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May 8, 2005

Milestones To Go Before I Rest Easy

Nevertheless, the milestone did give Masafumi Maeda a chance to write himelf into the J.League history books, even if most casual fans might currently respond to his name with: "Masa-who?-me?". Now that the show is over, however, it is time to turn our attention back to the football, and most importantly, the question of whether anyone can restrain the Kashima Antlers before they kill off all fan interest in the ultimate outcome of this season's championship race.

This week, the Antlers needed some remarkable good luck to claim the full three points from their match agains Tokyo Verdy, but even a single point would have allowed them to extend their lead. While the rest of the league moves in lockstep, the Antlers have stampeded to a ten-point lead at the top of the table. Attendances at some of the weaker clubs is already starting to drop off, and we are starting to hear the first rumbles of concern from people who a few months ago were blithely insisting that it was in everyone's best interest to adopt a single-stage season, to match the "global standard" (harrrummmpphh . . . . whoops, I forgot about South America . . . errr, and Korea . . . . errr, and . . . ) or perhaps we should say the "Eurocentric standard". Now that it is beginning to look like the Antlers will gallop off into glory leaving half the other teams in the league mired in red ink, people are suddenly having second thoughts.

Well, as you all know, this is something that we have been predicting for at least the past two years. And it hardly required any prescience, since this is precisely the same thing that happened in 1996, the last time the league decided to try out a single-stage season. Lest anyone misunderstand, we are not opposed to the concept of a single-stage season IN PRINCIPLE. However, we are well aware of the situation of imbalance that this creates in the league. Regardless of where you go in Europe, you will find a league which includes a small handful of rich, powerful teams and about three or four times that many teams which never have a chance of winning a title, no matter what they do (well . . . unless some rich Russian high-roller suddenly decides to bankroll them). By contrast, the J.League has achieve a surprisingly high degree of parity over the years, and as a result, the football is more entertaining. Any time that you adopt rules and formats which will increase the disparity in income between "top teams" and "bottom teams", you have to expect this to erode the parity in the league. A few teams may not need to worry about the impact of a single-stage season (Urawa, FC Tokyo, Kashima, and perhaps even Albirex Niigata), but this year, we note that even historically powerful clubs like the Marinos, Verdy and Jubilo are seeing attendances plummet and income erode accordingly. The issue, in our opinion, is not whether or not to go back to the old two-stage format (though that might be one option to consider). Rather, the issue is how to adapt revenue-sharing programmes, how to promote regional derbies and rivalries, how to tweak cup competitions, exhibition matches and the like, in a way that can preserve a relatively high degree of parity and also ensure that fans have a reason for comeing out to the matches every week, even if they *DO* know, as early as August, that their favourite team is doomed to finish mid-table. If the League takes steps to address these concerns, then the league format (one-stage or two-stage) will not really matter. If they FAIL to address these issues, though, they can only blame themselves if the doomsday scenario that we have sketched out in our past editorials becomes a reality.

Now that the rant is finished, lets take a look at the scores from Sunday's matches:

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
May 8		0-0		Saitama Stadium
May 8		3-1		Expo '70 "Banpaku" St.
May 8		1-0		Oita "Big Eye" Stadium
May 8		2-1		Kashima Stadium
May 8		0-0		Kashiwa-no-ha Stadium
May 8		3-3		Ajinomoto Stadium
May 8		1-1		Nihondaira Stadium
May 8		0-1		Hiroshima Big Arch
May 8		0-0		Kobe Wing Stadium

0 - 0

However, despite this intensity, neither team could find the target. The closest chances came right at the end of both halves. In the 45, as young Koki Mizuno fired a low cross and Seiichro Maki dove headlong to head it at the near post. But he failed to make enough contact and the ball flashed just wide of the far post. In the first minute of injury time of the second half, JEF had another close call, as Yuki Abe drilled a free kick from about ten meters outside the box on a curling trajectory that ended at the base of the right post. But the ball bounded off the post and was cleared by the Reds defence, killing the last substantial scoring opportunity. In a result that belied the exciting and offence-oriented content of play, the match ended in a scoreless draw.

