up space in the Tokyo back line, and created some dangerous opportunities for the Antlers to extend their lead. Tokyo, trapped between the need to create an equaliser and the risk of allowing another Antlers goal, could produce few dangerous opportunities until the latter stages of the contest, when Naohiro Ishikawa came on to add speed and penetration ability on the right flank. If Ishikawa had been healthy, and able to play a longer stretch, this might have made a difference, but in the end his runs down the right side failed to produce any major breaks. The Antlers defence showed that they Are back in proper form, and able to preserve a lead effectively. As a result, they climb into fifth place, level with the fourth-place Marinos on points and thus still in the race to catch the Reds

Lineups:

Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji (Ryuji Fujiyama 45), Teruaki Moniwa, Jean Carlo Witte, Jo Kanazawa, Clesley "Kelly" Guimares, Yasuyuki Konno, Fumitake Miura (Masashi Miyazawa 49), Yuta Baba (Yoshiro Abe 54), Lucas Severino, Mitsuhiro Toda (Naohiro Ishikawa 66) Yusuke Kondo .

Hitoshi Sogahata, Jun Uchida, (Tomohiko Ikeuchi 89), Daiki Iwamasa, Go Oiwa, Toru Araiba, Fernando, Koji Nakata, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama (Takeshi Aoki 68), Takayuki Suzuki, Marcelo "Baron" Polanczyck (Yuki Nakashima 81) .

1 - 2

Jubilo, for their part, are beginning to recover a little bit of their composure, even if they are not really playing "well". Though the team as a whole has struggled through the recent slump. a few of the youngsters have played effectively, including striker Ryoichi Maeda and midfielder Naoya Kikuchi. . Furthermore, it appears that coach Suzuki is starting to make the transition to younger players, this week using young Kentaro Oi for the first time in recent memory, along with Maeda, Kikuchi and Yasumasa Nishino. This week, Maeda was once again the most effective player for Jubilo, at least in the first half. Vissel held the advantage in both possession and scoring opportunities for the first 45 minutes, while nearly all of Jubilo's opportunities were individual efforts by Maeda. Unfortunately for the home fans, Kobe simply couldnt get the ball into the net in the first half, when they held the initiative, and the two teams went to the locker rooms at half time with no score on the board.

Shortly after the restart, Jubilo stepped up their passing game a bit, and took advantage of a Vissel lapse to take the lead. Maeda started the play with a cut down the left flank nd a centering pass to Rodrigo Gral, at the top of the penalty arc. Gral one-timed a chip pass into the Vissel box, and defender Shusuke Tsubouchi's attempt to clear connected with nothing but air. Toshiya Fujita got one step ahead of Tsubouchi, and chipped the ball past the outrushing keeper to put Jubilo on top.

Vissel began to increase the pressure once again, and were on the verge of restoring their control of the contest when a freak play broke their momentum. In the 77 minute, Vissel cleared a ball from their zone almost to midfield, and the back line began dashing out to ensure that any lingering Jubilo players would be caught offside. In an effort to just keep the ball in the Vissel zone, Kikuchi advanced to collect the clearance and lobbed a high ball towards goal. The ball soared in a high arc towards goal, and slipped precisely into the top right corner, catching just enough of the post to befuddle the Vissel keeper before bounding into the net.

Vissel tried to rebound from this incident, but both psychologically and on the scoreboard, Kikuchi's goal pretty much decided the outcome. Vissel eventually did pull a goal back, in the dying minutes, when a last-gasp lob into the box was not fully cleared, and Pavel Horvath headed the loose ball over the keeper's fingertips. But that was all that Vissel could manage, and Jubilo preserved their first victory of the second stage.

Lineups:

Seiji Honda, Yukio Tsuchiya, Kazumichiu Takagi, Kunie Kitamoto, Roger, Shusuke Tsubouchi (Park Kang-Jo 81), Tomo Sugawara (Mitsutoshi Watada 67), Pavel Horvath, Mitsunori Yabuta, Ryuji Bando, Tomoyuki Hirase (Kazuyoshi Miura 88) .

Yohei Sato, Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Takahiro Yamanishi (Kentaro Oi 73), Takahiro Kawamura, Takashi Fukunishi, Naoya Kikuchi (Hitoshi Morishita 78), Hiroshi Nanami, Toshiya Fujita, Ryoichi Maeda, Rodrigo Gral (Yasumasa Nishino 73).

2 - 4

However, S-Pulse equalised just before half time after a Niigata foul gave them a free kick from just centimeters outside the left edge of the penalty area. Masaaki Sawanobori sent a low line-drive kick for the near post, and Cho Jae-Jin was just a half-step quicker to the ball than the keeper, heading it across the line from point-blank range.

Albirex resumed the attack aftre the break. Once again it was Edmilson who put his team in front, though this time the goal was open to dispute. Edmilson once again made a nice run into the box from the right wing, rounding his defender and taking on the keeper. S-Pulse's Yohei Nishibe dove at Edmilson's feet, and clearly got the ball, with Edmilson toppliong over top of him after the contact. But Mr. Yamanishi, the top candidate for this week's "Fray of the Day" award, rejected Nishibe's legitimate claim that he got the ball first, and awarded a free kick. Edmilson sank the PK and Albirex were back in front.

About ten minutes later, Albirex extended their lead when a corner kick from the left side found defender Naoki Takahashi, who volleyed home a right-footer for his first J1 goal. With time running down, S-Pulse cut the lead to one on another header by Cho Jae-Jung, but just moments later Alberix drove the final nail in their coffin, following a poor pass back to the keeper which Ahihiro Fukazawa intercepted and slipped into the empty net.

