Category Archives: Front Page
The J-Talk Podcast – Nov. 6th, 2014
https://archive.org/details/TheJ-talkPodcast-2014J1Matchday31
Barry Valder, Cesare Polenghi and Stuart Smith guest on this bumper podcast full to the brim with Japanese football goodness.
In Part 1 Barry discusses Shimizu’s stunning (I use that word a lot) win over Kawasaki and the rest of the relegation dogfight (to 19:05), then Cesare covers the top of the table, the Nabisco Cup final and the Japan squad (to 1:01:10), before Stuart and I celebrate Matsumoto’s promotion, discuss the playoffs picture and review J3.
JSoccer Sponsors “Say No To Racism” Football Tournament
Thanks to KR&AC and the Osaka Wildcats JSoccer Magazine / JSoccer.com will be hosting and sponsoring a “Say No To Racism” 7-a-Side Football Tournament at KR&AC on November 15th. A full day of football, fun and hot dogs (!) plus an evening of mayhem and men of the matches awards in the Clubhouse. Every player gets a copy of JSoccer Magazine – expect some pictures and a report in Issue 14!
The Killer “B”s? J3 to have reserve teams? No thank you.
KEEP THE B’S OUT
By Angus MacLeod at http://www.japanfooty.com/comment-2014
A story of some concern which appears to be gathering pace in recent weeks is the speculation that the J.League will expand J3 for next season by introducing several J1 B-Teams into the division.
I cannot imagine why they would feel such a move is necessary, unless there are serious concerns among the top brass over the attendance figures for the inaugural year. Certainly, playing competitive matches on a regular basis would benefit the reserve players of the top-flight clubs, but it would effectively make a mockery of the third tier for genuine fans.
Prior to its creation, I was under the impression that the reasoning behind the push for a third tier of J.League was to create a division comprised exclusively of teams that actually wanted to gain promotion into J2, which was not the case with the JFL.
However, the 11th hour inclusion of a J.League Under 22 side that would be ineligible for promotion appeared to run counter to this, with talk of B-Teams entering the fray leaving me wondering how the resulting composition will be superior to the JFL with its mix of independent professional clubs (or clubs aspiring to be professional) and the office sides that had zero interest in becoming a part of the J.League set up.
Although some casual supporters of J3 sides may enjoy seeing the future stars of the top-flight in action, it would seem detrimental to the integrity of the competition. It certainly does not seem to help the actual J3 sides who are competing for promotion, with the benefit largely being for the established ‘big clubs’ at the top of the J.League pyramid.
If the J.League is concerned that future talent is not getting the game time needed, perhaps it would make a lot more sense to introduce a more flexible loan system for J3 clubs, rather than encouraging the top clubs to stockpile players.
Alternatively, some system could be introduced where J1 clubs have an age cap on the players that they can name on the bench, encouraging the use of up and coming talent rather than the reliance of ‘brand name’ players in their 30s.
Hello to New Readers, and Old … a Philosophy.
We don’t try to be first with anything (although, with the personal contacts we have “inside” Japanese Football, there is plenty we COULD be first with), we don’t try to be exclusive (although a lot of the articles you’ll see in JSoccer Magazine, and on this site actually are!).
We are just here to spread the word about Japanese Football in all its forms… and to allow you access to your JSoccer Magazine fix, too, of course!
The latest results are always up to date at our Results tab at the top of the page. The League tables there, also., but, now and again, we’ll post results in the stories here, too.
One thing we do like to do is round up some stories from other sources that we feel need to be given a wider audience. You will see, in particular, stories from the contributors to JSoccer Magazine – from their sites, or something they’ve done just for us here. The idea is to promote the stories and the sites/authors as much as possible, with all the credits so that you can see more of what they have written, and then follow them in the future, at their sites and on Twitter.
And if YOU have a story, article, or anything interesting about Japanese Football that you think deserves a spot here, send it over!! NOW! alan@jsoccer.com
Thank you always for your support of the site, and the magazine!
Alan Gibson
Japan National Team – Endo is back! Higashiguchi finally in…
Samurai Blue Japan squad announced …
GK Eiji Kawashima / Masaaki Higashiguchi / Shusaku Nishikawa
DF Masato Morishige / Kosuke Ota / Atsuto Uchida / Maya Yoshida / Tsukasa Shiotani / Gotoku Sakai / Gen Shoji / Ken Matsubara
MF Yasuhito Endo / Yasuyuki Konno / Makoto Hasebe / Shinji Kagawa / Taishi Taguchi / Gaku Shibasaki
FW Yohei Toyoda / Shinji Okazaki / Keisuke Honda / Yu Kobayashi / Takashi Inui / Yoshinori Muto
And in Japanese:
日本代表メンバー発表
GK川島永嗣、東口順昭、西川周作
DF森重真人、太田宏介、内田篤人、吉田麻也、塩谷司、酒井高徳、昌子源、松原健
MF遠藤保仁、今野泰幸、長谷部誠、香川真司、田口泰士、柴崎岳
FW豊田陽平、岡崎慎司、本田圭佑、小林悠、乾貴士、武藤嘉紀
The J-Talk Podcast
The latest J-Talk Podcast features
https://archive.org/details/TheJ-talkPodcast-2014J1Matchday28
Thomas Birch joins Ben on the first episode of the week to discuss another big win for Gamba Osaka and the other results in the top five of J1 from last Saturday’s Matchday 28 (to 42:10). Ben then rounds up the rest of the top flight games (to 46:00), before finishing the episode with a J2 and J3 update.
