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August 28, 2005

Beyond Ridiculous

A friend and long-time Gamba supporter commented to us this week that he has never seen the team playing as well as they are right now. This is certainly true, and it would be as thrill to see them finally win a title, after coming so close, so many times. Even from the standpoint of a Gamba fan, however, it is time for the folks in the J.League board room to start taking immediate and very strict measures to ensure that there are no MORE incidents which create the impression that results are being "arranged". If Gamba do win the title this year, they deserve to enjoy the accomplishment without the nagging questions about whether or not they really "deserved" it. As Argentina fans who recall the 1986 World Cup can no doubt tell you, when tournaments are determined by bad officiating rather than by the play of the teams taking part, even the winners often find that the champagne tastes rather bitter.

Here are the scores of Saturday's matches

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
27 Aug		2-0		Ajinomoto Stadium
27 Aug		1-1		Todoroki Stadium
27 Aug		1-1		Niigata "Big Swan" Std/
27 Aug		1-1		Yamaha Stadium
27 Aug		0-2		Mizuho Stadium
27 Aug		3-2		Expo70 "Banpaku" Stad.
27 Aug		2-1		Kobe Universiade
28 Aug		3-2		Kumagaya Stadium
28 Aug		1-1		Kashiwa-no-ha Stadium

2 - 0

Referee Toshimitsu Yoshida, however, didnt see it that way, and gave Iwamasa his second yellow card of the match. His first offence was at least worth a foul, and not quite as outrageous as the second, but that is not likely to make the Kashima defender feel any less abused. For the second time in just seven days, he was sent off for a play which really did not deserve even a whistle, much less a booking.

Verdy used the man advantage to score twice, shortly after the break. Considering the fact that Verdy are just a shade above relegation territory, it will no doubt make them happy to collect three points. But they certainly did not escape without sustaining damage of their own. Having established a standard for yellow cards which would seem a bit overly strict in a children's league match, Mr. Yoshida found himself trapped in a difficult position, unable to ignore TOO many fouls by the Verdy players lest his earlier sending-off of Iwamasa look even MORE unbalanced. The result was a slew of bookings for Verdy. As the match wound down, in fact, both Kazuyuki Toda and Jun Tamano picked up their second bookings and were sent to the showers. It was too late for the Antlers to stage a comeback, but one cannot help feeling sorry for Toda and Tamano, who will have to sit out a match merely because Mr. Yoshida had set the bar so low.

It is interesting to note, though, that apart from the two early yellows on Iwamasa, the Antlers received NO other bookings -- despite the fact that THEY were the ones playing shorthanded for most of the contest. Verdy, on the other hand, received EIGHT! As anyone who understands the game will agree, that is a very "odd" statistic.

After two such farcical performances in a week, you would THINK that the J.League front office might finally get off their collective asses and examine the match tapes, at least to give the officials a bit of "friendly advice" about how to "err on the side of caution". Sadly, past experience tells us that this is NOT going to happen

Date: 27 August, 2005		Location: Ajinomoto Stadium
2	0 1H 0 2 2H 0	0
Washington (51') Xxx (57')	Scoring
Kentaro Hayashi Washington Kazuyuki Toda Gilberto Yasuyuki Kobayashi Kazuyuki Toda Jun Tamano Jun Tamano	Cautions	Daiki Iwamasa Daiki Iwamasa
Kazuyuki Toda Jun Tamano	Sent Off	Daiki Iwamasa
Lineups: Yoshinari Takagi, Atsushi Yoneyama, Kentaro Hayashi, Kenta Togawa, Takuya Yamada, Takeshi Hirano, Kazuyuki Toda, Daigo Kobayashi, Kazuki Hiramoto (Jun Tamano 67), Gilberto (Yoshiyuki Kobayashi 61), Washington (Tadamichi Machida 76) . Hitoshi Sogahata, Akira Narahashi (Masaki Fukai 67), Daiki Iwamasa, Keiji Haneda, Toru Araiba, Takeshi Aoki, Fernando, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama (Ricardinho 60), Takuya Nozawa (Takayuki Suzuki 59), Alex Mineiro .

