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July 10, 2005

Derby Duels Dampened, Drenched and Deluged

Naturally, under these conditions, play was far from "pretty", and in some cases it was downright treacherous. But the intensity of play was as fierce as we have ever seen it. We could go on to wax poetic about the conditions and content of play, but we will be doing enough of that in our match reports. So lets get right to the scores of Saturday's matches:

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
Jul 9		2-0		Kashima Stadium
Jul 9		3-2		Ichihara Seaside St.
Jul 9		1-2		Saitama Stadium
Jul 9		0-0		Ajinomoto Stadium
Jul 9		3-0		Iwata "Yamaha" Stadium
Jul 9		1-1		Mizuho Stadium
Jul 9		0-3		Kobe Wing Stadium
Jul 10		3-2		Expo '70 "Banpaku" St.
Jul 10		0-1		Oita "Big Eye" Stadium

1 - 2

Though their fans outnumbered those of cross-town rivals Omiya by a factor of nearly 100-to-one, the Reds did not play as if they were the home team, at least in the first 20-30 minutes. Ardija had three or four excellent chances to take the early lead, and the score only remained level due to some nice reaction saves by the Reds keeper, Ryota Tsuzuki . But in the 18 minute, after the keeper had bailed out the Reds yet again following an errant pass deep in their own end, Omiya ran a perfectly executed corner kick, with defender Toninho breaking suddenly for the near post and heading a low cross just inside the right upright.

Things would only get worse, as less than five minutes later a quick exchange of passes by Ardija at the top right corner of the box gave former Reds striker Naoto Sakurai a breif look at goal, and he ripped off a quick shot that spun just beyond the keeper's fingertips and extended Omiya's lead to two goals.

This finally seemed to wake up the Reds, and over the remainder of the first half they gradually began to fight their way back into the match. But the absence of Emerson, who STILL has not returned from his "vacation" in Brazil, left the Reds a bit weak in the finishing department. As Omiya altered their tactics and started concentrating on ways to preserve their lead, the Reds attack continued to break down in in the final quarter of the pitch.

But on the stroke of half time, the Reds won a free kick from about 30 meters out, the right side. Alex Santos sent a swerving kick towards the near post, and Marcus Tulio Tanaka got just enough of his head on the ball to send it spinning into the far side of the net, pulling the Reds to within a goal at the break.

The second half was a long, drawn out torment for Reds fans, as the team totally dominated play and barraged the Omiya defence with a hail of high balls in front of goal, a fusillade of through passes and a stampede of dribbling penetrations, yet somehow just couldnt manage to get off a high-percentage shot. Some of the "credit" for this has to be awarded to Santos, who had a truly awful evening, sending passes astray time after time, and failing repeatedly in his selfish efforts to single-handedly dribble through the packed Omiya defence. But all of the Reds were having a bit of an off night. When Tatsuya Tanaka FINALLY managed to turn the right corner with an inlet pass from Masayuki Okano, five minutes from full time, only to have his shot batted out of play by keeper Hiroki Aratani, it was clear that this was not the Reds' night.

Omiya looked almost desperate in their defensive shell, at times, but somehow they managed to hang on until the final whistle, and claim victory in the first TRUE Saitama Derby (in the J1, that is). The Reds, on the other hand, find themselves losing the hard-won ground that they gained on the league-leading Antlers, Wednesday night, and will find themselves in no better than fifth place, once Sunday evening's matches are concluded

Date: 10 July, 2005		Location: Saitama Stadium
1	1 1H 2 0 2H 0	2
Marcus Tulio Tanaka (44')	Scoring	Toninho (18') Naoto Sakurai (22')
Ryota Tsuzuki	Cautions	Jun Marques Davidson Tatsunori Hisanaga Toninho Satoshi Yokoyama
Lineups: Ryota Tsuzuki, Keisuke Tsuboi, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Hideki Uchidate, Nobuhisa Yamada (Takuya Yokoyama 71), Makoto Hasebe, Keita Suzuki, Tadaaki Hirakawa, Alex Santos, Yuichiro Nagai (Masayuki Okano 78), Tatsuya Tanaka . Hiroki Aratani, Takuro Nishimura, Yasunari Hiraoka, Seiichiro Okuno (Masato Saito 68), Daisuke Tomita, Toninho, Jun Marques Davidson, Tatsunori Hisanaga, Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel, Christian Dionisio (Satoshi Yokoyama 69), Naoto Sakurai (Koji Morita 86) .

