Or 7 if you prefer. This week's slate of games did absolutely nothing to straighten out the race at the bottom, in fact it probably made it more muddied.
To wit......Consadole, who have been dead for awhile, officially died two weeks ago in Kawasaki. Since then, they pulled off a 2-1 upset in Urawa. Saturday, they ran up against a team that beat them earlier in the season 7-0. What do they do? Hold Kashima scoreless and stone them on a PK. 0-0 tie and Kashima finds itself back in the muck of Relegationistan.
Kawasaki, playing against 17th place Gamba Osaka and the leagues worst goalkeeper, could not hold out against the high scoring squad and fell 3-2. Have I mentioned that key players Endo and Konno both were in Europe for friendlies against France and Brazil and came back to play a full 90? Have I mentioned that Kazama's sons keep playing even though they aren't good? No? Congratulations, Kawasaki.....although you probably won't be relegated, you get a place back in Relegationistan.
Cerezo let FC Tokyo's bald Serbian supersub score in the 74th minute and settled for a draw. 39 points should be enough for Cerezo to stay alive, especially with a game against flatlining Urawa coming up next.
Shimizu went up against a struggling Vissel Kobe squad missing their two starting centerbacks and tied? Seriously? You take out Vegalta and Jubilo and only muster a tie against Vissel?
Finally, Omiya ,who had a big chance to put Albirex away for good, came out flat while playing for a tie, fell behind and then got back into the game. Late sub Daigo Watanabe had a golden chance and blew it. Omiya and Albirex pretty much find themseles in the same situation as when they kicked off.
How the releagtion picture could get more muddled is beyond me....and beyond the 7 teams involved obviously, but hey that's where we are
NEXT WEEK
Two of three teams technically safe from from relegation take on the pair from Osaka. Cerezo heads north to Saitama to take on Urawa in a formality for the pink side of Osaka. Cerezo saw their 3 game win streak snapped by FC tokyo at home last week but are still on a pretty healthy roll. Urawa has been going in the opposite direction, dropping 3 of their last 4 (including embarrassing home losses to Gamba and Consadole). Both teams have full squads for this one but I think Cerezo may be a little bit "fuller".
Gamba will be without Shu Kurata next week for their big encounter against league leader Sanfrecce. The flip side of Kawasaki not getting the job done is that Gamba really gutted out a result. Blue Osaka was led by an Akihiro Ienaga brace and a goal by left back Hiroki Fujiharu. When the teams met in Hiroshima, Sanfrecce came out victorious with a 4-1 result. With the pressure mounting on both squads, I imagine this game will be a much tighter affair.....watch out for Leandro and Hisato Sato, who both haven't scored in a couple of league games.
Albirex goes without U-23 centerback Daisuke Suzuki for their match against Sagan Tosu. Longtime backup Takaya Kurokawa did enough in Omiya to scrape a point. However, Yohei Toyoda might provide a more robust challenge to the Albirex defense in Niigata. This is a matchup of the second worst road team in the league against the second worst home side.
Kashima and Shimizu face off in a sneak peak at next month's Nabisco Cup battle. Shimizu will be missing young forward/wing Toshiyuki Takagi for this game. Shimizu (in spite of last weeks tie) seems to really want a top three spot and the ACL spot while Kashima is kind of in an in-between place in the standings. Will we see Jorginho go with a weakened lineup in order to save his guns for Tokyo, or do they go all out and hope no one gets carded or hurt? Past history says Kashima claims the cup, so Shimizu winning on Saturday seems like a fair swap.
The beginning of the Verdenik era in Omiya saw an unhappy 4-2 result against Noda line co-tenant Kashiwa Reysol. Han Jin Kwon got his first career J league goal for Kashiwa and looks to be more of a fixture in the lineup with the injury to Naoya Kondo. Leandro Domingues is probably more of a game time decision. Giving him rest maybe easier with two straight wins for Reysol in games without their dynamic midfield motor. Omiya comes into the game with a 6 game unbeaten streak.....unfortunately only two of those games were wins. Both teams have allowed 43 goals this season. However, Kashiwa has managed to find the back of the net much more frequently (51 to 29). Big Slovenian striker Novakovic missed Saturday's 2 pointer (downgraded from 6) for unknown reasons (backup keeper Ezumi also was out so I'm thinking maybe it was a cold and not a long temr problem). Daisuke Watabe filled in for Kazuhiro Murakami and had a bit of a rough start. Might be a tough ask to expect Omiya to get a result in Kashiwa.....however they managed it against a better side last year so who knows.
