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May 1, 2005

May Day's May Daze

Here are the results of Sunday's matches.

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
May 1		2-1		Nihondaira Stadium
May 1		3-0		Saitama Stadium
May 1		3-1		Expo '70 "Banpaku" St.
May 1		2-1		Oita "Big Eye" Stadium
May 1		0-1		Kashima Stadium
May 1		1-0		Todoroki Stadium
May 1		0-4		Kashiwa-no-ha Stadium
May 1		5-0		Hiroshima Big Arch
May 1		1-1		Ajinomoto Stadium

3 - 0

Grampus may feel that they deserved a better result, even though the Reds did outplay them on balance. Still, the first 35 mintues of play were very even, and following the Reds' goal rush at the end of the half, Grampus seemed to be the more aggressive and energetic team for the opening 15 minutes, before a second yellow card awarded to Makoto Kakuda reduced them to ten men and turned it into a rout for the home team.

The Reds still need to work out a few problems if they want to fight their way back into contention, but at least the strike team of Emerson and Tatsuya Tanaka finally managed to find their scoring boots. With ten minutes remaining in the first half and the contest still very even, Tanaka made a nice slanting run into the right side of the penalty area and chipped a blooping shot that curled flawlessly over the keeper's fingertips and into the top left corner. This seemed to break the tension and suddenly the Reds were off on an offensive tear. Three minutes later Emerson collected a ball at the top of the box, jitterbugged through the penatly arc looking for a seam in the defence, and then rifled a shot into the low right corner.

As noted above, Grampus came out of the locker room with a surge of energy, trying to fight their way back into the contest. For a while, they seemed to be reversing the momentum, but the Reds used their counterattacking opportunities to good effect, and actually came the closest to scoring. On the stroke of the hour, one such Reds counterattack was broken up by Kakuda, who thought that he had made a clean steal. Kakuda rashly picked up the ball and slammed it down angrily, in a response that the referee felt was a bit too "tempermental". He received his second booking of the match, reducing Grampus to ten men. This snuffed out Nagoya's mini-resurgence and just four minutes later, Emerson lowered the curtain with another unassisted blast, weaving his way into the box on the left side and then firing a curling blast into the opposite side netting.

Date: 1 May, 2005		Location: Saitama Stadium
3	1 1H 9 1 2H 0	0
Tatsuya Tanaka (35') Emerson (38') Emerson (64')	Scoring
	Cautions	Makoto Kakuda Keiji Yoshimura Kei Yamaguchi Masahiro Koga Makoto Kakuda
	Sent Off	Makoto Kakuda (2Y)
Lineups: Ryota Tsuzuki, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Keisuke Tsuboi, Hideki Uchidate, Nobuhisa Yamada (Tadaaki Hirakawa 81), Makoto Hasebe (Tomoyuki Sakai 77), Keita Suzuki, Alex Santos (Masayuki Okano 85), Tatsuya Tanaka, Yuichiro Nagai, Emerson . Seigo Narazaki, Makoto Kakuda, Yutaka Akita, Masahiro Koga, Yusuke Nakatani (Keiji Watanabe 86), Claiton, Keiji Yoshimura, Kei Yamaguchi, Keisuke Honda, Naoshi Nakamura (Yusuke Sudo 65), Keita Sugimoto (Edaldho 77) .

0 - 1

Then again, Kashima showed an unusual lack of concentration and coordination. Though they had the vast majority of possession and were on offence almost constantly, they managed just one shot on target in the entire second half. This was partly due to the fierce and physical pressure that the Cerezo defenders put on the ball, but it also seemed to reflect indecisiveness and poor communication, as Antlers players repeatedly passed up what looked like good scoring chances to pass off to a teammate . . . almost always unsuccessfully. Naturally, every team has bad days, and this may have been just an isolated letdown. However, Kashima certainly seemed to be adrift without a paddle for much of the second half.

