Cerezo 2-1 Vissel

Peter reports in on Shinji Kagawa's farewell game at Nagai Stadium. A vital win for the home team since they will not have their leading scorer when the league resumes in July.

The better side won, but Cerezo were far from their best--Kim had his worst game this season and there were more misplaced passes than usual. Vissel were up for this derby game, and there was never any danger that last week's record of a yellow cardless game would be repeated. Vissel must take some credit for Cerezo's misplaced passes as they pressured Cerezo pretty well, but Cerezo stood up well to their bullying tactics and survived Okubo's diving. In all there were nine yellow cards: Moniwa, Uemoto, Omata and Kagawa (Cerezo) and Popo, Tokura, Botti, Miyamoto and Okubo (Vissel) (Okubo got his card after the final whistle for dissent, presumably for protesting that some Cerezo player wasn't sent off -- he's now really in for trying to get opponents sent off). Uemoto's card was also for dissent, protesting Moniwa's card--both of those in just the 8th minute. Botti's card was for standing in front of the ball at a Cerezo free-kick.

Formations:

Cerezo (4-4-2)
		Kim
Takahashi, Moniwa, Uemoto, Omata (Ishigami 89');
Inui, Haneda (Fujimoto 90'+2), Amaral, Kagawa (Kiyotake 88');
	Bando, Ienaga

Vissel (4-4-2)
		Kishi
Kitamoto, Komoto (Tanaka 72), Miyamoto, Mogi;
Popo, Edmilson, Matsuoka, Botti;
	Tokura (Yoshida 61), Okubo

The first half was a bit strange: Cerezo dominated the possession, but Vissel scored with one of only two almost simultaneous attempts on target in the first half. In an unlucky 13th minute for Cerezo, a lovely long ball from Mogi in the centre just to the Cerezo side of the centre circle found Botti running into position in front of Kim's left-hand post to get in a well-placed header from about seven meters, Kim parried it at full stretch (he might have done better) but Botti, following through, gently volleyed the ball behind Kim into the far corner from about three metres and a metre wide of the post--a very accurate well-taken goal. And that was it--that header and that volley were Vissel's only two attempts on target in the first half. You do have to ask, "How did Uemoto let Botti get behind him?" Official time of the goal: 14'

After that, although Inui (twice) and Amaral shot wide, Cerezo had no shots on target in regular time in the first half, despite playing quite a lot of their hallmark possession football. But the six minutes of injury time were a different kettle of fish. In the 47th minute, Takahashi did a good bit of work out wide right to gain possession, slipped the ball inside to Ienaga, went off on a run, took a smart pass back from Ienaga, and got in a fast low centre across goal; Kishi failed to come out and Bando's diving header at the bouncing ball saw it nestle in the corner of the net to Kishi's right. Official time 45'+3.

In the 49th minute Tokura brought Amaral down from behind about five metres outside the Vissel penalty area in the centre slightly to Cerezo's right. By the time the free-kick was taken it was the sixth minute of four minutes added time. Kagawa lifted the ball up over the wall and down under the bar right into the far corner; the ball was not just inside the far post, and you couldn't help wondering whether Vissel goalie Kishi shouldn't have got to it; but a beautiful free-kick for Kagawa to say a nice sayonara to Nagai. Official time: 45'+6. The half-time whistle followed immediately. 2-1.

Half-time stats:

	Cerezo > Vissel
Shots:       2 > 2
GKs:         3 > 4
CKs:         0 > 3
FKs:         9 > 8
Poss.:     61% > 39%

As you can see by comparing the Match stats below with the half-time stats above, the second-half was feisty. Vissel went for the equaliser and Cerezo went for a third goal to put the game to bed. Vissel managed to end Cerezo's dominance of the possession, but in the second half Cerezo outshot Vissel 15-3; there's a symbiotic relationship between those two stats--instead of playing possession football, in the second half Cerezo were shooting for that vital third goal, and thus often returning possession to Vissel: in this half Vissel had 13 goal-kicks to Cerezo's 3. Cerezo's propensity, not only in this game, to play possession football or shoot, one or the other, can be seen from the fact that they had only two corner-kicks in the whole game.

But the vital statistics in this half were the 29 fouls--18 by Vissel and 11 by Cerezo--and the six yellow cards (including Okubo's post-final whistle rant). In contrast to the pallyness in the tunnel before the game, the second-half was a scrappy, bad-tempered affair. There were several near misses but no goals.

For Vissel, in general I thought Kishi looked a reasonably useful goalie for his age, and Tokura too seems a promising player and has a very positive approach. Okubo has become a poor man's Totti--bags of talent, but too much gamesmanship.

Since Martinez was injured, there has been a tendency for all Cerezo's moves to flow through Kagawa. Now he is off to Dortmund, it is very much to be hoped by Cerezo supporters that Martinez is fit for July 14. Of course, there may be new signings but, if not, the prospect of Cerezo taking the field with neither Martinez nor Kagawa is worrying. Amaral has improved steadily and is now a strong player, but he is nowhere near as cultured as Martinez. One thing is for sure, Ienaga will be an important player--let's hope he can keep his vision and technical skill and get rid of his selfishness in front of goal; if he does, he can become a key player and a star.

      Cerezo > Vissel
Shots:    17 > 5
GKs:       6 > 17
CKs:       2 > 6
FKs:      27 > 19
Poss.:   56% > 44%

Kansai Round-up (May 8/9)

Vissel Kobe 3-0 Jubilo Iwata

Vissel cruised a comfortable home win against likely relegation rivals Jubilo. Statistically, this was a dead heat, but with both Botti and Okubo in inspired form, the visitors were well beaten. The home team was clearly in a different class to a very poor opponent.

<>

Ventforet Kofu 1-0 Tokushima Vortis

Meanwhile in Yamanashi, Grampus coach Dido's beanpole of a son, Mike, did for Vortis, bagging his third goal of the season, but not with his head.

Cerezo 2-1 Antlers (The rose-tinted view)

Cerezo Pete is back again with his take on his team's surprisingly comfortable win over Kashima the other day. OK, they need some help from Sogahata for both goals, but they were worthy winners of this contest.

In his post-match comments, Cerezo manager Culpi stated that this was a game that both sides tried to win, and it made for a very open game. I’m sure he was right, but you have to say, in that case, Cerezo played it very cool against the reigning champions. Especially in the first half, Cerezo played a lot of possession football, almost as though they had a lead and were playing out time; obviously, it was Culpi’s intention not to repeat the mistake against Nagoya Grampus and allow Kashima Antlers too much possession. Against this, the Antlers seemed to be lacking a little energy after their exertions in the Asian Champions League on April 28 and in J1 away at Yokohama F Marinos on April 24 and at home to Gamba Osaka on May 1. The consequence was that the game between newly promoted Cerezo and champions the Antlers was a very even one, with, for once, the breaks and the better finishing going Cerezo’s way. Cerezo also had Kim in goal.

