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May 4, 2005

A Day for the Boys

Like all boys, we enjoy taking a nice break from work, to enjoy the lovely spring weather and spend time in the great outdoors. Of course, we also took time to watch the J.League matches on Wednesday, but seeing that today, May 5, is "Boy's Day", we will limit our reports to just a few quick comments before departing for more scenic venues. We will be back with more detailed reports this weekend.

Here are the results of Wednesday's matches.

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
May 4		1-1		Yokohama Stadium
May 4		2-1		Iwata "Yamaha" Stadium
May 4		2-1		Niigata "Big Swan"
May 4		0-0		Nagai Stadium
May 4		1-0		Saitama Stadium
May 4		1-1		Ichihara Seaside St.
May 4		0-2		Ajinomoto Stadium
May 4		0-1		Kobe Wing Stadium
May 4		0-0		Mizuho Stadium

0 - 2

FC Tokyo's ace Lucas Severino injured his ankle on Sunday, and was unable to play in this contest, as were several other key FC Tokyo players. As for the Antlers, Takayuki Suzuki made his return to the starting lineup, but several other key contributors remain on the injured list, and Kashima's promising rookie Shinzo Kuroki had to be carried off in the second half.

The match was controlled fairly well by the Antlers, who seem to have perfected the technique of getting a lead, and then turning out the lights to get the victory without overexerting themselves In this contest, Masashi Motoyama scored early as Kashima dominated the first 20 minutes or so, and added an important second goal just before the break. The second half was downright dull as the Antlers essentially just closed up shop and waited until the Tokyo players went home. The only meaningful event in the second half was the late appearance of veteran midfielder Toshiyuki Abe, who donned an Antlers uniform for the first time in nearly six years.

Date: 4 May, 2005		Location: Ajinomoto Stadium
0	0 1H 2 0 2H 0	2
	Scoring	Masashi Motoyama (17') Masashi Motoyama (41')
	Cautions	Daiki Iwamasa Mitsuo Ogasawara Arivaldo dos Santos Takayuki Suzuki
Lineups: Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Jean Carlo Witte, Teruaki Moniwa, Shinya Sakoi (Masamitsu Kobayashi 57), Yasuyuki Konno, Masashi Miyazawa, Yuta Baba (Danilo 50), Naohiro Ishikawa, Ryoichi Kurisawa Yusuke Kondo (Tatsuya Masushima 75) . Hitoshi Sogahata, Arivaldo dos Santos, Daiki Iwamasa, Go Oiwa, Tatsuya Ishikawa, Takeshi Aoki, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Chikashi Masuda (Jun Uchida 80) Masashi Motoyama, Shinzo Kuroki (Naoto Honda 71), Takayuki Suzuki .

2 - 1

Gamba, on the other hand, are suttering a bit, especially on offence. Though they took the early lead on a nice goal by Araujho , Jubilo equalised almost immediately, and Cullen added a second-half strike to give Jubilo the win.

Date: 4 May, 2005		Location: Iwata Stadium
2	1 1H 1 1 2H 0	1
Ryoichi Maeda (33') Robert Cullen (78')	Scoring	Araujo (30') Xxx (62')
	Cautions	Sidiclei
Lineups: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Toshihiro Hattori, Makoto Tanaka, Takayuki Chano, Yoshiaki Ota, Naoya Kikuchi, Takashi Fukunishi (Kim Sung-Ji 74), Shinji Murai (Norihiro Nishi 60), Toshiya Fujita, Robert Cullen, Ryoichi Maeda (Masashi Nakayama 57) . Naoki Matsuyo, Satoru Yamaguchi, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Noritada Saneyoshi (Masanobu Matsunami 83), Hideo Hashimoto, Sidiclei, Yasuhito Endo, Takahiro Futagawa, Araujo (Masafumi Maeda 77), Masashi Oguro, Fernandinho .

