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March 3, 2006A "Fresh" StartSo lets get right to the action. Here are the scores from this weekend's contests:
The last time these two teams met, FC Tokyo were rocked by an explosion of sudden, counterattacting potency, and were blown off the pitch in a 5-2 rout. Although a great many things may have changed in the intervening six months, the more that some things change, the more they stay the same. In the first contest of the J.League season (this match kicked off five minutes before any other J1 contest), FC Tokyo seemed to dominate play for long spells, yet their inability to finish off their scoring chances, coupled with the fragility of their defence, doomed them to yet another drubbing.
  2 - 4   Though most other matches on this opening day were low-scoring affairs, three separate playes in this contest scored two goals. Unfortunately for the Capitol City Blues, two of those were Hiroshima strikers. Although Sanfrecce struggled a bit last season, and ended up slightly below the midpoint of the league table, the Purple Archers certainly showed that they can shoot straight when you give them a chance. Both Ueslei and Hisato Sato finished well up in the rankings among goal scorers, using speed and clever movement to offset their obvious shortcomings in size and power. In this contest, FC Tokyo was constantly on the attack, and though their pressure kept Sanfrecce on the back foot for long stretches, Tokyo still shows a glaring tendency to overestend themselves and leave too much open space in their own end. The deadly finishing skills of the Sanfrecce attacking duo make this sort of concentration lapse dangerous enough. But the most deadly arrow in Sanfrecce's quiver -- as demonstrated in this contest -- is the elusive speed and pinpoint crossing abilities of Yuichi Komano. The right wing back repeatedly slipped away down the sideline to collect a quick outlet pass and then send the ball unerringly into the box for Sato and Ueslei to finish off. Nevertheless, the lopsided score line of this match leaves something of false impression. Certainly, Tokyo will be disappointed with the mistakes they made in this match, and hoping to improve their balance and concentration in future weeks. However, the content of play, at least in the early stages, was much more encouraging than the final result suggests. Two problems hurt them seriously, and prevented them from dictating a far different type of match. The first concern for coach Hara will have to be the play of Naohiro Ishihara. Although the speed and energy of the Tokyo right wing creates scoring opportunities from time to time, Ishihara needs to learn how to play with just a bit less "intensity" and a bit more focus. His headless chicken imitation -- demonstrated to the fullest in thic match -- does not help his team even if it does make the contest exciting to watch. Time and again, Ishikawa would go racing wildly down the wing, slash through the Hiroshima defence, and then either let the ball get too far ahead of him and roll over the end line, fire a "cross" straight into the legs of an opponent, or send an aimless fall skyrocketing completely over the penalty box and off into the uninhabited spaces along Ajinomoto Stadium's broad sidelines. We think that Ishihara has the potential to make valuable contributions to the team, since his speed and pell-mell dribbling runs can unsettle any defence. But he needs to learn that these wild runs are useless unless he can get a quality cross into the box. A second problem is the continued failure of Lucas Severino and Sota Hirayama to put the ball in the net. Whereas Ueslei and Sato get only a handful of opportunities to shoot, each match, they make their shots count. Hirayama and Lucas, on the other hand, seem to be more interested in quantity. They each had close to a dozen scoring opportunities in this match, but they only finished off two of them. Hirayama and Ishihara both hit the woodwork in the first ten minutes of this match, while Lucas sent a header from the edge of the three-yard box spinning wide of the post. If even one of these early shots had hit the target, this might have been a very different contest. But in the 13 minute, very much against the run of play, Sanfrecce made a clearance and began a quick counterattacking dash. As he would do all day long, Komano slipped into space down the right sideline and had plenty of room to pick out his targets as he dashed across midfield, with two strikers making their runs ahead of him. While still at least 15 yards above the top of the box, Komano saw Sato put on a burst of speed, and looped a high diagonal pass across the box, leading Sato perfectly towards the left post. Sato met the ball in stride and sent his first touch whistling past the keeper and into the opposite