If you were going to have to bet on ONE team to win a game on any given day from the following list: Gamba, Antlers, Cerezo, and FCTokyo, who would you choose?

Exactly.

So what a huge suprise that the outcome of Round 29's Sunday pair of games between Gamba/FCT and Antlers/Cerezo... went to the team least likely to win.

As could be expected, Gamba created the greater portion of chances, but FCT clung on. FCT 2-1 Gamba

I chose to chew my nails through the Antlers 0-0 Cerezo game. If you really cared about either of these teams, it was one of those game that you were almost tempted to take up smoking if you don't already.

Fearless and physical defensive pressure from Cerezo, and the Antlers looked uncomfortable for the first ten or so minutes. Soon they got the rhythm, but were unable to make their opportunities bear fruit. Particularly lacking in finish this day was Kashima's Motoyama...

And the lack of goals in the first half really came back to haunt Kashima when in the second half left sideback Araiba was shown a red for going after Morishima. There were yellow cards flying all over, but given the tension in the air and the stakes, the players were controlling themselves.

Despite being one man down, Kashima kept up the pressure, and though they were threatened by a dynamic Cerezo attack, they did not pull back and defend only. I was actually surprised at how high they kept their defense line, despite the risk and the fact that a loss would be absolutely unacceptable. Cerezo went down a man too, later on, and it was interesting watching a 10 on 10 game... lots more space.

In the very last minute of the game during injury time, Osaka got hold of a cleared ball (off an Antlers corner) and went for the last second counter via Fabinho. When Sogahata came out of the box to slow him down, but Fabinho got the ball past, and in my mind, as I was losing consciousness, the last thought I had was..

...Oh my god. We're dead....

And then when I came to, I realized that the unlucky man had actually missed the shot!

>>Right-Click and Download to see the VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS from these two Sunday games.

A disappointing result against Nantes. But looking at the highlights it looks like Nantes was creating more chances and threatening more. But in the end it was the one PK that gave Nantes the win.

Daisuke Matsui came on in the second half, but no luck!

>>Click to see game highlights

Oh, and here's something a little fun. I think the first time we (in Japan) have actually heard Matsui speak French on camera. The club has hired a tutor for Matsui and the two other non-French speakers in the team to get lessons 3 times a week, but Matsui himself has said that it's difficult and languages are not his forte.

>>Click to see brief comment made in French last week after the Strasbourg game, in which he assisted in the first goal and scored the second winning goal. (He said he was happy about the result and the goal, and he wants to keep it up.) The rest of the interview he switched to Japanese via the translator.

>>Click to download video highlights from this game.

With this win, I believe Celtic are now at the top of the table!

TO read a translation of Shunsuke Nakamura's message posted on his website after the Dundee game, see the comments section for this entry.

A little bit "lucky", but a level head allowed Hidetoshi Nakata to send a manageable cross in to Nolan for Bolton's winning goal. 1-0. It was good timing for both to be in good positions for the rebound from Faye's powerful shot.

>>Click to download clip

Click the FREE button. Then you need to wait a 10-20 seconds for the download link to appear at the bottom of the page.

The NHK Sokuhou J-league show has been posted thanks to Video Newbie at BigSoccer. The quality is not great, but the content is worth it!!

>>Click to go to download the digest clip for Round 29

If the download is jammed, keep trying. It should work. If you encounter a blocked sign, let me know and I'll see if I can get you another link.

The colder weather is drawing spectators to line-up near the hot food stands -- this one a "takoyaki" stand at the Oita vs Kawasaki match on Saturday. Takoyaki is a walk-while-you-eat type festival food that is made of thick batter inserted with a chunk of octopus and made on these special pans into a ball. Condiments include special sauce, mayonnaise, chopped up dried seaweed and bonito flakes. You eat the with toothpicks, just stab and pop into your mouth!

If you got to the Nagoya vs Shimizu game early, there was plenty to do. It was Pikachu-Day, and Nintendo had stands out where you could play video games and contests where you could win pretty neat prizes. Ya go to a nice healthy football match and end up playing video games?! Yup. I guess so!

The psychological pressure is on at bottom-ranked Vissel Kobe. The club staff have been organizing a origami crane project, collecting folded paper cranes from supporters and local residents. Right now they have about 70,000, and in the photo 20,000 have been threaded into 100 strings so far. Folded paper cranes are symbolic, and carry the hopes and prayers of the people who folded them.


