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April 10, 2005

J.League in Full Flower

So far, many of the teams that were tipped as favourites at the start of the season have been struggling and stumbling. This partly reflects the increasing parity of the league, but it may also cause headaches to potential title hopefuls -- particularly the Urawa Reds and Jubilo Iwata -- if they do not start piling up some points pretty soon.

Here are the results from this weekend's matches.

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
Apr 9		4-2		Ichihara Seaside St.
Apr 9		1-2		Nihondaira Stadium
Apr 9		0-1		Hiroshima Big Arch
Apr 9		1-1		Saitama Stadium
Apr 9		3-2		Niigata "Big Swan"
Apr 9		1-0		Nagai Stadium
Apr 9		1-0		Todoroki Stadium
Apr 10		1-0		Ajinomoto Stadium
Apr 10		1-1		Yokohama Stadium

1 - 0

Dont let the low score line fool you. This was the best offensive performance that Cerezo have managed so far this year, and narrow misses by Tatsuya Furuhashi and Akinori Nishizawa could have easily turned this into a rout for the home team. Grampus, on the other hand, stumbled out of the starting blocks as they seem to do almost every year, and have been further knocked off course by a very divisive clubhouse row in which Ueslei bad-mouthed a number of the coaches, and ended up getting fined and banned for three matches as an internal team punishment.

One factor that may have helped Cerezo was the decision by coach Shinji Kobayashi to leave the high-profile newcomer, Teruaki Kurobe, on the bench at kickoff, and start the match with veterans Nishizawa and Hiroaki Morishima up front. This turned out to be a stroke of brilliance, as just 19 minutes in, Ze Carlos fired a hard pass that was deflected to Morishima who used his remarkable balance and body control to twist into the box, cut sharply to the left to beat the keeper, and then pull a low-angle shot back across the face of goal and into the far (right) side of the net.

Therafter, Cerezo were able to hang back in a defensive formation and look for opportunities to counterattack -- a strategy that suits them much better than the pressing, catch-up style of play that they were forced to adopt in their first three matches this season. The Cerezo defence suffered a serious loss last week when rookie Kenji Ezoe, who looked brilliant in his first three J.League starts, injured his right knee severely enough to make his further participation this season look unlikely. Fortunately his backup, another youngster named Tomoki Maeda, looks almost as promising, and held down the right side of the Cerezo defence quite well in this match.

By the second half, it was getting hard to tell whether Cerezo were playing extremely effective sag-back-and-counter defence, or whether Grampus were simply unable to coordinate their movement enough to generate penetration. Whichever the case may be, most of Grampus' offensive thrusts were stalling out before they reached the edge of the penalty area, whereas Cerezo had two golden opportunities to extend their lead on counterattacks down the stretch. In the end, though, Cerezo did not need an insurance goal,. holding off a late press by Grampus to claim their first victory of the season.

Date: 9 Apr, 2005		Location: Nagai Stadium
1	1 1H 0 0 2H 0	0
Morishima (19')	Scoring
Akinori Nishizawa Fabinho Kazuki Maeda Ze Carlos	Cautions	Masahiro Koga Keita Sugimoto Yusuke Nakatani
Lineups:
Motohiro Yoshida, Bruno Cuadros, Tomoki Maeda, Tetsuya Yamazaki, Fabinho, Takanori Nunobe, Kiyokazu Kudo (Nozomu Hiroyama 73), Ze Carlos, Tatsuya Furuhashi, Akinori Nishizawa (Teruaki Kurobe 89), Hiroaki Morishima (Takuya Kokeguchi 89) . Eiji Kawashima, Makoto Kakuda, Masahiro Koga, Takahiro Masukawa, Keiji Watanabe (Yusuke Nakatani 45), An Yeon-Ha, Claiton, Naoshi Nakamura, Kei Yamaguchi (Keisuke Honda 69), Yohei Toyota (Keita Sugimoto 45), Marques .