corner. Fifteen minutes later, another clearance was dumped off to Komano on the right sideline, and while still twenty meters inside his own half, the golden-footed midfielder launched a soaring lead pass for Sato, racing behind the Tokyo defence. Again, the ball led Sato perfectly, allowing him to meet it while still in full sprint and send a rolling shot underneath the outrushing keeper, extending Sanfrecce's lead to 2-0. This second goal cost rookie defender Kazunori Yoshimoto (starting in place of the injured Teruyuki Moniwa) his spot in the lineup. Coach Hara had the hook out early, though in truth, there was little that the youngster could have done about either of these goals Shortly before half time Sanfrecce struck for their third goal, this time on more of a buildup than the earlier two dashes. Once again it was Komano who goth things started, posting up on the right side of the box and then laying a beautiful ball into the path of a cutting Yosuke Kashiwagi . Kashiwagi sliced deep into the box, but his shot was smothered by Yoichi Doi. However, the Tokyo keeper made a rare fumble, allowing the ball to slip out of his grasp as he hit the turf. Ueslei snatched up the rebound and quickly put it back on net. Though it deflected off two defenders, neither could keep the ball out of the goal mouth, and Sanfrecce had a 3-0 lead at the intermission. Tokyo came out with a bit more poise and less of a "headless chicken" appearance in the second stanza, and their more patient work paid off quickly as Lucas got an open look from the top of the penalty arc and drilled it low into the right corner. But before the home team could turn this goal into a surge of momentum, the deadly duo of Sanfrecce struck the killing blow. Another long clearance fell to Sato about five meters above the penalty arc, and since the defence had not yet arrived, he tried a quick shot. The ball came back off the crossbar, but landed right in front of Ueslei, who stooped to head the rebound into the low left corner. At this point, coach Petrovic seemed to recognize that it was time to scoop up the chips and cash out, lest this wild offensive horserace get out of hand. His conservatism was reinforced when Lucas flicked a free kick in at the right post, cutting the deficit to two, and following a quick reshuffle of the formation, Sanfrecce spent the remaining 30 minutes preserving that margin, and limiting Tokyo to long, low-probability shots.
Those who expected the Urawa Reds to roll over all opposition this season have already received their reality check. When Urawa meekly succumbed to Gamba Osaka in the Xerox Super Cup, anyone who had managed to overlook the fact during the preseason got a clear demonstration of the lack of team coordination and unimpressive work rate that we suspected might pose some problems for the Reds this season. But some people shrugged off that result due to the absence of several usual starters and the fact that it was "only" an exhibition match. Besides (they argued), Gamba is a very strong team -- one that will probably be in the title chase this season. They also had a compelling reason to want "revenge" for their string of losses to the Reds last season
  2 - 1   Well, those arguments are a bit hard to opponent is the recently-promoted Yokohama FC. Although we think that the resurrected Fulie will be a tough opponent this season, they are not a team that should inspire fear in a title contender, playing at home in front of a packed house. But for 85 minutes, FC gave the Reds everything they could handle, and then some. If not for a very breif lapse of concentration and overpursuit of the ball, late in the contest, Tatsuhiko Kubo's goal on the stroke of half time would have been good enough to earn Yokohama a point. The Reds attack sputtered and strained all afternoon long, and with the frequency of missed connections in the attacking half of the pitch, the Reds seemed to be far less than the sum of the individual players. Even the goal that the Reds did create in the first half was a bit fortunate. Robson Ponte made a very slick run through the left channel and into the box, but there were no other Reds players in position to poke home his sizzling ball across the face of goal. But Ponte got a fortunate deflection as two Yokohama defenders got in each others way trying to make the clearance, and the ball bounded through the arms of the keeper and into the net for an Own Goal. After that, however, the contest was a complete deadlock. Nothing that the Reds did could break down the Yokohama defence, and though the visitors tried to use quick outlets and long balls into the front line to create quick offence, the Reds defence was able to contain the danger . . . . with one exception As the clock wound down towards half time, Kubo collected a pass in space, about 35 