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September 11, 2005

I Vote for Pericles

Speaking of politics, here is a question for our readers: What do Hosni Mubarak and Gamba Osaka have in common?

Both understand that it isnt the participants who decide the winners and the losers . . . its the people who count the votes. The J.League has surpassed itself this week, managing to rig the dont even have to say anything. We can just let the videotape do the talking. First of all, here are the scores: :

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
10 Sep		1-2		Saitama Stadium
10 Sep		1-0		Tokyo Nat'l Stadium
10 Sep		1-2		Niigata "Big Swan" Std.
10 Sep		2-0		Iwata (Yamaha) Stadium
10 Sep		4-0		Mizuho Stadium
10 Sep		4-2		Expo70 "Banpaku" Stad.
10 Sep		0-2		Kobe Unviersiade
11 Sep		1-0		Ichihara Seaside Std.
11 Sep		2-1		Todoroki Stadium

1 - 2

The Reds did face some difficulties prior to kickoff, as Marcus Tulio Tanaka had to sit out a suspension following his red card last weekend, and Tatsuya Tanaka is still not at 100% following a back injury last month. Even so, most of the 40,000+ fans who turned out at Saitama Stadium were probably expecting a much easier contest than they faced last weekend, against the league-leading Antlers.

However, Trinita's new head coach Pericles Shamskar seemed to have his team pumped up for this contest, and throughout the contest Trinita showed the better work ethic. Certainly they did not look like the same team that has struggled all season, faced much internal turmoil and never played very effectively as a unit. Trinita entered this match in 17th place, and are beginning to face serious concerns about possible relegation. Though coach Pericles did not make too many changes to the lineup, he does seem to have found the key to motivating his players, since this was the best outing we have seen from Trinita in at least four or five months. The two noticeable changes that he did make seemed to be very effective. First, he switched to a three-back lineup with 18-year-old Yohei Fukumoto holding down the left side. Coach Kan had relied on veterans like Koji Arimura and Koji Yoshimura to hold down the back line, but Pericles seems to have confidence in the young Fukumoto and Yuki Fukaya , another rookie. Certainly the two did their jobs well in this contest, holding the speedy and potent Reds offence at bay, apart from a set-play strike in the first half. Though there is still a long way to go and Trinita needs to keep winning matches if they want to climb out of the relegation zone, the initial signs are positive.

Trinita got the scoring started in the 18 minute on a play which highlighted the difficulties that the Reds have on defence when Tulio is not in the lineup.

Urawa struck back not long afterward, on a corner kick, with Alex Santos placing his cross onto the head of Yuichiro Nagai. The header was straight at the keeper, and probably would have been saved, but Tatsuya Tanaka was lurking in front of the net and he managed to get in front of keeper Shusaku Nishikawa and head the ball ever so slightly, changing its course enough to elude Nishikawa's grasp.

In the early stages of the first half, the Reds seemed to have take over the initiative and it looked like it would just be a question of when and if they could score the winning goal. But in the 71 minute, another crucial defensive error by the Reds gave Trinita the lead once more. With the midfield pressing forward in search of a goal, the Reds' back line advanced nearly to midfield, and when Trinita broke up the play and started to counterattack, both Satoshi Horinouchi anbd Keisuke Tsuboi stepped forward looking to catch the Trinita strikers offside in case of a long outlet pass. But for reasons that are not entirely clear, Nene de Brito failed to respond with the rest of the back line, and he played two Trinita strikers onside. The speedy Magno Alves collected the long ball, faked to his strike partner, and then fired a shot into the right side of the net.

The Reds brought in their promising young 17-year-old striker Sergio Escudero, in an effort to climb back into the match, but despite a few close calls, the Trinita defence held up well, and preserved the win for Trinita

Date: 10 Sept, 2005		Location: Saitama Stadium
1	1 1H 1 0 2H 1	2
Tatsuya Tanaka (28')	Scoring	Takashi Umeda (18') Magno Alves (71')
Yuichiro Nagai	Cautions	Yohei Fukumoto
Lineups: Ryota Tsuzuki, Keisuke Tsuboi (Tadaaki Hirakawa 72), Satoshi Horinouchi, Fabio "Nene" de Brito, Nobuhisa Yamada, Makoto Hasebe, Keita Suzuki, Alex Santos (Masayuki Okano 78), Robson Ponte, Tatsuya Tanaka (Sergio Escudero 64), Yuichiro Nagai . Shusaku Nishimura, Tomoki Fukaya, Takashi Miki, Yohei Fukumoto, Takashi Umeda, Tulio, Edmilson, Yuichi Nemoto, Takauyuki Yoshida (Yoshihiro Uchimura 78), Magno Alves (Ryosuke Kijima 82), Daiki Takamatsu .