MATCH OF THE WEEK
Kawasaki versus Vissel- Both of these teams should be well and truly done with relegation shenanigans. Neither team has managed to figure out how to get out of their relatively modest surroundings. Kobe enters the game on a 7 game winless string and possibly missing Masahiko Inoha and Kunie Kitamoto as well as forwards Yoshito Okubo, Yuzo Tashiro and backup defender Lee Gwan Son. They did well to scrape a 1-1 tie in difficult Outsourcing stadium and must be considered a slight favorite against non-entity Kawasaki Frontale. Kazama's constant lineup changes and experimentation have destabilized the team....it probably doesn't matter at this point and in terms of long term prospects it is the more appropriate choice. So I guess congratulations are in order for Kobe, Albirex, and Cerezo on your one goal victories over Frontale.
BIG WINNER OF THE WEEK- Gamba Osaka
Hats off to them. They got the job done when nobody else did this week. With FC Tokyo fading and Jubilo absolutely tanking down the stretch, the nightmare schedule looks a lot less scary.
BIG LOSER OF THE WEEK- Omiya Ardija
They failed to bury a wounded Albirex and put pressure on Vissel and Gamba on Saturday and now find themselves teetering between safety and 17th. While the defensive woes seem to be improving, Verdeniks lack of ideas on the offensive side still haunt the squad. If Novakovic is out, that means the team is dependent on Zlatan, who has been this years version of Rodrigo Pimpao.
Finally, YOUR DEAD OSAKA STREAK OF THE WEEK
Cerezo's three game come from behind victory streak seemed like the obvious choice. However Gamba gets the nod. When Shu Kurata picked up his 4th yellow of the season, it ended Gamba's 29 game streak of having all their players eligible for games. They managed to keep all their players on the field even with Endo,Sato, Paulinho, Kaji, and Niwa sitting on three yellows. Iwashita picked up his 9th card on Saturday (6 with Shimizu) and sits out for two games with his next yellow card.
Congrats to next year's first resident of Relegationistan- Ventforet Kofu, your 2012 J2 Champions!!!!
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Clint Eastwood in Relegationistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DGl-4gByV4
This week was a semi-off week for the relegation teams. However, there were some minor rumbles felt by all the teams in the cup week that was. Digging in-
12. Cerezo Osaka- Cerezo matched up on Wednesday against Montedio Yamagata and former teammate Branquinho. Another former Cerezo player, defender Kazuya Maeda, put Montedio up early in the second half. Cerezo would come back on goals by Olympian Kenyu Sugimoto and defender Kota Fujimoto.
THE GOOD- Getting Sugimoto back on the scoring track is a positive, especially since Mario Kempes does not seem to be the most reliable goal scorer in the league. The game also was Cerezo's fourth comeback victory in a row.
THE BAD- For the fifth game in a row, Cerezo allowed the opposition to stake a lead.
THE UGLY- That would actually go to Cerezo's opponent next week, FC Tokyo, who crashed out of the Nabisco Cup yesterday with a 3-0 loss to Shimizu S Pulse. This marks the second game that FC Tokyo has lost by 3 goals or more (both on the road). If FC Tokyo's mood is "ugly", Cerezo might be in for a long game. If FC Tokyo's form is "ugly", you might see Cerezo romp to an easy victory.
13. Kashima Antlers- Relegationistans big winner and busiest team. Kashima opted to go with a weaker lineup for their game against Gainare Tottori (only 2 of the starting 11 were starters for the Nabisco Cup Semifinal yesterday). Chikashi Masuda helped stake Kashima to an early lead before Tottori came back to force extra time. Shinzo Koroki got the game winner in the 110th minute to avoid a very embarrassing result.
Saturday saw the defending Nabisco Cup champs take on the defending J League champs in the second leg of the Nabisco Cup semifinals. Kashima quickly added to their 3-2 first leg lead with a goal from the white hot Dutra. Moments later, Yuya Osako would add one more. Jorge Wagner and Neto Baiano would grab goals back for the home side to make things nervous, but Kashima would hang on and book a trip for Tokyo on November 3rd.
THE GOOD- Dutra added to his goal streak with another early tally. It finally looks like the Brazilian midfielder is getting comfortable in Ibaraki after a tough start. Kashima also gambled on flaming out of Emperors Cup with a B team and won. Guys like Masuda and Koroki got on the score sheet and alot of reserves got a bit of a confidence boost.
THE BAD- Not so much bad as inconvenient but if things go bad for Kashima in the league, they are going to have to make a decision on going full bore in the Nabisco Cup final, or hedging and saving some guys for the matchup four days later against Omiya.
THE UGLY- Yuya Osako's pk miss and follow-up shot over the bar. Osako is doing alot of things right this year but finishing isn't one of them. Don't know if it's a fad or a long term mental problem but Osako needs to fix it fast. Combine him with Yuji Ono and you have the beginnings of a new generation of talented but mentally fragile target men. Not that that's new to Japan.
14. Vissel Kobe- Homes Stadium saw 615 people go through the gates for a PK thriller between JEF Chiba and the home side...Sagawa Shiga. Vissel unfortunately were training and not playing.
THE GOOD- Vissel had two weeks and plenty of match footage to go through to plan for next weeks opponent, Shimizu S Pulse.
