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December 3, 2005

The Thrill of Victory, the Agony of Defeat

Much as we may complain about the officiating, or the bureaucracy, or the oldboy networks, or all those other annoyances that trouble us as football fans, year in and year out, there is no question but that the J.League is the most amazing, unpredictable and breathlessly thrilling league in the football world. Where else could a team enter injury time in first place, with the league title within their grasp and a massive throng of 45,000 people cheering them on, only to find their hopes cruelly dashed in the first minute of extra time, and find themselves tumbling down . . .down . . . down , , , into to fourth, and then ultimately fifth place, in the space of a little over three minutes? As the Cerezo Osaka players crumpled to the pitch in a suddenly graveyard-silent Nagai Stadium, tears staining their brilliant pink uniforms, it was hard to avoid shedding a tear for them. Without their valiant, late run at the title, it would not have been such an spine-chilling climax. Yet in the J.League, the competition is so tight that they were not even able to finish in the top three!

And then there were the scenes in Kawasaki, where Gamba Osaka had battled into the lead twice only to see their hopes buffetted by a tough opponent. Kawasaki Frontale, who equalised each time, seemed to be have the visitors stymied. Even as Gamba finally began to prevail, scoring their third goal to take the lead midway through the second half, it seemed that fate was against them. The scoreboard told them that their cross-town rivals were securely on top of the heap, and all their efforts seemed to be for naught. Then, as they claimed a late fourth tally, the Gamba players looked up at thje scoreboard and had to rub their eyes for a moment in disbelief. Not only had their own match score changed, but so had the score of the Cerezo-FC Tokyo match. Suddenly the entire Gamba bench burst into wild celebration, urging their teammates on as the final few minutes of injury time ticked away. Moments later, when the whistle blew and confirmed their championship dream come true, many players wept openly as tears of joy and the emotions of the moment overwhelmed them.

The scenes in Kashima, Chiba and Niigata were only marginally less dramatic. Indeed, at the halftime break, Urawa Reds had built a 2-0 lead over Albirex Niigata, and were in a position to claim the title themselves, if only the matches had ended right there. Over 40,000 fans -- at least half of them faithful Reds supporters who had made the long trip north -- made the walls of "Big Swan" Stadium rattle as they hoped for a miracle, and their encouragement was undimmed even when it became clear that their title dreams were not to be.

In Kashima, as time ran down and it became apparent that the Antlers could no longer hope to give Toninho Cerezo a final title as a sending-off present, the fans were nevertheless given a chance to roar with pride. Late in the match, as Kashima won a penalty kick which promised to give the home team an unshakeable 4-0 lead, Toninho Cerezo called to the bench and sent in 36-year-old Yasuto Honda -- the grand old man of the Antlers -- to take the PK. As the crowd sang in celebration, Honda drilled the shot and claimed what will almost surely be the final goal of his long and illustrious career.

And just to ensure that their fans were not left out of the weekend drama, JEF United waited until the final few minutes of their match against Nagoya Grampus to suddenly come alive, scoring two goals in injury time and snatching an astonishing late victory.

Nothing else can compare to it. Year in and year out, the J.League never fails to amaze. We hope to provide more details on all of the matches later on this weekend, but for now, just take a look at the scores, and the lineups, and consider how priveleged you are to be a fan of the most dramatic football league there is.

Congratulations to this year's champions, Gamba Osaka, who may have done it the hard way, but finally have a trophy to call their own. And congratulations as well to all those other teams, whose dogged efforts right to the final whistle made this year's championship race that much more exciting, and the final victory that much sweeter.