1 - 1

With Ozalan Alpay and "Nene" de Brito sitting out red card suspensions (Alpay's ban will continue for an additional match), and both Nobuhisa Yamada and Marcus Tulio Tanaka recovering from injuries, the Reds were forced to adopt a rather makeshift lineup. Yet apart from a brief lapse in the second half, the back three of Keisuke Tsuboi, Hideki Uchidate and Satoshi Horinouchi performed fairly well. The problem for the Reds was not their defence (at least not today), but rather, the inability of the strikers and attacking midfielders to work together as a team. Repeatedly, Urawa squandered prime attacking opportunities when the player with the ball fired off an ill-advised shot, rather than passing to an open teammate.

Though this defused several difficult situations for Gamba, early on, in the 32 minute Urawa got an important break as a corner kick from Alex Santos, on the right side, took a deflection going through the pack and deflected to an open player, Hideki Uchidate, a half step inside the penalty box. Uchidate turned and ripped off a quick shot that shot into the low right corner before the Gamba defence could respond. That goal was all that separated the two teams at the break.

Early in the second half, Gamba's offence began to develop a bit of rhythm, thanks mainly to the dribbling and penetration skills of Fernandinho and Araujo (Japan NT candidate Masashi Oguro came off midway through the second half without having managed to even get off a shot on net). On one such penetration move, just four minutes after the restart, Araujo curlied a shot across the face of goal to pull Gamba level.

The Reds tried to respond in kind. (Note that we deliberately did NOT say "the Reds did their best to respond". This was by no means "their best"). Though they did produce a surge of motion in the direction of Gamba's goal, it would be a bit too generous to call it "offensive pressure". Emerson, whose wife gave birth just days earlier, seemed determined to put on a heroic one-man show, but all he really managed to do was show what a ball-hog he could be. Tatsuya Tanaka apparently decided to demonstrate to Emerson the old adage "anything you can do, I can do better", taking several laughably unlikely shots even when he had teammates open in front of net. Santos and Yuichiro Nagai got into the act with a few ball-hogging moments of their own, and the result was a blank slate for the remainder of the contest. Indeed, it was Gamba who came closest to getting the winner, as both Satoru Yamaguchi and Fernandinho hit the woodwork over the final 20 minutes, but failed to break the deadlock.

Date: 9 Apr, 2005		Location: Saitama Stadium
1	1 1H 0 0 2H 1	1
Hideki Uchidate (32')	Scoring	Araujo (49')
	Cautions	Sidiclei
Lineups:
Ryota Tsuzuki, Keisuke Tsuboi, Satoshi Horinouchi, Hideki Uchidate, Tadaaki Hirakawa (Masayuki Okano 81), Makoto Hasebe (Yuichiro Nagai 73), Tomoyuki Sakai (Hajime Hosogai 81), Keita Suzuki, Alessandro Santos, Tatsuya Tanaka, Emerson . Suguru Hino, Satoru Yamaguchi (Ryota Aoki 63), Sidiclei, Noritada Saneyoshi, Takahiro Futagawa , Hideo Hashimoto (Toshihiro Matsushita 74), Yasuhito Endo, Akihiro Ienaga (Kota Yoshihara 45), Araujo, Fernandinho, Masashi Oguro (Tsuneyasu Miyamoto 74) .

1 - 2

S-Pulse received some good news earlier in the week, when the team doctors concluded that Cho Jae-Jin would be able to start, this week, despite suffering a broken rib in Korea's national team match against Uzbekistan, just two weeks ago. Though he still seemed to be a bit below par, in this contest, Cho is a key offensive weapon for S-Pulse, and fans will be hoping that the Korean ace is back in form as soon as possible.

Unfortunateluy for the home team, it was Reysol who got the first big break of this match, just before the half time break. Reysol won a free kick on the right sideline and national-team striker Keiji Tamada took the kick, sending a low line drive right in front of the goal mouth. An S-Pulse player headed it clear, but as the ball bounded away from the danger area, Cleber Santana Loureio swung wildly with a high kick, and somehow made contact with the tip of his boot. To Cleber's surprise, more than anyone elses, the ball bounded weakly into the base of left post, and spun into the back of the net. This improbable shot gave Reysol a boost going into the locker room at half time.

