2011 CWC: Kashiwa Reysol - CF Monterrey (QF #2) [R]

monterrey 3-1

I agree with Swiss, Monterreys experience will lead them to a 2-0 victory.

Reysol on fire!

i really thought the mexicans would win this match but the japanese side played excellent. both side played possession football and both are not physically imposing teams. very even match. possible upset vs santos?

5th straight semifinal berth for the AFC. Japanese teams are 2-0 vs Mexican ones. AFC teams have won the last 3 against Mexican sides.

This is the first time a non-continental champion is in the semifinals since CWC was reformatted. Also the first time one confederation has 2 semifinalists. Not only did Kashiwa get in without winning their continent, they also had the added benefit of being in form coming off a national title, rather than be a year removed from winning one.

At least the CAF made a Final once. The CONCACAF is dead last to CAF/AFC

Thank goodness for the OFC.

I was disappointed with Monterrey, it seems like they heavily lacked stamina, they were quite tired in the middle of the second half already. Maybe they didn't do a proper adaptation program to Japan's timezone, or something.,, Suazo's injury didn't help either.

Now we must not let our guards down. Kashiwa's morale must be up the heavens right now, a week ago they were Japanese champions now they've reached the semifinals, the best position ever for a japanese team in the CWC. To be honest, if we play seriously we have a very very good chance of winning, but if we underestimate Reysol they could upset us. I'm glad that our coach is a very serious (if not grumpy ) person, so he will keep the leash on the younger guys in our team.

Anyway, good job for Kashiwa Reysol, I hope that we get a great match to watch next wednesday.

wrong,

Urawa and Gamba came in 3rd during the 2007 and 2008 installments of the tournament.

I'd say that Kashiwa has a chance of being the highest placed Japanese team ever though. Both Gamba and Urawa had to play the UEFA Champions League winner in the semi-finals. Santos should be easier than AC Milan and Manchester United were.

Kashiwa have the quality to beat Santos if they play their game. I think the Monterrey game will have given them some confidence, after the first 30 or so minutes Kashiwa had the better of play.

Really? Well I stand corrected then

RSL would have won.

Yeah right, they couldn't beat Mt when they had the chance, they definitely would have lost to Kashiwa.

Reysol is in top form, a big advantage. Same for Barcelona, that comes from taking the temporary lead in La Liga after el Clasico.

On the other hand, Santos barely achieved the 10th place in the Brasilerao, and Al-Sadd isn't doing any better, it's having a mediocre run in the Stars League.

A Barcelona-Reysol final wouldn't be a surprise for me.

Santos only had its full team in Brasileirão for like 4~10 games out of 38. Neymar is our best player and he only played around half of the games because of Mano Menezes. Ganso is our second best and he spent 80% of the Brasileirão injured. Elano was injured most of the time as well, Ganso and Elano are our main playmakers so we had very little creativity when both of them didn't play. To make things worse, our main reserve for those guys, Felipe Anderson, was called for the U20 NT, so yeah we were pretty screwed And even so, our striker, Borges, was the top scorer with 23 goals.

What hurts the most is that the Brasileirão is not like the European Leagues: it doesn't stop on international breaks. We knew that from the beginning and decided to try many variations with our players, and we found out that we severely lack depth But even so, if you pick the top 6 teams in Brasileirão's last standings, you will see that Santos defeated Corinthians, Vasco, São Paulo, Fluminense... We even went undefeated against the champions... In contrast, we lost to the bottom placed teams haha.

It was a great goal from Leandro Domingues. He seems to be a good player, all the announcers around here are saying that he is not playing to his best though.