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April 24, 2005

Good Greif, Bad Greif

Thus, it was no surprise that all of the contests on Saturday were fiercely contested battles that remained in doubt right up until the final whistle. Even Gamba Osaka's 5-3 win over FC Tokyo was a see-saw affair, and Gamba could not feel "safe" with their lead until the final few minutes. The expectations and assumptions that we held at the start of the season have all flown out the window. The only certainty, this year, seems to be that what a team did last week has no bearing on what they are likely to do this week. Apart from the Kashima Antlers (who did not play on Saturday), just about every team has had a reason to rue their performance, at one time or another. But obviously, some teams have more troubles to keep them awake at night, than others, and clearly the most sleepless man of all is Mr. Les Mottram, the man responsible for overseeing the J.League's hopelessly incompetent officials. This week, in addition to reviewing the latest blown call, and the fisticuffs it provoked, we will also discuss some of the problems that each team faces, and what they are doing to try to address the weaknesses and improve their chances of success.

But first, here the scores from this week's matches:

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
Apr 23		1-2		Komaba Stadium
Apr 23		2-1		Nihondaira Stadium
Apr 23		5-3		Expo '70 "Banpaku" St.
Apr 23		2-1		Hiroshima Big Arch
Apr 23		2-1		Oita "Big Eye" Stadium
Apr 23		2-2		Tokyo Nat'l Stadium
Apr 23		0-2		Kashiwa Stadium
Apr 24		1-2		Yokohama Stadium
Apr 24		2-1		Kashima Stadium

1 - 2

For one thing, the defence has shown the tendency to allow "weak" goals, due to temporary lapses in concentration. This problem may ease as the season goes along, since key defenders like Marcus Tulio Tanaka and Keisuke Tsuboi are still not fully recovered from injuries, and numerous red cards and suspensions involving Ozalan Alpay and "Nene" de Brito have prevented Urawa from fielding a consistent lineup in the defence. Not surprisingly, this has prevented the team from developing good chemistry at the back. This week, the Reds put themselves in a hole early, due to exactly this sort of sloppy defending. Just seven minutes after the opening kickoff, Tulio turned his back on Cerezo's veteran striker Akinori Nishizawa as Cerezo moved the ball around the perimeter, and Hiroaki Morishima immediately spotted the opening, lobbing the ball into the box for Nishizawa to run onto. By the time Tulio reacted, his man had already beaten him into the box, and Nishizawa calmly stroked the ball into the low right corner.

It got even worse, ten minutes later, as the defence failed to sort out its coverage, and somehow left Nishizawa unmarked. When Tomi Shimomura turned the corner on the right sideline and crossed into the box, there were clusters of red jersies at both the near and far posts, but Nishizawa was completely unmarked, directly in the center of the pitch and on the edge of the six yard box. He had all the room in the world to set up and head Shimomura's cross past the stranded keeper. Just 20 minutes into the match, and the Reds were already down by two goals, both as a result of missed defensive assignments.

But the Reds face a far more serious problem than these defensive lapses. The team always has had a tendency to give away goals, but oover the past year or two they have been able to make up for this weakness with the league's most potent scoring combination, of Tatsuya Tanaka, Emerson and Yuichiro Nagai. The speed and scoring prowess of this tremendous trio is what carried the Reds to the second stage title, last year. This season, however, the three have scored just a single goal between them, over seven matches! In fact, the Reds' ;leading goal scorer at the moment is RESERVE defender Satoshi Horinouchi, who has scored twice. Obviously, this is the most important reason why Urawa has failed to perform well, this year.

The Reds are trying to address the goal slump, and some of the changes implemented by coach Buchwald have been useful., At the start of the year, the Reds switched to a 3-5-2 formation, leaving Nagai on the bench for most of the match. However, following their sluggish start, Buchwald returned to the 3-4-3 that the team employed to good effect in the latter half of 2004. This helped a bit, but the offence is still sputtering. Earlier this week, the Reds made Jubilo Iwata an offer for their veteran midfield playmaker Toshiya Fujita, hoping that if they could land a more effective midfield playmaker, the strikers would get better scoring opportunities. However, this deal collapsed when Jubilo decided that they still need Fujita in Iwata. No doubt the Reds will use their large bankroll to seek another playmaker, and if they do find someone who can deliver better passes to the front line, it might help. However, in our view, the Reds' scoring problems are due more to ball-hogging and poor shot selection (as well as some truly pathetic shots) by the strikers, rather than weak distribution from midfield. Both Emerson and Tanaka have looked terrible, over the first seven matches, and unless they can recapture the form that they had last year, this is going to be a long and disappointing year for fans in Urawa.

On the other side of the ball, Cerezo Osaka have also strugled a bit, this year, though their problems are a bit easier to diagnose than Urawa's. Basically this team is thin on talent, particularly on defence, and has been so for several years. This season, Cerezo picked up three players who showed promise of addressing the team's long-standing lack of defensive solidity. The best of the bunch was a rookie named Kenjiro Ezoe, who is big enough (181cm / 74kg) to play as a central defender, but whose speed and dribbling skills also make him a good candidate to play wing back. Tragically, Ezoe was injured after just four outstanding appearances, and probably will not return until the tail end of this season. His replacement is also a rookie -- Kazuya Maeda -- who lacks the speed and dribbling skills of Ezoe but is also a big kid who shows signs of developing into a quality defender. Finally, Bruno Everton Cuadros joined Cerezo as the team's anchor on defence, and is turning out to be the most useful foreign player that Cerezo has signed since Hwang Sun-Hong.