0 - 0

FC Tokyo has been plagued by horrifically bad luck. They often play very exciting and superficially impressife football, but as was the case on Wednesday night, their ailure to produce goals has left them struggling at the lower end of the table. Verdy, meanwhile, started off the year with a boom, defeating the Marinos in the Xerox Super Cup. But since then, the team has struggled, and over the past week the bottom has fallen out completely. Verdy came into this match having conceded 14 goals over the preceding 136 minutes of football. The gloom in the Verdy clubhouse is palpable, and it looks like coach Ossie Ardilles will not last much longer at the helm, unless the team can start a winning streak. Not surprisingly, then, both teams came into this contest wanting desperately to collect all three points.

But the elements simply were not going to cooperate. When the opening kick was taken, a steady, drenching rain was streaming down and soaking every player on the pitch from head to toe. By the time the whistle blew for the half time break it had intensified to a downpour, with even the bravest of fans retreating beneath the overhanging roof of Ajinomoto Stadium and leaving the first 20 rows of seats completely empty. And when the teams came back out for the second 45 minutes, well . . . that is when it REALLY started to rain. It was nothing short of remarkable that the field held up as long as it did. But by the early stages of the second half, it was like standing under a shower turned on full blast, and there were areas of the pitch where the water had collected so deeply that the ball could actually float on the surface.

Considering the conditions, the two teams put on a valiant show, trying desperately to produce at least one goal. FC Tokyo clearly had the upper hand, and in the latter stages of the second half they were sending cross after cross into the Verdy penalty box. But it was virtually impossible to pass the ball on the ground, much less dribble, and since all defenders have to do under such conditions is boot the ball away as hard as they can, it was no surprise that defences won the day. Certainly nobody in the large crowd will be claiming that thjey didnt get their money's worth, but at the end of the day, it was apparent from some time in the first half that the match would probably end before either team found the net. And that was exactly what happened. Late in the second half, Verdy's Kenta Togawa picked up his second yellow card and Verdy were reduced to ten players. But even with a man advantage, FC Tokyo could not overcome theelements and the match ended in a scoreless draw

Date: 10 July, 2005		Location: Ajinomoto Stadium
0	0 1H 0 0 2H 0	0
	Scoring
Yohei Kajiyama Mitsuhiro Toda	Cautions	Kenta Togawa Daigo Kobayashi Kenta Togawa Washington Lee Kang-ji
Lineups: Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Jean Carlo Witte, Teruaki Moniwa, Jo Kanazawa, Yohei Kajiyama (Fumitake Miura 72), Yasuyuki Konno, Naohiro Ishikawa, Ryoichi Kurisawa (Yuta Baba 77), Mitsuhiro Toda, Lucas Severino (Yusuke Kondo 68) . Yoshinari Takagi, Lee Kang-Ji, Kenta Togawa, Kenichi Uemura, Kentaro Hayashi, Takuya Yamada, Daigo Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki Kobayashi,Takahito Soma, Washington (Atsushi Yoneyama 83), Kazuki Hiramoto .

2 - 0

The intensity of the contest was never in doubt, and Augusto set the tone by picking up the first yellow card of the match before a full minute had been played. But even if Frontale were a match for Kashima in intensity, they simply didnt have the technical skill to gain the upper hand. The Antlers defence is formidable even under the best conditions, and with a wet pitch to contend with as well, Frontale managed only a handful of chances significant enough to trouble keeper Hitoshi Sogahata. For their part, the Antlers had some difficulty as well. Alex Mineiro was sitting out a suspension for accumulated yellow cards, and given the pitch conditions, none of the other Antlers strikers could manage much penetration. Kashima did get off a numger of shots from the perimeter, but keeper Takashi Aizawa was equal to all of them.