meters out from goal. Although Kubo put on a reasonably good showing in his first outing for Yokohama FC, he rarely had any scoring chances that could be described as truly "dangerous". However, throughout his career Kubo has shown the ability to drift through a match with hardly any impact at all, and then like a sudden flash of lightning, unleash an instant blast of destructive force . When Kubo looked up and saw no Reds players in his shooting path, he suddenly swerved towards goal and let loose his DragonBall Thunderbolt, which slammed into the top right corner of the net before keeper Norihiro Yamagishi could even shift his feet. Over the next 45 minutes of play, the Reds steadily raised the pressure, throwing more and more players into the attack. But the thin blue line continued to hold, and keeper Takanori Sugeno snapped up any balls that made it through the stacked defence. Just when it seemed that the match would end in a deadlock, another defensive blunder cost Yokohama a point. As Washington and Yuichiro Nagai tried unsuccessfully to force the ball through the middle, three Yokohama players had a chance to clear, but none of them managed to make full contact, and the ball deflected off to the right, in front of Nagai. With a sudden burst of speed, Nagai was through into the box, and as the FC defenders winced in despair, he drilled the ball past the keeper, to give Urawa the narrow victory
If the Reds victory over Yokohama FC was a narrow one, then the clash between Gamba Osaka and Omiya Ardija was thinner than Rie Miyazawa's wrists. After displaying a torrent of offence in last week's Xerox Super Cup match against Urawa, Gamba Osaka found the team from the other end of Saitama to be a much more daunting challenge. This contest was interesting to watch, but hard to really describe in a match report since very little of interest happened at either end. The majority of the contest consisted of patient buildup by one team which usually could maintain possession for a stretch of eight or ten passes, but as soon as the ball was pushed forward into the final third of the pitch, heavy physical pressure and ball trapping would break up the play and send the ball back in the opposite direction . . . with essentially the same result. Gamba can probably claim to have had the better chances over the first hour, but apart from one midair volley by Ryuji Bando which trickled just past the left post, the number of really "dangerous" chances could have been counted on one hand.
  1 - 0   As the second half wore on, coach Nishino went to his bench with a substitution which would leave him, looking like a genius -- though luck had far more to do with the result than coaching brilliance. Bando came off for recently acquired ace, Jader "Bare" Spindler , and left wing Michihiro Yasuda gave way for Akihiro Ienaga , who didnt start because he played in the U-22 match against Hong Kong on Wednesday. For 20 minutes, this substitution seemed to have done nothing to change the dynamic, and as the clock ticked down towards the final whistle, both teams seemed to expect a draw. But with two minutes left on the clock, the two sugstitutes combined to rescue the full three points. However, the damage to Ardija was self inflicted. at a time when they should have been doing everything possible to avoid errors, Yoshiyuki Kobayashi made a very poorly considered back pass which left defender Yosuke Kataoka in a fix, without enough time to make the clearance. Rather than make the safe move and just boot the ball out of play for a corner kick, Kataoka tried to make the clearance even as Ienaga was bearing down on him. Ienaga threw his body in front of the ball, knocking it loose into the box, and as Hato panicked, he chased it down and turned to look for help. Bare came dashing in from the right, and Ienaga dropped the ball into his path. Though Bare failed to make good contact, luck was with him and the ball looped just over the keeper's fingertips and into the top left corner, giving Gamba the late victory
The clash between Kawasaki Frontale and Kashima Antlers, on Saturday, was probably the "biggest" contest of the season's first weekend, since it was the only contest involving two teams that BOTH have reasonable pretentions of challenging for a title this year. Unfortunately, the content was a little bit disappointing, as both squads -- and Kashima in particular -- showed the sluggishness and lack of precision that sometimes is prevalent this early in the season. Following a quick strike by Frontale, the Antlers had the better share of possession but could not create much in the way of shots. Frontale, though slightly more dangerous on the counterattack, seemed to lack any real urgency as they rode their one-goal lead, and the result was a lot of back-and-forth play with hardly any shots on goal.