Another concern that Cerezo faced at the start of the season was the loss of Yoshito Okubo, who provided most of the team's offence last year. Following his move to Mallorca, many worried that Cerezo's trademark offensive creativity and speed would suffer. The team signed Kyoto Purple Sanga's Teruaki Kurobe as a replacement, but so far the big post player has not been able to find his spot in the team, and in recent matches he has been relegated to spot duty as a second-half substitute. Yet as the two early goals in this contest demonstrated, Cerezo has been getting plenty of offensive production from veterans Nishizawa and Hiroaki Morishima, together with Tatsuya Furuhashi, who reigned as the JFL scoring champion for two years before joining Cerezo as a "rookie" last season. This trio is starting to develop a good chemistry, and though Cerezo's relatively thin roster will probably prevent them from being a true contender this year, at least they are no longer looking like a relegation candidate.

After conceding the early lead, the Reds began fighting back with steady pressure and a splurge of shots on goal, though sadly, most of those were off target or poorly conceived drives from long distance. The Cerezo defence may not have been overwhelming, but they managed to keep Urawa at bay for the most part, and the only Reds' attack that succeeded came on a set play from about thirty meters out, on the left side. Nobuhsa Yamada chipped the ball for the far post and Tulio headed it back across the face of goal, with youngster Takuya Yokyama finishing off the play on a close-range header.

The victory will make Cerezo fans quite happy, as it moves the flaming pinks squarely into the middle of the table -- the highest position they have held since early in 2003! With two aging veterans providing most of the offensive impetus, it is an legitimate question whether they will be able to sustain their performances over a long season. Nevertheless, there are at least some signs of optimism for fans in Osaka. Long-suffering Reds fans, however, must be tearing their hair out. Just when it finally looked like their team had joined the ranks of the title contenders, they have suddenly imploded, and now sit just a few points off the bottom of the table. They certainly are not lacking in talent, and if they can somehow get their heads together and start performing up to their abilities, this team might still manage to vie for the title. But time's a wastin'. A few more results like this one, and there will simply be too many points to make up. The next two weeks will be a do-or-die period for the Reds.

Date: 23 April, 2005		Location: Komaba Stadium
1	0 1H 2 1 2H 0	0
Takuya Yokoyama (62')	Scoring	Akinori Nishizawa(7') Akinori Nishizawa(20')
Keita Suzuki	Cautions	Kiyokazu Kudo
Lineups: Ryota Tsuzuki, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Satoshi Horinouchi (Fabio "Nene" de Brito 79), Keisuke Tsuboi, Nobuhisa Yamada (Takuya Yokoyama 59), Makoto Hasebe, Keita Suzuki, Tadaaki Hirakawa (Masayuki Okano 66), Tatsuya Tanaka, Yuichiro Nagai, Emerson . Tomohiro Yoshida, Bruno Cuadros, Kazuya Maeda, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Tomi Shimomura, Takanori Nunobe, Kiyokazu Kudo (Nozomu Hiroyama 86), Ze Carlos, Tatsuya Furuhashi, Hiroaki Morishima (Noriyuki Sakemoto 86), Akinori Nishizawa (Teruaki Kurobe 55) .

5 - 3

FC Tokyo started out the season with a bang, and held on to the top position in the league table until the fourth week of the season. However, coming into this weekend, they had been held scoreless in their previous three matches. For a team that thrives on an aggressive midfield press and quick counterattacks, that is an inexcusable result. Poor finishing has been their most serious weakness, though injuries to key players like Akira Kaji and Ryuji Fujiyama have also hurt the team by eliminating one dimension of their offence. Naohiro Ishikawa continues to blossom as one of the most dangerous wings in the league, and it surely is just a matter of time before he gets a call to the National Team. However, without an effective partner on the right sideline, Ishikawa has found himself increasingly isolated and double-teamed by opposing defences. This is reducing the number of scoring opportunities that the team generates.

Gamba, on the other hand, have been hurt by some bad luck, as a number of questionable officiating calls have cost them points, but they also seem to be laking the "killer instinct", allowing weaker opponents to claim a share of the points because they simply didnt put the match away when they had the chance. One contributing factor has been the lack of production from their ace striker, Masashi Oguro , early in the year. Though Oguro got a brace in the match against Kawasaki Frontale on week 3, carrying Gamba to their first win of the year, apart from that he has been silent. Since Gamba have been playing a formation that generally looks like a 3-4-2-1, the offence depends quite a bit on the finishing skills of the lone striker. This week, Oguro finally seemed to find his form, and though FC Tokyo also produced more offence than they had in recent weeks, it was Oguro's hat trick that won the day.

FC Tokyo got off the mark first, and seemed to dominate play for the first 20 or 30 minutes. Shortly after kickoff, Ishikawa shattered the Gamba defence with a towering pass from the right sideline, two steps to the defensive side of the midfield stripe, which soared on a pinpoint trajectory to the top left corner of the penalty area. the ball took one bound, and Mitsuhiro Toda lashed it with the outside of his right boot, sending a low drive that sliced into the far side netting. The remainder of the first half was a stalemate, as both teams failed to make the most of their scoring opportunities. However, that would change dramatically just after half time.

