Official 2004 J.League Thread [R]

skipshady · Nov 4, 2004

Re: J-League thread [R]

Well done, Gas. They deserve some silverware, and it's always nice to have a team from outside the Iwata-Kashima-Yokohama triangle winning a title.

yosukino · Nov 4, 2004

Re: J-League thread [R]

I could not sleep well last night...

GAS' diffence was really solid, more over holy I felt.
They actually deserved cup winner title.

But I eager to insist they've never been 'offence-oriented team' that GAS' manager HIROMI HARA used to say,if their captain jean would not been sent off.

you never walk "again" GAS.

WER ARE REDS...

morningm · Nov 8, 2004

Re: J-League thread [R]

congratulations GAS!

skipshady · Nov 15, 2004

Re: J-League thread [R]

Emperor's Cup discussion here.

shuvy87 · Nov 19, 2004

Re: J-League thread [R]

Preview for this weeks' game is coming up....

shuvy87 · Nov 19, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

J.LEAGUE Update
There is only 3 more games left in J1, J2, and JFL and in next eight days J1 and J2 clubs will play the remaining 3 games while JFL clubs will play 2 of remaining 3 games.

J.LEAGUE Divison 1:
There is only two clubs left in the 2nd stage championship race. However, it is very safe to say that URAWA will be crowned as the stage champion for first time in the league history. Both G. OSAKA and Urawa's games will be interesting as the Osaka club will go head-to-head against the 3rd place NAGOYA, while Urawa will play against the 1st stage winner, YOKOHAMA. The letter game will be the potential championship games preview.
Code:
[b]Top 5 J1 2nd Stage Standing (as of November 16)[/b]
[i]Club		GP	[b]Pts[/b][/i]
1.URAWA		12	[b]31[/b]
2.G.OSAKA	12	[b]24[/b]
3.NOGOYA	12	[b]21[/b]
4.ICHIHARA	12	[b]21[/b]
5.YOKOHAMA	12	[b]19[/b]
[b]----------------------------[/b]
There is still 5 clubs who could end up in the pseudo-relegation spot at the end of the season. But unless C.OSAKA seriously picks up the remaing 3 games a bit, they will be the one endding up with ticket to relegation/promotion playoffs. Very interestingly, KASHIWA and SHIMIZU will be playing against each other tomorrow which mean if the Osaka does win, it will help them a bit. Of course, they will be rooting for Shimizu tough.
Code:
[b]Bottom 5 J1 Overall Standing (as of November 16)[/b]
[i]Club		GP	[b]Pts[/b][/i]
[b]----------------------------[/b]
12.OITA		27	[b]28[/b]
13.HIROSHIMA	27	[b]27[/b]
14.SHIMIZU	27	[b]26[/b]
15.KASHIWA	27	[b]24[/b]
16.C.OSAKA	27	[b]19[/b]
J.LEAGUE Division 2:
As mentioned before, KAWASAKI already clinched the championship/promotion spot. However, there are still four clubs fighting for the 2nd place (the 2nd automatic promotion berth) and the 3rd place (the promotion/relegation playoff berth). OMIYA only needs 2pts to clinch the 2nd place, while YAMAGATA, FUKOKA, and KYOTO is only seperated by 6pts all going for 3rd place.
Code:
[b]Top 5 J2 Standing (as of November 16)[/b]
[i]Club		GP	[b]Pts[/b][/i]
1.KAWASAKI	41	[b]96[/b]
2.OMIYA		41	[b]78[/b]
3.YAMAGATA	41	[b]70[/b]
4.FUKUOKA	41	[b]67[/b]
5.KYOTO		41	[b]63[/b]
[b]----------------------------[/b]
Japanese Football League:
JFL also has 3 games left in the season and OSUKA SEIYAKU already won the J2 promotion. They are just 2pts shy of winning the championship. There are two more clubs that can win the 2nd promotion spot (2nd place) but since one of those clubs are not intending to promote, 3rd place finishing will be enough for KUSATSA for promotion, even though they are contending for 2nd place finish.
Code:
[b]TOP 5 JFL Standing (as of October 31)[/b]
[i]Club		GP	[b]Pts[/b][/i]
1.OTSUKA	27	[b]69[/b]
2.KUSATSU	27	[b]61[/b]
3.HONDA FC	27	[b]56[/b]
4.YKK AP	27	[b]46[/b]
[b]5.EHIME FC	27	[b]45[/b]
----------------------------[/b]

SmokingMan · Nov 19, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

shuvy87 said:

J.LEAGUE Update
Both G.Osaka and Urawa's games will be interesting as the Osaka club will go head-to-head against the 3rd place NAGOYA, while Urawa will play against the 1st stage winner, YOKOHAMA. The letter game will be the potential championship games preview.
Click to expand...

