Ventforet Planning Quick Return to J2?

Newly promoted Ventforet Kofu seem to be planning a quick return to J2. (Sorry, Ken.) They have signed Vissel defenders Daisuke Tomita and Teruaaki Kobayashi, who struggled to get into a team that only just avoided relegation by the skin of its teeth. (Of course, Yamanashi natives will be praying that Vissel's struggles were due to the pair's omission by former manager Miura.)

Kansai Roundup (Round 4: The Late, Late Show)

This week saw more heroics from the purple hearts in Kyoto and miracle of miracles, Vissel managed to earn a point against the rampant Marinos.

Vissel Kobe 1-1 Yokohama Marinos

A last gasp free kick, five minutes into added time, earns Vissel a deserved share of the points against a Marinos team that was far below the form it showed in demolishing Frontale. Popo's 25-meter effort just reward for the home team. Indeed, Kobe should probably have won this game, but profligate finishing kept them from capitalizing on an otherwise good performance.

Jubilo Iwata 2-3 Kyoto Sanga

And yes, it was another late, late goal that earned Sanga all three points against struggling Jubilo in Iwata. This time. it was a Nakayama goal two minutes into added time that did the damage. Earlier, veteran Yanagisawa nothced the 99th goal of his illustrious career, with well taken first-time shot from a long, raking pass from Ando.

Cerezo Osaka 2-3 Urawa Reds

Alas, Cerezo could not follow Vissel and Sanga's example and lost at home, despite another good game. Although the home team edged the amount of possession, the visitors showed more intent and the mercurial Edmilson had one of his good days, banging i both second half goals that sealed the points. (See Peter's report below for all the gory details.)

Yokohama FC 1-2 Tokushima Vortis

Tomohiro Tsuda struck for the second game running, to give the visitors a half time lead. He then extended Tokushima's lead before former Japan golden boy Oguro pulled a goal back for the home team. The results leaves Vortis clear at the top of J2 as the only team in the j.League with a 100% record.

Gamba Osaka 2-2 Vegalta Sendai

Meanwhile in the final game of the weekend, Gamba battled to 2-2 draw against the newly promoted Sendai. And yet again it was a late goal by North Korean Ryang that earned the visitors the point that denied Osaka their first win of the season.

Kansai Roundup (Round 3)

Another quick look at how our local teams fared over the weekend.

Shimizu S-Pulse 1-0 Vissel Kobe

Eddie Bosnar's stunning free kick sinks Kobe, just as they looked likely to hold out for well-earned draw. Okubo played the full 90 minutes, but rarely threatened the S-Pulse goal and is clearly still feeling the effects of his injury.

Kyoto Sanga 2 - 1 Vegalta Sendai

The second home game in a raw at Nishikyogoku and this time Sanga managed to send their fans home happy with a win. They were out shot 19-6, and Sendai had the bulk of possession, but the home team made their few chances count. An encouraging win that sees the team rise into the top half of the table.

FC Tokyo 0-0 Cerezo Osaka

Another encouraging performance from the cherry pink side of Osaka, and another draw. The return of Korean goalie KIm kept them in the game during the first half when FC Tokyo had the advantage, but the visitors should have stolen it at the end as Ryuji Bando missed a couple of glorious opportunities to seal the win.

Peter Pakeman beamed in the following report on this game:
Despite the lack of goals, this was another fascinating game, especially for those interested in seeing how Cerezo will do in J1. A draw was a fair result but it could easily have been 3-3.

As well as getting Kim back, Culpi changed the outfield by dropping Amaral, moving Haneda up to right wide midfielder to take Amaral's place and replacing Haneda with Fujimoto in the back three. At the news level, this came as a complete surprise to me as I had seen no hint of injury to Amaral since his unexplained non-appearance in the friendlies on February 27 or that Culpi was thinking of doing this. At the football analysis level, I understand it: as I wrote to you guys Amaral is nothing special (unlike Martinez, who is terrific) and in previews for the first game some who's whos expected Fujimoto to start. I also like Fujimoto.

For some reason, Cerezo players sometimes had difficulty keeping their feet, and this came back to hurt them as, after a brilliant bit of individual work, Kagawa slipped in the Tokyo box at the death. Even more at the death, Bando missed a sitter with the second-last kick of the game--after his miss there was only the goal kick.

I think that will do for now. I'm anxious to get back to Villa v. Wolves, but here are the stats:
Tokyo > Cerezo
Shots: 10 > 10
GKs: 11 > 9
CKs: 5 > 2
FKs: 14 > 25
Poss.: 49% > 51%

Cerezo have virtually held their own with Gamba and FC Tokyo in successive weeks.