The play that turned the tide came less than a minute after half time. Gamba opened the half with a dash, in numbers, into the box, but Satoru Yamaguchi sent his shot right at the keeper, who parried the ball to the right post. It looked like Tokyo would have no trouble clearing, but in a very uncharacteristic bit of panic, Yasuyuki Konno swung blindly to clear the ball and sent it directly into the shin guards of teammate Tatsuya Masushima. The ball caromed off Masushima, looped over the keeper's head and dropped into the net.

This improbable play set off a wild rush of attacking play at both ends which was certainly exciting, but did not reflect particularly well on either team's defensive capabilities. A few minutes later, Tokyo won a free kick on the left sideline, and Ishikawa was left completely unmarked as he cut across the box to the near post and headed a shot into the high right corner.Less than a minute later, Gamba's Yasuhito Endo dashed up the same sideline and sent a low cross for the near post. In what looked like a mirror-image replay of the previous goal, Oguro slipped in at the near post, completely unmarked, and headed the ball past the keeper. The teams were back on level terms once again.

The TV feed showed the play again, in slow motion, two times, and when they cut back to live action, it almost looked like they were showing the replay once more, from yet another angle. This time, though, it was Takahiro Futagawa who sent in the cross from the right sideline, and the ball was too low for Oguro (once again wide open at the near post) to reach with his head. Instead he shuffled the ball on with his right boot, and once again it found the back of the net. Gamba finally had the lead.

Gamba's lead would not last long. Less than ten minutes later, Ishikawa took a ball around the right flank and sent a low line drive for the near post. Lucas Severino headed it on and it slipped just inside the far post to level the score yet again. But a minute later, Oguro finished off his hat trick (and closed out the ten-minute avalanche of goals), collecting an inlet pass from Endo at the top of the penalty arc and making a graceful pirouette before firing a left-footed bloop shot just over the keeper's fingertips and into the back of the net.

It looked like the see-saw battle might have one or two more ups-and-downs left, as FC Tokyo dominated the next ten minutes of play and delivered two or three shots that just narrowly missed the target. But in the 72 minute, Jean Carlo Witte got a bit too impatient in his play, and mis-hit a pass out of the back line. The ball spun off the side of his foot, and was intercepted by Araujo deep in Tokyo territory, setting off a three-on-two break. Araujo feinted towards his teammates just enough to make Jean back off, then fired a drive into the high left corner which gave Gamba enough of a cushion to allow coach Nishino to bring on the defensive reserves. Tokyo had the majority of possession down the stretch, but couldnt produce any more quality shots on goal, so Gamba coasted to their second consecutive win. Both teams will come out of this contest pleased with the fact that their top offensive players are finding the net, once again. Obviously Tokyo will be eager to break out of their losing streak, but at least the offence seems to be back in gear. Gamba, on the other hand, will be happy with the three points, but concerned about the large number of goals that their defence is conceding, this season. Both teams need to raise their performance a notch if they want to keep pace with the top contenders.

Date: 23 Apr, 2005		Location: Expo70 "Banpaku" Stadium
5	0 1H 1 5 2H 2	3
Own Goal (46') Masashi Oguro (52') Masashi Oguro (53') Masashi Oguro (65') Araujo (72')	Scoring	Mitsuhiro Toda (2') Naohiro Ishikawa (51') Lucas Severino (64)
	Cautions	Lucas Severino
Lineups: Naoki Matsuyo, Satoru Yamaguchi, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Noritada Saneyoshi, Hideo Hashimoto, Sidiclei, Yasuhito Endo, Takahiro Futagawa, Araujo, Masashi Oguro (Kota Yoshihara 83), Fernandinho (Masafumi Maeda 67) . Yoichi Doi, Tomoya Maeda, Jean Carlo Witte, Tatsuya Masushima, Jo Kanazawa, Yasuyuki Konno, Masashi Miyazawa (Yuta Baba 56), Ryoichi Kurisawa, Naohiro Ishikawa, Mitsuhiro Toda (Kunio Suzuki 60), Lucas Severino .

0 - 2

Lets discuss the match, first, since this was a fairly entertaining match even though there was only one (no that isnt a typo) goal scored. Reysol have been struggling a bit, this season, but certainly seem to have developed into a more competitive unit than last year. The defence, though very young, is gradually developing as one of the most difficult to score againstin the league. If Reysol could just produce goals in significant quantity, they might be able to climb into the upper reaches of the league table. Alas, even though they do have some talented individual players such as Keiji Tamada and Cleber Santana, as well as new Korean acquisition Choi Song-Guk, their passing game and support from midfield is still weak, and nearly all of the offence comes from individual effort.

Nevertheless, Reysol managed to dominate play for the entire first half, and when Grampus scored the first goal of the match in the 35 minute, it came very much against the run of play. Reysol seemed to have just cleared their zone and every player in yellow was starting to run towards the Grampus end, but Ricardinho Keiji Yoshimura punced on it, then sent a quick ball back into the penalty box. Naoshi Nakamura dashed forward and met the ball on the short-hop, flicking it past the keeper and into the nylon netting.

In the second half, Reysol seemed to dominate play even more than they did in the first 45 minutes, and though Grampus did a good job of limiting shots, the main reason why Reysol were unable to equalise was tehir own poor finishing. Time relentlessly ticked away, and as the match entered injury time it looked like Grampus would almost certainly collect the win. But as the Reysol players all pushed forward for one last attempt at goal, Grampus launced a counterattack down the left side. But as two Reysol players tried to trap Nakamura against the sideline, he was forced to fire a lead pass to Marques who was clearly offside. Every player on the Reysol team stopped in their tracks and raised an arm, and the NHK announcer shouted out "Ohhh, too bad . . . offside".

