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October 23, 2005

Derby Day Do or Die

Oddly enough, the two matches which should have been the most "important", in terms of the title chas,e were oddly subdued. Gamba Osaka seemed "burnt out", to some extent, and were unable to match the intensity of a revitalised Oita Trinita whereas the Kashima Antlers managed to edge out a young and depleted Nagoya Grampus, but did so with surprisingly little intensity or emotion. Perhaps the long schedule is beginning to take its toll on both teams. Whatever the case may be, the results of this week have tightened things up at the top of the table, and set up what "could" be a very thrilling stretch run (knock on wood). Somebody tell that woman to take a coffee break. Her curtain call may be delayed slightly.

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
22 Oct		1-2		Expo70 "Banpaku" Stad.
22 Oct		1-0		Kashima Stadium
22 Oct		1-3		Saitama Stadium
22 Oct		4-0		Chiba Stadium
22 Oct		1-2		Ajinomoto Stadium
22 Oct		1-0		Niigata "Big Swan" Std.
22 Oct		1-1		Nihondaira Stadium
23 Oct		3-1		Todoroki Stadium
23 Oct		1-2		Hiroshima "Big Arch"

1 - 2

First of all, Trinita are a completely different team from the one that was on the fringe of the relegation zone, just four weeks ago. Since the team fired coach Kan Hwang-Bo and brought in a completely new coaching staff headed by brothers Pericles and Marcelo Chamusca, the team has been retooled completely, and has won its last four matches. Second, Gamba have just completed a fairly exhausting string of matches, including a head to head clash with the Kashima Antlers three weeks ago, and the mental exhaustion -- as much as the physical fatigue -- may be catching up to them. Finally, Gamba were without Takahiro Futagawa in this match. Though the speedy and sleek-dribbling Futagawa may not receive that much publicity on a team which boasts three national team members and a dynamic, high-scoring Brazilian striking duo, Futagawa is a very important player for Gamba, who is often at the heart of the team's buildup from midfield.

Based on what we saw in this match, we think that the second factor may have been the most telling. Though Trinita certainly deserve credit for the fine performance they turned in, in their own right, we had a sense for much of this contest that Gamba were not as sharp and energetic as they usually are. Call it fatigue, or call it an "off day", or whatever you like. The fact was, the team which racked up a string of wins during the summer months to overtake the Antlers did not show up on Saturday, and Oita made them pay for it.

Following a first half in which Gamba dominated play, but failed to beat the tenacious Trinita defence and the sterling silver hands of U-20 goalkeeper Shusaku Nishikawa, Gamba got off to a slow start in the second half, and a crucial lapse of concentration in the middle of the second stanza put them in a hole. In the 65 minute, midfielder Tulio picked up the ball about two steps on his side of the midfield stripe, looked up, and suddenly launched a long ball for the lightning-fast Trinita ace, Magno Alves. The Gamba players all raised their hands, assuming that Magno was offside, and though a replay suggests that he may have been a quarter-stride behind the defence as Tulio released the ball, it was a close-enough play that the defence should not have taken the call for granted. With the entire Gamba back line just stainding still and watching, Magno had no trouble collecting the long ball and beating the keeper with a low drive into the right corner.

Five minutes later, Magno showed that he has more weapons than just his speedy legs. Trinita worked the ball up the left sideline and then swung the ball across the top of the box to Daiki Takamatsu, who pushed the ball to Magno and then dashed into the box. As the Gamba players reacted to his run, Magno found a temporary window of opportunity left open by the retreating defence. The Trinita ace fired a grass-cutting roller into the low right corner and suddenly Trinita had a two-goal lead.

Gamba tried to fight back, but in the end the only goal they could manage came on a free kick from just outside the box, which Yasuhito Endo curled into the high right corner. Despite the most animated play from Gamba of the entire match, Trinita held on until the final whistle, and claimed their fourth win in a row, now putting them safely in the middle of the table, and at no risk of relegation. Gamba, meanwhile, find their lead over the Kashima Antlers cut to just two points, setting up what could be a very interesting stretch run.

Date: 22 Oct, 2005		Location: "Banpaku" Stadium
1	0 1H 0 1 2H 2	2
Yasuhito Endo (74')	Scoring	Magno Alves (65') Magno Alves (70')
Akihiro Ienaga	Cautions	Tulio Edmilson
Lineups: Yosuke Fujigaya, Sidiclei, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (Toshihiro Matsushita 86), Satoru Yamaguchi, Mitsuteru Watanabe, Hideo Hashimoto, Yasuhito Endo, Akihiro Ienaga, Araujo, Masashi Oguro (Kota Yoshihara 66), Fernandinho (Masanobu Matsunami 84) . Shusaku Nishikawa, Takashi Miki, Tomoki Fukaya, Taikai Uemoto, Takashi Umeda, Takauyuki Yoshida (Teppei Nishiyama 81), Edmilson, Tulio, Yuichi Nemoto, Daiki Takamatsu, Magno Alves .