Date: 8 May, 2005		Location: Saitama Stadium
0	0 1H 0 0 2H 0	0
	Scoring
Tatsuya Tanaka	Cautions	Yuto Sato Ilya Stoyanov Yuki Abe
Lineups: Ryota Tsuzuki, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Keisuke Tsuboi, Hideki Uchidate, Nobuhisa Yamada, Makoto Hasebe, Keita Suzuki, Alessandro Santos (Tadaaki Hirakawa 61), Yuichiro Nagai (Masayuki Okano 62), Tatsuya Tanaka, Emerson . Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Ilyan Stoyanov, Yuki Mizumoto, Koki Mizuno, Yuki Abe, Yuto Sato, Masataka Sakamoto, Naotake Hanyu (Satoru Yamagishi 79), Seiichiro Maki (Takenori Hayashi 82), Mario Haas .

2 - 1

Both Verdy and the Antlers, as well as many other teams in the league, are struggling to cope with the impact of injuries to key personnel. The tough schedule of league matches in the latter half of April and early May has exhausted nearly everyone, and as often happens when you get too tired, you begin to pick up injuries. Though most are not of the serious variety, clubs and players alike will be very happy when the league takes a month-long break, following next weekend's match, since it will give them a chance to recover, and hopefully return to full strength by the time play resumes, in early July. The loss of key playrs naturally has an influence on strategy, and in the Antlers case, they have played their last three matches with a very clear strategy of seeking an early lead and then just trying to stay healthy and in control until the final whistle.

Verdy, who entered this match badly needing a win to put their season back on track, were almost able to take advantage of this situation. Kashima did edge out to an early lead, on a goal by Chikashi Masuda in the 8 minute. Masashi Motoyama played a pinpoint cross from the left corner and Masuda headed it in at the near post.

From the opening kick of the second half, it was apparent that the Antlers would be content to defend and kill the clock, so long as their lead held up. As a result, Verdy had virtually all the initiative over the second 45 minutes, and they applied continuous pressure with patient ball movement around the perimeter and clever penetration moves from the wings, or slanting into the box. However, the main reason why Kashima is currently ten points clear at the top of the table is that they know how to keep the ball out of their own net. Hitoshi Sogahata is perhaps the only Japan NT keeper who continues to demonstrate NT-level play match in and match out (the only other keeper who has shown the same degree of consistency this season was his opposite number in this match, Yoshinari Takagi ). Daiki Iwamasa is emerging as one of the league's top defenders, while defensive midfielders Fernando and Takeshi Aoki have developed the midfield "trap-and-swipe" move to a fine art. Despite a constant a barrage of pressure from Verdy, the Antlers' fine defending allowed them to keep their opponents off the board and limit their truly dangerous shots to just two or three.

But Verdy have several of the best one-on-one attackjing players in the league, in Takayuki Morimoto, Kazuki Hiramoto and Washington . As the clock ran down, you could sense that Verdy were on the verge of a goal. At last, in the 83 minute, the equaliser finally came on as nice finish by Washington.

It is always difficult for a team to regain the initiative once they have given it away, and this is one of the reasons why it can be dangerous to plan an overly defensive strategy in the latter stages of a close contest. Yet the Antlers were able to recover almost immediately from Washington's equaliser and begin pushing for the winning tally. Verdy seemed to have become too accustomed to the Antlers' cautious tactics, and the sudden switch to a more aggressive and risk-taking style caught them off guard. With a minute gone in injury time, the Kashima defence cleared a Verdy push and suddenly Mitsuo Ogasawara took off on a wild sprint down the left side. Fernando led him perfectly with an outlet pass and Ogasawara was off to the raceswith no defenders in sight. Keeper Yoshinari Takagi tried to dash out and cut off the angle, but Ogasawara deked the ball past him, and was chopped down by Takagi's flailing arms.

Inexplicably, the referee gave Takagi a straight red card. Though the contact was unmistakable and the PK call was never in question, Takagi seemed to be going for the ball, and did not take out Ogasawara deliberately. A yellow would have been more than sufficient. But as you know, J.League referees rarely worry about making the punishment fit the crime. Since Verdy had already made three substitutions, the result was that one of the Verdy field players had to don the keeper's gloves and stand in net for the Antlers' PK.