Wow, that really WOULD be interesting . . . if it were true.

Unfortunately the Reds played against the Marinos LAST month. I dont think they are going to play them again. Maybe you need to re-check your schedule?

shuvy87 · Nov 19, 2004

Opps.... sorry, it was other way around.

G.OSAKA playing YOKOHAMA and URAWA playing NAGOYA.

LakesidePark · Nov 20, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

Urawa 1-2 Nagoya
G. Osaka 0-2 Yokohama

Both Urawa and Gamba lost, and that means Urawa Reds have taken the trophy for the first time.

Meanwhile, Omiya will be promoted to J1. We're going to see Saitama derby matches between Urawa vs Omiya next year.

shuvy87 · Nov 21, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

Also the 3rd place battle got tighter as Yamagata lost the last game and both Fukuoka and Kyoto won. Now Fukuoka and Yamagata leveled with 70 pts, Kyoto stands next by 4pts apart. Last two games in J2 will be very interesting for these teams.

Both Kashiwa and C. Osaka lost a goal in the stoppage time and this caused Osaka to slip from full 3pts and earning only a tie while kashiwa earned 0pt instead of 1pt. Now these two teams are only possible teams that will end up in the 16th place at this point.

furtho · Nov 21, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

shuvy87 said:

Also the 3rd place battle got tighter as Yamagata lost the last game and both Fukuoka and Kyoto won. Now Fukuoka and Yamagata leveled with 70 pts, Kyoto stands next by 4pts apart. Last two games in J2 will be very interesting for these teams.
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Hello everyone, long time reader of the Japanese boards here, first time poster - I guess I'm picking my moment to do so, as I'm an Omiya Ardija supporter and have spent the weekend celebrating promotion to J1.

Can I say how much I've enjoyed a lot of the very interesting posts here and I hope I'll be able to contribute to discussions in the future. Obviously I check out Matsu's superb site a lot but also it's been great to read here about such topics as J2, JFL and the future development of the sport in Japan.

Just a minor point to make about Shuvy87's post above - the race for third place in J2 has even more spice to it given that Yamagata actually host Fukuoka in the last game of the season.

shuvy87 · Nov 21, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

furtho said:

Just a minor point to make about Shuvy87's post above - the race for third place in J2 has even more spice to it given that Yamagata actually host Fukuoka in the last game of the season.
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Welcome....

This means that for Kyoto to stay alive, Kyoto must win the last 2 games, while the other two losing the next game and they tie the head-to-head game.

For other two, it will come down to the last game no matter what, but I think they will try to get the as many points as possible in the next game.

BTW, next game is on Tuesday...

TrooperBari · Nov 22, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

furtho said:

Hello everyone, long time reader of the Japanese boards here, first time poster - I guess I'm picking my moment to do so, as I'm an Omiya Ardija supporter and have spent the weekend celebrating promotion to J1.
Click to expand...

Welcome aboard.

Hope you and your fellow Squirrels enjoy your time in J1.

furtho · Nov 22, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

TrooperBari said:

Welcome aboard. Hope you and your fellow Squirrels enjoy your time in J1.
Click to expand...

Thanks, TrooperBari - hopefully it will be a nice long stay... I'd be interested to know other people's views on the comparative standards in J1 and J2, together with the prospects for Kawasaki and Omiya looking to next season. I have to say that Omiya will potentially struggle, but that's more to do with the size of the club than to any mismanagement on either the financial or playing sides. What does anyone else think?

Also, I have a couple of factual questions I wonder if anyone can help me with. It relates to earlier postings on this thread about the levels of football in Japan lower than the JFL - I refer in particular to this page on the JFL's site, which states (if I have understood correctly) that there are nine regional leagues directly below the JFL, and then 47 prefectural leagues below that.

What I'd really like to know is, how can I find out the composition of the regional and prefectural leagues? I kind of assume that they must have league websites, which I'd really like to find, but I've never been able to locate anything like that - only the generally worse-than-useless prefectural FA sites.

Second thing is, does anyone know who is likely to replace Otsuka Pharmaceuticals and (presumably) The Spa Kusatsu in the JFL when they move into J2?

shuvy87 · Nov 22, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

furtho said:

I'd be interested to know other people's views on the comparative standards in J1 and J2, together with the prospects for Kawasaki and Omiya looking to next season. I have to say that Omiya will potentially struggle, but that's more to do with the size of the club than to any mismanagement on either the financial or playing sides. What does anyone else think?
Click to expand...

