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October 15, 2005

Blame it on the Moon?

Here are the results of Saturday's contests:

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
15 Oct		1-1		Niigata "Big Swan" Std.
15 Oct		1-0		Nagai Stadium
15 Oct		2-2		Ajinomoto Stadium
15 Oct		7-0		Komaba Stadium
15 Oct		1-4		Mizuho Stadium
15 Oct		5-0		Oita "Big Eye" Stadium
15 Oct		1-4		Kobe Wing Stadium
16 Oct		2-2		Chiba Stadium
16 Oct		1-1		Shizuoka Stadium

1 - 4

But even on an off night, the Gamba offence can produce a lot of fireworks in a short period of time. Just as it seemed like the visitors were beginning to let frustration take its toll, Fernandinho ripped open the Vissel defence on the left side and went barrelling towards the box. As a crimson tide of Kobe players all dashed back to cover the opening, Araujo slipped in quietly behind the play and was in perfect position to head home Fernandinho's looping cross.

Despite this setback, Vissel refused to be discouraged, and came out in the second half looking for the equaliser. The match remained very close until just after the hour mark, when a chip over the top of the Vissel defence seemed to put two Gamba players offside, yet the linesman's flag stayed down. Honda made a great scrampling play to dash out and deflect the first shot, but Masashi Oguro collected the rebound, and dropped the ball back to Yasuhito Endo at the edge of the box for a wide-open blast at an untended net.

This goal seemed to shatter Vissel's concentration, and just moments later, Gamba put the result beyond doubt after Honda uncharacteristically fumbled a weak cross from the left corner, right into the path of Kota Yoshihara. The diminutive reserve striker scooped the ball into the net and Vissel players dropped their heads in defeat.

Park Kang-Jo did give the home fans a moment of joy with fifteen minutes remaining, as he got free behind the Gamba defence to claim a consolation goal (Park also appeared to be a step offside, but perhaps this was a makeup call for the earlier offside non-call on Gamba). However, this merely provided Vissel with a sense of false hope, which prompted them to overextend themselves into the attack (a fatal mistake against a team as explosive as Gamba). With time running down, Araujo collected a long clearance pass and exploded into the clear, dashing down the right side and then firing a bullet into the far corner, to put the cap on a fine evening for the league leaders.

Date: 15 Oct, 2005		Location: Kobe Wing Stadium
1	0 1H 1 1 2H 3	4
Park Kang-Jo (75')	Scoring	Araujo (40') Yasuhito Endo (64') Kota Yoshihara (68') Araujo (89')
TOmoyuki Hirase Naoya Saeki Mitsutshi Watada Martin Muller	Cautions	Akihiro Ienaga
Lineups: Seiji Honda, Seiji Kaneko, Martin Muller, Kunie Kitamoto, Park Kang-Jo, Naoya Saeki (Hiroyuki Komoto 86), Pavel Horvath, Shusuke Tsubouchi, Akihiro Endo (Sho Kitano 45), Ivo Ulich, Tomoyuki Hirase (Mitsutoshi Watada 64) . Yosuke Fujigaya, Sidiclei, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Satoru Yamaguchi, Mitsuteru Watanabe (Akihiro Ienaga 45), Hideo Hashimoto, Yasuhito Endo, Takahiro Futagawa, Araujo, Masashi Oguro (Kota Yoshihara 67), Fernandinho (Masanobu Matsunami 88)

2 - 2

Sanfrecce, meanwhile, will be disappointed by this result since it pretty much dismisses any lingering hopes of contention, but the team will have to be pleased with the way that its youngsters -- nearly all of whom have come up through the Sanfrecce Hiroshima youth system -- have been taking up the leadership roles on this team. After a scoreless first half (the seventh time in the past eight 45-minute periods that FC Tokyo had played without either a goal scored or a goal conceded), Sanfrecce's teen sensation Shunsuke Maeda got the scoring started as he collected a ball at the top of the box, stepped to his left to clear a defender and then fired a shot into the low left corner.

