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April 17, 2005

The Usual Suspects?

We will have more to say on this theme in the future, but for now, we can only note that the Kashima Antlers are in about the same position they held the last time that the J.League played its season in a single stage (yes, though many people seem to want to forget about it, the season was played over a single stage in 1996, when the Antlers won their first league title ever). It will be interesting to see if they can maintain their strong start, but obviously there is still a long long way to go.

Here the results from this weekend's matches.

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
Apr 16		2-4		Tokyo Nat'l Stadium
Apr 16		2-2		Yokohama Stadium
Apr 16		0-1		Nihondaira Stadium
Apr 16		1-1		Nagai Stadium
Apr 16		2-0		Hiroshima Big Arch
Apr 16		0-2		Ajinomoto Stadium
Apr 16		0-1		Niigata "Big Swan"
Apr 17		2-3		Omiya Stadium
Apr 17		0-2		Todoroki Stadium

0 - 2

The Reds and FC Tokyo both entered the season as members of the top group of 5 or 6 candidates for a league title, but the two have had very differing fortunes. Tokyo came out of the gate strong, with a four-goal drubbing of Albirex Niigata which kept them at the top of the league table (albeit only on goal difference) until earlier this week. The Reds,. on the other hand, have struggled just to finish their matches with eleven men, and were just a single point off the bottom of the table as they entered this week. In our report on Wednesday night's match, we discussed some of the factors that contributed to this slump. Certainly one of the reasons has been the Reds' inability to field a full-strength squad. Much of the damage may have been self-inflicted (successive disciplinary problems have prevented Ozalan Alpay from finishing a single match, so far this season), but any team will find it more difficult to win matches if too many of their starters are missing.

Another factor that we mentioned, however, was the decision by coach Guido Buchwald to adopt a 3-5-2 formation this year, despite the success the Reds enjoyed with a 3-4-3 in the second half of last year. It is highly unlikely that Buchwald bases his coaching decisions on comments from the Rising Sun News, but at the very least, we can claim a bit of prescience. This week, the Reds came out in a 3-4-3 formation with the speedy and dangerous trio of Tatsuya Tanaka, Yuichiro Nagai and Emerson creating chaos in the FC Tokyo defensive zone with their speedy dashes and continuous shifting of position.

FC Tokyo also has a dangerously swift and unorthodox offensive game plan, and though they have not done a very good job of finishing in their recent matches, they created nearly as many scoring opportunities in the first half as the Reds. It was only that inability to finish which left the contest scoreless at the half, but everyone in the stadium could sense that this would not continue for long.

Sure enough, just three minutes after the restart, a well-designed position shift between Makoto Hasebe and Nagai allowed Hasebe to demolish the right flank of Tokyo's defence with a speedy overlap. As he turned towards the right post, the Tokyo central defenders were torn between cutting off his path to goal or picking up Reds players. Hasebe took advantage of the confusion and played a soft back pass into space for Emerson, who calmly stroked the ball into the back of the net.

The next 20 minutes were perhaps the most intense of the contest, as both teams battled for what would surely be the crucial goal. It finally arrived in the 74 minute, on a set play. The Reds won a corner kick on the left side. Alex Santos looped a cross onto the head of defender Satoshi Horinouchi , and Horinouchi headed it home to give the Reds a secure lead and carry them to their first victory of the season.

Date: 16 Apr, 2005		Location: Ajinomoto Stadium
0	0 1H 0 0 2H 2	2
	Scoring	Emerson (48') Satoshi Horinouchi (74')
Yasuyuki Konno Jo Kanazawa	Cautions	Satoshi Horinouchi Makoto Hasebe
Lineups: Yoichi Doi, Tomoya Maeda, Jean Carlo Witte, Tatsuya Masushima, Jo Kanazawa, Satoru Asari (Yohei Kajiyama 63), Yasuyuki Konno, Yuichi Kurisawa, Naohiro Ishikawa (Norio Suzuki 71), Mitsuhiro Toda (Yusuke Kondo 77), Lucas Severino. Ryota Tsuzuki, Keisuke Tsuboi, Satoshi Horinouchi, Hideki Uchidate, Nobuhisa Yamada, (Masayuki Okano 81), Makoto Hasebe (Tomoyuki Sakai 73), Keita Suzuki, Alessandro Santos (Tadaaki Hirakawa 63), Yuichiro Nagai, Tatsuya Tanaka, Emerson .

2 - 4

The Antlers, meanwhile, have spent two seasons restructuring their team around a younger core of players, and failed to produce any silverware for two years running. For any other team this might seem unimportant, but for the Antlers, it was the first time that this has ever happened (if you include the trophies that teams used to win for winning a single stage as "silverware"). This seaon, however, they seem to be back in fine form, thanks to an extremely stubborn offence and a renewed ability to find the net, thanks in large part to their new Brazilian ace Alex Mineiro.

The fans packing National Stadium came here expecting a furious contest, and they got exactly that, as both teams put the ball into the net withing 15 minutes of kickoff. Both goals were disallowed for offsides, yet both appeared to be very marginal calls (in fact, you might argue that the JEF goal was disallowed as a "make-up call" for what looked like a legitimate Antlers goal just minutes earlier).

Following the initial burst of offfensive power, the two teams settled down to a probing and feinting battle in which both clubs patiently sought the seams in the opposing team's defence. Though the overall pace of play slowed a bit, this was punctuated by sudden bursts of excitement as one eam or the other created a break and a quality scoring opportunity. You could certainly tell that this contest was not going to end in a scoreless draw. The stalemate was finally broken five minutes before half time, when Fernando looped a beautiful, 40-meter cross-field pass over the heads of the JEF defence and met Mitsuo Ogasawara in full stride as he dashed out of midfield and towards the right side of the penalty area. Ogasawara chested the ball down whele still in full sprint, and send a sizzling ground ball into the far corner, beyond the reach of the Chiba keeper Ryo Kushino.