0 - 1

Date: 4 May, 2005		Location: Kobe Wing Stadium
0	0 1H 1 0 2H 0	1
	Scoring	Tatsuya Tanaka (29')
Tomo Sugawara Naoya Saeki Roger Mitsunori Yabuta Naoto Matsuo	Cautions	Tatsuya Tanaka
Lineups: Makoto Kakegawa, Kunie Kitamoto, Ichiei Muroi, Naoto Matsuo, Park Kang-Jo, Naoya Saeki (Mitsunori Yabuta 74), Roger, Tomo Sugawara Atsuhiro Miura, (Kazuotaka Murase 87), Ryuji Bando, Kazuyoshi Miura (Mitsutoshi Watada 45) . Ryota Tsuzuki, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Keisuke Tsuboi, Hideki Uchidate, Nobuhisa Yamada, Makoto Hasebe, Keita Suzuki, Alex Santos (Tadaaki Hirakawa 67), Yuichiro Nagai, Tatsuya Tanaka (Satoshi Horinouchi 67), Emerson .

1 - 0

Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel Chikara Fujimoto Christian Severino Naoto Sakurai

Mitsuru Nagata Tomokazu Myojin Keiji Tamada Yukio Tsuchiya

Date: 4 May, 2005		Location: Saitama Stadium
1	0 1H 0 0 2H 0	0
"Tuto" Ruschel (40')	Scoring
"Tuto" Ruschel	Cautions	Yasuhiro Hato
Lineups: Hiroki Aratani, Yosuke Kataoka, Toninho, Seiichiro Okano, Daisuke Tomita, Jun Marques Davidson, Jin Kanazawa, Chikara Fujimoto (Yusuke Shimada 82), Tatsunori Hisanaga (Masahiro Ando 68), Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel (Takuro Nishimura 89), Koji Morita . Yuta Minami, Yasuhiro Hato, Yukio Tsuchiya, Sota Nakazawa, Naoya Kondo, Tomokazu Myojin, Yuzo Kobayashi, Harutaka Ono (Tatatoshi Masuda 75) Tatsuya Yazawa (Tomonori Hirayama 65), Cleber Santana, Sotaro Yasunaga (Yoshiteru Yamashita 61), Keiji Tamada .

0 - 0

Verdy and Cerezo played to a scoreless draw.

Date: 4 May, 2005		Location: Nagai Stadium
0	0 1H 0 0 2H 0	0
	Scoring
Kiyokazu Kudo	Cautions	Takahito Soma Yoshiyuki Kobayashi
Lineups: Tomohiro Yoshida, Bruno Cuadros, Kazuya Maeda, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Tomi Shimomura, Takanori Nunobe(Nozomu Hiroyama 71), Kiyokazu Kudo, Ze Carlos, Tatsuya Furuhashi, Akinori Nishizawa (Teruaki Kurobe 76), Hiroaki Morishima (Daisuke Yoneyama 60) . Yoshinari Takagi, Kazuyuki Toda, Lee Kang-Ji, Kenichi Uemura, Takuya Yamada, Daigo Kobayashi (Jun Tamano 72), Kentaro Hayashi, Takeshi Hirano (Yoshiyuki Kobayashi 64), Takahito Soma, Takayuki Morimoto (Tadamichi Machida 71), Washington .

1 - 1

In the second half, S-Puilse began to fight back and produce more opportunities, which culminated in the equaliser from Cho Jae-Jin, who demonstrated that Ahn is not the only talented Korean finisher plying his trade in Japan.

Date: 4 May, 2005		Location: Yokohama Stadium
1	1 1H 0 0 2H 1	1
Ahn Jung-Hwan (34')	Scoring	Cho Jae-Jin (78')
Dutra	Cautions
Lineups: Lineups: Tetsuya Enomoto, Yuzo Kurihara, Naoki Matsuda, Ryuji Kawai, Hayuma Tanaka, Yoshiharu Ueno, (Eisuke Nakanishi 84), Daisuke Nasu, Dutra, Masahiro Ohashi (Koji Yamase 52), Hideo Oshima, Ahn Jung-Hwan (Daisuke Sakata 87) . Yohei Nishibe, Daisuke Ichikawa, Toshihide Saito, Ryuzo Morioka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Masaaki Sawanobori (Kohei Hiramatsu 49), Keisuke Iwashita (Yasumasa Nishino 73), Kazumichi Takagi, Choi Dae-Uk, Yoshikiyo Kuboyama (Yukihiko Sato 66), Cho Jae-Jin .