1 - 0

Even back at the start of this season, most Grampus fans realised that their team would be in rebuilding mode, this season. Coach Nelsinho Baptista Junior actually did a good job of cultivating a group of youngsters who have come into the team over the past two years, and still have a great deal to learn. But the team suffered a serious blow at midseason when their two top strikers suddenly walked out, and just when Grampus seemed to have recovered from THAT blow, Nelsinho was fired and Luizao, the replacement striker who Nelsinho had brought in from Brazil, departed a week later. Though Grampus still have as number of talented players in their roster, the team has a long way to go both physically and mentally before it can once again play effectively as a coordinated whole. The strategy that they adopted against the Antlers seemed to reflect their low expectations -- esseentially a five-man back line with a lone striker up front.

The extremely defensive stance that their opponents adopted may have been a factor, and certainly the unwillingness of referee Kazuhimo Matsumura to call ANYTHING a foul made the job of producing offence even more difficult. However, the Antlers certainly did not look like a team playing for high stakes. Indeed, their play throught the entire first half, and much of the second as well, gave the general impression of a team that was already eliminated from contention, and were just playing out the string.

That is not to say that the Antlers did not deserve the win in this contest. They clearly dominated play, and apart from a few headers from set plays, Grampus did not give keeper Hitoshi Sogahata much work to do. However, Kashima's attacks seemed to lack intensity, and much of the time the team seemed content to lob long balls for Alex Mineiro and Masaki Fukai, and hope for a lucky bounce. Mr. Matsumura's unwillingness to blow the whistle even when players were pulled down from behind on the counterattack also limited the number of scoring chances. In fairness to the referee, he was quite consistent in his calls -- he ignored some similarly questionable pushing and shoving by the Antlers defenders as well. Perhaps he simply was having an attack of athsma, and didnt have enough breath to use his whistle? In any event, this extremely lenient standard made the contest even more defensive than might otherwise be the case.

Eventually, however, the huge advantage in ball possession and field position that Kashima enjoyed took its toll. Midway through the second half, Toru Araiba dashed around the left wing and cut towards the box, forcing Nagoya's central defenders to rush back to close off his path to goal. Araiba spotted Masashi Motoyama at the top of the box and dropped a soft pass back to the wide-open midfielder, who slammed it into the netting and broke the deadlock. Thereafter, the contest became even less animated . . . if such a thing is possible . . . and the Antlers spent most of their energies watching the clock run down to zero.

While the content of their performance may not have been a source of enthusiasm for Kashima fans, the Antlers did manage to collect the full three points, and thus closed the gap with Gamba to just two points. On a weekend when both top contenders looked less than impressive, the Antlers will no doubt be pleased with this outcome. With six matches left in the season, a lot can still happen. If Kashima can take encouragement from this week's result to regain their intensity, the stretch run could be quite exciting, though a comparison of the teams that the Antlers and Gamba have left to play suggests that Gamba still have the inside track.

Date: 22 Oct, 2005		Location: Kashima Stadium
1	0 1H 0 1 2H 0	0
Masashi Motoyama (59')	Scoring
Mitsuo Ogasawara Taskeshi Aoki Alex Mineiro Hitoshi Sogahata	Cautions	Yutaka Akita
Lineups: Hitoshi Sogahata, Takeshi Aoki, Go Oiwa, Daiki Iwamasa, Toru Araiba, Ricardinho (Takuya Nozawa 80), Fernando (Tatsuya Ishikawa 89), Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masaki Fukai (Takayuki Suzuki 71), Masashi Motoyama, Alex Mineiro . Seigo Narazaki, Yutaka Akita, Masahiro Koga, Takahiro Masukawa, Claiton, An Yong-Ha, Masayuki Omori, Keita Sugimoto, Toshiya Fujita (Kei Yamaguchi 68), Naoshi Nakamura, Satoshi Nakayama (Yohei Toyoda 67) .

1 - 2

It didnt take long for the two teams to "warm up". Indeed, the first 20 minutes or so of play were a barage of shots and balls into the box, as both Verdy and "FC" sought the early lead. Both teams are very young and energetic, and the enthusiasm they demonstrated as they dashed out of the gate was enough to make even a couch-bound onlooker feel short of breath. Later in the contest, players would settle down a bit and look for more "high percentage" opportunities, but in those early minutes the players on bothe ends just let rip, in hopes of getting off to a quick start.

It was Verdy who hit the first jackpot, just 19 minutes after kickoff. Takahito Soma, who has emerged as one of the top prospects to claim a spot in the national team at left wing, once veterans Alex Santos and Atsuhiro Miura pass out of the picture, showed his collection of skills by faking one FC Tokyo midfielder out of his underwear, then blowing past a second opponent withn a burst of speed, before firing a pinpoint cross to teen sensation Takayuki Morimoto, who threw up a boot while in full sprint deflected the ball right out of the keeper's clutches and into the roof of the net.

