These competition threads will stay up. I have those threads up so that we don't get another "hey Im looking for J.League jersey and I do not know where to find them" thread.
It was basically a friendly game in Kyoto. One third of the spectators were still wearing their suits, as they rushed from their companies to Nishikyogoku, but it really wasn't much fun. About 30-40 valiant supporters made the trip from Omiya, kudos to them! Sanga should have scored a couple in the first half, scored one only and hit the post. The second half again started with Sanga attacking and Miyayoshi had a great chance, saved by an amazing sliding tackle by Tsubouchi (excellent game for him). On the counter Ardija equalized. We all expected Sanga to attack en masse to grab the three points, but after five minutes the fire went off, and it was instead Ardija who controlled the game and had two huge chances (massive save by Mizutani on the first). Overall a fair score, Sanga should have killed it in the first half, but they didn't (since we all knew we were going to win 3 or 4-0 anyway...), and Ardija never gave up, and they could have won it, in the end--I actually expected them to... A curious decision by Kato, by the way: he let out both Watanabe and Suzuki, so no soccer on the wings. The idea was probably to launch Miyayoshi by vertical lines, but happened once only. Finally, a note on physicality. Ardija outplayed Sanga easily on 1v1s. I guess that the lack of physical power is the reason why Kato insists with Thiego, who would actually make a great "volante" in JFL. He is the embodiment of mediocrity. Dutra was on the bench, but did not come in. In the last 10 minutes, Sanga players were jogging. Mentally, we were already in Nagai.
How did the younger Ardija players like Kanakubo and Aoki look? I'm glad to hear they kept going instead of quitting. That was the problem with having alot of veterans the last couple of years, they'd figure the game was out of hand and then they'd stop playing.
If you've been at wonderful Nishikyogoku, you know you're lucky if you can recognize your own team's players. Last year I could barely recognize Rafael... To tell you how hungry were the Ardija youngsters, after the 1-1, even thou they had been defending for most of the game, they ran to get the ball to restart the game as soon as possibly. And in fact, the game swinged in their favor, with Sanga players putting in another 5 minutes of soccer, then behaving like you described above. Of course, it also must be said that we go to Nagai next Saturday, Cerezo did not play this midweek, and in a way it might be wise to save some energy. ***Should*** we win that one (absolutely NOT a given), we'd be eight points above Cerezo, a direct rival for survival, and for us it would be of course excellent.
looking forward to the game. Hope I can find a stream for it. We need a win after only 2 points so far, but Its more important to avoid defeat I guess. But Kyoto is a strange team- they can beat the best then get hammered by the worst team in the league next round. But we SHOULD win it.
Well you did, with minor help from the ref, and a HUGE contribution by our gutless manager. But overall we were in one of those days, good for Cerezo that they took advantage of it.
I am a mod, but Shuvy is my sempai. In the end we all listen to what most people want, so please do speak!
Goal, Goal, Goal Miyayoshi, Goal, Goal, Goal Miyayoshi, Goal, Goal, Goal Miyayoshi, Miyayoshi Takumi!! First time he started, took him 5 minutes to make one! http://www.jsgoal.jp/photo/00060300/00060340.html
A man who scored a brace in few minutes against the U17 world champions can't be bad . This generation of players is so promising but lacks the killer instinct. They were better than everybody in this world cup but failed at least 30 times in front of the net.
Yeah, but it is slowly changing. At the youth level, you see quite a bit "selfish strikers," guys obesssing with scoring and pointing straight to the goal. I believe in 10-15 years Japan will have just as many as everywhere else. For the moment, Okazaki-Morimoto are a not-bad-at-all-couple...