But Sanfrecce had no time to enjoy their lead, as FC Tokyo struck back immediately. A long ball from the back line was headed on into the box by Sasa Salcedo and Yoshiro Abe made a brilliant reaction play to complete the scoring opportunity. Though the ball was behind him, Abe turned 180-degrees while on a dead run and collected the ball on his chest, then completed his full pirouette and volleyed the ball out of the air, slipping it just inside the left post. The strike was so fluid and breathtaking that Abe seemed surprised himself that he had managed to complete it, and coach Hiromi Hara was jumping like a jack-in-the-box on the sidelines in celebration.

But Sanfrecce were far from finished, and after a number of close calls, they regained the lead in the 82 minute, on a corner kick. The original cross was headed plear but after bounding around the box four or five times, Hisato Sato latched onto it at the penalty box and made a spinning hook shot that beat keeper Yoichi Doi into the right corner

Again, Tokyo did not even wait for the Sanfrecce celebration to cool down before striking back. Norio Suzuki made the play happen with a brilliant feint-and-dash move to turn the left corner of the Sanfrecce defence. Pressured from behind as he raced for the end line, Suzuki ripped off a blistering cross which hit Yuta Baba in the feet and caromed into the net. Though Baba took credit for the goal, replays show that he didnt even have time to twitch a muscle, as Suzuki played a bank shot off his boots and into the net.

Date: 15 Oct, 2005		Location: Ajinomoto Stadium
2	0 1H 0 2 2H 2	2
Yoshiro Abe (76') Yuta Baba (83')	Scoring	Shunsuke Maeda (55') Hisato Sato (82')
Sasa Salcedo	Cautions
Lineups: Yoichi Doi, Yasuyuki Konno, Jean Carlo Witte, Teruaki Moniwa, Ryuji Fujiyama, Yohei Kajiyama, Ryoichi Kurisawa (Norio Suzuki 56), Masashi Miyazawa (Jo Kanazawa 66), Yuta Baba, Yoshiro Abe, Lucas Severino (Sasa Salcedo 71) . Takashi Shimoda (Akihiro Sato 59), Yuichi Komano, Dininho, Norio Omura, Kota Hattori, Gakuto Shigehara, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Susumu Oki (Issei Takayanagi 74), Ri Han-Jae (Galvao 78), Shusuke Maeda, Hayato Sato .

7 - 0

This was just the climax in a long string of rough plays which saw two Reysol players sent off, and you STILL had the sense that the ref was letting too much rough play go unpunished. The official, Mr. Yamanishi, is usually one of the J.League's better referees, butthere is little question that he allowed this contest to get out of hand. Then again, we suspect that even Pi Collina would have had a tough time getting control of this contest, as Reysol came out in a rush of physical play that saw Tomokazu Myojin pick up two yellow cards in just 13 minutes. Once Reysol were reduced to ten men, they had little choice but to start playing even rougher, and Urawa did not help matters by giving back as much as they received.

In the first half, the Reds were able to score only once, but when Tanaka added a second goal shortly after the restart, things began to fall apart for Reysol, and Tsuchiya's sliding tackle on Tanaka (which did not even receive a yellow card) ensured that the Reds were not going to show any mercy. After Tanaka was carried to an ambulance, the Reds started playing with fire in their eyes and Tomislav Maric put the match out of reach with a hat trick over the space of just nine minutes. Reysol had a second player sent off during Maric's outburst, and this made the match even more one-sided. Tomoyuki Sakai and Takuya Yokoyama added two late goals for emphasis, and left Reysol as battered and torn as Tanaka had been. Though it is hardc to feel much pity for Reysol in the wake of such a nasty showing, they have been working hard to pick up their performances in recent weeks, yet still linger near the relegation zone., and a drubbing such as this one (plus the loss of two key players for next week's match) will certainly not help their effort to avoid relegation.

