Pixie to Leave Grampus. Who's next?

Grampus

Grampus manager Dragan Stojkovic will be leaving the team at the end of the season. More details and a review of his time as manager will appear in the next issue of JSoccer Magazine. So who will be our next manager? Could it be the guy on the right in the this story from the Chunichi Shimbun?

Coming soon. The Kansai Grampalogue

I am slowly switching over to posting some of my Grampus related information to a new blog, the Kansai Grampalogue. As you might expect, with the strong Grampus connection it has, many of these concern Tokushima Vortis. Although this includes players, such as Keita Sugimoto and Shinta Fukushima, they also have Toru Hasegawa and Tomohiro Tsuda on loan. The most recent post being Tomohiro Helping Vortis Challenge for J1 Place.

Eventually, most of the Grampus game reports and news will be added to this site. This site will also include occasional guest appearances by other bloggers covering Kansai teams.

Tsuda Back for Vortis

Grampus loanee made his long awaited return from injury today, in a 20 minute appearance as sub in Tokushima's 1-0 over cross-island rivals Ehime.

Gamba Fall to Teda in Violence Littered Battle of Tianjin

This game took place in the aftermath of the earthquake that struck Japan the previous Friday. Although the home club sent a message of sympathy to Gamba, their rabid fans showed no such compassion and the game saw them throw several objects onto the field during the course of the game. Of course, the wimps at the AFC will take no action to stamp out this violence.

Tianjin came out looking much the shaper and better motivated of the two teams, and Fijigaya was forced to make an early save. Apart from wayward effort by Adriano, the opening few minutes were one-way traffic towards the Gamba goal. The home team had already seen one goal riled offside for offside, when they took the lead in the 25th minute, Chen Tao firing home a right foot shot. Lee pulled Gamba level a few minutes later, but the home team continued to look the more likely to add to their score. However, they failed to convert their possession into goals and the half ended with the scores still 1-1.

Gamba fell behind, when late first half sub Takagi was carded for a 'foul' in the area. Defender Cao Yang converted the penalty to give the home team the lead. Gamba made a immediate effort to get back into the game, but could not implement their passing game effectively enough to really trouble the home defence. Adriano, Lee and Futagawa all had chances to pull the Blues level, Cheered on by the feverish home crowd, Teda regained the initiative and closed out the game to secure the three points and go top of the group.

Mad Dog Muscat Headed for Banpaku

Former Wolves thug, Kevin Muscat, is set to play in tomorrow's ACL opener against Gamba, despite being banned for eight games in the Aussie league. That ban does not apply to AFC games.
Kevin Muscat ready to return to Victory

Bayern Munich has an eye on Gamba's Usami / Interview with Executive board chairman Rummenigge : Sports : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)

Bad news for the blue half of Osaka. Having already lost Lucas and Yasuda, Gamba can barely afford to lose another key player, if they hope to contend for a title
Bayern Munich has an eye on Gamba's Usami / Interview with Executive board chairman Rummenigge : Sports : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)

Renaissance Naruto Resort

A great place for visitors from Nagoya to stay when coming to watch Keita, Shinta and Tomohiro playing for Vortis. Excellent food and a relaxing atmosphere. The missus and I are regular visitors here, even if I cannot drag her along to a Vortis game. :-) (Just avoid the summer season when the prices double.)

Shinta Joins Keita & Tomo at Vortis

Young Nagoya midfielder Shinta Fukushima joins the ranks of former Grampus players in Tokushima. Jun Aoyama may have gone off to Urawa Reds, but his place in the squad has been taken by Fukushima. With Jungo Fujimoto joining the Grampus midfield this season, Shinta was going to find it hard to get regular playing time and this seems a good acquisition for the Naruto-based team.

Grampus Press Release: 福島新太選手、徳島ヴォルティスへ完全移籍のお知らせ | 名古屋グランパス公式サイト

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.)

Pedro Junior 'Lent' to Gasmen

Gamba's troubled Brazilian forward, currently on loan at SC Do Recif in Brazil, has been loaned out to FC Tokyo. This suggests that Gamba still has the right to decide where he plays and it is nice to see them allow him to try and resurect his career in Japan.

Keita Lands in Tokushima

To no-one's surprise, Sugimoto joins Tomohiro Tsuda at Tokushima Vortis for next year. Tsuda is still on loan, but Vortis will have a couple of rapid whirlpools for at least one season. Let's hope it is enough to sweep them into J1.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod

Vortis' Bae Seung Jin Out for 6 Months

Tokushima Vortis have lost their influential Korean defender for 5-6 months. Seung Jin had an operation on the persistent dislocated shoulder injury that had troubled him over the latter half of the season and will miss the early part of next season.

Vissel Axe Four

Vissel Kobe have also announced the list of players who they will not be resigning next year.

They are: GK Tatsuya Enomoto; DFs Teruaki Kobayashi and Daisuke Tomita; and FW Kazuki Ganaha.

I Believe in Miracles...

... you sexy things Kyoto. Thank you. Jay and Alan will be delirious for weeks.

For those who weren't glued to the results, maybe like me you were listening to Radio 4's TMS as we mangle the Aussies again, Kyoto eased past the Gasmen 2-0 to send them crashing into J1, and the Saitama Chokers collapsed again, allowing Vissel to romp to a 4-0 away win. I am sorry to see FC Tokyo go down, they are a better team than that, but rather them than Kobe.