Cerezo got their lone goal in the 18 minute, on a sparkling play by Hiroaki Morishima,. who threaded the needle with a through pass to Tatsuya Furuhashi, sprinting through the middle of the box. Cerezo played an unusual formation with three playes "up front" . . . a 3-4-3, or a 3-7-0, depending on how you look at it. Alongside Morishima and Nishizawa in the "front line", Ze Carloshad an excellent match, using his speed and dribbling skill to lead counterattacks for Cerezo throughout the contest, and nearly claiming a second assist shortly after the restart. Dashing in from the left flank and pulling keeper Hitoshi Sogahata off his line before firing a pass for the far post. Unfortunately, Nishizawa blew his shot with the back door wide open.

Over the final 20 or 30 mintues of play, the Antlers dominated so completely that anyone tuning in to the match at that point would not have believed that Cerezo were in the lead. Yet despite their advantage in possession and field position, the Antlerrs couldnt seem to get off a shot. While Cerezo did defend quite well, it was hard to avoid the impression that the Kashima players were too impatient and distracted to create high-quality shots. Naturally, all of the other teams in the league will take some comfort in this performance. If Cerezo were able to knock the Antlers out of their rhytm, other teams can hope to do the same. Even so, the Antlers maintained a five-point lead above second-place Nagoya Grampus, and remain comfortable front-runners, at least for the time being.

Date: 1 May, 2005		Location: Kashima Stadium
0	0 1H 1 0 2H 0	1
	Scoring	Tatsuya Furuhashi (18') td>
Fernando	Cautions	Kazuki Maeda Bruno Cuadros Hiroaki Morishima Tomi Shimomura
Lineups: Hitoshi Sogahata, Jun Uchida (Takayuki Suzuki 59), Daiki Iwamasa, Go Oiwa, Tatsuya Ishikawa, Takeshi Aoki, Fernando (Arivaldo dos Santos 59), Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama, Takyua Nozawa (Shinzo Kuroki 69), Alex Mineiro . Tomohiro Yoshida, Bruno Cuadros, Kazuya Maeda, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Tomi Shimomura, Takanori Nunobe, Kiyokazu Kudo (Nozomu Hiroyama 84), Ze Carlos, Tatsuya Furuhashi, Akinori Nishizawa (Teruaki Kurobe 89), Hiroaki Morishima (Daisuke Yoneyama 75), .

3 - 1

Gamba Osaka had little trouble with their cross-Kansai opponent, and though it took them about 50 minutes to build a comfortable lead, the result never really seemed to be in doubt. Just 12 minutes after the kickoff, Masashi Oguro made a weaving run through a rather porous Kobe defence before passing off to Yasuhito Endo on the fight flank, about two steps into the box. Endo curled a shot into the high opposite corner and apart from a few enthusiastic individual runs in the latter stages of the first half, by Ryuji Bando, Vissel never looked competitive again.

In their match against the Kashima Antlers, on Thursday, we noted that Vissel seemed to play with a bit more energy and intensity than they had earlier in the season. Perhaps that was just our imagination, or perhaps a rare flash of adrenaline was responsible. Whatever the case, the team showed no such intensity this weekend. They didnt even manage to produce any yellow cards. Certainly, Leao deserves some time to work with the team, to see if he can stimulate a bit more enthusiasm and quality play from this bunch, but on the basis of this contest, at least, Vissel fully deserve their spot at the bottom of the league table.

Shortly after the break, Oguro put the match out of reach (well . . . the way Vissel were playing, it was "out of reach" at 1-0, but the second goal made it even more so). Once again, the defence gave him an inordinate amount of space to dribble his way to the edge of the box, and he demostrated why he holds a share of the lead in the scoring table, sending a rocket into the back of the net from a step inside the area. Twenty minutes later Oguro found the net once more, on a rather similar play. In the dying minutes of the contest Vissel managed a late consolation strike, as defender Naoto Matsuo flicked home a corner kick, but that was the only ray of light in an otherwise dismal performance from the crimson backwash.