Lineups:

Yohei Nishibe, Ryuzo Morioka, Toshihide Saito, Tomomi Tsurumi, Keisuke Ota, Kazuyuki Toda, Teruyoshi Ito (Jun Muramatsu 81), Jumpei Takaki, Masaaki Sawanobori (Kohei Hiramatsu 73), Araujo (Hideaki Kitajima 69), Cho Jae-Jin .

Koichi Kidera, Yoshiaki Maruyama, Tadahiro Akiba (Naoki Takahashi 45), Yasushi Kita, Isao Honma, Motohiro Yamaguchi, Yoshito Terakawa, Shingo Suzuki, Edmilson (Masahiro Fukazawa 74), Yusaku Ueno, Fabinho (Hiroyoshi Kuwahara 85) .

3 - 0

Sanfrecce got a big boost in confidence when the wet and slippery pitch conditions helped put them in the lead on the fery first trip down the pitch. Sanfrecce sent the opening kickoff down into the Verdy zone, and Joubert "Beto" Martins

chipped the ball across the Verdy box. A Verdy defender misplayed the ball on the slippery surface, with his clearance travelling just three or four meters, to the edge of the penalty area. Hiroto Mogi decided to try his luck with a shot from a step outside the box, and though he also shanked the ball slightly, the "shot/pass" found Susumu Oki at the left post for a side-footed half-volley into the nylon. Just 17 seconds after the kickoff, Sanfrecce had a 1-0 lead.

This gave the home team a huge boost in confidence, and they retained control of the momentum for much of the first half, nearly extending their lead on one or two occasions. But the score remained 1-0 at the half, and Verdy came out for the second stanza with a surge of their own. Unfortunately, just as it looked like Verdy were on the verge of an equaliser, Sanfrecce sprang a three-on-three counterattack, led by Beto and Kohei Morita, with Ri Han-Jae trailing the play. As all three defenders collapsed upon Beto and Morita, they left a vast expanse of open space at the top of the box. Fighting off a challenge, Morita turned and dropped the ball back to Ri, who drilled the ball into the roof of the net.

This reversed the momentum and once again put Sanfrecce in command, and the youthful legs of Sanfrecce's reserves began to break down Verdy's defence. With time running down, teenage striker Toshiya Tanaka collected a pass from the right wing, turned his defender and fired into the low left corner for his first goal in the J.League, closing out a comfortable victory for Sanfrecce.

Lineups:

Takashi Shimoda, Ricardo, Norio Omura, Megumu Yoshida, Hiroto Mogi (Tatsuro Kimura 74), Ri Han-Jae, Beto (Kohei Yatsuda 82), Kota Hattori, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Kohei Morita, Susumu Oki (Toshiya Tanaka 45).

Yoshinari Takagi, Masayuki Yanagisawa (Atsuhiro Miura 45), Kentaro Hayashi, Takushi Yoneyama, Takahito Soma, Daigo Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki Kobayashi, Takeshi Hirano (Kenta Togawa 34), Takuya Yamada, Naoto Sakurai, Kazuki Hiramoto (Kazunori Iio 70) .

Postponed

With just seven matches in the books, the stage is not yet half over., but the Urawa Reds have opened up a formidable lead at the top of the table. As we noted earlier, the next few matches will probably decide the race, since Urawa face the second-, fourth- and fifth-place teams in their next three contests. A win next week, over JEF United, will put the Reds in a dominant position, and if they can win just one of the two subsequent contests against the Marinos and Antlers, the folks in Saitama can start icing the champagne. But past experience in the J.League has shown that it is never wise to start counting eggs before they are laid. The next few weeks should provide a great deal of suspense and excitement, so stay tuned for all the latest news.

Rumours and Rumblings

Kawasaki "Finally" Advance to J1

But Frontale not only lost the head-to-head match against Ardija on September 11; they went on to draw their subsequent contest against Shonan Bellmare, on September 18 and lose their match with Montedio Yamagata on September 23. This was the first time all uyear that Kawasaki had gone three matches without a win, and indeed, gave them as many losses in the month of September as in the preceding five months of the season! It was beginning to look like the team was facing a jinx.

But naturally, Frontale could not go on losing forever. This weekend they could have clinched promotion if either Omiya or Montedio Yamagata had even registered a draw in their afternoon matches. But true to form, both teams recorded victories, forcing Frontale to get the job done themselves. After taking an early lead, Kawasaki conceded the equaliser shortly after half time, and it looked like the jinx might continue for yet another week. But in the 71 minute, Marcus drilled a free kick into the Hollyhock net to give his team victory, and ensure Frontale's promotion to J1 following an absence of four years.

Frontale were the first team ever promoted from the J2 to the J1, capturing the league championship in the J2's inaugural season. However, they never managed to move up to the next level, finishing 15th in both stages of the 2000 season and thus dropping immediately back to the second division. However, this season they have been playing at a level that is clearly far above that of the otehr J2 clubs, and if they can maintain the same form in 2005, they could move immediately into the upper half of the J1 league table next season. Frontale have a very potent offence which should be able to generate goals in the J1 as well, though the question will be whether they can put together a defence that is capable of protecting leads in the more competitive J1. For the time being, though, Frontale's goal is just one more victory, which will ensure them not only of promotion, but will clinch their second J2 championship trophy, as well.

Hasek Relieved as Vissel Coach

No information has been provided yet on who will assume the position of head coach, though assistant coach Wada will probably take over in a caretaker role, for the time being.