Date	Home	.	Visitor	Venue
3 Dec		4-0		Kashima Stadium
3 Dec		1-1		Saitama Stadium
3 Dec		2-1		Chiba Stadium
3 Dec		4-2		Ajinomoto Stadium
3 Dec		2-4		Todoroki Stadium
3 Dec		0-4		Niigata "Big Swan" Std.
3 Dec		1-0		Iwata (Yamaha) Stadium
3 Dec		2-2		Nagai Stadium
3 Dec		3-1		Hiroshima "Big Arch"

2 - 3

However, Gamba"s intensity almost got the better of them, as Fernandinho's temper tantrum in the 84 minute earned him two quick yellows and a quick trip to the showers. Though it is hard to condone his behaviour, it was not hard to understand how he felt, with so much pressure and emotion boiling under the surface. While the loss of a key player might have created a chance for Frontale to get back into the match, Araujo made sure that this would not be a concern, scoring an insurance goal on a counterattack just a few minutes later. As his teammates gathered around him to celebrate the goal, they all looked up at the scoreboard and saw that Cerezo had allowed the equaliser, putting Gamba in the top spot.

The small cortege of Gamba fans in one end zone had a nervous final three minutes as they counted down the seconds of their match, and watched the scoreboard intently. But even before the final whistle sounded in Todoroki Stadium, the big screen showed the final whistle and scenes of dejection in Osaka, with the Cerezo-Tokyo match still tied 2-2. Seconds later, the whistle blew and Gamba players leapt for joy, as they celebrated their first J.League title.

Date: 3 Dec, 2005		Location: Todoroki Stadium
2	1 1H 1 1 2H 3	4
Shuhei Terada (37') Hiroyuki Taniguchi (62')	Scoring	Araujo (12') Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (56') Yasuhito Endo (79') Araujo (89')
Hiroyuki Taniguchi Yusuke Mori	Cautions	Hideo Hashimoto Tsuneyasu Miyamoto Yasuhito Endo Fernandinho Fernandinho Shinichi Terada
	Sent Off	Fernandinho
Lineups: Takashi Aizawa, Yoshinobu Minowa, Shuhei Terada, Hiroki Ito, Naoki Soma (Yusuke Mori 62), Kengo Nakamura, Hiroyuki Taniguchi (Hideki Sahara 79), Augusto de Souza, Marcus de Morais, Kazuki Ganaha (Masaru Kurotsu 76), Juninho . Yosuke Fujigaya, Sidiclei (Noritada Saneyoshi 45), Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Satoru Yamaguchi, Mitsuteru Watanabe (Shinichi Terada 66), Hideo Hashimoto, Yasuhito Endo, Akihiro Ienaga, Araujo, Masashi Oguro (Masanobu Matsunami 74), Fernandinho .

2 - 2

In this contest, Cerezo surged out to an early lead in both halves, with Akinori Nishizawa hitting the net three minutes into the first half, and again three minutes into the second half. But FC Tokyo had no intention of letting the home team win the J.League title at their expense, and in both cases they fought back with ferocious pressure that kept Cerezo scrambling on defence almost all day. Cerezo fans will no doubt be ruing the yellow card that central defender Bruno Cuadros picked up last weekend, which ruled him out of this match. The impact on Cerezo"s defensive patterns was clear, and Tokyo did their best to exploit it despite some losses of their own -- both of their Brazilian strikers, Lucas Severino and Sasa Salcedo , were unabvailable for the final match of the season.

In the first half, Tokyo got the equaliser fairly quickly, and there followed a long period of stalemate which saw play swing back and forth without either team hitting the target. But in the second half, Cerezo fought furiously . . . albeit with some lack of organization . . . to maintain their lead. One point-blank shot that beat the keeper was cleared off the line by defender Hiroshige Yanagimoto , and keeper Motohiro Yoshida made several heart-stopping saves. But as the clock ticked over into injury time, Tokyo flung themselves forward one last time. Two close-range shots were parried, and then the ball fell to Yasuyuki Konno, at the top of the poenalty arc. The young midfielder slammed his shot through a forest of bodies and a sudden bulge in the back of the net told the story. Thoug there were still three minutes to play, you could see the life drain out of the Cerezo players right then and there. Tears began to fill the eyes of both players and fans alike, as they realised that fate had turned on them at the final post.