But nine minutes after the restart, S-Pulse equalized on a shot that was equally . . . shall we say . . . "unorthodox". Shimizu won a corner kick on the left side, and opted to play a short roller to Choi Dae-uk, just outside the top left corner of the box. Choi looped a cross for the far post and Ryuzo Morioka headed it back in front of net. The ball looped softly towards the right post, but in a spot that was a bit awkward for Kota Sugiyama to handle with either a header or a kick. Instead he pivoted onto his left foot and threw a Bruce-Lee-style side kick at the ball, making just enough contact to send it into the nylon.

But Reysol roared back immediately, and less than three minutes later a drop pass to Harutaka Ono at the top of the box was drilled on a swerving path just inside the right post. That would prove to be the decisive tally, as neither team was able to find the net over the remainder of the contest, despite some very close calls by a desperately attacking S-Pulse, over the final few minutes. Reysol claimed their first win of the season, and edged up towards the middle of the table.

Date: 9 Apr, 2005		Location: Nihondaira Stadium
1	0 1H 1 1 2H 1	2
Kota Sugiyama (54')	Scoring	Cleber (44') Harutaka Ono (57')
Kohei Hiramatsu	Cautions	Cleber Naoya Kondo
Lineups:
Yohei Nishibe, Daisuke Ichikawa, Toshihide Saito, Ryuzo Morioka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Keiosuke Ota (Shohei Hiramatsu 60), Kazumichi Takagi (Masaaki Sawanobori 76), Teruyoshi Ito, Kota Sugiyama, Cho Jae-Jin, Choi Dae-Uk (Yoshikiyo Kuboyama 80). Yuta Minami, Yasuhiro Hato, Yukio Tsuchiya, Sota Nakazawa, Naoya Kondo, Tomokazu Myojin, Harutaka Ono, Tatsuya Yazawa (Tomonori Hirayama 45), Cleber, Choi Song-Guk (Ryo Kobayahi 78), Keiji Tamada (Yoshiteru Yamashita 89) .

0 - 1

Despite the low score line, one could hardly describe this match as "dull". The quality of play was very high, and both teams created a number of high-quality scoring opportunities. In fact, the two most valuable players in this contest were probably the two keepers, Takashi Shimoda and Hitoshi Sogahata, who both turned away at least two shots that required remarkable reflexes and acrobatic skill to keep out of the net.

Sanfrecce came out with a very hard trapping press, with what were essentially three free strikers pressing the ball wherever it went, and four midfielders playing a tight formation and trying to step into the passing lanes. This was quite effective at first, and produced several good counterattacking opportunities while keeping the Antlers pinned back in their own end for much of the first 20 minutes. Unfortunately for Hiroshima, they failed to capitalize on any of their early opportunities, and the Antlers quickly picked up on the tactics and began moving the ball with increased pace, laterally, sending sharp 20-30 meter passes at the feet of teammates, forcing Sanfrecce to run themselves to exhaustion. By the midpoint of the first half it became obvious that they could never maintain the pace for 90 minutes, and Sanfrecce began to sag back, allowing the Antlers more space for their buildup.

This conceded control of the tempo, and the majority of possession, to Kashima, but Hiroshima were still able to press the ball enough to prevent any good shots from short range. Most of the Antlers' best efforts came on long-range drives from a few meters outside the box, by Fernando and Mitsuo Ogasawara. Play swung back and forth until midway through the second half, when the Antlers' patient, perimeter ball movement finally produced a seam in the Sanfrecce defence, and Masashi Motoyama sent Takuya Nozawa through into the box with a bone-cleaving through pass, giving Nozawa an open shot from about five meters above the left post. His shot zipped into the opposite corner and the Antlers had the only goal they would need. Thereafter, several defensive substitutions and a concerted effort to maintain possession allowed Kashima to run out the clock, and move into sole possession of first place in the J1 league table . . . at least for a day.

Date: 9 Apr, 2005		Location: Hiroshima "Big Arch"
0	0 1H 0 0 2H 1	1
	Scoring	Takuya Nozawa (70')
Takehito Shigehara "Beto" Martins	Cautions
Lineups:
Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano, Dininho, Norio Omura, Kota Hattori, Takehito Shigehara, Joubert "Beto" Martins, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Susumu Oki (Issei Takayanagi 84), Jorginho (Shusuke Maeda 65), Hiroto Mogi (Hayato Sato 77) . Hitoshi Sogahata, Jun Uchida (Arivaldo dos Santos 87), Daiki Iwamasa, Go Oiwa, Toru Araiba, Takeshi Aoki, Fernando, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama (Masaki Fukai 71), Alex Mineiro (Yuzo Tashiro 80), Takuya Nozawa.