Play see-sawed back and forth for the remainder of the half, but as the break approached, Lucas Severino collected a pass with his back to goal, about ten meters outside the box, and dished it off to an onrushing Yohei Kajiyama, a teammate of Morimoto's on Japan's U-20 squad. The young midfielder quickly pulled the trigger and banked a shot off the base of the right post, catching the keeper off guard and knotting the score.

The second half was played at a furious pace, but as has been the case for both teams, this season, neither one could convert their chances into goals. After 89 minutes of end-to-end play, it looked like both Tokyo teams would once again be forced to settle for a mere one point for their efforts.

But in the first minute of extra time, two late substitutes combined to produce the winner. Ryoichi Kurisawa, who had just come off the bench a minute earlier, collected a long pass and drove into Verdy territory, putting on a stutter-step about six meters outside the box to draw the defenders closer, then releasing a pass to Sasa Salcedo, who had come on for Lucas, earlier in the second half. The Paraguayan striker beat the Verdy offsides trap and dashed for the end line, firing a low-angle shot that somehow found its way between the outrushing keeper and the near post, sending the FC Tokyo end of the stadium into wild celebrations.

Date: 22 Oct, 2005		Location: Ajinomoto Stadium
1	1 1H 1 0 2H 1	2
Takayuki Morimoto (19')	Scoring	Yohei Kajiyama (43') Sasa Salcedo (89')
Kazuyuki Toda Takeshi Hirano Takahito Soma	Cautions
Lineups: Yoshinari Takagi, Takuya Yamada, Kenta Togawa, Kentaro Hayashi, Takahito Soma, Kasuyuki Toda (Masatomo Kuba 65), Yoshiyuki Kobayashi, Takeshi Hirano (Kento Tsurumaki 86), Gilberto "Jill" Goncalves, Washington, Takayuki Morimoto (Tadamichi Machida 81) . Yoichi Doi, Ryuji Fujiyama, Jean Carlo Witte, Teruaki Moniwa, Jo Kanazawa, Yohei Kajiyama, Yasuyuki Konno, Mitsuhiro Toda (Norio Suzuki 59), Yuta Baba (Ryoichi Kurisawa 87) Yoshiro Abe, Lucas Severino (Sasa Salcedo 66) .

1 - 3

The Reds suffered a huge emotional blow last week when ace striker Tatsuya Tanaka had his ankle shattered by a sliding tackle from behind. This not only deprived the team of its leading scorer this season, but also was the sort of gruesome event which is bound to leave an emotional impact on teammates. The question, as this contest kicked off, was what sort of emotional response the Reds would display. Since they also had reason to want revenge for the 2-1 defeat that Omiya administered in the first Saitama Shootout this season, it was no surprise that Urawa came out with a flurry of attacking intensity. A mere three minutes after kickoff, the Reds' pressure earned them a free kick just a meter or two above the top of the penalty arc. Alex Santos took the kick and sent a curling line drive over the wall and just inside the right post to put the Reds in front.

But Ardija clearly were not going to let themselves be outhustled, particularly now that the risk of relegation is beginning to grow. Following the opening strike by Santos, the Mighty Squirrels put on an attacking surge of their own. Just four minutes later, two former Reds players -- Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel and Naoto Sakurai teamed up to frustrate their former teammates. Sakurai read Tuto's intentions perfectly, accelerating suddenly to dash behind the Reds' defensive line just as Tuto released a long pass into space. Sakurai raced after the ball, caught up to it just above the top right corner of the penalty box and picked his spot to beat the keeper, bringing the two teams level once more.

Play see-sawed back and forth for the remainder of the first half, with both teams creating opportunities but Ardija coming closest to the jackpot. Just a minute before the break, a cross from Chikara Fujimoto found Sakurai about six meters out from the left post and the speedy Ardija striker met it with a diving header. But the shot rattled off the crossbar and the two teams went into the locker room on even terms.

As the second half began, the Reds once again put on an early burst of pressure. Makoto Hasebe lead one break into Ardija territory and used his sleek dribbling skills to draw three defenders before dishing the ball off to Tomislav Maric on his right, but Hiroki Aratani made a fine reaction save to tip Maric's shot over the crossbar. However, on the subsequent corner kick, Santos lofted a floater towards the near post and Marcus Tulio Tanaka swooped in to head the ball just inside the upright and give Urawa the lead.

The contest remained very closely matched throughout, but with 20 minutes remaining, Yuichiro Nagai looped a pass in to Maric, and the Ardija defenders allowed the Reds striker to collect the ball with his back to goal, at the corner of the six-yard box. Help was too late to arrive, and Maric used sheer power to push away from his lone defender, turn, and snap off a shot which ripped into the opposite side netting.

Ardija refused to give up, and the final 20 minutes of play was conducted almost entirely in the Reds half of the field. However, with a two-goal cushion to protect, the Urawa players seemed content to stack the defence and kill time. With this result, the two Saitama squads find themselves at opposite ends of the spectrum. Urawa advanced to third place (at least for a day), and are now seven points adrift of Gamba -- a daunting number with six matches to go, but a Reds title is not beyond the realm of possibility. Ardija, meanwhile, slip to 16th place, and would have to play a promotion-relegation series with the third-placed J2 team if they remain in that spot at the end of the season.