  1 - 0   The lone goal of the contest came just 21 minutes in, and it should probably be credited at least partially to the Antlers' Toru Araiba, whose waning skills and lack of effort may see him lose his spot in the Kashima lineup before much longer. Kengo Nakamura got things started by feeding a ball into the left corner for Tomohiro Murakami . Murakami sent in a high cross which didnt seem THAT dangerous, but Araiba had inexplicably stopped running at the edge of his own box, and allowed "Magnum" Tavares to continue towards the right post, unmarked. At the last second Araiba recognised the danger and tried to recover, but Magnum rose at the back post to head home an easy finish, prompting shouts of annoyance from the rest of the Kashima back line. The Antlers had much of the posession over the remaining three quarters of the match, and the solid defensive play and poise of both Danilo and Fabao was encouraging. However, they struggled in the final third against a Frontale back line that seemed to have Kashima outmatched in both height AND speed. Marquinhos was able to get behind the defence on a few occasions, but his lack of communication with his new teammates caused most of these efforts to fizzle out without even a shot on goal. Frontale, meanwhile, had some good counterattacking rushes but the cautious stance that they adopted from the time they got their opening goal until the final whistle meant that there was never enough support to overrun the Antlers back line. The result was a lot of ball movement and some deft passing through midfiled by both teams, but a relative dearth of shots. It was only in the late stages of the contest, when Kashima was pressing desperately for the equaliser, that either team got a real dangerous opportunity. The closest call came on a free kick from the left sideline which Danilo headed off the left post. Not long after that play, however, Daiki Iwamasa received a second yellow card on what looked like a completely accidental collision. Juninho was dribbling forward on a semi-dangerous break and as Iwamasa came forward to shepherd him wide, Juninho tried to referse direction quickly and stumbled over the ball. as he lost his balance and fell against Iwamasa the Kashima striker instinctively reached out to "catch him" before Juninho's body hit him in the knees in what could have been a dangerous collision. Unfortunately, the referee in this match was the ever-clueless Toshimitsu Yoshida, who somehow seemed to think that Iwamasa was trying to "tackle" Juninho. Iwamasa shook his head in disbelief, and repeatedly begged Mr. Yoshida to ask Juninho himself what had happened. However, anyone familiar with the events that got Mr. Yoshida banned in 195 countries should realise that he is not the sort of person to admit a mistake, even when it is brandished in his face. Iwamasa was forced to retire to the locker room, and Frontale was able to prevent any further danger.
The match between Yokohama Marinos and Ventforet Kofu was one that neither team will look back on with much satisfaction. Ventforet failed to get any points, which makes any other considerations seem rather meaningless, while Yokohama claimed the victory, but had to admit themselves (as coach Hayano did in the post-match interview) that they had spent most of the contest on the defensive, just trying to preserve their narrow lead.
  1 - 0   For a few minutes, it seemed that this contest would have a very different character indeed. The visitors came out with a typical blaze of ball pressure, which produced one or two half-chances, and then in their first really dangerous counterattacking break of the contest, Marinos midfielder Koji Yamase ripped the heart out of the Ventforet defence with a galloping run all the way from the midfield stripe. As Yamase crossed the halfway line and started to turn on the speed, rookie Aria Jasuru Hasegawa dropped the ball into his path and Yamase collected it in full stride. He could see a seam in the Kofu defence, and before anyone could retreat to close the gap, Yamase sped right through it, galloping all the way to the penalty spot before tucking the ball underneath the keeper to put the Marinos in front. But after this one haymaker punch, the Marinos offence went silent, and for the remainder of the afternoon they woud content themselves with long-range efforts or crosses from the wing which may have tested keeper Kensaku Abe a few times, but were all eventually collected before any further damage could be created. At the other end, Ventforet's tight formation and the ability to constantly get four or five bodies in the general area of the ball caused Yokohama a great deal of trouble, and particularly in the second half, play was almost continuously in the Yokohama end of the pitch. But Kofu still has not been able to work its new foriegners into the lineup, and without anyone who could put an effective shot on net, in the end their scrambling play was simply much ado about nothing. With time running down, Takayuki Suzuki made a dash into the Ventforet end but was eventually shepherded over the end line. As the keeper ran up to collect the ball in order to put it back into play, Suzuki foolishly kicked it off towards the wide running track, in a clumsily deliberate effort to waste time. The referee was unwilling to overlook the offence, and Suzuki picked up his second yellow of the contest. Unfortunately for Kofu, this man advantage only lasted for three or four minutes, and by that point it was too late. The Marinos preserved their narrow lead until the final whistle, and consolded themselves that -- even if their play was less than impressive (apart from the opening 15 minutes), at least they start the season with three points.
