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October 30, 2004

Tricks and Treats

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
30 Oct		3-1		Kashima Stadium
30 Oct		1-2		Nihondaira Stadium
30 Oct		2-0		Oita Stadium
30 Oct		0-2		Nagai Stadium
30 Oct		1-2		Ajinomoto Stadium
31 Oct		1-1		Hiroshima Big Arch
31 Oct		2-2		Ichihara Seaside
10 Nov	Albirex Niigata	PPD.	Kashiwa Reysol	National Stadium

3 - 1

Of course, it is no mark of shame to lose a contest to the Antlers at Kashima Stadium. Just one week ago, the Antlers gave the presumptive second-stage champs, the Urawa Reds, a severe test before eventually dropping the contest by a 3-2 margin. On the other hand, these two back-to-back contests between the Antlers and the two main rivals for the 2004 league crown provided a clear demonstration of the disparity between the Reds and the Marinos. Last week, the Antlers were occasionally able to put together a good offensive surge, and twice fought back from a goal down to equalise. But over the course of the match, it was the Reds who dominated. This week, it was a somewhat different story. The Antlers had their way with Yokohama for the entire first half, and though all three of their goals in this match came on set plays, they had the advantage in possession, field position and scoring opportunities. The Marinos pulled a goal back shortly after the break, and began to pressure the Antlers particularly after Kashima was reduced to ten men. But down the stretch, Kashima seemed to settle down and regain control of the match, even before their late insurance goal.

The deciding factor in this contest was the right boot of Mitsuo Ogasawara. All three goals were produced from free kicks taken by Ogasawara. The first came ten minutes after kickoff, when the Antlers won a free kick about 40 meters out from goal, on the left side. Oga stroked a line drive which found the head of defender Taiki Iwamasa . On a team that has struggled all year in the scoring department, Iwamasa has been a valuable contributor of late. For the second week in a row, he surged over the defenders to head home a goal, giving the Antlers an early lead..

Just before the half time break, Kashima won another free kick, in a very similar position though perhaps four or five meters closer to goal. Again, Ogasawara struck a beautiful ball, too low and hard for the keeper to charge out and clear, but high enough to slip past the first line of defence and meet the head of Takayuki Suzuki, slanting in from the right side.

The Marinos came out for the second half with a surge of momentum, and after lagging the Antlers over the first 45 minutes, they took control of the momentum for the opening ten or fifteen minutes after the restart. Just three minutes in, right wing Hayuma Tanaka surged into the box from the right side, fighting off two defenders to chip the ball into the open space in front of goal. Daisuke Sakata dashed forward to volley the ball into the low left corner, and it looked like the Marinos might be on the comeback trail. But the surge passed, and by midway through the period, the Antlers seemed to be once more in control.

Then, a bit of questionable officiating gave Yokohama new life. With 15 minutes left to play, Masashi Motoyama tried to lunge for a loose ball and narrowly missed, making contact with the leg of Masahiro Ohashi. It certainly did not seem to be a very flagrant offence, but the referee, Mr. Sunakawa, saw fit to give Motoyama his second yellow card, reducing the Antlers to ten men. In the spectrum of bad calls, this one was not really that horrible. Motoyama did indeed commit a foul, and the question of whether a player is going for the ball or fouling deliberately is often a matter of individual judgement. The only reason we bring it up for consideration is the fact that in the final match of the first stage -- the last time these two teams played -- Yokohama won a narrow victory (and thus claimed the first stage title) after Motoyama was sent off just before half time for two yellow cards, both of which were absolutely horrendous calls. You'd NEVER guess who happened to be officiating the match on that day . . .

. . . then again, maybe you would. "Coincidences" seem to be commonplace in the J.League these days.

This time, however, the Marinos would need more help than the officials could provide. Though they did threaten to create the equaliser once or twice, over the final 15 minutes, Ogasawara (aka "the baby-faced assassin") still had another bullet left in the chamber, and with a minute left in regular time, he pulled the trigger. Once again the goal came on a free kick to the left of goal, though this time it was only about 25 meters out from goal. The Antlers ran a classic misdirection play, with all the big bodies running towards the near post, and Koji Nakata slipping in behind the play. The deception worked perfectly, with the keeper and all defenders leaving the back door wide open. But Nakata never even had to touch the ball, as Ogasawara's kick slipped inside the far post on its own. The loss eliminates Yokohama from contention for a second stage title, so the team is likely to spend the next month simply preparing themselves for the championship series against the ultimate second-stage winners. At the moment, it is almost certain that the opponent will be the Urawa Reds.

