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April 24, 2005

Go for Gold on Golden Week

Unfortunately, with nine matches all kicking off at the same time, even our turbocharged remote control unit was inadequate to allow us to keep track of all the action, so we will provide abbreviated accounts of the action, along with full match thumbnails, and perhaps add more details later this weekend. Below are the scores from Thursday night's matches:

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
Apr 28		3-1		Omiya Stadium
Apr 28		3-1		Ichihara Seaside St.
Apr 28		0-2		Ajinomoto Stadium
Apr 28		2-1		Todoroki Stadium
Apr 28		0-0		Niigata "Big Swan"
Apr 28		2-2		Shizuoka Stadium
Apr 28		5-4		Mizuho Stadium
Apr 28		1-1		Nagai Stadium
Apr 28		0-2		Kobe Universiade St.

0 - 2

Unfortunately, the opponent was the league-leading Kashima Antlers, who seem capable of claiming comfortable wins even when they are having an off night. Despite displaying some mediocre offensive pressure for a large stretch of the contest, the Antlers got all the offence they needed on two spectacular feeds by Alex Mineiro, who seemed to want to practice his passing skills on this particular evening rather than scoring goals himself. His first assist on a perfectly-timed through pass to Masashi Motoyama in the first half, opened up the Kobe defence like a cheap aluminum can of fresh pilchards. The second assist was also quite an impressive pass, though it was overshadowed by the finish from Takuya Nozawa, who collected the ball while slanting across the box from left to right, then pulled a sudden shot back across the grain, nutmegging his defender and slipping the ball underneath the helpless keeper as well.

Kobe looked a bit more animated in this contest, but it did not help them much, as they dropped to the bottom of the table. Leao has his work cut out for him, to say the least.

Date: 28 April, 2005		Location: Kobe Universiade Stadium
0	0 1H 1 0 2H 1	2
	Scoring	Masashi Motoyama (29') Takuya Nozawa (63')
Roger Tomo Sugawara	Cautions	Alex Mineiro
Lineups: Makoto Kakegawa, Kunie Kitamoto, Ichiei Muroi, Naoto Matsuo, Park Kang-Jo, Naoya Saeki (Mitsunori Yabuta 45), Tomo Sugawara, Roger, Atsuhiro Mirua, Kazuyoshi Miura (Patrick Mboma 64), Ryuji Bando . Hitoshi Sogahata, Arivaldo dos Santos (Yuzo Tashiro 87), Daiki Iwamasa, Go Oiwa, Tatsuya Ishikawa, Takeshi Aoki, Fernando, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama, Takuya Nozawa (Shinzo Kuroki 89), Alex Mineiro (Jun Uchida 82) .

5 - 4

Date: 28 April, 2005		Location: Mizuho Stadium
5	4 1H 2 1 2H 2	4
Keisuke Honda (15') Kei Yamaguchi (25') Marques (26') Masahiro Koga (40') Claiton (64')	Scoring	Kazuki Hiramoto (9') Kazuki Hiramoto (38') Kazuki Hiramoto (61') Washington (84')
Kei Yamaguchi Keiji Yoshimura Marques	Cautions	Washington Takahito Soma Atsushi Yoneyama
Lineups: Seigo Narazaki, Makoto Kakuda, Yutaka Akita, Masahiro Koga, Yusuke Nakatani, Claiton, Keiji Yoshimura, Kei Yamaguchi, Keisuke Honda, Naoshi Nakamura (Keita Sugimoto 84), Marques . Yoshinari Takagi, Takuya Yamada, Atsushi Yoneyama, Lee Kang-Ji, Takahito Soma, Kazuyuki Toda, Kentaro Hayashi, Daigo Kobayashi, Takeshi Hirano, Washington, Kazuki Hiramoto .

2 - 1

Yokohama tried to fight back, and managed a consolation goal midway through the second half, after a loose ball ricocheted around the penalty box following a free kick and was eventually driven home by Daisuke Nasu. However, that was all the offence Yokohama could muster, and Kawasaki claimed the bragging rights in Kanagawa prefecture, at least for the time being.