Oita Trinita and Albirex Niigata are two teams that both hope to shake off the label of mediocrity this season. Unfortunately, based on the result of this contest (the only draw of the weekend), both are condemned to start the year smack dab in the middle of the table, as joint holders of ninth place.
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| Date: 3 March, 2007 | Location: Oita "Big Eye" Stadium | |||||||
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| 1 | ||||||
| Tomoki Fukaya (83') | Scoring | Kisho Yano (53') | ||||||
| Daiki Takamatsu | Cautions | Jun Uchida | ||||||
| | Cautions | Edmilson | ||||||
Lineups: Seigo Shimokawa, Takashi Miki, Tomoki Fukaya, Taikai Uemoto, Junior Maranao, Masashi Miyazawa (Moo Kanazaki 74), Yuichi Nemoto, Daisuke Takahashi, Augusto (Masato Yamazaki 86), Serginho (Shota Matsuhashi 66), Daiki Takamatsu .  Takashi Kitano, Jun Uchida, Mitsuru Chiyotanda, Mitsuru Nagata (Hiroshi Nakano 65), Masataka Sakamoto, Yoshito Terakawa, Silvinho, Shingo Suzuki (Toshihiro Matsushita 73), Masaki Fukai, Edmilson, Kisho Yano . | ||||||||
1 - 0 
Shimizu S-Pulse started their season with a victory, which was a bit more comfortable than the 1-0 score line might suggest. The lone goal of the contest came just six minutes in, following an early rush of pressure from the Wingheads. After two close calls in the opening five minutes, a long corner kick from the left side was met by Naoaki Aoyama with a running header that shot like a bullet into the left side netting, giving the keeper no chance whatsoever.
S-Pulse seemed to have the upper hand for the remainder of the first half, but repeatedly failed to capitilise on opportunities, and this gave Vissel enough confidence to produce some hard-fought battle scenes in the second half, as the newly promoted club fought for the equaliser. But S-Pulse really had the better of the chances in the second half, and the closest Vissel came was on a deflected shot from the right edge of the box which looped high in the air and fell to Atsuhiro Miura. But as the veteran midfielder wound up his right boot and waited for the ball to drop, keeper Yohei Nishibe dashed off his line and bravely threw himself into the path of the shot. The powerful kick hit Nishibe squarely in the breadbox, and though Miura could walk off claiming a knockdown and a standing eight count, Nishibe won the decision by keeping the ball out of the net. S-Pulse killed off the remaining minutes and collected the full three points.
| Date: 3 March, 2007 | Location: Nihondaira | |||||||
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| 0 | ||||||
| Naoaki Aoyama (6') | Scoring | | ||||||
| Takuro Yajima | Cautions | Park Kang-Jo | ||||||
Lineups: Yohei Nishibe, Daisuke Ichikawa, Naoaki Aoyama, Kazumichi Takagi, Arata Kodama, Teruyoshi Ito, Kota Sugiyama, Jungo Fujimoto (Akihiro Hyodo 89), Fernandinho (Takuma Edamura), Takuro Yajima (Shinji Okazaki 75), Cho Jae-Jin .  Tatsuya Enomoto, Hiroto Mogi, Kunie Kitamoto, Hiroyuki Komoto, Shusuke Tsubouchi, Keisuke Kurihara (Leandro 56), Hideo Tanaka (Tomoyuki Hirase 89), Botti, Park Kang-Jo, Yusuke Kondo, Atsuhiro Miura (Hiroki Kishida 81) | ||||||||
4 - 0 
At the risk of being TOO critical, the essential philosophy that seemed to guide Reysol in this match was if they kicked the stuffing out of the young, slightly built Jubilo team, eventually the punishment would cause them to start making mistakes, and allow Reysol to take advantage with quick counterattacking thrusts. However, whether by accident or by design, Reysol's physical play also tested the poise of the match official in this contest, and long before Jubilo gave in to the beating, the referee had run up the white flag and stopped making any pretence of actually "officiating" this contest. In our view, it was only due to good fortune that nobody got seriously injured. From the opening whistle, Reysol players ran straight at the ball and kicked at will, not worrying to much about what they happened to make contact with.