Lineups:

Hitoshi Sogahata, Takeshi Aoki (Tomohiko Ikeuchi 87), Taiki Iwamasa, Go Oiwa, Toru Araiba, Fernando, Koji Nakata, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama, Takayuki Suzuki (Baron 89), Masaki Fukai (Chikashi Masuda 89) .

Tatsuya Enomoto, Hayuma Tanaka, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Yoo Sang-Chul, Yukihiko Sato, Masahiro Ohashi, Daisuke Nasu, Nobuhisa Shimizu (Masato Yamazaki 79), , Ahn Jung-Hwan, Daisuke Sakata .

0 - 2

As they say in Brooklyn, "fuggedabowdit". This may have been a relatively low-scoring contest by recent Reds standards, but that was simply testimony to some fine netminding work by Tomohiko Ito and a number of blown opportunities and lackadaisical finishing by the Reds strikers. This match was never in doubt . . . in fact, it was never even close. After Tatsuya Tanaka snatched an errant back-pass by a Cerezo defender, in the 13 minute, and casually stuffed it into the low right corner, any doubts about the ultimate result evaporated. Unfortunately for Cerezo fans, this had less to do with the strength of the Reds offence, and more to do with the utter lack of skill and coordination on the part of Cerezo. The team has several individual players who might emerge as top players in the J.League, at some future date. These comments apply to youngsters such as Takuya Kokeguchi and Noriyuki Sakemoto, as well as the obvious ace, Yoshito Okubo. But as a team, Cerezo have been disorganised and in disarray since the start of the season, and if anything, the situation has gotten worse since coach Shinji Kobayashi took over as the team's head coach. Though the Reds squandered a dozen opportunities to extend their lead in the first half, Cerezo failed to take advantage of these mistakes, producing virtually no offensive opportunities of their own. While Okubo was his usual combative self, up front, he received little help from his teammates, and often seemed to exert more effort in yelling at teammates for missed passes than he did in trying to score goals.

For their part, the Reds may have blown a few easy chances to put the match away early, but even when they are having an off day, their offence is explosive enough to generate goals at the drop of a hat. In the 67 minute, Fabio "Nene" de Brito snatched an errant outlet pass as Cerezo tried to clear their zone, and carried it back into the Cerezo end, dropping the ball to Emerson as he reached the top of the penalty arc. Emerson seemed to have ideas about back-heeling the ball to Nene as he ran past, into the box, but his defender recognised the danger and moved a step back, to guard against the move. Obviously, it is never a wise move to take a step AWAY from Emerson when he has the ball on the edge of your penalty box. Sure enough, Emerson read the play properly, took one step forward into the box and drilled a shot into the high right corner. Game over.

Shortly after the Reds' second goal, Okubo allowed his famously short temper to get the better of him. As he struggled to create some offence on his own, bulling his way down the left sideline, Okubo was tugged and jostled from behind by fellow Olympian Keita Suzuki, who didnt want to take any chances by giving Okubo a scoring opportunity. The foul was fairly obvious, and the ref may have even been willing to book Suzuki for the offence. But Okubo lost his temper and lashed out -- not once, but twice -- first with the back of his hand and then with an elbow. Naturally, the referee was not interested in considering the issue of provocation. Suzuki eventually did go into the book for the original foul, but Okubo received his ticket to the showers, and that pretty much put the final nail in Cerezo's coffin.

With just four matches left, three of them against weak competition, it it a safe bet that Urawa will maintain its current position atop the table. For now, they are likely to focus on the upcoming Nabisco Cup title match against FC Tokyo, on November 3. For Cerezo, however, the next four matches will be crucial. Unless they can find their team coordination and competitive spirit, soon, they face a very real threat of relegation.

Lineups:

Tomohiko Ito, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Ivan Radelic, Takahito Chiba, Takanori Nunobe (Akinori Nishizawa 78), Kiyokazu Kudo, Takaaki Tokushige (Noriyuki Sakemoto 45), Yusuke Sato (Takuya Kokeguchi 53), Hiroaki Morishima, Tatsuya Furuhashi, Yoshito Okubo .

Norihiro Yamagishi, Hideki Uchidate, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Fabio "Nene" de Brito (Satoshi Horinouchi 89), Nobuhisa Yamada, Makoto Hasebe, Alex Santos, Keita Suzuki, Tatsuya Tanaka (Masayuki Okano 86), Yuichiro Nagai, Emerson .

