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March 20, 2008Osaka Rocks, Kashima RollsNo need for any long-winded introducions, since the football spoke for itself on Wednesday evening. Here are our match reports:
After playing four matches in the space of ten days, the Kashima Antlers could certainly be excused if they were starting to feel a little bit out of breath. The Galloping Herd of Ibaraki has hammered in an astounding 21 goals in six hours of football -- an average of one goal every 17 minutes -- against just one goal conceded. As viewers contemplate the likely impact of these numbers, the share prices of nylon netting manufacturers have begun to soar, and the operators of sports-related websites have extended the margins of their league table pages just in case they should require three digits in the "goals scored" column in the latter stages of the season.
  6 - 0 Nam Dinh (Vietnam) Normally, when a team hits a streak of form like this, you start to ask yourself when the inevitable letdown will hit. After all, teams that rack up score lines like 4-0, 6-0 and 9-1 on a regular basis are bound to get complacent after a while, and sooner or later the run of lucky bounces and positive breaks will come to an end. The only problem (assuming that you are a fan of someone other than the Antlers) is that Kashima seems anything but satisfied with their performances. Naturally you would expect a veteran coach like Oswaldo Oliveira to keep a cautious outlook. It comes as no surprise, then, that in the post-match interview, Oliveira explained that the team is taking its matches one at a time, and there is still a long way to go before he can afford to start feeling confident about the team's progress. But you would at least expect the comments from the players to be a bit upbeat and self-satisfied. But in fact, Masashi Motoyama spent most of his interview time discussing the challenges ahead, and the difficult competition Kashima will face in upcoming matches, whereas Atsuto Uchida apologised repeatedly to fans and teammates for his weak performance (two assists and *gasp*... no goals!), and vowed not to miss so many passes and blow so many opportunities in the next contest. Nor do you get the sense that it is just a show. Throughout the contest the Antlers seemed honestly disappointed with themselves, and annoyed that they were not able to dominate Vietnam's top team more thoroughly. Though there were cautious smiles after the final whistle, you had the sense that the team is still not satisfied with the results, and wants to improve their performances considerably as the season goes along. Perhaps there are some legitimate reasons for this disappointment, as the Antlers did squander a lot of opportunities -- particularly in the first half -- through rushed passes and a lack of concentration. Nam Dinh were clearly on a different competitive level from Kashima, but they managed to hold their own with very simple, direct play on offence and a lot of hard running and constant ball pressure on defence. The Antlers seemed to be uncertain whether to speed up their play in order to avoid the inevitable harrassing pressure, or slow it down in order to make sure that their passing was on the mark. The result was a stuttering pace of ball movement which sometimes had the fluidity and grace of a ballet, but other times had all the grace of Woody Allen trying to breakdance. The only goal of the first half came on a beautiful trap and volley by Masashi Motoyama, 26 minutes into the contest. After several attempts to penetrate with through passes failed to make connections, Takuya Nozawa pulled the ball back out and looped a pass to Motoyama standing at the left intersection of the penalty arc and box. Motoyama was double-teamed, but both defenders were playing a step off him, wary of another attempted pass behind their wall. Rather than try to force the ball through, Motoyama caught the pass on his chest, then volleyed with his right foot, sending the bul in a curling arc directly into the top right corner. That was the only scoring in the first half, and the two teams went in at the break with the contest still uncertain But Kashima dashed any hopes that their Vietnamese visitors might have still entertained with a surge of momentum right after the second-half kickoff. First, Ogasawara sent Motoyama off to the races with a well-weighted through pass, and Marquinhos' dummy run through the middle drew the defence off enough to allow Motoyama to cut back into an open channel and drive a low shot past the keeper. Moments later Motoyama played a nice lead pass of his own to Uchida, who dashed all the way to the end line and then looped a cross onto the head of Marquinhos at the far post, for the easiest of finishes. A minute later Toru Araiba nearly made it four, with a rocheting blast off the crossbar. But despite the miss, this had ceased to be a competitive match, and Nam Dinh were now simply trying to waste time and keep the score down. Marquinhos completed his brace in the 68 minute with the goal of the match, heading home a cross from Nozawa after a spectacular six-pass exchange had turned the Nam Dinh defence inside out, folded it neatly into quarters and cut crisscrossing patterns into all of the seams. With 15 minutes left, Yuzo Tashiro headed home a corner kick at the near post, prompting coach Oliveira to empty his bench and give some of the youngsters a chance to frolic in the park for the final few minutes. As they have done repeatedly this season, the Antlers demonstrated their decidedly un-Japanese prediliction for piling on the punishment, even after a match is out of reach. In the second minute of injury time, the Antlers charged away on a four-on-four break, and though it seemed to stall at the edge of the box, Danilo calmly pulled the ball back, turned away from the defence and then looped a curling shot into the top right corner to close out the 6-0 rout.
Gamba Osaka fought back from a two-goal deficit in their away match against Korea's Chunnam Dragons, and in doing so, finally seemed to break free from the malaise that has affected them since returning from Hawaii, in late February. In the second half of this contest, in particular, the team began playing the sort of hard-charging football that we expected to see from the Osaka Boys this season. Although there were still a number of problems which will leave coach Nishino very concerned about his team's effectiveness, in emotional terms this victory will be extremely important for Gamba, not only in the ACL, but in terms of getting their league campaign back on track, as well.
