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July 2, 2005

Now Where Were We . . . ?

. . . Oh that's right! The middle of the J.League season. An important time for teams to position themselves for the stretch run. Funny how you can forget the momentum and intensity of the competition when the season breaks for a mere . . . well . . . seven weeks.

I guess no more sarcasm is required. Readers can easily understand the concept that a six-seven week interruption in play does some rather damaging things to the continuity and flow of the season. This was one of the reasons why a two-stage campaign worked out quite well in the past. The summer interruption did not have a real impact in terms of breaking a team's momentum, or affecting their concentration in a title race. When the season restarted after a summer break, everyone was starting over with a clean slate anyway. Though the single-stage season may have its advantages, this is certainly not one of them. In fact, the problems are not over yet. Teams will face a sudden rush of activity, playing six matches over the next 21 days, and then have yet another one-month break as Japan plays the East Asia Championships.

Nor could the situation be improved by following the lead of European leagues and starting the season in August. On the contrary, this would make the interruption even worse, because the weather patterns in Japan make it nearly impossible (particularly in places like Niigata, Sapporo, Yamagata and Sendai) to play matches, or even do much training, during the months of January and February.

In years when there are no major FIFA-organised tournaments during the summer, this will be less of a problem, but in most cases, it will be hard to avoid an interruption of around four to six weeks during the summer. Though this will allow teams with a lot of injured players to recuperate, it is hard to deny that the interruption will be a problem for teams that are "on a roll". It may be pointless to continue highlighting these problems, since most league officials now seem to have comitted themselves to a one-stage season, come what may. Still, it is worth noting that the problems associated with the summer lay-off are self-inflicted. The league has only itswelf to blame if this creates difficulties.

In any event, following a seven-week interruption, the J.League got back into action on Saturday evening, with a full slate of matches. Here are the results of this weekend's matches :

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
Jul 2		1-1		Kashiwa Stadium
Jul 2		2-2		Ajinomoto Stadium
Jul 2		1-2		Iwata "Yamaha" Stadium
Jul 2		1-1		Toyota Stadium
Jul 2		7-1		Expo '70 "Banpaku" St.
Jul 2		1-1		Kobe Wing Stadium
Jul 2		0-2		Oita "Big Eye" Stadium
Jul 3		2-1		Kashima Stadium
Jul 3		2-1		Saitama Stadium

7 - 1

The first half of this contest was really quite competitive, and though Gamba had a very slight edge in the number of clear-cut scoring chances, Araujo 's goal in the first minute of injury time must have left the Gamba players feeling very relieved to enter the locker room with the lead.

But the fireworks got under way immediately after the break, as Masashi Oguro hit the back of the net less than a minute after the restart, setting off a barrage that simply blew Verdy out of the stadium. Araujo finished off his hat trick with two more goals in the subsequent 15 minutes. Fernandinho and Tsuneyasu Miyamoto joined in on the fun, before Oguro finally closed out the scoring ten minutes from full time, with the eighth goal of the evening. Somewhere in that fusillade of Gamba shots, Washington managed to produce one tally for the visitors, but fans could certainly be forgiven if they failed to even notice.

Verdy certainly will not be happy with their performance in this contest, though one thing you can say in their favour was that they didnt just concede the match and start trying to "keep the score respectable" after Gamba's third or fourth goal. Surely, if they had shown a bit less stubborn determination to continue attacking, in a futile effort to get back into the contest, Gamba would not have run up the score to quite this extent. However, Gamba certainly seemed to be on to of their game. With three national-team players in the starting lineup, Gamba should be one of the least "rusty" teams in the league. They certainly showed in on Saturday night. Now the question will be whether they can sustain this sort of performance, and begin to close the gap on the league-leading Kashima Antlers.