But JEF responded almost immediately, and two minutes before the break, Mario Haas fed a through pass to Yuto Sato inside the penalty arc, in a narrow gap between the central defenders. Sato played the pass perfectly, pushing it through into the box with a drop-step move and then pivoting quickly to fire a shot between the two converging defenders and into the high left corner, bringing JEF back level at the break.

The crucial play that decided the match came seven minutes after the break. JEF came out with a quick initial thrust, perhaps hoping to snatch a quick goal and force the Antlers to push forward out of their defensive shell. But in the 53 minute, the Antlers made a countersurge in numbers, and "reading" the defence, right wing back Toru Araiba made a sudden slanting run through the middle. Masashi Motoyama fed him with a back heel, and suddenly Araiba was in full sprint towards the box with only Ilyan Stoyanov between him and goal. Stoyanov was caught flat-footed and had no prayer of staying with Araiba as he dashed past, so he rashly chose to take the speedy wingback down with a professional foul. The referee was just two paces away from the play, and had no illusions that Stoyanov was going for the ball. He went to his pocket and drew out the red rectangle, reducing JEF to ten men. JEF fans may feel that his dismissal was a bit harsh, but replays leave little doubt that the only worthwhile debate is whether it should have been a yellow card or a red. When a defender deliberately breaks the rules to stop what would be a near certain goal for the opposing team, it is at the referee's discretion to decide whether it should be yellow or red, and he apparently concluded that a red card was the "fairest" call.

This upset the balance of a match which, to that point, had been controlled by the Antlers, but not too one-sidedly. The additional space created by the absence of JEF's top defender, however, turned a close struggle into a rout. It took just five minutes for the Antlers to claim the go-ahead goal. Following a corner kick, JEF cleared the ball to midfield but the Antlers kept the ball in and moved it around the perimeter with short passes. Defender Daiki Iwamasa, a powerful player who is always a threat on set plays, remained in the box rather than retreat following JEF's clearance, and he was rewarded with a low cross from Ogasawara in the left corner. Iwamasa muscled between two JEF defenders and shuffled the ball past the keeper from close range.

In the 65 minute the Antlers extended the lead with another series of cquick passes around the perimeter and a diagonal through pass from Arivaldo dos Santos to Ogasawara, who used his first touch to chip the ball into the low right corner. JEF managed to fight back into contention just moments later on a nice quick-release shot by Mario Haas, which caught the keeper Hitoshi Sogahata by surprise and hit the top left corner before he could react. But the man advantage was far too large a factor to overcome, and the Antlers came close to scoring several times over the next ten minutes before finally putting the game to bed on a dribbling rush by Alex Mineiro, who took the ball right over top of the sprawling keeper and then tucked it into the empty net.

Date: 16 Apr, 2005		Location: Tokyo Nat'l Stadium
2	1 1H 1 1 2H 3	4
Sato (43') Haas (67')	Scoring	Ogasawara (39') Iwamasa (58') Ogasawara (65') Alex Mineiro (77')
Yuki Abe Seiichiro Maki Mario Haas Daisuke Saito	Cautions	Alex Mineiro Takeshi Aoki Daiki Iwamasa Toru Araiba
Lineups: Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Ilyan Stoyanov, Yuki Mizumoto, Koki Mizuno (Satoru Yamagishi 64), Yuki Abe, Yuto Sato, Masataka Sakamoto, Naotake Hanyu (Kozo Yuki 68), Seiichiro Maki (Takenori Hayashi 72), Mario Haas . Hitoshi Sogahata, Arivaldo dos Santos, Daiki Iwamasa, Go Oiwa, Toru Araiba, Takeshi Aoki (Jun Uchida 86), Fernando, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama (Masaki Fukai 82), Takuya Nozawa, Alex Mineiro (Shinzo Koroki 89) .

2 - 2

Both Yokohama Marinos and Gamba Osaka were viewed at the start of the season as potential league champions, and despite a slow start, they certainly still deserve that reputation. However, both teams lagged front-runners like the Antlers and FC Tokyo copming into this contest, and clearly both were keen to pick up a full three points. Gamba came out with an interesting formation which caused the Marinos some trouble early in the match. Rather than their usual 3-5-2, Gamba came out with national-team hopeful Masashi Oguro as a lone striker, while the relatively small but speedy pair of Fernandinho and Araujo played in a constantly-moving double playmaker role. Though the Marinos have one of the best team defences in the league, it is their height, speed and power in the box that allows them to keep opposing attackers at bay. Over the first 30 minutes of play the central defenders, respecting Oguro's scoring capability, hung back in conventional positionsnear the top of the box. But this allowed Araujo and Fernandinho to collect the ball with their face toward goal, and look to penetrate on the dribble. Gamba had three or four good scoring opportunities before defender Noritada Saneyoshi finally finished off a set play with the first goal of his entire J.League career.

The Marinos had some opportunities of their own, but on this particular afternoon it was Gamba's defence that looked impenetrable. The Marinos did a good job of working the ball down the wings, through Dutra and Hayuma Tanaka, but they were unable to turn this into many shots on goal. But just when it looked like Gamba would make it into the locker room with a lead, Ahn Jung-Hwan demonstrated why he has become a dangerous weapon for the Marinos. Though most "reviewers" like to discuss his quick shot and his dribbling skills, perhaps the greatest strength of Ahn's game is his intelligence and understanding of game situations. With time running out in the half, Tanaka send a cross in for Ahn on the right side of the box, about level with the penalty spot. The keeper, Suguru Hino had to cover a good deal of ground for the high lob, but it was apparent that he would get to the ball in time. Ahn was in better position for the cross, but he knew he would be outjumped for the ball, so rather than leap futilely, and probably draw a foul for charging the keeper, he stood perfectly still and watched the play develop. Since Ahn was in his way, Hino was a bit off balance as he jumped, and rather than catching it cleanly, he blocked it down with his hands, assuming that he could catch it on the bounce. But Ahn was watching the play intently, and reacted immediately as the ball came down, short-hopping it with a weak but ultimately effective bloop shot which bounded into the back of the net.