Urawa Reds 3-2 Kawasaki Frontale

An appropriately multi-goal game from the two attacking sides. Two goals from Alex Santos gave Reds a comfortable lead by the 34th minute, but that's about when Kawasaki decided it was their turn. Two from Juninho and Marques left things even as everyone headed for the lockerooms. The score was unusually still in the second half, but a corner for Reds gave Tulio yet another header -- the winning goal.

But let's not forget that 3rd goal that Kawasaki might have gotten had it not been for the refs calling a foul just as the shot was taken. That decision (and I can't say if it was a good call or not) took the momentum away from Frontale.

In the J2 days, Tulio was quite the goal-getter, so it isn't so suprising to see him play such a big role in Urawa's results. He used to not only score off set pieces, but also was much more of a "libero" and went on attacking runs alot back then. Now he can't take as much risk, but I guess the desire to contribute to the offense is a big part of his character as a player.

Kawasaki were on a winning streak of about six I think up until this game, but Reds seem to be finding their second wind -- they are well within reaching distance so the top three (who play today Sunday) will certainly be looking over their shoulders at more than one team.

Kashiwa Reysol 1-2 Omiya Ardija

The overall impression of the game was that Omiya came through with cohesive team performance at the end, and it was a very very important game in the context of avoiding relegation. Chikara Fujimoto took the reins and stopped the nightmare streak his team was on -- it was the first win in 8 games.

Reysol manager went after the full three points by setting up a 3 man front line in a 4-3-3. Omiya manager Miura went with the 4-1-4-1, which was expected.

Kashiwa missed their captain Myojin (injury), and allowed Omiya control of the game. In particular, the Leandro-Sakurai speediness worked well for the visitors, and forced Kashiwa to give up several CKs in the first phase of the game.

But it was a Reysol free kick at 9 minutes that moved the score. Tamada's free kick to Tsuchiya's head. Everyone from the home side thought it was a good sign, to see Tsuchiya back playing and scoring an early goal.

But from there Kashiwa's cohesion, particularly in the defense to midfield area was poor, and they let Omiya intercept and counter attack over and over. On offense, their forward players did not have the chemistry they needed -- a difficult expectation for this new lineup to work considering it was new.

At the end of the day, it was the Squirrels' Fujimoto who sent a lovely through to Tuto who was able to make a difficult angled shot from the right. Six minutes after that, Tuto returned the favor and sent Fujimoto the ball -- for a sweet loop shot from just outside the box. (You should check out the highlights video clip >>here to see the hilarious derriere-shaking dance from Fujimoto.) This was all in the first 23 minutes of the game.

Kashiwa were able to regroup after Hayano changed the system to 3-4-3 in the second half, but Omiya had the upper hand in team cohesion and Reysol could not come up with anything surprising enough to catch Ardija off guard.

It was a pretty disgusted atmosphere that met the Kashiwa players as they went to the stands after the game. Ack, the uncomfortable silence!! :8 The low rumble of boos. There will be more of these, and tears, which I am not looking forward to....

Yokohama F Marinos 1-0 Tokyo Verdy

A big sigh of relief for the Marinos supporters and players. A header goal from captain Yuji Nakazawa put the Yokohama club n the safety zone from the possibility of relegation.

Though Marinos were not immediately in any threat, you could tell by the way the players looked so relieved after the game, that it was a big part of their thoughts these days. And the fact that manager Okada started Kubo after...I'm not even sure how many months it's been...shows that Marinos were looking for something to change their negative direction. Kubo was not back to 100%, but he played longer than expected for 79 mins. And Kubo recorded 4 shots, the highest taken in the game. Marinos played the better game and created quite a few chances but were just wide or were denied by the bar.

On the defense, Nakazawa marked Verdy's Washington, and the defense held quite well.

The fact that the game reflected Marinos' finishing problems is undeniable, but at this point it's really a matter of getting the goals in whatever shape or form. So in a way rather appropriate for the game to end with a goal off a set-piece, and from Nakazawa.

For Verdy dark days ahead. Like I said, it is almost impossible to imagine them going to the J2... but at this rate it is very possible.