2 - 0

Trinita got off to a strong start in this match, and though Vissel made the contest a bit more competitive in the second half, almost all of the real action occurred in the first half hour of play. The first goal was partly the result of an error by keeper Makoto Kakegawa. Magno Alves orchestrated a fine opportunity with a slicing through pass that turned the Vissel defence inside out, and Koji Yoshimura assisted with a nice back-heel that sent Teppei Nishiyama into the clear, one-on-one against the keeper. But Kakegawa was off his line and directly in front of the ball, blocking a clear shot. He probably should have simply fallen on the ball and tried to smother it, but instead, tried to kick it clear. The ball bounded off his knee and right to Takayuki Yoshida, who was trailing the play. All Yoshida had to do was side-foot the ball into the net.

Just a few minutes later, Vissel's defence showed again that they are their own worst enemies. Trinita midfielder Tomoaki Komorida used a nice cutback move at the right edge of the box to send Mitsunori Yabuta the wrong way, and cut past him into the penalty area. Though there were still two defenders behind the play, and Kakegawa had good position, Yabuta reached over Komorida's shoulder and gave a little tug. Perhaps Komorida was anticipating the foul, or perhaps he was just leaning back as he tried to release a shot, but whatever the case, when he made a virtual back-flip off the ball, there was no doubt in anyone's mind about the PK call. Magno Alves sank the shot from the spot, and Trinita had a two-goal cushion.

Thereafter, the contest seemed to stall. Perhaps it was simply that Trinita became more cautious, with a two-goal lead, and did not throw enough players forward to create dangerous scoring chances (and by the same token, did not leave room for Vissel to exploit on the counterattack). Trinita did control the pace, and looked to have the better chances, but neither team had more than one or two threatening opportunities over the remaining 70 minutes of play.

Lineups:

Riki Takasaki, Koji Arimura (Ryosuke Kijima 70), Takashi Miki, Patrick Zwaanswijk, Taku Harada (Kazuyoshi Mikami 60), Tomoaki Komorida, Takashi Umeda, Koji Yoshimura, Takayuki Yoshida, Teppei Nishiyama, Magno Alves (Haruki Seto 88) .

Makoto Kakegawa, Yukio Tsuchiya, Kazumichi Takaki, Kunie Kitamoto, Park Kang-Jae, Tomo Sugawara, Naoya Saeki (Mitsutoshi Watada 87), Roger, Mitsunori Yabuta (Tomoyuki Hirase 68), Ryuji Bando, Kazuyoshi Miura (Shusuke Tsubouchi 45), .

1 - 2

Perhaps by making the shift of personnel gradually -- and particularly by having a Jubilo old-timer, who presumably has the respect of all the veterans, implement the changes -- the team thinks it can cushion the blow a bit and thus make Yamamoto's job easier when he eventually does take over. Whatever the case may be, Jubilo have looked more poised and more competitive in recent matches, whereas just a few weeks ago the team seemed to be in complete disarray. Of course, it helps when your opponents are having one of those nights when they simply cant seem to find the net.

It certainly was one of those nights for Tokyo Verdy. They actually outshot Jubilo roughly two-to-one in this contest, and they seemed to have the Jubilo net at their mercy on at least three or four occasions. For the first half hour, the chances continously fell to Verdy, and it seemed like just a matter of time before they would score. But after botching several golden opportunities (including one loose ball at the left post that two Verdy players backed away from, each expecting the other to stuff it home), Jubilo reversed the momentum dramatically in the 33 minute. Yoshiaki Ota started the play by carrying the ball up the right sideline and looping a high pass to Ryoichi Maeda, on the left side of the box. Maeda demonstrated his delicate ball control, chesting it down, pulling it back to create a bit of space, and then curling a shot into the opposite corner.

Five minutes later, Jubilo extended their lead, and once again it was the 21-year-old midfielder Ota who created the opportunity. Jubilo's back line launched a long ball for the strikers, but the Verdy defeners easily cleared it away and were moving the ball to the wing for a counterattack when Ota, anticipating the outlet pass perfectly, dashed forward and snatched the ball away. With a burst of speed, Ota sped to the right edge of the box and waited for Yasumasa Nishino to make his cut. There was only one defender back, and Nishino simply dashed for the largest area of open space. Ota led him with a grass-cutting roller and Nishino side-footed it into the nylon.

