Average points between 2011 and 2015. Round 1 - 1.05 Round 2 - 0.90 Round 3 - 1.50 Round 4 - 1.65 Round 5 - 1.95 Round 6 - 1.85 J-League teams tend to get off to a slow start and raise their game from round 3. Why do they start so poorly every year?
Because of the calendar. ACL group stage starts in late February; J. League usually begins two to three weeks later—exactly after two group rounds are played. So for Japanese teams these first two rounds are effectively pre-season games. No wonder they play poorly.
But K-League and CSL starts late as well. This season J-League started early in late February, while CSL started a week later, and K-League two weeks later, but had no effect on the trend.
Not true. ACL and J.League have started the same week in 5 out of the 6 last seasons, with only 2015 having a 2 week gap. So it doesn't steal much of the pre-season, and it is not different from any of the other East Asian leagues really. Why they do so badly in the first 2 rounds is very interesting though, but this is not the reason. Might have something to do with lineups ( for example Gamba and Hiroshima have been using some pretty weakened squads in some of their ACL-games), and the teams not fielding their best possible lineup before "they feel they have to", which will be the final 3-4 rounds if they do badly at first. Also, might be because the players are really hyped up about getting their domestic season starting again, and playing the first home-game in front of a sold-out stadium ( in most cases) etc. Here are the numbers: 2011: ACL March 1st-2nd J.League March 5th 2012: ACL March 6th-7th J.League March 10th 2013: ACL February 26th -27th J.League March 2nd 2014: ACL February 25th – 26th J.League March 1st 2015: ACL February 24th – 25th J.League March 7th 2016: ACL February 23rd – 24th J.League February 27th
Gamba's performance was awful. Usami can't even scored from the spot twice in succession. They deserved to be eliminated.
Urawa Reds have qualified. FC Tokyo, if they beat Binh Duong, they proceed to the round of 16 whatever happens. Sanfrecce Hiroshima, if they lose today, they are out. Gamba Osaka has been eliminated.
Yes, but both Jeonbuk and Sainty have lost there in Vietnam. Very difficult away game. Maybe Tokyo will win who knows.
No, Jiangsu drew there. Also, Jeonbuk only lost due to some horrific refereeing. Binh Duong are terrible.
Hopefully F.c Tokyo can win but its gonna be difficult with Binh Duong at home. Sanfreece and Gamba are absolutely terrible.
So is FC Tokyo. But if they lose against Binh Duong, they can find a new low there. Also, there are no secret reasons why J-League teams perform badly. Their teams are just not as good as other Asian teams.
Yes, sorry, but thaat draw was like a loss. They are not terrible there. The conditions are difficult for the oppoents.
More that they are wise enough to know that dishing out tonnes of money to fill foreign quota is not the way for domestic football in the long term. Nothing surprising. J1-League sides are more evenly balanced in strength, be that due to the sustainable model that J-League clubs follow or whatever. In the long term, it's a good thing given that outside Japan, self-sustaining clubs are very rare.
The problem is that Sanfrecce and Gamba look pretty pathetic in the league as well. Gamba's nose-dive is pretty depressing especially. Sanfrecce somehow manages to get some points in the league thanks to Utaka's goals but there's a gap between three top teams in the league and rest of the pack. Looking how Endo detoriorated a lot compared to last season and Usami not scoring twice on the same penalty kick is ugly. FC Tokyo plays their usual mid-table football which of course could get them a spot in the next round... No one was putting their money on them before the competition started anyway. Reds are strong at the moment and they are already in the next round though I thought they will throw this game away knowing that they will have an important game for the top spot in J League table against Frontale. And it's the hardest group of all in this half of Asia. There are three teams who look good right now in the league and only one of them is playing in ACL this year.
Well, if it's the strongest group on this half of Asia, it's the toughest group in the whole of Asia. We know why it's been divided up in the first place. And exactly what I said above. J-League tends to be more evenly matched in strength, which means that the top teams aren't going to be as overpowering as the top teams in other leagues.
FC Tokyo was awful yesterday. FC Tokyo just passed the ball around without any threat to opponent half. The coach should use Nathan Burns as he could provide more threat than other Japanese striker in ACL (based on what I saw in other previous ACL matches). I watched first half of Tokyo match before switched to other channel to watch Sanfrecce match. Same story. Lack of a strong target man (they are missing player like Douglas). But Sanfrecce still fare better than Tokyo. They dominated possession and have the game fully in control after conceded the 1st goal, but unable to find way pass through Shandong. To be fair, Sanfrecce did not utilise their strongest line up in this match, most likely because they did not put much hope on ACL and want to focus on domestic league. Utaka and Mikic did not follow the team to China. Kashiwa was not in the first eleven to replace Mikic on the right flank. Moriyasu used a youngster instead (forgot his name) who was not very effective until Kashiwa came on from the bench. The problem with J League clubs in ACL is that they seem not very used to fast tempo of ACL matches as J League matches usually play at a slower tempo and they prefer to play passing game with minimal physical contact. In contrast, Korean and Chinese team are the opposite. Hence Korean and Chinese team will always use their physical advantage, the speed & height of their foreigners and high intensity game to pressure J League clubs to make mistakes (eg; 1st goal of Shandong vs Sanfrecce).
That is why i feel that more Japanese players should go play in Europe to train themselves better as the leagues there are more physical and high-tempo. Japanese players' weaknesses have always been their physicality and inability to deal with high pressing. The Ivory Coast match in the WC 2014 is a very good example.