Historically speaking, almost all the clubs that promotes J1 do not relegate back to J2 in one year. In fact, since J2 started in 1999, 10 clubs have been promoted, and out of that ten, Kawasaki was the only club to come back to J2 in one year. Promoted clubs have also proved that they are capable of finishing around 10 - 14 th place out of 16th in the first year. If the J1 stayed with 16 clubs next season, it is very safe to assume that Omiya will finish around 10-14 range, while Kawasaki will finish around 6-10. Kawasaki was well beyond J2 level this year. Plus last week, these two clubs did not have a hard time eliminating J1 oponents in Emperor's Cup Round 4. It will be interesting to know, how far these two clubs can go in Emperor's Cup against J1 opponents.

But J.Leauge also proved that for pormoted clubs the 2nd year is crucial. Not including last years promotion and Kawasaki who went back in one year, total of 7 clubs have promoted and survived a year of J1. Out of that, 4 clubs went back to J2 in the 2nd year. These clubs are Supporo (p in 2000, r in 2002), Kyoto and Sendai (both P in 2001, r in 2003), and C Osaka (p in 2002) who will end up in either 15th and 16th place, the usual relegation spots. The 3 clubs that did survive the 2nd J1 year were Urawa, FC Tokyo, and Oita and they are still in J1.

Lastly, we can not forget that J1 will expand to 18 clubs next year. This says that promotion/relegation format will change. 17th and 18th will fall automaticly, while 16th will play playoff games with 3rd place in J2. I am sure the change will effect the promoted clubs. That includes Nigata and Hiroshima who will be going into the second year of J1 after their promotion in 2003.

furtho said:

Also, I have a couple of factual questions I wonder if anyone can help me with. It relates to earlier postings on this thread about the levels of football in Japan lower than the JFL - I refer in particular to this page on the JFL's site, which states (if I have understood correctly) that there are nine regional leagues directly below the JFL, and then 47 prefectural leagues below that.
Click to expand...

you are correct. 9 regions below JFL, and 47 prefecture below that.

furtho said:

What I'd really like to know is, how can I find out the composition of the regional and prefectural leagues? I kind of assume that they must have league websites, which I'd really like to find, but I've never been able to locate anything like that - only the generally worse-than-useless prefectural FA sites.
Click to expand...

Well... I do not know much about the lower leagues.

I found only one site. This is one of the regional football leagues, Kanto Soccer League.

furtho said:

Second thing is, does anyone know who is likely to replace Otsuka Pharmaceuticals and (presumably) Thespa Kusatsu in the JFL when they move into J2?
Click to expand...

The winners of 9 regional leagues and 3 runner-ups will play the regional final round in 10 days starting this Friday. And... usually the winner and runner-up of this tournament replace the two lower teams in JFL. But since we are losing two clubs from JFL this year, the FA will announce how the replacement will work on the final day of this tournament. That will be on December 5, 2004.

yosukino · Nov 22, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

furtho said:

I'd be interested to know other people's views on the comparative standards in J1 and J2, together with the prospects for Kawasaki and Omiya looking to next season. I have to say that Omiya will potentially struggle, but that's more to do with the size of the club than to any mismanagement on either the financial or playing sides. What does anyone else think?
Click to expand...

How about stadium problem?
During improvement work, they cannot use Omiya soccer stadium. Where is alternative?

Komaba (I cannot imagin Omiya use this as thier home)
Kumagaya (I think it's reasonable)
Kawagoe (I don't remember well, but J-leaue match was held in the past )
National stadium (Only when play against big club?)

LakesidePark · Nov 23, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

Saitama Stadium is too big for Omiya... Sounds like Kumagaya is a reasonable choice. How far is it from Omiya?

関西蹴球通信 is a private website dedicated to football in Kansai from J1 down to the Kansai League.

Football Information of Japan includes JFL and Regional League results.

According to 九州サッカーチーム, which covers Kyushu Regional and Prefectural Leagues, the national championship of Regional League winners starts from 11/26.

LakesidePark said:

Tokushima and Kusatsu join J2. Hopefully, Ehime and Gumma will follow suit by 2007.

[The Regional League Winners Championship]

1st Round:
Group A

Ryutsu Keizai University

TDK Akita

Japan Maritime SDF Atsugi

Group　B

Honda Lock SC (Miyazaki)

Hokkaido Norbritz FC (Hokkaido Electric Power)

Kanazawa SC

Group C

Mitsubishi Motors Mizushima

Shizuoka FC

AS Laranja Kyoto

Group D

Honda Luminozo Sayama FC

Nangoku Kochi FC

Yazaki Valente FC

Final Round: Round-robin contest among the group winners.

H/A Playoffs in December: JFL 16th vs RLWC 1st and JFL 15th vs RLWC 2nd
Click to expand...