Oita Trinita 0-1 Jef Chiba

This was a game I was looking forward to seeing. Though I must say the first half was rather irritating to watch because there was quite a bit of passing errors and strange positioning (imho). Things were a little heated in the beginning when a scuffle between Jef's Haas and an Oita player (I think it was Umeda) lit a few tempers.

But the game picked up considerably in play, with quite a bit of exciting stuff, though it took until the 81st minute for the first and only goal.

It was a "tricky" free kick, initiated by Abe. Instead of kicking it directly to the group in front of the goal, he sent it up the left side where I think it was Stoyanov was open to send a cross in perfectly to the middle. The defenders were distracted by Maki and others at the near and far posts, and Yuto Sato ran in unmarked and pushed the ball in with his head.


Jubilo Iwata 1-3 Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Nagoya Grampus 1-2 Shimizu S-Pulse
Vissel Kobe 1-1 Albirex Niigata

Sunday's Games (today)
Gamba Osaka v FC Tokyo
Kashima Antlers v Cerezo Osaka

Celtic 5-0 Motherwell

A hat-trick from Petrov -- bravo to that!

Hee hee, I was just having this discussion with Frankie about Nakamura's free kicks in >>this comments section, and lo and behold our little Shun goes ahead and does it.

Maybe that little break from taking all the free kicks paid off!

>>Click to go to video download page

For a match report, >>click to go to BBC Sport article

What was most heartening to read was "Gordon Strachan's side started slowly but their slick one-touch passing improved as a breathtaking first half went on."

If you look at Petrov's first goal, you'll the this in action. Lovely overlaps, Motherwell can't keep up with the movement, and the passing with accuracy especially on that last pass. But truly the best passing sequence was the second goal from Maloney... all that light zig-zagging side to side stuff, and most of all the one-touch. They pulled Motherwell apart by spreading the ball horizontally, and so were able to get the goal despite being outnumbered.

And Shunsuke Nakamura's free kick -- I knew he had his heart set on the right of goal. And perfectly placed, can't ask for more. And we weren't going to see him try anything else until he got one in that location first. So maybe we will see more variety on his free kicks in the future.

I keep forgetting to post an entry on this, but I finally remembered while actually sitting in front of my computer, so here we are.

I wanted to point all of you in the direction of Furtho's OneTouchFootball Japan overview articles. Especially interesting is the information he gathers on the non-J-league scene.

Right now he has up a "photo special" reflecting the flavor and local feel (and some of the strange quirks and names) of regional and non-pro football in Japan.

>>Click to go to OneTouchFootball Furtho's Japan overview forum

Finally.

Junichi Inamoto video highlights clip.


>>Click to download highlights from the West Brom 3-2 Fulham England League Cup game

If the above link is congested,
>>Try this download link

Inamoto 3rd minute assist, nice vertical through pass.

Some of those goal allowances were kinda nuts.

But Ina's extended time goal was... perfect. Really happy for him after what I'm sure was a depressing year and half for him. This shot is the kind of unique "Ina" shot that people like him for, and hopefully it will give him more chances on the squad.

**Thanks to Furtho for the heads up on the link!! Domo!

As many of you probably heard already, Hidetoshi Nakata scored his first goal in a ... loooong time. The last time was during his Bologne days, April 10, 2004.

>>Right-Click and Download Hide video highlights

Awww.....

Strasbourg 0-2 Le Mans
Daisuke Matsui recorded 1 goal, 1 assist in this game. It was his first goal in the 1st Division!

>>Click to Download Daisuke assist to Hautcouer

>>Click to Download Daisuke goal: note the "daisuke" chanting.

Meanwhile, I was browsing the >>Le Mans website and noticed the little photo figure at the top of the page is Dai.... I guess it's true that they call him the "soleil" of Le Mans. :)

I was looking through some of my old stuff, and found a really nice summary of Daisuke's first year in France (last season) that was shown on a football show called Yabecchi FC back in July. If you wonder what all the fuss is about Matsui, or if you are a fan of his, either way, it's a great little clip.

>>Click to download this Matsui 1st year summary clip.

Shunsuke Nakamura had a mediocre outing, which was a bit disappointing considering he's had the full week to train. I hear he has officially started his trainer-groomed workouts again.

The team seems to be making an effort to connect their passes, but sometimes they look a little awkward. There were a number of almosts in the game, so perhaps it's a matter of adjustments on the finish. Any comments about Celtic (since I am hardly in the position to make any keen observations), we welcome!

