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March 20, 2005

Second Nabisco Round Offers Little Clarity

Here are the scores of the second-round matches:

Pool A

In the battle between last week's two losers, a goal by Yoshito Terakawa just before half time was all that separated Albirex Niigata and Vissel Kobe, in what was a very fierce and scrappy but not particularly pretty contest. Kobe had a golden opportunity to level, shortly after the restart, when Yoshiaki Maruyama was judged to have brought down Ryuji Bando in the penalty area. But keeper Yosuke Nozawa guessed correctly and made a beautiful diving save to turn away Bando's PK attempt.

Pool B

However, Gamba's "lead" in the group was reduced to just an edge in goal difference, as Tokyo Verdy snatched a hard-fought win from Sanfrecce Hiroshima. The only goal of the contest came just before half time, on a corner kick that was finished off by Washington.

Pool C

FC Tokyo, meanwhile, will have a difficult time defending their Nabisco Cup title if they cannot pick up their offensive skills a bit. The capitol city crusaders seemed to be sitting pretty at half time after a second yellow card on Koji Arimura just moments before the halftime whistle reduced Oita Trinita to ten men. But try as they might, FC Tokyo simply couldnt manage to put the ball in the net, and when time finally ran out on them, they were booed off the pitch by 14,000 home fans, who were surely expecting a bit more fireworks from their team, under the circumstances. As a result, Trinita and FC Tokyo share last place with perfectly identical records.

Pool D

Meanwhile, Nagoya Grampus continued to underperform, falling to a severely depleted Kashima Antlers squad on a last-minute goal by Alex Mineiro. Grampus got off to an early lead with defender Makoto Kakuda scoring on a set play, but Kakuda would go from hero to goat in the second half. The Antlers, who were missing four regular starters due to national team obligations, equalised just before the half, on a long strike by Fernando. Midway through the second half, Kakuda -- who picked up one yellow card very early in the contest -- came in for an ill-considered challenge on Masaki Fukai and sent the diminutive midfielder flying like a cardboard box hit by a speeding truck. The referee didnt even have to think twice, going straight to his pocket and sending Kakuda to the showers (the announcers at first thought it was a straight red, which would not have been completely undeserved, but the scoresheet shows that he received two yellows, resulting in expulsion). With the man advantage, Kashima stepped up the pressure, and as the match moved into injury time, Takeshi Aoki made a charge into the box, and though his effort was broken up by the defence, Alex Mineiro pounced on the rebound and drove it into the net to give Kashima the win.

March 20, 2005

A Cracker of a Start to the Nabisco Cup

For starters, here are the scores of the first-round matches, held on Saturday:

Pool A

Omiya's cross-town neighbours, the Urawa Reds, delivered a very similar performance as Nobuhisa Yamada and Emerson found the target to give Urawa a 2-0 halftime lead. However, Vissel Kobe were spurred on buy a surprisingly large home crowd of nearly 30,000, and mamaged to pull a goal back midway through the second half on a strike by veteran Kazu Miura. Once again, it was Miura's strke partner Ryuji Bando who did most of the work to produce the goal, but the 37-year-old Kazu is doing a fine job of finishing off the plays for Vissel, and has already found the net three times this season. Unfortunately for Kobe, that was all the offence they could muster, and they dropped the decision to Urawa by as 2-1 score line.

Pool B

Shortly after the break, Oki got his second goal of the match to bring Hiroshima level, but once again, Gamba responded immediately with a surge of pressure culminating in a goal from Kota Yoshihara. Ten minutes later, Fernandinho put the match out of reach and Gamba claimed a 4-2 victory, as well as the top spot in Pool B.

The most remarkable contest of the day, however, was the shootout between Tokyo Verdy and Kawasaki Frontale, in which eight goals were scored, all at the same end of the pitch.= Frontale rouared out to an early lead, as two goals from defender Shuhei Terada were supplemented by single tallies from Juninho and Marcus, giving Frontale what looked like an insurmountable lead at half time. But as soon as the two teams changed ends, the momentum swung in the exact opposite direction. Washington got Verdy's first tally of the match just 4 minutes after half time, and in the subsequent ten minutes, Daigo Kobayashi and Takayuki Morimoto added strikes to put Verdy back in contention. The subsequent 30 minutes of play were ferocious as both teams threw everything they ahd into the offence. In the end, it was the teen sensation Morimoto who found the nylon, scoring the equaliser with less than ten minutes left on the clock. Though the final few minutes was wild and wooly, neither team could add to the scoresheet, and the contest ended in a 4-4 draw.

Pool C

JEF United had a bit more difficulty in their contest against Oita Trinita. After a scoreless first half, Daiki Takamatsu put Oita in front just a few minutes after the break with his first goal of the season. However, JEF have been a very strong second-half team this season, and once again they were able to take their performance up a notch over the final 30 minutes of play. Yuki Abe leveled the score line in the 65 minute, and over the next 15 minutes Kohei Kudo and Takenori Hayashi added strikes of their own to leave Trinita in the dust. Though JEF and Reysol share the top spot, JEF have the advantage of having one more home game left than Reysol.

Pool D

Meanwhile, the Kashima Antlers were held to a 1-1 draw on a late goal by Shimizu S-=Pulse striker Cho Jae-Jin. Fernando gave the Antlers an early lead, but with less than 10 minutes remaining, Cho collected his first goal since joining S-Pulse, and thus earned the home team a share of the points. The Antlers face a bit of a disadvantage, since they have four players in the National Team and thus were more under-strength than any other team taking part in the Nabisco Cup pool round (both Jubilo Iwata and Yokohama Marinos received byes to the quarterfinals, due to their ACL commitments). With that in mind, they will probably be satisfied to claim a point from an away match, but they may not be as lucky next weekend when they face Nagoya Grampus, at home and will again be without the services of Masashi Motoyama, Takayuki Suzuki, Mitsuo Ogasawara and Hitoshi Sogahata.

Rumours and Rumblings