4 - 2

Gamba's defensive fragility was on display early in the match, as Sanfrecce scored twice in the opening 15 minutes. But the "PK" call shown above, and a nice combination play between Fernandinho and Araujo asllowed Gamba to equalise by half time. In the second half, play got a little bit physical -- indeed, two of Sanfrecce's key players, Koji Morisaki and Galvao had to be carried to the locker room on stretchers due to plays like this one:

No need to ask. Anyone who has been following the situation this season will realise that these incidents did not earn any penalties for Gamba players. In fact, despite fouls serious enough to injure two opponents seriously, Gamba made it through the match without picking up a single yellow card. On this particular play, in fact, the referee simply waved play on (you can see him watching the incident, with no display of concern whatsoever, from less than three meters away).

Some readers may take the above comments as a sign that the Rising Sun News is not happy to see Gamba on top of the league table. On the contrary, it has been years since we have enjoyed the chance to see a team playing all-out attacking football like Gamba has this season, and we are hoping that the team will be able to maintain its run of success and take the league title. For one thing, Gamba is playing the sort of football which fully deserves to be rewarded. In Araujo, Fernandinho and Masashi Oguro, Gamba has the most electrifying attack since the Takahara-Fujita-Nakayama strike force back in around 1999-2001. Furthermore, the Kansai region has never had a league champion before, and that may be one of the reasons why fan support remains weak in the western half of Japan. A Gamba championship this season would give fans in Osaka and the whole of the Kansai region cause to celebrate, and hopefully willd attract even more fans next year

The point we are trying to make is that no team, no matter how enjoyable to watch, deserves a "free ride" to a title. In this contest, Araujo's hat trick probably would have been enough to produce victory in any case, but it would have been nice if the officials had made them earn it. If a player like Emerson, Takayuki Suzuki or Masashi Nakayama had flopped to the turf as blatantly as Akihiro Ienaga, in the clip shown above, there would have been a chorus of abuse for the display of "poor sportsmanship". At the moment, Gamba seems to have been embraced by the mainstream press in Japan as their new "golden boys", who can seemingly do no wrong. Gamba are a good team, to be sure, and they will make a good league champion if they can continue to play like they have over the past few months. But make no mistake about it; they still dive, and foul, and try to get away with things, just like any other team. One certainly hopes that they are forced to EARN their title, and not just have it handed to them on as silver platter

Date: 10 Sept, 2005		Location: Banpaku Stadium
4	2 1H 2 2 2H 0	2
Araujo (15') Yoshihito Endo (25') Araujo (51') Araujo (59')	Scoring	Galvao (1') Ri Han-Jae (14')
	Cautions	Norio Omura Yuichi Komano
Lineups: Yosuke Fujigaya, Sidiclei, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Satoru Yamaguchi, Mitsuteru Watanabe (Takahiro Futagawa 45), Hideo Hashimoto, Yasuhito Endo, Akihiro Ienaga (Masanobu Matsunami 85), Fernandinho (Shigeru Morioka 85), Araujo, Masashi Oguro . Takashi Shimoda, Yuichi Komano, Dininho, Norio Omura, Kota Hattori, Joubert "Beto" Alaves, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Ri Han-Jae (Shogo Nishikawa 67), Koji Morisaki (Susumu Oki 54), Galvao (Shusuke Maeda 67), Hayato Sato .

4 - 0

Date: 10 Sept, 2005		Location: Mizuho Stadium
4	2 1H 0 2 2H 0	0
Luizao (9') Keita Sugimoto (36') Luizao (63') Yohei Toyoda (88')	Scoring
Takahiro Masukawa	Cautions	Norihiro Satsukawa Yasuhiro Hato Hidekazu Otani Keiji Tamada
Lineups: Seigo Narazaki, Makoto Kakuda, Yutaka Akita, Takahiro Masukawa, Yusuke Nakatani (Keisuke Honda 74), Claiton, An Yong-Ha, Kei Yamaguchi, Toshiya Fujita, Luizao (Naoshi Nakamura 82), Keita Sugimoto (Yohei Toyoda 81) . Yuta Minami, Ryo Kobayashi (Tomonori Hirayama 67), Yasuhiro Hato, Yukio Tsuchiya, Norihiro Satsukawa, Tomokazu Myojin, Hidekazu Otani, Cleber Santana Loureio, Kisho Yano (Tatsuya Yazawa 45), Reynaldo, Keiji Tamada .

