Gamba have been active in the transfer market in the off season and are looking to make more improvements bfore the season kicks off in March. More updates will follow. Here’s the story so far, more teams to follow:

Here’s the first weekend for you…Saturday March 5thGamba v. CerezoGrampus v. F. MarinosReysol v. S-PulseFrontale v. MontedioSanfrecce v. VegaltaAvispa v. AlbirexVentforet v. JubiloSunday March 6thAntlers v. ArdijaVissel v. Reds

I’ll do my best to keep you all up to date on as many transfers / changes as I can over the next month. Today:Daisuke Ichikawa and Teruyoshi Ito from Shimizu S-Pulse to newly-promoted Ventforet Kofu.Yanagawa and Baba back to Vissel from their loans.Haneda from Cerezo to Vissel (who let go Ganaha, Enomoto, Tomita, Edmilson and Kobayashi).Yamagishi’s loan at Hiroshima has become a full transfer, from Frontale.Wilfred Sanou left Urawa for Cologne.Stand by for more …

Lots of the overseas contingent are in, as well as Tadanari Lee and Ryoichi Maeda – the former a nice surprise, the latter, expected as he WAS top scoring Japanese player in the J.League. Yosuke Kashiwagi (Urawa) is probably a surprise, and Takuya Honda (S-Pulse) made it over a bunch of other possibilities.Komano is a notable absentee, but only due to a lengthy injury picked up against an over-physical Korea a couple of months back.

The full 50 preliminary names for Japan’s Asian Cup adventure in January!

… an article for Eye-Ai – a bilingual magazine that comes out in February! Talk about tight deadlines … would rather write this after the Emperor’s Cup Final, but anyway, here’s what they’re getting…Alan

Cerezo make the ACL, Kashima held at Yamagata, drop to 4th like a stone (insert big Kansai smile here).

Gamba confirm ACL place, and are joined by Cerezo!

Quarterfinals – Dec.25th13:00 Kashima Antlers vs. Nagoya Grampus at Kashima15:00 Avispa Fukuoka vs. FC Tokyo at Kumagaya(winners play each other in a semi-final at Kokuritsu National Stadium on Dec.29th)13:00 Shimizu S-Pulse vs. Montedio Yamagata at Nihondaira13:00 Gamba Osaka vs. Urawa Reds at Banpaku(winners play each other in a semi-final at Nihondaira on Dec.29th)Final is January 1st at 14:00 at Kokuritsu National StadiumAm I right in thinking a win for any of the top three teams of the J1 means a 4th place J1 entry into the ACL? better check that for sure … good news for Cerezo if they fail to overtake Gamba or Antlers this weekend. Three of the final eight are the teams that would finish above them …

Wins for Cerezo and Antlers, coupled with Gamba’s loss means that Cerezo can still pop into the top three at the expense of Gamba or Antlers if they slip up next week. Meanwhile, at the bottom, a win for Vissel is vital, while Tokyo will go down if Vissel win and they do not manage a win – only problem for Vissel – they are away at eds, while Tokyo have Sanga to hand them the points!? Vegalta are also in trouble, though. If Vissel and Tokyo win, then it goes down to goal difference if Vegalta lose. Vissel need a 3-0 win while Vegalta lose 4-0 (or any combination of seven goals going against Vegalta or for Vissel!) for that to happen, though!1 Nagoya Grampus 69 33 22 3 8 52 36 +16 2 Kashima Antlers 59 33 16 11 6 50 30 +20 3 Gamba Osaka 59 33 17 8 8 62 44 +18 4 Cerezo Osaka 58 33 16 10 7 52 30 +22 5 Shimizu S-Pulse 54 33 15 9 9 60 46 +14 6 Kawasaki Frontale 53 33 15 8 10 60 46 +14 7 Sanfrecce Hiroshima 51 33 14 9 10 44 36 +8 8 Yokohama F･Marinos 51 33 15 6 12 43 37 +6 9 Urawa Reds 48 33 14 6 13 48 37 +11 10 Albirex Niigata 46 33 11 13 9 45 44 +1 11 Jubilo Iwata 44 33 11 11 11 36 43 -7 12 Montedio Yamagata 41 33 11 8 14 28 41 -13 13 Omiya Ardija 39 33 10 9 14 37 45 -8 14 Vegalta Sendai 38 33 10 8 15 39 45 -6 15 F.C.Tokyo 36 33 8 12 13 36 39 -3 16 Vissel Kobe 35 33 8 11 14 33 45 -12 17 Kyoto Sanga F.C. 16 33 3 7 23 28 60 -32 18 Shonan Bellmare 16 33 3 7 23 30 79 -49