Date: 2 July, 2005		Location: "Banpaku" Stadium
7	1 1H 0 6 2H 1	1
Araujo (44') Masashi Oguro (46') Araujo (50') Fernandinho (55') Araujo (63') Miyamoto (65') Masashi Oguro (79')	Scoring	Washington (57')
	Cautions	Kenichi Uemura Kazuki Hiramoto Yoshiyuki Kobayashi
Lineups: Naoki Matsuyo, Satoru Yamaguchi, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Noritada Saneyoshi, Hideo Hashimoto, Sidiclei (Mitsuteru Watanabe 80), Yasuhito Endo, Akihiro Ienaga (Kota Yoshihara 77), Araujo, Fernandinho (Takahiro Futagawa 55), Masashi Oguro . Yoshinari Takagi, Lee Kang-Ji, Kenta Togawa, Kenichi Uemura (Takuya Yamada 50), Kentaro Hayashi, Daigo Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki Kobayashi, Takeshi Hirano (Jun Tamano 60), Takahito Soma, Washington (Takayuki Morimoto 82), Kazuki Hiramoto .

0 - 2

The Marinos' match against Oita Trinita provided a perfect illustration of this fact, as both Sakata and Oshima found the back of the net in a difficult but nevertheless important victory. The 2-0 score line flatters the Marinos a bit, since Trinita had a number of excellent opportunities to get on the scoreboard as well. The contest remained deadlocked until early in the second half, as the two goalkeepers -- Shusaku Nishikawa and Tetsuya Enomoto -- were the star attractions of the first 55 minutes. Nishikawa, who was one of the stars of Japan's U-20 team at the World Youth Championships, in Holland last month, was rewarded upon his return with his first start for Trinita. He certainly seemed to deserve the opportunity, turning away a number of very tough shots in the first half. In the end, however, his opposite number Tetsuya "The Younger" Enomoto was just a tiny bit better. Tetsuya, who has spent the past three years playing in the shadow of his elder brother Tatsuya, showed that he deserves playing time of his own, stonewalling some very high-percentage shots from Trinita.

The best opportunity for the home team came just after the half-time break, when Magno Alves used his speed to dash behind the Marinos defence, taking three defenders with him in pursuit. Magno slid the ball in front of the net to the edge of 18-yard box, but Lucas "Dodo" Ricardo found himself wrong-footed, and couldnt get his shooting foot ready in time to strike. He ended up volleying it weakly with the outside of the left boot, and Enomoto was able to smother the shot.

Moments later, the Marinos finally broke the deadlock, on a free kick from just a few meters outside the top left corner of the penalty box. Masahiro Ohashi took the kick, and sent a low line drive that was barely deflected by the head of Oshima -- just enough to beat the keeper. Nishimoto actually reacted well, and even got a finger on the ball, but it slipped into the right side of the net all the same, and Yokohama had the lead.

Though Oita pressed vigorously for the equaliser, as time ran out on their hopes, they extended themselves a bit too far, and the attacking duo of Oshima and Sakata made them pay, on the counterattack. A long clearance from the Marinos back line soared across midfield and Oshima managed to leap over his defender to head the ball on, into the box. Sakata accelerated between two defenders to reach the ball first, then pulled the ball back and to his left to beat one, then another, then a third Trinita defender, and tuck a soft shot into the left corner from three paces out.

Date: 2 July, 2005		Location: Oita "Big Eye" Std.
0	0 1H 0 0 2H 2	2
	Scoring	Hideo Oshima (56') Daisuke Sakata (86')
Magno Alves Masakazu Shibakoya	Cautions	Hayuma Tanaka Dutra Masahiro Ohashi Naoki Matsuda
Lineups: Lineups: Shusaku Nishikawa, Koji Arimura (Yoshiro Abe 81), Masakazu Shibakoya, Takashi Miki, Koji Yoshimura, Takashi Umeda, Kazuhiro Kawada, Teppei Nishiyama (Tomoaki Komorida 63), Takayuki Yoshida (Daiki Takamatsu 45), Magno Alves, Lucas "Dodo" Ricardo . Tetsuya Enomoto, Hayuma Tanaka, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Dutra, Yoshiharu Ueno (Ryuji Kawai 79), Daisuke Nasu, Masahiro Ohashi, Daisuke Oku (Taketo Shiokawa 89), Hideo Oshima, Nobuhisa Shimizu (Daisuke Sakata 45) .

2 - 2

Both FC Tokyo and Cerezo have struggled in the early part of the season, and both wanted badly to get off to a positive start with a win in their first match after the summer break. In fact,. you might say that they were trying a bit too hard. Some of the best scoring opportunities of the first half went by the boards because a player rushed his shot or failed to notice that a teammate was open. However, shortly after the two teams returned from the locker room, Akira Kaji fired a long cross from the right sideline, and Mitsuhiro Toda dove for a low header that looped over the keeper's fingertips and into the top left corner of the net.