Momens later, the final whistle sounded, and all of the players in flaming pink fell to the turf as if poisoned. Though the loss of a title that seemed so close will be a bitter pill to swallow, we have to applaud the brave Cerezo team, which fought its way back from the edge of the relegation zone at midseason to give their cross-town rivals a breathless chase to the wire. Perhaps next season the other Osaka club can join Gamba in the list of J.League winners. For now, though, there is only one champion in Osaka.

Date: 3 Dec, 2005		Location: Nagai Stadium
2	1 1H 1 1 2H 1	2
Akinori Nishizawa (3') Akinori Nishizawa (48')	Scoring	Norio Suzuki (20') Yasuyuki Konno (89')
Tomi Shimomura Ze Carlos Hiroaki Morishima Tatsuya Furuhashi	Cautions	Yoichi Doi Norio Suzuki
Lineups: Motohiro Yoshida, Kazuki Maeda, Kota Fujimoto, Hiroshige Yanagimoto, Fabinho, Tomi Shimomura, Kiyokazu Kudo (Tatsuya Yamasaki 89), Ze Carlos (Teruaki Kurobe 86), Hiroaki Morishima (Takaaki Tokushige 82) Tatsuya Furuhashi, Akinori Nishizawa . Yoichi Doi, Ryuji Fujiyama, Jean Carlo Witte, Teruaki Moniwa, Jo Kanazawa, Yohei Kajiyama (Yusuke Kondo 69), Yasuyuki Konno, Norio Suzuki, Ryoichi Kurisawa (Masashi Miyazawa 54), Mitsuhiro Toda, Yoshiro Abe .

0 - 4

Nevertheless, the Reds certainly did what they had to do to keep their chances alive, storming out to an early lead and dominating play against an Albirex team which seemed to have little to play for. An early header by Satoshi Horinouchi on a set play got things started, and by the 15 minute the Reds were already in control, after a long free kick by Robson Ponte cleared everyone jostling for position in front of goal, and sailed straight into the top right corner of the goal.

Tomislav Maric and Nobuhisa Yamada added second-half goals to give the Reds a solid win, and moved them into second place in the final standings. Though they made their move too late to win them any silverware, the Reds fans will have to feel good about their strong finish, after all the tribulations they faced this season. Next year they are sure to be in the title race once again, and this time they might just go all the way.

Date: 3 Dec, 2005		Location: Niigata "Big Swan" Std.
0	0 1H 2 0 2H 2	4
	Scoring	Satoshi Horinouchi (4') Robson Ponte (13') Tomislav Maric (60') Nobuhisa Yamada (80')
Hiroyoshi Kuwahara Fabinho Isao Honma	Cautions	Nobuhisa Yamada Alessandro Santos
Lineups: Koichi Kidera, Susumu Umeyama (Yusaku Ueno 45), Daisuke Fujii (Naoki Takahashi 84), Keiji Kaimoto, Shigenori Hagimura, Anderson Lima, Isao Honma, Hiroyoshi Kuwahara (Ashiya Tanaka 72), Yohito Terakawa, Edmilson, Fabinho . Ryota Tsuzuki, Keisuke Tsuboi, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Satoshi Horinouchi, Nobuhisa Yamada, Keita Suzuki, Makoto Hasebe, Alessandro Santos, Robson Ponte, Masayuki Okano (Yuichiro Nagai 76), Tomislav Maric .

4 - 0

It was exactly the sort of performance that the team had delivered so often, earlier in the season, but which deserted them during the crucial stretch run. Takuya Nozawa scored in the 7 minute on a lovely counterattacking play that flowed like a raging river from one penalty box to the other. Alex Mineiro added another tally just before the half time break and thereafter the only uncertainly that the cowd displayed came from their anxious monitoring of the scoreboard. Alas, the gap was too big to make up on the final day, but with time running down, the Kashima faithful did have a chance to cheer. With just over ten minutes left, a foul in the Reysol penalty area gave Kashima a penalty kick, and Toninho Cerezo hurriedly rushed to the fourth official and demanded a substitution. Yasuto Honda, the grand old man of the Antlers team, who has been around since Zico's heyday, whipped off his warmups and rushed in for only his fourth appearance of the year. Though he has yet to make an official announcement, nearly everyone in Antler-land knows that this will be Honda's final season as a player, and they all had a chance to cheer him one last time as he scored from the penalty spot -- only his fourth goal in a 15-year career.