3 - 2

Yokohama got off the mark first, after a fould by a Gamba defender produced a free kick about 35 meters out from goal. While most of the Gamba players were still milling about near the ball, Magrao stepped up to quickly put the ball back into play. His looping pass caught the Gamba players off guard and Daisuke Sakata slipped in behind them to collect the ball and slot home an unchallenged shot from a step inside the penalty box.

Just before the break, however, Gamba struck back as Araujo curled a pass over the Marins defence from the top left corner of the box, and Mitsuteru Watanabe snuck in from the far sideline to poke it inside the right post. This marked his first goal in a Gamba uniform, and it could not have come at a better time. Though he was a fairly prolific scorer in his years with Kashiwa Reysol, Watanabe had gone for 24 matches at Gamba without having found the net. But this week would turn out to be a good one for him to have a change of luck

The match remained deadlocked until fifteen minutes before full time, when Masashi Oguro had the good fortune to have a blocked shot drop to him at the top of the Marinos penalty area. Demonstrating his quick reactions and excellent body control, Oguro swung a wide roundhouse kick and sent the ball spinning past the keeper to give Gamba the lead for the first time.

This set up a furious finish and the Marinos fought desperately to avoid defeat. With five minutes to play, Hideo Oshima dashed into the Gamba box and managed to get his head on a line-drive pass from Koji Yamase, flicking it on into the back of the Marinos net to knot the score once again.

But as the match moved into injury time, Gamba won a corner kick, and Watanabe proved to be the hero, meeting the cross about level with the penalty spot and deflecting it inside the near post, to give Gamba the victory.

Date: 27 August, 2005		Location: Banpaku Stadium
3	1 1H 1 2 2H 1	2
Mitsuteru Watanabe (38') Masashi Oguro (72') Mitsuteru Watanabe (89')	Scoring	Daisuke Sakata (26') Xxx (84')
	Cautions	Ryuji Kawai Naoki Matsuda Masahiro Ohashi
Lineups: Yosuke Fujigaya, Sidiclei, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Satoru Yamaguchi, Mitsuteru Watanabe, Hideo Hashimoto, Yasuhito Endo, Akihiro Ienaga (Toru Irie 88), Araujo, Masashi Oguro (Noritada Saneyoshi 82), Fernandinho . Tetsuya Enomoto, Hayuma Tanaka, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Dutra, Ryuji Kawai, Norihisa Shimizu (Hideo Oshima 76), Shingo Kumabayashi, (Masahiro Ohashi 76), Magrao, Koji Yamase, Daisuke Sakata .

1 - 1

The crowd exploded in celebration and the Niigata players jumped around in joy, but they started their celebrations a bit too soon. Just moments later, Takenori Hayashi turned in the goal of the week (possibly even the month), twisting around in reaction to a pass that was slightly behind him and leaping high for a stunning overhead "bicycle kick" that spun into the side of the net to silence the crowd and give JEF a share of the points.

Date: 27 August, 2005		Location: Niigata "Big Swan" Std.
1	0 1H 0 1 2H 1	1
Edmilson (89')	Scoring	Takenori Hayashi (89')
Fabinho	Cautions
Lineups: Yosuke Nozawa, Anderson Lima, Naoki Takahashi, Shigenori Hagimura, Naoya Kikuchi, Isao Homma (Yoshito Terakawa 73), Hiroyoshi Kuwahara, Fabinho, Edmilson Yusaku Ueno, Shingo Suzuki, . Tomonori Tateishi, Kozo Yuki, Ilya Stoyanov, Daisuke Saito, Satoru Yamagishi, Yuki Abe, Yuto Sato, Masataka Sakamoto, Naotake Hanyu (Takenori Hayashi 77), Koki Mizuno (Kohei Kudo 60), Seiichiro Maki .