Unfortunately, the only two people in the entire stadium who failed to spot the infraction were the referee and his linesman. The two pictures below (immediately before and after the pass) should give you some idea of how far Marques was offside. You can see the line on the grass created by lawnmowing, which offers a perfect perspective of where the last Reysol defender was standing. How ANYONE could fail to see that Marques was offside is beyond me.

But the goal was allowed anyway, and Reysol's hopes for a comeback were shattered. A minute later, when the final whistle sounded, the crown erupted in angry boos and catcalls, and the Reysol players refused to line up for the traditional post-match bow, gathering around the officials instead, to protest their case.

The telecast cut away shortly thereafter, so we can only offer second-hand acounts of what happened next. According to this morning's newspapers, the Grampus fans remained in the stands for quite some time after the match, singing and chanting. Reysol fans, clearly miffed at the horrible call that closed out the match, gathered on the other side of a five-foot barrier and shouted things like "Shut up! and "Go home!" When the singing and celebration continued, a group of about 40 Reysol supporters leapt the barrier and invaded the Grampus section, a few punches were exchanged, and the entire Grampus support section of several hundred people fled for the exits.

Though the morning tabloids have done their best to exaggerate the incident ("many people were HURT! and TWO AMBULANCES were dispatched to the scene!!"), the best information we have been able to collect indicates that there were a few scrapes and bruises, and perhaps a bloody nose or two. Not the sort of hooliganism that people in Europe might find shocking, but certainly enough to cause consternation in laid-back, peaceful Japan. Certainly, any sort of fisticuffs at a football match -- and particularly a situation where people are scaling a barrier between the home and away fans -- is inherently dangerous and something that needs to be dealt with by both the league and the police. But before people get too far ahead of themselves and start anguishing over incidents that are essentially "aftereffects", we think that the J.League would be very wise to stop hiding their collective heads in the sand and deal with the problem which lies at the root of the Reysol fans' anger.

How many times have we said, in these pages, that bad officiating needs to be addressed openly, in order to prevent fans from losing faith in "the system"?. The reason why things got out of hand in Kashiwa was that two referees both were too meek to admit that they blew the call, and disallow the goal late. Based on the body language and responses immediately after the play, it certainly looked like the head referee, Mr. Tsutomu Anazawa, realised late that the pass had been offside, but was too ashamed to blow his whistle several seconds after the play began and let everyone know that he had initially missed the call. Even if the play could NOT have been reversed on that evening, the League needs to adopt a process that will give people more confidence in "the system". If fans were confident that the League would come out in the open, admit that the ref made a bad call and discipline the officials involved, it would defuse some of the anger and annoyance that people feel when a call goes against their team.

By stonewalling, and refusing to admit that sometimes referees DO screw up, the league is merely intensifying the feelings of betrayal and disappointment that fans (and players) feel when a call goes against them. Unless this changes, the J.League has only itself to blame for incidents like this one. And make no mistake . . . unless action is taken soon to review officiating calls and provide a public mea culpa when mistakes are made, this incident is not going to be the last one. WAKE UP!

Date: 23 April, 2005		Location: Kashiwa Stadium
0	0 1H 1 0 2H 1	2
	Scoring	Naoshi Nakamura (35') Claiton (89')
	Cautions	Yutaka Akita Marques
Lineups: Yuta Minami, Yasuhiro Hato, Norihiro Satsukawa (Tatsuya Yazawa 75), Sota Nakazawa, Naoya Kondo, Tomokazu Myojin, Ricardinho, Cleber Santana, Harutaka Ono (Tomonori Hirayama 49), Sotaro Yasunaga (Choi Song-Guk 63), Keiji Tamada . Seigo Narazaki, Yutaka Akita, Takahiro Masukawa (Yusuke Igawa 71), Masahiro Koga, Yusuke Nakatani, Claiton, Keiji Yoshimura, Kei Yamaguchi, Keisuke Honda, Naoshi Nakamura, Marques .

2 - 1

At the beginning og the season, we thought that Shimizu S-Pulse would certainly be one of the prime candidates for relegation. The team had been through the wringer in terms of internal dissent, poor management, loss of talented and influential players, and so on. The roster was made up mainly of young and untested kids, and aging former national team members who passed the peak of their careers years earlier. But incoming coach Kenta Hasegawa has done a fine job of reviving team spirits and motivating his players to perform well. In recent weeks, we have begun to feel that S-Pulse are on their way back from the depths. Unfortunately, even though the content of their play has rebounded, and they are looking more competitive with each passing week, at the start of this week, S-Pulse were still in search of their first win of the season. Even though they may be performing better than we expected, S-Pulse still had not put all the pieces together.

On Saturday, the final piece of the puzzle finally fell into place, as S-Pulse overcame a very competitive opponent, in JEF United. JEF have had their own difficulties with key individuals leaving and the talent pool becoming depleted, but at least they have been well coached over the past few seasons. Ivica Osim has kept JEF in contention by imparting to his young charges a degree of football understanding that we wish all J.League players possessed. The team received an added boost this year when it signed two quality players from eastern Europe -- Mario Haas and Ilyan Stoyanov -- who have made important contributions to the team's performances this season and added a bit of experience and stability.