Cerezo started playing a lot of possession football as though they would be happy with a 0-0 draw, and perhaps they would not have been too disappointed if it had ended that way. But waiting patiently for their chances, Cerezo gradually grew in confidence as they realized they would not be outplayed by the Antlers. Perhaps that was part of Culpi’s plan. The result was that the only meaningful Cerezo attempt on goal until the 26th minute was an Amaral free-kick along the ground blocked by the wall in the 10th. At this point in the game Cerezo were dominating possession so the Antlers too find chances hard to come by, although in the 4th minute Koroki was only narrowly wide with a right-foot shot. In the 16th a tall Antlers player, I think Jung-Soo Lee, nearly scored as he got behind the Cerezo defence from an Ogasawara free kick on the Antlers' left but only managed to touch the ball with his hair, and Cerezo were awarded a goal kick. In the 19th Nozawa tried a speculative left-foot shot in the right channel from about 40 metres that was only just over the bar near Kim's left-hand post, but probably the keeper had it covered. Also from the right channel, in the 20th Ogasawara was a little bit further over and slightly wide of the same corner with his right foot from about 25 metres. In the 28th Cerezo nearly scored as, following some neat football between Kagawa and Inui, Ienaga was found in space on the right; his beautiful hanging cross was challenged for by Adriano and Antlers' goalie Sogahata, with the ball going straight up in the air, and when it came down the incoming Kagawa and defender Iwamasa went for the ball with Kagawa getting in a header that bobbled towards the goal but Iwamasa managed to clear it off the line, although the ref belatedly blew for a free kick to the Antlers for Adriano's challenge on Sogahata which had resulted in Adriano getting a punch above the eye and Sogahata going down. It took Adriano a minute or two to recover from that punch. Soon after the resulting short free-kick, Amaral got in to intercept the ball but shot well wide with his right foot from about 40 metres. On 42 minutes the Brazilian midfielder tried another hopeful right-foot shot from about 25 metres which went well wide of Sogahata's right post, when, perhaps, Amaral had better options. On 45 minutes Inui found Adriano out on the left level with the edge of the penalty area and he came in, beat a defender and got in a right-foot shot which was comfortably saved by Sogahata. 0-0 at half-time--rather a Brazilian affair with lots of probing by both sides, but not many clear-cut goalscoring opportunities; apart from Kagawa's header after the ref had blown for a free-kick, I counted six attempts on goal--three for the Antlers from the 4th to the 20th minute and three to Cerezo between the 29th and 45th.

In the 47th minute Ienaga had a terrific dribble after which he got in a left-foot shot from the right channel which was not so far wide of Sogahata's right-hand post. In the 44th the Antlers had a superb multiple-passes move which ended with a cross from the right that was headed out for a corner by a Cerezo defender. From this corner, Cerezo had a let-off as Kim flapped and Lee headed over the open goal in the 50th minute. In the 53rd, after a brilliant throw-out by Kim and a neat one-two between Kagawa and Ienaga, Ienaga finished with a weak left-shot straight at the goalie from the edge of the box. In the 56th minute a powerful right-foot free-kick by Amaral from the right channel brought a good save from Sogahata diving to his left. Two minutes later Amaral tried another optimistic 40-metre shot which sailed well over the bar. The 60th minute saw a superb save by Kim from a looping Koroki header. Less than a minute later Nozawa saw another left-foot shot straight in front of the goal just clear the bar after he took one touch from a headed clearance by a Cerezo defender. Soon after Adriano was limping after a challenge with an Antlers defender for the ball about one metre in front of the junction of the six-yard box and the goal line. A minute later, for the Antlers Nakata was substituted by Aoki. In the 63rd, after a beautiful cross from Takahashi from Cerezo's right, Inui glanced just wide of the far post. A minute after that, Komatsu came on as a substitute for Adriano. In the 64th, after a clever one-two down the Antlers right, Araiba got in a brilliant cross which was hit by Kuroki with his shin about a metre out from goal bringing a point-blank save by Kim. Kim then rolled the ball out to Inui and from the resulting attack Cerezo took the lead. Cerezo had a good passing movement intercepted by Felype Gabriel stretching with his leg but the ball bounced back to Inui who fed Kagawa unmarked out on the left. The Antlers defence seemed to be concentrating on trying to catch Ienaga offside. Kagawa came into the penalty area dummied his man and curled a lovely curling right-foot shot from 13 metres just inside the far post--almost a video replay of his winning goal against Bellmare. Five minutes later Felype Gabriel made way for the young Yasushi Endo. Two minutes after that, after a good move down the Antlers' left and a precise cross, Marquinhos got in a strong header that was brilliantly parried by Kim, but Nozawa following up was able to bang the ball into the net with his left foot from three metres. In the 77th minute, Sogahata rolled a ball out towards Nozawa, but Ogasawara also moved in and Nozawa left it for him, but Amaral nipped in from behind Ogasawara, intercepted the ball, took one touche and banged it low into the right corner of Sogahata's net while the goalie was still off balance. In the 82nd minute Culpi replaced Inui with Kiyotake and in the 84th Koroki was out for the Antlers and the 19-year-old striker Osako was in. However, after their second goal Cerezo closed the game down and, although the Antlers pressed, clear-cut chances were almost non-existent, with the only shot on goal coming from Marquinhos on the edge of the penalty area in the 88th minute, but this was blocked by a Cerezo defender only about five metres, if that, in front of the Antlers' striker. For most of the last two minutes of injury time Kagawa and Ienaga did a terrific job of keeping possession in the Antlers' corners and when an Antlers player eventually got a foot on the ball it went straight to Amaral, who tried yet another long shot which went well wide of Sogahata's right-hand post thus returning possession to the Antlers. But by that time only twenty seconds were remaining.

One outstanding statistic of this game was that there were no yellow cards. Perhaps players were on their best behaviour in front of Japan national team manager Okada. Perhaps Cerezo were willing to play patiently and perhaps the Antlers were a little fatigued; certainly, after Cerezo went ahead for the second time, the Antlers seemed to lack the energy to make a final assault on the Cerezo penalty area. Despite this slight lack of intensity, the spectators were treated to a fine display of Brazilian soccer from both sides.

Stats:
	    Cerezo > Antlers
Shots:  	11 > 10
GKs:  		 8 > 14
CKs:  		 1 > 7
FKs:  		18 > 18
Poss.:		48% > 52%

Cerezo Romp Past Witless Chumps

Cerezo Osaka 2 - 1 Kashima Antlers

After a fairly even and intriguing first half, the Osakans skipped past the reigning j1 champs at Nagai Stadium this afternoon. The lackluster Antlers came out for the second half looking even lazier and more disinterested in the contest then they had in the first. At least in the first half it had looked like Cerezo's speed in closing down the ineffective midfield was what had prevented the champions from gaining the upper hand.

The second half was a different story, and the home team was the only team that looked like winning. Gamba loanee Ienaga had already wasted a couple of good opportunities with a couple of unconvincing shots, before Shinji Kagawa showed how it should be done. Curling in a neat shot that beat the outwitted Sogahata, who flapped tamely at a shot he should really have tipped wide. The hapless keeper then capped generally poor performance by gifting Osaka the winner with his gormless distribution. Cerezo forward Amaral making no mistake after pouncing on the inept ball out of the area and firing past the stranded keeper.

Cerezo 0-1 Grampus: Take 3

Alan chips in with a third take on last week's encounter at sunny Nagai.

Cerezo Osaka were up for this game on the back of a game that finished in roller coaster fashion against Shonan Bellmare the week before. Cerezo had almost thrown away the points when Tahara was allowed to equalize in injury time. Then Kagawa pulled one out of the hat with a winner in the 5th minute of added time for the three points. But, today, the lost time winner went to the away team, but I am getting ahead of myself!

It was a beautiful day. The sun streamed onto the fans, the beer sellers were doing a roaring trade, the players looked relaxed in their pre-game rituals. The imposing figure of goalkeeper Kim listened to some "toons" on his iPod, while three Cerezo players played keepy-up awaiting the pre-game get-together.

Cerezo were without Adriano and Martinez, but more than covered in the forms of Ienaga and Bando. Nagoya's notable absentee was Josh Kennedy, so the Cerezo back three were hoping for an easier ride against the diminutive Magnum and Tamada and their cohorts.