Less than 15 minutes into the contest two Reysol players had already been booked, and if the person officiating the contest had been someone with a bit more professionalism, they might easily have been two or three men down by half time. However, at about the 15 minute mark, the referee got into a confrontation with veteran Masahiro Koga, who already had one yellow card. Koga launched into a tirade, even shaking his finger in the ref's face as the highly vocal home crowd roared in approval. Though he was clearly taking a risk (there are several refs in the league who wouldnt have even bothered with a second yellow, and just gone straight for the knockout punch), this bit of intimidation seemed to do the trick, as the ref put his whistle away for the remainder of the contest, and chose to completely ignore "minor offences" such as kicking a player five seconds after he released the ball, or grabbing an opposing player by the throat and shoving him to the ground. (And no, that isnt hyperbole. some of it really WAS that bad). Despite two yellows and two additional stern warnings over the first 15 minutes, the ref did not once confront a Kashiwa player, over the remaining 75 minutes.
While the content of this "strategy" leaves a slightly bad taste in this writer's mouth, it is difficult to argue that the strategy worked. Jubilo's youngsters lacked the discipline to just play on until the ref finally was embarassed into action, but they lacked the miscle to fight back, and when the contest did turn into an all out game of maul ball -- at around the 30 minute mark -- we could sense that the contest was swinging very much in the direction of Reysol
In the early phases of the contest, Jubilo had many dangerous scoring chances, and only the relentless body contact and occasional deliberate fouls prevented them from scoring. But by the midpoint of the first half, Jubilo lost focus on the important task -- scoring goals -- and began looking for opportunities to "hit back". The loss of concentration was critical, as a sudden counterattack led by Minoru Suganuma suddenly ripped through the Jubilo defence, and though Suganuma's shot came back off the woodwork, Franza de Souza swept in behind the play to head home the rebound.
Jubilo showed a few signs of getting back into the contest early in the second half, but once again the Reysol players jostled them about enough to destroy any rhythm before it could develop. When Suganuma struck for a second goal, 12 minutes after the restart, their resistance collapsed completely, and the remainder of the contest was a complete rout.
As noted at the top, we are hesitant to read too much into this result. Perhaps Reysol adopted the "bully" tactics solely for this contest, spotting a possible weakness in Jubilo that could be exploited. If they try anything similar in future contests, however, the league is bound to pass the word, and tell referees to keep their nerve even if it means sending all eleven Reysol players to the showers. Furthermore, opponents will surely take advantage, either by matching the muscle from the very outset (as teams like Frontale or Ardija should be able to do with ease), or flopping around in the Reysol box at the slightest provocation (we can easily picture Washington or Magno Alves claiming a hat trick from the penalty spot). The finishing prowess of Franza and Suganuma was quite impressive in this contest, but Reysol will need to find other methods of creating chances for the two attackers if they are to perpetuate this good performance.
Jubilo, on the other hand, will naturally be disappointed with themselves, and particularly embarassed at their loss of poise. There were some stretches in this contest when the Jubilo players seemed completely oblivious to the idea of trying to score, and devoted their entire attention to retaliation, and getting in a few licks of their own. Naturally that played straight into Reysol's hands. But it isnt rare for a young team to make such mistakes, and hopefully they will use it as an important learning experience, rather than worrying about the actual score line.
Hopefully this is just we suggested -- a one-off tactic by Kashiwa to try to gain an advantage on a young, skillful, but lightweight opponent. However, if Reysol continue the wild head-on collisions, and the leg sweeps from behind when an opponent collects the ball in the post, the significance of their yellow uniforms could become very poetic.
| Date: 4 March, 2007 | Location: Kashiwa Stadium | |||||||
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| 0 | ||||||
| Franza (24') Minoru Suganuma (57') Franza (63') Minoru Suganuma (73') | Scoring | |||||||
| Alceu Masahiro Koga | Cautions | Sho Naruoka Norihiro Nishi | ||||||
Lineups: Yuta Minami, Yohei Kurakawa, Masahiro Koga, Hidekazu Otani, Marcio Araujo (Yoshiro Abe 63), Iwao Yamane, Alceu (Naoki Ishikawa 86), Minoru Suganuma (Kazunari Lee 79), Tatsuya Suzuki, Franza .  Yohei Sato, Yusuke Inuzuka, Kenichi Kaga 64), Hideto Suzuki, Makoto Tanaka, Kota Ueda, Naoya Kikuchi, Fabricio (Robert Cullen 45), Sho Naruoka, Marquinhos Parana, Yoshiaki Ota, Norihiro Nishi (Shinji Murai 69) . | ||||||||
2 - 0 
The key break came fifteen minutes from full time, courtesy of Korean midfielder Kim Jong-Woo. JEF United threw everything they had forward in a desperate attempt at an equaliser, but this simply left the door open for a late breakaway finish from Yusuke Honda.
