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November 24, 2004

Dont Dismiss the Downtrodden

Since the contests on November 23 took place on a midweek holiday, we do not have much time to post full highlights. However, we do want to report on a few of the more meaningful, and exciting matches that took place.

First of all, lets take a look at the scores of all J1 matches:

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
23 Nov		1-0		Kashima Stadium
23 Nov		0-4		Kashiwa-no-ha Std.
23 Nov		3-3		Ajinomoto Stadium
23 Nov		1-2		Yokohama Int'l
23 Nov		1-2		Yamaha (Iwata) St.
23 Nov		2-1		Nagai Stadium
23 Nov		2-1		Kobe Wing Stadium
23 Nov		0-0		Hiroshima Big Arch

2 - 1

Of the three, Cerezo probably has the largest number of veteran players, and in this sense, perhaps it would be best for them to get relegated, clear out some of the aging players and start over with a younger squad. But by the same token, the veterans on Cerezo have the sort of pride that will not allow them to just lie down and accept defeat. This week, they demonstrated considerable determination, outplaying their opponent Shimizu S-Pulse by a far greater margin than the score line might suggest.

Interestingly enough, Cerezo's star striker, Yoshito Okubo -- who will leave for Spain at the end of November to join his new team, Mallorca -- was not involved in either of the team's two goals. He did have two or three excellent opportunities as well as a brilliant assist. But in each case, the shots went astray. Nevertheless, Cerezo snatched An early lead in the 9 minute, when a nice cross from midfield to the right edge of the box was headed down by Akinori Nishizawa, into the path of Kiyokazu Kudo, who was dashing forward from midfield. Kudo scooped the ball into the back of the net and Cerezo were suddenly riding a wave of momentum. After a few close calls that were narrowly astray, Tatsuya Furuhashi doubled the lead on a thunderbolt of a shot from about 30 meters, which was so unexpected that the keeper barely moved to try to make the save. The ball whistled in just under the bar and Cerezo had a comfortable lead.

But on the stroke of half time, S-Pulse pulled a goal back, on a corner kick from the right side. Shitizu's yeen volante Kota Sugiyama, getting a rare start after being relegated to the bench following the return of Kazuyuki Toda to the team earlier this year, headed it home to pull his team within a goal.

But the second half was dominated by the home team, to the mixed delight and frustration of the 25,000 fans at Nagai Stadium, who had many opportunities to ride the roller-coaster of disappointed expectations. As noted earlier, Okubo had several opportunities that he probably should have put away, as did both Nishizawa and Morishima. But even though they could not extend their lead, Cerezo achieved the most important task, claiming three points and thus moving to within one point of Reysol in the overall standings.

0 - 4

But apparently, the Reds strikers (particularly Emerson) were saving themselves for the second half. Five minutes after the break, A lovely individual drive by Yuichiro Nagai down the flank shredded the defence and his final passsent Emerson into the clear, towards the right post. The ball was a bit long, and by the time Emerson caught up with it he had only a very narrow angle on goal. But his shot was perfectly struck, curling across the goal mouth and hitting the far side netting.

Ten minutes later, the three fleet strikers showed what they can do on the break, outrunning the Reysol defence completely as Nagai fed Tatsuya Tanaka into the right side of the penalty area and Tanaka cut the ball back for a wide-open tap-in by Emerson.

With time running down, Emerson closed out his second-half hat trick in stunning fashoin, as he trapped a long cross at the top of the penalty arc, letting it take a high bounce and then hammering it as it came down. The ball took off like a rocket, squeaked just under the bar and ripped into the back of the net before the keeper could do a thing. Reysol may not be a particularly strong opponent, but if this is what the Reds can do with a second-string squad, things are not looking good for the Marinos in the championship series.

1 - 2

Niigata took the first-half lead on a thunderous strike from veteran midfielder Motohiro Yamaguchi, who collected a pass about 30 meters out and sent sa blistering drive on goal. The shot was a perfect knuckleball -- not making even a quarter-rotation in its entire course to goal. The dipping flight of the ball seemed to fool keeper Tatsuya Enomoto, who seemed to be in position to make the save, but ended up overrunning it and waving at air as the ball zipped past.

Despite trailing, the Marinos could not generate much offence, and even a generous evaluation would have to conclude that Albirex more than deserved their half time lead. Midway through the second half, Okada brought in Daisuke Sakata as a substitute up front. With both Tatsuhiko Kubo and Ahn Jung-Hwan out for the duration, due to injury, Sakata has done a fine job of taking over as Yokohama's "go-to" striker. But it was clear that Okada would have preferred to give Sakata a full day off. Unfortunately, with him missing as well, the Marinos simply could not produce goals. Sakata's impact on the team was quickly apparent. Two minutes after coming on, he slipped loose at the far post as Yoshiharu Ueno lobbed a ball in from the left side of the box, and connected on a diving header that snuck inside the post and pulled Yokohama level.

But five minutes later, Albirex midfielder Shingo Suzuki made an impressive, slicing run up the left sideline, turned into the box, and sent a low-angle shot curling across the face of goal and into the far side netting. Albirex held on for the victory, ensuring that they will finish in the top half of the league table for the second stage -- an impressive result for the recently-promoted club.

Elsewhere

Meanwhile, in Iwata, Jubilo played their last home match of the year and lost for the second week in a row. Apparently incoming coach Masakuni Yamamoto is going to need a bit more time to get the team back on an even keel. Gamba Osaka got second-half goals from Hideo Hashimoto and Kota Yoshihara, then hung on for the win despite a late consolation goal by Rodrigo Gral.

In Kobe, veteran striker Kazuoshi Miura tallied his 133rd career goal in what may be the last home match of his career. Kunie Kitamoto added a second goal midway through the second half to give Vissel a 2-1 victory over Nagoya Grampus.

Kashima Antlers midfielder Takuya Nozawa got his first goal of the season, carrying the Antlers to a 1-0 victory over Tokyo Verdy.

Finally, Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Oita Trinita battled to a scoreless draw in a match that saw plenty of scoring opportunities but poor finishing by both teams.

And so, with one week left in the season, here are the second stage standings.

The totals for the full season leave Cerezo Osaka just one point behind Kashiwa Reysol in the composite standings, as the two teams go into their final week of the season. Both teams play away from home in the final week, with Cerezo travelling to Niigata for a match against Albirex and Reysol taking on Trinita, in Oita.