Alex – pathetic….. Ganaha…. go home and keep practicing Only Kaji and Endo can get any satisfaction from this one….

TOKYO (AP) – World Cup midfielder Mitsuo Ogasawara has joined Italian club Messina on a one-year loan deal, his J-League first-division club Kashima Antlers announced Monday.

… those ex-Gamba boys keeping the airlines busy!

West Bromwich Albion midfielder Junichi Inamoto completed a transfer deadline day-beating deal to sign for Turkish giants Galatasaray.

WHY does the J.League allow obvious commercial concerns to decide what colour shirts the teams wear? An “away” shirt is an alternative, NOT a shirt to be worn at EVERY away game! What is the point (except to expose the shirt and try to sell more!) of, for example, Kawasaki Frontale (who normally wear a dark shirt of blue and black!) changing to their white shirt to play against JEF (wearing yellow)! So, instead of a dark against light game, we get two teams wearing very similar shirts – commercial concern and the hope that they sell more of the shirts when fans see them on TV can be the ONLY reason! Oi! STOP IT!!

Gamba go clear at the top as Reds lose! Cerezo win, too – as Nanami makes his presence felt! Osim about to name a team for games against Saudi Arabia and Yemen next week…. could be interesting! Even Sagan’s Arai in J2 is getting a mention!

Obviously not worried about the result – a foregone conclusion (famous last words!)…. Osim has rested all of the overseas-based players, as well as giving youth its head (again)…. from the WC06 squad, there’s no Miyamoto, Yanagisawa, Ogasawara, Fukunishi, Tanaka (but let’s face it, who expected to see the latter two again in a Japan shirt, anyway!?)….. in fact there are only seven members of Zico’s WC squad present!

So, watching Jubilo-Antlers I was struck at how many close/wrong decisions there seemed to be that were not even discussed….. then I watched Kyoto-Gamba… it continued!!

Peter’s take on the Osim 13…… by the way, Osim added a few more today! But still waiting on his choices from Gamba, JEF, Antlers…. if any!!Naoshi Nakamura (MF-Nagoya), Keita Suzuki (MF-Reds), Yuzo Kurihara (DF), Koji Yamase (MF) & Daisuke Sakata (FW) (all F Marinos).Ten of the 18 Osim has chosen for the Trinidad and Tobago game at Tokyo’s National Stadium on Wednesday night are uncapped! Presuming there will be an influx of eight or ten players from Gamba, JEF and Antlers (?), (plus some of the overseas contingent), some of these guys will be one hit wonders, while some will be proving their worth and be ready for 2010!!

Osim’s done EXACTLY what I suggested though I am SURE he didn’t hear it from me!) and picked the 2006 WC squad dry!!! His 1st XIII have been announced, with a few more to come…. VERY interesting….