This produced a surge of energy from the FC Tokyo players, who produced a quick succession of shots over the next three minutes. The Tokyo offensive reached its climax in the 55 minute as Kaji again saw an opening and this time sent a low, spinning shot on net from about 40 meters out. The keeper reacted in time to make the block, but couldnt latch onto the ball, and Lucas Severino pounced on the rebound, stuffing it into the back of the net.

But Cerezo fought back and the match continued to swing back and forth, with chances at both ends. With 15 minutes remaining, FC Tokyo conceded a free kick about 35 meters out, on the right side. Ze Carlos took the kick and sent a well-weighted ball for the far post, where Fabinho had beaten his man. Rather than allow Fabinho to get off a high-quality header, Satoru Asari tried to obstruct his jump with a quick tug on the shirttail. Unfortunately for Asari, the referee had a clear view of the foul, and pointed straight to the penalty spot. Ze Carlos converted, and Tokyo's lead was cut to one.

Now the intensity of the match began to boil over, and the referee Mr. Kamikawa began to lose control of events. Following a flurry of a half-dozen hard fouls and two or three yellow cards, Lucas was knocked down from behind, just outside the Cerezo box, in what clearly looked like a professional foul. But Mr. Kamikawa called Lucas for a hand ball as he covered the ball while falling to the turf. Replays showed that Lucas had a legitimate beef, but Mr. Kamikawa just gave him a yellow card for his protests.

As the clock ticked into injury time, Cerezo lofted a high ball towards the Tokyo box, and as two players raced after it, Yasuyuki Konno shouldered Takuya Kokeguchi off the ball. At this point, Mr. Kamikawa well and truly lost it. Through replays show that Konno had made a clean shoulder charge, the man who puts the "special" into the term "Special Referee" not only blew his whistle, but inexplicably whipped out a yellow card as well. The reaction on the faces of the FC Tokyo players told the whole story. All eleven stood there with jaws slack, trying to figure out just exactly what the call had been. A foul alone would have been an extraordinarily bad call. Replays leave no question about the fact that Konno and Kokeguchi collided shoulder to shoulder, and hip to hip. Kokeguchi clearly got the worst of the collision, but that just proves what a fine defensive midfielder Konno is. To go so far as to award a yellow card -- FOR A SHOULDER CHARGE, FOR GOODNESS SAKE -- simply proves once again what a bunch of crap referees we have in the J.League.

You can guess what happened next. Ze Carlos drilled the free kick into the high right corner to knot the score, sending the Tokyo fans into a tirade. Fortunatelyu for Mr. Kamikawa, and the J.League, these were relatively well-behaved Tokyoites. If a similar call had been made at the Reysol - Sanfrecce match, we might have had a repeat occurrence of the "Invasion of Chiba". In any event, we are not going to let these farcical mistakes continue without comment. Later in the week we will have a full video and analysis of this blown call, which will remain in our archives along with all the other examples of officiating incompetence, as a constant reminder, until the J. League starts doing something to address this sad situation. At the very least, Konno deserves to have his yellow card reversed by the League. It would be a travesty to see him miss a match, and make FC Tokyo suffer even further damage due to the utter incompetence of fools like Mr. Kamikawa.

Date: 2 July, 2005		Location: Ajinomoto Stadium
2	0 1H 0 2 2H 0	2
Mitsuhiro Toda (53') Lucas Severino (55')	Scoring	Ze Carlos (75') Ze Carlos (89')
Akira Kaji Satoru Asari Lucas Severino	Cautions	Akinori Nishizawa Tomi Shimomura
Lineups: Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Jean Carlo Witte, Teruaki Moniwa, Jo Kanazawa, Fumitake Miura (Satoru Asari 72), Yasuyuki Konno, Ryoichi Kurisawa (Yohei Kajiyama 84), Naohiro Ishikawa, Mitsuhiro Toda, Yusuke Kondo (Lucas Severino 54) . Tomohiro Yoshida, Bruno Cuadros, Tetsuya Yamazaki, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Tomi Shimomura, Takanori Nunobe (Takaaki Tokushige 63), Kiyokazu Kudo (Takuya Kokeguchi 59), Ze Carlos, Fabinho, Akinori Nishizawa, Hiroaki Morishima (Teruaki Kurobe 70) .