THE BAD- If you go on the Vissel Kobe website, you'll see a banner for "One Heart" with pictures of Nishino and 5 players. Next week will see three of those players sitting out with yellow card accumulation (Kitamoto) or injuries (Okubo, Inoha). Add to that the off again-on again health issues of Yuzo Tashiro and you have a recipe for a very, very long 6 game stretch.
THE UGLY- Stories out of the tabloids earlier this month were saying that Masahiko Inoha was dealing with injuries before the call-up for the France game. He's now out for 3 weeks after picking up an injury in France, not helping his National Team chances and forcing Kobe to field a centerback pairing of Kazumichi Takagi and Lee Kwang Seon. I understand that playing a big country like France in France is a good prestige match for the National Team, but really Nishino and Zaccheroni need to use their heads in this situation and come to an agreement on backup National Team players not threatining their careers over the most meaningless of friendlies. In this case it cost the player and it might cost the club and Zac earned nothing from the move.
15. Omiya Ardija- If Kashima was the big winner of the week, Omiya gets a good second place spot with a successful Wednesday night victory over Avispa Fukuoka. Omiya started off the scoring in the 45th minute off a Yu Hasegawa goal in the middle of a Fukuoka pack. Zlatan doubled the scoring in the 54th minute with a sliding shot. Osmar would grab one back for Fukuoka in the 66th minute, but Novakovic would put the game away late with a rebound goal in the 87th minute.
THE GOOD- Including Fukuoka University, Omiya had a 4 game losing streak to Fukuoka teams, so the emotional relief of getting past Fukuoka has to be a positive. All three strikers for Omiya got on the board in this game after two straight games of scoreless ties. Daisuke Watabe was able to successfully slot in a right side back and made no huge errors in the game filling in for Kazuhiro Murakami. Finally, schedule congestion for Kashima gave the team a bit of an advantage for the November 7th game. At this time of year, any advantage counts....especially against a team they only have one career league win against.
THE BAD- It was bound to happen sooner or later, but Omiya's clean sheet streak came to an end on Wednesday. Goals happen but the way it ended has to be categorized as.....
THE UGLY- During the scoreless streak, Captain Kosuke Kikuchi has been very solid and has cut down the mental gaffes that plagued him for most of the year. The old Kosuke popped his head out in the 66th minute, when a very lacsadaisical pass combined with some hesitation from Kitano led to a hustling Osmar grabbing the lone goal for Avispa. If he learns from it, great...it's a positive. But if he does it again....ala the Sanfrecce game....Omiya has some worries going into the last 6 games.
16. Albirex Niigata- Albirex opted to go with one starter from their Vissel Kobe draw and a pack of bench players for their game against Fukushima United. Didn't go quite the way Albirex would have liked with Fukushima notching the lone goal of the night. On again/off again starter Naoya Kikuchi picked up a knock early in the game and is questionable for next weeks 6 pointer.
THE GOOD- Shimizu won their Nabisco Cup semifinal, so Albirex gets to face them on a short week and a possible cup hangover. That's a positive. Morishita also managed to get some time for his bench, especially backup keeper Hideaki Ozawa. Wouldn't seem important, but....
THE BAD- Masaaki Higashiguchi was rumored to be carted off the field during yesterday's training match between Niigata and Thespa Kustatsu's U-23. Albirex went 0-1-3 in the games Higashiguchi missed earlier in the year, so losing him for even a couple games would be a blow to Albirex survival hopes. Twitter feeds were saying the player doesn't think it's serious enough to jeopardize him for the Omiya game but we don't know for sure.
THE UGLY- Shoki Hirai and Kisho Yano had a chance to stake a claim to starting spots and failed miserably against a 4th division squad. The 22 goals (bolstered by a 5 goal outlier against Nagoya) should have Niigata worried. Losing wasn't the worst thing to happen on Wednesday.....not scoring was.
17. Gamba Osaka- Gamba opted for a hybrid method in their Wednesday match against Mito Hollyhock. Yasushi Endo and Yasuyuki Konno both were off to France for National Team shenanigans and Ienaga, Sato, and Fujigaya all took seats on the bench. Gamba was able to win with a familiar formula- get the ball to Leandro and get out of the way. Yohei Takeda managed to keep a clean sheet and gives Gamba something to think about for their game against Kawasaki.
THE GOOD- A win and a clean sheet are good confidence boosters, especially without your best midfielder and defender. Leandro gets back on the score sheet with his strike also restores a bit of invincibility lost last week at the hands of Sendai. Finally, both Konno and Endo represented themselves well after going a full 90 against France in the Samurai Blues 1-0 win. Endo tied the record for most caps as a National Team player. Congratulations.
THE BAD- Both players have one more midweek game to play against Brazil in Poland before coming back to Japan for the Frontale game. It's a lot of travel and alot of game time for two veterans who may not have a full tank after the cross-continental trip. Do you put them in the starting 11 and hope they can go a full 90, do you risk it and have them come off the bench, or do you save one or both of them and gamble on getting past a very mediocre Kawasaki side?