Unable to produce opportunities from the run of play, the Antlers turned to their most dangerous weapon, the set play. Two minutes after the break, Kashima won a free kick about 30 meters out, on the right sideline. Fernando sent in a curling line drive as a crowd of players all rushed the goal mouth. And though none of the Antlers players managed to get a head on the ball, it glanced off a defender and bounded into his own net for an own goal. In all fairness to the Frontale defender, it was one of those own goals that really cant be helped. If he had not headed the ball, there were at least two Antlers players who would have. Either way, the ball probably would have ended up in the net.

As time began to run down on them, Frontale were forced to start attacking, and this provided the Antlers with enough room to create chances even on a sloppy pitch. With just over ten minutes remaining, Takayuki Suzuki received a pass in the post, just above the top of the penalty arc, and used a quick spin move to leave his defender Chung Yong Dae mired in the mud. The only way Chung could prevent Suzuki from dashing into the box for an uncontested shot was to pull him down from behind, but this not only earned him a yellow card; it also gave Mitsuo Ogasawara a free kick from a spot level with the top of the penalty arc -- a location from which the baby-faced assassin is merciless. Ogasawara stood over the ball calmly for a full minute, ordering players to adjust their position and demanding that the wall be pushed back to the regulation ten meters. When all was arranged to his satisfaction, he took one casual step forward and drilled his kill shot into the low right corner, to put the match out of reach.

Date: 10 July, 2005		Location: Kashima Stadium
2	0 1H 0 2 2H 0	0
Own Goal (47') Mitsuo Ogasawara (79')	Scoring
Masashi Motoyama Takayuki Suzuki Fernando Daiki Iwamasa	Cautions	Augusto Akira Konno Taku Harada Hideki Sahara Chung Yong-Dae
Lineups: Hitoshi Sogahata, Jun Uchida, Daiki Iwamasa, Go Oiwa, Toru Araiba, Takeshi Aoki, Fernando, Masashi Motoyama (Toshiyuki Abe 82), Mitsuo Ogasawara, Takayuki Suzuki, Takuya Nozawa (Masaki Fukai 81) . Takashi Aizawa, Chung Yong-Dae, Hideki Sahara (Kazuki Ganaha 80), Hiroki Ito, Kengo Nakamura (Iwao Yamane 55), Taku Harada, Yasuhiro Nagahashi, Augusto de Souza, Akira Konno (Giovanaldo "Hulk" de Souza 55), Juninho, Masaru Kurotsu .

3 - 0

There! We have admitted our ignorance. Now for crying out loud, would SOMEONE out there who possesses a keener football intellect than our own PLEASE explain why Yamamoto continues to start players like Masashi "Gon" Nakayama and Makoto Tanaka, while leaving Ryoichi Maeda and Naoya Kikuchi (among others) on the bench? We would be happy to admit, in public, that we have only a sophomoric grasp of the game of football, if someone would just explain WHAT THE BLOODY YAMAHA coach Yamamoto is thinking!

After a relatively successful match on Wednesday night, in which youngsters like Maeda, Robert Cullen and Yoshiaki Ota carried the team to an uplifting victory, we thought for sure that Cullen and Maeda would start this week. But to our surprise, as several other dinosaurs also emerged from the locker room, who should take the pitch at striker when the contest agains Cerezo kicked off? Sure enough, it was the same old Gon (unfortunately, it appears, Gon is still not "Gone").