Gamba Osaka 0-0 Albirex Niigata

A far less encouraging point was 'earned' over at Banpaku, as the home team struggled to overcome a team they should easily have beaten. This game was highlighted by a petulant fit by Brazilian Pedro Junior, after failing yet agin to impress and being subbed 20 minutes after he himself came on as a sub.

Tokushima Vortis 3 - 1 JEF United

Naruto based Vortis, made it three on the trot, with former Grampus forward Tsuda capping another good game with a goal. This leaves only Yokohama FC and Vortis themselves with maximum points from three games.

Cerezo to Hang On to Kagawa (till Summer)?

In what could be good news for the pink half of Osaka, it looks like Cerezo may well get to keep Shinji Kagawa until the summer. If the following NikkanSports article is to be believed, Kagawa has rejected a move within Japan, but the club is inserting a clause into his contract that will allow him to transfer to a overseas club after this summer's World Cup. This would be a sensible move for both player and club. It would allow Kagawa to prove himself in J1, without having to rush his rehabilitation after his recent operation, and should allows the club to get a transfer fee when he does leave.

Cerezo and Vegalta to Join J1

A hat-trick from Inui helps Cerezo Osaka clinch promotion beck to J1 in style, with a comfortable 5-0 home win over Kusatsu. Vegalta Sendai will be joining them in the top tier, as they also romped home with a 4-0 thrashing of Mito Hollyhock. Cerezo are 10 points clear of third, with 101 points while Vegalta are two points back on 99,meaning that the J2 title itself is still up for grabs for one of these two teams. Vegalta's continued participation in the Emperor's Cup probably giving the Osaka lads the edge.

The third and final promotion place looks like going down to the wire, as Shonan Bellmare and Ventforet Kofu lie level on 91 points and are separated by a mere one goal on goal difference.

J1 and J2 Highlights on the Web

For those of you in Japan, highlights of the most recent games for each club are available from Hikari TV's Soccer page. Unfortunately, this only has highlights from the most recent game by each club, but is still a useful addition to any J.League fan's bookmarks.

Dire Straits in the Heart of Osaka

Yes, the flaming pink flamingos of Cerezo looked pretty dire last night as they crashed to a 1-2 defeat to TheSpa Kusatsu at Nagai Stadium. This loss sees Cerezo surrender second spot in J2 to Yamagata Montedio again, on goal difference, and revealed that they are simply not ready for a return to top league yet.

Cerezo Osaka
Takashi Aizawa
Ryuhei Niwa, Tatsuya Yamashita, Kenji Haneda, Hiroyuki Omata
Ale, Geremano, Shinji Kagawa
Kento Shiratani (Yasuhito Morishima 52), Yoichiro Kakitani (Noriyuki Sakemoto 70), Rui Komatsu
Scorer: Komatsu 85

Thespa Kusatsu
Seiji Honda
Sung Yong Choi, Seung Jin Bae, Jun Tanaka, Yasushi Kita, Takeshi Terda
Yuki Matsushita (Tadahiro Akiba 66), Shingo Kumabayashi, Yusuke Shimada
Ryo Goto (Wataru Yamazaki 72), Yasunori Takada
Scorers: Shimada 30, Tanaka 47

Cerezo Pete and I went to see Cerezo vs Thespa last night, and it was not a pretty sight. Both teams were awful, and found it hard to pass to their own team mates if put under any kind of pressure at all, but Kusatsu were worthy winners due to their more lively approach. It is hard to see Cerezo justifying a return to J1 based on this performance, which was even worse than their unconvincing victories over Gifu and Kumamoto earlier in the season. Even Geremano, who had looked Osaka's best player in the pervious games could not make any impression, and as for Ale, the Brazilian embassy should revoke his passport before he does any more damage to their country's reputation.

Currently playing in iTunes: Money For Nothing by Dire Straits :-)

Cerezo Struggle to Down Cellar Dwellers

Osaka eventually manage to scrape past J2 newcomers Kumamoto, scoring late in the game to "earn" all three points. Despite looking the batter team for most of the game, Cerezo found it hard to create clear-cut chances against a solid, organized Roasso defense.

This was a scrappy game, especially in midfield, with Osaka failing to make their technical superiority count. As it was, Kumamoto could easily have taken the lead after seven minutes when Nakayama was put through on goal. Fortunately for the shocking pinks, Yamamoto was equal to the task of beating away the shot. Thereafter, Roasso struggled to create many clear chances but occasionally threatened when Takahashi and Nakayama were able to find space.