And so, the game began ... Magnum was first to register an attempt on the goal, his 2nd minute half volley screamed low across the goal and fired a warning to the Cerezo defence but it was Cerezo who opened the better side, with Kagawa, Inui and Ienaga spraying short passes around the field and creating numerous openings, with Inui having his first shot blocked in the 4th minute. But the early signs were good for Cerezo.

In the 6th minute Magnum went down unchallenged and was carried off, but his replacement was the more than capable Ogawa, so it hardly made a difference to the game as far as the home team were concerned. Cerezo continued to pass their way up the field, while Nagoya looked for the long ball and quick break. Burzanovic found himself in the area in the 13th and made the most of a challenge, hoping for a PK. Instead he picked up a yellow card for his dissent.

In the 17th Ienaga finished off another fine move with a shot that the keeper smothered and in the next move, Ienaga robbed Alex in midfield - much to the consternation of the Nagoya defence - and slipped a pass to Kagawa, who couldn't quite find the target, but it looked only a matter of time.

IN the 26th Burzanovic sent a free kick over the bar from 30 yards, but the defence were on high alert after his two free kick goals in previous games.

Cerezo keeper Kim was using his range with long kicks, unfortunately, since the targets were Bando, Inui and Kagawa - not the biggest players on the field - this writer was wondering why he was not giving shorter passes to start moves from the back. Bando finally got in on the act after a fine cut back low cross from Ienaga found the ex-Gamba striker able to send in a 20 yard blast, but it was too close to the keeper.

Cerezo came closest to opening the scoring in the 38th minute, although it was from a stroke of luck in the end as Amaral mis-hit a shot, which bounced off Bando and into the path of Kagawa, whose excellent side-footed volley almost placed the ball in the net, but the fans saw the ball roll agonisingly wide of the post. And so the teams went in for the break scoreless, but Cerezo will have been the more disappointed of the two sides.

The 2nd half was much of the same, with the Cerezo youngsters spraying the ball with confidence and speed, but no finishing touch was forthcoming. Takahashi headed weakly into the keeper's arms from a good position from an Omata corner in the 62nd minute, Bando fed Kagawa for a superb - but just off target chip - in the 63rd, and Amaral stung the keeper's fingers with a 25 yarder after Ienaga had created the space.

In the 77th Amaral hot another blast at Narazaki, who failed to hold it, but the advancing Inui and Komatsu - on for Bando minutes earlier - were judged offside as they followed in.

Into the final 10 minutes and the chances had not been taken, would Cerezo drop the points from lax finishing? It seemed that way when Tamada was given too much space on the left and his cross was almost turned in by Maki. The Nagoya striker was foiled by Kim, although the Korean paid the price in pain as Maki caught him in the challenge.

In the 86th Komatsu wriggled past three challenges but lost control of the ball as he prepared to pull the trigger and minutes later Inui came close as his shot screamed in, Narazaki forced into a save, and a corner. And then, sure enough, into injury time and a needless free kick given away on the right wing was blasted in by Tamada. His wicked inswinger hitting the back of the net of a defender's head.

Cerezo 0-1 Nagoya Grampus, and Cerezo had only themselves to blame. On this form, relegation would not be a problem, but the chances will have to be taken, if that is to be the case!

Cerezo 0-1 Grampus

Peter gives us the cherry-pink eyed view of last week's game against Cerezo.

Cerezo inexplicably went into their shell in this home game. For some reason, manager Culpi changed from his favourite 3-5-2 system to 4-5-1. As a result, Grampus were able to seize control in midfield from the beginning, eventually dominating possession 57% to 43%. Did Culpi make this change of formation because of the continued absence of key man holding midfielder Martinez? Or did he just have too much respect for high-flying Grampus? Or was it a tactical move for this one game--after all, despite the lack of possession, Cerezo did outshoot Grampus? To me, the hallmark of Cerezo’s game is their ability to keep possession and to play Brazilian-style passing football, so this yielding of the midfield seemed incomprehensible--or perhaps it was a consequence of the change of formation unforeseen by Culpi. Whatever, the effect was to hand Grampus the initiative.

Martinez continued his absence, presumably through injury after being stretchered off at Yokohama two weeks before, but we are still without a word of explanation from the club. His place was again taken by Akihiro Ienaga. Also unexplained was the absence of Adriano both from the team and the bench. The change in formation did not involve a change in personnel except that Bando started as the sole striker but, although he did not appear noticeably weaker than Adriano, he failed to make a real mark--to be fair, he was ploughing a lonely furrow.

Given the new tactics and the absence of Martinez and Adriano, the Cerezo players on the pitch gave a very creditable account of themselves. Cerezo outshot Grampus 18 to 16 and, on the whole, they had the clearer chances and would have won without a stellar performance from Grampus’s captain and Japan national team goalie, Seigo Narazaki; although, to be fair to Grampus, Jin-Hyeon Kim also had to put in a fine goalkeeping performance.

For the second week in succession at Nagai Stadium the result was decided in injury time. (In two successive games at Nagai four goals have been scored, three of them in added time!) Japan international Tamada on his return from injury put in a well-placed free-kick from about 28 metres roughly in front of Kim’s left post; Kim looked to have it covered but another Japanese international CD Tulio rose high in front of Kim and seemed to unsight him, and the ball ended up in the top near corner of the net. Tulio also seemed to celebrate. Watching from the stand, I thought Tulio had got a touch and was staggered when the announcement came that Tamada was the scorer; if that was the case, maybe Kim was not faultless.

A 3-3 result would have better reflected the flow of the game; or, if Cerezo had to lose, 2-3. Although Ienaga had another fine game he had four attempts on goal, one or two of which were optimistic, and failed to find the net. Amaral had his best game so far and got away five attempts on goal, not bad for a volante; nearly all of these efforts were powerful, three of them being blocked and two whistling wide, the second of them in the 94th minute. Despite this, Cerezo missed Martinez’s powerful presence and skill in midfield. Grampus had the majority of possession, but compared with Cerezo’s it was leaden and unimaginative. This was a game of power versus scintillation, with poor finishing and fine goalkeeping from both sides.

Stats:
        Cerezo > Grampus
Shots:      18 > 16
GKs:        17 > 10
CKs:         9 > 7
FKs:        14 > 23
Poss.:     43% > 57%

Grampus Cruise to Comfortable Win in Nagai...

... well, not quite. They had control of possession for much of the game, but were never able to dominate and only emerged narrow 1-0 winners. Cerezo held their own, and often looked more purposeful in their build-ups, with their crisp passing moves getting the ball forward fare more effectively than our rather ponderous efforts.

Grampus got off to a bad start when Magnum pulled lame within five minutes of the start. Pixie quickly had Ogawa warming up and the former Rookie of the Year was soon on the field in place of the injury-prone Brazilian. Fortunately, despite Josh Kennedy still not being fully recovered from his back injury, Keiji Tamada was back in the starting lineup. ALthough the Japan international looked a bit rusty, and continues to look more useful as an attacking midfielder than a striker, he frequently unsettled the Cerezo defence.

Ultimately this game came down to the quality of the 'keepers. Kim had a good game and made one outstanding save early in the first half. However, Narazaki was in imperious form stopping all of Cerezo's efforts that found the target, including a couple of World Class saves again.