Washington accepted the unenviable task, and lined up on the end line as Ogasawara placed the ball on the penalty spot. To everyone's amazement -- none moreso than Washington himself -- Ogasawara failed to just bury the shot, and instead sent his drive off the left post. But the Antlers' young reserve striker Yuzo Tashiro calmly chipped in the rebound and the Antlers claimed the victory.

Date: 8 May, 2005		Location: Kashima Stadium
2	1 1H 0 1 2H 1	1
Chikashi Masuda (8') Yuzo Tashiro (89')	Scoring	Washington (83')
Takeshi Aoki Arivaldo dos Santos Tatsuya Ishikawa	Cautions	Kenichi Uemura Kentaro Hayashi
	Sent Off	Yoshinari Takagi
Lineups: Hitoshi Sogahata, Arivaldo dos Santos, Daiki Iwamasa, Go Oiwa, Tatsuya Ishikawa, Takeshi Aoki, Fernando (Naoto Honda 77), Chikashi Masuda (Yuzo Tashiro 68), Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama Takayuki Suzuki . Yoshinari Takagi, Kazuyuki Toda (Atsushi Yoneyama 55), Lee Kang-Ji, Kenichi Uemura, Takuya Yamada, Daigo Kobayashi (Kazuki Hiramoto 45), Yoshiyuki Kobayashi, Kentaro Hayashi, Takeshi Hirano (Takayuki Morimoto 72), Takahito Soma, Washington.

3 -3

On a positive note, Tokyo did play well in this match, and they also snapped their five-match losing streak. But the negative side of the ledger will be difficult to offset. Tokyo seemed to have this match wrapped up with 15 minutes left to play, yet Omiya Ardija somehow managed to claw their way back from the grave, to achieve a draw. The match had a little bit of everything, including plenty of goals, a bounty of narrow misses, rough -and-tumble physical play and . . . of course . . . some atrocious officiating. The referee for this match, Mr. Yoshida, awarded two PKs in this match, neither of which seemed justifiable. One could argue that "things balanced out" because he gave one free goal to each team. However, that isnt exactly the best way to achieve equity in officiating.

The show got started in the 12 minute when Jean Carlo Witte was called for a foul on a free kick. As Ardija played a high ball into the box, a group of players began their dash towards goal. It appeared that Tuto suddenly stopped and Jean bumped into him as his momentum continued towards goal. But it was by no means a deliberate or flagrant act. If anything, the contact was initiated by Tuto, who stopped suddenly while everyone else was running full speed towards the goal mouth. But not only did Mr. Yoshida call a foul and a PK; he added insult to injury by awarding Jean a yellow card. Former FC Tokyo striker Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel converted from the spot, to the dismay of the fans, and Tokyo were in an early hole.

But in a display of energetic attacking football that no true football lover could disparage -- not even a Saitama stalwart whose blood runs orange -- the home team fought back with two sparkling goals before the break. Naohiro Ishikawa claimed the equaliser in the 28 minute, and Yusuke Kondo put Tokyo in the lead just before the break with a spectacular individual run into the box, cutback, and powerful shot.

The second half was a frenetic race from one end of the pitch to the other, as both teams threw themselves forward relentlessly. It weasnt always beautiful, or technically precise, but you certainly could not ask for any greater energy or desire, on the part of either team,. Then, the 75 minute, a crucial play seemed to put the match into FC Tokyo's hands. Once again it involved a free kick, and a clash of bodies in the box. Seiichiro Okuno was battling for position at the penalty spot with Kondo, and as the ball came in, Kondo tried to jump. Since he and Okuno were pushing aggainst one another, shoulder to shoulder, when Kondo left his feet he was pushed out of position. But Okuno did not use his hands in any way, nor did he "jump in" or even take steps to try to submarine Kondo. It was simply a question of physics -- when two bodies press against one another with equal force and one suddenly stops pushing, the other will "win" the pushing contest. Once again, Mr. Yoshida not only waw it as saw it as a PK, but again awarded a yellow card top Okuno.