Date: 1 May, 2005		Location: Expo70 "Banpaku" Stadium
3	1 1H 0 2 2H 1	1
Yasuhito Endo (12') Masashi Oguro (49') Masashi Oguro (74')	Scoring	Naoto Matsuo (87')
	Cautions	Naoya Saeki
Lineups: Naoki Matsuyo, Satoru Yamaguchi, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Noritada Saneyoshi (Toru Irie 83), Hideo Hashimoto, Sidiclei, Yasuhito Endo, Takahiro Futagawa, Araujo, Masashi Oguro (Kota Yoshihara 85), Fernandinho (Masafumi Maeda 45) . Makoto Kakegawa, Kunie Kitamoto, Ichiei Muroi, Naoto Matsuo, Park Kang-Jo (Ryuhei Niwa 55), Naoya Saeki, Roger, Atsuhiro Miura, Mitsunori Yabuta (Patrick Mboma 60), Ryuji Bando, Kazuyoshi Miura .

0 - 4

When this match kicked off, Jubilo was feilding a team whose average age was around 30. The only two members of the "youth" contingent were Ryoichi Maeda and Yoshiaki Ota. The eqase with which Jubilo won this match could encourage Yaammoto to stick with his veterans rather than give the younger players more match experience. If so, Jubilo may indeed pick up their performance slightly. Nobody ever claimed that players like Hiroshi Nanami, Toshiya Fujita Toshihiro Hattori, Makoto Tanaka and Masashi Nakayama lacked talent. The problem is, this group is no longer young and energetic enough to win any titles, and if Jubilo continues to rely on them predominantly, they can only get worse as time goes on.

Certainly, the younger players have not made a strong case for themselves. Youngsters like Robert Cullen, Kentaro Oi, Naoya Kikuchi, Kohei Matsushita, Maeda and Ota have looked "promising" in their occasional appearances this seasson, but have not produced winning results. But Jubilo has no choice except to put them in and let them learn. Trying to postpone the inevitable will only prolong the period of time that the youngsters need to develop into a competitive team.

Yet even though the players who started this match for Jubilo may be on their way into the sunset, you cant blame the Iwata fans for enjoying the show. The aging striker Masashi "Gon" Nakayama reached a milestone just a few moments after kickoff, scoring from the penalty spot and recording his 150th J.League goal. Seven minutes later Jubilo extended their lead on a goal by Ota, and they maintained this margin at the half.

In the early stages of the second half, Reysol made a concerted effort to fight their way back into the contest, and if they had managed to find the net with one of their dozen-or-so chances, they might have made it a competitive contest. But Maeda scored a lovely counterattacking goal just shortly after the hour mark, and this broke Reysol's back. In the first minute of injury time, Nobuo Kawaguchi closed out the contest with a powerful blast from the right edge of the boz which scorched the inside of the near post as it blazed past.

Date: 1 May, 2005		Location: Kashiwa-no-ha Stadium
0	0 1H 2 0 2H 2	4
	Scoring	Masashi Nakayama (4') Yoshiaki Ota (11') Ryoichi Maeda (62') Nobuo Kawaguchi (89')
Yoshiteru Yamashita Cleber	Cautions	Ryoichi Maeda
Lineups: Yuta Minami, Yasuhiro Hato, Yukio Tsuchiya, Sota Nakazawa, Naoya Kondo, Tomokazu Myojin, Ricardinho (Harutaka Ono 72), Cleber Santana, Tomonori Hirayama, Yoshiteru Yamashita (Choi Song-Guk 63), Keiji Tamada (Sotaro Yasunaga 45). Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Toshihiro Hattori, Makoto Tanaka, Takayuki Chano, Yoshiaki Ota, Takashi Fukunishi (41), Hiroshi Nanami, Shinji Murai, Toshiya Fujita, Masashi Nakayama (Robert Cullen 74), Ryoichi Maeda (Nobuo Kawaguchi 65) .

1 - 1

The absence of Nakazawa was immediately apparent, as Verdy started off with a flurry. Just eight minutes after the kickoff, Verdy won a corner kick on the right side, and their ace striker Washington was inexcusably wide open, with plenty of space to volley the ball with his right foot into the back of the net. Verdy nearly extended this lead on two or three occasions over the next ten minutes, as the weakness of the Marinos central defence was hard to miss.

