The ball is in Kashima's favor, but as we know, the top spot is never a secure thing in J-League. Those other ACL spots on the table is my focus though.
Marinos actually looks as good a candidate than any of the other teams up there at the moment I think. They don't play the most interesting football ( having only scored 30 goals in 22 matches), but they are very strong defensively and seems to be able to grind out wins even on bad days. What's even more surprising is to see Iwata all the way up in 6th place, ahead of the likes of Gamba, Urawa, Tokyo and Kobe. Went to Ajinomoto to see Tokyo VS Kobe yesterday. Not the best match, and the tempo was overall quite low. The worst thing about the game was probably the referees though. Numerous bad calls, especially on offsides and in play-on situations, and he really killed the flow of the game. He also seemed very protective of Podolski, with even the slighest touch by an opposing player being rewarded with a foul. Podolski had a few brilliant touches, but he didn't stand out in any way other than that. His body language and gestures were really bad, and although he might be used to play on a higher level this is not really how he should act imho. He certainly wasnt Kobe's best player in this game, and his movement off the ball as well were quite bad at times. But then again, every now and then his brilliance showed. For being a home-game, Tokyo was very defensive-minded and was barely over at Kobe's half for the first 30-40 minutes. They took more over in the 2nd half , but think Kobe was the better team overall. Utaka really stirred things up when he got on though.
Petrovic at Vissel Kobe now? Talk about a plot twist! And a new President of the club too? Rakuten is making the moves.
5 points clear. It seems this team Kashima knows how to win trophies. Last season they had problems in the regular season, but played at their best level when it really mattered. F-Marinos wins game after game even they are not scoring too much.
It's not the most excting season so far... Aside from Urawa's crisis. Not too many things standing out this season.
He's not good for team-morale it seems. Always complaining about other players, and his body language is horrible. He need to step it up for sure.
Really hope that he do not end up disliking the country or league like Forlan. Forlan did not like playing in Japan by the time he left, he felt the fans did not do enough to pressure the team into playing better and his team-mates did not give a shit about relegation. Podolski might end up the same if Kobe's form continues.
I might be wrong about that but probably many players consider a few teams like hollidays for which you get paid. Those clubs where money is damn good and there's absolutely no pressure from the fans as those clubs never did anything meaningful on the national scene. In this number is surely Vissel, FC Tokyo and Cerezo. Go to Gamba, Antlers, Reds and besides good cash every month on you account there's a lot of pressure from the fans all around. You lose three games in a row - they will start booing you for your every mistake. Things like that. On the lower end of the table players are much more determined to keep their work in J1 so there are no such situations. But in those few clubs there's a bunch of talented guys way above the average who don't have to sweat to keep midtable J1 place and don't want to produce better results because the pressure would rise every season. So they keep on doing what they do until there's a catastrophe after few years of neglection when it turns out that they aren't as good as they thought and end up in J2. This happened to Cerezo and FC Tokyo in recent years. Then comes one or two seasons of sobering and the cycle repeats. Too bad that such players are thrown into those strange clubs and get the wrong impression. They try hard to fight this tepid atmosphere that they didn't probably felt ever playing in Europe (in better clubs).
Podolski might have went to the wrong club then. Then again, few J league clubs are willing to pay him that much.
Cerezo Osaka proved again that they are shockers! They lost 1-4 at home against Vegalta. While earlier today Consadole Sapporo wasted precious 3-points as they couldn't hold to a 2-0 lead against Albirex Niigata and ended up drawing 2-2. They are making things hard for themselves as they have the hardest schedule compared to other relegation-threatened teams.
Saito blew out his ACL and is out an estimated 8 months. Meanwhile Oshima pulled his hammy and will sit for 2 months. Ugh
With Yokohama, Cerezo and Kashiwa struggling to keep form recently, Jubilo Iwata might pull a surprise and book an ACL spot for the next season.
I still hope Kashiwa will take 3rd spot. Most interesting team of the league if they don't lose anyone on next winter. What about Kobayashi? He's amazing.
What about Kobayashi? He's great for Frontale but that's his limit I assume. Good luck to him in the rest of his playing time in J League. Every time he was chosen for NT he ended with an injury just before the training camp start (or during)... It's great that a talking head like Nanami can be actually a pretty good coach in his club (Jubilo). A rare occurance.
Big 1-2 away win for Consadole Sapporo against clueless FC Tokyo (Bothroyd scoring a brace) as they are now 7 points clear of the relegation zone with 4 games left to to play. Sanfrecce losing 0-3 at home against Kawasaki Fromtale, Omiya snatched a point with an injury time equaliser to secure a draw against Kashiwa, Shimizu held Vegalta Sendai to a goalless draw and Ventfore lost against Cerezo Osaka 0-2. Relegation battle: Sapporo 34 Shimizu 30 Kofu 28 Hiroshima 27 Omiya 24 Niigata 16 I could say that Sapporo is safe especially with Kofu and Omiya will going to play against each other. While Albirex is 99.99% assured of relegation unless a miracle happened (their first ever relegation since joining the J-League, which left only Kashima, Yokohama Marinos and Sagan Tosu as the only teams that didn't relegate ever from J1).
Well Sagan began from J2 though As in, it's only since they were promoted that they battle to stay in J1