Apparently, the idea was to lull Cerezo into a false sense of security. And it definitely worked. In fact, it almost worked TOO well. Not only did Jubilo fail to score, or even come close to scoring, in the first half, but Cerezo did just about everything BUT score. If not for some spectacular plays in net by keeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Jubilo could have been down three or four goals at the half. Indeed, Hideaki Morishima was robbed of goals by both posts and by Kawaguchi, as Cerezo hit the woodwork no less than four times in the opening 30 minutes of play!

At half time, Nakayama retreated to the bench and Maeda took his place. A mere 25 minutes later, Shinji Murai beat his man around the left corner and crossed in to Maeda, who stuffed the ball home to complete his hat trick and give Jubilo a comfortable 3-0 lead. You read that right. It took Maeda just six minutes to find the net, ten to score a brace, and 25 to complete a hat trick. Im sure someone out there can explain to me why, after repeated performances like this throughout the season, Maeda and Cullen are still forced to play second fiddle to a bunch of geritol-guzzling senior citizens. I cant tell you how much I will appreciate receiving a full explanation. Im beginning to feel very inferior, because it is becoming OBVIOUS that I just dont understand this sport as well as I thought I did.

Date: 10 July, 2005		Location: Iwata (Yamaha) Std.
3	0 1H 0 3 2H 0	0
Ryoichi Maeda (51') Ryoichi Maeda (55') Ryoichi Maeda (70')	Scoring
Takayuki Chano Hideto Suzuki Shinji Murai	Cautions
Lineups: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Takayuki Chano, Yoshiaki Ota, Takashi Fukunishi (Takashi Kawamura 72), Hiroshi Nanami, Shinji Murai, Norihiro Nishi (Toshihiro Hattori, 45), Masashi Nakayama (Ryoichi Maeda 45), Robert Cullen . Tomohiro Yoshida, Bruno Cuadros, Tetsuya Yamazaki, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Fabinho, Tomi Shimomura, Takuya Kokeguchi, Ze Carlos, Hiroaki Morishima (Nozomu Hiroyama 75), Teruaki Kurobe, Takaaki Tokushige (Daisuke Yoneyama 62) .

1 - 1

One of these problems is that coach Okada cant seem to make up his mind what formation to adopt. He has wavered all season between a 3-5-2 and a 4-4-2, and this has created some gaps in the team's continuity, particularly on defence. In the Marinos case, we think that a three-back formation tends to work best, in part because they have so many strong central defenders (in addition to NT candidates Yuji Nakazawa and Naoki Matsuda they also have two excellent future NT prospects in Yuzo Kurihara and Daisuke Nasu, and two aging but solid veterans in Ryuji Kawai and Eisuke Nakanishi). However, Okada has apparently noted (as have we) that both Hayuma Tanaka and Dutra are more effective attacking into the corner, from a wing back spot, than trying to create offence on the dribble, from a midfield wing spot. This dilemma has not yet been resolved and the result is that the Marinos back line shows visible signs of instability.

This was particularly evident in the first half of their match with Nagoya, as the Grampus attacking midfield (particularly Naoshi Nakamura and rookie Keisuke Honda ) produced a number of excellent scoring chances. With just a tiny bit of luck, Grampus could have had a one- or two-goal lead at the half, but despite battering the woodwork of the Marinos goal, the match remained level at the half.

Just after the break, Yokohama took the lead on a corner kick, with Nakazawa scoring his second goal in as many matches on a thundering header. But less than a minute later, Grampus surged back. Naoshi Nakamura turned the left corner and crossed in front of net, and the wily veteran Toshiya Fujita flicked a leaping side-footed volley into the back of the Marinos net.

Down the stretch, Nagoya had the better opportunities, but in the end, neither team could add to the score and they had to content themselves with an equal share of the points.