Unfortunately for JEF, Stoyanov was sitting out a one-match suspension this week, and in his absence, the back line was held down by the very young unit of Kozo Yuki , Yoshiaki Fujita and Yuki Mizumoto. Though JEF held a very fired-up S-Pulse unit at bay for the entire first half, early in the second half they began to show some reflections of their youth. Two minutes into the second stanza, S-Pulse took a corner kick from the left side, and as the cross by Masaaki Sawanobori arrived at the near post, Yuki Abe misjudged it, and deflected the ball right into his own net.

S-Pulse bvery nearly doubled their lead on two occasions over the next ten minutes, with Cho Jae-Jin and Yoshikiyo Kuboyama both putting marks on the woodwork. But it was JEF who produced the next goal, midway through the second period. After moving the ball around the perimeter for a while, Mario Haas chipped a quick pass for the penalty spot and Seiichiro Maki headed it on, into the net.

As the contest wound down towards the final whistle, it looked like JEF were the team more likely to break the deadlock, and the fans in Nihondaira Stadium braced themselves for yet another disappointment. But with less than ten minutes left, Daisuke Ichikawa provided notice that he is back close to the form that won him a roster spot in both the 1998 and 2002 world cups. Ichikawa drove down the right sideline and then turned on the speed to turn the corner and head for the post. Looking up, he spotted Kuboyama at the edge of the six yard box, and chipped a soft floater for Kyboyama to head home. Keeper Ryo Kushino managed to get his fingers on the ball, but it had just a bit too much momentum, nad bounded just on the goalward side of the line.

JEF fought furiously for the equaliser, but the S-Pulse defence hung on doggedly and managed to present their new coach with his first J.League victory.

Date: 23 Apr, 2005		Location: Nihondaira Stadium
2	0 1H 0 2 2H 2	1
Own Goal (47') Yoshikiyo Kuboyama (79')	Scoring	Seiichiro Maki (68')
Masaaki Sawanobori	Cautions	Seiichiro Maki
Lineups: Lineups: Yohei Nishibe, Daisuke Ichikawa, Toshihide Saito, Ryuzo Morioka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Masaki Yamamoto (Jumpei Takaki 45), Kazumichi Takagi, Teruyoshi Ito, Masaaki Sawanobori (Kohei Hiramatsu 68), Yoshikiyo Kuboyama, (Jun Muramatsu 85), Cho Jae-Jin . Ryo Kushino, Kozo Yuki, Daisuke Saito (Yoshiaki Fujita 56), Yuki Mizumoto, Koki Mizuno, Yuki Abe, Yuto Sato (Takenori Hayashi 83), Masataka Sakamoto, Kohei Kudo (Satoru Yamagishi 53), Seiichiro Maki, Mario Haas .

2 - 1

While many teams are searching for ways to make themselves more competitive, and address weaknesses that have emerged, only one has resorted to drastic measures as a response. As we reported a few days ago, Vissel Kobe have kicked coach Hideki Matsunaga overboard just six weeks into the season, and signed the legendary Brazilian hothead Emerson Leao as his replacement. This week, with Yasutoshi Miura filling in as the temporary coach, Vissel fielded virtually the same members that they did the previous week, and were rewarded with a nearly identical result. Vissel's most serious problem this year has been their tendency to allow opponents to score early, and often. The only person who deserves blame for this problem is their flamboyant owner, Hiroshi Mikitani, who sold off the team's two best defenders in order to make room for "famous" but aging offensive players who have yet to provide much of a contribution.

The selection of Leao ("the Lion") -- a man famed throughout South America for his temper, his disciplinarian tendencies and his outspoken bluntness, certainly cannot hurt the team (at least not any more than they have been hurt already). However, in our eyes the problems that Vissel faces are not the result of a lack of discipline, but rather, a general lack of skilled players. There is not much that Leao can do about that . . . at least not in the short term. As for whether his strategic abilities can bring out better results, we will just have to wait and see. There is, however, one area in which Leao COULD make an immediate impact. In the first three-and-a-half months of 2005, Leao received three separate 60-day suspensions for openly bashing the referees. Each time, the suspension was overturned on appeal (in Brazil, at least, you apparently cannot be punished for bashing the refs, if the video evidence proves that your comments were rooted in fact). It will be interesting to see whether Leao is as outspoken about the refs in Japan as he was back in Brazil . . . . and if he is, will the League force him to serve his suspensions even when the videos prove that he was right, and the referees wrong? Stay tuned. This could be verrrrry interesting.

Oita Trinita, meanwhile, have had defensive problems of their own, but at least they are scoring goals of their own, allowing them to win a few matches. After a competitive but scoreless first half, Trinita drew first blood on a play that highlighted Kobe's defensive problems. Yoshiro Abe sent in a long cross from the right sideline, but the cross was off target and fell right between three Kobe defenders. Unsure who shold play the ball, all three flailed wildly and missed the clearance badly. The ball bounded about three meters, falling right at the feet of Lucas "Dodo" Ricardo, who did not even pause t o say "thank you" before stroking a shot into the right corner and blowing kisses to the Oita faithful.

With two minutes left in regulation time, VIssel threw themselves forward for a final attempt, and after the ball was headed around the Oita box three or four times, defender Park Kang-Jo leaped high to nod the ball over the keeper's fingertips and into the net.

But while Vissel's players were still patting one another on the back with relief, rookie striker Kohei Nishino dashed in and swiped the ball from Ryuhei Niwa , in Vissel's back line, dashed to the edge of the box and fired a blistering ground ball into the left corner, giving Trinita the late win.

