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August 14, 2005

Nabisco Semifinal Spots Selected

On Saturday evening, the first two return-leg matches were played, with Gamba Osaka and JEF United claiming their spots in the semifinal round. Here are the complete scores over both legs (the remaining two semifinalist spots will be decided tomorrow evening).

2 - 2

Gamba claimed a dominant 3-0 lead in the away leg, and came home to Banpaku Stadium on saturday evening needing only to stall Cerezo for 90 minutes. As it was, Cerezo put up a good fight and forced Gamba to put in a full effort, but it was not good enough. Early on, it looked like Cerezo might turn the series into a competitive one after all, as Ze Carlos was hauled down in the penalty area just 7 minutes into the contest and put his team in front 1-0 with a penalty kick. If Cerezo had been able to score the next goal, the momentum might have shifted. But unfortunately, just 10 minutes later the defence provided evidence for why Cerezo is struggling this year, allowing Fernandinho to dribble into the box unmolested and fire a low-angle shot that beat the keeper into the far side netting. This was the killer blow for Cerezo, who once again faced a three-goal mountain to climb. Though they did take the lead again midway through the second half, Gamba played it safe and Cerezo never really threatened again. With time running down, a counterattack by Araujo produced a late equaliser and Gamba finished off with a convincing 5-2 win on aggregate.

2 - 2

On this particular evening, however, the only person who really kept them in the contest was referee Masayoshi Okano, a man who has come through in the clutch for Jubilo on many occasions in the past (yes, it was he who turned a blind eye to Masashi Nakamyama"s "steamroll the keeper" goal in 2003, and he was also on hand for Takashi Fukunishi's "hand of satan" goal in the opening match of this season). Midway through the first half, Mr. Okano pulled his old "see no evil" act as Seiichiro Maki was dragged down from behind in the penalty box -- his uniform being stretched into a XXXL size in the process. Then in the second half he awarded Jubilo a PK on a play in which defender Daisuke Saito very clearly tackled the ball cleanly, with the Jubilo player falling over his leg AFTER the ball had been cleared. On their own, both calls were bad ones, but not necessarily evidence of a twisted official. But shown back to back, they leave one scratching one"s head and wondering how this "gentleman" is allowed to continue working as an international referee.

Fortunately, Mr. Okano's antics were not enough to affect the outcome. Though Jubilo did score on the PK, and added another goal on a pretty strike from long range by Korean youngster Kim Sung-ji, these goals were offset by a first-half strike from Maki and a second-half free kick goal by Yuki Abe, which Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi inexplicably spilled into his own net. JEF seemed to have locked up tjhe contest with 12 minutes to play, as a fine through pass allowed Takenori Hayashi to break into the bok and toe the ball past Kawaguchi. But the linesman's flag went up very late, and the coal was disallowed, prompting the usually sedate Ivica Osim to leap off the bench and stalk up and down the sideline, pantomiming a pair of spectacles, to all four of the match officials.

Antics such as these are SUPPOSED to earn a coach a booking, and though we probably would have done exactly the same thing, that does not mean that Osim should be allowed to violate the rules. But no doubt Mr. Okano realised how many bad calls he had made over the course of the contest, and didnt want to give Osim an excuse to submit the match video to the J.League for a formal review. In our opinion, this is something that JEF United should do anyway. Of all the bad officials in the J.League, we consider most of them to be simply incompetent, and not active cheats. But if there is one referee who might be the exception, it would have to be Mr. Okano. Over the years, he has made an extraordinary number of bad calls, and strangely enough, ALL of them have favoured a relatively small number of teams.

Even if he is not a crooked referee, Mr. Okano is clearly an incompetent one, and it is long past time for the J.League to stop piddling about and start instituting a system of match review and reward / punishment for officials. As we have pointed out in the past, there are quite a few decent refs in the J.League, and surely if such a system were in place, The Rising Sun News would soon have nothing to comlain about. The problematic officials would soon be relegated to J2 or JFL duty and the ones who do their jobs properly, week in and week out, would be the ones calling matches like this one.