>>Click to download video clip of Celtic/Kilmarnock Nakamura highlights

And, if you are interested in a little silliness, here's a link to a new Nakamura commercial, for Oronamin C energy drink.

>>click to view new Nakamura ad: Scroll down a little. You can choose from the 30sec Ver (high/low) or the 15sec. The story of the ad is the young girl, who is also a domestic celebrity, becomes a reporter. Her assignment, handed out to her by the boss behind the desk, is an article on Nakamura. She is to "stick" by him at all times to get an inside look at his life.

Kawasaki Frontale 3-1 Kashiwa Reysol

The sixth straight win for Kawasaki, launching them into 5th place. Not too shabby for a new J1 member. The "jinx" of the newly promoted clubs is apparently in the sophomore year, but I think they can pat themselves on the back for a job so far well done.

This game against Kashiwa started off a little shaky. The first goal came off a set-piece, when the first attempt was denied by the bar and the ball came down right in front of defender Minowa. All he had to do was time his head to hit the ball and just aim it straight in. Unfortunately, it was the same Minowa who gave up a PK to Reysol in the final moments of the game. But luckily Juninho and Marques had already given the team a 3-0 lead.

Reysol had to fight with only ten men for 47 mins of the game, and in general they were the one giving off a more stubborn effort. But the fluidity of the Frontale movement was difficult for the defenders to catch, and things really fell apart for Reysol when Juninho was tackled from behind as he burst through the defense and got tackled from behind. Defender Kobayashi got a red, Juninho got the PK, and that was that. From the expression on the faces of the Reysol players, they are in a painful place right now. Having Ramos rooting them on through practice may keep them somewhat fired up through the week, but going a man down is a double blow. They lost a couple players to red cards last game against Reds, and now again.

I feel bad that you feel bad that I feel bad

Not only that, the whole Tsuchiya story is getting a lot of chatter in the J-league blogs. Tsuchiya is the defender who tackled Urawa Reds forward Tatsuya Tanaka last week -- resulting in Tanaka out of play for six months. I mentioned earlier that there was a swell of anti-Tsuchiya bashing after the game -- Tanaka is not only loved by his Urawa fans but also has a wide following among general football fans.

Anyway, Tanaka had to come out with a message asking people to lay off Tsuchiya. But Tsuchiya himself has been suffering from guilt/remorse/shock, and has been avoiding training with the team this week. The situation at Reysol is bad enough that they don't need their main defender in shock and depressed right now. It's an interesting vicious cycle of remorse -- it would be funny if it wasn't so sad..... Tanaka feeling bad that Tsuchiya's getting bashed; then Tsuchiya feeling bad that Tanaka's hurt and being so nice about it; then people bashing Tsuchiya for getting depressed and making Tanaka feel responsible for his emotional situation. Enough!!

I mentioned earlier that Kyoto Purple Sanga's victory over Mito Hollyhock clinched them their promotion to the J1 next year.

J's goal posted a number of video clips, mostly player interviews, and I thought I'd introduce the link to the Highlights digest clip of Kyoto's day, starting with the supporters chanting to the match highlights, to the post-match celebrations.

>>Click to launch the video stream

The key for this team as they prepare for next year in the 1st division will be how to maintain their wonderful balance between offense and defense against more tougher teams. They had such a perfect season, deciding their promotion in 37 rounds (only 1 behind the record-holders Kawasaki Frontale last year), that the psychological aspects of how they will deal with certain defeats next year will also be something to watch for.

Click to Enlarge Photo

I thought I'd do a quick list of all the magazines about Japanese football that are available in bookstores and convenience stores across Japan.

Football Only Mags

Soccer N+: National Team supporters' support magazine.

Soccer J+: J-league club supporters' support magazine.

Weekly Soccer Magazine: Along with Weekly Soccer Digest, the staple of football fans (above photo). They have light interviews, and will at least do brief blurbs of all the games for that week.

Football Nippon: Comes out a few times a year, heavier paper, bigger interviews.

Footival: Comes out a few times a year, bigger interviews.

Weekly Soccer Digest: Weekly fare, good for standing in convenience stores and doing a bit of skimming reading.

Soccer ai: I'm not as familiar with this one; they don't have it at my nearby bookstore.