Date: 23 Apr, 2005		Location: Oita "Big Eye" Std.
2	0 1H 0 2 2H 1	1
Lucas "Dodo" Ricardo (53') Kohei Nishino (89')	Scoring	Park Ji-Sung (88')
Taku Harada	Cautions	Atsuhiro Miura Ryuhei Niwa
Lineups: Lineups: Koji Esumi, Masakazu Shibakoya, Tomoki Fukaya, Taikai Uemoto, Koji Arimura, Takashi Umeda, Taku Harada (Tomoaki Komorida 76), Yoshiro Abe (Kohei Nishino 86), Takayuki Yoshida (Takashi Miki 89), Magno Alves, Lucas "Dodo" Ricardo (Yuichi Nemoto 68) . Makoto Kakegawa, Kunie Kitamoto, Yusuke Kawamoto, Roger, Park Kang-Jo, Tomo Sugawara, Naoya Saeki (Mitsunori Yabuta 81), Atsuhiro Miura (Ryuhei Niwa 57), Pavel Horvath, Ryuji Bando, Kazuyoshi Miura (Patrick Mboma 78) .

2 - 2

This week's match was a good example. The boys in green were fortunate to claim a single point form the match, yet for most of the contest, they seemed to be in control, if not dominant. Washington got Verdy off to an early lead just 7 minutes after the kickoff, collecting a long pass into the box by extending a long boot and trapping the ball dead at his feet, then firing home from point-blank range. But less than five minutes later, Albirex used speed and quick ball movement to produce the equaliser. Shingo Suzuki threaded a pass into space on the right wing and the speedy Yusaku Ueno dashed after it, catching up with the ball about two meters from the end line and pulling it back across the penalty area. Four players all dashed for the slowly rolling ball, but it was Niigata's Edmilson who got the first toe to it and sent it rolling into the left corner.

Despite several chances to regain the lead in the late stages of the first half, Verdy were unable to find the net, and the two teams went in at halftime in a 1-1 deadlock. Shortly after the restart, however, Albirex took the lead as Suzuki sent in a dangerous cross from the right corner, and Edmilson managed to sweep it home at the far post.

Verdy dominated play for the remainder of the contest, but despite countless opportunities, somehow could not manage to get the ball into the net. With time running down, Verdy took a throw-in from the right sideline and lobbed it long, towards the near post. An Albirex defender corralled it, but before he could clear, substitute midfielder Masatomo Kuba dashed in from behind and threw out a boot, managing to get just the tip of his toe to the ball. This deflected the ball to Washington, who was cherry-picking at the edge of the three yard box. Washington could hardly believe his good fortune, but kept a calm head and pushed the ball behind the last two Albirex defenders, and just inside the left post.

Though both teams will be happy to collect a point, Verdy and Albirex clearly need to develop greater consistency, particularly in their passing game and their defensive assignments, if they hope to remain in the pack of title contenders.

Date: 23 Apr, 2005		Location: Tokyo Nat'l Stadium
2	1 1H 1 1 2H 1	2
Washington (7') Washington (82')	Scoring	Edmilson (11') Edmilson (62')
	Cautions	Yoshito Terakawa
Lineups: Yoshinari Takagi, Takuya Yamada, Atsushi Yoneyama, Lee Kang-Ji, Takahito Soma, Kentaro Hayashi, Daigo Kobayashi, Takeshi Hirano (Masatomo Kuba 77), Kazuki Hiramoto, Takayuki Morimoto (Jun Tamano 61), Washington . Yosuke Nozawa, Osamu Umeyama, Keiji Kaimoto, Yoshiaki Maruyama, Kentaro Suzuki (Yasushi Kita 85), Motohiro Yamaguchi (Yoshito Terakawa 65), Isao Honma, Fabinho, Edmilson, Yusaku Ueno, Shingo Suzuki .

2 - 1

Ten minutes after kickoff, Morisaki intercepted a pass in the exact center of the pitch, about fifteen or twenty meters on his own side of the midfield stripe. He looked up and hesitated for a second, as if calculating wind velocity and trajectory, then launched a moon shot that came down inches over the right shoulder of Galvao, just as he reached the top of the Frontale penalty box, still in full sprint. Joe Montana never thew a fly-pattern into the end zone with greater precision. Keeper Shinya Yoshihara dashed out hoping to catch the ball on the bound, but Galvao reached it first, tipping it towards goal before being bowled over by Yoshihara. Though the ball rolled wide, the referee had no difficulty deciding to award a PK. time Galvao put his shot into the back of the net to give Sanfrecce the lead.

Frontale have missed Kazuki Ganaha, who normally plays the point of the Kawasaki 3-4-3 formation, and Juninho, who plays as the roving wing. Brasilian teenager Giovanaldo de Souza, who goes by the bodacious nickname of "Hulk", has not done the job as Ganaha's stand-in, and this hurt Frontale's offensive potency. However, rookie Masaru Kurotsu looked impressive in his first J.League start, subbing for Juninho. On the stroke of the hour, midfielder Kengo Nakamura played a through pass behind the Sanfrecce defence, and Kurotsu dashed in from the left wing to collect the ball and flick it past the keeper with the outside of his left boot.