In J1 you have 34 games to play, meaning that you have to build a team in a shorter period of time than you do in J2. At one time, you are ranked 5th, but later on you could easily slip into relegation zone, after losing a few matches. Club finance and management are also critical in the long term. Sapporo and Sendai relagated because they were and are inferior in this regard.

furtho · Nov 23, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

Thanks for the great responses, everyone. There's a lot to go into here, and I'll try to get more time during today to check everything out thoroughly, LakesidePark and Shuvy87. I do appreciate the time taken to talk about topics that maybe a lot of people are not interested in (!).

Just briefly about the stadium, though - while the capacity of Omiya-koen Stadium is being expanded, my information is that Omiya will use Komaba, Kumagaya (which is really in a different part of Saitama compared to Omiya / Urawa) and the Saitama Stadium, although I don't know which one will be 'first choice'. Neither do I know how long the work at Omiya-koen will take, given that presumably they would develop it in a fairly small way to reach the 15,000 capacity required for J1.

LakesidePark · Nov 23, 2004

Update on a new FC in Kumamoto

前柏の池谷氏が監督就任　熊本でＪ目指すチーム
 熊本新クラブ監督に池谷氏
 池谷氏　若手指導力に定評

Former club manager of Kashiwa Reysol will coach a new football club in Kumamoto. He has discovered and nurtured Tamada at Reysol.

Name: To be announced
Team: Alouette Kumamoto FC (Kyushu 1st Div.)
Hometown: Kumamoto (1 million)
Governing Body: To be established in December as a corporation
Sponsors: Local businesses and governments
Budget: 1 hundred million yen
Goals: JFL (next year) and J2 (3 years later)

Wow, they are serious.

furtho · Nov 23, 2004

Re: Update on a new FC in Kumamoto

Yes, Alouette Kumamoto (homepage here) are making a serious effort to get established from Kyushu into the JFL. They made it a couple of years ago but got relegated straight back down again. Good luck to them, say I - they have a tremendous name, if nothing else.

furtho · Nov 23, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

Especially for non-Japanese speakers / readers, this clarification of the nine regional leagues and the prefectures that feed in to them might be helpful:

1. The Hokkaido Region, the North of Japan, is composed of Hokkaido.
2. The Tohoku Region, the Northeast of Japan, is composed of Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Akita, Yamagata and Fukushima.
3. The Kanto Region, the East of Japan, is composed of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa and Yamanashi.
4. The Hoku-shin-etsu Region, the Middle North of Japan, is composed of Nagano and Niigata (both are SHIN-ETSU), Toyama, Ishikawa and Fukui (all are HOKU-riku).
5. The Tokai Region, the Middle South of Japan, is composed of Shizuoka, Aichi, Mie and Gifu.
6. The Kansai Region, the Middle West of Japan, is composed of Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara and Wakayama.
7. The Chugoku Region, the West of Japan, is composed of Tottori, Shimane, Okayama, Hiroshima and Yamaguchi.
8. The Shikoku Region, the Southwest of Japan, is composed of Kagawa, Tokushima, Ehime and Kochi.
9. The Kyushu Region, the Far West of Japan, is composed of Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Oita, Miyazaki, Kagoshima and Okinawa.

I got the list from this site, and am almost afraid to ponder out loud who Prince Takamodo might be...

Deleted Users · Nov 24, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

Well fellas, I don't see much discussion on the great Urawa vs Yokohama matchup. What's the deal with the J these days? I can't catch games on the weekends anymore since they play at 1 ~ 3 PM ( maybe its the cold wind that they changed times ).

shuvy87 · Nov 24, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

essvee said:

Well fellas, I don't see much discussion on the great Urawa vs Yokohama matchup. What's the deal with the J these days? I can't catch games on the weekends anymore since they play at 1 ~ 3 PM ( maybe its the cold wind that they changed times ).
Click to expand...

We still have two weeks till the first game. No need to hurry.

But at this point, all I can tell is that Yokohama is in big trouble; Ahn and Kubo, the best two strickers are injured. Emerson from Urawa is on roll as he scored his 3rd hatrick of the season on last weekend.

Deleted Users · Nov 24, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

Well as far as I could tell, Sakata was the point-man up front, with or without Ahn the past few weeks. Yoo Sang-chul is also injured but I doubt Yokohama will be affected by his absense. Surprising season for Urawa. Can you please tell me the date and time the game will be played ? Thanks.

The Truth Commission · Nov 25, 2004

Re: 2004 J-League thread [R]

essvee said:

Well as far as I could tell, Sakata was the point-man up front, with or without Ahn the past few weeks. Yoo Sang-chul is also injured but I doubt Yokohama will be affected by his absense. Surprising season for Urawa. Can you please tell me the date and time the game will be played ? Thanks.
Click to expand...

First leg is Sunday the 5th of December, second leg is the 11th.

On a somewhat related note, does anyone know of a good place to find Reds replicas/apparel in Tokyo? Is there a team shop at Saitama Stadium that is open during the week?