THE UGLY- What's going to happen if Fujigaya plays on Saturday and blows another game for the team. Takeda wasn't brilliant against Mito, but he did just enough to take the win. At this point in the year, should Gamba stay with arguably the worst keeper in J1 or throw out the untested Takeda? What's gonna be ugly is the fan reaction if the gamble does not pay off. Keeper controversies aren't good this time of year.
MORE EMPEROR'S CUP THOUGHTS
I'm all in on this year's Emperor's Cup, not least of which is because Omiya is still actually alive. However, I got a bone to pick with the schedulers. Midweek games are unavoidable and the upsets caused some really unfortunate attendance numbers. Machida Zelvia and FC Imabari got a grand total of 304 for their game in Hiroshima. Yokogawa Musashino and Nagano got 312 in Hokkaido. JEF and Sagawa Shiga got 615 in Kobe. Those are weird matchups in even weirder places so I don't have a problem with that.
The highest attendance on the night was a derby match between Yokohama F Marinos and Yokohama FC which saw a gate of 8862. Over double everything else on the night. Not bad.
The JFA in it's infinite wisdom, decided the 4th round should be a draw....no problem again but they opted to give home games to Omiya, Urawa, JEF, Kashiwa, Gamba, and Cerezo, while Jubilo, Shimizu, Kawasaki, and Yokohama all get road games. No derbies in the 4th round. Which also means no attendance in the 4th round. What's a more compelling game.....Jubilo-Shimizu or Jubilo-Omiya? Not a difficult question to answer. Are they doing this so that they can get a team who will undoubtably get to the ACL round of 16, lose and then spiral to 13th in the table next year? Stop screwing with the cup.......unless you are going to do it to benefit the competition.
DIRTY SIGNS IN YOKOHAMA
The moment of outrage in round 3 happened at the Nissan when Yokohama FC fans put up a large banner telling Marinos to go fuck themselves. I'm not that offended by it.....its rude but a little funny. I think they missed an opportunity to get creative. The whole GFY with the finger came across as Urawaesque, big on shock but not that creative. Had they put a picture of the Flugel mascot shoving his head up a seagulls poopshoot, then I'd be behind this 110 percent. It would have been a nice summary of the merger and the feeling of the Fulie. GFY wasn't elegant and it wasn't worth the outrage and fine it caused. If you are gonna go for shock......go all the way.
GAME OF THE WEEK- Gamba versus Kawasaki. There are two games on Gamba's schedule that are dead lock must win contests and Kawasaki is the first one. It's been detailed about the three positions that are up in the air for Gamba going into the match. What's not in question is Leandro. If he has a good game against a pretty average defense, Gamba probably rolls. A tie doesn't really help in this game considering that Omiya and Albirex face off in Omiya, especially if one of the orange relegation candidates wins. Time is runnning out for Gamba so this game is the big one. Especially with Sanfrecce coming into town next week.
VIVA TOYAMA!
This week was a semi-off week for the relegation teams. However, there were some minor rumbles felt by all the teams in the cup week that was. Digging in-
12. Cerezo Osaka- Cerezo matched up on Wednesday against Montedio Yamagata and former teammate Branquinho. Another former Cerezo player, defender Kazuya Maeda, put Montedio up early in the second half. Cerezo would come back on goals by Olympian Kenyu Sugimoto and defender Kota Fujimoto.
THE GOOD- Getting Sugimoto back on the scoring track is a positive, especially since Mario Kempes does not seem to be the most reliable goal scorer in the league. The game also was Cerezo's fourth comeback victory in a row.
THE BAD- For the fifth game in a row, Cerezo allowed the opposition to stake a lead.
THE UGLY- That would actually go to Cerezo's opponent next week, FC Tokyo, who crashed out of the Nabisco Cup yesterday with a 3-0 loss to Shimizu S Pulse. This marks the second game that FC Tokyo has lost by 3 goals or more (both on the road). If FC Tokyo's mood is "ugly", Cerezo might be in for a long game. If FC Tokyo's form is "ugly", you might see Cerezo romp to an easy victory.
13. Kashima Antlers- Relegationistans big winner and busiest team. Kashima opted to go with a weaker lineup for their game against Gainare Tottori (only 2 of the starting 11 were starters for the Nabisco Cup Semifinal yesterday). Chikashi Masuda helped stake Kashima to an early lead before Tottori came back to force extra time. Shinzo Koroki got the game winner in the 110th minute to avoid a very embarrassing result.
Saturday saw the defending Nabisco Cup champs take on the defending J League champs in the second leg of the Nabisco Cup semifinals. Kashima quickly added to their 3-2 first leg lead with a goal from the white hot Dutra. Moments later, Yuya Osako would add one more. Jorge Wagner and Neto Baiano would grab goals back for the home side to make things nervous, but Kashima would hang on and book a trip for Tokyo on November 3rd.
