Wow, Kashiwa Reysol thrashed Kyoto Sanga who needed a win to reach the J1 promotional playoffs 13-1 on the final day. Olunga scored 7 goals in the match btw.
J1 averaged 20,705 fans per game this season, the highest average attendance in its history and the first time the league has cracked the 20k mark. Previous J1 average attendance 1993 - 17,976 (10 teams/180 games) 1994 - 19,598 (12 teams/264 games) 1995 - 16,922 (14 teams/364 games) 1996 - 13,353 (16 teams/240 games) 1997 - 10,131 (17 teams/272 games) 1998 - 11,982 (18 teams/304 games) 1999 - 11,658 (16 teams/240 games) 2000 - 11,065 (16 teams/240 games) 2001 - 16,548 (16 teams/240 games) 2002 - 16,368 (16 teams/240 games) 2003 - 17,351 (16 teams/240 games) 2004 - 18,965 (16 teams/240 games) 2005 - 18,765 (18 teams/306 games) 2006 - 18,292 (18 teams/306 games) 2007 - 19,066 (18 teams/306 games) 2008 - 19,202 (18 teams/306 games) 2009 - 18,985 (18 teams/306 games) 2010 - 18,428 (18 teams/306 games) 2011 - 15,797 (18 teams/306 games) 2012 - 17,566 (18 teams/306 games) 2013 - 17,226 (18 teams/306 games) 2014 - 17,240 (18 teams/306 games) 2015 - 17,803 (18 teams/306 games) 2016 - 17,968 (18 teams/306 games) 2017 - 18,883 (18 teams/306 games) 2018 - 19,064 (18 teams/306 games) 2019 - 20,751 (18 teams/306 games)
Kobe have won the super cup after the penalty shootout. Probably the worst penalty shootout I've ever seen. What a bunch of horrible penalties. Unbelievable that professional footballers can be so poor at them. 9 straight misses!
Since I didn't find the 2020 thread, I'll post here. https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20200319-01048408-soccerk-socc The J-league will decide on March 25th whether the league returns on April 3rd. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity! With the leagues in Europe and Americas on hold, soccer fans around the world have nothing to watch, so if the J-league resumes that soon, all sports channels will have no option but to show J-league games! This is the golden opportunity for the popularization of Japanese soccer in the world!
And a golden opportunity to show the world that they just do not care about the health of their fans or players or staff. As much as I want to see some decent soccer I will not watch any new matches until this crises is over. Even totally money driven sports leagues like the NBA and EPL and NHL have shut down for the time being. If the J-League was to decide to play matches, even before empty stadiums, they would be showing an irresponsibility that is almost unforgivable. I hope they make the correct decision and hold up play until it is reasonably safe for all concerned.
The spread of the virus is almost under control in Japan. The number of the newly registered cases in the past 2 weeks is less than 100, and the total amount of cases is 923 with 191 of them already recovered. All of this despite Japan's proximity to China, and despite the fact that it was among the first countries to record cases of the virus. In the contrary major European countries and US have seen an exponential rise of the newly recorded cases,with countries such as Italy, Spain, France, and Germany are recording thousands of cases per day in the past 2 weeks. No need to overreact, I hope they will resume the league with some precautious measures, such as playing behind closed doors, and then gradually allow the fans to attend the matches depending on the situation.
They somewhat controlled the situation by implementing drastic solution earlier than the western, like closing schools, postpone large public gathering activities... since second half of February. If they rush the restart of J League, what other event managers and producers will think? What will happen if they're all too eager to go back to normal life and the pandemic spreading getting worse? I say let the decision in the hand of the health experts, not by some unclear business opportunity.
I hope so. Japan's "shut-down" measures have been mild compared to other countries. I think part of the reason for the low numbers is that they have more social distancing, they use masks, etc. These things help a lot. But, they have also done less tests overall. So either things are going well (as in, they did a very good job in handling the clusters ) or, things are about to get way worse in the next weeks as they are going "back to normal" so quickly. I'm concerned because you already see their resistance in not delaying the Tokyo Olympics. Of course there are enourmous economic interests in these things, so I hope the health of the people is not being sacrificed for these things.
Remember that it is not only Japan that needs to be virus free for the Olympics to be held but also all the other countries where athletes and fans and officials come from that must be almost totally virus free and there needs to be a vaccine that everyone attending takes. I just do not see all that happening in time.
CNN reported that Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe requested from schools to reopen in early April: Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for schools to reopen during a meeting with government officials on Covid-19 on Friday https://t.co/wElaDzdMgX— CNN International (@cnni) March 20, 2020 A full article on Nikkei about schools and businesses gradually reopening: https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/Japan-quietly-reopens-as-much-of-world-locks-down I think this all supports the possibility of the resume of J-League in April.