In the second half, the Marinos made a few adjustments to their defending assignments, and did a much more effective job of keeping Gamba at bay while creating chances of their own. But just when it seemed that the momentum was swinging towards the home team, Fernandinho and Araujo combined on a lightning-fast counterstrike which shattered the Marinos defence and was finished off by Araujo with a flourish.

The Marinos fought furiously for the equaliser, but as they increased their pressure on offence, the counterattacks by Gamba became more and more dangerous. With about seven minutes left to play, Araujo led one such counterstrike to the edge of the box, even with the left post, and ripped off a blistering shot that bounded just in front of the keeper. Hino tried to smother the shot, but spilled it forward, and Fernandinho dashed in to poke it home.

Replays show that there were at least two and possibly three Marinos players on the goalward side of Fernandinho when Araujo released the shot -- in fact, though we have not yet found a replay that shows the right angle to let us confirm this suspicion, judging from Fernandinho's momentum it looks like he was BEHIND Araujo when the shot was taken. Yet as the Gamba players congregated behind the goal to celebrate, the linesman was waving his flag and signalling to Mr. Okutani to disallow the goal. Obviously, with a two-goal lead, Gamba could have stacked its defence, wasted time and run out the clock. But the disallowed goal shook their concentration and gave the Marinos a boost of confidence. Yokohama threw everything they had into attack, and . . . . sure enough . . . with just three minutes left in regulation time, the Marinos got a free kick about 30 meters out from goal. A lob into the box was collected by Naoki Matsuda, and though his shot was blocked by the keeper, Hideo Oshima headed in the equaliser for Yokohama. Gamba fans will surely be growling angrily about this incident, since it isnt the first time this year that they have fallen victim to an erroneous ofside call. The final result will not satisfy either team, as their failure to collect all three points causes the Marinos slip further behind the first-place Antlers and Gamba to slip into the lower half of the table.

Date: 16 Apr, 2005		Location: Yokohama Int'l Stadium
2	1 1H 1 1 2H 1	2
Ahn Jung-Hwan (44') Hideo Oshima (87')	Scoring	Noritada Saneyoshi (16') Araujo (73')
	Cautions	Sidiclei
Lineups: Tetsuya Enomoto, Yuzo Kurihara, Naoki Matsuda, Yuji Nakazawa, Hayuma Tanaka, Daisuke Nasu, Yoshiharu Ueno (Daisuke Oku 58) Dutra, Masahiro Ohashi (Shingo Kumabayashi 74), Daisuke Sakata (Hideo Oshima 58), Ahn Jung-Hwan. Suguru Hino, Satoru Yamaguchi (Ryota Aoki 63), Sidiclei, Noritada Saneyoshi, Mitsuteru Watanabe (Toshihiro Matsushita 45), Hideo Hashimoto, Yasuhito Endo, Takahiro Futagawa, Araujo, Fernandinho (Ryota Aoki 83), Masashi Oguro .

2 - 0

Sanfrecce are beginning to get positive results, but as you watch them play one of the league's weaker teams, such as Vissel, you get the sense that their large stable of young offence-oriented players has the potential to scale even greater heights, if they get the coaching they need to develop their obvious talent. THis match could have been a much greater blowout if Sanfrecce had used some of the scoring opportunities they got early in the contest to greater effect. Be that as it may, the team does seem to be developing a better understanding of both the tactics of attacking football and of one anothers' intentions. Sanfrecce got on the scoreboard in the 15 minute, on a flawlessly executed set play from about 30 meters out, a bit to the right of the box. Hiroshima's teen wonder Shunsuke Maeda took the kick and sent a low, curling line drive that hooked goalwards as a crowd of Sanfrecce players dashed towards the goal mouth. Kazuyuki Morisaki managed to get his head on the ball and flick it on into the far corner, leaving the Vissel keeper in a helpless heap of misery.

Just before the half, Sanfrecce doubled their lead on a very pretty counterattack. Galvao, the team's new Brazilian striker who is finally beginning to work his way into the lineup, took a quick outlet and started the break, then released "Beto" Martins into a one-on-zero gallop with a defence-splitting through pass. Keeper Makoto Kakegawa did a good job of dashing off his line and forcing Beto to take the ball wide. By the time he settled it, his angle for a shot on goal was virtually nil. But rather than firing off an overambitious shot, Beto pulled the ball wide and waited for help to arrive. Eventually he was able to drop a rolling pass to Susumu Oki, motoring into the box, and Oki drilled a low bullet just inside the right post.

Vissel managed to play Sanfrecce a bit more even in the second half, though their scoring opportunities were few and far between. Eventually Sanfrecce eased off the accelerator and just ran out the clock to collect their second consecutive win.

Date: 16 Apr, 2005		Location: Hiroshima "Big Arch" Std.
2	2 1H 0 0 2H 0	0
Kazuyuki Morisaki (15') Susumu Oki (41')	Scoring
Dininho	Cautions	Hiroyuki Kawamoto Tomo Sugawara
Lineups: Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano, Dininho, Norio Omura, Kota Hattori, Joubert "Beto" Martins, Susumu Oki Kazuyuki Morisaki, Takehito Shigehara (Shohei Ikeda 85), Galvao (Hayato Sato 89), Shusuke Maeda (Hiroto Mogi 65) . Makoto Kakegawa, Kunie Kitamoto, Yusuke Kawamoto, Roger, Park Kang-Jo (Mitsunori Yabuta 77), Tomo Sugawara, Ryuhei Niwa (Naoya Saeki 80), Atsuhiro Miura, Pavel Horvath, Ryuji Bando, Kazuyoshi Miura (Tomoyuki Hirase 70) .

1 - 1

Reysol tried to pick up the pace in the second half, but a second yellow card offence by Yukio Tsuchiya reduced them to ten men. Cerezo immediately brought on Teruaki Kurobe to step up the attacking pressure, but Reysol retreated into a defensive shell that Cerezo was unable to penetrate. The match ended with the score 1-1, and both teams slipped a notch further down the table.