Meanwhile, over at Toyota Stadium, Josh Kennedy bagged one of our two goals that saw us set a new record of 23 wins in a season, and finish joint top scorer for the season. Do he and Maeda get one golden boot each? :-)

Sanfrecce 0-5 Cerezo

JI is back and Cerezo hit the ground running, romping past the home team to give a vital boost to their confidence in their first game of the post Kagawa era. Peter Pakeman gives us the details:

It would be nice to think that this extraordinary result without Kagawa and Martinez, and also Omata, is a good omen for the Kagawaless future--and it certainly is! However, some reservation is in order as Hiroshima did their best to commit suicide: they were down to ten men for the whole of the second half, the score was 0-0 at half-time, and, after Ienaga had scored his first goal for the club, a beauty, in the 53rd minute, the momentum-creating second goal in the 73rd minute was an own goal from Nakajima due to a mistaken clearance in wet weather conditions. The tentative Cerezo were suddenly two goals up against ten men: "Jeepers! We're two goals up without Kagawa and Martinez--off we go!", the transformation in confidence was almost tangible.

Cerezo had gone to great lengths to obscure news about Martinez. There was no announcement on the Cerezo official site whether Martinez had returned from Brazil or not. In the re-edited team who's who, Martinez is still present, but we have absolutely no news about him at all. Neither the team nor the scorers were announced from the two practice games against Honda FC and Fagiano Okayama on July 8 (although the scores were put up); on the Honda FC site, the Honda team and scorers were announced, but there was zero news about Cerezo, and on the Fagiano Okayama site on the calendar for July 8 was the single word, "OFF!" (Yes, indeed, they were off to Osaka!):-)

In the event, Martinez did not play. On June 1 Hiroyuki Omata (R- LMF) during training damaged the triangular bone in his left foot and is out for about 2 months from that date. On May 22 Hiroshi Kiyotake (S - CMF, OMF) in a League Cup match injured a ligament in a joint in his right leg, which was forecast to take only three weeks to heal, and on June 17 Kenji Haneda (I/R - DF, DMF) after a check-up entered hospital for an unannounced reason and left hospital on June 22; in the practice matches on July 4, they played 45 minutes and 70 minutes respectively.

Culpi was reported as having been impressed by the 19-year-old Yusuke Maruhashi in training and he unexpectedly selected him at wide left in the back four (he played 90 minutes), keeping captain Haneda up in the midfield in place of Martinez, and keeping the front two of Adriano and Ienaga. (I had expected Ienaga to be moved back to the MF to replace Kagawa.)

Team 4-4-2: Kim; Takahashi, Moniwa, Uemoto, Maruhashi; Inui (Fujimoto 80), Amaral, Haneda, Kiyotake (Komatsu 73); Adriano (Bando 73), Ienaga. So it looks as though the 20-year-old Kiyotake will replace Kagawa, and Ienaga will continue to be one of the front two.

Goals:

1 - Ienaga. We've criticized Ienaga in the past for being selfish and shooting when he should have passed, but he partly vindicated himself last night with a cracking 27-metre left-foot drive along the ground. (53)

2 - Nakajima's o.g. (73)

3 - Amaral. A cracking right-foot shot higher into the net from 14 metres. (78)

4 - Takahashi. A good header from 7 metres after a pinpoint cross from Ienaga. (82)

5 - Bando. Another cracking shot--this time a left-foot volley from 22 metres after a cross from Haneda.

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.

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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.

Naruto Otsuka Sports (PocariSweat) Stadium (Tokushima Vortis)

The J.League official site has a brief outline of Vortis and their stadium in English, but we aim to add some additional information.

Location

Pocarisweat Stadium (formerly Naruto Athletic Stadium) is found in Otsuka Sports Park near the center of Naruto. (Yes, this is how they have chosen to spell the name. Not sure if the fault lies with Pocari or the League.)

Nearby places to eat or stay

For those of you who have time for a more leisurely trip to Naruto, I recommend the Renaissance Naruto Resort. This is an excellent spa hotel (with good restaurants), a short hop across the Onaruto Bridge from Awaji Island. (Although, I would try and avoid the peak summer season (June to August) when they are very busy, and their rates go up accordingly.)

Hotel and spa: Renaissance Naruto Resort

Pocarisweat Stadium is about 20 minutes from this hotel, by car or taxi. There is also a bus service from in front of the hotel. (Masochists can take a bike, but it is likely to take about an hour and you have to traverse a narrow, wind-swept bridge to get to Otsuka Sports Park, where the stadium is located.)

Kansai Round-up (May 5)

Shonan Bellmare 2-2 Vissel Kobe

The battle of the likely relegation candidates predictably ended in a stalemate. The only good news for Vissel fans is that Tokura looks like he is adjusting to life in J1 and the fact that the upcoming World Cup break will likely see a long-overdue end to the Miura era.

Tokushima Vortis 4-0 FC Gifu

The former Grampus combination of Aoyama and Tsuda help the home team give their home fans in Naruto reason to cheer after a couple of poor home games. The team exploding for four second half goals after a closely fought opening 45 minutes.

Cerezo Osaka 2-1 Kashima Antlers

As reported earlier, Cerezo won fairly comfortably against a very disappointing Kashima. Teruyuki Moniwa proving to be far too good a defender for the mismatched Koroki.

Kyoto Sanga 2-4 Shimizu S-Pulse

Although former Japan striker Yanagisawa bagged the 100th goal of his career, with a well-taken chance, the Purples were no match for the Shimizu bandwagon and were duly crushed under its wheels as four second half goals cancelled out the home team's 2-0 half time lead.

Gamba Osaka 4-4 Kawasaki Frontale

The two championship hopefuls played out a high-scoring game that saw the home team blow a 3-1 lead with 20 minutes to go.

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'