It was the lack of ideas and quality from the home team that was most worrying to see. The only players to show any class were youngsters Kagawa and Kakitani, and although both showed promise they were not able to bring to life a fairly dull game. Cerezo only showed any urgency to win the game once two more youngsters Sakemoto and Shiratani were introduced in the second half. Indeed it was Shiratani who headed across goal to give Geremano the simple task of nodding home the barely deserved winner in the 84th minute.

Cerezo Osaka:
Hiromasa Yamamoto
Kazuya Maeda, Kenjiro Ezoe, Ryohei Niwa, Noboru Nakayama (Noriyuki Sakemoto)
Ale, Geramano, Yoichiro Kakitani (Kenji Haneda), Shinji Kagawa
Rui Komatsu, Yasuhito Morishima (Kento Shiratani)

Roasso Kumamoto:
Hiroki Kobayashi
Kazuya Kawabata, Atsushi Ichimura, Daisuke Yazawa, Kenichi Uemura
Takeshi Yamaguchi, Cha JI Ho (Tetsuhiro Kina), Shohei Yamamoto, Tomoaki Komorida (Masaaki Nishimori)
Yutaka Takahashi (Yoshio Kitagawa), Satoshi Nakayama

While Kumamoto will struggle to escape bottom position this year, the experience and skills of former Japan international Uemura and the on-loan "Naniwa-no-Gon" Nakayama may prove decisive against fellow strugglers. As for Cerezo, the only positives they can take from this game is that they managed to get the three points and promising performances from youngsters Kagawa and Kakitani. However, it is hard to see them making a quick return to J1 based on this scrappy game.

Other J2 results last weekend:
FC Gifu 2-3 Yokohama FC
Ehime FC 1-1 Vegalta Sendai
TheSpa Kusatsu 1-1 Montedio Yamagata
Avispa Fukuoka 2-0 Sagan Tosu
Sanfrecce Hiroshima 1-2 Ventforet Kofu
Tokushima Vortis 2-0 Mito Hollyhock

Katagiri and Co. Sink Fukuoka

Former Grampus striker Atsushi Katagiri gets his J2 goal account started with a brace in the 1-5 demolition of Avispa Fukuoka. The win sees the newly promoted Gifu rise to second place, on goal difference. While I expected them to be able to hold their own in J2, given the number experienced players they have in their squad, this level of success is a bit of a surprise.

Other J2 results this weekend:
Montedio Yamagata 1-0 Yokohama FC
Vegalta Sendai 1-1 Tokushima Vortis
Mito Hollyhock 2-2 Roasso Kumamoto
Sagan Tosu 1-1 TheSpa Kusatsu
Shonan Bellmare 1-0 Ventforet Kofu
Sanfrecce Hiroshima 4-1 Cerezo Osaka

Gifu Push Cerezo Hard in Close Encounter

FC Gifu gave a good account of themselves in closely contested encounter at Nagai Stadium yesterday. Before a crowd of 5,000, Cerezo were able to hold out for a 1-0 win against a spirited and organized Gifu team.

Gifu can consider themselves unfortunate not to have gone away from Osaka with at least a share of the points. The only goal of the game came in the 12th minute, when Noriyuki Sakemoto pounced on some dopy defending from a Cerezo throw-in. As the Gifu defense switched-off, he took advantage to drift behind the back line to receive the ball, cut inside from the goal line and curled in a well-placed shot inside the far post. Thereafter, Gifu were quick to close-down and hassle their opponents and prevent them from establishing control of the game. Indeed, for the remainder of the half it was Gifu who had the better chances, with both Kazumasa Takagi and former Grampus forward Atsushi Katagiri seeing shots saved by Cerezo keeper Aikawa.

The second half was also close, with neither side being able to establish clear superiority. For Cerezo, Germano looked influential and was clearly the best player on the pitch, but was not allowed the time or space to orchestrate any serious threats on the Gifu goal. Gifu look like they will soon find their feet in J2, with the likes of Mitsunori Yabuta and Koji Yoshimura providing experience to raw power of Masato Katayama up front. From what we saw yesterday, both teams should be able to hold their own in the league and should finish in the top half of the table. Whether either can go onto challenge for a promotion place will depend on players like Sakemoto and Katagiri stepping-up their game and being a consistent influence on their team, rather than the promising but not quite delivering performances they have tended to display to date.