Cerezo		0		1	Grampus
Starters				Starters
P.	No.	Name		Name	No.	P.
GK	21	Kim Jin Hyeon		Seigo Narazaki	1	GK
DF	2	Kenji Haneda		Hayuma Tanaka	32	DF
DF	3	Teruyuki Moniwa		Takahiro Masukawa	5	DF
DF	22	Taikai Uemoto		Tulio	4	DF
MF	20	Daisuke Takahashi		Shohei Abe	6	DF
MF	6	Amaral		Naoshi Nakamura	20	MF
MF	14	Akihiro Ienaga		Alex Santos (OUT 68')	10	MF
MF	16	Hiroyuki Omata (OUT 90')		Igor Burzanovic (OUT 79')	9	MF
MF	7	Takashi Inui (OUT 90')		Mu Kanazaki	25	FW
MF	7	Shinji Kagawa		Keiji Tamada	17	FW
FW	11	Ryuji Bando (OUT 71')		Magnum (OUT 8')	8	FW
Subs Bench				Subs Bench
GK	1	Kenya Matsui		Koji Nishimura	21	GK
DF	4	Kota Fujimoto		Akira Takeuchi	2	DF
MF	17	Noriyuki Sakemoto		Mitsuru Chiyotanda	3	DF
MF	28	Yusuke Maruhashi		Yoshizumi Ogawa	10	MF
MF	19	Naoya Ishigami		Keiji Yoshimura	14	MF
MF	25	Masato Kurogi		Danilson	20	MF
FW	15	Rui Komatsu		Yuki Maki	17	FW

	Scorers	Tamada 90+1' (Amaral OG?)
Cerezo Osaka	Timeline	Grampus
	Substitution	Magnum > Ogawa 8' (Hamstring injury again)
	Card	Burzanovic 13'
	Card	Santos 51'
	Substitution	Santos > Yoshimura 68'
Bando > Komatsu 71'	Substitution
Moniwa 74'	Card
	Substitution	Burzanovic > Maki 79'
Haneda 85'	Card
Omata > Maruhashi 90'	Substitution
Inui > Ishigami 90'	Substitution
	GOAL	Tamada 90+1'

Cerezo 2-1 Bellmare

Peter again gives us a rundown of Cerezo's form, as he takes a look at their game against Shonan.

Cerezo had nearly 60% of the possession in this game, scored a penalty in the 34th minute but then missed several chances to more or less kill the game off. Bellmare hung in there and equalised in the first minute of five minutes added time, but Kagawa clinched the game for Cerezo with a superb individual goal four minutes later. A match which should have been a comfortable win for Cerezo became a game that turned on a dramatic finale.

Key man holding midfielder Martinez missed the game, presumably through injury after being stretchered off at Yokohama the week before but without a word of explanation from the club. His place was taken by Akihiro Ienaga, and this change was accompanied by a change of tactics with Ienaga playing further forward than Martinez usually does. This was partly compensated for by volante Amaral playing even more defensively than usual, but I am not going to count this as a change of formation, although some news sources did; still, it marked a change from two conservative MFs and three attack-minded to one very conservative, and four more attack-minded MFs. In my opinion, formation still 3-5-2, but OMF Kagawa also pushed further forward than he has been doing.

First half: the game started with Cerezo having the best of the exchanges but not creating many clear-cut chances; although they had shots blocked in the 7th, 16th, 19th and 22nd minutes. Kagawa missed the target from a reasonable chance in the 21st minute. At the other end, Tahara had shot wide in the 10th minute, and that was to be Bellmare’s only serious attempt on goal in this half. In the 33rd minute, Cerezo were awarded a penalty following a corner after an off-the-ball incident involving Uemoto and Bellmare’s Tamura; it wasn’t clear to me what happened, but there was some wrestling going on and there was no doubt that both players went down with Tamura falling on top of Uemoto. (It looked to me as though Tamura had a grip on Uemoto and Uemoto played for the foul by going down and pulling Tamura down with him--Tamura failed to release his grip soon enough to avoid the sucker punch.) Tamura got a yellow card. Kagawa hit a firm but not-really-fierce penalty along the ground towards the goalie’s left corner; although Nozawa, who had a good game, guessed right and got a touch on the ball with his hand, he failed to stop it reaching the corner of the net. In effect a lovely penalty, but a near thing! That was the end of the significant action in the first half.

Second half: In this half, Bellmare improved marginally, managing one blocked and one off-target shot in regular time. Cerezo started off the half in the same way as they had in the first half, with Amaral having a shot blocked on the line in the 47th minute. Inui in the 57th, Adriano in the 70th, Bando in the 74th and Inui again in the 89th minutes also had shots blocked. One or two of these Bellmare blocks were off the line, when you felt sure Cerezo were about to score again. In between the blocks, Ienaga in the 54th, Bando in the 79th and Inui in the 89th minutes missed the target, when perhaps they should have done better; particularly the last one by Inui, a free diving header straight in front of the goal. And so to five minutes of injury time with the score 1-0 to Cerezo.

Added time:
In the attack following Inui’s miss, Nakamura got away down the right channel, held off Uemoto and got in a shot that Kim did well to deflect on to the bar. The ball rebounded to the unmarked Tahara who had to adjust himself to get in his shot, with the result that Kim and a defender almost had time to block the shot on the line, but Kim only succeeded in lifting the ball into the roof of the net with his foot. In the 93rd minute Kim made a good save from a header by Tahara after a good cross from Nakamura. With literally seconds remaining, Kagawa came into the penalty area from Cerezo’s left, and then going across the face of the goal and slightly backwards to the edge of the penalty area swivelled and hit the ball just inside Nozawa’s right-hand post for a superb individual goal.

This game was a good lesson for Cerezo on the importance of taking your chances, but in the end justice was done in spectacular fashion.

Stats:
Cerezo > Bellmare
Shots:  16 > 5
GKs:  7 > 11
CKs:  10 > 4
FKs:  20 > 25
Poss.:  59% > 41%

Kansai Roundup (Round 6)

Sorry for missing a round, but I was busy last weekend. So here we are with another rundown on our local teams. (Tokushima Vortis had a week off this week, allowing the injured Tomohiro Tsuda a bit more time to recover ahead of the Shikoku Derby.)

Kyoto Sanga 0-2 Nagoya Grampus

Another game another two goals for the Red Whales. Although Kyoto played reasonably well and had their chances to get back into the game, they were unable to find that extra bit of class to really test the visitors.

Omiya Ardija 1-3 Gamba Osaka

Akira Nishino is clearly a great coach, inspiring his team to its first win of the season with his half time team talk and changes. MInd you, he was lucky his team was still in the game at half time, let alone on level terms at 1-1. Fujigaya kept the Suita team in the game with a string of fine saves in the opening 45 minutes, which would otherwise have seen them three or four goals behind and out for the count.

Yokohama Marinos 0-0 Cerezo Osaka

Cerezo earn another draw, even surviving the dismissal of one of their best players, Martinez at the end of the first half. See Peter's report on the game for more details. So despite a shaky start on their return to j1, the pink half of Osaka is level on point with its blue rivals from Suita.

Vissel Kobe 0-2 Montedio Yamagata

The battle of the likely relegation candidates saw the visitors earn all three points despite Vissel having much the better of the game. The absence of Popo and Okubo proving fatal for their chances of converting their possession into goals. A result that leaves the home team second from bottom.

Pixie Rotation Stuns Sanga

This week it was Yoshizumi Ogawa's turn to play striker alongside Josh Kennedy, with Magnum dropping back to a more familiar midfield role. While opponents try and work out who is his partner for the week, Josh just keeps banging in the goals. Today, netting is third goal of the young season. The win too us top of the league for an hour os so until Frontale and Urawa finished their games. However, we have a game in hand on the leaders.

Tulio's early headed goal, his first in Grampus colours, sparked a concerted effort by the home team to get back into the game. They rattled off 10 unanswered shots by half time, but only four of them were on target. The second period was much more even, but highlighted by a similarly early goal for the visitors, after nine minutes, a 20 yard blast by Kennedy.