However, Verdy have been having troubles of their own, and injuries are not the only excuse. For reasons that are hard to fathom fully, Verdy seems to need as many as five or ten scoring opportunities just to get the ball in the net once. It certainly is not a lack of talent. Washington is tied for the league lead in scoring, and some of the goals that his strike partner Kazuki Hiramoto has scored were works of art. Yet both have missed far more easy chances than they have scored. The team seems to generate offence in profusion -- particularly early in matches -- without claiming nearly as many goals as they should.

By the second half, Verdy's energy was beginning to fade and the Marinos started to make their comeback. Daisuke Nasu puilled the Marinos level shortly after the break, heading home a corner kick from the left side. But some poor finishing by the Marinos as well as a fine job in net by Yoshinari Takagi kept the score level and the two teams had to settle for an equal share of the spoils..

Date: 1 May, 2005		Location: Ajinomoto Stadium
1	1 1H 0 0 2H 1	1
Washington (8')	Scoring	Daisuke Nasu (57')
Kazuyuki Toda	Cautions
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 . 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.

2 - 1

Omiya Ardija have also been a very pleasant surprise, this season. The team earned promotion from the J2 last season with steady and consistent play, but certainly did not seem like a team that might thrive at the J1 level. However, Ardija made a number of acquisitions that have turned out to be extremely valuable. Both Chikara Fujimoto and Naoto Sakurai were successful players with enough talent to even receive attention from the national team coaches, but neither one was able to win a starting spot on their team in 2004, so Ardija was able to pick them up relatively cheap. Both have played brililantly so far in 2005, particularly Fujimoto, who combines the vision and passing skills of a midfield fantasista with the speed and shooting instincts of a striker. With a stable of speedy strikers to feed the ball to, Fujimoto has become one of the league's top assist men. Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel Christian Dionisio and rookie Satoshi Yokoyama provide the scoring punch, making the mighty squirrels of Saitama potent enough to knock off any J.League opponent on a given day.

Though both of these teams now look good enough to remain in the top-flight division next season, and perhaps even climb into the upper half of the table, only one could emerge victorious in this contest. S-Pulse claimed the early advantage when Takahiro Yamanishi lobbed a high cross from the left sideline to Cho, right at the penalty spot, and the Korean ace headed the ball into the low left corner, just underneath the dive of the keeper.

With less than ten minutes remaining, Yokoyama pulled Omiya back to parity with a thunderous volley that earned him his first J1 goal. A long ball to the top of the box was contested by an S-Pulse player and an Ardija player, but the outcome was a stalemate as the ball was headed high into the air. As it drifted back to earth, about a step outside the top left corner, Yokohama drifted under it like a center fielder lining up a fly ball. He swung a roundhouse kick which met the ball perfectly in midflight and sent it screaming inside the left post.

But just a minute larer, Cho responded with his second goal of the match, corralling a bounding ball at the top right corner of the penatly box and drilling a loop shot that cleared the keeper's fingertips and snuck in just under the crossbar. Moments later, as Ardija fought for another equaliser, Christian let his temper get the better of him and earned a straight red card for an unnecessary bit of extracurricular shoving. This killed off Omiya's hopes of a comeback, and S-Pulse claimed its second win under coach Hasegawa.

Date: 1 May, 2005		Location: Nihondaira Stadium
2	1 1H 0 1 2H 1	1
Cho Jae-Jin (27') Cho Jae-Jin (83')	Scoring	Satoshi Yokoyama (82')
Masaaki Sawanobori	Cautions	Koji Morita
	Sent Off	Christian Dionisio
Lineups: Lineups: Yohei Nishibe, Daisuke Ichikawa, Toshihide Saito, Ryuzo Morioka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Masaaki Sawanobori (Keisuke Iwashita 70), Teruyoshi Ito (Jumpei Takaki 45), Kazumichi Takagi, Choi Dae-Uk, Yoshikiyo Kuboyama (Kohei Hiramatsu 82), Cho Jae-Jin . Hiroki Aratani, Kazuyoshi Mikami (Masahiro Ando 78), Yasunari Hiraoka, Toninho, Daisuke Tomita, Takuro Nishimura (Satoshi Yokoyama 62), Jun Marques Davidson, Chikara Fujimoto, Tatsunori Hisanaga (Yusuke Shimada 52), Christian Dionisio, Koji Morita .