4 - 2

The match got off to what could have been a disastrous start for thje home team. Just two minutes into the match, Brazilian playmaker Lucas "Dodo" Ricardo collected a pass on the left edge of the box, spotted an open lane and fired a quick shot that rolled just inside the far post, giving Trinita a quick lead. Moments later, the speedy Magno Alves took off on a counterattack up the left side, cut a pass in front of net for Dodo, and as JEF defender Yuki Mizumoto tried to race back and cut off the pass, he bundled the ball into his own net.

Things were beginning to look a bit dim for the home team, but just ten minutes into the contest, coach Ivica Osim suddenly yanked Mizumoto, who had been complicit in both goals, and replaced him with youngster Kozo Yuki. Some commentators are already calling this an "act of brilliance", and to be sure, it demonstrated two of Osim's greatest strengths -- the ability to make split-second decisions, and a keen sense for who is having a good day and who got up on the wrong side of the bed. Even so, the change was certainly begging to be made. Last year, we viewed Yuki as a compelling candidate for rookie of the year, even though he only appeared in 11 matches. His defensive reactions and instincts are top-notch, and though he is a bit mature for a second-year player (he joined JEF after university, and is already 24 years old), he is definitely one of the best young defenders to enter the league in recent years.

The results substitution clearly changed the momentum of the match, and Osim's gamble on a quick substitution received the fotball gods' blessings just a minute later when winger Masataka Sakamoto finished off a quick counterattack rush by sending a low line drive caroming off the forehead of Mario Haas and into the nylon of Trinita's goal net. This immediately lifted the spirits of the JEF players, and allowed them to put the memory of the first two goals behind them and work for the equaliser. It arrived a few minutes before half time, as Haas once again finished off a counterattack, this time with a blistering right-footed drive that skipped off the keeper's fingertips and into the top of the net.

Oita's fate was sealed ten minutes after the break, when JEF won a free kick about seven meters above the box, on the left side. Yuki Abe drilled one of his customised rainbow free kicks, which just cleared the defensive the wall and then began slicing left like one of my tee shots on a straight 400-yard fairway. The ball sliced so sharply that it hit the left side netting (on the inside, not the outside), despite the fact that the position from which Abe took the free kick was at least two meters to the left of the post! Naturally the keeper never had a chance, and JEF now had the lead.

Trinita fought valiantly to get back into the contest, but as time ran down in the second half, their efforts became more and more desparate. Finally, with less than five minutes in regulation time, Naotake Hanyu finished off a JEF counterattack by chasing a through pass into the penalty area and tripping over a defender's flailing leg. The referee awarded a PK and Abe drilled this one as precisely as his free kick, giving JEF the 4-2 victory.

Date: 9 Apr, 2005		Location: Ichihara Seaside Std.
4	2 1H 2 2 2H 0	2
Mario Haas (11') Mario Haas (39') Yuki Abe (56') Yuki Abe (86')	Scoring	Dodo (2') O.G. (5')
Masataka Sakamoto Mario Haas Seiichiro Maki	Cautions	Taku Harada Tomoki Fukaya
Lineups:
Ryo Kushino, Yuki Mizumoto (Kozo Yuki 10), Ilyan Stoyanov, Daisuke Saito, Koki Mizuno, Yuki Abe, Yuto Sato, Masataka Sakamoto, Naotake Hanyu, Mario Haas (Takenori Hayashi 72), Seiichiro Maki (Kohei Kudo 87) . Hayato Okanaka, Takashi Miki, Masakazu Shibakoya, Tomoki Fukaya, Takayuki Yoshida, Taku Harada (Daiki Takamatsu 87), Takashi Umeda, Yoshiro Abe (Shota Matsuhashi 66), Patrick Zwaaswijk , Magno Alves, Lucas "Dodo" Ricardo .