THE GOOD- Dutra added to his goal streak with another early tally. It finally looks like the Brazilian midfielder is getting comfortable in Ibaraki after a tough start. Kashima also gambled on flaming out of Emperors Cup with a B team and won. Guys like Masuda and Koroki got on the score sheet and alot of reserves got a bit of a confidence boost.
THE BAD- Not so much bad as inconvenient but if things go bad for Kashima in the league, they are going to have to make a decision on going full bore in the Nabisco Cup final, or hedging and saving some guys for the matchup four days later against Omiya.
THE UGLY- Yuya Osako's pk miss and follow-up shot over the bar. Osako is doing alot of things right this year but finishing isn't one of them. Don't know if it's a fad or a long term mental problem but Osako needs to fix it fast. Combine him with Yuji Ono and you have the beginnings of a new generation of talented but mentally fragile target men. Not that that's new to Japan.
14. Vissel Kobe- Homes Stadium saw 615 people go through the gates for a PK thriller between JEF Chiba and the home side...Sagawa Shiga. Vissel unfortunately were training and not playing.
THE GOOD- Vissel had two weeks and plenty of match footage to go through to plan for next weeks opponent, Shimizu S Pulse.
THE BAD- If you go on the Vissel Kobe website, you'll see a banner for "One Heart" with pictures of Nishino and 5 players. Next week will see three of those players sitting out with yellow card accumulation (Kitamoto) or injuries (Okubo, Inoha). Add to that the off again-on again health issues of Yuzo Tashiro and you have a recipe for a very, very long 6 game stretch.
THE UGLY- Stories out of the tabloids earlier this month were saying that Masahiko Inoha was dealing with injuries before the call-up for the France game. He's now out for 3 weeks after picking up an injury in France, not helping his National Team chances and forcing Kobe to field a centerback pairing of Kazumichi Takagi and Lee Kwang Seon. I understand that playing a big country like France in France is a good prestige match for the National Team, but really Nishino and Zaccheroni need to use their heads in this situation and come to an agreement on backup National Team players not threatining their careers over the most meaningless of friendlies. In this case it cost the player and it might cost the club and Zac earned nothing from the move.
15. Omiya Ardija- If Kashima was the big winner of the week, Omiya gets a good second place spot with a successful Wednesday night victory over Avispa Fukuoka. Omiya started off the scoring in the 45th minute off a Yu Hasegawa goal in the middle of a Fukuoka pack. Zlatan doubled the scoring in the 54th minute with a sliding shot. Osmar would grab one back for Fukuoka in the 66th minute, but Novakovic would put the game away late with a rebound goal in the 87th minute.
THE GOOD- Including Fukuoka University, Omiya had a 4 game losing streak to Fukuoka teams, so the emotional relief of getting past Fukuoka has to be a positive. All three strikers for Omiya got on the board in this game after two straight games of scoreless ties. Daisuke Watabe was able to successfully slot in a right side back and made no huge errors in the game filling in for Kazuhiro Murakami. Finally, schedule congestion for Kashima gave the team a bit of an advantage for the November 7th game. At this time of year, any advantage counts....especially against a team they only have one career league win against.
THE BAD- It was bound to happen sooner or later, but Omiya's clean sheet streak came to an end on Wednesday. Goals happen but the way it ended has to be categorized as.....
THE UGLY- During the scoreless streak, Captain Kosuke Kikuchi has been very solid and has cut down the mental gaffes that plagued him for most of the year. The old Kosuke popped his head out in the 66th minute, when a very lacsadaisical pass combined with some hesitation from Kitano led to a hustling Osmar grabbing the lone goal for Avispa. If he learns from it, great...it's a positive. But if he does it again....ala the Sanfrecce game....Omiya has some worries going into the last 6 games.
16. Albirex Niigata- Albirex opted to go with one starter from their Vissel Kobe draw and a pack of bench players for their game against Fukushima United. Didn't go quite the way Albirex would have liked with Fukushima notching the lone goal of the night. On again/off again starter Naoya Kikuchi picked up a knock early in the game and is questionable for next weeks 6 pointer.
THE GOOD- Shimizu won their Nabisco Cup semifinal, so Albirex gets to face them on a short week and a possible cup hangover. That's a positive. Morishita also managed to get some time for his bench, especially backup keeper Hideaki Ozawa. Wouldn't seem important, but....
THE BAD- Masaaki Higashiguchi was rumored to be carted off the field during yesterday's training match between Niigata and Thespa Kustatsu's U-23. Albirex went 0-1-3 in the games Higashiguchi missed earlier in the year, so losing him for even a couple games would be a blow to Albirex survival hopes. Twitter feeds were saying the player doesn't think it's serious enough to jeopardize him for the Omiya game but we don't know for sure.