Date: 22 Oct, 2005		Location: Saitama Stadium
1	1 1H 1 0 2H 2	30
Naoto Sakurai (7')	Scoring	Alex Santos (3') Marcus Tulio Tanaka (53') Tomislav Maric (69')
Yasunari Hiraoka Chikara Fujimoto	Cautions	Keita Suzuki
Lineups: Hiroki Aratani, Masato Saito (Takuro Nishimura 65), Yasunari Hiraoka (Tatsunori Hisanaga 80), Seiichiro Okuno, Daisuke Tomita, Toninho, Jun Marcus Davidson, Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel, Chikara Fujimoto, Leandro (Yoshiteru Yamashita 70), Naoto Sakurai . Ryota Tsuzuki, Keisuke Tsuboi, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Hideki Uchidate, Nobuhisa Yamada (Satoshi Horinouchi 67), Makoto Hasebe, Keita Suzuki, Alessandro Santos, Robson Ponte (Tomoyuki Sakai 81), Yuichiro Nagai (Tadaaki Hirakawa 88), Tomislav Maric .

1 - 1

Of the two, Jubilo is currently playing slightly more competitive football, though S-Pulse have done quite a commendable job this year, considering that we had them tipped as near-certain relegation candidates at the start of the season. Jubilo entered this contest with at least a theoretical chance of catching the two league leaders and capturing the league title, particularly since Gamba had stumbled in their earlier match against Oita Trinita. The die-hard Jubilo fans therefore must have though they were seeing a glimmer of hope when -- midway through the first half, a cross from Shinji Murai in the left corner bounded around the box and fell at the feet of Norihiro Nishi, who for some inconceivable reason was completely unmarked -- standing at the penatly spot without a single S-Pulse player in the vicinity. Nishi calmly settled the ball and scooped it past the keeper to give Jubilo the early lead.

But despite this one blunder, S-Pulse were playing the better football on this particular evening, and for the remainder of the first half and 20 minutes of the second, the main question of the mind of viewers was how long it would take S-Pulse to FINALLY capitalise on their chances. The answer arrived in the 66 minute. Marquinhos, who had been at the point of several dangerous S-Pulse attacks but simply couldnt seem to finish off the chances, had yet another opportunity as he burst past two defenders and into the box for an open shot on the keeper. But once again his drive was stymied by Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, who threw himself into the path of the shot and took the ball square in the chest.

But this time, the rebound took an S-Pulse bounce, falling at the feet of Akihiro Hyodo who sent his first touch into the top right corner of the net for his first J.League goal.

Neither team could add to the score line, despite a barrage of shots at both ends over the final 20 minutes. As a result, Jubilo can pretty much forget about any lingering hopes of a title this season, whereas S-Pulse pick up a valuable point to move slightly into the safety zone, a point above Ardija who currently hold the third relegation spot.

Akihiro Hyodo (66')

Date: 22 Oct, 2005		Location: Nihondaira Std.
1	0 1H 1 1 2H 0	1
Scoring	Norihiro Nishi (26')
Toshihide Saito	Cautions	Takayuki Chano
Lineups: Yohei Nishibe, Daisuke Ichikawa, Toshihide Saito, Kazumichi Takagi, Takahiro Yamanishi, Keisuke Ota (Choi Dae-Uk 70) (Yasumasa Nishino 86), Takuma Edamura (Masaaki Sawanobori 77), Teruyoshi Ito, Akihiro Hyodo, Marquinhos Cho Jae-Jin . Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Hideto Suzuki (Takayuki Chano 28), Makoto Tanaka, Kim Jin-Kyu, Takahiro Kawamura (Yoshiaki Ota 67), Sho Naruoka, Hiroshi Nanami, Shinji Murai, Keisuke Funatani, Robert Cullen, Norihiro Nishi (Masashi Nakayama 76) .

4 - 0

After a disappointing result last week to chrisen the new facility, JEF United recorded their first win in Fukuari this week, with a meticulous dissection of struggling Vissel Kobe. The visitors gave JEF a bit of difficulty in the first half, but it is clear that Vissel are staring the prospect of relegation squarely in the face, and once it became clear that they were outmatched, the boys from Kobe collapsed and JEF was able to run up the score a bit in the latter stages of play.

The contest was pretty even in the first half, though JEF capitalized on one of their few scoring opportunities while Vissel did not. In the 23 minute, Satoru Yamagishi surged forward on the right wing and used a sudden burst of speed to accelerate past his defender and all the way to the goal line. Just as he was about to run out of room, he cut the ball back to Gabriel Popescu at the top of the penalty area, and the Romanian international side-footed the ball into the net.