1 - 0

There is no way to tell for certain how much the crowd factor affected play, but Verdy certainly appeared less energetic and aggressive than they have seemed in their first few matches. Some of that probably was attributable to the unfortunate absence of Takahito Soma, who injured himself on the practice pitch and may be out for over a month. Though Takeshi Hirano seemed to do a reasonably good job contributing offensively, it is Soma's two-way contributions that make him such a valuable player, and Hirano was visibly missing from the defensive coverage, on occasion, during this match.

Frontale have adopted a very simplistic, though quite effective strategy that may not suffice if they hope to climp into the top ranks of J1 teams, but which certainly does the job with sufficient frequency to keep them in the J1. Basically, the offensive responsibilities are laid entirely on the shoulders of just four players. Juninhho Marcus and Kazuki Ganaha work together in the middle to generate lightning-fast penetration once Frontale win the ball, and this accounts for 90% of the team's offensive output. However, on occasion, left wing back Augusto dashes forward to add an element of "width" to the attack.

It was on one such play, midway through the second half, that this strategy finally breached the Verdy defences. Augusto beat his man on the left side and took off towards the penalty area, but with three speedsters in the middle, the remaining Verdy defenders were too slow to decide who should break off and pick up Augusto. By the time anyone reacted, it was too late as the veteran Brazilian surged into the box and fired a low drive just underneath the keeper.

Though Verdy had a few opportunities to equalise over the remaining 20 minutes, the attack was a bit out of synchronisation on this particular day, and they were unable to finish off the chances. Much to the delight of the large home crowd, Frontale held on to their advantage and claimed their first win of the season.

Date: 9 Apr, 2005		Location: Todoroki Stadium
1	0 1H 0 1 2H 0	0
Augusto (70')	Scoring
Marcus Shuhei Terada Yoshinobu Minowa Tomoaki Kuno	Cautions	Takushi Yoneyama Kazuki Hiramoto Kenta Togawa Takuya Yamada Yoshiyuki Kobayashi
Lineups:
Seigo Shimokawa, Yoshinobu Minowa, Shuhei Terada, Hiroki Ito, Tomoaki Kuno (Naoki Soma 61), Kengo Nakamura, Yasuhiro Nagahashi (Kazunori Iio 79), Augusto de Souza, Marcus de Morais, Juninho, Kazuki Ganaha . Yoshinari Takagi, Lee Kang-Ji, Kentaro Hayashi, Takushi Yoneyama (Kazuyuki Toda 66), Takuya Yamada, Daigo Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki Kobayashi (Takayuki Morimoto 78), Takeshi Hirano, Kazuki Hiramoto, Washington.

3 - 2

Full report will be posted later

Date: 2 Apr, 2005		Location: Niigata "Big Swan"
3	1 1H 1 2 2H 1	2
Edmilson (19') Anderson Lima (64') Fabinho (89')	Scoring	Christian (28') Toninho (62')
Isao Honma	Cautions	Jun Marques Davidson
Lineups:
Yosuke Nozawa, Yoshito Terakawa (Anderson Lima 64), Shigenori Hagimura, Yoshiaki Maruyama (Yuzo Funakoshi 77), Keiji Kaimoto, Isao Honma, Fabinho, Motohiro Yamaguchi (Daisuke Aono 69), Yusaku Ueno, Edmilson, Shingo Suzuki . Hiroki Aratani, Takuro Nishimura, Toninho, Daisuke Tomita, Kazuyoshi Mikami (Yosuke Kataoka 67), Jun Marques Davidson, Jin Kanazawa, Tatsunori Hisanaga (Yusuke Shimada 86), Chikara Fujimoto, Christian Dionisio (Koji Morita 74), Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel .

0 - 0

The one part of FC Tokyo's game that has yet to reach fruition, however, is their final pass selection and finishing. The team's ability to generate dangerous offensive opportunities is currently second to none in the J.League, while the defence is quickly approaching a level of poise and impenetrability that matches those of traditional defensive powers like the Yokohama Marinos and Kashima Antlers. But FC Tokyo continues to struggle against top opponents because of their tendency to rush shots, or make overzealous decisions with the final pass.