1 - 2

As soon as they saw the dinosaurs of yesteryear lumber out onto the pitch, Jubilo fans must have had a sinking feeling about the probable result. Sure enough, the fleet-footed Frontale offence managed to run rings around Jubilo's back line of Makoto Tanaka, Hideto Suzuki and Toshihiro Hattori, producing two impressive, unassisted goal rushes as well as several more half-chances. If not for a few acrobatic saves by Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, the damage could have been much worse. Jubilo, on the other hand, struggled to create offence. For most of the contest they looked . . . . well . . . . old. Their best scoring opportunities came when Takashi Fukunishi or Shinji Murai attempted long drives from deep midfield.

Up front, Ryoichi Maeda was covered closely, and never seemed to get involved in play, while Rodrigo Gral seemed to be on a mission to get himself tossed from the match. After picking up an early yellow card for a vicious tackle, he was shown remarkable tolerance by veteran referee Keiichi Sunakawa, but warned on three occasions for deliberate diving, play-acting and a number of nasty fouls from behind. In fairness to Mr. Sunakawa, he is one of the most reliable officials in the League, and does not deserve to be lumped with some of the other idiots in black shirts. However, we felt that he erred on the side of tolerance with Gral, whose antics should have been punished with a second yellow, well before half time.

In the 29 minute, the failings of Jubilo's aging defenders were exposed cruelly by the fleet-footed Juninho, who took off on a 55-meter dash with all three Jubilo defenders back. In the old-days, a 2-on-4 counterattack against Jubilo Iwata would have been lucky to cross midfield, but clearly the pages of history have turned. Juninho made a weaving run through traffic as Tanaka and Suzuki both flailed at him futilely, and then tucked the ball underneath a diving Kawaguchi to give Frontale the lead.

As the second half wore down and Jubilo began extending themselves in search of a goal, a second counterattacking rush put the final nail in their coffin. Giovanaldo "Hulk" de Souza took an overlap pass down the right sideline, turned into the box, and put on a razzle-dazzle dribble that turned Hideto Suzuki's underwear inside out. As the Jubilo defender tried to untie the knots in his knickers, Hulk skipped past and fired a low-angle shot that somehow snuck between Kawaguchi and the near post, and dropped into the back of the net.

As the match moved into injury time, Jubilo received a bit of pity from Mr. Sunakawa, who awarded a free kick just outside the box on what looked like it might have been yet anothe deliberate dive by a Jubilo player. Hiroshi Nanami may be losing his pace and overall playing skill to the advancing years, but he still has a deadly-accurate left boot. His shot hit the junction of the crossbar and right post, and ricocheted into the back of the net to give Jubilo a consolation goal. However, if coach Yamamoto wants to get his team back on a winning track, he would be well advised to stop coddling his washed-up veterans and let promising youngsters like Robert Cullen, Sho Naruoka and Naoya Kikuchui take over. The spectacle of Juninho waltzing through Tanaka and Suzuki like Tiny Tim trampling through the tulips should leave no further doubt that the era of these dinosaurs is over, and it is time to start waking up to a new era.

Date: 2 July, 2005		Location: Iwata (Yamaha) Std.
1	0 1H 1 1 2H 1	2
Hiroshi Nanami (89')	Scoring	Juninho (29') "Hulk" de Souza (85')
Rodrigo Gral	Cautions	Juninho Hiroyuki Taniguchi Kengo Nakamura Hiroki Ito
Lineups: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Toshihiro Hattori, Yoshiaki Ota, Takashi Fukunishi, Hiroshi Nanami, Shinji Murai, Norihiro Nishi (Sho Naruoka 77), Ryoichi Maeda (Choi Yong-Soo 73), Rodrigo Gral . Takashi Aizawa, Hiroki Ito, Shuhei Terada, Yoshinobu Minowa, Hiroyuki Taniguchi, Kengo Nakamura, Augusto de Souza, Yasuhiro Nagahashi, Akira Konno (Taku Harada 70), Juninho, Masaru Kurotsu (Giovanaldo "Hulk" de Souza 75) .