Date: 15 Oct, 2005		Location: Komaba Stadium
7	1 1H 0 6 2H 0	0
Robson Ponte (23') Tatsuya Tanaka (49') Tomislav Maric (54') Tomislav Maric (57') Tomislav Maric (63') Tomoyuki Sakai (67') Takuya Yokoyama (89')	Scoring
Yuichiro Nagai Satoshi Horinouchi	Cautions	Tomokazu Myojin Tomokazu Myojin Reynaldo Yasuhiro Hato Yasuhiro Hato Cleber
	Sent Off	Tomokazu Myojin Yasuhiro Hato
Lineups: Ryota Tsuzuki, Keisuke Tsuboi, Satoshi Horinouchi, Hideki Uchidate, Nobuhisa Yamada, Makoto Hasebe (Takafumi Akahoshi 74), Keita Suzuki, Tomoyuki Sakai, Robson Ponte, Yuichiro Nagai (Takuya Yokoyama 68), Tatsuya Tanaka (Escudero 60), Tomislav Maric . Yuta Minami, Yukio Tsuchiya, Yasuhiro Hato, Norihiro Satsukawa, Tadatoshi Masuda, Tomonori Hirayama (Yuzo Kobayashi 86), Tomokazu Myojin, Hidekazu Otani, Cleber Santana Loureio, Keiji Tamada (Franza 61), Reynaldo (Kisho Yano 69) .

5 - 0

Date: 15 Oct, 2005		Location: Oita "Big Eye" Std.
5	1 1H 0 4 2H 0	0
O.G (30') Magno Alves (45') Daiki Takamatsu (53') Edmilson (65') O.G (74')	Scoring
Tulio Takashi Miki Magno Alves	Cautions	Cho Jae-Jin Yasumasa Nishino
Lineups: Shusaku Nishikawa, Takashi Miki, Tomoki Fukaya, Yohei Fukumoto, Takashi Umeda, Takauyuki Yoshida (Teppei Nishiyama 78), Tulio, Edmilson, Yuichi Nemoto (Koji Yoshimura 85), Daiki Takamatsu (Ryosuke Kijima 72), Magno Alves . Yohei Nishibe, Daisuke Ichikawa, Toshihide Saito, Ryuzo Morioka, Takahiro Yamanishi, Masaki Yamamoto (Yoshikiyo Kuboyama 55), Keisuke Ota, Teruyoshi Ito, Kazumichi Takagi, Akihiro Hyodo, Choi Dae-Uk (Masaaki Sawanobori 55), Cho Jae-Jin (Yasumasa Nishino 78) .

1 - 1

Washington Takahito Soma Gilberto "Jill" Goncalves. Takeshi Hirano Takuya Yamada

Date: 15 Oct, 2005		Location: Niigata "Big Swan" Std
1	1 1H 1 0 2H 0	1
Anderson Lima (44')	Scoring	Washington (3')
Shigenori Hagimura Daisuke Aono	Cautions	Takeshi Hirano Kenichi Uemura Kenichi Uemura Daigo Kobayashi
	Sent Off	Kenichi Uemura
Lineups: Koichi Kidera, Susumu Umeyama (Yusaku Ueno 80), Naoki Takahashi, Shigenori Hagimura, Naoya Kikuchi, Isao Honma (Daisuke Aono 50), Hiroyoshi Kuwahara, Shingo Suzuki, Anderson Lima, Edmilson, Fabinho . Yoshinari Takagi, Kenta Togawa, Kentaro Hayashi, Kenichi Uemura, Masayuki Yanagisawa, Kasuyuki Toda, Takeshi Hirano, Takahito Soma, Washington, Daigo Kobayashi (Yoshiyuki Kobayashi 89), Gilberto "Jill" Goncalves (Jun Tamano 87), .