That goal was all that separated the two teams at half time, but as the second half wore on and Vissel found themselves unable to produce much offence, their energy and concentration began to deteriorate and JEF took over control of the match. On the stroke of the hour, Yamagishi again got forward with a burst of speed. running onto a pass from Mario Haas and firing a shot from the edge of the box. Vissel keeper Seiji Honda dashed off his line and managed to parry the shot, but it fell right to Seiichiro Maki who stroked the rebound into an empty net.

Just three minutes later, anothe counterattack developed after a defensive miscue at midfield allowed Maki to dash into the clear for a bounding ball, catching up to it just a few steps outside the box. Vissel defender Shusuke Tsubouchi chased back and managed to knock the ball away from Maki with a sliding tackle, but Haas was trailing the play and collected the loose ball, then fired a bullet from the edge of the box to extend JEF's lead to 3-0.

With time running down and Vissel utterly beaten, young Koji Nakajima -- on as a late substitute -- broke into the clear on a lead pass from midfield and looped a shot over the keeper to record his first J.League goal, giving JEF a final margin of 4-0, and christening Fukuari Stadium with its first victory celebration.

Date: 22 Oct, 2005		Location: Chiba "Fukuari" Std.
4	1 1H 0 3 2H 0	0
Gabriel Popescu (23') Seiichiro Maki (60') Mario Haas (63') Koji Nakajima (83')	Scoring
Gabriel Popescu	Cautions	Tomoyuki Hirase
Lineups: Tomonori Tateishi, Kozo Yuki, Ilya Stoyanov, Daisuke Saito, Satoru Yamagishi (Koki Mizuno 63), Yuki Abe, Yuto Sato, Masataka Sakamoto, Gabriel Popescu (Kohei Kudo 55), Seiichiro Maki, Mario Haas (Koji Nakajima 75) . Seiji Honda, Park Kang-Jo, Martin Muller, Kunie Kitamoto, Shusuke Tsubouchi, Ivo Ulich, Naoya Saeki, Akihiro Endo, Pavel Horvath, (Hideo Tanaka 81), Keisuke Kurihara (Sho Kitano 63), Tomoyuki Hirase .

1 - 0

Albirex Niigata, meanwhile, may be struggling a bit themselves but at least in their case it seems to be mainly due to a rather mediocre, and aging roster. The team seems to be playing up to their ability, most of the time; it is just that "their ability" is still not quite high enough to make them a J1 contender. Nevertheless, the strong revenue flow from crowds such as the 39,000 who turned out for the Marinos match should allow Albirex to address their personnel weaknesses in due time, if they can avoid relegation this season. The victory over Yokohama certainly helps; three points for the win moved Albirex level with the Marinos, six points above the relegation line. Six or seven points -- two wins, essentially -- should be enough to ensure safety for both teams.

Considering the tremendous turnout at "Big Swan" Stadium, the content of this match was rather disappointing. The Marinos played a dreadfully dull and defensive first half, and Albirex returned the favour in the second half, producing what was easily the most soporific match of the weekend. After a dreary 38 minutes of the first half, Niigata got the break they needed when the midas-touch passing of Anderson Lima split the Marinos back line as he played a one-two pass to Edmilson on the left side of the box. Edmilson had just enough space to squeeze off a shot, hitting the base of the left post and bounding into the back of the net.

In the second half, the Marinos began playing with a bit more determination and energy, but by this time Albirex were focusing on nothing more than claiming the vital three points. By the final ten minutes, there were eleven Niigata players packed into an "Orange Crush" defensive line deep in their own end, providing no space whatsoever for the Marinos to work with. The strategy did hat it was intended to do, though it certainly was not pretty. After a mind-numbing second half, Albirex walked off with the win while Yokohama recorded their fifth consecutive match without a win.

Date: 22 Oct, 2005		Location: Niigata "Big Swan" Std
1	1 1H 0 0 2H 0	0
Edmilson (38')	Scoring
Anderson Lima	Cautions	Daisuke Nasu Naoki Matsuda Dutra Hayuma Tanaka
Lineups: Koichi Kidera, Anderson Lima (Yohito Terakawa 80), Naoki Takahashi (Daisuke Fujii 82), Shigenori Hagimura, Susumu Umeyama, Hiroyoshi Kuwahara, Naoya Kikuchi, Daisuke Aono, Fabinho (Yusaku Ueno 89), Shingo Suzuki, Edmilson . Tatsuya Enomoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Naoki Matsuda, Ryuji Kawai (Magrao 69), Hayuma Tanaka, Daisuke Nasu, Yoshiharu Ueno, Dutra, Daisuke Oku (Koji Yamase 52), Rodrigo Gral (Hideo Oshima 52), Daisuke Sakata .

3 - 1

Considering how much Reysol have struggled this season, even with a full roster, it was clear that the group of reserves that coach Hayano put together were going to be over their heads against a resurgent Kawasaki Frontale. Sure enough, 20 minutes into the match -- on Kawasaki's first set play of the day, a high lob into the box found Augusto just outside the left post, and the veteran wing back headed the ball across the face of goal to Yoshinobu Minowa, who poked the ball home.