Jubilo, meanwhile, have brought in a transfusion of fresh blood this season to try to revive what had become, by the end of last season, a staggering dinosaur of a team. So far, however, this has done nothing but turn the clock back a year or so. As we have been saying for at least the past year, Jubilo badly need to come to terms with the fact that their "glory years" are over, and if the team wants to return to the league's top ranks once more, they need to build from an entirely new base. Bit by bit, coach Masakuni Yamamoto is bringing in new players to replace the aging core of the team, but we have not seen any sign -- at least not yet -- that he is taking steps to build a new team around the new players. Instead, Jubilo continues to play a short-passing, slow-buildup stule that is clearly not appropriate for speedy, dribble-oriented players like Robert Cullen, Shinji Murai and Choi Yong-Soo. The only offensive plays that created any danger whatsoever, in this contest, came when Cullen or Choi took the ball themselves and tried to penetrate on their own. For most of the first half, however, FC Tokyo was pulling the Jubilo offensive game apart at midfield and launching attacks of their own.

In the second half, as the two teams changed ends, Jubilo began to benefit from the stiff breeze blowing from one end of Ajinomoto Stadium to the other, and this gave then a slightly larger number of offensive opportunities than they did in the first half. Even so, it was clearly FC Tokyo's match to win or lose, as they continued to create dangerous counterattacks in numbers. If Jubilo had been fully content to earn a draw, they might have held off the crucial goal until the final whistle, but whether for good or for ill, coach Yamamoto decided to try for the win, and shifted to a three-striker lineup, down the stretch.

The additional pressure produced a series of corner kicks for Jubilo over the final 20 minutes or so, but it also gave Tokyo the space they needed to produce the winning goal. With five minutes left to play, Lucas Severino turned the left flank and sent a low cross into the box. The ball was deflected slightly by a Jubilo defender, missing its intended target, Yasuyuki Konno, directly in front of net. But the ball fell to reserve midfielder Ryoichi Kurisawa at the edge of the box with ample space to work with. Kurisawa settled the ball, chose his spot, and fired a shot into the high left corner for his first J.League goal and the deciding tally in this contest.

The victory allowed Tokyo to resume their position atop the league table, a goal-difference advantage ahead of the Antlers.

Kurisawa (85')

Date: 10 Apr, 2005		Location: Ajinomoto Stadium
1	0 1H 0 1 2H 0	0
Scoring
	Cautions	Robert Cullen Norihiro Nishi
Lineups:
Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji (Ryuji Fujiyama 50), Jean Carlo Witte, Teruaki Moniwa, Jo Kanazawa, Yasuyuki Konno, Masashi Miyazawa (Yohei Kajiyama 67), Yuichi Kurisawa, Naohiro Ishikawa (Yusuke Kondo 78), Mitsuhiro Toda, Lucas Severino. Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Kim Sung-ji, Makoto Tanaka, Takayuki Chano, Toshiya Fujita, Takahiro Kawamura, Takashi Fukunishi, Shinji Murai, Hiroshi Nanami (Sho Naruoka 70), Yoo Sang-Chul (Masashi Nakayama 45), Robert Cullen (Norihiro Nishi 88).

1 - 0

Over the opening 40 minutes of play, Vissel and the Marinos battled furiously in a closely-matched tussle between two relatively defensive teams. The physical contact was not deliberately "dirty", but it did result in a number of yellow cards and some elevated tempers on both sides. In the 34 minute, a high cross to the right edge of the Vissel penalty box was collected by Ahn Jung-Hwan, who used a clever bit of footback to create space for a shot, and then sent a brilliant curling lob shot that hit both the crossbar and the far post before bounding into the net. This one individual effort was all that separated the two teams as half time approached.

But with three minutes remaining before the half-time whistle, Atsuhiro Miura was beaten down the right wing by a Marinos player, and reached over his shoudler to wrestle him to the ground. It was a clear professional foul, and Miura obviously expected to get booked. As he turned to retreat into his own penalty area, he kicked the ball away, more in self-reproach than anything else. This certainly did not seem to be some tempermental outburst or an attempt to unfairly delay the kick, yet inexplicabluy, the referee, Mr. Nishimura, flashed his yellow card a second time, and then reached in his pocket for the red one. Miura simply could not believe his eyes, nor could the announcers who initially responded by debating whether the professional foul had been severe enough to merit a straight red.