After this burst of scoring from the visitors, Verdy once again took control of play, and for the remainder of the contest, they produced the bulk of the scoring opportunities. But Jubilo defended well, and on the occasions that Tokyo players did produce a shot, they simply seemed unable to finish. Kazuki Hiramoto twice had an open net at his mercy, and both times swung at nothing but air. Even if they did seem to be a match for Jubilo, in terms of the content of play, this simply was not Verdy's night. It was not until the final minute of injury time that Tokyo got their consolation goal. After a scramble in front of the net, Yoshiyuki Kobayashi pushed the ball back to Takayuki Morimoto, who stroked it inside the right post. But the final whistle sounded before the ball could even be put back into play, and Jubilo claimed their second victory in a row. In Iwata, these days, even that qualifies as a winning streak.

Lineups:

Yoshinari Takagi, Takushi Yoneyama, Claudio Ubeda, Takahito Soma, Kentaro Hayashi, Takuya Yamada, Daigo Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki Kobayashi, Takeshi Hirano (Hugo 61), Naoto Sakurai (Kazunori Iio 72), Kazuki Hiramoto (Takayuki Morimoto 56) .

Fumiya Iwamaru, Hideto Suzuki, Toshihiro Hattori, Naoya Kikuchi, Yoshiaki Ota, Takashi Fukunishi (Sho Naruoka 67), Takahiro Kawamura, Toshiya Fujita, Hiroshi Nanami, Ryoichi Maeda (Robert Cullen 79), Yasumasa Nishino .

1 - 2

While this match certainly did not resolve the issue of inconsistency on either side, it did provide some good suspense for the fans, even if the level of quality was not always at a peak. The firt 20 minutes were a see-saw battle with action from end to end, including one break by Grampus that might have deserved a goal. Naoshi Nakamura appeared to be pulled down from behind, in the penalty box, as he tried to get off his shot, but the referee waved away claims for a spot kick. With time running down in the first half, Grampus won a free kick just outside the box, on the left side, and executed a perfect set play to take the lead. While all of Nagoya's big bodies raced into the goal mouth, Ueslei played the ball on the ground, leading Marques to a spot level with the near post and about ten meters out. Marques stroked the ball into the high left corner and Grampus took a 1-0 lead into the locker room.

Shortly after the restart, Marques doubled his tally on a nice overlap by Nakamura on the right, and a grass-cutting pass to the middle. The cross met Marques in full stride, and he chipped the ball into the high right corner, in what looked like a mirror image of the first goal.

S-Pulse pulled a goal back on the stroke of the hour, as Masaaki Sawanobori beat the offside trap, chested a long cross onto his own right boot, and slid the ball underneath an outrushing keeper. Nagoya appealed desperately for the offsides, and replays suggest that perhaps Sawanobori did time his run a bit too early. However, the flag stayed down and S-Pulse were back to within a goal.

The final 30 minutes of play were a wild and thrilling, albeit occasionally sloppy dash from one goal mouth to the other, as Grampus tried to put the match away once and for all, while S-Pulse fought for the equaliser. But despite combining for at least 15 shots on goal in the final third of the contest, neither team could change the score line, and eventually the final whistle arrived, handing the win to Grampus.

Lineups:

Yohei Nishibe, Shuhei Ikeda, Toshihide Saito, Tomomi Tsurumi, Keisuke Ota (Hideaki Kitajima 84), Teruyoshi Ito, Jun Muramatsu (Araujo 57), Jumpei Takaki, Yoshikiyo Kuboyama (Masaaki Sawanobori 45), Cho Jae-Jin, Kohei Hiramatsu .

Seigo Narazaki, Yusuke Igawa, Yutaka Akita, Masahiro Koga, Makoto Kakuda, Keiji Yoshimura, Claiton dos Santos, Masayuki Omori, Naoshi Nakamura, Ueslei , Marques .

1 - 1

Of course, the heavy reliance on younger players has drawbacks as well as advantages, as would become evident later in the match. Over the opening 45 minutes, though, the young legs on both sides of the contest produced an invigorating see-saw battle, with play moving from one end of the pitch to the other at a breakneck pace. Both keepers got quite a workout, and if not for the large number of fine saves, this could have been a much higher-scoring affair.

Sanfrecce struck first, after winning a corner kick on the right side. Playmaker Koji "The Younger" Morisaki, making his first start since suffering a calf injury early in the second stage, played a long ball to the far post where twin brother Kazuyuki "The Elder" Morisaki was trying to slip in the back door. The ball took a deflection as it cleared the pack in front of goal, but Kazuyuki managed to control it with his chest, settle the ball and slam a shot into the opposite side of the net.