1 - 2

Date: 10 Sept, 2005		Location: Niigata "Big Swan" Stad.
1	0 1H 2 1 2H 0	0
Edmilson (89')	Scoring	Tomi Shimomura (20') Ze Carlos (36')
Daisuke Aono Shingo Suzuki	Cautions	Fabinho Tomi Shimomura Kazuki Maeda
Lineups: Yosuke Nozawa, Anderson Lima, Naoki Takahashi, Shigenori Hagimura (Ryuji Sueoka 73), Naoya Kikuchi, Isao Honma (Daisuke Aono 56), Hiroyoshi Kuwahara (Yoshito Terakawa 77), Fabinho, Edmilson, Yusaku Ueno, Shingo Suzuki . Motohiro Yoshida, Bruno Cuadros, Tomoya Maeda, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Fabinho, Tomi Shimomura, Kiyokazu Kudo (Takuya Kokeguchi 59), Ze Carlos, Tatsuya Furuhashi, Hiroaki Morishima (Tadaaki Tokushige 67), Akinori Nishizawa (Teruaki Kurobe 72) .

0 - 2

Vissel showed a bit of promise in the second half, but were never able to produce a goal, allowing Yokohama to claim a 2-0 victory

Date: 10 Sept, 2005		Location: Kobe Universiade Std.
0	0 1H 2 0 2H 0	2
	Scoring	Rodrigo Gral (8') Daisuke Sakata (19')
Hiromi Kojima Kunie Kitamoto	Cautions	Daisuke Nasu Dutra Shingo Kumabayashi
Lineups: Kenta Tokushige, Park Kang-Jo, Seiji Kaneko, Martin Muller, Kunie Kitamoto, Hiromi Kojima (Sho Kitano 62), Akihiro Endo, Naoya Saeki (Hideo Tanaka 67), Pavel Horvath, Ivo Ulich, Keisuke Kurihara (Hiroyuki Komoto 89) . Tetsuya Enomoto, Yuzo Kurihara, Naoki Matsuda, Yuji Nakazawa, Hayuma Tanaka, Daisuke Oku (Shingo Kumabayashi 75), Daisuke Nasu, Yoshiharu Ueno, Dutra, Masahiro Ohashi (Koji Yamase 64), Rodrigo Gral, Daisuke Sakata (Eisuke Nakanishi 86) .

2 - 0

After the starting pair of Cullen and Ryoichi Maeda had been replaced by Masashi Nakayama and Choi Yong-Soo, midway through the second half, Jubilo's scoring opportunities dried up and Ardija was nearly allowed to get back into the contest. Fortunately, Yamamoto was only allowed to bring in three substitutions -- if he had been able to replace some of the other young stars who had started the match so well, Jubilo might have managed to squander this victory as well.

Date: 10 Sept, 2005		Location: Iwata (Yamaha) Stad.
0	2 1H 0 0 2H 0	0
Robert Cullen (14') Yoshiaki Ota (34')	Scoring
Kentaro Oi Makoto Tanaka Keisuke Funatani Takashi Fukunishi	Cautions	Tatsunori Hisanaga Jun Marques Davidson Hiroki Aratani
Lineups: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Kim Jin-Kyu, Makoto Tanaka, Kentaro Oi, Yoshiaki Ota, Takashi Fukunishi (Takahiro Kawamura 88), Toshihiro Hattori, Shinji Murai, Keisuke Funatani, Robert Cullen (Choi Yong-Soo 70), Ryoichi Maeda (Masashi Nakayama 81) . Hiroki Aratani, Takuro Nishimura, Yasunari Hiraoka, Daisuke Tomita, Kazuyoshi Mikami, Jun Marques Davidson, Shin Kanazawa, Tatsunori Hisanaga, Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel (Masato Saito 68), Satoshi Yokoyama (Yoshiteru Yamashita 45), Koji Morita, (Yusuke Shimada 61) .

1 - 0

Date: 10 Sept, 2005		Location: Tokyo Nat'l Stadium
1	1 1H 0 0 2H 0	0
Mitsuhiro Toda (11')	Scoring
Norio Suzuki Yoichi Doi	Cautions	Marquinhos Masaaki Sawanobori
Lineups: Yoichi Doi, Akira Kaji, Jean Carlo Witte, Teruaki Moniwa, Ryuji Fujiyama, Yohei Kajiyama, Yasuyuki Konno, Norio Suzuki, (Sasa Salcedo 53), Ryoichi Kurisawa (Yoshiro Abe 78), Mitsuhiro Toda (Yuta Baba 85), Lucas Severino . Yohei Nishibe, Daisuke Ichikawa, Toshihide Saito, Kazumichi Takagi, Takahiro Yamanishi (Hideaki Kitajima 82), Yukihiko Sato (Choi Tae-Uk 60), Teruyoshi Ito, Kota Sugiyama, Akihiro Hyodo, Marquinhos, Yoshikiyo Kuboyama (Masaaki Sawanobori 69) .

1 - 0

Does it really matter?