Date: 10 July, 2005		Location: Mizuho Stadium.
1	0 1H 0 1 2H 1	1
Yuji Nakazawa (52')	Scoring	Toshiya Fujita (53')
Yohei Toyoda Keiji Watanabe	Cautions	Naoki Matsuda
Lineups: Lineups: Seigo Narazaki, Keita Sugimoto (Yusuke Igawa 76), Masahiro Koga, Takahiro Masukawa, Yusuke Nakatani (Keiji Watanabe 73), Keiji Yoshimura, Claiton, Toshiya Fujita, Naoshi Nakamura, Keisuke Honda (Yohei Toyoda 73), Satoshi Nakayama . Tetsuya Enomoto, Hayuma Tanaka, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Ryuji Kawai, Yoshiharu Ueno (Eisuke Nakanishi 83), Daisuke Nasu, Masahiro Ohashi, Daisuke Oku (Nobuhisa Shimizu 73), Hideo Oshima, Daisuke Sakata (Tatsuhiko Kubo 75) .

3 - 2

Though Ichihara Seaside Stadium on the western shoreline of Tokyo bay was affected by the same storm front that covered the rest of eastern Japan, the rain was not quite as heavy as it was at other venues, and as a result the two teams were able to play attractive attacking football. With play swinging from one end of the pitch to the other, and the lead shanging hands throughout the match, fans were kept on the edge of their seats from start to finish.

JEF was the quickest team off the mark, and produced the opening surge of offence. Though the team's ace striker, Mario Haas, was sitting out a suspension for accumulated yellow cards, the offensive duties were ably handled by Seiichiro Maki and Takenori Hayashi . But despite producing several good shots, JEF failed to find the net, and as the half wore down, Albirex began to produce good opportunities of their own. The deadlock was broken in the 40 minute, when an Albirex corner kick from the right side ricocheted through the back in front of goal and bounced through to Edmilson at the far post. Edmilson managed to toe the ball inside the far post before the keeper could smother it, and Albirex took the lead into the locker room with them, at the halftime break.

JEF came out for the second half with another surge, and quickly leveled the score line. Naotake Hanyu played a low cross to the top left corner of the penalty area, and Yuto Sato took a quick swing at the ball which sent a short-hop liner screaming into the top of the net. But Albirex responded with their own surge of intensity, capped less than five minutes later on a free kick by Edmilson which Yusaku Ueno stuffed in at the right post.

Again JEF were forced toi go on the offensive, and this time it took just three minutes to equalise. Midfielder Gabriel Popescu , making just his first start of the season, found space in the right corner and sent in a looping cross that Maki met with a sliding half-volley, slicing the ball into the left corner.

Just three days earlier, Albirex had been in a nearly identical situation against Vissel Kobe, and in the dying moments, following a scramble in front of goal, a Niigata player managed to loop a header over the stranded keeper to give them victory. In a classic case of "live by the late header - die by the late header", Albirex were beaten opn an almost identical play. With four minutes to play, a high cross into the box was headed on net by Maki,. but swatted away by the keeper. However, veteran benchwarmer Yuichi Yoda , making only his second appearance of the year, desperately twisted his body to reach the rebound, and managed to make just enough contact to send the ball on net. The feeble shot, however, caught keeper Yosuke Nozawa by surprise, and leaning the wrong way. The ball just barely eluded his flailing fingertips and dropped softly into the net to give JEF the victory.

Date: 10 July, 2005		Location: Ichihara Seaside Std.
3	0 1H 0 0 2H 0	2
Yuto Sato (53') Seiichiro Maki (61') Yoda (86')	Scoring	Edmilson (40') Yusaku Ueno (59')
Stoyanov	Cautions	Hiroyoshi Kuwahara Yoshito Terakawa
Lineups: Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Ilyan Stoyanov, Yuki Abe, Masataka Sakamoto, Yuto Sato, Naotake Hanyu, Satoru Yamagishi (Takashi Rakuyama 76), Gabriel Popescu (Kohei Kudo 66), Takenori Hayashi (Yuichi Yoda 64), Seiichiro Maki . Yosuke Nozawa, Anderson Lima, Keiji Kaimoto (Shigenori Hagimura 63), Naoki Takahashi, Yasushi Kita, Yoshito Terakawa, Hiroyoshi Kuwahara, Tetsuya Okayama (Yusaku Ueno 58), Kojiro Kaimoto, Edmilson, Shingo Suzuki (Motohiro Yamaguchi 86) .