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| Date: 19 Mar, 2008 | Location: Chunnam Stadium | |||||||
Chunnam 3 |
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| Victor Oliveira (05') Kim Tae-su (25') Kim Tae-su (61') | Scoring | Takahiro Futagawa (31') Ryuji Bando (55') Michihiro Yasuda (59') Ryuji Bando (76') | ||||||
| Lim Kang-Sik Kim Won-Jin | Cautions | Yasuhito Endo Mishihiro Yasuda |
With the J.League taking a break for an official FIFA international match week, the Nabisco Cup kicked off on Thursday, and the second round of pool matches will be played on Sunday. At first we thought that some of the national team members would be allowed to take part in the Thursday matches. However, while Kashima Antlers and Gamba Osaka were at full strength on Wednesday evening, the other players tapped for Japan's World Cup qualifier against Bahrain, next Wednesday, have already departed for the Middle East, and thus were not available for the Nabisco Cup matches. Here are some quick comments on the top matches of Thursday afternoon.
0 - 1 
The Urawa Reds looked so hapless in their first two matches of the 2008 League campaign that they fired coach Holger Osieck a mere 9 days into the season. Some might view this as an over-reaction or an indication of panic, but those who have been following the Reds for any length of time will be aware that Osieck was standing on thin ice even before the season began. Fans, players and management alike were dissatisfied with his performance last season, and though he did lead the team to the ACL title, that trophy was probably the only reason why the team did not let him go at the end of last year. Osieck's strategy was viewed as overly cautious, and he had public "differences of opinion" with top players, including Washington and Shinji Ono (who both left the club at the end of last season, leaving little doubt about the fact that their inability to get along with the coach was a contributing factor). Rumours suggest that there were some locker-room tirades this year, as well, even before the match against Grampus on Saturday. Though the club's official statements were left slightly vague to spare the feelings of the interested parties, there were strong hints that the team wanted to get Osieck out of the picture before the atmosphere in the locker room got any more heated.
Osieck's replacement, Gert Engels, is a highly regarded coach who has a strong rapport with players and speaks very good Japanese. Considering his resume (he led both the Yokohama Flugels and Kyoto Purple Sanga to Emperor's Cup titles, despite the meagrest of resources), a lot of observers wondered why he didnt get the head coaching position immediately, when Guido Buchwald retired. In any event, there is no reason to assume that the Reds will need much time to make a "transition" to the new coach. Engels already knows more about the team and the league than Osieck did, and the players clearly trust him more than they did the previous coach. Perhaps Engels will not be able to produce "instant results", since there are signs that the team's problems are a bit deeper than just one person. However, we do expect the team's morale and performance on the pitch to improve; the only questions are "how much" and "how soon".
Based on the Reds' home match against Vissel Kobe, on Thursday, it looks like things are already moving in a more positive direction. However, while the Reds looked a lot more energetic, determined and focused, they were not good enough to overcome a very hard-working and extremely well balanced Kobe squad. Before the season started, most people would have expected Urawa to sail through this pool round easily. But not only has Urawa's performance over the first two weeks of the season been surprisingly poor; in addition Vissel and Nagoya Grampus have gotten off to strong starts. The Reds have already lost a match to Grampus at home, and Vissel claimed a similar win in the Nabisco Cup contest. The absence of several key players to either injury or national team commitments surely had an influence on this contest. With Yuki Abe and Keita Suzuki in the lineup, we think that the Reds' weakness in defensive midfield would have been much less apparent. As it was, Vissel's ace Leandro was able to find a lot of space to work with, and he got Kobe off to a quick lead with a flashing finish on a cross from the right wing, just two minutes after kickoff.
But Urawa looked quite a bit sharper as this match wore on, and by the closing minutes Vissel were clinging desperately to their lead. Though the slump in Saitama continued, it does at least look like Urawa is moving in the right direction.
0 - 2 
Though it is too soon to panic, Frontale defintely needs a major shakeup to try to snap the team out of its dazed lethargy. Though JEF United did work hard to claim the victory in this match, the score line was far more a reflection of Kawasaki's futility than Chiba's brilliance. Frontale dominated possession and field position by a huge margin, whereas JEF had exactly two shots on goal in this match, and really only two memorable chances at the offensive end. Both produced goals -- a fact that says a great deal about the Frontale defense's frailty, which is as big a concern for coach Sekizuka as the team's offensive woes.
3 - 1 
Against FC Tokyo, S-Pulse finally seemed to find their rhythm. Takuro Yajima wasted no time putting his team in front, snatching up the ball just two minutes after the kickoff and dashing away on a wild dribbling run that covered some 50 meters before he finished it off with a thundering shot over keeper Hitoshi Shiota. Sota Hirayama responded with an equaliser in the 15 minute, and Tokyo showed hints of danger throughout the match with their speedy counterattacking runs. However, S-Pulse regained control of the contest when Jungo Fujimoto drilled a PK in the 31 minute, and Kazumichi Takagi put the result effectively out of reach with a goal midway through the second half.
2 - 2 
But both times, Albirex managed to get back onto level terms thanks to defensive miscues by Ardija. In the 20 minute Alessandro Nunes blasted home a free kick after an Omiya foul just outside the box, and in the second half he had an even easier task, scoring from the penalty spot after an Ardija infraction inside the penalty box.
The second round of Nabisco Cup matches will be played on Sunday.
National Team
Overseas Players
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