| Date: 4 March, 2007 | Location: Mizuho Stadium | |||||||
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| 0 | ||||||
| Kim Jung-Woo (76') Yusuke Honda (89') | Scoring | | ||||||
| | Cautions | Teruaki Kurobe Koki Mizuno Park Jong-Jin | ||||||
Lineups: Seigo Narazaki, Masayuki Omori, Spilar (Atsushi Yoneyama 64), Takahiro Masukawa, Keisuke Honda, Kim Jung-Woo, Toshiya Fujita, Kei Yamaguchi, Naoshi Nakamura, Frode Johnsen, Keita Sugimoto, Keiji Watanabe .  Masahiro Okamoto, Yuki Mizumoto, Ilya Stoyanov, Djordjevic (Park Jong-Jin 84), Koki Mizuno, Yuto Sato, Koji Nakajima, Satoru Yamagishi (Kohei Kudo 77), Naotake Hanyu, Teruaki Kurobe (Tatsunori Arai 71), Seiichiro Maki . | ||||||||
Though it doesnt have a great deal of "meaning" at the moment, with only one match in the books, here is the league table as of March 4.
| . | Team | Pts | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | G.Dif |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kashiwa Reysol | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2 | Sanfrecce Hiroshima | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | Nagoya Grampus | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | Urawa Reds | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | Kawasaki Frontale | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | Yokohama Marinos | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | Shimizu S-Pulse | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | Gamba Osaka | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | Albirex Niigata | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | Oita Trinita | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 11 | Yokohama FC | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 |
| 12 | Ventforet Kofu | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 |
| 12 | Kashima Antlers | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 |
| 12 | Omiya Ardija | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 |
| 12 | Vissel Kobe | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 |
| 16 | FC Tokyo | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | -2 |
| 17 | JEF United | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | -2 |
| 18 | Jubilo Iwata | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | -4 |
| Date | Home | . | Visitor | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Mar | Shonan Bellmare | 1 - 2 | Vegalta Sendai | Hiratsuka Stadium |
| 3 Mar | Tokushima Vortis | 2 - 1 | Ehime FC | Naruto Stadium |
| 3 Mar | Kyoto Sanga | 2 - 0 | Consadole Sapporo | Nishikyogoku Stadium |
| 4 Mar | Tokyo Verdy | 5 - 0 | Thespa Kusatsu | Tokyo Nat'l Stadium |
| 4 Mar | Mito Hollyhock | 0 - 1 | Montedio Yamagata | Kasamatsu Stadium |
| 4 Mar | Sagan Tosu | 0 - 5 | Avispa Fukuoka | Tosu Stadium |
The most emphatic performances came from Tokyo Verdy and Avispa Fukuoka, both of whom must be viewed as among the favourites to earn promotion this season. At Tokyo's National Stadium, Verdy burst out of the starting gate with a goal in the very first minute of play scored by Yuzo Funakoshi -- an oft-maligned veteran who has spent eleven seasons in the league, with Gamba, Oita and Albirex, and racked up a mere 100 appearances and 20 goals (most of those in the J2). However, he seemed to discover his lost youth in this contest, conmtributing to many of Verdy's offensive forays even after his explosive start.