0 - 3

Date: 2 July, 2005		Location: Kobe Wing Stadium
0	0 1H 2 0 2H 1	3
	Scoring	Cho Jae-Jin (35') Yoshikiyo Kuboyama (43') Choi Dae-Uk (65')
Pavel Horvath	Cautions
Lineups: Makoto Kakegawa, Yusuke Tsubouchi, Naoto Matsuo, Kunie Kitamoto, Roger, Park Kang-Jo, Hiromi Kojima, Pavel Horvath, Atsuhiro Miura, Mitsunori Yabuta (Mitsutoshi Watada 57), Tomoyuki Hirase (Keisuke Kurihara 85) . Takaya Kurokawa, Daisuke Ichikawa, Toshihide Saito, Ryuzo Morioka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Yukihiko Sato, Kazumichi Takagi, Teruyoshi Ito, Choi Dae-Uk (Keisuke Ota 78), Yoshikiyo Kuboyama (Masaaki Sawanobori 73), Cho Jae-Jin (Yasumasa Nishino 87) .

0 - 1

Date: 10 July, 2005		Location: Oita "Big Eye" Std.
0	0 1H 0 0 2H 1	1
	Scoring	Galvao (89')
	Cautions
Lineups: Shusaku Nishikawa, Masakazu Shibakoya, Tomoki Fukaya, Koji Arimura, Koji Yoshimura, Teppei Nishiyama (Tsukasa Umezaki 85), Kazuhiro Kawada, Takashi Umeda, Yoshiro Abe (Shota Matsuhashi 69), Magno Alves, Lucas "Dodo" Ricardo . Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano, Dininho, Norio Omura, Kota Hattori, Ri Han-Jae, Joubert "Beto" Martins, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Takehito Shigehara (Galvao 64), Shunsuke Maeda (Hisato Sato 53), Susumu Oki (Koji Morisaki 83) .

2 - 1

But the fortunes of the two teams have differed dramatically this season. As they entered this weekend's contest, Gamba held the second place position in the league table, and though they trailed the Kashima Antlers by seven points, their highly impressive results in the last two matches suggest that they are perhaps the best candidate to overtake the current leaders. Kashiwa Reysol, on the other hand, have had a very disappointing and angst-ridden season, which featured one near riot as well as a "sit-down strike" at the end of May in which fans refused to leave the stadium until the team management sent someone out to hear the fans' greivances. Coming into this contest, Reysol languished in 17th place, out of 18 teams.

Considering these relative statistics, you would think that Gamba would have a fairly easy time of it. And indeed, for the first 15 minutes it certainly looked like Gamba were going to enjoy a casual stroll in the rain. The Reysol players seemed to be playing in awe of their opponents, allowing Gamba plenty of space to move the ball around, and merely shadowing their opponents around the field, rather than pressing the ball. Gamba, meanwhile, moved the basll smoothly and confidently, and you could see the opening goal coming from a mile away.

After two or three "warm-up shots", taken so casually that you almost felt that Gamba were taking pity or their victim, a scrambled clearance by the Reysol defence gave Gamba its first corner kick, on the right side. The ball looped for the near post and eleven Reysol players simply watched its flight as if they were spectators rather than participants. Araujo headed the ball on, across the face of goal as everyone stood watching attentively, and a completely unmarked Tsuneyasu Miyamoto stuffed it in at the far post.

At that moment, it seemed that the match was about to turn into a rout. But an odd thing happened after the first goal had been recorded in the books. For one thing, Reysol seemed to take the tally as a wake-up call, and for the first time in the contest they began pressing the ball and not allowing Gamba players space to collect the ball, uncontested. This was hardly surprising, since Reysol have not been scoring much, this season, and it was sobvious that if they did not start playing more aggressively, they would be out of contention before half time. But Gamba's response to their first goal WAS a bit surprising. Rather than pressing their advantage home, they seemed to just sit back and relaxe. For the rest of the half, Reysol had the majority of the opportunities, and the match sweemed to stagnate. At the break, the score line remained just 1-0.