For once, the match announcers -- at least the ones on Tokyo MX television -- were not too shy to comment in fairly blunt terms that it was "a mistake . . . but considering his mistake in the first half, it comes out even." (I guess some people still think "makeup" calls are a legitimate excuse). In any event, Lucas Severino scored from the spot, and Tokyo seemed to have a safe margin for victory.

But the PK call seemed to shake the Tokyo players' concentration more than that of the Mighty Squirrels. Ardija's very next offensive sequence produced a corner kick, on the left side. For some reason, Toninho was left completely unmarked at the near post, and he headed the ball on and into the far side netting to pull Ardija back within a goal.

Even then, it seemed like Tokyo had this match in the bag. With two minutes already played in the two mintues of injury time, a bounding ball fell to Teruaki Moniwa. It seemed like all he had to do was clear it far upfield and the match would be over. But his kick hit Toninho in the back and bounded to Tuto, who immediately passed the ball back to Toninho at the edge of the box. Toninho looped a pass over the Tokyo back line, and Koji Motira flicked a looping shot just over the fingertips of Yoichi Doi, and into the back of the net. Seconds later the final whistle sounded and the Tokyo players collapsed in disbelief, as their winless streak ran to seven matches. When things are not going your way . . .

Date: 8 May, 2005		Location: Ajinomoto Stadium
3	2 1H 1 1 2H 2	3
Naohiro Ishikawa (28') Yusuke Kondo (44') Lucas Severino (76')	Scoring	Tuto (12') Toninho (77') Koji Morita (89')
Jean Carlo Witte	Cautions	Kazuyoshi Mikami Tatsunori Hisanaga Seiichiro Okuno
Lineups: Lineups: Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Teruaki Moniwa, Jean Carlo Witte, Yasuyuki Konno, Satoru Asari, Masashi Miyazawa, Ryoichi Kurisawa, Naohiro Ishikawa (Shinya Sakoi 89), Hitsuhiro Toda (Masamitsu Kobayashi 71), Yusuke Kondo (Lucas Severino 73) . Hiroki Aratani, Kazuyoshi Mikami (Hayato Hashimoto 56), Toninho, Seiichiro Okuno, Daisuke Tomita, Jun Marques Davidson (Satoshi Yokoyama 69), Takuro Nishimura, Masahiro Ando (Chikara Fujimoto 45), Tatsunori Hisanaga, Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel, Koji Morita .

0 - 0

Anyway, regardless of whether or not you think that these "public beheadings" were warranted, there was at least one positive result for Vissel -- the players seemed to view it as a challenge to them, as professionals. Since coach Emerson Leao took over control of the team, a week ago, Vissel has been playing with greater animation and determination than we had seen earlier in the season. On Wednesday, in their match against the Urawa Reds, Vissel played extremely tough defence, and seemed to deserve at least a point from the contest. But they were punished for the one mistake they made in the entire 90 minutes, and lost a close, 1-0 decision

This week, Vissel looked even more intense and inspired -- indeed, we have not seen them play with this degree of energy and attacking vision in perhaps two years. Particularly in the second half, after the aging Kazu Miura was replaced by Mitsutoshi Watada, Vissel had Jubilo Iwata on the ropes with a swarming eight-man attack that produced one dangerous shot after another. The closest they came to a goal came with about five mintues left, when Vissel sent three shots at goal in quick succession, the third of which wsas a sidewinding left-footer by Watada that rocketed off the crossbar.

Sadly, luck just was not on their side, and they had to settle for a scoreless draw. This result mayu be as disappointing for Jubilo fans as it is for Vissel, since it would have been far better for the team from Iwata if they had been blown off the pitch. Following two consecutive victories, engineered almost entirely by the team's youngsters, coach Yamamoto inexplicably fielded a "retro" lineup dominated by aging dinosaurs like Masashi Nakayama, Hiroshi Nanami, Toshiya Fujita and Toshihiro Hattori. The result -- at least in terms of content -- was predictable. Jubilo seemed to be completely out of their league, and the opponent was a team that had collected only five points from their first ten matches! How many times do you have to vainly tug the starter rope on your worn-out lawnmower before you just accept that the damn thing is broken?