But following the opening goal, Verdy seemed to misplace their scoring boots, and despite almost total dominance, couldnt put the ball in the net. It was only after the break that they finally got ontracked, as Givanildo "Hulk" de Souza claimed a goal just three minutes after the restart. This opened the floodgates and Tokyo cruised to an easy 5-0 final result.
| Date: 4 March, 2007 | Location: TOkyo Natl Stadium | |||||||
|
| 0 | ||||||
| Yuzo Funakoshi (0') Hulk (48') Yusuke Honda (73') Diego (83') Hulk (89') | Scoring | | ||||||
| Kenta Togawa Yusuke Sato | Cautions | Jun Tanaka |
As impressive as Verdy's opening win may have been, we viewed Avispa Fukuoka's drubbing of Kyushu neighbours Sagan Tosu as a far bigger result. Avispa were a fairly good team last year, but succumbed to relegation because they simply couldnt score. Incoming coach Pierre Littbarsky seems to have injected a bit of offensive flair into the team, however, as the Yellowjackets seemed to score more goals on opening day of the 2007 season than they did all last year (OK, that is an exaggeration, but only a slight one).
The offensive focus of this team was obvious even before the opening tap, as Avispa lined up in a 4-3-3 set with the speedy and dangerous Tatsunori Yamagata at right wing back and Australian newcomer Alvin Ceccoli on the left. Best of all, the shift of Alex de Melo Santos to a midfield position has allowed the swift and savvy Brazilian to make a much greater contribution on the attack, and he rewarded his new coach with two goals. Avispa had the game wrapped up after 13 minutes, and spent the rest of the match contemplating what might have happened last season, if they had had a coach like Littbarsky at the helm.
| Date: 4 March, 2007 | Location: Tosu Stadium | |||||||
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| 5 | ||||||
| | Scoring | Alex de Melo Santos (6') Takanori Nunobe (13') Hiroyuki Hayashi (57') Alex de Melo Santos (59') Yusuke Tanaka (69') | ||||||
| Hiroyuki Ishida Tomoki Hasegawa Yoon Jung-Hwan Anderson Antunes | Cautions | Tatsunori Yamagata Takanori Nunobe |
The third strong contender for promotion -- Kyoto Sanga -- also got off to a winning start with a comfortable 2-0 result at home against Consadole Sapporo
| Date: 3 March, 2007 | Location: Nishikyogoku Stadium | |||||||
|
| 0 | ||||||
| Andre (17') Paulinho (64') | Scoring | | ||||||
| | Cautions | Hiroshi Masuda Kaue |
National Team
Overseas Players
2 
2 
Norihiro Yamagishi, Keisuke Tsuboi, Yuki Abe, "Nene" de Brito, Yuichiro Nagai, Keita Suzuki, Shinji Ono, Takahito Soma, Robson Ponte, Nobuhisa Yamada, Washington . 
Takanori Sugeno, Tomoyoshi Ono, Tomonobu Hayakawa, Norio Omura, Takumi Wada, Motohiro Yamaguchi, Mitsunori Yabuta, (Gilmar Silva 88), Daisuke Oku, Chung Yong-Dae, Kunihiko Takizawa (Tomoya Uchida 64), Tatsuhiko Kubo . 
1 
1 
Eisuke Kawashima, Yoshinobu Minowa, Shuhei Terada, Hiroki Ito, Yusuke Mori, Kengo Nakamura, Tomohiro Murakami (Takahisa Nishiyama 86), Magnum, Kazuki Ganaha, (Chung Yong-Dae 89), Juninho . 
Hitoshi Sogahata, Atsuto Uchida (Shinzo Koroki 88), Daiki Iwamasa, Fabao, Toru Araiba, Takeshi Aoki (Yuzo Tashiro), Masaki Chugo, Masashi Motoyama (Chikashi Masuda 71), Danilo, Marquinhos, Atsushi Yanagisawa . 
1 
Tatsuya Enomoto, Daisuke Nasu, Yuji Nakazawa, Hayuma Tanaka, Ryuji Kawai, Aria Jasul Hasegawa, Koji Yamase, Marques (Kenta Kano 76), Marcus (Daisuke Sakata 51), Takayuki Suzuki . 
Kensaku Abe, Arata Sugiyama, Michitaka Akimoto, Tatsuya Masushima, Hideomi Yamamoto, Kentaro Hayashi, Ken Fujita, Katsuya Ishihara, Jun Uruno (Daisuke Sudo 24) (Alberto 68), Takehito Shigehara, Kenta Suzuki (Taro Hasegawa 82) . 
1 
1 
4 
2 
5 
0 
2 