2 - 1

Trinita have been struggling this season, and for good reason. Yet even though their overall roster is a bit weaker than that of most opponents, there is no denying the explosive counterattacking potential of their Brazilian duo, Magno Alves and Lucas "Dodo" Ricardo Midway through the second half, lightning struck for the first time with the fleet-footed pair racing through four retreating Tokyo defenders in a rush that was finished off by Magno Alves. This forced Tokyo to throw themselves forward with even greater intensity, but ten minutes later lightning struck again, and this time it was Dodo who finished off the counterattack.

Just when it seemed that things could not get any worse for Tokyo, Lucas Severino was kicked in the ankle and had to be carried back to the bench. Though there is no word yet on the extent of the injury, he seemed to be in a great deal of pain, which is the last think FC Tokyo need right now. Things are looking very gloomy for Tokyo's red and blue legions, with two more matches to play this week and a continually shrinking list of healthy players. Tokyo did get a late consolation goal on a free kick, which Ryoichi Kurisawa curled beautifully into the high right corner. However, that is not likely to bring much cheer to coach Hiromi Hara, who has not heard much good news lately.

Date: 1 May, 2005		Location: Oita "Big Eye" Std.
2	0 1H 0 2 2H 1	1
Magno Alves (71') "Dodo" Ricardo (80')	Scoring	Ryoichi Kurisawa (27')
Patrick Zwaanswijk Magno Alves	Cautions
Lineups: Lineups: Koji Esumi, Koji Yoshimura, Tomoki Fukaya, Masakazu Shibakoya, Koji Arimura, Takayuki Yoshida, Tomoaki Komorida, Patrick Zwaanswijk, Yoshiro Abe (Shota Matsuhashi 87), Magno Alves (Takashi Miki 89), Lucas "Dodo" Ricardo . Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Jean Carlo Witte, Teruaki Moniwa, Norio Suzuki (Shinya Sakoi 44), Satoru Asari, Yasuyuki Konno, Danilo (Ryoichi Kurisawa 73), Naohiro Ishikawa, Mitsuhiro Toda, Lucas Severino (Yuta Baba 51) .

5 - 0

Readers who have been following our weekly match reports for the past year or so should know by now that we have maintained very high hopes for Sanfrecce Hiroshima. The team has developed the most wildly productive youth programme in all of Japan (and yes, that includes Kunimi High School). An acquaintance who follows the J.League youth league commented to us recently that the JFA should just hand over all its U-20 programmes to Sanfrecce, and let them field an all Sanfrecce Youth squad to represent Japan in future youth internationals. The only question in our mind has been the timetable for Sanfrecce's "breakout". With all the talent coming up from the youth ranks, sooner or later the "varsity" team was bound to start winning as well. The only question was how long it would take them to mature.

Hang onto your hats, folks, because it looks like the time has come. Sanfrecce started out the season with three draws, and then dropped a close result to the Kashima Antlers on week four. But since then, the team has been quietly building up momentum, and suddenly last week the major sports tabloids woke up to the fact that Sanfrecce were in third place, lagging only the Antlers and Nagoya Grampus. Following their demolition of Albirex Niigata, on Sunday, they have to be viewed as a legitimate challenger, and even though they may be a bit too young (and inadequately coached) to win the league title this season, they are definitely moving in that direction very quickly.