Sanga		0		2	Grampus
Starters				Starters
P.	No.	Name		Name	No.	P.
GK	21	Yuichi Miizutani		Seigo Narazaki	1	GK
DF	3	Thiego (OUT HT)		Hayuma Tanaka	32	DF
DF	5	Kwak Tai-Hwi		Tulio	4	DF
DF	4	Hiroki Mizumoto		Takahiro Masukawa	5	DF
DF	19	Jun Morishita		Alex Santos	38	DF
MF	22	Daigo Watanabe (OUT 23)		Keiji Yoshimura (OUT 70')	14	MF
MF	26	Makoto Kakuda		Igor Burzanovic (OUT 74')	9	MF
MF	7	Yosuke Takaoka		Magnum	8	MF
MF	15	Hiroki Nakayama		Yoshizumi Ogawa	10	FW
FW	10	Diego		Josh Kennedy	16	FW
MF	14	Atsushi Yanagisawa (OUT 75')		Mu Kanazaki	25	FW
Subs Bench				Subs Bench
GK	1	Naoto HIrai		Yoshinaari Takagi	50	GK
DF	24	Tatsuya Masushima		Mitsuru Chiyotanda	3	DF
MF	16	Jun Ando		Shohei Abe	6	MF
MF	17	Taisuke Nakamura		Naoshi Nakamura	7	MF
MF	18	Koken Kato		Danilson	20	MF
FW	14	Dan Howbert		Yuki Maki	17	FW
FW	31	Takumi Miyayoshi		Keita Sugimoto	19	FW

	Scorers	Tulio 8' Kennedy 55'
Kyoto Sanga	Timeline	Grampus
	GOAL	Tulio 8'
Watanabe > Kato 23'	Substitution
Thiego 32'	Card
Thiega > Masushima HT	Substitution
	GOAL	Kennedy 55'
	Substitution	Yoshimura > Nakamura 70'
	Card	Naoshi Nakamura 73'
	Substitution	Burzanovic > Danilson 74'
Yanagisawa > Miyayoshi 75'	Substitution
	Substitution	Kanazaki > Sugimoto 88'
Diego 90+2'	Card

Cerezo 3-1 Sanga

Peter chimes in with news of Cerezo's first win of the season.

No changes. Last week I wrote, "Cerezo's loss resulted from giving the ball away too often and trying to walk the ball into the net. Two of the statistics confirm the story, which anyway stood out like a sore thumb to the game's observers: Cerezo had 53% of the possession, but the Reds outshot them 14 to 7." Well, Cerezo certainly learnt their lesson: today they outshot Sanga 19-9, although the possession was only 55% to 45%.

Today, Cerezo justified Culpi's team selection and philosophy and played some very good Brazilian-style football. (Although I still think Uemoto, Amaral and Omata are the weakest links.)

The first goal resulted originally from cool play by goalie Kim who came out of his penalty area and made a shortish pass when you wished he had given it a good boot. But after nearly a dozen passes Kim's decision was vindicated as Inui put in a beautiful through-pass assist with the outside of his boot and Kagawa cleverly chipped it over the goalie and into the net from about 15 metres. (30')

The second goal also resulted from good football and a great first-time lob over the goalie from Martinez which would have probably gone in off the far post, but the goalie and Adriano both went for the ball, the goalie got a hand to it and couldn't hold it and the ball bounced loose for Kagawa to tap it into the net with a volley. (36')

The third goal also came from some good Brazilian-style stuff and several passes with sub Ienaga providing the assist and the joyful sub Bando banging it into the net first time under pressure. (90')

In between Kagawa's second and Bando's goals, Sanga's 17-year-old sub Miyayoshi, making his first appearance, scored with a deflection off a Cerezo defender which wrong-footed Kim, who had a very good game today.

Yanagisawa of Sanga looks a class act to me. He has matured and expanded his range of play.

But today one has to finish with praise for Cerezo's football, which at certain times can be stunning.

Gamba 3-0!

Alan, the Stadium DJ, chips in with his view of Gamba's easy win on Wednesday.
Gamba looked better than the "only" three goal margin suggests ... but still some work to do to get that top spot in the group.

The sakura was in evidence outside the ground and, thankfully it wasn't as cold as earlier in the week as Gamba Osaka took on Singapore Armed Forces in the home leg of their Qualifying Group battle, having won the away leg in a not-so-convincing 4-2 victory. The fans were hoping for more goal in this fixture, with a view to gaining some confidence to take into the J.League.

The game began with Gamba passing the ball around a-la-Gamba-style, but with little success in front of goal. Yasuda popped a couple of decent crosses in, and Futagawa and Sasaki took shots from distance but caused little excitement until Yasuda intercepted a pass on the halfway line, advanced, swapped passes with Futagawa and found an opening, but his final shot was weak.

In the 19th it was Yasuda again, with a deep cross that Sasaki controlled and hit, the ball ricocheting away off a defender.

Hashimoto came close before Cho had two chances within 30 seconds, the first hitting the post and the second, after Kaji put the ball back in saw a splendid half volley well saved by the busy keeper.

So it was down to the ever-energetic Yasuda to finally open the scoring with a super left foot strike from the left side of the area. 1-0! More to come! Perhaps Š while Gamba had never looked in trouble they were having difficulty making that final flourish count. Hirai was working hard, but a couple of weak left foot finishes had not helped. Yasuda tried his luck again in the 37th, as he cut inside on his right foot and let fly from 25 yards out, but the ball flew well wide.

The 2nd half began with a flurry of corners and the away keeper denying Cho yet again - until Sasaki fed Hirai on the break and slipped the ball to the right and the onrushing Hirai blasted it into the net with a right foot first-timer! 2-0!

Gamba continued to create space, run the game completely, rack up the shots, the corners and the possession, but the keeper foiled Cho, Futagawa, Hashimoto and Hirai once again, while at the other end Kimura had not had a shot to save.

With 18 minutes to go Cho broke free from the half, fed Futagawa who placed it perfectly for Hirai to scoop over the bar from 18 yards out. The Sasaki made a run through the middle and, when all expected a pass to the wide open Futagawa on his right, he feinted brilliantly to the left and the goal was at his mercy. he did everything right in placing it to the keeper's right post, but that's exactly where it went - hitting the right post!

At this point, with around a quarter of an hour left on the clock Gamba coach Nishino decided to freshen things up, bring on Ze Carlos and Shohei Otsuka for Cho and Hirai. Otsuka and Ze too the two top spots, with both getting in on the action pretty quickly... Ze Carlos was rewarded and made the score a little more respectable with a deflected goal in lost time, and earned a yellow card which could come back to haunt him if he is needed at a later stage, for his wild celebrations of his goal.

To be honest, we could have hoped for more goals. On the other hand, the keeper was brilliant at times, and at others his goal led charmed life! The official stats will show about 40 shots on goal for Gamba, while the visitors managed one on target! This month, we'll take a win however we can get it!

The refereeing, from the Uzbek officials, was spot-on, controversy free, not that it was a game that one expected to erupt!! :-) It was a pleasure to scream GGGGGGOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLL three times tonight in my role as stadium "DJ", too ... 'though wouldn't have minded getting more practice in!


Gamba Osaka:
GK - Kimura
DF - Kaji, Nakazawa, Yamaguchi, Yasuda
MF - Sasaki, Myojin, Hashimoto (Shimohira, 86), Futagawa
FW - Cho (Otsuka, 76), Hirai (Ze Carlos, 76)

Gamba 2-2 Vegalta

Peter's back again with a report on the Gamba. (For those of you wondering, Grampus did not play this week due to HIroshima's ACL commitments.)

