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May 28, 2005

The Nabisco Summer Follies

Group A

Meanwhile the orange clash, between Albirex Niigata and Omiya Ardija drew an impressive crowd of over 40,000 to Niigata "Big Swan" Stadium. But the battle between swans and squirrels was indecisive, with a Fabinho strike in the 70 minute cancelling out a goal by Chikara Fujimoto just before the half-time break. The two teams split the points and are now level on points in Group A. In addition, the draw ensures that the Urawa Reds will claim one of the two spots in the knockout round regardless of what they do in their final two Nabisco Cup matches.

Pool B

Meanwhile, Tokyo Verdy and Sanfrecce Hiroshima were slugging it out in Tokyo's National Stadium, where two goals by the ace strikers on both sides -- Washington for Verdy and Galvao for Sanfrecce -- produced a deadlock. This ensures that Gamba will also claim one of the quarterfinal spots, since second- and third-place Frontale and Verdy still have to play one another head to head.

Pool C

Despite the loss, Reysol still have a strong chance to win through to the knockout round. Last-placed FC Tokyo FINALLY broke their losing streak with a 2-0 victory at Oita, to join Trinita on four points. Thus, Reysol still have a two-point advantage in the race for a knockout-round spot, while JEF need just one point from their final two matches to ensure themselves of progressing.

Pool D

Finally, Grampus ace Marques closed out his career in Nagoya in style, heading home a corner kick in the 4 mintue to give Grampus the only goal they needed to defeat an understrength Kashima Antlers side. Well . . . that isnt quite true. Actually, Kashima came back just before half time to score the equaliser. However, in the most horrendous call of the week (and there were quite a few of them, actually), the linesman raised his flag well after the goal had been scored, and disallowed it for offsides. As for whether or not the call was correct . . . they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

May 21, 2005

Nabisco Cup, Round Three

Pool A

Saitama prefecture had twice as much reason to celebrate this weekend. Omiya Ardija claimed a 1-0 win over Vissel Kobe, thanks to a second-half PK goal from Chrisitan Dionisio, and moved into second place in the pool. For Kobe fans, meanwhile, the woes continue as their team was unable to produce much in the way of offence apart from long-distance shots which gave keeper Hiroki Aratani little trouble. Vissel did put in a solid defensive perforrmance, but a rather clumsy takedown from behind on an Ardija fast break, in the second half, produced the spot kick which separated the two teams at full time.

Pool B

Anyway, the Pool B participants remained true to form, this weekend. Gamba Osaka claimed a 5-3 win over Tokyo Verdy with both Araujo and Kota Yoshihara contributing a brace, as did Washington, for the losers. Yoshihara had recently been shifted to the reserve squad, and was no doubt eager to show his capabilities in the absence of NT call-up Masashi Oguro. He certainly did the job, scoring in the 20 minute, and again just seconds after the restart, and adding an assist to his ledger. Verdy kept the match competitive, but simply are not doing the job on defence, this season. Unless they can start reducing the number of goals they allow, it wont matter how prolific Washington is on the offensive end.

Meanwhile, Kawasaki Frontale surprised Sanfrecce Hiroshima at home, stunning the crowd at Hiroshima Stadium to silence with a quick succession of three goals early in the second half which turned a closely fought match into a rout. Frontale had taken the lead midway through the first half on a strike by Kengo Nakamura, but Sanfrecce had plenty of chances of their own, and seemed to be in a strong position to turn the tide in their favour when Galvao equalised, shortly after the break. But Juninho put Frontale back in front just 90 seconds later, and rookie Masaru Kurotsu broke Sanfrecce's spirit a few minutes later with a brilliant shot from the edge of the box. Masayuki Taniguchi pounded the final nail into the coffin with Frontale's fourth goal, in the 77 minute.

Pool C

FC Tokyo fans will surely have seen enough of JEF United. Last weekend JEF downed Tokyo 2-1 in a fierce battle at Ichihara Seaside Stadium. This week the two sides battled in out again, but JEF held onto an early lead provided by Gabriel Popescu, who made a rare foray into attack and volleyed home a pass from Takenori Hayashi.

Pool D

But this was not enough to lift Cerezo to the top of the pool, as Shimizu S-Pulse stunned Nagoya Grampus with a 3-0 drubbing. All three goals were scored by the Korean attack squad of Cho Jae-Jin and Choi Dae-Uk. The victory gives Shimizu seven points from three matches and puts them in a strong position to advance from Pool D.