Despite the absence of so many key defensive players, Reysol were accounting for themselves reasonably well, until just before the break. Kawasaki made a quick clearance following a set play and a looping pass from deep in their own end sent three speedy attacking players away of a break. The rush was finished off by Marcus de Moraiswho sent a through pass to Juninho, dashing past the last Reysol defender. Reserve center-back Yuzo Kobayashi threw himself at the ball feet first, in a desperate and certainly rash attempt to cut off the play, but all he succeeded in doing was tripping up Juninho inside the penalty box.

If you could consider the play in a vacuum, it really was not THAT bad a foul . . . a PK certainly . . . but Kobayashi WAS going for the ball, and did not miss it by much. Many referees would have awarded the PK but given Kobayashi only a few words of advice. Others might have awarded a yellow, but surely that was the maximum penalty that such a play deserved. Unfortunately the referee in this match was the inimitable Mr. Nishimura, one of the "fantastic four" of J.League officiating infamy. Not surprisingly, he proved incapable of addressing only what he saw on this particular afternoon, and decided to punish Kobayashi for the events of LAST weekend, with a straight red card. There really was no excuse for such a harsh call, but Reysol were basically finished, anyway, once Juninho drilled his shot from the PK spot, so perhaps it is not a major loss.

In the second half, Frontale seemed to ease back into second gear, easily dominating the ten-man Resyol but not pushing overly hard for another goal. It was not until late int he contest -- with nine minutes to go -- that Marcus added a third tally with a powerful drive from the edge of the box. Reysol threw themselves forward in a desperation bid to get some consoliation, and they did manage to pull one back just before time expired, on a good dash into the box and low-angle shot by Reynaldo. Nevertheless, the loss puts Reysol back in the relegation race, only two points clear of 16th-place Omiya.

Date: 23 Oct, 2005		Location: Todoroki Stadium
3	2 1H 0 1 2H 1	1
Yoshinobu Minowa (20') Juninho (43') Marcus (81')	Scoring	Reynaldo (84')
Hideki Sahara Tomoaki Kuno	Cautions	Kisho Yano
	Sent Off	Yuzo Kobayashi
Lineups: Takashi Aizawa, Yoshinobu Minowa, Hiroki Ito, Hideki Sahara, Yasuhiro Nagahashi, Kengo Nakamura, Tomoaki Kuno (Naoki Soma 83), Augusto de Souza, Marcus de Morais, Kazuki Ganaha, Juninho . Yuta Minami, Norihiro Satsukawa, Yuzo Kobayashi, Sota Nakazawa, Ryo Kobayashi (Tatsuya Yazawa 75), Hidekazu Otani, Harutaka Ono, Tadatoshi Masuda (Kisho Yano 71), Cleber Santana Loureio (Naoki Ishikawa 45), Keiji Tamada, Reynaldo .

1 - 2

But say what you will about the colour scheme -- this year these two teams are playing football that is as loud and eye-popping as their locker-room decor. Sanfrecce are still a few years too inexperienced to challenge for a title, but the impressive play of youngsters such as Shunsuke Maeda, Yuji Komano and Kazuyuki Morisaki augurs a bright future. early in this contest, all three contributed to the opening goal which put Sanfrecce in an early lead. First Maeda made a sashing run down the left side and turned his defender inside out before lopping a ball into the box that the defence had to head out of play. On the subsequent corner kick, Komano placed a perfect cross onto the head of Morisaki, and the near post, and the captain swiveled his neck to send the ball looping into the high far corner.

Cerezo Osaka has a few promising youngsters as well, but it is their veterans -- particularly former national-team members Hiroaki Morishima and Akinori Nishizawa -- who are really carrying the team this season. You would never know that Morishima is 33 years old, and playing his 13th season in the J.League, based on how tirelessly he runs from one end of the pitch to the other. Nishkzawa, meanwhile, has been resurrecting his career in his old age. Though he can no longer use speed and dribbling finesse to blow through defences, as a classic "centre forward" (some would claim that he never could, even in his prime), Nishizawa has become a valuable contributor to his team this year as a wily poacher, who sneaks into effective positions to support the attack, and always seems to be in the right place to "clean up the scraps".

Nishizawa provided a perfect illustration of this just before the half time break. Tatsuya Furuhashi carried the ball forward on attack, and spotting no good options, decided to try his luck from long range. The ball was easily blocked by the Sanfrecce keeper, but it was a low bounder which he could not latch onto completely on the first stab. As the keeper fumbled to try to cover the ball, Nishizawa dashed in and kicked it literally right out of the keeper's hands, and into the roof of the net.

Midway through the second half, Morishima completed cerezo's comeback on a beautiful slicing run off the ball which was read perfectly by Fabinho. The Brazilian midfielder backheeled the ball to Morishima as he dashed past and Morishima drilled it past the keeper to give Cerezo the margin of victory.