Multi-Sport Mags Known to Have
Good Articles/Interviews about Football

Sports Yeah!: Have had some great interviews in the past year, but you have to keep an eye out.

Sports Graphic Number: Also some great interviews, and they also have fantastic photos.

There are more, but I can't think of them.... If you do, please add to the list by leaving a comment!

Here is highlights digest of the Round 28 games that took place on Saturday, thanks to an anonymous someone. It's probably the best highlights show for the J-league on tv right now. Not only do they show the goals, but also oter interesting scenes. And in some games will take an analytical look at a specific play.

>>Click to download highlights video clip of Round 28

Frontale/Reysol and Cerezo/Sanfrecce games will be played this afternoon, but I thought I'd check in with a quick report of yesterday's games.

>>Click here to get the highlights video clip of this round.

It's not how you play the game, it's whether you win or lose

It's that time of the season, when one eye is constantly on the table. Every point you can get is important, and every loss becomes more of a let-down.

J2 Kyoto Purple Sanga's win yesterday over Mito Hollyhock secured their promotion to the J1 for next year, and though it is exciting news in general it also is a harsh wake-up call for the teams who are stuck in the muck of bottom -- someone is going to have to go dooowwwnnn.

Who Knew One Man Could Make Such a Difference
Gamba Osaka 1-2 Oita Trinita

No one can mention Oita's recent performances without talking about new Brazilian manager Chamusca (pic). What was most magical was that he had barely 2-3 days with the team before his first game which was against Urawa Reds back in Round 23 -- and Oita actually won, 2-1. The consensus among the players is that Chamusca really knows how to suffuse the team with confidence. I mentioned in that Round 23 summary that he had told the team the story of David and Goliath. And players have been saying that he constantly tells them they are capable of playing great, of winning, no matter who the opponent. Under him, the team has yet to taste defeat in six games (5 wins 1 draw).

Earlier in the year, I introduced a brand new magazine called Soccer J+ >>Click to see entry, which is basically a J-league supporter-oriented publication. The contents were more about how to increase the quality of life for club supporters, and the general tone of the first issue was enthusiastic, helpful, and fun.

Now, the same company has come out with Soccer N+, which is the same kind of supporter magazine but this time for the National Team. I saw it on the bookshelves today, but I didn't have time to give it a good look. I think it would be on the same level as the J+, with information that is helpful to supporters of the national team, as well as a number of interviews, photos, and a look at what the supporters hope for the national team.

One interesting thing was that their lead article was "No Club, No Nippon", discussing how without the J-league the national team won't get stronger.

In my previous entry >>Click to read the entry (see bottom half), I talked about how Japan has been having problems tying friendly opponents down to their word. It's happened again.

Japan will NOT be playing the Ivory Coast or Togo, but instead had to make an emergency switch to Angola.

To be honest, at this point I could care less. The JFA has gotten the run-around by countries that obviously don't have the same degree of professionalism.

The JFA people had gone to meet with the Togo federation people in Paris to officially sign the friendly agreement. But they got stood up by the Togo people, who said that they were in Egypt watching an African championships tournament drawing. In addition I heard gossip that Togo had made some excuse about how their President told them they should get Iran over and hold a game inside Togo instead of going abroad. Togo told the JFA to come over to Egypt for the meeting, and the JFA suits went to Egypt, but suddenly they were pursuing the possibility of tying a contract with Angola instead. Today, the official agreement was signed, so I guess it's going to be Angola.

Zico Japan hasn't played an African country in a long time, I think since 2003. So it is important that we have at least one game take place between now and next summer.

I'm always curious about how these behind the scenes negotations go. The JFA has been talking big from the beginning of the year, but ended up unable to negotiate friendlies with the big name countries they had initially proposed... And this is a sad sad manner in which a friendly was put together.

Hopefully the game is a good one though!

The Emperor's Cup, or Tennouhai in Japanese, is probably one of the most unique football tournaments in the world.

It is a chance to determine who is truly The Best team in the country, regardless of whether you are an amateur club or a university or a youth team or a pro. The Final is one of the biggest events in Japanese football -- taking place on New Year's day each year at the historic Kokuritsu Stadium.