Date: 3 Dec, 2005		Location: Kashima Stadium
4	2 1H 0 2 2H 0	0
Takuya Nozawa (7') Alex Mineiro (44') Takuya Nozawa (53') Yasuto Honda (79')	Scoring
Akira Narahashi	Cautions	Cleber Santana Yuzo Kobayashi Norihiro Satsukawa Yuji Unozawa
	Sent Off	Tomonori Hirayama
Lineups: Hitoshi Sogahata, Akira Narahashi Go Oiwa, Daiki Iwamasa, Toru Araiba, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Fernando (Yasuto Honda 79), Masashi Motoyama (Takayuki Suzuki 68), Masaki Fukai (Chikashi Masuda 61), Takuya Nozawa, Alex Mineiro . Yuta Minami, Norihiro Satsukawa, Yasuhiro Hato, Mitsuru Nagata, Ryo Kobayashi, Hidekazu Otani, Yuzo Kobayashi, (Jun Yanagisawa 64), Harutaka Ono (Yuji Unozawa 45), Tomonori Hirayama, Kisho Yano (Lee Chun-Song 74), Cleber Santana .

2 - 1

With the clock ticking away towards full time, it looked like JEF would close out their season with a whimper. But suddenly, as JEF pushed forward for a final thrust, a collision in the penalty box earned the home team a penalty kick, and Yuki Abe levelled the score. Just seconds later, a thundering goal rush was finished off by Masataka Sakamoto, giving JEF a thrilling late victory. Though it could not help the team's title hopes, the win did move JEF into fourth place, ahead of Cerezo, in the final standings.

Date: 3 Dec, 2005		Location: Chiba "Fukuari" Std.
2	0 1H 0 2 2H 1	1
Sho Kamogawa (81')	Scoring	Yuki Abe (89') Masataka Sakamoto (89')
Ilya Stoyanov	Cautions	Keisuke Honda Toshiya Fujita Makoto Kakuda Naoshi Nakamura
Lineups: Ryo Kushino, Daisuke Saito, Ilya Stoyanov, Koki Mizuno, Masataka Sakamoto, Yuki Abe, Yuto Sato, Satoru Yamagishi (Takenori Hayashi 76), Naotake Hanyu (Kohei Kudo 83), Seiichiro Maki, Mario Haas (Koji Nakashima 89) . Seigo Narazaki (Eiji Kawashima 52), An Yong-Ha, Yutaka Akita, Masayuki Omori, Makoto Kakuda, Kei Yamaguchi (Shunichi Nakajima 56) Naoshi Nakamura, Toshiya Fujita, Keisuke Honda, Sho Kamogawa, Yohei Toyoda (Keita Sugimoto 83) .

4 - 2

With a man advantage, Oita added another goal ten minutes later, to level the scores. But Gilberto "Jill" Goncalves quickly restored Verdy's lead, only to be sent off himself just a few minutes later. With a one-goal advantage and two players missing, Verdy drew on their reserves of guts and determination, and it paid off. Not only did they hang on at the defensive end, but a quick counterattack produced an insurance goal from Daigo Kobayashi, allowing Verdy to end their season on a positive note

Date: 3 Dec, 2005		Location: Ajinomoto Stadium
4	2 1H 0 2 2H 2	2
Washington (22') Daigo Kobayashi (39') Gilberto Goncalves (78') Daigo Kobayashi (86')	Scoring	Magno Alves (66') Yoshihiro Uchimura (76')
	Cautions	Tomoki Fukaya Tulio
Washington Gilberto Goncalves	Sent Off
Lineups: Yoshinari Takagi, Kentaro Hayashi, Takuya Yamada, Atsushi Yoneyama, Masayuki Yanagisawa, Kazuyuki Toda, Takashi Hirano (Masahira Ono 82), Takahito Soma, Daigo Kobayashi, (Kenicnhi Uemura 89), Gilberto "Jill" Goncalves, Washington . Shusaku Nishikawa, Tomoki Fukaya, Taikai Uemoto, Yohei Fukumoto (Teppei Nishiyama 45), Takashi Umeda, Edmilson (Shota Matsuhashi 74), Tulio, Koji Arimura, Magno Alves, Yoshihiro Uchimura .