Date: 16 Apr, 2005		Location: Nagai Stadium
1	1 1H 1 0 2H 0	1
Akinori Nishizawa (4')	Scoring	Sotaro Yasunaga (41')
Tomi Shimomura Bruno Cuadros	Cautions	Yukio Tsuchiya Cleber Yukio Tsuchiya
	Sent Off	Yukio Tsuchiya (2Y)
Lineups: Motohiro Yoshida, Bruno Cuadros, Tomoki Maeda, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Tomi Shimomura, Takanori Nunobe (Teruaki Kurobe 77), Kiyokazu Kudo, Ze Carlos, Tatsuya Furuhashi, Akinori Nishizawa, Hiroaki Morishima (Nozomu Hiroyama 82) . Yuta Minami, Yasuhiro Hato, Yukio Tsuchiya, Sota Nakazawa, Naoya Kondo, Tomokazu Myojin, Ricardinho (Tomonori Hirayama 87), Cleber Santana Loureio, Harutaka Ono, Sotaro Yasunaga (Yoshiteru Yamashita 80), Choi Song-Guk (Norihiro Satsukawa 72) .

0 - 1

The good news is that the youngsters -- particularly members of the attacking unit such as Robert Cullen, Shinichi Maeda and Sho Naruoka -- are starting to gain confidence and play with greater poise and coordination. The lone goal of this contest came on a beautiful attacking rush in the 27 minute that saw newcomer Shinji Murai penetrate the right flank while Cullen and Naruoka ran perfectly conceived routes to the near and far posts. Murai's cross to the far post was headed home powerfully by Naruoka, and Jubilo took the early lead.

The bad news for Jubilo is that their midfield and defence is still decrepit, and if not for some unusually weak offensive buildup by Albirex (which demonstrates what a vitally important role Fabinho plays in coordinating the team's attack), the surely would have given away the equaliser. As it was, Jubilo seemed to be hanging on for dear life down the stretch . . . . and the late substitution of Toshiya Fujita and Masashi Nakayama only made matters worse.

Nevertheless, Jubilo will certainly be thankful for the three points, though it still leaves them straggling well back in the pack, as the J1 season approaches the quarter pole.

Date: 16 Apr, 2005		Location: Niigata "Big Swan" Std.
0	0 1H 1 0 2H 0	1
	Scoring	Sho Naruoka (27')
	Cautions	Naoya Kikuchi
Lineups: Yosuke Nozawa, Yasushi Kita, Keiji Kaimoto, Yoshiaki Maruyama, Kentaro Suzuki (Yuzo Funakoshi 45), Yoshito Terakawa Isao Honma, Motohiro Yamaguchi (Anderson Lima 63), Edmilson, Yusaku Ueno, (Daisuke Aono 77), Shingo Suzuki . Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Kim Sung-ji, Makoto Tanaka, Toshihiro Hattori, Yoshiaki Ota, Takashi Fukunishi (Naoya Kikuchi 41), Hiroshi Nanami, Shinji Murai, Sho Naruoka (Toshiya Fujita 73), Robert Cullen, Shinichi Maeda (Masashi Nakayama 84) .

0 - 1

S-Pulse dominated play over the opening 45 minutes, and though Oita did produce a few dangerous counterattacks spearheaded by Lucas "Dodo" Ricardo and Magno Alves, it was S-Pulse who came closest to scoring. Sugiyama finished off one dribbling run with a screaming line drive from the top right corner of the box that left scorch marks on the outside of the left post, as it whizzed past. Unfortunately for the home fans, however, S-Pulse could not find the net, and the two teams went in at half time with the score box empty.

Ten minutes after the restart, Trinita got a crucial break, as Daiki Takamatsu and Ryuzo Morioka jostled each other while chasing a long lob pass into the box and Takamatsu went tumbling to the turf. There did indeed appear to be some contact between Morioka and Takamatsu, but it looked to be quite minor and incidental. Even so, the referee decided to award Trinita a PK which was driven home by Magno Alves. This turned out to be the only goal of the contest, and will leave S-Pulse fans with a bitter taste in their mouths considering how they dominated play over most of the contest. The loss drops S-Pulse into the bottom spot on the league table, as the only team that has not yet claimed their first win of the season.

Date: 16 Apr, 2005		Location: Nihondaira Stadium
0	0 1H 0 0 2H 1	1
	Scoring	Magno Alves (55')
Cho Jae-Jin	Cautions
Lineups:
Yohei Nishibe, Daisuke Ichikawa, Toshihide Saito, Ryuzo Morioka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Masaki Yamamoto (Keisuke Ota 60), Kazumichi Takagi (Jumpei Takaki 58), Teruyoshi Ito, Kota Sugiyama, Choi Dae-Uk (Yasumasa Nishino 77), Cho Jae-Jin . Koji Esumi, Tomoki Fukaya, Masakazu Shibakoya, Taikai Uemoto, Koji Arimura, Takashi Umeda, Taku Harada (Tomoaki Komorida 76), Yoshida, Yoshiro Abe, Magno Alves, Lucas "Dodo" Ricardo (Daiki Takamatsu 51) (Yuichi Nemoto 56) .

2 - 3

In the first half it seemed like Ardija could do nothing right while Verdy could do little that was wrong. Ossie Ardilles gave teenaged striker Takayuki Morimoto his first start of the year, alongside Washington, and the two played like a master craftsman and his talented apprentice for the better part of an hour. Though there were one or two occasions when the two got their signals crossed and ended up getting in each others' way, in general the presence of two players with superior possession skills, speed, power and a quick shot had Omiya reeling on the ropes. Just over ten minutes into the contest Ardija's frantic defending efforts finally cracked, as a post play by Washington sent Kazuki Hiramoto into the box and Seiichiro Okano's desperate effort for a sliding tackle merely produced a PK for Verdy. Washington stroked the ball home and Tokyo had the lead.