In 1919, the English FA sent a cup made of pure silver to Japan. This cup became the catalyst for the establishment of an association in Japan two years later. A couple months after the association was established, we held the first national football championships -- what is now known as the Emperor's Cup. And that started the tradition of sending the Cup to the winner for the year. The name was officially switched to "Emperor's Cup" in 1951.

Kokuritsu Stadium was first used for the Cup in 1967, and the New Year's Day tradition started in 1968. In 1972, the allowance of regional participation opened the doors to a flood of participation from football clubs around the country. Now the Cup is set up to allow over 6000 teams to be a possible contender for the tournament.

There is a weird jinx attached to the Emperor's Cup, that the Champions are cursed in the season following. This season, it's been a hellish year for Tokyo Verdy, current EC champs. Still, I don't think the jinx really affects the players' desire to win it, as it is an extremely big honor and prestigious event.

I believe the original silver cup given by the FA has been replaced by a new cup in the 1960's contributed by the Emperial family...

80 teams officially participate -- they include the 18 J1 teams, the 12 J2 teams, the best two JFL teams of the previous season, the winner from the university championship, and 47 teams representing Tokyo city, Hokkaido, Kyoto, Osaka, and the remaining prefectures (this is how Japan is split up into administrative divisions).

First, the 47 representative teams plus university team play Round 1 and 2.

Those that make it through play Round 3 with the J2 and JFL teams included.

Those that make it through play in the next round with the J1 teams.

A big part of the fun is seeing whether any of the teams can pull an upset. In the mix are U-18 J-league youth teams, amateur clubs, high schools, universities, etc. We've actually seen in the 3rd round a club called Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo SC (it is a delivery company) beat J2's Consadole Sapporo 2-0. Another surprise win was ALO's Hokuriku over J2's Shonan Bellmare 2-1 (in extended time).

>>Click to download video clip of Round 3 highlights.

The real interest of course picks up when the J1 teams are thrown in the pot. Here is what the next Round 4 matches will look like:

Kashima Antlers J1 v Honda Lock (Rep. Miyagi)
Oita Trinita J1 v Tokyo Verdy J1
Nagoya Grampus J1 v ALO's Hokuriku (Rep. Toyama)
Omiya Ardija J1 v Kyoto Purple Sanga J2
Urawa Reds J1 v Montedio Yamagata J2
FC Tokyo J1 v Avispa Fukuoka J2
Yokohama F Marinos J1 v Vegalta Sendai J2
Kawasaki Frontale J1 v Sagawa Kyubin (Rep. Tokyo)
Gamba Osaka J1 v Yokohama FC J2
Kashiwa Reysol J1 v Vissel Kobe J1
Jef Chiba J1 v Ventforet Kofu J2
Cerezo Osaka J1 v Honda FC (JFL)
Jubilo Iwata J1 v Sagan Tosu J2
Albirex Niigata J1 v Thespa Kusatsu J2
Sanfrecce Hiroshima J1 v Mito Hollyhock J2
Shimizu S-Pulse J1 v Tokushima Vortis J2

The above games will take place on November 3, and the rounds will proceed until the semi-final on December 29, and the Final on January 1 2006.

If you live on the West Coast and would like to see the Japan NT in the flesh, here's some good news! The JFA announced that they are scheduling a trip to San Francisco CA next February for a friendly with the mighty U.S.A.

The game will take place some time mid-month, and the team is expected to stay for 10 days. Since training sessions are never closed-doors, you will probably have some good opportunities to see them up close. Perhaps even get a photo or autograph.

The game will take place outside of the FIFA matchday calendar, so Zico will probably be unable to call up the Europe-based players (sorry!).

Ta ta IC, Hello Togo

Next month's friendly against the Ivory Coast has been cancelled. Instead, the JFA has invited Togo for the event.

The change came following admission from the Ivory Coast that the majority of their top team, including the sizzling Drogba, will not be able to attend. The JFA chose Togo from the list of countries showing interest. Togo, in 54th place, is the highest ranking team from Africa that is qualified for the World Cup. Togo has signed a promise that their top guys, including Monaco's Emmanuel Adebayor, will all show up.

I guess the JFA wisened up after the >>Click Ukraine incident.

I've calmed down considerably since watching this game last Wednesday. The immediate emotional impression I had was that it was a disaster, mostly because of the rain and the ref and the red card and the pk and so forth. It was almost easier, like Zico said after the game, "to forget this game every happened". I was tempted to make this game a wash. But then it would have been a true waste, for the players did play hard, and there were several things gained.