1 - 1

Sanfrecce controlled the early stages of this contest, but were not able to produce the goals to match their early dominance. It was not until the closing minutes of the first half that Sanfrece finally claimed the lead, when a nice lead pass was carried into the box and finished off by Hisato Sato.

However, Reysol tightened up their performance in the second half, holding Sanfrecce at bay and counterattacking aggressively in search of the equaliser. That finally came in the 77 minute, courtesy of Tamada who broke his goal drought at a very opportune moment for Reysol fans. Sanfrecce spent the final 15 minutes chasing the winning goal, but couldnt crack the Reysol defence and were forced to settle for a draw.

Date: 2 July, 2005		Location: Kashiwa Stadium
1	0 1H 1 1 2H 0	0
Keiji Tamada (77')	Scoring	Hisato Sato (42')
	Cautions	Takehito Shigehara Ri Han-Jae
Lineups: Yuta Minami, Sota Nakazawa (Harutaka Ono 57), Yasuhiro Hato, Yukio Tsuchiya, Yuzo Kobayashi (Tatsuya Yazawa 57), Tomokazu Myojin, Ryo Kobayashi, Tomonori Hirayama, Cleber, Keiji Tamada, Yoshiteru Yamashita (Kisho Yano 71) . Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano, Dininho, Norio Omura, Kota Hattori, Susumu Oki (Shunsuke Maeda 83), Ri Han-Jae, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Takehito Shigehara (Koji Morisaki 83), Hisato Sato (Galvao 72), Joubert "Beto" Martins .

1 - 1

While this dust-up certainly does not leave us with any better impression of Mr. Mikitani's abilities to manage a professional sports team, it may turn out to have been a positive move where the club is concerned. While the Miura brothers certainly have a lot of connections in the Japanese sports world, we have always felt that their skills as team leaders and administrators are not even worth discussing. On Saturday evening, a rather bored-looking Kazu Miura sat in the stands of Kobe Wing Stadium, in street clothes, having been dropped from the starting lineup for the first time this year. If this suggests that Kazu was also cast aside in the big personel shakeup, perhaps fans of Vissel can finally look forward to some improvement in the team's performance (though based on their record so far this season, that will not be hard to achieve).

Vissel looked very energetic and animated in their first match since coach Pavel Rehak -- a long-time assistant coach at Vissel -- took the reins. Though they ran out of energy in the second half, over the opening 45 minutes Vissel were playing with the sort of "esprit" that one usually sees in a cup final. Hiromi Kojima, who has been virtually invisible over the past 18 months, got the start up front along with Tomoyuki Hirase, and turned in a very impressive performance. Midway through the half, Kojima dashed after a long clearance from the Kobe back line and managed to outjump two defenders to head the ball on, into space. Hirase raced onto the loose ball and had a very easy, uncontested finish that even his wayward boots would have had difficulty missing.

Unfortunately, Vissel were playing a clearly superior team, as well as a clearly superior coach, and in the end, energy and enthusiasm were not enough to produce a victory. Midway t hrough the second half, a free kick by Mario Haas was headed home from close range by Yuki Abe , and JEF claimed a share of the points. Even so, Vissel's much-improved team spirit suggests that coach Pavel is enjoying a honeymoon with his players -- well, with the possible exception of Kazu. If they can maintain the energy level, Kobe may be able to avoid relegation after all. But of course, that assumes that Pavel will not be kicked out of the coaching seat by Mr. Mikitani, a few weeks hence. Dont touch that dial, there are bound to be more surprises in store for you, in our next exciting episode . . .

Date: 2 July, 2005		Location: Kobe Wing Stadium
1	1 1H 0 0 2H 1	1
Tomoyuki Hirase (21')	Scoring	Yuki Abe (68')
Atsuhiro Miura Naoya Saeki	Cautions	Yuto Sato
Lineups: Makoto Kakegawa, Ichiei Muroi, Kunie Kitamoto, Naoto Matsuo, Atsuhiro Miura, Naoya Saeki, Pavel Horvath, Roger, Hiromi Kojima (Keisuke Kurihara 68), Tomoyuki Hirase (Mitsutoshi Watada 70) . Lineups: Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Ilyan Stoyanov, Masataka Sakamoto, Satoru Yamagishi, (Kohei Kudo 74), Yuto Sato, Yuki Abe, Koki Mizuno (Takenori Hayashi 53), Naotake Hanyu, Mario Haas, Seiichiro Maki .