It was a sparkling way for Kurotsu to start off his J.League career, but unfortunately, it was quickly overshadowed by Sanfrecce's "Mister Assists". Just a minute after Frontale had equalised, Komano rumbled down the right flank and sent a low cross that split the Frontale defence, took one bound, and dropped towards the bootlaces of Hiroto Mogi. The Sanfrecce striker met the half-volley with his right boot, and sent it screaming inside the left post, to give Sanfrecce the margin of victory.

Date: 23 Apr, 2005		Location: Hiroshima "Big Arch"
2	1 1H 0 1 2H 1	1
Galvao (11') Hiroto Mogi (60')	Scoring	Masaru Kurotsu (55')
Joubert "Beto" Martins Hiroto Mogi	Cautions	Shinya Yoshihara
Lineups: Lineups: Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano, Dininho, Norio Omura, Kota Hattori, Joubert "Beto" Martins, Susumu Oki (Shohei Ikeda 67), Kazuyuki Morisaki, Takehito Shigehara, Hiroto Mogi (Shusuke Maeda 67), Galvao . Shinya Yoshihara, Yoshinobu Minowa, Chong Yong-Dae (Tomoaki Kuno 71), Hiroki Ito, Hiroyuki Taniguchi (Kazunori Iio 84), Kengo Nakamura, Yasuhiro Nagahashi, Augusto de Souza, Marcus de Morais, Givonaldo "Hulk" de Souza (Naoki Soma 88) , Masaru Kurotsu .

2 - 1

Unfortunately (for them at least), the young Jubilo players have not yet caught up with their predecessors in terms of play-acting skills. Despite a half-dozen efforts to win free kicks around the box by throwing themselves to the turf, Jubilo's appeals were turned down one by one, and eventually they wore out the patience of the head referee Yuichi Nishimura, who awarded yellow cards to both Norihiro Nishi and Masashi Nakayama for diving. By that time, however, Mr. Nishimura had given Jubilo the "benefit of the doubt" so many times that it was pretty hard for the Jubilo players to complain very strenuously. Even though we dislike seeing this sort of gamesmanship practiced, we have to say that the Jubilo youngsters played well this week. They didnt play well enough to deserve any points, but they are definitely starting to improve, and if coach Yamamoto sticks with the younger lineup, they may get better results in the future.

The Antlers got out to a quick start, and one can only wonder what might have occurred if Fukai had not been forced to retire early. Just a minute after kick-off, the pint-sized striker collected a ball just outside the penalty area, darted between two defenders and fired a bullet into the top right corner beyond the diving reach of Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi. Fifteen minutes later he received the ball in a similar spot, and used his tremendous acceleration to zip around the left flank and fire a low screamer that Kawaguchi just barely managed to palm away. But Mitsuo Ogasawara calmly collected the loose ball and stuffed it home to put the Antlers strongly in the lead.

Jubilo responded with ferocious ball pressure, and though their intensity was encouraging, they began to go a bit overboard with their challenges following the second goal. There followed a series of hard, low tackles that surely should have been good for at least one or two yellow cards. By the midpoint of the half, Fukai had been forced to retire with bruised ankles after being hacked down two or three times, and Masashi Motoyama was visibly limping from similar "attention". Though one has to credit the young Jubilo players for raising their intensity level, and thus preventing a possible blowout, we felt that Mr. Nishimura should have done a better job of cracking down on this sort of play early in the match. As it turned out, he was very fortunate not to lose control of the match in the second half.

Shortly after the break, Jubilo pulled a goal back, taking advantage of some lax marking. A long pass into the right corner was collected by Cullen, who quickly dropped the ball back to Yoshiaki Ota at the top right corner of the box. The Antlers defence had been slow to retreat when Jubilo launched Cullen into the corner, and Ota was still unmarked. He settled the ball and then fired a low, hard drive just inside the right post.

But the Antlers took warning from this mistake, and for the remainder of the contest they were very cautious in their defensive zone, holding Jubilo to long shots and overly ambitious individual rushes. As noted earlier, the Iwata players tried their best to steal a goal by diving around the pitch, but after giving them free rein to foul the Antlers players at will, in the first half, Mr. Nishimura made it clear that he could only be manipulated so much. As tempers began to fray on both sides, it became clear that he had to take action before things got out of control. After Naoya Kikuchi threw himself to the turf for the second time in five minutes, rolling about in apparent agony, Mr. Ienaga walked over, took him by the shoulder and hauled him to his feet, as if to say "that's enough of the games". Moments later, Nishi took a similar flop, this time inside the penalty area, and was rewarded with an immediate yellow card. This seemed to settle things down, and though the remainder of the match was played with a high degree of intensity, Jubilo began to tone down the unsportsmanlike game-playing and concentrated on football.

With about 15 minutes remaining, coach Yamamoto went to his bench and -- foolishly in our eyes -- brought in the veteran Nakayama as an extra striker. Almost immediately, Jubilo's pressure began to fade, and over the final ten minutes the Antlers restored their control over possession and momentum. In summary, we saw enough signs of improvement in this contest to convince us that the fewer veterans Jubilo fields, the better off they are. We have been harping on this same note for over a year, but never have we seen clearer evidence that this is indeed the solution to Jubilo's woes. It may be useful to field one or two veterans -- particularly intelligent playmakers such as Hiroshi Nanami or Toshiya Fujita -- to give the team leadership and poise. But generally speaking, Jubilo's "young guns" have demonstrated their value for all to see. It is time for coach Yamamoto to finalise the generational shift, and stop trying to pander to the old-timers. The sooner this happens, the better it will be for all involved.