THE UGLY- Shoki Hirai and Kisho Yano had a chance to stake a claim to starting spots and failed miserably against a 4th division squad. The 22 goals (bolstered by a 5 goal outlier against Nagoya) should have Niigata worried. Losing wasn't the worst thing to happen on Wednesday.....not scoring was.
17. Gamba Osaka- Gamba opted for a hybrid method in their Wednesday match against Mito Hollyhock. Yasushi Endo and Yasuyuki Konno both were off to France for National Team shenanigans and Ienaga, Sato, and Fujigaya all took seats on the bench. Gamba was able to win with a familiar formula- get the ball to Leandro and get out of the way. Yohei Takeda managed to keep a clean sheet and gives Gamba something to think about for their game against Kawasaki.
THE GOOD- A win and a clean sheet are good confidence boosters, especially without your best midfielder and defender. Leandro gets back on the score sheet with his strike also restores a bit of invincibility lost last week at the hands of Sendai. Finally, both Konno and Endo represented themselves well after going a full 90 against France in the Samurai Blues 1-0 win. Endo tied the record for most caps as a National Team player. Congratulations.
THE BAD- Both players have one more midweek game to play against Brazil in Poland before coming back to Japan for the Frontale game. It's a lot of travel and alot of game time for two veterans who may not have a full tank after the cross-continental trip. Do you put them in the starting 11 and hope they can go a full 90, do you risk it and have them come off the bench, or do you save one or both of them and gamble on getting past a very mediocre Kawasaki side?
THE UGLY- What's going to happen if Fujigaya plays on Saturday and blows another game for the team. Takeda wasn't brilliant against Mito, but he did just enough to take the win. At this point in the year, should Gamba stay with arguably the worst keeper in J1 or throw out the untested Takeda? What's gonna be ugly is the fan reaction if the gamble does not pay off. Keeper controversies aren't good this time of year.
MORE EMPEROR'S CUP THOUGHTS
I'm all in on this year's Emperor's Cup, not least of which is because Omiya is still actually alive. However, I got a bone to pick with the schedulers. Midweek games are unavoidable and the upsets caused some really unfortunate attendance numbers. Machida Zelvia and FC Imabari got a grand total of 304 for their game in Hiroshima. Yokogawa Musashino and Nagano got 312 in Hokkaido. JEF and Sagawa Shiga got 615 in Kobe. Those are weird matchups in even weirder places so I don't have a problem with that.
The highest attendance on the night was a derby match between Yokohama F Marinos and Yokohama FC which saw a gate of 8862. Over double everything else on the night. Not bad.
The JFA in it's infinite wisdom, decided the 4th round should be a draw....no problem again but they opted to give home games to Omiya, Urawa, JEF, Kashiwa, Gamba, and Cerezo, while Jubilo, Shimizu, Kawasaki, and Yokohama all get road games. No derbies in the 4th round. Which also means no attendance in the 4th round. What's a more compelling game.....Jubilo-Shimizu or Jubilo-Omiya? Not a difficult question to answer. Are they doing this so that they can get a team who will undoubtably get to the ACL round of 16, lose and then spiral to 13th in the table next year? Stop screwing with the cup.......unless you are going to do it to benefit the competition.
DIRTY SIGNS IN YOKOHAMA
The moment of outrage in round 3 happened at the Nissan when Yokohama FC fans put up a large banner telling Marinos to go fuck themselves. I'm not that offended by it.....its rude but a little funny. I think they missed an opportunity to get creative. The whole GFY with the finger came across as Urawaesque, big on shock but not that creative. Had they put a picture of the Flugel mascot shoving his head up a seagulls poopshoot, then I'd be behind this 110 percent. It would have been a nice summary of the merger and the feeling of the Fulie. GFY wasn't elegant and it wasn't worth the outrage and fine it caused. If you are gonna go for shock......go all the way.
GAME OF THE WEEK- Gamba versus Kawasaki. There are two games on Gamba's schedule that are dead lock must win contests and Kawasaki is the first one. It's been detailed about the three positions that are up in the air for Gamba going into the match. What's not in question is Leandro. If he has a good game against a pretty average defense, Gamba probably rolls. A tie doesn't really help in this game considering that Omiya and Albirex face off in Omiya, especially if one of the orange relegation candidates wins. Time is runnning out for Gamba so this game is the big one. Especially with Sanfrecce coming into town next week.
VIVA TOYAMA!
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Frogs in a pot
At the start of the week, we had 6 teams sitting in the murky, mucky water of Relegationistan. Two of these teams felt the water getting a little hot and have pretty decided that it's time to get out. I'm not sure it's time to call safe on Cerezo and Kashima but I'm getting close.
Here's the rundown
BIG WINNER OF THE WEEK- Kashima Antlers.
Kashima pulled off the unlikely (but increasingly more common) feat of putting up 5 goals on an opponent, this time in the shape of FC Tokyo. A hat trick administered by the unlikely foot of Junior Dutra was the catalyst for a rout. Cerezo may have more total points, but Kashima has the easier schedule, with games against Consadole and Omiya still on the schedule, as well as a gam against the corpse of Nagoya Grampus. Two of those games might be tricky though (I'll explain down below).