1 - 1

Yuichi Komano Kota Hattori Koji Morisaki Kazuyuki Morisaki

Ryo Kushino Naotake Hanyu Seiichro Maki Mario Haas Yuki Abe

Date: 4 May, 2005		Location: Ichihara Seaside Std.
0	0 1H 1 0 2H 0	1
Yuki Abe (52')	Scoring	Hisato Sato (18')
Kozo Yuki	Cautions	Jorginho
Lineups: Lineups: Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Ilyan Stoyanov, Kozo Yuki (Kunihiko Takizawa 55), Koki Mizuno, Yuki Abe, Yuto Sato, Masataka Sakamoto, Naotake Hanyu (Satoru Yamagishi 74), Seiichiro Maki (Takenori Hayashi 45), Mario Haas . Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano, Dininho, Norio Omura, Kota Hattori, Takehito Shigehara, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Susumu Oki (Hiroto Mogi 73), Issei Takayanagi, Hisato Sato (Koji Morisaki 56), Jorginho (Galvao 35) .

2 - 1

A late goal on Anderson Lima's free kick from just outside the box gave the home team a narrow victory in this close-fought battle between two teams that developed a fierce rivalry during their years in the J2.

Date: 4 May, 2005		Location: Niigata "Big Swan Std.
2	0 1H 1 2 2H 0	1
Yuzo Funakoshi (48') Anderson Lima (84')	Scoring	Juninho (36') Xxx (62')
Tetsuya Okayama Isao Honma Yasushi Kita Shigenori Hagiumra Anderson Lima	Cautions
Lineups: Yosuke Nozawa, Shigenori Hagimura, Keiji Kaimoto, Yoshiaki Maruyama, Yasushi Kita, Yoshito Terakawa, Isao Honma, Tetsuya Okayama (Daisuke Aono 63), Edmilson (Yusaku Ueno 89), Yuzo Funakoshi, Shingo Suzuki (Anderson Lima 81) . Shinya Yoshihara, Shuhei Terada, Chong Yong-Dae (Ken Tokura 85), Hiroki Ito, Hiroyuki Taniguchi, Kengo Nakamura, Yasuhiro Nagahashi, Augusto de Souza, Marcus de Morais (Naoki Soma 79), Juninho, Masaru Kurotsu .

0 - 0

Both Nagoya Grampus and Oita Trinita played an aggressive game seeking the deciding goal until the final minute, but poor finishing and good defending by both teams -- particularly the two keepers -- kept this match scoreless

Date: 4 May, 2005		Location: Mizuho Stadium
0	0 1H 0 0 2H 0	0
	Scoring
Masahiro Koga	Cautions	"Dodo" Ricardo Takayuki Yoshida Taku Harada
Lineups: Lineups: Seigo Narazaki, Makoto Kakuda, Yutaka Akita (Kenta Moroe 33), Masahiro Koga, Yusuke Nakatani (Keiji Watanabe 86), Claiton, Keiji Yoshimura, Kei Yamaguchi, Keisuke Honda, Naoshi Nakamura (Yusuke Sudo 65), Keita Sugimoto (Edaldho 77) . Koji Esumi, Koji Yoshimura, Tomoki Fukaya, Masakazu Shibakoya, Koji Arimura, Takayuki Yoshida, Tomoaki Komorida, Patrick Zwaanswijk, Yoshiro Abe, Magno Alves (Takashi Miki 89), Lucas "Dodo" Ricardo .

With both Nagoya Grampus and Sanfrecce Hiroshima recording draws, the Antlers extended their lead at the top of the table. Though it is still early in the season, any team that hopes to remain in the race is going to have to set its sights on remaining unbeaten through the summer break, and hope that the Antlers stop racking up the wins

Rumours and Rumblings