1 - 1

Date: 3 Dec, 2005		Location: Saitama Stadium
1	1 1H 0 0 2H 1	1
Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel (33')	Scoring	Yoshiharu Ueno (72')
Koji Morita Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel Daisuke Tomita	Cautions	Shingo Kumabayashi Dutra Daisuke Nasu
Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel	Sent Off	Ryuji Kawai
Lineups: Hiroki Aratani, Takuro Nishimura, Yasunari Hiraoka, Seiichiro Okuno, Daisuke Tomita, Toninho, Tatsunori Hisanaga,Livonir "Tuto" Ruschel, Chikara Fujimoto, Naoto Sakurai (Shin Kanazawa 45), Koji Morita . Tatsuya Enomoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Eisuke Nakanishi, Ryuji Kawai, Hayuma Tanaka, Magrao, Yoshiharu Ueno, Dutra, Shingo Kumabayashi (Hideo Oshima 80), Daisuke Sakata (Daisuke Nasu 85), Rodrigo Gral .

1 - 0

Date: 3 Dec, 2005		Location: Iwata (Yamaha) Std.
1	0 1H 0 1 2H 0	0
Takayuki Chano (27')	Scoring
	Cautions	Hiroyuki Komoto
Lineups: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Takayuki Chano, Kim Jin-Kyu, Shun Morishita, Yoshiaki Ota, Hiroshi Nanami, Toshihiro Hattori, Shinji Murai, Sho Naruoka (Keisuke Funatani 85), Robert Cullen, Ryoichi Maeda (Masashi Nakayama 68) (Takahiro Kawamura 87). Seiji Honda, Park Kang-Jo (Tomoaki Nakamura 77), Hiroyuki Komoto, Kunie Kitamoto, Seiji Kaneko, Naoya Saeki, Akihiro Endo (Noriaki Ishizawa 73), Keisuke Kurihara, Hideo Tanaka, Ryuji Bando (Yuji Oe 45), Kazutaka Murase .

3 - 1

Date: 3 Dec, 2005		Location: Hiroshima "Big Arch"
3	1 1H 0 2 2H 1	1
Joubert "Beto" Martins (27') Hisato Sato (61') Yuji Komano (89')	Scoring	Naoaki Aoyama (47')
	Cautions	Yasumasa Nishino Marquinhos Naoaki Aoyama
Lineups: Akihiro Sato, Yuichi Komano, Shogo Nishikawa, Norio Omura, Kota Hattori, Ri Han-Jae (Shinichiro Kuwata 88) Susumu Oki, Kazuyuki Morisaki, Joubert "Beto" Martins (Mitsuyuki Yoshihiro 89), Galvao (Kohei Morita 74), Hayato Sato . Yohei Nishibe, Daisuke Ichikawa (Yuzo Wada 79), Naoaki Aoyama, Kazumichi Takagi, Takahiro Yamanishi, Yoshikiyo Kuboyama (Choi Dae-Uk 67), Takuma Edamura, Teruyoshi Ito (Shinji Okazaki 79), Akihiro Hyodo, Marquinhos, Yasumasa Nishino .

Ultimate Underdogs Have their Day

Last weekend, they had a rare chance to stake their claim for a J1 promotion spot . . . . or at any rate, a spot in the promotion/relegation series. They were playing at home against Avispa Fukuoka -- a strong opponent, but a team they had beaten earlier in the year. A huge home crowd was there to cheer them on. It was the team's big chance to prove themselves . . .