Not long afterward, a similar effort by Verdy to press into the attacking zone in numbers provided Washington with the ball and a small seam to shoot through, and he doubled the advantage. At half time the match seemed to be entirely one-sided and Verdy might have thought they were on their way to an easy win. In the second half, Ardija shifted to a more offensive formation and began producing more offence of their own, but Verdy seemed to maintain control of the pace, and just when Ardija seemed to be gaining the upper hand, a counterattack produced a vital third goal. A long, high ball into the box fell between the keeper and two defenders, and while they were still trying to make up their minds who should play the ball, Tadamichi Machida raced up and poked the ball away, and into the Arjina net.

Despite this setback, Omiya were starting to gain the upper hand, in part (from our perspective) due to the overly hasty decision to pull Morimoto. Though he may have been making a few rookie errors, his speed and ability to hold the ball up front were useful in preventing Ardija from maintaining possession and orchestrating their attacks. Once Morimoto was replaced, Ardija seemed to have more room to move the ball around at the back, and set up their plays.

The home team got a huge boost in the 76 minute when Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel dashed to the end line to keep in a deflected cross, and Christian Dionisio lashed it home with a classic overhead bicycle kick. This raised Ardija's hopes while prompting Berdy to retreat into a rather impotent defensive shell. One suspects that they would have been better off trying to pressure the ball and create chances of their own, but for whatever reasons, this gave Omiya the unchallenged initiative over the final 15 minutes of play. With eight minutes left on the clock, Koji Morita gave the home fans hope as he bundled home a corner kick at the far (right) post, though it looked like he may have used his upper arm to help steer the ball into the net. Unfortunately, Morita failed to live up to the role of hero, missing badly about four minutes later when he seemed to have the goal at his mercy. Though Ardija's fanatical pressure kept viewere on the edge of their seats throughout the waning moment, in the end the clock ran out on their ambitions, and Verdy escaped with the win.

Date: 17 Apr, 2005		Location: Omiya Stadium
2	0 1H 2 2 2H 1	3
Christian (76') Koji Morita (82')	Scoring	Washington (14') Washington (25') Tadamichi Machida (73')
Seiichiro Okuno	Cautions
Lineups: Hiroki Aratani, Takuro Nishimura, Toninho, Seiichiro Okuno, Daisuke Tomita (Kazuyoshi Mikami 45), Jun Marques Davidson, Jin Kanazawa (Masahiro Ando 57), Tatsunori Hisanaga (Koji Morita 67), Chikara Fujimoto, Christian Dionisio, Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel . Yoshinari Takagi, Takeshi Hirano, Lee Kang-Ji, Kentaro Hayashi, Masayuki Yanagisawa (Kazuyuki Toda 87), Takuya Yamada, Daigo Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki Kobayashi, Kazuki Hiramoto, Takayuki Morimoto (Tadamichi Machida 67), Washington.

0 - 2

This actually looks like a very smart move, since the defensive skills of both Makoto Kakuda and Yusuke Nakatani were being wasted by playing them at midfield wing, whereas An Yeon-Ha's creative capabilities were underutilised when he was playing as one of the three backs. With Claiton and An playing twin volante positions, the Grampus formation and playing style actually looked quite a bit like the traditional Kashima Antlers box-four-type 4-4-2 that helped Akita earn one title ring for every finger on both hands. The rapid development of rookie Keisuke Honda as an accomplished playmaker allows Claiton to retreat into a position that seems to suit him better than the central playmaker spot below the two strikers. In short, Grampus seems to have found the key to success by adopting a formation that a few "unnamed journalists" (you know who you are) have declared to be "not well suited to Japanese players".

Whether or not the formation was the key element, there is no question that Grampus looked a lot more effective this week than they have in their past two or three matches. Frontale, on the other hand, seemed to have worn out their shooting boots, after they put six goals past Vissel Kobe on Wednesday night. Though they did keep the match reasonably competitive, the Grampus back four -- anchored by the uber-veteran Akita -- kept their attacks in check for the most part, and a fine diving save by Seigo Narazaki in the second half turned away the only effort that could have blotched their clean sheet.

Grampus had several brilliant counterattacking rushes that narrowly missed breaking the ice in the first half, yet their first goal came on a fairly pedestrian set play -- a free kick from just outside the box after Honda was pulled down as he cut across the top of the arc. Naoshi Nakamura struck a curling right-footed shot over the wall and into the top left corner.

But for those who enjoy dazzling replays, the second goal provided a proper reflection of the beautiful offensive rushes that Grampus generated on Sunday afternoon. As Grampus moved the ball around the box looking for an opening, An overlapped from his defensive position and took the ball into the right corner. It looked like he was cut off and would have to pull the ball back out, when suddenly An flicked a backheel pass to Yusuke Igawa, who had come on as a substitute at right wing back. Igawa immediately lobbed the ball for the near post, and Keita Sugimoto threw himself feet-first at the ball tovolley it home. This was a good reflection of the sort of ball movement and coordination that Grampus were finally beginning to generate, this week, and if they keep up this effort, they are likely to be one of the main challengers to the league-leading Antlers as the season wears on.

Oh, but we forgot . . . the Zicovian 4-4-2 is supposed to be "unsuitable" for Japanese players. So teams that adopt it couldnt possibly be holding down four of the top five positions in the league table . . . . could they? Obviously something must be wrong somewhere. The only question is whether events have conspired to refute "reality", or whether the people who are claiming that a three-back system is "the ideal system for Japanese teams" simply dont know what they are talking about.

Hmmmm . . . . perhaps that isnt a difficult question to answer after all.