Gamba are on the way back. The result may look not very different from that in the Albirex game, but the performance, especially in the second half, was altogether better. This was a fascinating and interesting game. Three of the goals were from penalties. If Uemoto set the Reds on their way against Cerezo with a catastrophic error at Nagai, the just returned Yamaguchi threw away Gamba's first league victory with a blatant and unnecessary hand-ball in the first minute of injury time.

The first two goals, both penalties, cancelled each other out in the sense that both decisions were 50-50, in my opinion. The first, against Gamba for pushing at a corner, was dicey because although there was undoubtedly contact, it's very doubtful if there was much pressure on the Vegalta player. For Gamba's penalty, there is no doubt that the players got their legs tied up a bit, but when you see the slow motion replay it's clear that in the final moments the Vegalta player's leg was outside Hashimoto's rather than in between Hashimoto's two legs--Hashimoto made a meal of it, and I think most refs would have given a penalty in live action. I feel on both these penalties that, if the ref had had the benefit of slow-motion replay, he might have given neither; but in the heat of the moment you can't blame the ref for giving either. Both incidents gave the impression that there should be a penalty without the reality quite corresponding to the appearance, in my opinion.

The highlight of the game was a brilliantly, taken goal from Hirai after a speedy break by Sasaki down the right and a fast low cross which Hirai met first time more or less in front of the Vegalta goalie's left post and, swiveling, hit hard into the top far corner. This was Hirai's first ever goal in the league.

The equalising penalty came after Yamaguchi, behind other defenders and Vegalta players, jumped too early for a cross from Vegalta's right, left his hand straight up in the air above his head as he came down and, unfortunately for him, the ball made firm contact with it. That is on the charitable, but probably correct, assumption that it was not deliberate hand-ball.

Although Vegalta had played it tight in the first half, they had already looked a bit more adventurous in the first eight minutes of the second half. Gamba should probably have scored in that slightly tentative first half. The first half was half-way between the level of the Albirex game and the level of the second half. If the ref's 50-50 decision on the first penalty was partly motivated by a desire to liven things up, he certainly succeeded. After that, Gamba really went for it, while Vegalta were often dangerous on the break.

One is inclined to think that Gamba looked the classier side and deserved to win; on the other hand, Vegalta twice hit the woodwork after good moves. So, perhaps, a draw was a fair result. The ball that hit the bar was a brilliant header from Nakahara who, nearer to the winger than the post was to the winger, met a fast cross that was not much more than waist height and, somehow, flicked it up over his shoulder--if it had gone in, it would have been a brilliant and spectacular goal. That was the second-ranking highlight of the match.

As Ryang Yon-Gi scored both of Vegalta's penalties, he is now the sole top scorer in J1 with 4.

Goals: Ryang (53 pen), Endo (78 pen), Hirai (84), Ryang (96 pen).

Team: Fujigaya; Kaji, Nakagawa, Yamaguchi, Takagi; Hashimoto, Myojin, Endo, Futagawa (Sasaki 71); Cho (Ze Carlos 71), Hirai (Michihiro Yasuda 88)

Cerezo 2-3 Reds

Peter's take on the events at Nagai Stadium yesterday.
Cerezo's loss resulted from giving the ball away too often in their own half and trying to walk the ball into the net. Two of the statistics confirm the story, which anyway stood out like a sore thumb to the game's observers: Cerezo had 53% of the possession, but the Reds outshot them 14 to 7.

3-5-2 again. Amaral came back to right midfield, with the defence reverting to Haneda, Moniwa and Uemoto. No other changes. Kagawa played in central midfield and Omata took the wide left position. After a slight knock but mainly for tactical reasons, Moniwa was subbed by Ienaga in the 71st minute, and Ishigami replaced Omata in the 77th.
Kim; Haneds, Moniwa, Uemoto; Takahashi, Amaral, Martinez, Kagawa, Omata; Inui, Adriano

This game was something of a moment of truth for Cerezo. Cerezo again held their own in midfield, but in this game we saw the weakness of Levir Culpi's Brazilian football compared with the more direct European style of Volker Finke. Having said that, I was really put off by the continual cheating and diving of Ugajin (I think), which left a really bad taste in the mouth--the Braziian-style gamesmanship came mainly from him in this game, and he managed to get Adriano a yellow card for an innocuous incident. In general, the ref was too fussy, although I'm not suggesting that was a reason why Cerezo lost.

Apart from the risks in Cerezo's style of play, the Reds were also able to expose the limitations of three of Cerezo's players: Uemoto, Amaral and Omata. All three are too slow thinking, and Uemoto and Amaral are also short of speed. At this level Cerezo's Brazilian style of play requires quick thinking. Most of the players are capable of that, but, in my opinion, not these three.

The order of the goals was 0-1 (Tanaka 21), 1-1 (Adriano 21), 1-2 (Edmilson 54), 2-2 (Kagawa 79) and 2-3 (Edmilson 80).

The first goal was a gift from Uemoto, although the commentators said Haneda. Faced unchallenged with a routine clearance on the six-yard line, Uemoto just rolled the ball right along the line straight to Tanaka, who had a simple of job of banging it in the net past Kim. It wasn't obvious what Uemoto was thinking of: I don't think he was trying to make a gentle pass to a colleague, unless he completely failed to notice Tanaka and was rolling it to Kim to boot clear; on the other hand, he didn't obviously take a big swing at the ball and make a terrible miskick, so one assumes he was trying to find a colleague just outside the penalty area, took his eye off the ball and got it wrong. It's a mystery, but, whatever, a terrible blunder. Put it together with back-up goalie Matsui's three give-aways this season, and you have to say Cerezo are looking error-prone in defence.

This impression was confirmed by Edmilson's second and Urawa's decisive goal. After a long hopeful punt in the general direction of Edmilson, Uemoto looked favourite to get the ball about twenty-five yards out, but somehow he failed to hold Edmilson off and once Edmilson got a touch on the ball he performed superbly, holding Uemoto off taking the ball to about the six-yard line where Uemoto missed his tackle, then holding off another defender until about two metres from the goal line and squeezing the ball through Kim's legs from a very narrow angle and scoring in off the far post. Kim also might have done better here, but, from the Reds' point of view, it was a brilliant individual goal from Edmilson.

The Reds' second goal was from a misplaced pass by Amaral in midfield but in the Cerezo half and then some slick inter-passing between Tanaka and Edmilson which put Edmilson through and he provided a high-class finish. This was not the result of a defensive blunder by Cerezo but due to top-class movement from the Reds, but nevertheless illustrated the point that you can't afford to give away possession in your own half at this level of football. Mind you, the Reds were very sharp at intercepting passes throughout the match, and they deserve credit for that.

Adriano's goal resulted from intricate very short inter-passing between him and Kagawa surrounded by defenders about fifteen metres out straight in front of goal, persistence by Adriano, a lucky break of the ball to put him through and a clinical finish from about six metres. Cerezo's second goal came from a good break down the left by Ishigami, soon after he had replaced Omata, a beautiful glancing header from Martinez that came back off the inside of the post and Kagawa in the right place to make no mistake from the rebound.


Personally, I would prefer the team selection to be more like last week at the back, with Amaral replaced in midfield by Haneda and Fujimoto coming into the back three. I would also replace Uemoto with Ishigami. I understand why Culpi wants Uemoto: he has good elevation and is good with the outside of his head--but not with his feet and the inside of his head.