As noted at the top, this was not a TERRIBLE call . . . certainly nothing on the scale of the missed calls we have discussed on these pages in recent weeks. A really strict interpretation of the rules on time-wasting . . . that is to say "unsportsmanlike play" . . . definitely leave it within the referee's discretion to make such a call. The problems that we have with the decision are admittedly minor, compared with some of the calls we have bewailed in match reports earlier in the year. Nevertheless, it is the PATTERN of incompetence among J.League officials that needs to be addressed, and not simply getting them to avoid one particular type of missed call. I guess if we had to try to identify, in just a few words, the biggest problem that J.League officials have, it would be that they lack "perspective". In other words, they ar unable to make competent decisions about what sort of plays deserve what sort of response. They dismiss righteous anger about a goal that a player scored deliberately, with his hand, with trow-away comments like "it couldnt be helped", then turn around and ban a player for three weeks because he kicked a water bottle. They hyperventilate with outrage when the home team replays an obviously incorrect call on the "big screen", for all the fans to see, but refuse to even consider rescinding a yellow card awarded to a player for "diving", even though the player ends up in the hospital with a separated shoulder, suffered during his so-called "simulation". Though the calls in the Marinos - Vissel match may not have been that egregious, they provide a good example of this "lack of perspective", and for that reason, we think it is necessary to consider the reasons why such a call should not have been made.

First, it was not necessary to send a player off, under such circumstances, either on the basis of "fairness" or in the intrests of maintaining control of the contest. Miura was not "acting up", or expressing hostility or disagreement with the call. Nor were the players on either team angered or inflamed by the incident. If anything, the referee's call was more provocative, and more likely to cause the match to get out of control, than anything that Miura did.

Second, a call like this creates an obvious and undeniable impression of inconsistency. J.League players are always trying to delay free kicks by the other team, whether by kicking the ball away, stumbling over it, picking it up and walking in the other direction, etc etc etc. It has become a standard part of the repertoire of "gamesmanship" employed by every team in the league. Now, lest the reader misunderstand our point, we do not object to the idea that this sort of offence should be punished. On the contrary, if J.League officials started to hand out yellow cards for EVERY such attempt to delay a free kick, the Rising Sun News would loudly applaud the effort to crack down on gamesmanship, and congratulate the referees for their hard work. But the fact is, this infraction is almost NEVER called. In other words, there is no need for Mr. Nishimura to explain why he awarded a yellow card on this occasion; rather, the burden is on him to explain why he DIDNT make this call the other 749 times that he has seen it happen, over the past year.

Needless to say, this changed the character of the match completely, and what had been a very lively and exciting contest in the first half turned into a dull defensive slog in the second half. But as the saying goes "God giveth and god taketh away". With just a little over a minute to play in the match, Vissel striker Ryuji Bando dashed after a long lead pass and threw himself deliberately, headlong, into a Marinos defender. If anyone should have been called for a foul on the play, it was Bando, who was obviously trying to "steal" a call. Predictably, Mr. Nishimura obliged and awarded a free kick just oustide the box. Roger sent the kick towards the right post where rookie defender Hiroyuki Kawamoto was on hand to head it back across the face of goal. Dutra made a desperate effort to head it clear, but only managed to push the ball into the top left corner of his own net, for the equaliser.

Date: 10 Apr, 2005		Location: Yokohama Stadium
1	1 1H 0 0 2H 1	1
Ahn Jung-Hwan (9')	Scoring	Hiroyuki Kawamoto (89')
Daisuke Nasu Naoki Matsuda	Cautions	Park Kang-Jo Ryuhei Niwa Tomo Sugawara Atsuhiro Miura Atsuhiro Miura < Kunie Kitamoto
	Sent Off	Atsuhiro Miura
Lineups:
Tetsuya Enomoto, Yuzo Kurihara, Naoki Matrsuda, Ryuji Kawai, Hayuma Tanaka, Daisuke Oku Daisuke Nasu, Dutra, Masahiro Ohashi (Nobuhisa Shimizu 45), Hideo Oshima (Nobuki Hara 74), Ahn Jung-Hwan. Makoto Kakegawa, Kunie Kitamoto, Yusuke Kawamoto, Roger, Tomo Sugawara, Ryuhei Niwa (Mitsutoshi Watada 77), , Park Kang-Jo, Atsuhiro Miura, Mitsunori Yabuta (Naoya Saeki 72), Ryuji Bando, Kazuyoshi Miura (Pavel Horvath 55) .