1 - 4

Date: 15 Oct, 2005		Location: Mizuho Stadium
1	0 1H 0 0 2H 0	4
Masahiro Koga (79')	Scoring	Marcus de Morais(1') Juninho (47') Juninho (54') Juninho (71')
Yutaka Akita Yohei Toyoda An Yong-Ha Claiton Seigo Narazaki	Cautions	Augusto
Lineups: Seigo Narazaki, Makoto Kakuda, Yutaka Akita, Masahiro Koga, Claiton, An Yong-Ha, Masayuki Omori, Toshiya Fujita, Keita Sugimoto (Kei Yamaguchi 78), Naoshi Nakamura, Yohei Toyoda (Satoshi Nakayama 70) . Takashi Aizawa, Yoshinobu Minowa, Shuhei Terada, Hiroki Ito, Yasuhiro Nagahashi, Kengo Nakamura, Tomoaki Kuno, Augusto de Souza, Marcus de Morais (Akira Konno 75), Kazuki Ganaha (Masaru Kurotsu 89), Juninho .

1 - 0

Date: 15 Oct, 2005		Location: Nagai Stadium
1	0 1H 0 1 2H 0	0
Fabinho (60')	Scoring
Takanori Nunobe Hiroshige Yanagimoto	Cautions	Hisanaga Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel Toninho
Lineups: Motohiro Yoshida, Bruno Cuadros, Tomoya Maeda, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Fabinho, Takanori Nunobe, Kiyokazu Kudo (Kenta Fujimoto 82), Noriyuki Sakamoto (Takuya Kokeguchi 71), Tatsuya Furuhashi, Teruaki Kurobe, Hiroaki Morishima (Hiroshi Miyahara 84) . Tomoyasu Ando, Takuro Nishimura (Yusuke Shimada 73), Toninho, Seiichiro Okuno, Daisuke Tomita, Masato Saito, Jun Marcus Davidson (Kazuyoshi Mikami 66), Tatsunori Hisanaga, Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel (Koji Morita 76), Leandro, Naoto Sakurai .

1 - 1

What matters is that Gamba Osaka are an exciting and previously-unheralded team that makes people feel good about football, and may convince folks in the western part of Japan to start supporting the stort more actively. "The Powers That Be" have clearly decided to take no chances that Gamba might fall short of a championship, even if that means bending over backwards to prevent the Kashima Antlers from winning any more matches. As annoying and unfair as that might seem, it is something that can no longer be helped. Best to just file it away in the archives under "J.League incompetence" and bergin focusing on the good news, which is the prospect of a Gamba title this year.

At the end of the day, the Antlers probably saw the handwriting on the wall themselves. After their fourth goal of the contest -- scored by Chikashi Masuda -- was FINALLY allowed to stand, they showed a temporary surge of enthusiasm, but when Jubilo brought on Robert Cullen as a late substitute and the youngster scored the equaliser, even the Antlers seemed to lose interest in fighting against a predetermined fate. At five points adrift with seven matches left to play, the Antlers are certainly not out of the chase mathematically. But based on the evidence we have seen so far, there is no longer any question about what the final result will be. Time to get on the Gamba bandwagon, since that seems to be the only vehicle left in town.

Date: 16 Oct, 2005		Location: Shizuoka Stadium
1	0 1H 0 1 2H 1	1
Robert Cullen (59')	Scoring	Chikashi Masuda (47')
Norihiro Nishi Yoshiaki Ota Hideto Suzuki	Cautions	Mitsuo Ogasawara Masashi Motoyama Ricardinho
Lineups: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Toshihiro Hattori, Yoshiaki Ota (Takahiro Kawamura 89), Takashi Fukunishi, Hiroshi Nanami, Shinji Murai, Sho Naruoka (Keisuke Funatani 84), Norihiro Nishi, Masashi Nakayama (Robert Cullen 56) . Hitoshi Sogahata, Takeshi Aoki, Go Oiwa, Daiki Iwamasa, Toru Araiba, Ricardinho, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masaki Fukai, Chikashi Masuda (ZTatsuya Ishikawa 74), Masashi Motoyama (Shinzo Koroki 74), Takayuki Suzuki (Takuya Nozawa 64) .

2 - 2

The new stadium, however, is nothing short of breathtaking. If JEF United is unable to draw large crowds with a magnificent facility like this one, AND a competitive team, then Chiba simply doesnt deserve to have a team. Hopefully the latter half of that statement will never need to be repeated. Based on the turnout for the clash with the Marinos (over 17,000), there is every reason to believe that JEF United has opened a new chapter in their team history. The disappointing result of this match notwithstanding, JEF fans have every reason to cheer, now that they finally have a home stadium that befits a championship contender.