Unlike the games with Gamba and FC Tokyo, this game left one concerned for Cerezo's season. Unless they can cut out errors at the back and start shooting when they have three-quarter chances, instead of trying to walk the ball into the net, Cerezo could have a long, hard season in front of them. To be fair, the last three games have been against tough opponents, and Kyoto Sanga will be no walkover next Saturday even at home; but that match has now become one in which Cerezo must show that they are occasionally capable of winning at J1 level. Otherwise, confidence could start to drain away. The team looked devastated by Urawa's immediate response to Kagawa's goal and rather despondent after the final whistle. Two points from four games!

VIssel Kobe 1-2 Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Meanwhile, Alan was over at Wing Stadium (Oops, Home's Stadium) to take in the other local game.

Vissel Kobe entertained ACL entrants Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the 2nd game of the J.League season, and the game started quickly for the home team as Yoshida got in a snap shot on the volley after 13 seconds, forcing the first save of the game, with Sato sneaking behind Komoto at the other end a minute later, to almost get into the end of a long ball out of defence.

Vissel used Ishibitsu and Popo on the wings to good effect in the opening stages, although Popo didn't manage to get in a decent cross from two early attempts with players waiting in the middle. Vissel were also noticeably pressuring the Sanfrecce midfield and Kobayashi intercepted a stray pass in the 11th minute and hit it first time from over 40 yards. It was well wide, but it showed the tactics of the team, and the confidence of the left back in having a go! In quick succession, then, Yoshida forced a save and Matsuoka had a shot deflected for a corner. Vissel's pressure and confidence was telling and looked the side more likely to score. And then, from a free kick gained as Sato went to ground between two defenders, Nakashima headed in from near the penalty spot and the away team was ahead.


It was noticeable how impressively and quickly the whole Sanfrecce team changed their formation depending on the state of play. The flat three backs were immediately augmented by two full backs and three defensive midfielders whenever the ball was lost, while Makino, when the ball was regained by Sanfrecce, would become a left winger and one of the Morisaki twins would slot immediately into a centre back position to cover him. The movement of the whole team was fluid and the formation changed at the drop of a hat .... so why did this team that seemed so open to tactics use the long ball at every opportunity? Stoyanov would invariably get the ball at the back, and suddenly there were five Hiroshima players lined up against the Vissel backs and the long ball would come again (and again, and again). Komoto and Kitamoto mopped up these pointless long balls time and time again.

The score remained 1-0 to Sanfrecce at half time and coach Miura brought on Okubo in place of Kobayashi at the beginning of the 2nd half, with Mogi moving to left back. This gave Vissel more pace and skill on the left and Mogi was up and down the wing on the left causing problems, while Ishibitsu was more active in the 2nd half, with Popo starting to fade on the right.

Vissel continued their crisp passing and good movement, while Sanfrecce continued to pump long aimless balls up the field from the defence whenever they had possession. Then, again, VIssel conceded another goal from nothing, as Sanfrecce actually played the ball along the left wing and then the cross came over and Takahagi volleyed home from 12 yards. 0-2, a quiet crowd and a disbelieving Vissel Kobe team.

Botti made his first appearance of the season in the 65th minute, replacing Popo ... he was not to be on for long, but we're getting ahead of ourselves! In the 67th Ishibitsu lined up a free kick, but it was hit against the wall, but Park returned a cross from the right and a Sanfrecce hand was judged to have made contact and a PK was given. The PK was duly dispatched calmly to the keeper's left by Okubo to raise the hopes of the home crowd.

Minutes later Okubo and Botti combined to send Mogi through on the left and his shot went agonisingly past the far post. Next up it was Matsuoka who got in on the act with a shot deflected for a corner and a minute later an Ishibitsu free kick hit the wall, and two more shots were blocked in quick succession.

With ten minutes to go Fukuoka University student Nagai was given his debut by Vissel and was soon in the action. Unfortunately, for him, the action caused a bloody nose and he was off the field for most of the last ten minutes. Even with ten men, Vissel continued pushing but then Botti picked up his 2nd yellow card for a late tackle on Makino and Vissel were down to nine on the field! This put a little damper on the big comeback with Nagai only returning as lost time approached. In the dying moments Vissel pressure continued and Okubo had a penalty claim denied, while Komoto saw a diving header slip past a post

Cerezo Tame Gamba

Peter gives us his take on the Osaka Derby at Nagai Stadium yesterday. (The headline is mine, not Peter's)

Mark and I were among the more than 37,000 spectators who turned up to watch the first draw in the J-League history of the Osaka derby; the stats for which now read played 25, Gamba 16, Cerezo 8, drawn 1.

Gamba showed their usual class, but showed the lack of energy they have displayed since half-time in the Grampus match. Their classy football was not surprising. What was surprising was that an unchanged Cerezo team from the team that started last week with seven new members matched them for class, and showed an unbelievable (literally !) improvement in the team understanding from the Ardija match.

With the referee Tojo being very kind to a Lucas frequently diving like a dying swan, but dishing out a yellow to Adriano when he was genuinely felled by a hard, but fair, tackle in the box, Cerezo showed a strong spirit to overcome adversity. This was particularly true after no.2 goalie Matsui gave Gamba the gift of a goal in the 64th minute. Matsui, who looked shaky on set pieces throughout, finally in open play completely messed up a straightforward save from a 26-metre drive by Myojin and somehow allowed the ball to go straight through his body and into the net. Matsui did look a bit better than last week: apart from set pieces and the critical error, he looked quite a neat goalie with intelligent distribution, and he made a couple of good saves!

As this was the third time that Matsui had made a howler and given away a goal in two games, I thought Cerezo might be disheartened, but none of it. They came back hard and looked the better team in the last 25 minutes. They equalised in the 70th minute from a terrific solo goal from Adriano, who made a long run down the left channel and then cracked the ball in from a narrow angle off the far post.

For Gamba, Shimohira looked classy; for Cerezo Martinez was masterful and defenders Moniwa and captain Haneda both played solid games, with Uemoto much improved on last week and looking strong in the air.

If Cerezo can keep up this spirit and this class of football, with no.1 goalie Kim returning next week, they could easily finish in mid-table.

It's completely incredible but, if Matsui had not given Gamba a goal, Cerezo would have won this match. Anyway, the Cerezo fans appreciated the performance, as, just for once, Cerezo gave a good account of themselves in front of a big crowd. Culpi may know what he is doing with his 3-5-2 formation. It was beautiful to watch two teams who both wanted to play good football.

Cerezo:
Matsui;
Haneda, Moniwa, Uemoto; (who frequently switched positions)
Amaral, Kagawa, Martinez, Omata, Takahashi;
Inui (Ienaga 87), Adriano (Bando 87)

Gamba: (4-4-2)
Fujigaya;
Kaji, Nakazawa, Takagi, Shimohira;
Hashimoto, Myojin, Endo, Futagawa (Pedro Junior 67);
Lucas, Cho (Hirai 81)

Gamba Osaka 1-1 Hannan Xianye

The KobeSamurai chips in with a review of Gamba's ACL game on Wednesday, which saw the team stymied by Milos and co.


Gamba began this game perhaps expecting an easy night, giving Kimura his ACL debut in goal, with Fujigaya on the bench. Shimohira was also preferred to Michi Yasuda at left back, with Myojin out, feeling the effects of his injury in the opening ACL game late last month. Yamaguchi was also still on the injured list, but was expected back by the end of the month at the latest.

Up front, Pedro Junior made his comeback, and Ze Carlos - down 8 kg in the last six weeks, but still needing to lose more weight - was on the bench. Lucas was captain in the absence of Myojin, and was registered as a forward, so it seemed like an attacking 4-4-3 was the way it would be played.