FC Tokyo and Kashima Antlers remain at the top of the table, level on points and separated only by goal difference. With their loss to Albirex, upstarts Omiya Ardija drop out of the top group, but remain level on points with the Yokohama Marinos (in third and fourth place), three points back of the two leaders. Jubilo Iwata slip a bit further back due to their inability to collect a win on Sunday.

Rumours and Rumblings

Nishino Goes from Blue to Orange

The decision to rent out Nishino seems to be a reflection of this generational struggle, but at least from our perspective, it demonstrates that Jubilo is moving in exactly the wrong direction. Nishino is a talented young player who has demonstrated great promise in the past, but who has been forced to languish on the bench in the shadow of older, and arguably less talented players. Last week, for example, Choi Yong-Soo was having clear difficulty working in synchronicity with the midfield, but coach Yamamoto's decision to bring in the aging Masashi Nakayama for the entire second half was clearly a step backward, rather than a positive substitution.

In the wake of last week's loss -- attributable to weak performances by the strikers -- it is hard to understand what the team is thinking by ridding themselves of a very capable young striker. From a cynically practical standpoint, we can understand that the team may face griping and dissent from the veterans now that young Robert Cullen has earned one of the two starting spots. With Nakayama, Choi and Rodrigo Gral, as well as young Ryoichi Maeda all in the team roster, Jubilo does indeed have more strikers than the team really needs. But if you are faced with a situation where you have to trim some of the branches from your tree, doesnt it make a lot more sense to start buy cutting off the dead wood -- such as the 37-year-old Nakayama -- rather than hacking off the youngest and most fruitful boughs?

When coach Masakuni Yamamoto took over the reins at Jubilo, we predicted that he might have his hands full trying to sort out the personnel situation, and manage the transition to a younger group of players. This prediction seems to be coming true even sooner than we expected. Unfortunately for Yamamoto, Jubilo is a rich team with relatively fickle fans, who have come to expect success as a matter of course. The generational problem that Jubilo faces at the moment is hardly Yamamoto's fault, and his two immediate successors proved no more capable of dealing with it than he has been, this season. Nevertheless, we suspect that the coach is on a fairly short rope, and if he makes too many early missteps, he may find himself swinging from it before the season is half over. When management makes personnel decisions that are as clueless as this one, they do not make his job any easier. No doubt Yamamoto will win few friends (and many powerful enemies) in the clubhouse if he consigns all the veterans to the reserve squad and goes with a youthful lineup. However, in our eyes, that is his only choice. To mangle a metaphor, you need to crack a few heads if you want to make Shizuoka-style OM-rice.

Lest we overlook the other end of this transaction, it seems that S-Pulse have found yet another designer-brand gem in the bargain basement discount racks. Though we considered their prospects to be rather dim, at the start of the season, S-Pulse have come together very well as a team, under new coach Kenta Hasegawa and his brilliant Brazilian sidekick Carlos Alberto Souza dos Santos. Weary veterans are showing signs of inspired energy and recent acquisitions have stepped right into the starting lineup as if they had been playing there for their entire lives.

The big problem that S-Pulse still face is the fact that they remain quite thin in terms of personnel. This became quite evident in the match on April 2, when a rib injury sidelined ace striker Cho Jae-Jin and the offence suffered a visible deterioration in effectiveness, as a result. The uneven performances of backups Hideaki Kitajima and Yoshikiyo Kuboyama, in a reserve capacity, probably convinced S-Pulse that they needed another quality striker on the roster if they hope to maintain the positive string of results that they achieved at the start of the year. Nishino clearly fits the bill. Not only has he performed well for Jubilo on those occasions when he did get an opportunity to start, but he is also accustomed to coming off the bench and producing instant results. It is hard to recall any player deal in recent years that has been so lopsided, and we cannot help but suspect that Nishino will give Jubilo good reason to regret the deal, before this season is over.