1-1

Date: 27 August, 2005		Location: Todoroki Stadium
1	0 1H 0 0 2H 0	0
Marcus de Morais (23')	Scoring	Hayato Sato (56')
Hiroyuki Taniguchi Juninho	Cautions	Dininho Yuichi Komano Beto
Lineups: Takashi Aizawa, Yoshinobu Minowa, Shuhei Terada, Hiroki Ito, Yasuhiro Nagahashi, Kengo Nakamura, Hiroyuki Taniguchi (Taku Harada 62), Augusto de Souza, Marcus de Morais (Hideki Sahara 81), Juninho, Masaru Kurotsu (Kazuki Ganaha 71) . Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano, Dininho, Norio Omura, Shogo Nishikawa (Ri Han-Jae 79), Susumu Oki (Takehito Shigehara 45), Kazuyuki Morisaki, Joubert "Beto" Martins, Kota Hattori, Galvao, (Shusuke Maeda 87), Hisato Sato .

0 - 2

Date: 27 August, 2005		Location: Mizuho Stadium
0	0 1H 2 0 2H 0	2
	Scoring	Marcus Tulio Tanaka (16') Tomislav Maric (30')
Yusuke Igawa	Cautions	Marcus Tulio Tanaka Keita Suzuki
Lineups: Seigo Narazaki, Yusuke Igawa, Masahiro Koga, Takahiro Masukawa, Yusuke Nakatani, Claiton (Yutaka Akita 45), An Yeon-Ha, Toshiya Fujita (Keisuke Honda 45), Naoshi Nakamura, Luizao (Satoshi Nakayama 73), Keita Sugimoto . Ryota Tsuzuki, Keisuke Tsuboi, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Satoshi Horinouchi, Nobuhisa Yamada, Makoto Hasebe, Keita Suzuki, Tadaaki Hirakawa, Robson Ponte (Tatsuya Tanaka 85), Tomislav Maric (Alex Santos 88), Yuichiro Nagai (Hideki Uchidate 75) .

1 - 1

Report will be posted later

Date: 27 August, 2005		Location: Iwata Stadium
1	0 1H 0 0 2H 0	1
Choi Yong-Soo (80')	Scoring	Ryoichi Kurisawa (81')
Takahiro Kawamura	Cautions	Fumitake Miura Yuta Baba
Lineups: Yohei Sato, Kim Sung-Ji (Kentaro Oi 83), Makoto Tanaka , Takayuki Chano, Yoshiaki Ota, Takahiro Kawamura, Hiroshi Nanami (Keisuke Funatani 71), Shinji Murai, Sho Naruoka (Masashi Nakayama 84), Robert Cullen, Choi Yong-Soo . Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Jean Carlo Witte, Teruaki Moniwa, Yasuyuki Konno, Fumitake Miura (Sasa Salcedo 52), Yohei Kajiyama (Masashi Miyazawa 86), Naohiro Ishikawa (Yuta Baba 75), Norio Suzuki, Ryoichi Kurisawa Lucas Severino .

2 - 1

Report will be posted later

Date: 27 August, 2005		Location: Kobe Universiade
2	0 1H 0 0 2H 0	1
Atsuhiro Miura (34') Keisuke Kuwahara (84')	Scoring	Takayuki Yoshida (60')
Martin Muller	Cautions	Takayuki Yoshida
Lineups: Makoto Kakegawa, Park Kang-Jo, Seiji Kaneko, Martin Muller, Kunie Kitamoto, Atsuhiro Miura (Hidehiro Tanaka 78), Akihiro Endo, Naoya Saeki, Pavel Horvath, Ivo Ulich, Tomoyuki Hirase (Keisuke Kurihara 59) . Shusaku Nishikawa, Taikai Uemoto, Takashi Miki, Tomoki Fukaya, Yuichi Nemoto, Edmilson, Tulio Pinheiros (Masakazu Shibakoya 89), Teppei Nishiyama (Takashi Umeda 59), Takayuki Yoshida, Magno Alves, Kohei Nishino (Masato Yamasaki 83) .

Rumours and Rumblings