BIG LOSER OF THE WEEK- Albirex Niigata
Even though Gamba finds themselves in a more precarious position, Albirex missed the opportunity to pass up a direct rival and put pressure on their next opponent in week 29. By failing to beat Kobe, they let Omiya go into the break out of the relegation zone and with the option of letting Albirex force play while sitting back and waiting for the counter. I'm not saying that Albirex can't succeed this way, however considering the fact that they are league worst in scoring and like to steal wins through counterattacks, it makes the job that much tougher.
INTERNATIONAL INTERRUPTION
Everybody gets a brief respite for FIFA's designated international match days/money grab. Two teams in the bottom are directly affected with call-ups. Gamba Osaka send defensive anchor Yasuyuki Konno and frequent flier Yasuhito Endo for a global jaunt to France. Not the greatest thing for two very important veterans to fly to France during a good recovery time but hey it's your country. Luckily, Kawasaki operator Kengo Nakamura is also making the trip, so the advantage for Frontale is negligible.
Vissel Kobe sends a banged up Masahiko Inoha on the trip as well which is a risk considering Kazumichi Takagi and Lee Kwang Seon are the primary backups.
International break day also means cup competitions aplenty. Every team except Kobe have Emperor Cup matches on the 10th. Omiya hosts Fukuoka at magnificent Kumagaya in hopes of getting a bit of payback versus the J2 squad. Last year saw Fukuoka sweep the season series. The teams met in 2010 in a rainy midweek match in a controversial game. Fukuoka managed to eek out a win in PK's. Albirex plays host to Fukushima United, Gamba hosts Mito, and Cerezo takes on Yamagata in the Branquinho derby.
Kashima by far is the busiest of the Relegationistan residents. On Wednesday, Kashima plays host to Gainare Tottori, a team who has their own relegation worries (Lower Relegationistan?) and may opt to go with a reserve team considering they have away games against Toyama and Ehime sandwiching the midweek cup contest. Kashima might also go with the B squad because of a second leg semifinal match away at Kashiwa.
Cup games are tricky for a couple different reasons. First you get a mix of starters and reserves (in most cases) which leads to accidents in terms of injury and adjudication. If you've read my thoughts on Nabisco Cup (I hate it), you know that I have a real bone to pick with the policy of disqualifying players for league matches because of cup bookings. Kashima is the most handicapped by the cup congestion and faces a Consadole side who not only has nothing to lose, they have two full weeks to prepare for an upset.
The beneficiary of the cup schedule is Kobe, who were eliminated in round 2. Kobe has two full weeks to prepare for surging Shimizu S Pulse, who like Kashima, have midweek Emperor Cup competitions and a Saturday Nabisco Semifinal match against FC Tokyo.
If Kashima and Shimizu managed to upend their opponents, they go on to a finals match on the 3rd of November. This affects the relegation matchup because both Albirex and Omiya are the designated opponents in short schedule games on the 7th. If Kashima loses, it affects the race as well. Kashiwa faces off against Gamba on the 7th. FC Tokyo is the fourth team in the mix and faces Nagoya on the 7th.
Here's a chart
What Cerezo, Kashima, Vissel, and Omiya want for a Nabisco Cup final
Kashima versus FC Tokyo
What Albirex wants for a Nabisco Cup final
Kashima versus Shimizu
What Gamba wants for a Nabisco Cup final
Kashiwa versus FC Tokyo
GAME OF THE WEEK- Kashima versus Kashiwa It's slim pickings this week for games that affect relegation, so this is it. Kashima blasted FC Tokyo on Saturday, while Kashiwa eeked out a 1-0 win against Kawasaki. Both teams will be missing key players for the match. Kashiwa is without the midfield tandem of Ryoichi Kurisawa and Leandro Dominguez while Kashima goes without hardman Mitsuo Ogasawara. Kashima enters the away leg with a tenuous 3-2 advantage. Kashiwa only needs to win 1-0 to advance to the final with the two crucial goals picked up in Kashima.
OSAKA STREAK CORNER- With the 2-1 loss to Vegalta, Gamba's amazing 8 game unbeaten Leandro streak was finally laid to rest. It's unknown so far how the team reacts to losing their invincibility with the talismanic striker on the field. Another amazing streak held up when for the third week in a row, Cerezo Osaka came from behind twice to edge Sagan Tosu. Remarkably all three of their come from behind wins have been by 3-2 scorelines, two of which coming against top tier Shimizu and Sagan Tosu. Cerezo looks to extend the winning streak against FC Tokyo. Not sure if they care about the 3-2 scoreline.
Enjoy the bath
Here's the rundown
BIG WINNER OF THE WEEK- Kashima Antlers.