Though there are several young guns on the squad who are emerging as J.League stars, one player seems to have catalysed the team's transition from also-rans to contenders -- Yuichi Komano. The 23-year-old wing back has always impressed us, and was one of the stars of both the U-20 team in Argentina (2001) and the Athens Olympic team (2004). But a serious leg fracture kept him out of action for over a year, and even when he returned at the end of last season, he was clearly not yet back at peak condition. This year, however, he has been absolutely stunning, racking up assists like most players record completed passes. He has deceptive speed and unbelievable stamina, but his greatest weapon is the pinpoint cross -- which he can deliver with either foot equally well.

This week, Komano collected two assists over the space of ten minutes, one with each foot. In the 35 minute he took a corner kick from the left side, curling a left-footed floater for the near post and right onto the forehead of Galvao, who flicked it on into the far side netting and gave Sanfrecce the lead. Onthe stroke of half time he took a ball into the right corner, cut back to the middle, and fired a low bullet that hit Hisato Sato right in the bootlaces. Sato flicked the ball home and Sanfrecce had a 2-0 advantage at the break.

Shortly after the break, Sato extended Sanfrecce's lead after "Beto" Martins slipped a through pass into the right side of the penalty area and Sato dashed in to scoop it underneath the keeper. With time running down and a heavy rain making the pitch treacherous, the disspirited Albirex defenders misplayed a clearance, getting in one another's way and allowing Susumu Oki to steal in and poke it away from them. The keeper was caught off guard and the ball rolled slowly into the back of the net.

As the match moved into injury time, substitute striker Hiroto Mogi delivered the coup de grac with a thirty-meter run finished off with a thirty-meter rocket that hooked past the keeper's diving fingertips and into the left corner.

Date: 1 May, 2005		Location: Hiroshima "Big Arch"
5	2 1H 0 3 2H 0	0
Galvao (35') Hisato Sato (44') Hisato Sato (65') Susumu Oki (84') Hiroto Mogi(88')	Scoring
Joubert "Beto" Martins	Cautions
Lineups: Lineups: Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano, Dininho, Norio Omura, Kota Hattori, Takehito Shigehara, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Susumu Oki (Shusuke Maeda 85), Joubert "Beto" Martins, Hisato Sato (Koji Morisaki 70), Galvao (Hiroto Mogi 82) . Yosuke Nozawa, Anderson Lima, Keiji Kaimoto, Yoshiaki Maruyama, Osamu Umeyama, Yoshito Terakawa, Isao Honma, Motohiro Yamaguchi (Shigenori Hagimura 65), Edmilson, Yusaku Ueno (Yuzo Funakoshi 76), Fabinho (Tetsuya Okayama 45) .

1 - 0

Date: 1 May, 2005		Location: Todoroki Stadium
1	0 1H 0 1 2H 0	0
Yasuhiro Nagahashi (61')	Scoring
Yoshinobu Minowa Hiroyuki Taniguchi	Cautions	Kozo Yuki Daisuke Saito Satoru Yamagishi
Lineups: Shinya Yoshihara, Yoshinobu Minowa, Chong Yong-Dae, Hiroki Ito, Hiroyuki Taniguchi, Kengo Nakamura, Yasuhiro Nagahashi, Augusto de Souza, Marcus de Morais (Naoki Soma 86), Juninho, Masaru Kurotsu (Hideki Sahara 81) . Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Ilyan Stoyanov, Kozo Yuki, Koki Mizuno (Kunihiko Takizawa 69), Yuki Abe, Yuto Sato (Takenori Hayashi 80), Masataka Sakamoto, Naotake Hanyu (Satoru Yamagishi 64), Seiichiro Maki, Mario Haas .

The league table tightened up quite a bit, as a result of this weekend's matches. Although the Antlers still enjoy a comfortable five-point cushion at the top of the table, and Vissel Kobe are still lagging well behind the pack, a mere five points seperate the fourth place Kawasaki Frontale from 17th place Albirex Niigata. With their rout of Albirex, Sanfrecce Hiroshima moves to within a point of Nagoya Grampus, in third and second place, respectively. The two remaining matches this week (on May 4 and May 8) could produce dramatic changes in the pecking order, so be sure to tune in for our match reports.

Rumours and Rumblings