Date: 8 May, 2005		Location: Kobe Wing Stadium
0	0 1H 0 0 2H 0	0
	Scoring
Kunie Kitamoto Naoto Matsuo	Cautions
Lineups: Makoto Kakegawa, Kunie Kitamoto, Naoto Matsuo, Ichiei Muroi, Park Kang-Jo, Tomo Sugawara, Naoya Saeki (Ryuhei Niwa 82), Roger, Atsuhiro Miura, Ryuji Bando (Mitsunori Yabuta 59), Kazuyoshi Miura (Mitsutoshi Watada 45) . Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Kim Sung-Ji, Makoto Tanaka, Toshihiro Hattori, Yosahiaki Ota, Naoya Kikuchi, Hiroshi Nanami, Norihiro Nishi, Toshiya Fujita (Takayuki Chano 77), Ryoichi Maeda, Masashi Nakayama, (Nobuo Kawaguchi 45) .

0 - 1

Sanfrecce are well known for the presence of twin brothers Koji Morisaki and Kazuyuki Morisaki. The Marinos have their own well-known brothers, Tatsuya and Tetsuya Enomoto, but since both are goalkeepers, the two never appear on the pitch at the same time. This week, another Marinos "family act" made its first appearance, as Koji and Yukihiro Yamase took the pitch together for the first time. Koji has been playing in the J.League for several years, but has been injured since the start of this season, so this was his first starting appearance for the Marinos. Yukihiro was promoted from the Marinos youth team this year, and it was his first start as well. Both of the Yamase brothers turned in solid performances, though they were overshadowed by the play of another newcomer, Gakuto Shiokawa. Shiokawa is a relative "veteran", with ten years of playing experience in the JFL and J2. He has also played for the Marinos before in Asian competition, but he made his first appearance in a J.League match on Sunday. It would also be the date of his first J1 goal. After a first half that was controlled rather thoroughly by Sanfrecce, the only source of disappointment for the home fans was their team's inability to find the net. Yokohama may have had a makeshift lineup on the pitch, but central defender Yuji Nakazawa was back after a three-match layoff, and his presence was keenly felt.

As often happens when one team is dominating play but cant find the net, Sanfrecce started to get a bit too aggressive, and forget about the danger of counterattacks. The took advantage of this lapse, and produced the lone goal of the match on the stroke of the hour. Daisuke Oku played a long cross from the right side of midfield to the left post. Shiokawa slipped behind the defence, unnoticed and sprinted in to head the ball home.

Sanfrecce did their best to fight back, but Yokohama's defence held solid for the remainder of the contest, and they hung on for the win.

Date: 8 May, 2005		Location: Hiroshima "Big Arch"
0	0 1H 0 0 2H 1	1
	Scoring	Gakuto Shiokawa (60')
	Cautions	Eisuke Nakanishi Koji Yamase
Lineups: Lineups: Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano, Dininho, Norio Omura, Kota Hattori, Takehito Shigehara (Koji Morisaki 82), Kazuyuki Morisaki, Susumu Oki (Hiroto Mogi 82), Joubert "Beto" Martins, Hayato Sato (Shusuke Maeda 65), Galvao . Tetsuya Enomoto, Yuzo Kurihara, Eisuke Nakanishi, Yuji Nakazawa, Shingo Kumabayashi, Koji Yamase, Yukihiro Yamase, Gakuto Shiokawa, Yuji Goto (Daisuke Oku 62), Daisuke Sakata, Nobuhisa Shimizu (Sho Kitano 89) .

3 - 1

Gamba dominated this contest against a Grampus team that may still be in second place in the league table, but will have a hard time staying there if injuries continue to deplete the roster. Last week, Yutaka Akita was the latest casualty, picking up a fractured arm which will keep him out for at least two months. Though this is surely causing coach Nelsinho some headaches in the short term, it may turn out to be a blessing in the long run since it is "forcing" the team to give talented youngsters like Keisuke Honda, Keiji Watanabe, Makoto Kakuda, Keita Sugimoto and Yusuke Sudo plenty of playing time. Another youngster, Kiyohiro Hirabayashi , came on in the second half and got his first J.League goal with a late consolation strike, a minute before full time.