Although we have not had much to say about the Antlers, and the areas that they could stand to improve, that is an unnecessary topic so long as they remain unbeaten. We do think that there are a few areas where Kashima could still improve, but so far this season they have been equal to the task of bringing home wins, one after the other. It is hard to find fault with that sort of success.

Date: 24 April, 2005		Location: Kashima Stadium
2	2 1H 0 0 2H 1	1
Fukai (1') Ogasawara (17')	Scoring	Ota (47')
Arivaldo Fernando	Cautions	Norihiro Nishi Naoya Kikuchi Masashi Nakayama Robert Cullen
Lineups: Hitoshi Sogahata, Arivaldo dos Santos (Yuki Nakashima 89), Daiki Iwamasa, Go Oiwa, Tatsuya Ishikawa, Takeshi Aoki, Fernando, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama, Masaki Fukai (Chikashi Masuda 20) (Jun Uchida 78), Alex Mineiro . Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Kim Sung-ji, Makoto Tanaka, Takayuki Chano, Yoshiaki Ota, Naoya Kikuchi (41), Hiroshi Nanami (Masashi Nakayama 78), Norihiro Nishi, Toshiya Fujita Robert Cullen, Ryoichi Maeda (Nobuo Kawaguchi 85) .

1 - 2

This week, Yokohama faced off against this year's biggest surprise package, Omiya Ardija. After a phenomenal start, the mighty squirrels of Saitama dropped out of the leader board with consecutive losses over the past three weeks, but even in defeat they have looked quite impressive, especially when you consider that they were viewed as a top relegation candidate, at the start of the season. The Omiya offence, in particular, has troubled opponents with its constantly changing appearance and a host of speedy and clever attackers who can all find the net when given a chance. Thoug hthe two teams fought to a scoreless stalemate over the first 45 minutes, it was clearly Ardija who had the better scoring opportunities. Just moments after the second-half kickoff, Omiya got a key break. Chrisitan Dionisio was isolated one-on-one in the penalty area against Yuji Nakazawa, as a high cross came in from the right sideline. Nakazawa had to retreat quickly, turning his back to the ball, and could not anticipate his leap. Christian leapt for the ball and crashed into Nakazawa, with both players falling heavily to the turf. Since Nakazawa had his back to the ball, the referee decided (correctly, in our opinion) that he was guilty of a foul, and awarded a free kick. Christian was trying to play the ball, but in our view (as well as the referee's) Nakazawa was just playing his opponent.

Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel collected from the penalty spot, and Ardija had the lead. However, fifteen minutes later, Daisuke Oku went down in the Ardija penalty area, and was awarded a PK as well. In this case, the contact was much less obvious, and we suspect that the referee might have been influenced to give the Marinos a "make-up call", in order to keep the home fans happy. Oku converted his own PK, and the two teams were deadlocked once more.

But in the dying moments of the match, Chikara Fujimoto chased a long pass into the left corner and did a min-air pirouette to simultaneously keep the ball in play and send it bounding into the box. Substitute striker Naoto Sakurai fought his way betwen two Marinos defenders to trap the ball, then fire a spinning shot across the face of goal and just inside the far post. The Marinos defenders could only shake their heads in disbelief as yet another precious point was snatched away from them in the final moments of a match.,

Date: 24 Apr, 2005		Location: Yokohama Intl Stadium
1	0 1H 0 1 2H 2	2
Oku (61')	Scoring	Tuto (46') Sakurai (89')
	Cautions	Toninho Jun Marques Davidson
Lineups: Lineups: Tetsuya Enomoto, Naoki Matsuda, Yuji Nakazawa, Eisuke Nakanishi (Kenta Kano 81), Hayuma Tanaka, Daisuke Nasu, Yoshiharu Ueno Dutra, Daisuke Oku (Masahiro Ohashi 71), Daisuke Sakata, Ahn Jung-Hwan. Hiroki Aratani, Kazuyoshi Mikami, Toninho, Seiichiro Okuno, Daisuke Tomita, Jun Marques Davidson, Takuro Nishimura, Tatsunori Hisanaga, Chikara Fujimoto (Yosuke Kataoka 89), Christian Dionisio (Koji Morita 83), Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel (Naoto Sakurai 71) .

Victories by both the Antlers and Grampus keep things unchanged at the top of the league table. However, several of the other challengers are beginning to slip dangerously down-table. As we noted in our first match report, the Urawa Reds need to turn things around dramatically, and soon, or they will fall out of contention before the season is half over. Jubilo is in just as much trouble, though this is not as much of a surprise. In Jubilo's case, we do not see much chance of a title this year, though if coach Yamamoto makes the shift to a younger lineup immediately, and sticks with it, he may be able to get the team into champion-level condition by the end of the year, perhaps in time to challenge for the Emperor's Cup title.

Sanfrecce's victory this week raises them to third place, and considering their recent form, we think that they may manage to sustain this run for the entire season. Unfortunately, we think the team is still too inexperienced to go all the way to a league title . . . . this year. But next year, they will surely be a contender. Teams like the Marinos, Ardija, FC Tokyo, Verdy and JEF are all losing ground to the leaders, and they will have to pick up their performance during this important two-week stretch between now and May 8. Failure to do so could leave them with too much ground to make up, even with a late surge of winning form. As for Vissel Kobe, the spectre of relegation is already lurking in the dark coridoors of Wing Stadium.

Rumours and Rumblings