I'm more interested in the protest against CS system of Urawa supporters not coming to the game at SaiSuta rather than the final result. The truth is that Urawa will be always in the top of the league in the coming years and others will change and no one ill remember in few years that x team was strong for 3 years and the declined to the middle of J1 or J2...
This is pathetic. I'm talking about PK for Urawa after foul on Sekine. It's hard to find a clearer example of PK and if it wan't whistled in the CS after Urawa was 9 points away from Gamba in the table what's the meaning of winning CS?
So Gamba Osaka with 9 points behind Urawa managed to beat Urawa after Extra time, and now have a chance to win the championship if they defeat Sanfrecce Hiroshima (The overall season winner) which finished the season 11 points ahead of Gamba! That's what we call "non-sense"! Well I think The J-League should reconsider a modification of the Championship stage to make it more fair and just. I mean the CS shall consist of the two stage winners + overall season top of the table team, and in case the top team in the overall season is one of the stage winners, then let it be only a 2-teams competition between the 2 stage winners, instead of giving a team who finished the season 3rd with a remarkably inferior tally of points an unjustifiable chance to win the championship. For Example in the 2000 season Yokohama Marinos won the 1st stage, Kashima won the 2nd, while Kashiwa was the overall season top of the table team, so in this case it is justifiable and logical to make it a 3-teams competition. But in this year case it is complete non-sense.
One more thing is that the team with more points in such cases shall be given a home-advantage, just like how the J2 play-offs work, I mean if the match ended with a draw then the team with more points in the overall season shall be considered as the winners. In this case Urawa would be the winners today after the 90-minutes mark, as the other team failed to seize the chance and beat them in a 90-minutes match, without the need of extra time.
Anyone who watched the game had seen that a better team lost. But whatever - Gamba seemed more conclusive in front of Reds goal still. And Higashiguchi kept them in the game I must admit. This goal will surely become Japanese football history...
Was at Saisuta for the game today, and very disappointed by the result indeed. Had that back-lob from Niwa gone in instead of hitting the post Urawa would have been champions... Same if Urawa's 2 big chances in injury-time had gone in.... And not to mention what looked like a clear-cut PK on the foul of Sekine... Very unfortunate day for Urawa, and sad to see them drop out like this as they were the better team. I was surprised by the low crowd, as it was almost 15 000 less than the match against Kobe. Didnt know it was a protest!
Wow! Great for you to be there to watch the game! What makes it even more painful for all of Reds supporters was that all of the season's results (being 9 points ahead of 3rd place after regular) has been decided in a single game without any 'table bonus' and clumsy referee... And that Fujiharu's clumsy shot that some called 'volley'... The same Fujiharu who's got dribbled by Sekine 50 times on the wing that day... And now I read that Kenta>>>Petrovic or Endo>>>Kashiwagi (lol!). But I can accept that as Reds are the biggest club in Japan and they will be hated for being competent on financial side and the biggest crowd of real poeple on the stadiums around the country instead of the number of 2ch and blog posts. That clear foul on Sekine wasn't the only bad call that slipped by the ref's clumsiness today. This wasn't a foul according to Mr Matsuo as well as this... There was also Moriwaki's foul on Patric in the last minutes of the game that should be whistled by the ref as well resulting in PK for Gamba.
@AgentOrange2009 It was hugely entertaining, which came with the added satisfaction of watching the league’s biggest mercenaries lose.— David Phillips (@lovefutebol) November 28, 2015 Urawa with all the respect. Your passing play is the best in J-League, but you are not Barcelona. You should play more safe, especially in this kind of games. Gamba scored the opener from nothing.
Thanks! I moved to Japan again now, and will probably go see most of Urawa's matches from now on=) I agree that all this "hate" on Urawa is ridiculuous. It sounds more like envy than anything else. Urawa doesnt make any more changes to their team per season than most other teams, so the mercenary critiscism is just idiotic.
Don't be too bitter, that was a good goal. Well that was disappointing, Reds deserved it. But that's sports.
Guys. What happens in the play off final. I know it's over 2 legs but if the aggregate score is a draw do Hiroshima win the title as they finished 1st with overall points or does it go extra time and penalties? Also I'm guessing away goals don't count either. The league needs to be clearer and what happens. I never know what's going on. In the semi I assumed Urawa would qualify with a draw, like the J2 plays offs.
Patric racially abused on Twitter by a Urawa fan. http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20151130-00375225-soccerk-socc
It was waaaay overblown. The main reasons are that boy (he goes to high school) happened to be Urawa supporter (2ch and Yahoo comments started) and Patric himself (why the hell he reacted to someone insulting him on Twitter?). Anyway the boy already apologised and thanks to god Urawa won't be penalized for that (many Internet wanted that because, you know, it's those Reds! and they haven't felt bad abusing supporters writing about them 劣頭 or something like that). So it ended but became national news it shouldn't be with the boy, his HS and Reds apologizing.