JEF took an early lead in this match on a corner kick which was headed home by Yuki Abe , and they carried this lead into the locker room at the half. However, they started playing a bit too cautiously in the second half, and midway through the period the Marinos equalised, on a swerving drive by Dutra from the top of the penalty arc.

With time running down, JEF seemed to claim the winning goal on a looping pass that Seiichiro Maki volleyed out of the air with his left boot, sending a blast into the roof of goal. But the JEF players made the mistake of celebrating their victory before the final whistle. A minute into injury time, Daisuke Sakata slipped around the left side of the JEF defence and fired a low shot into the corner which salvaged a point for the Marinos and sent the home crowd home in mild disappointment. Be that as it may, it is hard to completely dispel the energizing feeling created by a big crowd in a sparkling new stadium. Perhaps this year will not bring any rewards, but for the first time in years, we have reason to believe that the dogs of Chiba will eventually have their day.

Date: 16 Oct, 2005		Location: Chiba Stadium
2	1 1H 0 1 2H 2	2
Yuki Abe (16') Seiichiro Maki (88')	Scoring	Dutra (71') Daisuke Sakata (89')
	Cautions
Lineups: Tomonori Tateishi, Kozo Yuki, Ilya Stoyanov, Daisuke Saito, Satoru Yamagishi (Koki Mizuno 69), Yuto Sato, Yuki Abe, Masataka Sakamoto, Naotake Hanyu (Kohei Kudo 82), Seiichiro Maki, Takenori Hayashi (Mario Haas 69) . Tetsuya Enomoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Ryuji Kawai, Hayuma Tanaka, Daisuke Nasu, Daisuke Oku, Dutra, Masahiro Ohashi (Koji Yamase 45), Hideo Oshima, Daisuke Sakata .

As we noted above, Gamba Osaka's victory on saturday, coupled with a referee-assisted draw by the Kashima Antlers, has pretty well decided the league championship. Gamba now hold a five point lead over the Antlers, who will need a tremendous amount of luck (and a complete change of heart on the part of the J.League's referees) to catch the Osaka speedsters now. Everyone else is all but mathematically out of contention, with Cerezo Osaka eight points back and the Urawa Reds nine. Some TV announcers still insist on discussing their chances of overtaking Gamba in reasonable tones, though they are starting to sound a bit like George Bush discussing the prospects for a happy, peaceful and democratic society in Iraq as being "just around the corner". Yeah. Sure . . . .

. . . now what was that old cliche again?

.	Team	Pts	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	G.Dif
1	Gamba Osaka	54	27	16	6	5	72	46	+26
2	Kashima Antlers	49	27	14	7	6	52	33	+19
3	Cerezo Osaka	46	27	13	7	7	39	35	+4
4	Urawa Reds	44	27	12	8	7	49	30	+19
5	Jubilo Iwata	43	27	12	7	8	42	31	+11
6	Kawasaki Frontale	43	27	13	4	10	43	33	+10
7	JEF United Ichihara	43	27	11	10	6	43	36	+7
8	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	40	27	10	10	7	39	29	+10
9	Nagoya Grampus	35	27	9	8	10	37	39	-2
10	Yokohama Marinos	34	27	8	10	9	32	36	-4
11	FC Tokyo	32	27	7	11	9	32	33	-1
12	Oita Trinita	32	27	9	5	13	32	34	-2
13	Albirex Niigata	31	27	8	7	12	39	52	-13
14	Kashiwa Reysol	30	27	7	9	11	29	40	-11
15	Shimizu S-Pulse	28	27	6	10	11	31	40	-9
16	Omiya Ardija	28	27	8	4	15	29	41	-12
17	Tokyo Verdy	26	27	5	11	11	33	58	-25
18	Vissel Kobe	20	27	4	8	15	26	53	-27

Rumours and Rumblings