We’ll be back later in the week with a review of Wednesday’s J1 Matchday 29.
Matchday 29 details
Matchday 29 is on Wednesday night – plan ahead!! All matches kick off at 19.04 Japan time.
Urawa Reds vs Ventforet Kofu at Saitama
Omiya Ardija vs Yokohama F•Marinos at Nack 5
Kashiwa Reysol vs Gamba Osaka at Kashiwa
FC Tokyo vs Sanfrecce Hiroshima at Ajinomoto
Kawasaki Frontale vs Sagan Tosu at Todoroki
Shimizu S-Pulse vs Albirex Niigata at Nihondaira
Nagoya Grampus vs Vegalta Sendai at Mizuho
Cerezo Osaka vs Tokushima Vortis at Kincho
Vissel Kobe vs Kashima Antlers at Noevir
J1 Round-Up October 18th, 2014 – matchday 28
Tokushima Vortis 2-2 Vissel Kobe
Kashima Antlers 2-3 Kashiwa Reysol
Gamba Osaka 1-0 Kawasaki Frontale
Vegalta Sendai 4-2 Urawa Reds
Albirex Niigata 0-0 Ventforet Kofu
Yokohama F•Marinos 1-0 Shimizu S-Pulse
Sanfrecce Hiroshima 4-0 Nagoya Grampus
Omiya Ardija 1-0 FC Tokyo
Sagan Tosu 1-0 Cerezo Osaka
What a day it was for Gamba Osaka on J1 Matchday 28 of the 2014 season. The second-placed Kansai team were victorious in their home tie with 4th-placed Kawasaki Frontale, quite probably knocking Frontale out of the race for the Championship. The lone goal of the game came from Koki Yonekura – the ex-JEF United right back’s first goal in Gamba colours.
While Gamba continued their seemingly unstoppable rise up the table Urawa Reds went down 4-2 away at Vegalta Sendai. The defeat left Reds “just” four points clear of Gamba. Shinzo Koroki scored both of Reds’ goals before the break, with Sendai notching through Wilson and Takuya Nozawa. Further goals for Vegalta came from Shingo Akamine and Kazuhiro Murakami to take the points and Reds saw left-winger Tomoya Ugajin sent off in the 81st minute, for a second yellow card offence.
The news got even better for Gamba when Tetsuro Ota scored the winner for Kashiwa Reysol over Kashima Antlers as the game entered into additional time. Reysol saw their Samurai Blue defender sent off for a second yellow card in the 76th minute yet came out on top with Ota’s late strike.
Sagan Tosu moved up into 3rd place, and perhaps a final tilt at the title with a very late winner against struggling Cerezo Osaka. The cross for Yohei Toyoda’s winning header was supplied by substitute – and former Cerezo idol – Ryuji Bando, who noticeably did not celebrate and seemed to have mixed emotions at the result. Cerezo went down to yet another narrow defeat, but they all count against them and the Sakura-clad Osakans are now even deeper ito the relegation dogfight, especially after Omiya Ardija’s 1-0 win over FC Tokyo. Shohei Takahashi scored the all-important goal.
Also in trouble in the basement, Shimizu S-Pulse went down 1-0 to Yokohama F•Marinos in a match that was hard to watch, by all accounts, while Ventforet Kofu grabbed an all-important point in a goalless draw at Albirex Niigata.
Finally, in a “meaningless mid-table match-up” defending champions Sanfrecce Hiroshima whipped Nagoya Grampus 4-0, leaving Grampus still in slight danger of being dragged down into the fight, although it would seem that S-Pulse and Cerezo are doing their best to keep Grampus safe!
1 Urawa Reds 56 / +22
2 Gamba Osaka 52 / +24
3 Sagan Tosu 50 / +9
4 Kashima Antlers 49 / +21
5 Kawasaki Frontale 48 / +13
6 F.C.Tokyo 42 / +16
7 Sanfrecce Hiroshima 42 / +6
8 Kashiwa Reysol 42 / -1
9 Vissel Kobe 41 / +3
10 Yokohama F•Marinos 40 / +6
11 Albirex Niigata 38 / -5
12 Nagoya Grampus 36 / -5
13 Vegalta Sendai 32 / -13
14 Omiya Ardija 31 / -14
15 Ventforet Kofu 29 / -9
16 Shimizu S-Pulse 28 / -16
17 Cerezo Osaka 26 / -7
18 Tokushima Vortis 13 / -50
The J-Talk Podcast post-Japan v Brazil
The latest J-Talk Podcast …
Stuart Smith and Jon Steele guested to talk about Japan’s friendlies against Jamaica and Brazil (to 15:00), and their bread and butter, J2, as the races to make (at the top) and avoid (at the bottom) the playoffs really heat up with six games to go (to 1:01:20).
We finish off the episode with a check on J3.