When the two teams came out for the second half, Gamba picked up the intensity a little bit, and the disparity in skill again became apparent. After just ten minutes, they doubled their lead on a shot by Fernandinho from what looked like an impossible shooting angle. Yasuhito Endo picked him out with a long crossfield pass, and Fernandinho collected the ball right on the end line, about ten meters to the left of goal. He tried to pick out a teammate to drop a pass to, but when no options appeared, he fired a hooking shot for the near post. The wet ball took one hop at the base of the post and somehow managed to squirm between Yuta Minami's gloves and the woodwork. Gamba now seemed to have the match sewn up.

But once again, they seemed to drop their guard and lose their concentration as soon as the tally was recorded. Just a minute later, Reysol came roaring back in a surge of yellow jersies, and teenage defender Yuzo Kobayashi fired a low-angle shot of his own from just outside the left post, spinning it between the keeper and the near post to pull Reysol back within a goal.

Remarkably, this STILL did not spark any real display of intensity from Gamba, who seemed prepared to hang back on defence and let Reysol move the ball around at will. This would be a bad idea even on a sunny day when the Gamba defence is at full strength. On a sloppy wet pitch and with their most formidable defensive player Sidiclei out of action, Gamba seemed to be asking for trouble. Sure enough, with ten minutes left to play, Reysol won a corner kick on the left side. The ball was headed away by the Gamba defence and bounded out to the edge of the box, beyond the far post. But as a Gamba player tried to clear it, he either slipped or completely misread the bounce, and ended up shanking the ball just two meters, directly to Tomokazu Myojin. Myojin immediately fired a hard, low shot on net, and the wet ball bounded out of the keeper's hands, ricocheted off a Gamba defender, and ended up in the back of the net.

For a second, the home crowd gasped for breath and squirmed in their seats, fearing the worst. But as soon as they scored, Reysol seemed to react exactly the same way that Gamba had done, earlier in the match. The team stopped chasing the ball, and fell back into a defensive stance, allowing Gamba to move the ball freely. Less than a minute later, Araujo got off an uncontested shot from the edge of the box and the keeper had to bat it over the bar, conceding a corner kick. As they had done in the first half, the Reysol players seemed to freeze and watch the ball as it curled towards the penalty spot. Satoru Yamaguchi leapt for the ball as Yukio Tsuchiya, though less than a meter away, stood motionless in paralyzed despair. Yamaguchi's header thundered into the back of the net, and suddenly the dream of a Reysol comeback was shattered. Though eight minutes remained on the clock, Reysol's spirit had been broken and the final minutes slipped away quickly, giving Gamba the victory.

Date: 10 July, 2005		Location: Banpaku Stadium
3	1 1H 0 2 2H 2	2
Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (15') Araujo (56') Satoru Yamaguchi (82')	Scoring	Yuzo Kobayashi (57') Tomokazu Myojin (80')
Yasuhito Endo	Cautions	Yasuhiro Hato Cleber Yukio Tsuchiya
Lineups: Naoki Matsuyo, Satoru Yamaguchi, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Noritada Saneyoshi, Mitsuteru Watanabe (Fernandinho 45), Hideo Hashimoto, Yasuhito Endo, Akihiro Ienaga (Toru Irie 86), Takahiro Futagawa, Araujo, Masashi Oguro (Toshihiro Matsushita 55) . Yuta Minami, Yasuhiro Hato, Yuzo Kobayashi, Yukio Tsuchiya, Tomokazu Myojin, Hidekazu Otani, Tomonori Hirayama (Yuji Unozawa 87), Ryo Kobayashi (Tatsuya Yazawa 70), Cleber, Keiji Tamada, Kisho Yano (Lee Chun-Song 64) .