Have Shonan and Nagoya been given a bye? Why is this? http://www.j-league.or.jp/data/view.php?d=cup&t=ranking&y=NEW0100&l=E
Back from Sanga-Cerezo. Well, we managed to win this one, but considering how we played it is ridicule we won only by one goal and in the last 10 minutes. If Sanga can't score goals when the opponent goalie is on the ground and the goal is completely opened (it happened), it won't be easy to stay up in J1, since not all defenses will be as generous as Cerezo's today. In the first half Sanga had the ball the whole time, but as usual had problems putting one player in front of the goalie. The players are clearly instructed not to dribble and not to boot the ball up, so there is this infinite series of lateral passes. Nonetheless, there were three huge chances for Dutra, Diego and Miyayoshi, but it took a scramble off a corner kick for Mizumoto (today RB) to slam it home. Cerezo did very little in the first half, but hit the crossbar once with a fantastic shot from outside the box (not sure by who). In the second half they were much better (gradually learning to play without Kagawa?), and they always up the ball to Bando who worked as post-player and sistributed on the sides. Ienaga had a massive chance that he somehow mis-kicked with the outside instead of blasting it in the goal, and Hirai somehow saved. Then it came the chances described above: Dutra stole a ball, passed to Yanagisawa, miracle-save by Kim, and on the rebound Diego managed to head the ball out. Unbelievable! Sure enough on the following attack Cerezo equalized. From the stands the impression was that a cross for Komatsu took a slight deflection and found the net. Bando reacted as if he scored (http://www.jsgoal.jp/photo/00062100/00062137.html), but we really did not see his touch, so a bit surprised the goal was given to him, but then again is Nishikyogoku, so who knows? What was impressive from Sanga today was the reaction after the 1-1: Cerezo seemed tired (it was hot today, and they worked really hard to equalize) and Sanga got closer to re-take the lead a couple of times, until an overlap by Diego (who imho was playing with a hangover...) put him in front of Kim after a wonderful touch by Dutra. It was an easy goal and a huge relief for Sanga fans. Cerezo was clearly out of gasoline, and Sanga had a massive chance to make it three, but Nakamura's pass was too long for Yanagisawa. And then it was over. What was good for Sanga? Dutra is clearly top-class, Nakamura played a very good game (of course young players DO improve if they get a chance to play - right Kato??), and the switch Masushima-Mizumoto seemed to work fine. On the other hand, Miyayoshi seems more of a "super-sub" than a starter (Uesato contained him well), nobody really carries the midfield (the best was Koken Kato in the last 10 minutes) and Daigo Watanabe seems a lost player. Cerezo had a bad game, but here are a few justifications: besides the absence of Kagawa they clearly need somebody like Martinez to create alternative to the Bando->wing->cross pattern we've seen today. Ienaga worked hard but had a couple of bad misses (once wasted a chance of counterattack with an ugly touch), Inui I am not sure was playing, totally untangible, very disappointing. The ones who did very well were Takahashi and Bando. Of course if Cerezo play like today they'll struggle in the continuation of the season (being outplayed by Sanga is possible the worst thing that can happen to a J1 team), but - as said- this was the first game without Kagawa, and that is a big adjustment. Since the Nabisco is basically gone for them (0-0-2) they can use the next matched to find their new balance. One last word about the ref, Yoshida. He was terrible. He favored Cerezo for the whole game. We counted six fouls in a row (including a kick in the face of Dutra and a sliding from the side) and no cards. But as soon as Cerezo equalized, their first two fouls were two yellow cards, while Sanga players were free to slide, tackle and push. But then Sanga scored again, and immediately we got two more cards!!! Sissy rules all the way!! The epitome came at the end: four minutes added for no reason whatsoever, but that was not enough: Cerezo got a free kick at 49:40. They took it, it turned into a CK. Again the ref let them take it... Really Yoshida ref'ed as if it was an Elementary School game. Pathetic, but... ...ah, we won, finally, and it felt good!! --If you've seen a nabisco game, please report!!
how did Kiyotake play? I see he got subbed out rather early, but that might have more to do with him being out of match practice than him playing bad? About Inui, I think he's been a bit invisible all season actually. Unlike most of the other players, he hasnt quite managed to take the step up to J1 yet, although he's been good on occasions. Im sure his time will come though. Im not too disappointed by this loss ( althugh its always bad to lose against one of the local teams), as it is the cup, and not the league. This is not meant as an excuse, but I can't remember the last time we actually won a cup-game, atleast not against a J1 or J2 team. We lost the cup game against Albirex as well, which at that time hadnt won a single game all season, so even though we do bad here doesnt necessarily mean we will do bad in the league as well. But it will be interesting to see how we will do in the next games. I agree on Martinez as well, Cerezo with and without him are two totally different teams. Before him we had Germano, who was a similar player, and last season when Martinez was out we had Funayama, who is back at Kashima now. Keep in mind that we missed Adriano as well. About your last comment about the referee letting Cerezo take the last corner kick, isnt that something he is obliged to do?? I mean, a corner kick means Cerezo are in attack, and the referee is not allowed to bow the whistle until the attack is over, or atleast that's how i interpret the rule. About the freekick that led to the corner kick is another story of course, but I can't remember a single game where I have seen the referee blow the whistle while one of the teams are having a corner-kick.
Kiyotake: He got injured in the far-far side of the field, after a corner kick or something. He was out of the field, so the game went on, and a certain point somebody else came in. So, sorry, I was looking somewhere else, and I don't even know if he left on a stretcher on on his own. Corner kick: lost time was supposed to be 4 minutes, the CK was taken in the 6th minute after the 90th....... OK, last week, all the world except the Vissel fans wanted Kagawa to score (me too!), but if loss-time is 4 minutes and nothing happened, after 4 minutes the ref should whistle, and NOT give the losing team an extra 100 seconds to try equalize. As said, that happens in kids' games, here it should be different. The "sissology" of the Japanese refs is Really, but REALLY annoying!! Adriano: I think he is a valuable player, but honestly Bando in the last two games was more effective than the Brazilian, so I won't consider him a minus. I believe both teams were doing a few experiments, so part of the randomness of the game comes from that, but overall, compared to the J1 game Sanga had Dutra, and Cerezo missed Kagawa. That was the huge difference.