Date: 17 Apr, 2005		Location: Todoroki Stadium
0	0 1H 1 0 2H 1	2
	Scoring	Naoshi Nakamura (42') Keita Sugimoto (77')
	Cautions	Naoshi Nakamura Yusuke Igawa
Lineups: Shinya Yoshihara, Yoshinobu Minowa, Shuhei Terada (Hideki Sahara 45), Hiroki Ito, Hiroyuki Tankguchi (Naoki Soma 72), Kengo Nakamura, Yasuhiro Nagahashi, Augusto de Souza, Marcus de Morais, Givonaldo "Hulk" de Souza (Masaru Kurotsu 60), Kazuki Ganaha . Seigo Narazaki, Makoto Kakuda, Yutaka Akita, Takahiro Masukawa, Yusuke Nakatani (Yusuke Igawa 71), An Yeon-Ha (Keiji Yoshimura 77), Claiton, Kei Yamaguchi, Keisuke Honda (Keita Sugimoto 65), Naoshi Nakamura, Marques .

As we noted at the top, the Kashima Antlers have extended their lead at the top of the table following their win over JEF United, and now are the only undefeated team left in the J.League. Nagoya Grampus advanced to second place with their victory over Frontale, and the Yokohama Marinos edged ahead of FC Tokyo by virtue of their late equaliser against Gamba and Tokyo's loss to the Reds (who have at least climbed out of the relegation zone, though they still have a lot of work ahead of them if they hope to catch up with the leaders).

Vegalta's Stars Are Falling, in a Topsy-Turvy J2

The one team whose performance has lived up to expectations is Kyoto Purple Sanga. Under the firm hand of coach Koichi Hashiratani, the purple gang have cleared out all the slackers and complainers, and are now keeping their minds on the task of piling up points. Hashiratani is best known for his disciplinarian nature and no-nonsense attitude, but the coach has also demonstrated a very keen tactical ability, and his teams are generally very sound defensively yet extremely dangerous on the counterattack. The young Brazilian duo of Paulinho (23) and Alemao (21) has provided most of the scoring punch, but the team's success has been built on the performances from a solid group of journeyman midfielders who . . . for some reason . . . all seem to be named "Daisuke" (Hoshi, Saito, Nakaharai and Watanabe, as well as DaiSHI Kato). If Daisuke Matsui had not left for Le Mans in the middle of last season, the team could field almost an entire squad of Daisukes! In any event, Kyoto have a solid lead at the top of the table, and if they can get through a difficult stretch over the next three weeks with at least six points, they will have established themselves as a clear favourite for promotion, and perhaps the league title as well.

At the opposite end of the scale, in more ways than one, is Vegalta Sendai, who just cant seem to do anything right despite having a talented group of players and some of the best fan support in the league. This week they lost a home match against one of last year's strugglers, Sagan Tosu, in a 0-2 decision that never even seemed to be competitive. One certainly hopes that Vegalta can turn the tide and move back into contention. Their fantastic fans deserve no less. However, we have noted for about the past two years a tendency in the head office -- as well as in the coaching ranks -- to ignore the needs and wishes of both fans and players, as if they owe some sort of responsibility or debt to the team, rather than the other way around. Vegalta climbed into the J1 on the strength of tremendous fan support and player enthusiasm, as much as from any clever acquisitions or organizational moves by the team management. When team officials respond to questions from the press about "what is wrong with the team", it may be technically accurate to say "the players arent performing well", but that certainly is not the sort of comment that will help address the problem. There is a very serious risk that Vegalta will implode in the same way their northern neighbours Consadole Sapporo did a few years ago, if the team doesnt get its act together soon.

Speaking of Consadole, they continue to struggle along the road to recovery, with an undermanned team and lagging attendances. One hesitates to suggest investment in more quality players, since this was one of the factors that contributed to their collapse. However, it is clear that Consadole is on a slightly lower level than the rest of the league in terms of player quality. About the only other teams that are on the same plane are Thespa Kusatsu and Mito Hollyhock. The thing that Consadole seems to lack most, at the moment, is a central figure to provide leadership and inspiration. Even if it means that they cannot afford any other new players, the folks in Sapporo should do their utmost to sign a well-known and admired veteran who is on the downward slope of his career, but can still make a substantial contribution to a weak team. Several other J2 teams have revived their fortunes with just that sort of acquisition.

Perhaps the best illustration of this principle is Shonan Bellmare, who signed Kashiwa Reysol's veteran midfielder Nozomu Kato, at the start of this season, and have quickly moved towards the top of the J2 rankings on the wave of enthusiasm that he has generated from both fans and his teammates. Kato was tied for fourth place on the league scoring table as of this weekend, and has injected new life into some of the other Bellmare veterans with his high work rate, leadership and determination. Certainly incoming coach Eiji Ueda also deserves some of the credit for the team's renaissance. The former Japan women's NT coach confounded preseason expectations by adopting a 4-4-2 formation very unlike the system he used with the women's NT, and starting the odd couple of Kato and converted striker Yasunori Takada as the twin playmakers. This has worked extremely well so far, and though Bellmare may need to land a quality striker to maintain this form through the end of the season, at the moment one has to at least give them a chance of earning promotion this season.

The other big surprise in the J2 this year has been Tokushima Vortis, who registered an impressive victory in their first-ever J.League match, and have continued to play well despite a relative lack of players with former J.League experience. Though they have fallen back to around the middle of the table, we think they will be able to sustain a competitive level of performance over the remainder of the season, allowing them to build their fan base and work their way up the ladder towards the ultimate goal of a future spot in the J1.

Avispa Fukuoka certainly deserve to be mentioned in our quick overview, since they look like the only convincing rival that Kyoto Purple Sanga have in the contest for the J2 championship. Avispa made it to the promotion/relegation series last season before falling to Kashiwa Reysol twice, by lopsided results which sent their fans away a bit disappointed. This year it looks like their prospects for outright promotion are good. The team does not have anyone who would qualify as a "star" player, whether it be "former" or "prospective", but they do have a deep roster of well-schooled players who will prompt long-time J.League fans to sit up and say "Oh yeah, I remember him . . . " Despite the lack of stellar contributors -- or perhaps BECAUSE of it -- Avispa are an extremely consistent and harmonious team, which rarely commits foolish errors. This is a good recipie for a winning team, and considering the relatively mild competition that they face this season, we think Avispa will probably spend the latter half of this season worrying less about promotion and more about whether they can overtake Kyoto to claim the J2 trophy.