Kashima pulled off the unlikely (but increasingly more common) feat of putting up 5 goals on an opponent, this time in the shape of FC Tokyo. A hat trick administered by the unlikely foot of Junior Dutra was the catalyst for a rout. Cerezo may have more total points, but Kashima has the easier schedule, with games against Consadole and Omiya still on the schedule, as well as a gam against the corpse of Nagoya Grampus. Two of those games might be tricky though (I'll explain down below).
BIG LOSER OF THE WEEK- Albirex Niigata
Even though Gamba finds themselves in a more precarious position, Albirex missed the opportunity to pass up a direct rival and put pressure on their next opponent in week 29. By failing to beat Kobe, they let Omiya go into the break out of the relegation zone and with the option of letting Albirex force play while sitting back and waiting for the counter. I'm not saying that Albirex can't succeed this way, however considering the fact that they are league worst in scoring and like to steal wins through counterattacks, it makes the job that much tougher.
INTERNATIONAL INTERRUPTION
Everybody gets a brief respite for FIFA's designated international match days/money grab. Two teams in the bottom are directly affected with call-ups. Gamba Osaka send defensive anchor Yasuyuki Konno and frequent flier Yasuhito Endo for a global jaunt to France. Not the greatest thing for two very important veterans to fly to France during a good recovery time but hey it's your country. Luckily, Kawasaki operator Kengo Nakamura is also making the trip, so the advantage for Frontale is negligible.
Vissel Kobe sends a banged up Masahiko Inoha on the trip as well which is a risk considering Kazumichi Takagi and Lee Kwang Seon are the primary backups.
International break day also means cup competitions aplenty. Every team except Kobe have Emperor Cup matches on the 10th. Omiya hosts Fukuoka at magnificent Kumagaya in hopes of getting a bit of payback versus the J2 squad. Last year saw Fukuoka sweep the season series. The teams met in 2010 in a rainy midweek match in a controversial game. Fukuoka managed to eek out a win in PK's. Albirex plays host to Fukushima United, Gamba hosts Mito, and Cerezo takes on Yamagata in the Branquinho derby.
Kashima by far is the busiest of the Relegationistan residents. On Wednesday, Kashima plays host to Gainare Tottori, a team who has their own relegation worries (Lower Relegationistan?) and may opt to go with a reserve team considering they have away games against Toyama and Ehime sandwiching the midweek cup contest. Kashima might also go with the B squad because of a second leg semifinal match away at Kashiwa.
Cup games are tricky for a couple different reasons. First you get a mix of starters and reserves (in most cases) which leads to accidents in terms of injury and adjudication. If you've read my thoughts on Nabisco Cup (I hate it), you know that I have a real bone to pick with the policy of disqualifying players for league matches because of cup bookings. Kashima is the most handicapped by the cup congestion and faces a Consadole side who not only has nothing to lose, they have two full weeks to prepare for an upset.
The beneficiary of the cup schedule is Kobe, who were eliminated in round 2. Kobe has two full weeks to prepare for surging Shimizu S Pulse, who like Kashima, have midweek Emperor Cup competitions and a Saturday Nabisco Semifinal match against FC Tokyo.
If Kashima and Shimizu managed to upend their opponents, they go on to a finals match on the 3rd of November. This affects the relegation matchup because both Albirex and Omiya are the designated opponents in short schedule games on the 7th. If Kashima loses, it affects the race as well. Kashiwa faces off against Gamba on the 7th. FC Tokyo is the fourth team in the mix and faces Nagoya on the 7th.
Here's a chart
What Cerezo, Kashima, Vissel, and Omiya want for a Nabisco Cup final
Kashima versus FC Tokyo
What Albirex wants for a Nabisco Cup final
Kashima versus Shimizu
What Gamba wants for a Nabisco Cup final
Kashiwa versus FC Tokyo
GAME OF THE WEEK- Kashima versus Kashiwa It's slim pickings this week for games that affect relegation, so this is it. Kashima blasted FC Tokyo on Saturday, while Kashiwa eeked out a 1-0 win against Kawasaki. Both teams will be missing key players for the match. Kashiwa is without the midfield tandem of Ryoichi Kurisawa and Leandro Dominguez while Kashima goes without hardman Mitsuo Ogasawara. Kashima enters the away leg with a tenuous 3-2 advantage. Kashiwa only needs to win 1-0 to advance to the final with the two crucial goals picked up in Kashima.
OSAKA STREAK CORNER- With the 2-1 loss to Vegalta, Gamba's amazing 8 game unbeaten Leandro streak was finally laid to rest. It's unknown so far how the team reacts to losing their invincibility with the talismanic striker on the field. Another amazing streak held up when for the third week in a row, Cerezo Osaka came from behind twice to edge Sagan Tosu. Remarkably all three of their come from behind wins have been by 3-2 scorelines, two of which coming against top tier Shimizu and Sagan Tosu. Cerezo looks to extend the winning streak against FC Tokyo. Not sure if they care about the 3-2 scoreline.
Enjoy the bath
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