Date: 28 Apr, 2005		Location: Todoroki Stadium
2	1 1H 0 1 2H 1	1
Marcus de Morais (28') Masaru Kurotsu (49')	Scoring	Daisuke Nasu (72')
Marcus Hiroki Ito Yoshinobu Minowa Augusto de Souza	Cautions	Ryuji Kawai Hayuma Tanaka Yuzo Kurihara
Lineups: Lineups: Shinya Yoshihara, Hiroki Ito, Chong Yong-Dae, Yoshinobu Minowa, Hiroyuki Taniguchi, Kengo Nakamura (Hideki Sahara 86), Yasuhiro Nagahashi, Augusto de Souza, Marcus de Morais, Juninho, Masaru Kurotsu (Naoki Soma 67) . Tetsuya Enomoto, Yuzo Kurihara (Yoshiharu Ueno 64), Naoki Matsuda, Ryuji Kawai, Hayuma Tanaka, Daisuke Nasu, Daisuke Oku, Dutra, Masahiro Ohashi, Ahn Jung-Hwan (Hideo Oshima 52), Daisuke Sakata.

2 - 2

Jubilo took an early lead on a powerful drive from about 30 meters by Ryoichi Maeda, which soared into the top right corner just beyond the fingertips of Ryota Tsuzuki. But just before the half, the Reds won a free kick about 35 meters out, and after two or three attempts to lob it into the box, the ball finally fell to Yuichiro Nagai just outside the right post, for a powerful finish.

Things began to get interesting in the final ten minutes, as Mr. Okada awarded a penalty kick on a play where there seemed to be no contact whatsoever. Robert Cullen collected a pass in the box, and appeared to stumble over his own cleats, but far from appealing for a PK, he immediately regained his feet and maintained possession of the ball, clearly demonstrating that even he did not think he had been fouled. But the whistle sounded too soon for Cullen to finish off the play himself, and the Reds protested furiously, picking up two yellow cards in the process . . . well, at least we HOPE the card on Hideki Uchidate was for protesting. He certainly did not deserve to be cautioned for watching innocently as Cullen stumbled over his own feet.

Mr. Okada seemed to realise that he had blown the call, and decided to give the Reds a chance to get off the hook, so he disallowed Masashi Nakayama's first PK goal, claiming that Jubilo players had entered the box before the kick was taken. But as the replay clearly shows, there were no players in the box at all -- not even Reds players!!! However, Nakayama hit the net again with his second PK attempt, and Jubilo had the lead.

Just a minute later, however, a beautiful individual dash by Emerson levelled the score once more, and the match ended in a 2-2 draw. Every week, we think that we have seen it all, when it comes to sheer genius in officiating incompetence, but just a week after a referee provoked a semi-riot with a horrendous non-call in the Kashiwa Reysol - Nagoya Grampus match, Mr. Okada very nearly managed to spark another incident in Shizuoka. But then . . . Im talking to a brick wall, arent I?

Date: 28 April, 2005		Location: Shizuoka Stadium
2	1 1H 1 1 2H 1	2
Ryoichi Maeda (19') Masashi Nakayama (85')	Scoring	Yuichiro Nagai (44') Emerson (86')
Ryoichi Maeda Masashi Nakayama	Cautions	Alex Santos Tatsuya Tanaka Emerson Keita Suzuki Hideki Uchidate Ryota Tsuzuki
Lineups: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Kim Sung-ji, Makoto Tanaka, Takayuki Chano, Yoshiaki Ota, Takashi Fukunishi (Naoya Kikuchi 73), Toshihiro Hattori, Norihiro Nishi, Toshiya Fujita (Shinji Murai 58), Robert Cullen, Ryoichi Maeda (Masashi Nakayama (67) . Ryota Tsuzuki, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Keisuke Tsuboi, Nene de Brito (Hideki Uchidate 35), Nobuhisa Yamada, Makoto Hasebe, Keita Suzuki, Alex Santos, Tatsuya Tanaka, Yuichiro Nagai (Satoshi Horinouchi 78), Emerson .

0 - 2

Date: 28 Apr, 2005		Location: Ajinomoto Stadium
0	0 1H 1 0 2H 1	2
	Scoring	Cleber (38') Tomonori Hirayama (64')
Yasuyuki Konno Mitsuhiro Toda Naohiro Ishikawa	Cautions	Ricardinho Tomokazu Myojin
Lineups: Yoichi Doi, Shinya Sakoi, Jean Carlo Witte, Teruaki Moniwa, Jo Kanazawa, Yasuyuki Konno, Masashiu Miyazawa (Yuta Baba 56), Danilo (Mitsuhiro Toda 65) Naohiro Ishikawa, Ryoichi Kurisawa (Norio Suzuki 72), Lucas Severino . Yuta Minami, Yasuhiro Hato, Yukio Tsuchiya, Sota Nakazawa, Naoya Kondo, Tomokazu Myojin, Ricardinho (Harutaka Ono 80), Cleber Santana Loureio, Tomonori Hirayama, Keiji Tamada (Choi Song-Guk 87), Sotaro Yasunaga (Yuzo Kobayashi 59) .