Rumours and Rumblings

Oh No! Bad Timing for an Injury

Comments that Zico has made in the wake of the injury suggest that he might play Mitsuo Ogasawara in a defensive role, which could make up for the loss of Ono's offensive vision, from a deep midfield position. But Ono is a far more imposing physical specimen than Ogasawara, and even though the latter does have decent defensive abilities, one has to view this as a step down. On the other hand, *IF* Zico responded by dumping the defensively weak Takashi Fukunishi and starting Ogasawara and Junichi Inamoto at defensive midfield, the result might actually be useful. For the time being, though, Zico still seems intent on keeping Fukunishi in the lineup despite his lame performances in recent matches.

On a positive note, it appears that Zico will abandon the effort to play a standard two-striker attack. This has always been a problem for Japan due to their lack of players with the skills of "traditional" strikers. Initial comments suggest that he may go with three interchangeable "attacking mids", which would certainly play to Japan's strengths. The only question is whether or not players like Nakata, Nakamura, Yanagisawa and Santos have the "muscle" to get through the Bahrain back line without an enforcer such as Suzuki up front to create space. It is probably an approach worth trying, but one certainly wishes that he had done so during the Kirin Cup, when he had time to experiment, ratherthan waiting until his future -- and that of the entire team -- is on the line.

Juventus Eke Out Win Against Feisty Marinos

The Marinos played some of the best football they have shown all year, perhaps in part because they were hyped up for the occasion, but it also seemed that the duo of Tatsuhiko Kubo (finally recovered from his back injury) and Daisuke Sakata were a more effective partnership than Ahn-Jung-Hwan and Hideo Oshima have been, thus far in the J.League this season. Furthermore, with defender Yuji Nakazawa in Bahrain, with the national team, coach Okada adopted a 4-4-2 lineup with Dutra and Hayuma Tanaka at the wing back spots. We have been saying for quite some time that Tanaka and Dutra would be better suited to wingback roles than at the midfield wing position, and they certainly proved this point against Juventus. Though the Italian team did have some dangerous breaks over the course of the contest, the Marinos were generally able to retreat and shut them down before they produced a shot on net.

As the first half wore on, you could see the Juventus players grow frustrated, as they were forced to work for even the half-chances they did create. This frustration almost cost them as Sakata and Tanaka narrowly missed connections on a counterattack move down the right side which might have given the Marinos a surprise lead. Eventually, Juve had to resort to brute force to get on the scoreboard, as Tacchinardi went high into the air against Ryuji Kawai on a cross into the box, and simply cleared him out of the area. A few Serie A refs, might have called it a foul, particularly in an away match, but the play demonstrated the one area where Juve clearly were superior to their Japanese hosts. The loose ball fell at the feet of Del Piero, unmarked now that Kawai had been knocked halfway to the running track, and he simply had to toe it into the net to give the Old Lady a 1-0 halftime advantage.

But the Marinos came out with a great deal of intensity in the second half, and the Juventus players were beginning to droop with exhaustion, perhaps an aftereffect of their long trip to Asia. As the Marinos brought on fresh legs to pressure the ball, the Juventus players seemed to grow weary of the struggle and adopted a catenaccio, keep-away tactic that drew hoots of displeasure from the crowd. Both Kubo and midfielder Koji Yamase had high-percentage chances to equalise, but poor finishing and one brilliant save by Buffon in the 75 minute kept Juve on top.

Then, in the first minute of injury time, the Marinos nearly pulled off a stunning comeback, but as they dashed into attack, Dutra was fouled on the left sideline just as he sent Yamase into the clear with a through pass. The whistle sounded, and Yamase looked like he was on the verge of ripping Mr. Kamikawa's whistle right out of his mouth, shince he would have had a wide open (albeit low-angle) shot from about ten meters if the referee had played on. The subsequent free kick flashed just wide of the far post, beyond the reach of a leaping Kawai, and the Juventus players heaved a sight of relief as the final whistle sounded.

Yokohama can feel quite happy with their performance. Even though Juventus was clearly a bit below par after their long flight to Asia, they certainly played well, and Yokohama managed to stay right with them for most of the match. Just yesterday, the team announced that it had released striker Adhemar, who was signed at the start of the year but failed to play even a single match in a Marinos jersey. There have also been strong rumours that the Marinos will release Ahn Jung-Hwan after his contract expires, in June. Certainly, the performance of Kubo and Sakata up front suggests that Ahn will not be particularly missed. If Yokohama can attract a quality attacking midfielder from overseas, to fill the spots vacated by Ahn and Adhemar, they might be significantly more competitive when the season resumes, in July.