Date: 23 Oct, 2005		Location: Hiroshima "Big Arch"
1	1 1H 1 0 2H 1	1
Kazuyuki Morisaki (8')	Scoring	Akinori Nishizawa (44') Hiroaki Morishima (65')
Susumu Oki Dininho	Cautions	Hiroaki Morishima
Lineups: Akihiro Sato, Yuichi Komano, Dininho, Norio Omura, Kota Hattori, Ri Han-Jae, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Susumu Oki (Galvao 69), Gakuto Shigehara (Shogo Nishikawa 69), Shusuke Maeda (Jorginho 85), Hayato Sato . Motohiro Yoshida, Bruno Cuadros, Tomoya Maeda (Kenta Fujimoto 73), Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Fabinho, Takanori Nunobe, Kiyokazu Kudo, Ze Carlos (Takuya Kokeguchi 23), Tatsuya Furuhashi, Akinori Nishizawa, Hiroaki Morishima (Hiroshi Miyahara 82) .

Well, it certainly looks like the concerns that we expressed earlier this year -- that the J.League title would be decided early as one team routed all opposition -- were misplaced. We could drag out the complaint that officiating has played a role in allowing more teams to remain in the hunt, but even if we did, that would not change the fact that parity continues to be a hallmark of the J.League. With six matches left in the season, there are still seven teams left with a theoretical chance to capture the title, and three of those have to be viewed as legitimately strong contenders. Though the Urawa Reds (seven points back), Kawasaki Frontale and JEF United (both eight points adrift) would need some combination of results approaching the miraculous in order to overtake the other contenders, Only five points separate first and third place at the moment -- a margin that could certainly be made up if you consider the high frequency of "upsets" in the J.League.

Obviously, the two top contenders are Gamba Osaka and Kashima Antlers (who have chased one another since the early stages of the season), and given Gamba's current two-point edge and slightly easier schedule, we have to view them as the favourites, at the moment. Still, there is a lot of football left to be played this season, and given the current standings, we would not be the least bit surprised if the title race goes down to the last game of the season. For excitement, you cant get any better than that.

.	Team	Pts	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	G.Dif
1	Gamba Osaka	54	28	16	6	6	73	48	+25
2	Kashima Antlers	52	28	15	7	6	53	33	+20
3	Cerezo Osaka	49	28	14	7	7	41	36	+5
4	Urawa Reds	47	28	13	8	7	52	31	+21
5	Kawasaki Frontale	46	28	14	4	10	46	34	+12
6	JEF United	46	28	12	10	6	47	36	+11
7	Jubilo Iwata	44	28	12	8	8	43	32	+11
8	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	40	28	10	10	8	40	31	+9
9	FC Tokyo	35	28	8	11	9	34	34	+0
10	Oita Trinita	35	28	10	5	13	34	35	-1
11	Nagoya Grampus	35	28	9	8	11	37	40	-3
12	Yokohama Marinos	34	28	8	10	10	32	37	-5
13	Albirex Niigata	34	28	9	7	12	40	52	-12
14	Kashiwa Reysol	30	28	7	9	12	30	43	-13
15	Shimizu S-Pulse	29	28	6	11	11	32	41	-9
16	Omiya Ardija	28	28	8	4	16	30	44	-14
17	Tokyo Verdy	26	28	5	11	12	34	60	-26
18	Vissel Kobe	20	28	4	8	16	26	57	-31

J2 Roundup: Kyoto Crowned Kings a Month Early

Hashiratani came in late last year as Kyoto struggled under the good-natured Akihiro Nishimura, failing utterly to meet expectations of a quick return to the J1 folowing their relegation in 2003. His no-nonsense style and insistence that everyone -- no matter how "famous" -- follow the same brutal training regimen and play with the same abandon were initially viewed askance buy some commentators. For one thing, his gritty, "old-school" coaching stuyle quickly alienated the two players on the team with national-team experience (Daisuke Matsui and Teruaki Kurobe). By the end of 2004, though Hashiratani had been in the job for only a few months, both were begging to be traded, at any cost. Many in Kyoto were concerned when the head office agreed to their wishes and sent them packing (Kurobe to Cerezo Osaka and Matsui to Le Mans).

But Hashiratani has demonstrated before, particularly as coach of Montedio Yamagata in 2001, that he doesnt need blow-dried media idols or national-team pretty-boys in order to win matches. By the start of this season, he had his squad of jaded journeymen and hungry youngsters whipped into military fitness, and the Purple Sanga proceeded to turn the rest of the J2 opposition black and blue. Though the team seemed to take its foot off the accelerator over the summer months, they really had this year's J2 championship wrapped up some time around the end of May or early June.

Kyoto Purple Sanga will make a very interesting addition to the J1 next season. The club includes a very high percentage of former J1 players in its roster, and whether by accident or design, all are players who were overlooked or discarded by their former teams, and consigned to J2 "ronin" status. It seems that Hashiratani has cultivated an attitude of aggreived determination amongh his charges, and if there is one phrase that can be used to accurately describe their playing style, it is that Kyoto always act like they have somthing to prove.