As we noted last week, there is still a long way to go in the season, and though the media is clearly squirming with anxiety at the large lead that the Kashima Antlers maintain, there is still plenty of time for others to make up lost ground. Having said that, there are only one-and-a-half teams that show clear indications of having both the consistency and skill level to continue winning on a regular basis. One of those, naturally, is Gamba Osaka, while the other half consists of all Jubilo Iwata players under the age of 30. It remains to be seen whether coach Yamamoto will stifle his team's chances by sticking with the team's senior citizens, or whether he can screw up the courage to push the veterans aside and give his team a chance of making a late run.

Based on the above comments, we believe that the only way any of the other teams have any chance of catching Kashima is if the Antlers fall into a severe slump. The inconsistency and spotty play of teams like the Urawa Reds, Yokohama Marinos and Sanfrecce Hiroshima will, in our view, prevent them from generating a large number of points. For that reason, they will have difficulty closing the gap all on their own.

From that perspective, there are basically two possible scenarios for the remainder of the season. If the Antlers should stumble into a losing streak, the table could tighten up with as many as six or eight teams battling for the title. But if the Antlers continue to play the steady, consistent football that they have demonstrated over the first 15 matches, this is going to quickly become a two-team race (or at best, two-and-a-half). The key question at the moment is whether or not Gamba can overcome their shaky defence enough to gain ground on the leaders. As for the others . . . . well, the dust is already beginning to settle.

Rumours and Rumblings

Goodbye's Too Good a Word Babe . . .

Sure enough, on Monday afternoon the Reds held a press conference and president Mori announced that team officials had met Emerson, confirmed that there were "irreconcilable differences" and agreed to trade him to another club.

Although this news should not come as that much of a surprise, we do have to wonder what sort of drugs Emerson has been taking while he was back in Brazil, to make him think that he could EVER find himself in a more advantageous position than his current status in Urawa. Not only is he treated like a god by the local fans, but his lack of dedication, selfish play and tempermental attitude is generally laughed off by teammates and coaches, while J.League officials have been remarkably lenient on his constant play-acting and other unsportsmanlike behaviour on the pitch. This month, the Reds even began a special campaign, selling "Emerson bento" boxed meals to the fans, which should give some indication of how well the troubled striker has been treated by his team.

But apparently, Emerson didnt see things that way, and thinks that he will be able to move to another club and immediately gain the international attention he so craves, while being allowed to slack off in the same way he has tried to do at Urawa without being fined when he decides to stay in Brazil for an extra month. Well, it remains to be seen where his career will go from here, and he certainly has the raw talent to do well in a European league, if he gave it a 110% effort. But that hardly seems likely. And at least in the short term Emerson will have to deal with a slight obstacle that the Reds management provided, as a going-away present. When Emerson met with a team representative who was sent to Brazil, check up on him, the first thing he said was that he had made up his mind not to come back to Japan, and he wanted the team to trade him to another club. No doubt this was a rather disturbing bit of news, but to show how much they appreciated all his past contributions, the Reds graciously agreed to Emerson's demand and wasted no time in finding a club to buy out his contract --

Al-Sadd of Qatar.

Hope you like the weather, Eme. I hear they have some great beaches there, if you dont mind the 50-degree temperatures. Oh, and as for Bora Milutinovic's reputation as a hard taskmaster, dont let it worry you. Only one player has ever died of heat stroke after one of Bora's practices.

On a final note, out of curiosity about a bento lunch that is sure to be discontinued at the Reds concession stands, by next week, I asked someone who has been to Saitama Stadium to tell me a little bit about the "Emerson bento".

"Well . . . " he replied, ". . . I really cant say whether it was any good or not. You see, the pork cutlets never showed up, the ketchup kept shooting wildly all over the place before I was even ready for it . . .

. . . and as soon as I opened the box, the rice balls threw themselves deliberately out of the box and went tumbling over and over, down the terraces. That was the last I ever saw of them.