------- Yana - Taka
-------- Nakamura
------ Ina ----- Hide
----------- Koji
Santos - Moniwa - Tsuboi - Komano
----------- Kawaguchi

No Offense

The 4-3-1-2 system was tested for the second time ever in this game against the Ukraine. What was noticeable was that given how Japan likes to play with a multi-player team effort, there was just not enough chemistry on the pitch in this new formation and with a new combination of players.

The truth is, most countries neither respect or fear Japan in their dealings; and we are often too naive to even realize it. The JFA is great about support from within: they were quick to learn from their mistakes at the beginning of the 2004 qualifying process, and they responded by doing things like hiring a national team staff of chefs, providing chartered planes, lugging tons of water and food to away games, etc.

However, when it has come to negotiating with other football associations, the JFA is not very proactive. Timid even. They may not want to make waves, push an issue, use things to their advantage. One of the biggest things has been how they don't exploit, for lack of a better word, the fact that we have Zico as the manager of the squad. The committee in charge of match-making is more concerned with looking squeaky clean. That policy may sound good in theory, but all it means is that the national team suffers for being unable to experience top-level play in the limited number of friendlies left until the World Cup. It's like being an actor and having an agent that is squeamish about asking for auditions. Zico has been pushing the JFA to become more savvy, more pushy, more demanding when they deal with other countries, but it seems they have an inherent resistance towards that kind of style.

Japan really needed to play against a full-strength Ukraine side. This friendly was at the invitation of Ukraine, and their invitation included the promise of their top players. You can argue that the Ukraine that showed up had afterall beaten Japan. However, that wasn't really the point -- whether Japan won or lost this friendly, the supporters and Zico himself were more interested in allowing the team (especially the relatively inexperienced defenders) to go head to head with the likes of Shevchenko. But the team that showed up was missing four or more of their strongest players.

It wouldn't have looked so bad if we had known that there was a possibility that these top players would be out of the game. We may not have accepted the invitation had we known. What happened was that the JFA had gotten a verbal agreement by Ukraine's football association saying that they would show up with their full squad and get a healthy crowd at the stadium. Instead, the crowds were anemic, and the night before the game the manager sent his top players home, making an excuse that Shevchenko was sick, even though he was spotted the evening before at the World Cup qualification celebrations. Nakamura had also been running a fever that week, but he played both games.

In the end, not only did the JFA look the fools for so earnestly trusting, not getting the promises in writing, but the team didn't really get to experience top international standards in either of the games. And perhaps the only people who gained anything were the people who owned the broadcast rights for the game.

Zico, meanwhile, was rabid after the game, but more immediately about the Latvian referees. Here too, he mentioned how he has been telling the JFA they need to point out when Japan has been treated poorly. I'm not sure what happened behind the scenes, and whether the Latvian referees were all that Ukraine could gather during a week of World Cup qualifying matches. The JFA however has decided to not pursue the issue of the refs.

No one is going to stand up for Japan if Japan isn't going to stand up for itself. I don't know the entire story, of course, but the fact is that the JFA was convinced Ukraine would hold up their end of the deal, even when rumors started the night before that Shevchenko was not going to show up the JFA kept reassuring everyone that he was going to be there. If this embarrassing incident doesn't convince them to negotiate with more shrewd sophistication, I'm not sure what will.

***
On a rather silly sidenote, we've heard that the hotel that the players were staying at in Kiev leaked the players' phone numbers to callgirls -- can you imagine our guys getting woken up in the middle of the night with offers of various nocturnal pleasures? And hello, let's never stay at that hotel again...

Here are some video highlights of some of the Japan players who were able to make it to the pitch this weekend at their respective clubs.

Celtic 1-1 Hearts

Oh, that was a bad goal allowance, but I hear it was a tight game with lots of pressure from Hearts. I thought Shunsuke Nakamura would be benched because he was suffering from fever this past week, but it looks like he was ok.

If Celtic had won this game, they would have been able to climb to the top of the table, which is why this draw is quite a disappointment. The goal from Beattie in the 13th minute was a rather nice side-to-side multi-player effort after Nakamura got a free kick, but three minutes later Hearts were able to counter and equalize. After that, I hear the Celtic attack got very one-dimensional. The Celtic players got a bit myopic about hauling the ball at the goal, when perhaps they could have passed more and upped the probability of an actual goal.

