Official 2016 J2 thread

He's sad cause when he finally scored, it was to no use.

 

Meanwhile, in Sapporo...!

5-0 win yesterday. They have the best defensive record, and only Shimizu have scored more goals than them ( helped by the 8-0 win vs Thespa). They can get a 6-point gap down to 2nd place if they win their game in hand.

This smells promotion.

 

Consadole with another win, Tokura is on fire! Montedio gave them a hard fight though, and could have gotten away with a point or even 3 with a bit more luck.

Watched only the 2nd half of Cerezo-Matsumoto, but were not impressed by Matsumoto's antics and behaviour in the final 15 minutes or so. Constant dragging time of time, simulation, and what's worse. It made me think I was watching a match from Portugal,Spain/Italy for a minute. It got them the win in the end though, and maybe Japanese teams need to get better at such things, but its not fun to watch.

 

Another win for Consadole!

Not the best game though, and Thespa were really good at pressuring them and not giving the Consadole-players time with the ball. Had quite a lot of chances as well, and at 1-1 it was anyone's game for a while before Consadole took more over in the final 30 minutes.

Tokura 2 more goals, but they got other players as well up front that are doing a great job. Uchimura is always dangerous, Julinho have been good as well although he struggled today. He's very slow with the ball, and I don't think he's the type of the player that could make the cut in J1 as it will most likely be too fast for him. Reyes came off the bench and had a big impact as well.

 

Only 2400 people in the stadium. Or stadium might be drawing it a bit too far, it's more like a track and field course with some seats around it.

A lot of people expected Giravanz to compete for promotion this year, and the Giravanz Wombat guy ( don't know if he's hanging out here) even went as far as saying in the Jsoccer magazine he was certain that Giravanz would take one of the playoff spots.

What went wrong? Their team looks more or less the same as last year when they very a lot more competitive.

 

Achille Emana, yes.

He's yet to make his debut, but he is still with the team. At the age of 34 one has to wonder how good he still is, but he had decent success in UAE before, and also in Europe way before that.

 

I guess you are referring to the penalty.

Its hard to see, but looking closely it seems like his shirt is pulled. If its enough to deserve a PK I don't know, but if you see where the ref is standing the shirt was probably standing like a sail from his point of view.

 

3 new points for Consadole!

Whenever Consadole scores first, they have won an amazingly 96% of their matches so far this season. Quite incredible.

 

Late drama in J2, with Shimizu coming from behind to clinch a 2-1 win in injury-time away vs Cerezo. With Matsumoto winning their match, the gap up to 2nd is 4 points now for Cerezo, while Shimizu are just trailing 3 points behind there again, so should be more dramatic matches coming up soon. Fagiano are not out of it yet either,especially if they win tonight.