Yet again, the performance of a referee has overshadowed the performance of the players on both teams, who certainly deserve the attention much more. JEF United put on an excellent show and deserved to claim a semifinal spot by an even wider margin than they did. Jubilo, meanwhile, are gradually getting themselves back on the right track, and if they finish off the season strong, they could emerge as one of the top contenders next season. If only THAT could be the main theme of our match report, and not a bunch of tomfoolery by a crappy referee.

1 - 0

In the match between Urawa Reds and Shimizu S-Pulse, the Reds came into the contest with a narrow one-goal lead from the first leg, and were playing a bit shorthanded due to the injuries sustained by national team members Keisuke Tsuboi and Tatsuya Tanaka, during the recent East Asian Championships. Midway through a relatively scrappy first half, Reds midfielder Keita Suzuki and S-Pulse striker Cho Jae-Jin chased a ball towards the sidelines. each with a big handful of the other's shirt. As the two tugged at one another trying to get to the ball first, Suzuki swung a wild boot which missed the ball by a mile and caught Cho full in the breadbasket. Unfortunately, the referee was some distance away, and both players bodies obstructed his view, but the camera caught the incident and it looked like a pretty clear yellow-card offence by Suzuki. Cho staggered back a step, then pushed out at Suzuki knocking him to the turf. By this time the ref had arrived on the scene and he awarded a yellow card to Cho for the push. Clearly this was a case where Suzuki deserved the card (though you can argue that both did things that might legitimately be cardable offences). Cho was infuriated that the ref had missed the boot in his chest, and smalled the ball to the turf, picking up a second yellow and a ticket to the showers.

In retrospect, it is hard to be overly harsh on the referee, Mr. Matsumura, who couldnt call something that he didnt see. Nevertheless, this points up the problems with J.League officiating, as a more competent official would have pulled Cho aside, explained the situation (sorry son, but I simply didnt see it), and make it clear that if he didnt simmer down he would find himself on his way to the locker room. Sadluy, J.League referees tend to be nearly as hot-headed as the players, and often overreact to situations like this one. Thus, S-Pulse were reduced to ten men, and essentially lost hope of overtaking the Reds. Nevertheless, they did put on a decent show holding Urawa scoreless until the dying moments ofthe match, when Makoto Hasebe led a counterattack and took the ball all the way himself, beating a defender and then sliding the ball under the keeper to give Urawa a 2-0 victory on aggregate and send them to the semifinals.

2 - 1

Once again, the referee was FAR behind the play, and from his vantage point it might have looked like a deliberate breakaway foul from behind. Mr. Ota did indeed interpret it that way, as he produced a straight red card for Okuno. As in the Reds- S-Pulse match, you can understand what Mr. Ota thought he saw, from his rather poor vantage point, and on that basis it is hard to come down too hard on him for this decision. Nevertheless, the replay showed that this was extremely harsh. Okuno was throwing himself in feet first, from behind, and on that basis you might legitimately say that he deserved a yellow for rough play even if he DID get the ball first. But a straight red should only have been awarded if it was a deliberate takedown, and again, the video evidence shows that Okuno was going for the ball, not the player. If Mr. Ota had the presence of mind to stop play and go over to his linesman for a conference, he probably would have been informed that Okuno got ball before he sent Kubo crashing to the turf. But then, nobody ever suggested that J.League referees are calm, clear-thinking administrators of justice.

Ardija put up a good fight for about an hour, going down a goal soon after the foul on Kubo but equalising before half time. As the second half wore on, however, the strain of playing shorthanded began to wear them down, and the Marinos ended up cruising to a comfortable win on goals by Daisuke Sakata, Naoki Matsuda and Nobuhisa Shimizu.

This sets up a very interesting card for the two semifinal clashes. All four teams are top competitors, but all except Gamba Osaka are lagging in the race for the league crown, and may view this as their best chance to collect some silverware this season. JEF United will be paired with the Urawa Reds, in a battle of the northwest and southeast Tokyo suburbs, while the Yokohama Marinos will take on Gamba Osaka in the other semifinal matchup.

Rumours and Rumblings