1 - 1

Do far, Grampus has not really "replaced" these two foreigners. They did sign a young Brazilian named Eduardo, who played for the youth team of Corinthians last season, but he is still a teenager and will probably receive a "B" contract, meaning that he does not count in the summation of Grampus' foreign player allocation. There are rumours about another Brazilian (or even two) being signed over the summer, but so far this is nothing more than talk. Nagoya did make two additions to their squad, however, and both could play a part in the team's performance over the second half of the season. First, Grampus signed veteran midfield playmaker Toshiya Fujita from Jubilo Iwata. Though Fujita is gettimng up there in years, Grampus is currently an extremely young team and the addition of a wise and experienced veteran in the center of the pitch will be very useful in providing structure to the team. Nagoya also picked up striker Satoshi Nakayama on a rental contract from Gamba Osaka. Though he has not seen much action this season, Nakayama has a reputation as a good finisher, and with the loss of Marques and Ueslei, his contributions could be very valuable indeed.

Both Fujita and Nakayama had an opportunity to start the match against Omiya Ardija, and both made contributions to what looks like a steadily improving, though still extremely young team. Grampus held their own with Ardija for most of the first half, but were unfortunate to fall behind on a thundering header by Christian Dionosio, who powered home a long cross from Chikara Fujimoto, deep in the left corner

In the second half, Grampus came out of the locker room and immediately took the upper hand. Following a string of close calls, they finally produced the equaliser ten minutes after the break, on a corner kick from the right side. Defender Masahiro Koga met the high cross one step to the left of the penalty spot, and nodded the ball into the low left corner, just out of the keeper's reach. Unfortunately, though they had several opportunities to get the winning tally, Grampus could not add to their score line and had to settle for a draw. Even this will be viewed as a reasonable result for a team that has lost a benchload of key players to injury and retirement this season. With their two ace strikers gone and a host of other veterans in the physio room, youngsters are holding down many of the starting spots, at present. Nevertheless, even though Grampus is clearly in rebuilding mode, based on their performance in this contest one should not assume that they are completely out of contention, just yet.

Date: 2 July, 2005		Location: Toyota Stadium
1	0 1H 1 1 2H 0	1
Masahiro Koga (53')	Scoring	Christian (27')
Makoto Kakuda Yohei Toyoda	Cautions	Toninho
Lineups: Seigo Narazaki, Makoto Kakuda (Yohei Toyoda 45), Masahiro Koga, Takahiro Masukawa, Yusuke Nakatani, Naoshi Nakamura, Keiji Yoshimura, Toshiya Fujita, Keisuke Honda, (Kiyohiro Hirabayashi 45), Keita Sugimoto, Satoshi Nakamura . Hiroki Aratani, Takuro Nishimura, Toninho, Seiichiro Okuno, Kazuyoshi Mikami, Jun Marques Davidson, Yosuke Kataoka, Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel Chikara Fujimoto (Tatsunori Hisanaga 67), Naoto Sakurai (Koji Morita 82), Christian Dionisio (Satoshi Yokoyama 73) .

2 - 1

Isnt it intriguing, then, to hear the same people singing a very different tune as the reason resumed, with the Kashima Antlers sitting on a comfortable nine-point cushion atop the table. Suddenly, the question of which team "deserves it the most" has been tossed casually aside, and these same "journalists" are letting us know how important it is for the rest of the pack to catch up with the Antlers, and keep the race close. The mainstream tabloids as well as many English-language columnists, did not even spare a half sentence to note that the Antlers fully deserve to be in the dominant position they currently enjoy, or to admit that -- at least over the opening 13 games -- they have been head and shoulders above the opposition in terms of quality of play. Instead, the main topic was which other teams can hope to close the gap, and what sort of scenarios could knock the Antlers off track. One self-described "British" columnist even went so far as to express the fond wish that Mitsuo Ogasawara would be signed by an overseas team, allowing other clubs to catch up with the Antlers. Hmmmmmm . . . . .