Though they had a bundle of opportunities to equalise over the remainder of the half, FC Tokyo were unable to find the net until 7 minutes after the restart. Akira Kaji, the only national team player on either squad, launched a long ball from about 40 meters out, on the right sideline, and found 20-year-old Norio Suzuki on the left side of the box, just a step from the end line. Suzuki leapt over the defence and headed the ball back in front of goal for Lucas Severino, who short-hopped it into the low right corner.

Unfortunately, as both teams tried to turn up the pressure and produce the winning goal, their lack of experience began to show. Over the final 30 minutes of play, both teams seemed to play with "intense desperation", rather than "intense determination". There is a clear difference between the two terms, and it was readily apparent in the overeager long-balls, hurried passes and uncontrolled dashes into space. While no one can fault the intensity of either team, they needed to dial back that intensity just a notch, in order to produce higher-quality scoring chances. As it was, the match petered out in a flurry of fast-paced but not particularly effective offensive thrusts, none of which really produced a good shot on goal.

As we have said several times in the past, both of these teams could benefit from a top-quality coach, the likes of Ivica Osim, Ossie Ardilles, Han Berger, or even Takeshi Okada, to teach them how to manage their energy more efficiently, and play "smarter" football. Based on the raw talent that both teams have available, either one could emerge as a league champion within, say, another two years. The success they have in reaching the championship level, however, is going to depend a great deal on the training and strategic guidance they receive. One hopes that the management of both teams can recognise that fact.

Takashi Shimoda, Norio Omura, Ricardo Ribeiro, Mitsuyuki Yoshihiro, Yuichi Komano (Megumu Yoshida 60), , Ri Han-Jae, Beto, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Koji Morisaki (Susumu Oki 45), Kota Hattori, Kohei Morita (Shunsuke Maeda 77) .

Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Teruaki Moniwa, Jean Carlo Witte, Ryuji Fujiyama, Naohiro Ishikawa (Mitsuhiro Toda 59), Yasuyuki Konno, Masashi Miyazawa (Yuta Baba 52), Norio Suzuki, Yohei Kajiyama (Ryuji Masushima 82), Lucas Severino .

2 - 2

The Rising Sun News has expressed our disdain many times for the unbelivably poor fan support that JEF United receives, but this is worse than ridiculous. On a warm Sunday afternoon, at an event that will decide the championship hopes of two separate teams, it is simply inexcusable for a J.League club to draw a paltry attendance of just 7,330. It is a safe bet that Albirex Niigata's fan clubs will manage to send that many supporters all the way down the Koshinetsu Highway to Tokyo for a Wednesday evening match, next week. And that despite the fact that the entire prefecture is reeling from a major earthquake! Nor do Gamba fans deserve to get away without some words of criticism. Gamba are playing some of the best football in the team's history, right now, yet not even 500 fans managed to make the journey from Osaka to cheer their team on. Perhaps, then, it is poetic justice that the contest ended in a draw. Neither of these teams' supporters DESERVE to have their club win a title, if this is all the support they can provide.

One can certainly feel for the players, though, since both Gamba and JEF played their hearts out in a vain effort to keep championship hopes alive. JEF got off to an early lead with a beautiful countreattacking rush, as Koki Mizuno's quick outlet pass sent Yuki Abe away down the right side. Abe had Naotake Hanyu in the middle, but Hanyu was covered tightly, as two defenders chased back trying to prevent a centering pass. Abe wisely turned towards goal himself, carrying the ball almost to the edge of the three-yard box and waiting until the very last minute before releasing the pass. By that time the range was so short, and the pass so crisp, that neither the defenders nor even Hanyu himself had a chance to react. Essentially, you could say that Abe merely played a bank shot off the boots of Hanyu, as the ball ricocheted into the back of the net and put JEF on the scoreboard.

Gamba had a chance -- in fact, two chances -- to reply almost immediately, but fine work in net by Ryo Kushino turned away opportunities by Masashi Oguro and Fernandinho. Following the opening goal, Gamba looked dominant, and it seemed like they were building up to the equaliser. But as the clock ticked down to the half, Abe put on an impressive bit of determined ball-pursuit at midfield, scrambling to find the handle as four separate Gamba defenders tried to snatch it away. Finally, Abe managed to control the bounding ball and feed it to Seiichiro Maki , just to the right of goal. Maki fired what might have been a shot, or might have been a pass for the far post, but fate intervened as the ball caromed off the legs of retreating defender Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, who added yet another notch to his impressive tally of own goals.