Below are the J2 standings as of April 17. We will continue to keep you updated on the progress of the J2 teams, and hope that in the not TOO distant future we will have the time and resources to begin providing more regular coverage of the exciting and surprisingly high-quality matches taking place in Japan's second division.

.	Team	Pts	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	G.Dif
1	Kyoto Purple Sanga	19	7	6	1	0	14	6	+8
2	Avispa Fukuoka	15	7	4	3	0	12	4	+8
3	Shonan Bellmare	12	7	3	3	1	8	5	+3
4	Montedio Yamagata	10	7	2	4	1	10	6	+4
5	Ventforet Kofu	9	7	2	3	2	12	10	+2
6	Tokushima Vortis	9	7	2	3	2	11	10	+1
7	Sagan Tosu	9	7	2	3	2	9	9	+0
8	Yokohama FC	9	7	2	3	2	6	7	-1
9	Mito Hollyhock	7	7	2	1	4	8	13	-5
10	Consadole Sapporo	6	7	1	3	3	6	9	-3
11	Vegalta Sendai	4	7	1	1	5	7	13	-6
12	Thespa Kusatsu	3	7	1	0	6	5	16	-11

Rumours and Rumblings

Jubilo Bomb Out in Dramatic Style

For those who missed the preliminaries to this semifarcical situation, Jubilo Iwata won the Emperor's Cup on January 1, 2004. Since the Asian Football Confederation reorganised the regional tournament structure in 2004, Jubilo did not receive a berth in any Asian championships as a result of this victory. But considering how very fortunate they were to win the Emperor's Cup title that year, and their subsequent collapse in the 2004 regular season, it should have been obvious to all concerned that Jubilo were not deserving of the term "Champions".

Not that the team does not have an impressive past history . . . or a promising future for that matter. Indeed, Jubilo is the only J.League team to reign as Asian champions, after they won the "Asian Super Cup" in 1998-99. But one look at their current position in the J1 league table is enough to tell even the most casual observer that, at least in 2005, Jubilo is NOT one of the two best teams in the J.League. Tokyo Verdy, which won the Emperor's Cup on January 1, 2005, argued with passion and very convincing logic that they were the team which deserved to take part in this year's ACL campaign. Unfortunately, this argument fell on deaf ears, as the JFA granted the berth to Jubilo.

On Wednesday evening, April 20, both Jubilo and the JFA reaped the rewards of this ill-advised decision, as Jubilo were numerically eliminated from any chance of progressing beyond the first round of the ACL competition despite the fact that there are still two matches remaining in the competition. Jubilo lost their match against Samsung Bluewings by a 2-1 scoreline. Though they took an early lead on a goal by veteran midfielder Toshiya Fujita, Samsung roared back withn two second-half goals to eliminate Jubilo from any chance of advancing. Jubilo have not only embarassed themselves with their pusillanimous performance, but have sullied the image of all J.League teams, by association. It is hard to imagine that any of the teams which actually DID win a title in the past year (Tokyo Verdy won the Emperor's Cup, while FC Tokyo won the Nabisco Cup) could have performed any worse.

If this were the end of the story, and we could just laugh at Jubilo for their impressive feat of self-immolation, that would be fine. Unfortunately, by awarding Jubilo a spot in the ACL this season, the JFA has locked itself into a situation that almost guarantees sub-par performances from Japan's ACL participants for years to come. SInce they were denied an ACL place this year, Verdy will naturally insist on receiving one of Japan's two ACL spots next season. But by the time they play their first ACL match, it will have been 15 months since Verdy won the title that earned them this spot. Anyone who has been following the J.League for any length of time knows that team quality and competitiveness change dramatically from year to year. The Verdy team that takes part in next year's ACL campaign will bear little resemblance to the one that won the Emperor's Cup on January 1 of this year. Of course, everyone will be hoping that Verdy continues to improve, and will be an even more competitive football team next year than they are this year. But obviously, there is a good chance that this will not be the case.

The next time you hear someone complaining about how little respect Japan's football teams receive from Asian opponents -- despite the fact that the Japan National Team has pretty well dominated regional competitions for the past 12 years (three Asian Cup titles out of the past four, among other successes) -- tell them that this is exactly what we deserve. When a football association DELIBERATELY makes decisions to ensure that its representatives in Asian competitions are NOT the most competitive squads available, they deserve to be embarassed and disrespected. Of course, we will still be rooting for the Yokohama Marinos to go far in this year's competition, and make up for the sad performance of Jubilo. But at the end of the day, the JFA is responsible for essentially tossing away one of Japan's two chances to win a berth in this year's World Club Championship. In our eyes, the more embarassment they are forced to endure for this decision, the better.

Marinos Stay Afloat with Wet Win

After 45 minutes of scoreless football, the Marinos finally found the net in the first minute of first-half injury time, when a long pass from the Marinos back line was nicely headed on by Ahn Jung-Hwan, sending Daisuke Sakata into the clear for a shot on goal. Sakata waited for the keeper to dash off his line, then fired into the low right corner to give Yokohama the lead at the half-time break.

Early in the second half, Ahn tallied his fifth goal in as many matches, heading home a corner kick from the left side. Coach Takeshi Okada took both Ahn and Sakata off soon after the second goal. Clearly, he was more interested in keeping his strikers fresh for the important string of five league matches that take place over the next two weeks than he is in building Yokohama's goal difference in the ACL. This could eventually come back to haunt the Marinos, but at the same time, it demonstrates Okada's faith in his team. After their stunning loss to Shandong at home, on March 9, the Marinos have put themselves in a position where they MUST win the away leg in Shandong, on May 11. However, those who watched the first leg could see that Yokohama were a far superior team. If they can score twice in the return leg, they should emerge as the winners (a 2-1 victory would still give them the advantage on away goals rule). No doubt, Okada is counting on the fact that Japanese players tend to respond best when they are playing on opposition turf, and are under pressure.