3 - 1

Report will be posted later

Date: 28 Apr, 2005		Location: Ichihara Seaside Stadium
3	1 1H 0 2 2H 1	1
Seiichiro Maki (8') Koki Mizuno (68') Koki Mizuno (68')	Scoring	Kota Yoshihara (27')
	Cautions	Noritada Saneyoshi
Lineups: Lineups: Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Ilyan Stoyanov, Kozo Yuki, Koki Mizuno, Yuki Abe, Yuto Sato, Masataka Sakamoto, Naotake Hanyu, Seiichiro Maki (Takenori Hayashi 80), Mario Haas (Kunihiko Takizawa 88) . Naoki Matsuyo, Satoru Yamaguchi, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Noritada Saneyoshi (Kota Yoshihara 56), Hideo Hashimoto (Toshihiro Matsushita 77), Sidiclei, Yasuhito Endo, Takahiro Futagawa, Araujo, Fernandinho, Masashi Oguro (Masafumi Maeda 71) .

0 - 0

Date: 24 Apr, 2005		Location: Niigata "Big Swan" Std
0	0 1H 0 0 2H 0	0
	Scoring
Isao Honma	Cautions
Lineups: Yosuke Nozawa, Osamu Umeyama, Keiji Kaimoto, Yoshiaki Maruyama, Kentaro Suzuki, Motohiro Yamaguchi (Anderson Lima 77), Isao Honma, Fabinho, Edmilson, Yusaku Ueno (Yuzo Funakoshi 87), Shingo Suzuki (Yoshito Terakawa 59) . Yohei Nishibe, Daisuke Ichikawa, Toshihide Saito, Ryuzo Morioka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Yukihiko Sato (Jumpei Takaki 67), Kazumichi Takagi, Teruyoshi Ito, Masaaki Sawanobori (Kohei Hiramatsu 67) Yoshikiyo Kuboyama, Cho Jae-Jin (Yasumasa Nishino 86), .

1 - 1

Date: 28 Apr, 2005		Location: Nagai Stadium"
1	0 1H 1 1 2H 0	1
Ze Carlos (89')	Scoring	Galvao (44')
	Cautions	Beto Shohei Ikeda
Lineups: Lineups: Tomohiro Yoshida, Bruno Cuadros, Tomoki Maeda, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Tomi Shimomura, Takanori Nunobe (Nozomu Hiroyama 62), Kiyokazu Kudo, Ze Carlos, Tatsuya Furuhashi, Akinori Nishizawa (Teruaki Kurobe 73), Hiroaki Morishima (Daisuke Yoneyama 78) . Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano, Dininho, Norio Omura, Kota Hattori, Joubert "Beto" Martins (Shohei Ikeda 89), Takehito Shigehara, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Galvao (Kohei Morita 78), Shusuke Maeda (Hiroto Mogi 61) .

3 - 1

Full report will be posted later

Date: 28 Apr, 2005		Location: Omiya Stadium
3	2 1H 1 1 2H 0	1
Christian (34') Christian (40') Takuro Nishimura (86')	Scoring	Takashi Umeda (2')
Chikara Fujimoto Takuro Nishimura	Cautions	Taikai Uemoto Takashi Umeda
Lineups: Lineups: Hiroki Aratani, Kazuyoshi Mikami , Toninho, Seiichiro Okuno, Daisuke Tomita, Takuro Nishimura, Yosuke Kataoka, Tatsunori Hisanaga, Chikara Fujimoto (Yusuke Shimada 88), Christian Dionisio (Satoshi Yokoyama 67) , Koji Morita (Yasuinari Hiraoka 77) . Koji Esumi, Masakazu Shibakoya, Tomoki Fukaya, Koji Arimura, Taikai Uemoto (Tomohiro Kawada 85), Takashi Umeda, Taku Harada, Takayuki Yoshida (Teppei Nishiyama 67), Yuichi Nemoto (Kohei Nishino 67), Yoshiro Abe, Magno Alves .

As noted at the top, the Antlers and Grampus seem to be on a roll, and are gradually extending their lead over the rest of the pack. Other potential competitors like the Marinos, FC Tokyo, JEF United and Gamba Osaka will have to get their act together if they do not want to be left in the dust. For Jubilo Iwata and Urawa Reds, however, it is already looking like a good time to start thinking about next season

Rumours and Rumblings