Gamba came out with a ferocious bit of pressure at the start of the second half, and by the 60 minute mark they had pulled a goal back. Takahiro Futagawa took a ball down the left sideline and crossed to the opposite side of the box. Seeing a cluster of JEF defenders in front of goal, Hideo Hashimoto opted to head the ball back out, for Yasuhito Endo. Endo strode to the edge of the box and slammed a two-bounder through the pack of yellow jerseys and into the low left corner.

With about 15 minutes remaining on the clock, a dramatic sequence of play sent both teams on a roller-coaster ride of angst and exhaltation. The sequence started as Hanyu led a JEF break up the right sideline, and centered the ball to midfielder Yuto Sato, just inside the penalty arc. As Maki slanted for goal, Sato drilled a low shot to the left corner, but keeper Naoki Matsuyo made a fine difing stab and deflected the ball away from goal. But the rebound went straight back out to Sato, who settled it once, then drove a shot into the back of the net. As the JEF players celebrated, however, the linesman was waving his flag and pointing to Maki. Replays suggest that Maki may indeed have been offside on the first shot, but since he did not interfere with the keeper or the flight of the ball, the linesman probably should have kept his flag down. Unfortunately, the referee agreed with his assistant, and awarded a kick to Gamba.

While several of the JEF players were still milling about in the Gamba end, arguing the call, Matsuyo quickly put the ball back into play and sent a booming drive downfield to Fernandinho. The speedy Brazilian playmaker cut across the top of the box looking for a seam, and when he found it, slipped a gentle lead pass into the box for Futagawa, who was cutting in from the left. Futagawa caught up with the ball a step beyond the penalty spot, and cut it back into the low left corner to level the score at 2.

Both teams fought valiantly for the deciding goal, and particularly over the final three minutes, JEF came within a whisker of claiming victory. But after Shinji Murai's shot in the last minute of regulation time came back off the right post, the contest ended in deadlock.

Lineups:

Ryo Kushino, Hiroki Mizumoto, Zeljko Milinovic, Takayuki Chano, Koki Mizuno (Takashi Rakuyama 77),, Masataka Sakamoto, Yuki Abe, Yuto Sato, Shinji Murai, Naotake Hanyu (Yuichi Yoda 81), Seiichiro Maki .

Naoki Matsuyo, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Sidiclei, Toru Irie, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (Masanobu Matsunami 73), Yasuhito Endo, Hideo Hashimoto, Takahiro Futagawa, Fernandinho, Masashi Oguro (Shigeru Morioka 73), Kota Yoshihara (Satoshi Nakayama 85) .

With both JEF United and Gamba Osaka claiming just a single point, and thus falling seven points behind JEF United with four matches to go, it now looks like a near certainty that the Reds will raise the second-stage championship trophy, and face off against the Yokohama Marinos in the championship series. At the opposiote end of the table, Cerezo Osaka are three points adrift of Kashiwa Reysol, in the full-year rankings, and will need a strong finish if they hope to avoid a promotion-relegation playoff at the end of the year.

Rumours and Rumblings

Media Mayhem (or "How to beat a nonexistent horse to death")

For the past two weeks, since Japan's crucial victory over Oman in the away leg of its WC2006 qualification match, the sports tabloids throughout the country have been furiously debating the folly of plans to invite several washed-up veterans who are on the brink of J.League retirement to take part in Japan's final WC qualification match, against Singapore. This brouhaha stems from comments that Zico made following the Oman match, indicating that he would call old-timers such as Masashi "Gon" Nakayama, Kazuyoshi "Kazu" Miura and Yutaka Akita to play in the match against Singapore

Following the match, Zico flew directly back to Brazil for a long-awaited vacation. He had initially been scheduled to take a break following the contest against India, in Kolkota, but due to the importance of the Oman match to Japan's World Cup hopes, he postponed his vacation until the Oman hurdle had been cleared.

In Zico's absence, a firestorm of angry debate blazed through the sports pages of Japan's print media, and even spilled over into the television sports news. Several J.League teams (apparently at the prodding of sports "journalists" looking for a juicy story) expresed their opposition to the idea, and top officials at the JFA made stern-faced pronouncements about the inappropriate nature of this idea. Entire rain forests in Southeast Asia gave up the ghost in order to provide enough paper to print all the gossip-laden stories about who was going to be invited to the Singapore match, who was angry about not being invited, how many fans had purchased tickets in order to see the "Gon and Kazu show", and so on . . .