Dont misunderstand . . . we at the Rising Sun News would like to see the title race narrow a bit, as well. In particular we would like to see some of the mid-table teams maintain at least a theoretical chance of a comeback, until late in the season. That was why we preferred a two-stage format in the first place. But now that the format has been changed, for better or worse, we find in mighty odd that suddenly the platitudes about seeing the "best team" and the "team that deserved it most" end up on top. Perhaps this was just a case of misunderstanding, and we are at fault for not clarifying what these writers meant, in the first place. It is no secret where their loyalties lie, and perhaps we were naiive in not recognising from the start that what they REALLY meant was "We want to ensure that the best team wins . . . . as long as the best team isnt Kashima, Urawa or Nagoya."

The funny thing is, this attitude is not limited to a few odd journalists. On the contrary, it often seems like the J.League officials make a deliberate effort to ensure that games remain "competitive". That is to say, when one team is clearly superior to the opponent in every visible aspect of performance, the officials adopt a very bizarre double-standard of officiating, letting the weaker team get away with all manner of dirty tactics and foul play while penalizing the stronger team for even the most minute infraction. The match described above, between Cerezo and FC Tokyo is a case in point, as were both of the matches played on Sunday. This is not to say that the referees are playing favourites with particular teams (though that does occur on occasions as well). If team A runs up a three-goal lead in the first half of one game, they will find themselves on the short end of officiating for the rest of the match, whereas the very next week, they may fall behind by three goals and suddenly start getting every break and benefit of the doubt that the officials can orchestrate.

This attitude of "supporting the underdogs" is a serious problem which lies at the heart of the officiating problems in the League. If people want to see close matches and close title races, there are a variety of ways to ensure that this happens (such as a two-stage format, or a revenue-sharing system to preserve the parity in player quality, among teams). But if you are going to claim that you prefer seeing "the best team win the titles that they deserve", then you have to accept it when one team proves to be so far superior to the competition that they blow them off the pitch. If a particular match turns into a rout (as the Gamba-Verdy match did on Saturday) or if one team runs away from the competition and clinches a title before two-thirds of the season is finished, well, that is as it should be.

Pardon the digression, but after watching both the Antlers and the Urawa Reds matches on Sunday, the visible effort by officials in both contests to keep the contest closejust became too annoying for us to let pass without comment. When one team fouls deliberately as part of their underlying game plan, taking down opposing players again and again in obviously premeditated plays, but the match ends with the OTHER team collecting a larger number of yellow cards, it is pretty clear that something is fishy going on.

In their match against Shimizu S-Pulse, the Antlers were so clearly superior that on several occasions, after a play designed to create a shot fot Alex Mineiro or Takayuki Suzuki failed to work, the Antlers pulled the ball back and passed it around the perimeter while Mitsuo Ogasawara and Masashi Motoyama provided feedback and instructions on how the play should have worked.

Yet after an extended scramble in the S-Pulse box was finished off by Alex Mineiro, in the second minute of play, a continuous strting of deliberate fouls by the S-Pulse players prevented them from adding to the score until early in the second half. Once again it was Alex Mineiro who finished off the play, poking home a cross from Ogasawara that led him perfectly on the break. As he grows more and more accustomed to the J.League and to the play of his teammates, he could become one of the league's top scorers. The service he has been getting from the Antlers midfield is certainly some of the best in the league, and if Alex emerges as the deadly finisher that the team has lacked for the past 2-3 years, there is every reason to assume that they will continue to extend their lead atop the table.

Nevertheless, some pretty one-sided officiating, at least in terms of not awarding more yellow cards to the S-Pulse players for all the deliberate fouling, prevented them from extending their lead. A late goal by Keisuke Ota gave the home fans a few minutes of nailbiting tension before the final whistle confirmed the victory. But even though the finasl score may have been a bit closer than it should have been, the Antlers maintained their impressive run of results, and extended their lead atop the league table to ten points.

Date: 3 July, 2005		Location: Kashima Stadium
2	1 1H 0 1 2H 1	1
Alex Mineiro (2') Alex Mineiro (56')	Scoring	Keisuke Ota (87')
Masashi Motoyama Takeshi Aoki	Cautions	Ryuzo Morioka
Lineups: Lineups: Hitoshi Sogahata, Arivaldo dos Santos (Jun Uchida 45), Daiki Iwamasa, Go Oiwa, Toru Araiba, Takeshi Aoki, Fernando, Masashi Motoyama, Mitsuo Ogasawara (Toshiyuki Abe 89), Takayuki Suzuki (Takuya Nozawa 75), Alex Mineiro . Takaya Kurokawa, Daisuke Ichikawa, Toshihide Saito, Ryuzo Morioka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Masaaki Sawanobori (Keisuke Ota 49), Kazumichi Takagi, Teruyoshi Ito (Takuma Edamura 82), Choi Dae-Uk, Yoshikiyo Kuboyama (Junichiro Zaitsu 73), Yasumasa Nishino .