The icing on this team's cake is the young Brazilian attacking duo of Paulinho (23) and Alemao (21), who lit up the J2 this season with a combined 34 goals (and the season isnt over yet). Though both are still a bit inexperienced, their scoring prowess is certainly not in doubt. More importantly, Hashiratani's "blood-and-guts" coaching style has a tendency to instil a sense of camaraderie among the troops, who have shared the pain of endless wind-sprints at the end of practice, and carried one another to the showers after a long day in the trenches. The result is that Paulinho and Alemao seem to be about as well-integrated into their team as any foreign players in the league. They, like all the others, are just foot soldiers in the trenches, where everyone needs to stick together in order to survive.

Naturally, the team is likely to do a fair amount of restructuring over the winter months, and it is hard to make many predictions until we see what their roster looks like next March. Nevertheless, if Kyoto play with the sort of intensity and determination that they did this year, they are likely to be a very solid opponent in the J1 next season. Perhaps not a potential contender, but certainly a potential giant-killer, who will worry even the very top clubs.

Chilling the Champagne in Fukuoka

Rumours and Rumblings

JFA Gets Lost in Darkest Africa

As most of you have probably heard by now, the Japan national team has scheduled a friendly match on November 16 against Togo. The match will . . . errhhh . . . hang on just a second.

Ok. Sorry about that. Ill start again . . . .

As some of our readers have probably heard by now, the Japan Football Association has arranged a friendly match for the national team, which will be held an National Stadium in Tokyo on November 16. The opponent in this match will be . . . . dare I say it? . . . Angola.

. . at least until further notice. There still is one African team left who have qualified for the World Cup, and we certainly would not want to be such sticklers for consistencythat we would rule out the possibility of minor adjusments to the JFA's plans. Perhaps the suits in Tokyo will decide to discard Angola as the planned opponent, as well, and replace them with Ghana. Or perhaps some other African team, for that matter.

As the above discussion should indicate, the JFA have been playing a very bizarre game of musical chairs with the national team's scjhedule over the past week or two. Originally, they lined up the Ivory Coast for the friendly. However, when it became apparent that Ivory Coast would not use their (nonexistent) bargaining leverage to bully Chelsea into releasing Didier Drogba to travel all the way to Japan and back for the match, the JFA decided to snub the Ivorians. They quickly convinced Togo to take the place of the Cote d'Ivoire for the November 16th contest, and explained in very solemn tones that they wanted to make sure that the match was competitive, and thus useful to Japan's preparations for the 2006 World Cup.

On the face of it, this makes a certain amount of sense. Though Japan itself may not be at full strength, it should at least be close. November 16 is an international date, and at least in theory, the Ivory Coast should be able to call all of their top players. If Japan wants to get an accurate picture of how they match up against African teams in the World Cup, they would naturally want to play a contest against a squad that is reasonably close to full strength. Togo indicated that they would bring a full-strength squad, whereas the Ivory Coast (obviously aware of the response they could expect from Stamford Bridge when they announced Drogba's travel plans) would not make such a guarantee.

However, at this point things began to get weirder, and the logic behind the JFA's actions began to disintegrate. According to an official press release, the representative from Togo "never showed up" to sign the contract that would make the match official in the eyes of FIFA (and presumably, anyone who was insuring the JFA against financial losses should the match not come off, as planned). This is astonishing, even for a football representative from a small African nation such as Togo, but for anyone who has tried to travel around Japan without the ability to speak or read Japanese, not beyond the realm of possibility. The question, though, is why the JFA ditched Togo simply due to a missed appointment? Dont they have the phone number of their counterparts in the West African nation? Are you telling me they dont have fax machines in Lome? Surely they could have found out why the meeting did not ccome off as planned, and perhaps exchange signatures by fax to take care of any legal concerns.

It seems unlikely that we will ever get a complete or satisfactory answer to these questions, but regardless of the reason, the result was that the JFA ditched their second African opponent in as many weeks, and convinced Angola to take the vacated spot. There are a few potential positive reprecussions from this recent juggling act. The tremendous popularity of the Japan National Team, and the ample financial resources of both football fans and corporate advertisers allow the JFA to guarantee an extremely lucrative return to teams that agree to play friendlies in Japan. The revenues from such a trip would surely cover expenses for a team like the Ivory Coast or Togo for a year or more, whereas the loss of such a potential windfall is an equally serious blow. By sending a message about their willingness to dump prospective opponents, if they fail to bring a full-strength squad, Japan should be able to count on having the opponent's star players turn up to international friendlies, in the future. However, there is also a risk that other countries will be put off by this fickle attitude. Certainly, the impression it leaves on fans -- not only in Japan, but around the world -- is of a FA that cant make up its mind, and perhaps can not even be trusted at its word.

Somehow, we sense that this is NOT the sort of message that Japan should be sending to the rest of the football world.