Date: 11 Sept, 2005		Location: Ichihara Seaside Std.
1	0 1H 0 0 2H 0	0
Takenori Hayashi (81')	Scoring
Kozo Yuki	Cautions
Lineups: Tomonori Tateishi, Kozo Yuki (Takenori Hayashi 55), Ilya Stoyanov, Daisuke Saito, Satoru Yamagishi (Koji Nakajima 56), Yuki Abe, Yuto Sato, Masataka Sakamoto, Naotake Hanyu, Gabriel Popescu (Kohei Kudo 53), Seiichiro Maki . Yoshinari Takagi, Kentaro Hayashi, Atsushi Yoneyama, Kenta Togawa, Takuya Yamada, Daigo Kobayashi (Kenichi Uemura 82), Takeshi Hirano, Takahito Soma, Kazuki Hiramoto, Masaaki Kuba, Washington, Gilberto "Jill" Goncalves (Tadamichi Machida 74) .

2 - 1

Of course, the play was called offside and Kashima's chance to take the early lead ruled out. But look at the line formed by the top of the penalty box, and note where the feet of all the players are positioned. This should be one of the easiest calls a linesman can make, particularly now that the rule on offside has been revised to read "clear space between the attacking player and the last defender". Clear space? Aye. Surely.

Things would only get worse. compare the following two plays, for example. The first one earned a free kick on the edge of the box for Frrontale, which produced a goal, The play, which occurred just three minutes later, was simply waved on . . . .

Certainly, if a referee views any incident of body contact by a defender as a foul, and has adopted that as his standard, the first play is not THAT unbelievable (even if it IS clear that the ball is nowhere near the two players jstling for position). But less than three minutes later, a FAR MORE blatant foul is unpunished, with the referee standing just three paces away. . . .

If these were the only questionable calls, it would be a cause for disappointment, but not necesarily outrage. But the fact of the matter is, these clips barely scratch the surface. This was a contest that the Antlers dominated in every way except for the score line. and number of fouls committed without response from the referee. There are many additional clips which, due to limitations of time and space, we siomply cannot reproduce here, in full. Suffice it to say that the Rising Sun News will be sending another videotape to the offices of FIFA, early next week. You may recall that we sent a "highlight tape" of the East Asian Championships to Switzerland, about a month ago, after the officiating in that tournament incensed us so completely that we simply couldnt ignore the situation any longer. We never did receive an official response to our letter, but by a rather "interesting coincidence", just a few weeks later, FIFA intervened to force the replay of the Uzbekistan - Bahrain match, in an historic example of intervention by the organization. There are indications that this may be a first step in addressing the problem of poor officiating in AFC matches.

Naturally, we have no way of knowing whether or not there was any connection between our videotape and the FIFA decision, but since it certainly cant hurt, we are going to dispatch another highlight reel, containing the clips shown on this page, as well as a number of other "highlights" from J.League matches played over the past few weeks. Maybe FIFA will decide that -- having already intervened in AFC affairs -- they are better off staying out of the dispute when it comes to corrupt officiating an a domestic league. But who knows . . . it certainly cant hurt to let people in high places know what a farce the J.League has become.

Having said all that, the Rising Sun News has been ranting and raving on the same old theme over and over, week after week, for close to four years now, and we get the sense that in may be turning our readers off. The problem of bad officiating is now beyond question -- FIFA has said so, in exactly so many words. Now that the issue is being picked up by the international press, it may be time for The Rising Sun News to stop banging its head against the same brick wall. We shall see what sort of response our vieotape receives from the folks at FIFA, but since no other newspapers, magazines or TV commentators seem to have the balls to weigh in on the matter -- even when it stares them right in the face -- it may be time for us to just stop wasting our breath.

We would appreciate your feedback, and your opinions on whether or not you want us to continue critiquing the state of officiating in the J.League, and we will give the responses of our readers serious consideration. However, in the wake of what we have been forced to witness over the past month, and the lack of ANY comments on the topic from the mainstream sports press, the Rising Sun News is sick of even discussing the issue anymore. It may be time to just drop it once and for all.

Date: 11 Sept, 2005		Location: Todoroki Stadium
2	2 1H 0 0 2H 1	1
Kazuki Ganaha (22') Marcus de Morais (30')	Scoring	Takayuki Suzuki (75')
Hiroyuki Taniguchi	Cautions	Go Oiwa Takayuki Suzuki
Lineups: Takashi Aizawa, Yoshinobu Minowa, Shuhei Terada, Hiroki Ito, Yasuhiro Nagahashi, Kengo Nakamura, Hiroyuki Taniguchi (Tomoaki Kuno 74), Augusto de Souza, Marcus de Morais (Hideki Sahara 67), Juninho, Kazuki Ganaha (Ken Tokura 76). Hitoshi Sogahata, Akira Narahashi (Ricardinho 57), Go Oiwa, Daiki Iwamasa, Tatsuya Ishikawa, Takeshi Aoki, Fernando, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masaki Fukai (Chikashi Masuda 73), Takayuki Suzuki, Alex Mineiro (Takuya Nozawa 79) .

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