2 - 1

Wouldnt you know, the unexpected goal by Albirex put a new spin on the situation, and with remarkable speed, the referee Mr. Osada changed his standards of officiating. Albirex' play in the first half was far more physical than it was in the second half, and there were far more professional fouls, yet they received not a single yellow card. But in the second half, suddenly the fouls that were ignored in the first half started drawing cautious. The change in what constituted a yellow card was clearly apparent to everyone watching, and the Albirex players even started to complain about it. You could see them arguing with gestures to various points on the field, as if to say "I did the same thing over there, in the first half, and you didnt call it. Why now?" But that just goes to show that there is a diference between "cheating" in favour of a weaker team in order to keep the score close, and "cheating" so much that the team which deserve to win are robbed of victory. In our eyes, both types of officiating inequity are reprehensible. In the eyes of the referees, it would seem, its OK to do it as long as you dont cost the better team a victory.

With the calls starting to go in THEIR favour, for once, the Reds quickly took control of the match, and had a half-dozen chances to equalise in the opening ten minutes of the second half, before Nobuhsa Yamada's long drive from level with the left edge of the box clipped a defender and deflected into the low right corner, wrongfooting the keeper and levelling the score. Just five minutes later, Makoto Hasebe turned the right corner and fired a low cross for the near post, which Tatsuya Tanaka side-footed into the narrow gap between keeper and post.

After the Reds took the lead, Albirex threw caution to the wind, and began to attack aggressively, for the first time in the match. For a while, it looked like they might manage to equalise before the final whistle, but with time running down, Mr. Osada suddenly seemed to worry that his favouritism in the first half would come back to haunt him. With Albirex pinning the Reds back and looking for the equaliser, Anderson Lima was caught offside on a lead pass, and turned to shout "What?" at the linesman. For this heinous crime, he was quickly shown his second yellow card of the match, and Albirex were reduced to ten men, effectively ending the competition.

Date: 3 July, 2005		Location: Saitama Stadium
2	0 1H 1 2 2H 0	1
Nobuhisa Yamada (58') Tatsuya Tanaka (64')	Scoring	Edmilson (40')
	Cautions	Yoshito Terada Tetsuya Okayama Anderson Lima Anderson Lima
	Sent Off	Anderson Lima (2Y)
Lineups: Ryota Tsuzuki, Keisuke Tsuboi, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Hideki Uchidate, Nobuhisa Yamada (Tomoyuki Sakai 83), Makoto Hasebe, Keita Suzuki, Tadaaki Hirakawa, Alex Santos, Yuichiro Nagai, Tatsuya Tanaka (Takuya Yokoyama 79) . Yosuke Nozawa, Anderson Lima, Keiji Kaimoto, Naoki Takahashi, Yasushi Kita, Yoshito Terakawa (Motohiro Yamaguchi 69), Hiroyoshi Kuwahara (Yusaku Ueno 83), Fabinho, Kojiro Kaimoto, Edmilson, Shingo Suzuki (Tetsuya Okayama 69) .

And so, the Antlers extend their lead atop the table by another point, and now have a ten-point cushion. Certainly, there are a lot of other good teams in the league and a lot can happen with 21 still to be played. Having said that, the Antlers do seem to have all the pistons firing and every gear and filter functioning smoothly. Their Wednesday night clash with Yokohama Marinos, away at Yokohama Stadium, will be a very important test. Though the Antlers can afford to lose and still hold a comfortable lead, a loss would give all other teams in the league renewed hope, and perhaps elevate their intensity enough to spring a few upsets. On the contrary, if Yokohama should lose to Kashima at home, their hopes of remaining in the title race will take a serious blow, leaving only Gamba, the Reds, Sanfrecce and perhaps JEF United with a truly promising chance of catching up with the galloping herd.

Rumours and Rumblings