Considering the frenzy that the sports tabloids managed to generate over this issue, it comes as something of a shock to discover that, in fact, the dead horse they have been beating for the past two weeks may not even exist.

Upon disembarking from his return flight from Brazil, on November 1, Zico seemed rather bemused by the shower of questions he received from reporters, asking about the much-debated "Zico Plan". According to Zico himself, this so-called "plan" was just an off-the-cuff comment he made in the euphoria of the post-match locker room, in Oman, and not anything he had bothered to think through in any detail.

"I simply thought that (the national team) might be able, in some way, to demonstrate gratitude to players who have made a historic contribution to Japan's football. But apparently I didnt express my idea very well, and unfortunately (my comments) seem to have been taken in a very strange way. I want to make a decision about what would be appropriate after discussing this (with the various interested parties)."

Naturally, anyone who reads that quote, in the wake of the media storm that has taken place over the past two weeks, will be asking themselves: "WTF???"

So far, we have not seen any in-depth follow-up interview that asks Zico whether or not he has been discussing the issue with the JFA (or anyone else for that matter) over the past week. However, after a careful review of all the stories printed in the sports tabloids, as well as the comments from J.League clubs and JFA officials, we can find no indication that anyone even bothered to give Zico a phone call, in the midst of this brouhaha of bombast and botheration, to find out if he was really serious about calling up these players in the first place. There has been no direct quote from Zico printed, apart from the one made in the locker room, in Oman. In fact, there is no indication that he has spoken to ANYONE in Japan, for the past two weeks. In other words, the entire drama seems to have been generated by a single, casual comment made in a locker room interview, when Zico was at the very least, drunk with euphoria, if not with any other post-match celebratory refreshments. Over the past two weeks, though every two-bit sports pundit, JFA bureaucrat and J.League backroom busybody in the country has regaled us with their views on the so-called "Zico Plan", it appears that none of them even bothered to find out whether Zico had given the matter careful consideration or asked anyone else what they though of the idea, when he made the comment in the first place.

It will probably be difficult, in the aftermath of all that has been said and reported, to ever find out exactly how much of the controversy was "reaal" and how much was simply manufactured by people looking for sopme sort of hype that could help them to sell newspapers. At this point, the players in question are expressing their reluctance to participate, even if asked, J.League clubs indicate that they are uninimously opposed and everyone at the JFA seems to be hiding underneath the tables, afraid to come out and make a public statement to anyone. Considering the situation, you would think that the press could at least wait until Zico has a chance to find out what people think of his idea before describing it in CAPITAL LETTERS, as the "Zico Plan", or turning it into a key issue of debate.

At the end of the day, it probably was not a very good idea, under the circumstances, and surely Zico would have discovered this after discussing the matter with a few people. The important issue here is not how "well" or "poorly" the idea was raised by Zico, or whether or not it made sense. The key point is that Japan's sports press and the national team bureaucracy have somehow managed to generate a spitstorm of typhoon proportions, based on nothing more than a single, off-the-cuff sound-bite from a post-match interview. Those who have been around the Japanese press for a while will not be the least bit surprised to see the entire swarm of clueless media pirhanas chewing each other to shreds at the scent of nonexistent blood. If it werent so ludicrously funny, this entire kabuki drama would be very disturbing indeed . . .

Speaking of Media Mistakes . . .

Everyone who follows football in Japan has seen the sort of gross errors that the news media in Europe makes when reporting on football in Asia. Some of them are just the result of sloppy reporting, while others seem almost deliberately calculated to perpetuate stereotypes that will assure the European reader that football in places like Japan is still "quaint" or "backward", or (perhaps the most commonly used cliche of them all) "naiive".

However, this week we encountered what may just go down in history as the most unusual case of inaccurate reporting ever by a legitimate football-related news source. Believe it or not, the article comes from no less of an "authority" than FIFA itself, and their German-based website FIFAworldcup.com. Not only did the site print a laughably inaccurate "news" story, but after they were informed of their mistake, and corrected it, someone apparently went back and changed the information AGAIN, replacing the revised (correct) information with the original (incorrect) information. So far we have not received any response to our requests for an explanation, but stay tuned. . . this story may not be over yet.

The original problem arose when FIFAworldcup.com posted an "analysis" of the pools of teams taking part in the upcoming Confederations Cup, due to be held in Germany next summer. In their analysis of teams in Pool B was the following passage:

Winners of the 7th edition of the Gold Cup in July 2003, Mexico appear a likely contender for semi-final qualification, not least because they are the only ones to have beaten the Brazilian giants. In 20 meetings, the Tricolores have clocked up no less than five victories over the Auriverdes, along with eleven defeats and four draws. Their record against the Sele�ao stands in stark contrast to that of Japan, who have failed to even draw in six encounters.