From the Japan side of things, it was quite crucial for Nakamura to win this game against the current leaders. Manager Strachan does not want to let Shun go for next month's friendly against the Ivory Coast; however, he hinted before the game that it may depend on this Hearts result. Unfortunately, a draw is not good enough. Whatever. This is always going to be the problem for the national team.

>>Click to download the Nakamura/Celtic highlights from this game.

Bolton 1-5 Chelsea

A painful defeat at the hands of an obviously terrific side. Hidetoshi Nakata subbed in at the beginning of the second half.

>>Click to download Hide/Bolton highlights from this game

Hamburg SV 0-1 Wolfsburg

Naohiro Takahara subbed in the 80th minute. I hear he was suffering from a cold; that Latvia/Ukraine tour... He looked okay in the ten minutes he played, though.

>>Click to download Takahara/Hamburg highlights from this game

Le Mans 1-1 Lille

A PK for Le Mans gave them the lead, but Lille caught up. Daisuke Matsui went in at the 76th minute.

>>Click to download Matsui/Le Mans highlights from this game

You Rest Now
Yoshito Okubo was left out of the roster this weekend in Mallorca's game against Racing Santader (0-0), even though he was in the starter group during practice the day before. The club staff said that the manager wanted to rest him, considering his trip with the national team. I wonder.

Now All He Has to Do is Heal?
Shinji Ono's surgery took place this weekend in Japan and was a success. It will take him six weeks to recover, according to doctors. The problem with his foot was that the screw they used in the previous surgery was fine, but another area suffered inflammation. The doctors went in and replaced the screw with something shorter/smaller.

Pack Yer Bags!
Junichi Inamoto has been on the wrong side of Albion manager Robson this season. I was rather put off to hear Robson making a comment during a press conference about how Inamoto knows what he's doing wrong, and later revealed that he handed Ina a video and that that should be more than sufficient for him to get what it is that he's not doing. Kinda weird and creepy, if you ask me. What happened to sitting down with a player and having a short chat? What's all this passive aggression?

Well Ina will not suffer at the hands of Robson any further. In fact, the rumors are that he may be off to Cardiff again. Of course, Ina has said that he prefers to stay in the Premier, but if it means he gets no play time, well then there's no question that a move has to be made. I can imagine how worried he is about the World Cup. The move to Cardiff is temporary, but in January, Inamoto is expected to be sent out of the club all together.

To follow up on >>this entry discussing the Round 27 results, I found a video highlights clip which is posted below.

If the download gets interrupted for error or some other reason, just go back to the page and download to the exact same place on your computer; it should resume where it left off.

>>Click to download highlights of Round 27

I will come back to finish my analysis of this game, but in the meantime, I found a brief highlights video of the game. I understand the full game downloads are pretty tedious, so hopefully these clips will be easier for some of you.

This is actually less of a highlights, and more of a quick review by the people at Yabecchi FC football show. They honed in on a couple specific instances of play.

>>Click to download video

Kyoto Purple Sanga have been stunning the J2 this year, and for a long time now people have been making it a question of when, not if, the team would clinch their promotion.

In this last round game against Tokushima Vortis, a 5-1 win and a draw result from the Yokohama FC vs Yamagata Motedio match, means that if Kyoto can get a tie result or better in their next game against Mito Hollyhock it will give them the 2nd or better standing they need to head to the 1st division.

Things started to look a little hairy for the leaders, in the 25th minute when Vortis caught up 1-1. There was a bad vibe on the pitch. But Daisuke Nakaharai's goal off a tricky little heel pass from Alemao gave their side the momentum they needed to get back to business without looking back.

It's always interesting to see how some teams have difficulty winning that one game they need to get the Championship or get promoted. We are our own worst enemies sometimes.

I'm looking forward to seeing Kyoto next year, seeing how they compare to the performance put on by Frontale this year. From what I hear, the technical standard in the J2 has really improved, and many say that the gap between the two divisions is decreasing. The biggest difference of course is still those one or two plays, either in defense or offense, that are acceptable in the J2 but not in the J1.

It's been two seasons since Kyoto have seen J1 play, but I have a feeling they may have become