In any case, the Marinos' first and foremost challenge is the string of upcoming matches against domestic opponents (between April 24 and May 8, they play home contests against Omiya Ardija and Shimizu S-Pulse and away matches against Kawasaki Frontale, Tokyo Verdy and Sanfrecce Hiroshima). If they can get through that brutal schedule with a favourable won-lost record, a match on hostile territory against a top Chinese opponent will probably seem like a stroll through the park.

Mystified Matsunaga Meets Match, as Merciless Master Mikitani Myopically Manipulates Managerial Merry-go-Round

On Tuesday afternoon Vissel Kobe's director of player development, Yasutoshi Miura, met with the press to announce that the team had asked head coach Hideki Matsunaga to step down, a mere six matches after he took charge of the team, due to "unsatisfactory results" on the pitch. We always suspected that Mr. Mikitani would lack the patience to see Vissel through the long and painful rebuilding process that they will require in order to become a competitive team, bu this is ridiculous! Somebody needs to inform the Crimson Group owner that Kobe's record over the first six matches -- a win, two draws and three losses -- is actually a tremendous achievement if you consider the players it has on its roster and the chaotic conditions that the team has faced over the past two years.

You can hardly blame Matsunaga for the fact that -- since Mr. Mikitani took charge -- the team sold off its two best defenders (Sidiclei and Yukio Tsuchiya) as well as one of the league's most talented young goalkeepers (Fumiya Iwamaru) while spending piles of money for two high-profile foreigner strikers (Mansiz Ilhan and Patrick Mboma) who ended up scoring a total of one goal between them. Rather than looking for talented young prospects in the high school and college ranks, or working to develop a youth programme, Vissel has spent the past two years boasting about how they plan to turn Vissel into a championship team while spending most of their money to sign a collection of washed-up veterans, most of whom . . . . for some strange reason . . . are named Miura. At the end of last season, Vissel management boasted loudly about how they were going to sign a top-notch coach who would somehow "magically" turn the team into winners. Not surprisingly, candidates such as Phillippe Troussier, Masakuni Yamamoto and Bruno Metsu turned down Vissel's propositions one by one, perhaps because they could sense that what they were being offered was a poisoned chalice.

After all other candidates had made their apologies and fled for the exit, Mr. Matsunaga agreed to relinquish his position as head coach of Ventforet Kofu -- a team that had benefitted greatly from his leadership and coaching skills, and whose fans idolised him as much as most of the team's players -- and take over as coach of Vissel. Surely he was aware that it would be a long hard task just to turn this team into a competitive J1 club, much less a championship contender. Given Mr. Matsunaga's reputation for plain speaking and conservatism, he surely must have made this clear to Kobe's management before accepting the position. How ON EARTH could the club decide on the basis of just six matches whether or not his efforts were succeeding? Perhaps the team was not responding well to his ideas, but we cant help but suspect that there was some factor beyond merely Matsunaga's poor coaching that prompted the move. Mr. Mikitani's seems to be unswilling or unable to accept that it takes time to build a winning football team, and if he wants results, he will have to be patient and wait for them to arrive.

For those who got a schadenfreudean kick out of seeing the first half of this little drama unfold, with Vissel in disarray and Mr. Mikitani humiliated, the best may be yet to come. Act two of the Vissel coaching melodrama began before the curtain had even descended on Act I: "Matsunaga's firing ceremony". Before the newsprint on Tuesday evening's sports tabloids dried, an explosion of rumours forced Vissel to confirm that they had already reached contract terms with Matsunaga's replacement -- Brazilian coach Emerson Leao! Although we have not yet seen any comments from "the Lion" himself, several Japanese news organizations are already reporting it as "confirmed". The swiftness of this confirmation can be taken as a tacit admission that Vissel were negotiating to bring in a new coach even BEFORE last weekend's match . . . in other words, Vissel had already decided to fire Matsunaga after just five weeks of league play, during which time he compiled a record of one win, two draws and two losses! Hardly the sort of performance that should cause an incoming coach on an also-ran team to lose his job.

The ultimate irony of it all is that Matsunaga's replacement, Emerson Leao, may be the king of them all when it comes to quick exits from coaching positions. International football fans will no doubt recall his stormy eight-month stint as head coach of the Brazil national team. Ironically it was Japan which ultimately cost him that job, by knocking Brazil out of the Confederations Cup in 2001. However, this is by no means the only example of a quick exit by the former Brazilian goalkeeper. He coached at S-Pulse in 1993, but failed to achieve much and left after just over one year. His second stint in Japan was little better as he took over Verdy in 1996, at the very tail end of the team's "glory years", and took the blame after Verdy finished seventh, following three years of consecutive appearances in the championship series. This was a period when the team was ridiculed by opponents and sportswriters alike as "the Kazu and Yasu show", when Verdy players such as the Miura brothers, Masakiyo Maezono, Keiji Ishizuka and Edilson reportedly spent more times crawling the pubs in Roppongi than they did on the practice field.

Leao has had his successes as well; he is credited with restoring the fortunes of the historic Sao Paulo club Santos after taking over the helm in 2002. However, even in that case he lasted just two years,eventually tossed out when the team failed to sustain its successes and acquisitions that Leao had demanded did not pan out. His next stop was Cruzeiro, in early 2004, but he lasted just a matter of months before getting the sack. He then moved to Sao Paulo, but hasnt been getting on very well there, either. He was suspended for 60 days in March, for criticising the referees, and though the team won the Paulista, Leao did not even take time to celebrate before getting drawn into a public verbal brawl over racist insults. Perhaps he decided to escape from the heat with another trip to Japan, though if he is wise, he will purchase a round-trip ticket with a three-month open window for the return flight.

Nothing is certain in Kobe, at the moment, but we would not be surprised if Mr. Mikitani looked at Leao's resume, noted that he was well known for "quick exits" and decided that he was perfect for the position.