The backs lined up from right to left: Kaji, Nakazawa, Takagi, Shimohira. The midfield was policed by Endo, Hashimoto and Futagawa, and the three up front were Cho - nursing a broken bone in his hand, but on the mend - Pedro Junior - back from a long lay-off, and Lucas.

The game began well with a right wing Kaji cross in the 1st minute being met on the full volley by Cho, with an acrobatic shot from 12 yards out which the keeper managed to push away, but the 7500 crowd were soon seeing that Gamba had not learned their lesson from the Nagoya game, when Endo tried to play his way out of danger and lost the ball in his own area to give away the winning goal. This time it was Nakazawa who shielded the ball on the side of the area but, instead of clearing safely he was dispossessed. The ball fell kindly, though, for Kaji, who, AGAIN, tried to play his way out of trouble. he also lost the ball and the cross came in and the shot his Kimura point blank for a lucky let-off? But, no ... the ball fell to Chan Lu, who dispatched it, via a deflection for a shock opening goal for the away team. Yoor writer, on double duty as stadium announcer, was not enthused when announcing the goal and it was all I could do to stop myself from screaming over the microphone at Nakazawa and Endo to "PLAY IT SAFE"!!

This goal, of course, gave Hannan some confidence and they looked considerably more upbeat for the next few minutes but it was soon noticeable that, even at this early stage of the game, they were already slowing it down, and wasting time!

In the 16th minute, Endo fed Pedro Junior, and he twisted and turned three defenders before finding open space and then, after the hard work, blasted over from six yards out with the goalkeeper out of position! It was noticeable, then, for most of the rest of the half that Gamba's passes were going uncharacteristically astray - passes were going out of play, or straight to a Chinese foot. It was only a penalty kick, earned by Lucas and duly converted by the Brazilian that gave Gamba parity by half time.

There were no changes for either team at half time and the game continued with Gamba holding most of the possession but lacking a killer instinct ... until the best moment of the game in the 53rd minute, as a stream of passes foudn Cho 20 yards out and he glanced at the keeper's positioning and slipped a sublime lob over the defence and keeper, only to see it bounce off the bar. Lucas followed up and his shot was desperately deflected for a corner. The Chinese wall of nine defenders was still holding out the Osaka hordes.

Over the next 20 minutes most of the Gamba players got in on the attacking action - from Kaji, Shimohira and Nakazawa from the back, to the midfield trio - the shots were raining in, but causing little problem for the Hannan goalkeeper.

In the 69th, coach Nishino rolled the dice and brought on Michi Yasuda for Shimohira, and Ze Carlos for the out of touch Pedro Junior. Within a minute or so of his entry, Yasuda had two shots on goal - one being deflected, and one going way over the bar, but the signs were good for a big finish ...

Sadyly, it was not to be and, while Gamba were rarely in danger after that early goal, they could not break down the stalwart defence and came out of this game with a home draw. Not the best result, but, more importantly, were lessons learned?

Gamba Osaka:
GK - Kimura
DF: Kaji, Nakazawa, Takagi, Shimohira (Yasuda, 69)
MF: Endo, Hashimoto (Sasaki, 84), Futagawa
FW: Lucas (captain), Pedro Junior (Ze Carlos, 69), Cho

Grampus Make Bold Statement of Intent!

Nagoya got their 2010 season off to an impressive start. They edged an entertaining and closely-fought contest at Osaka's Banpaku Stadium 2-1. All our major new signings had good debuts, with Tulio and Mu Kanazaki making outstanding contributions to a winning cause.

An early Tamada goal, tucking home a Josh Kennedy cushioned header after 13 minutes, was cancelled out by a well placed shot into the top right corner by Futagawa in the 20th minute. (However, this goal came from a well-worked corner that should never have been. A Lucas header clipping Narazaki's bar on the previous play, but Blind Pew and co awarded a corner to Gamba.) The teams continued to be evenly matched for remainder of the half, with both teams displaying some slick passing under pressure. The deadlock was broken midway through the second half when Josh put way the loose ball after some more good work by Tamada.

Gamba		1		2	Grampus
Starters				Starters
P.	No.	Name		Name	No.	P.
GK	1	Yosuke Fujigaya		Seigo Narazaki	1	GK
DF	21	Akira Kaji		Hayuma Tanaka	32	DF
DF	2	Sota Nakazawa		Tulio	4	DF
DF	4	Kazumichi Takagi		Takahiro Masukawa	5	DF
DF	13	Michihiro Yasuda (OUT 80)		Shohei Abe	6	DF
MF	27	Hideo Hashimoto (OUT 63)		Keiji Yoshimura (OUT 64)	14	MF
MF	17	Tomokazu Myojin		Yoshizumi Ogawa	10	MF
MF	7	Yasuhito Endo		Magnum (OUT 90)	8	MF
MF	10	Takahiro Futagawa		Mu Kanazaki (OUT 75)	25	MF
FW	9	Lucas		Keiji Tamada	11	FW
FW	18	Cho Jae-Jin (OUT 88)		Josh Kennedy	16	FW
Subs Bench				Subs Bench
GK	29	Atsushi Kimura		Yoshinaari Takagi	50	GK
DF	6	Takumi Shimohira		Mitsuru Chiyotanda	3	DF
DF	28	Shunya Sugunuma		Igor Burzanovic	9	MF
MF	8	Hayato Sasaki		Danilson	20	FW
MF	23	Takuya Takei		Alex Santos	38	MF
FW	14	Shoki Hirai		Yuki Maki	17	FW
FW	16	Dodo		Keita Sugimoto	19	FW

Futagawa 21'	Scorers	Tamada 14' Kennedy 68'
Gamba	Timeline	Grampus
	GOAL	Keiji Tamada 14'
Takahiro Futagawa 21'	Goal
Hashimoto > Sasaki 63'	Substitution
	Substitution	Yoshimura > Danilson 64'
	Card	Mu Kanazaki 65' (For persistently embarrassing Yasuda.)
	GOAL	Josh Kennedy 68'
	Card	Josh Kennedy 73'
	Substitution	Kanazaki > Burzanovic 75'
Yasuda > Hirai 80'	Substitution
Cho > Dodo 88'	Substitution
	Substitution	Magnum > Chiyotanda 90'
Lucas 90+3'	Card

Paired alongside Masukawa, rather than Chiyotanda, Japan stalwart Tulio had a commanding game. He marshaled the defence brilliantly and made a couple of vital tackles on the rare occasions Gamba did threaten to break through the ranks. The normally agitated Masukawa looked unflappable and had a equally impressive game, suggesting that late substitute CHiyotanda will find it hard to displace his former Avispa colleague for a regular place. More likely, the two of them will alternate in the second central position. Both side backs, Abe and Tanaka coped well with anything that Gamba threw at them, with Hayuma Tanaka free to make some dangerous advances down the right (since Mu dropped back to cover that side when he did so).

Offensively, Mu cruelly exposed Gamba's weakness on its left flank. His speed and power frequently threatening to overrun the outmatched Yasuda. The Gamba defender often relying on some generous protection from referee Okada to bail him out. This constant threat from the pacey youngster, left Ogawa and Magnum free to play more creatively than either managed last season. Both looking sharp and spraying passes to team mates quickly and accurately. Keiji Yoshimua has clearly been forced to raise his game by the arrival of Danilson, and was also far more positive in his play than last year, before making way for the Columbian midway through the second half.

Up front, Josh and Keiji worked tirelessly to deny Gamba time to dwell on the ball. And although the Suita team's crisp, one-touch passes were sharper and slightly more accurate, they were not decisively so as has been the case over the last few years. Indeed this is the first time that we have been equal matches for the Osakans, for a long time, even in games we have managed to win.

The rival fans prepare to usher in a new season