. . . and sure enough, they got hammered, 5-0.

Ventforet Kofu fans reacted to last week's collapse as they have throughout the team's history. They refused to be silenced by defeat. Refused to act beaten. Refused to acknowledge the significance of that final score line. For half an hour, the huge crowd of fans in the back stands went through their entire repertoire of cheers, pounding on the bleachers as if determined to convince their team, and themselves, that hope was not dead.

This week, they were on the road, playing against the strongest team in the league, in a stadium packed with hostile fans who wanted to celebrate the end of a successful season. The odds against Ventforet Kofu have always seemed rather daunting -- the smallest team in the league, from the smallest town to boast a J.League franchise -- but this was surely the most impossible of impossible dreams. To go up against Kyoto Purple Sanga, on the road, in the final match of the season with everything riding on the result. To make matters even more improbable, Ventforet entered the match a point adrift of Vegalta Sendai in the chase for the third-place spot, and with such a huge deficit in goal difference that a draw would be meaningless. It was win the contest outright, or fuggeddabowwwdit!

Well, for this one day at least, Ventforet Kofu have proven that, on occasion, even impossible dreams can sometimes come true. Coming back from a one-goal deficit, Ventforet produced the equaliser just before half time on a counterattacking dash by Taro Hasegawa. Then, with ten minutes left on the clock, Ventforet won a free kick about 25 meters out from goal, on the left side. As the kick curled in front of net, defender Alair soared over the pack, and headed the ball home, sending the team into a frenzy of celebration. The next ten minutes were sheer suspense as Kyoto fought back furiously, unwilling to concede the match to these upstarts. A minute into injury time, Kyoto won a free kick a half-step outside the box, and fans in Kofu began grawing their fingernails to the bone. But the shot clanged off the right post and bounded into touch, and Ventforet claimed victory, along with a spot in the promotion-relegation series against Kashiwa Reysol.

As the players celebrated their victory, a small knot of about 200 fans broke down in euphoria, with tears of joy flooding the entire east end of Nishikyogoku Stadium. And the grounswell of emotion echoed from the high mountains surrounding the Yamanashi plain. It would be hard to fully convey the emotions that football fans in Kofu are feeling at this moment. Those who havent been there would find it hard to understand the relationship of this team and its fans. This is a club that came within a single vote of being disbanded, at a highly contentious board meeting in 2001. After three years of existence, the team had spent all but two weeks of its existence in the dead last spot of the league table. Its cumulative record over those three years was 18 wins, 9 draws and 99 losses, with an incredible goal differential of -167 !!!!! No wonder the semi-official mascot of the team was Mr. Baghead (and yes, it *IS* true that one group of fans from the town of Ichikawa-daimon responded to the Rising Sun News's suggestion and began turning up at matches with bags over their heads).

Somehow the team managed to survive, and within a few years they were actually starting to win more matches than they lost. But the struggle for a spot in the promotion/relegation series this year has been studded with similar instances of miraculous revival from the brink of anhilation. Just three weeks ago, in their match against Consadole Sapporo, Ventforet were a goal down, with no time left on the clock, needing to win the contest in order to keep hope alive. In a miraculous event that ranks up there with the parting of the Red Sea, the team somehow managed to score three times in the three minutes of injury time, to salvage the win and keep their chances alive. Dramatic as the victory over Kyoto, on the last day of the season, may have been, it actually pales in comparison to some of the other death-defying escapes that Ventforet have managed over the years,

Now Kofu face the biggest test of their team history. As coach Oki noted at the end of the Kyoto match: "we have battled for 44 weeks, and yet we still do not actually have anything to show for it. Everything we have done over the past year was just a practice session, to get ready for next week." Many will say that the chances of Ventforet Kofu actually fighting through to a J1 spot are infinitessimal. That may be true. But a week ago, nobody outside of Yamanashi prefecture even gave them a prayer of ending up where they are today. Impossible things DO happen, and if by chance Ventforet do prevail, The Rising Sun News will be sitting front-row center, cheering on the league's bravest underdogs. Who knows, maybe our ration of miracles isnt used up just yet.