Certainly, Grampus would rather contend for a title than console themselves with the strong performances of a group of rookies. But so far they are doing as well as any other team in the league, with the lone exception of Kashima. Even if they were dominated by Gamba in this contest, Nagoya's youngsters showed some excellent skill and growing confidence. It will probably be a year or so before a unit likethe one Grampus fielded on Sunday can hope to challenge for any titles. But from what we have seen, they definitely have a talented group coming up, and they can only improve as they get more experience.

Date: 8 May, 2005		Location: "Banpaku" Stadium
3	2 1H 0 1 2H 1	1
Araujo (38') Yasuhito Endo (43') Masafumi Maeda (46)	Scoring	Kiyohiro Hirabayashi (89')
Noritada Saneyoshi	Cautions	Yusuke Sudo
Lineups: Naoki Matsuyo, Mitsuteru Watanabe (Shigeru Morioka 72), Sidiclei (Noritada Saneyoshi 81), Satoru Yamaguchi, Arata Kodama, Hideo Hashimoto, Yasuhito Endo, Takahiro Futagawa, Fernandinho (Toru Irie 63), Masashi Oguro . 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 .

1 - 0

Frontale will be very disappointed not to get at least a point from this contest, but that is one of the beautiful things about this game. The Trinita fans certainly were not complaining, and this win helped the team climb a half-step out of the cellar.

Date: 8 May, 2005		Location: Oita "Big Eye" Std.
1	0 1H 0 1 2H 0	0
Magno Alves (46')	Scoring
Tomoki Fukaya Taku Harada Teppei Nishiyama	Cautions	Chung Yong-Dae Giovanaldo da Souza Hiroyuki Taniguchi
Lineups: Lineups: Koji Esumi, Koji Yoshimura, Masakazu Shibakoya, Tomoki Fukaya, Koji Arimura, Teppei Nishiyama (Shota Matsuhashi 86), Tomoaki Komorida, Patrick Zwaanswijk (Taku Harada 67), Takayuki Yoshida, Yoshiro Abe, Magno Alves, Lucas "Dodo" Ricardo (Takashi Miki 89) . Shinya Yoshihara, Hiroki Ito (Masaru Kurotsu 81), Chung Yong-Dae, Yoshinobu Minowa, Hiroyuki Taniguchi (Naoki Soma 65), Kengo Nakamura, Yasuhiro Nagahashi, Augusto de Souza, Tomoaki Kuno (Kazunori Iio 71), Givonaldo "Hulk" de Souza, Juninho .

0 - 0

Date: 8 May, 2005		Location: Kashiwa-no-ha Std.
0	0 1H 0 0 2H 0	0
	Scoring
Ricardinho Tomokazu Myojin Naoya Kondo Yukio Tsuchiya	Cautions	Tetsuya Okayama
Lineups: Yuta Minami, Yasuhiro Hato, Yukio Tsuchiya, Sota Nakazawa, Naoya Kondo, Tomokazu Myojin, Yuzo Kobayashi, Ricardinho, Cleber Santana Loureio, Yoshiteru Yamashita (Yuji Unozawa 85), Keiji Tamada . Yosuke Nozawa, Shigenori Hagimura, Yoshiaki Maruyama, Keiji Kaimoto, Yasushi Kita, Yoshito Terakawa, Isao Honma, Tetsuya Okayama (Anderson Lima 64), Edmilson (Yusaku Ueno 84), Yuzo Funakoshi, Shingo Suzuki .

1 - 1

S-Pulse received a major blow last week when their veteran-of-veterans Masaaki Sawanobori picked up a ligament injury that will probably keep him out for at least six weeks. But the team is showing signs of cohesion and effective teamwork, spearheaded by the Korean strike partnership of Cho Jae-Jin and Choi Dae-Uk. This week, however, it was veteran striker Kohei Hiramatsu -- starting in deep midfield in place of the injured Sawanobori -- who produced S-Pulse's lone goal. A dash into the box by Hiramatsu left two defenders swinging in the wind, and one of them swung hard enough to trip up Hiramatsu as he went by into the box. Cho scored from the penalty spot and S-Pulse had an early lead.