Already through to the next phase of the Asian Zone qualifiers for the 2006 FIFA World Cup�, the Japanese continue to rule the roost in the AFC. Since the start of the year, Zico�s charges have also started to produce some impressive performances further afield against strong opposition. They suffered narrow defeats in the Czech Republic (0-1), Serbia and Montenegro (0-1), and also Argentina (1-2), and held England to a draw (1-1) in Manchester last June.

The Rising Sun News was a bit confused when it read the first paragraph, since we always thought that the word "Sele�ao" refers to the Brazil national team. But obviously that must not be the case. After all, this writer is an expert on football, and particularly on the Confederations Cup. Surely they would not have overlooked the fact that Japan drew 0-0 against Brazil in the 2000 Confederations' Cup.

But the second paragraph left us scratching our heads until our hair began to fall out. After all, Japan has NEVER lost a match to either the Czech Republic or to Serbia & Montenegro (the Czech Republic was created in 1993, and Serbia & Montenegro took its current name in 2003, abandoning the use of its former name, Yugoslavia). Although Japan has lost several times to Czechoslovakia, its most recent match against the Czech Republic was on April 28, 2004, with Tatsuhiko Kubo scoring the lone goal in Prague Stadium, late in the first half, to give Japan a 1-0 victory. The only other time the two countries played was on May 24, 1998, a match that ended in a scoreless draw (incidentally, Japan has played three times against Slovakia, registering a 1-1 draw at Miyagi Stadium in June 2000, taking a 1-0 decision at Tokyo National Stadium in April 2002, and winning 3-1 at Oita Stadium in July 2004). The only match that Japan has ever played Serbia & Montenegro was on July 13, 2004. Yasuhito Endo gave Japan the 1-0 victory with a goal in the 49 minute.

Of course, we believe in giving credit where it is due. Readers will be happy to learn that the feedback that they provided, in response to our story, does appear to have paid off. About two days after we first contacted the people at FIFAworldcup.com, and pointing out the errors, the article was corrected to include the actual scores. However, a very unusual thing happened just one day later. At first, the second paragraph of the story was corrected to read as follows:

, Zico�s charges have also started to produce some impressive performances further afield against strong opposition. They defeated the Czech Republic (1-0) and Serbia and Montenegro (1-0), and lost a narrow decision to Argentina (1-2), and also held England to a draw (1-1) in Manchester last June.

. . . . all well and good. However, some time on the following day, the text of the article changed AGAIN. This time it read as follows:

, Zico�s charges have also started to produce some impressive performances further afield against strong opposition. They defeated the Czech Republic (1-0), and lost narrow decisions to Argentina (1-2) and Serbia and Montenegro (0-1). They also held England to a draw (1-1) in Manchester last June.

This situation has us completely baffled. It is rather disturbing, to say the least, that the writers could get the information wrong in the first place. After all, this is FIFA we are talking about. Surely they have access to information on the results of all international matches, so there is no reason why they should have gotten the scores wrong in the first place. But after they had been informed of their error, and corrected it, why on earth would they go back and change the article AGAIN, particularly since the changes simply replaced CORRECT information with INCORRECT information? Perhaps there is some logical explanation for this whole bizarre story, but for the life of us, we cannot think of what it might be.

The Rising Sun News contacted the editors at FIFAworldcup.com again, on Friday (Nov 5, 9:00 AM Japan time), letting them know once again that the information was inaccurate, and offering to sent them a video tape of the Japan-Serbia match if they were in any doubt about the true result. By afternoon, the article had been rewritten once more, and now reads as follows:

, Zico�s charges have also started to produce some impressive performances further afield against strong opposition. Though they fell to Argentina (1-2), they defeated the Czech Republic (1-0), Serbia and Montenegro (0-1). and held England to a draw (1-1) in Manchester last June.

While it is nice to see that the information has finally been corrected (and hopefully will stay that way), it is difficult to understand how this whole situation occurred, particularly the second revision of the article, which replaced accurate information with inaccurate information. We have offered FIFAworldcup.com a chance to explain this very unusual event, and have promised to include a prominent story on the Rising Sun News, explaining their side of the story. So far we have not received any reply, but by all means, keep checking the headlines. This story may not be over yet.