Orange Fever in Ecstatic Ehime

On Sunday, while the fans of most J.League teams were recovering from their season-ending hangovers, in a small stadium on the island of Shikoku, a massive crowd of orange-clad townsfolk gathered in what seemed a carnival atmosphere, entering Ehime's "Comprehensive Movement Park" to cheer on the local side, Ehime FC. As we noted last week, a draw by their top rivbals last weekend put the Terrible Tangerines in first place in the JFL, for only the second time this year, and a victory in their final home match of the season would ensure them of winning the JFL trophy, and perhaps win them promotion to the J2, next season.

Sure enough, Ehime FC claimed a 2-0 victory, and the crowd went wild in celebration, as they prepared to christen the second J.League team from the island of Shikoku. The following day, Monday December 5, the entire prefecture took a break from the seasonal mikan harvest to celebrate, as the J.League announced its official approval of Ehime FC's application for J.League entry. Despite some resistance from the League bureaucracy, the team's successful run to an outright JFL title, coupled with an unprecedented outpouring of support from the local population, turned the tide in the end. The J.League had little choice but to recognise and reward the enthusiasm that this community has shown in supporting their team's run to the J.League. The people of Matsuyama city, and indeed, all of Ehime prefecture, have thrown themselves behind the local team with full vigour, and we have no doubt that they will be a fine addition to the J.League ranks. And the best part of all is that the J2 will get a new local derby match, four times a year, as Ehime and their island neighbours Tokushima renew a rivalry which already has several years of JFL history behind it.

So Welcome, Ehime, to the J.League community, and we hope that many more teams will follow in your footsteps, in the years to come.

Here are the final standings in the JFL, for 2005:

.	Team	Pts	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	G.Dif
1	Ehime FC	66	30	21	3	6	54	26	+28
2	YKK AP	64	30	20	4	6	63	28	+35
3	Alos Hokuriku	61	30	19	4	7	52	26	+26
4	Tochigi SC	57	30	16	9	5	60	32	+28
5	Honda FC	56	30	17	5	8	59	37	+22
6	Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo	52	30	16	4	10	55	33	+22
7	Sony Sendai	50	30	15	5	10	+11	49	38
8	FC Horikoshi	48	30	15	3	12	+13	53	40
9	Musashino FC	48	30	14	6	10	37	29	+8
10	Sagawa Kyubin Osaka	45	30	13	6	11	42	36	+6
11	Sagawa Printing	34	30	9	7	14	34	43	-9
12	SC Tottori	33	30	9	6	15	40	58	-18
13	Ryutsu Keizai U.	22	30	5	7	18	39	79	-40
14	Denso	19	30	4	7	19	-30	33	63
15	Honda Lock	15	30	3	6	21	38	79	-41
16	Mitsubishi Mizushima	8	30	2	2	26	24	85	-61

Kyushu Contingent Capture JFL Berths

The most excitiment came from Japan's southernmost prefecture, Okinawa, as FC Ryukyu carried the banner of Okinawan pride to the Championship title. Another entry from southern Japan, Rosso Kumamoto, were left feeling tremendous disappointment after allowing JEF United Amateur to win the final match of the tournament on a counterattack goal, in a match that Kumamoto fans will feel they dominated. But that disappointment was be eased later in the week when the official invitations to join the JFL were issued. Because of Ehime FC"s elevation to the J2, Rosso's third-place finish was enough to get them into the JFL anyway.

The odd men out were Banditonce Kobe, who surprised people just by making it through to the final round, after an upset win over Shizuoka FC. But they could not extend their string of luck in the final round. They did manage to claim a point in the final match against FC Ryukyu, who were already assured of winning first place, but this was not enough to help them this season. We may have to wait a few more years before we see any derby matches played in Kobe.

Here are the results of this weekend's matches, and the final standings.