But midway through the second half, Cerezo got the equaliser on a nice bit of calm finishing by young midfielder Daisuke Yoneyama. A high-bounding ball in the box fell to Yoneyama and the youngster kept his head as first the keeper and then an S-Pulse defender went flying past in desperate efforts to block a shot. Yoneyama settled the bounding ball and then toed it hard through a crowd of legs and into the back of the net, to salvage a point for cerezo.

Date: 8 May, 2005		Location: Nihondaira Stadium
1	1 1H 0 0 2H 1	1
Cho Jae-Jin (5')	Scoring	Daisuke Yoneyama (72')
	Cautions	Kazuki Maeda
Lineups: Lineups: Yohei Nishibe, Daisuke Ichikawa, Toshihide Saito, Ryuzo Morioka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Kohei Hiramatsu (Yukihiko Sato 74), Teruyoshi Ito, Kazumichi Takagi, Choi Dae-Uk (Yasumasa Nishino 74), Yoshikiyo Kuboyama (Jumpei Takaki 61), Cho Jae-Jin . Motohiro Yoshida, Bruno Cuadros Tomoki Maeda, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Tomi Shimomura, Takanori Nunobe (Nozomu Hiroyama 45), Kiyokazu Kudo (Daisuke Yoneyama 72), Ze Carlos, Tatsuya Furuhashi, Akinori Nishizawa (Teruaki Kurobe 72), Hiroaki Morishima .

As we said at the top, it may still be early in the season, but the Kashima Antlers are already starting to turn this season's title race into a rout. Their ten-point lead over second-place Nagoya Grampus tells only half the story. The more important statistic is "goals conceded". Compare the Antlers in this category with any other team in the league, and it becomes clear that the only contender with a chance of catching them is Sanfrecce Hiroshima. There may be changes in the dynamic of the league as the season wears on, and this situation COULD change. But as long as the Antlers continue to allow their opponents less than a goal per match, other teams are going to have a very hard time making up lost ground.

Asian Champions League

On Wednesday evening, both the Marinos and Jubilo played competitive matches in the ACL, and Jubilo's was a home contest. The Jubilo match kicked off at 7:30 PM Japan time and the Marinos' match started at 8:30PM. Football has been gaining popularity by leaps and bounds in Japan, so it is not surprising that there were a host of matches on TV. Specifically, there were two taped reruns of J1 matches from over the weekend, two taped reruns of J2 matches (all several days old), a delayed broadcast of the Primera Liga contest between Betis and Sevilla, on a pay channel, as well as reruns of numerous other European league matches from the weekend, on the satellite broadcasting channels.

Oh . . . and if you were astute enough to noticethe note, hidden in the middle of your newspaper, the Marinos - Shandong contest was televised on a two-hour delay, by a relatively obscure private satellite broadcasting station. As for the Jubilo - Shenzhen contest, it was not broadcast on any station, terrestrial or satellite, local or nationwide. Nor, as far as we have been able to determine, does any station no matter how small or obscure, have plans to show the match as a rerun. . . . Ever.

According to the Jubilo Iwata website, a total of 4,344 fans showed up at the stadium, and apart from that small group, it is unlikely that anyone else will ever see -- either live or on tape -- the exciting action as Jubilo crippled Shenzhen's hopes of advancing, with an impressive 3-0 win.

The contrast could not possibly be starker. Both matches were reportedly shown on TV in China, and there was a huge and vocal crowd in Shenzhen, cheering on the home side. For that reason alone -- if no other -- Japan's entrants have no business in this competition at all, and they certainly do not deserve to advance.

In case you live in Japan, and havent heard, both teams will be able to concentrate on J.League. The Marinos took an early lead on a free kick headed home by Daisuke Nasu, but lost their match 2-1 after Shenzhen fought their way back to a convincing win. Jubilo, despite their win over Shandong, had already been eliminated from contention. If the JFA and the J.League are telling the truth when they claim to take the competition seriously, nd really want to see a Japanese team advance, one of these years, they can start by trying to find someone who is willing to broadcast the matches, and try to convince more than a few dozen bored teenagers to show up for the home matches. If they cant even do THAT, why bother to take part?