Football Japan Minutecast

Minutecast 208

A dramatic final day to the J. League season saw the 2005 champions and 2008 Asian Champions League winners Gamba Osaka relegated to the second tier for the first time in their history.

Following a disastrous season for Kansai football in general, Gamba will be joined in J2 by local rivals Vissel Kobe, but there were scenes of jubilation up on the Sea of Japan coast as Albirex Niigata completed their incredible late recovery.

A point adrift of safety going into the final Saturday, Gamba got off to the worst possible start to their away fixture at Jubilo Iwata – conceding the opener in all too familiar fashion after just five minutes. Hiroki Yamada’s cross was diverted past goalkeeper Yosuke Fujigaya by his teammate Sota Nakazawa, with Ryoichi Maeda on hand to convert after Akira Kaji’s desperate attempt to clear off the line.

Albirex had kept their own survival hopes alive with a shock victory over second-placed Vegalta Sendai the previous weekend, ahead of their home fixture with a Consadole Sapporo outfit destined to record the lowest points tally – 14 – in J1 history. Things appeared to be going according to plan as goals from Shusuke Tsubouchi and Bruno Lopes took the Niigata club into a 2-0 half-time lead.

This would have been enough to overhaul not only Gamba but also Vissel, who hosted a Sanfrecce Hiroshima side keen to repay Albirex for the favour that had clinched their first ever J1 title.

After a goalless first half, the match at Home’s Stadium Kobe sparked into life seven minutes into the second when Kunie Kitamoto foolishly slid in on Hiroshima forward Hisato Sato, who converted the resulting penalty to finish the season with a league-best 22 goals.

Almost immediately afterwards, Shu Kurata scored a brilliant equaliser for Gamba, dribbling past both Rodrigo Souto and Tomohiko Miyazaki on the by-line before finishing from a near-impossible angle. With Shota Sakaki pulling one back for Sapporo in Niigata, another goal in either of those games would now have been enough to save the Osaka men.

Gamba piled forwards in search of the winner. Mercurial striker Leandro hit the crossbar, Akihiro Ienaga had a shot blocked on the line, and Yasuhito Endo netted with a header only to be denied by an offside flag.

But disaster struck with five minutes remaining when Iwata midfielder Yuki Kobayashi smashed the ball past Fujigaya at his near post to put the hosts 2-1 in front.

By this point, Alan Mineiro and Bruno Lopes had extended Niigata’s lead to 4-1, and it was only a matter of waiting for the other matches to finish. News of the defeats for both Gamba and Kobe confirmed their place in the top flight for another season, sparking mass celebrations for a team that had been tipped for the drop from day one.

For Vissel, it was a miserable end to a season that had begun with significant investment and hopes of challenging for Asian qualification. In mid-August they had been 11 points clear of danger – and only as many adrift of top spot – but they managed just one win in 12 matches thereafter to plummet down the order.

The shock was even more profound for Gamba, who had played for the title on the final day 12 months ago.

Their decision to replace successful manager Akira Nishino – who later moved to Kobe before another dismissal last month – with the unknown Brazilian José Carlos Serrão set the Osakans into a disastrous rut from which his replacement, Masanobu Matsunami, struggled to escape.

The mid-season return of Leandro sparked a haul of 25 points from 16 games – leaving them both with a positive goal difference and as the division’s top scorers – but the damage had already been done.

City neighbours Cerezo Osaka had also gone into the final day with a slim threat of relegation, but stayed up after drawing 2-2 with Kawasaki Frontale.

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A year after almost suffering relegation themselves, Urawa Reds returned to the AFC Champions League for the first time in five seasons after a 2-0 victory over Nagoya Grampus elevated them to third in the final standings.

Yosuke Kashiwagi’s header put them in front midway through the first half, before Tomoaki Makino smashed a superb free-kick through the narrowest of gaps between the outside of the defensive wall and the inside of Seigo Narazaki’s far post.

Sagan Tosu had started the day in the last automatic qualifying spot but had to settle for a final position of fifth – still an astonishing achievement in their debut J1 season – after losing 1-0 at Yokohama F Marinos.

A trademark free kick from Shunsuke Nakamura took Marinos up to fourth – which could be enough for an ACL place too in the event that Urawa win the Emperor’s Cup.

Kashiwa Reysol’s hopes of another continental campaign were dashed as they lost 2-0 at Kashima Antlers to finish their title defence in sixth position.

Elsewhere, runners-up Sendai were thrashed 6-2 at FC Tokyo, while Omiya Ardija extended their unbeaten run to a club record 11 matches with a scoreless draw at Shimizu S-Pulse.

J1 results (matchday 34)

Kashima Antlers 2-0 Kashiwa Reysol

Urawa Reds 2-0 Nagoya Grampus

FC Tokyo 6-2 Vegalta Sendai

Yokohama F Marinos 1-0 Sagan Tosu

Albirex Niigata 4-1 Consadole Sapporo

Shimizu S-Pulse 0-0 Omiya Ardija

Jubilo Iwata 2-1 Gamba Osaka

Cerezo Osaka 2-2 Kawasaki Frontale

Vissel Kobe 0-1 Sanfrecce Hiroshima

J1 final standings

1) SANFRECCE HIROSHIMA 64

2) Vegalta Sendai 57

3) Urawa Reds 55

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4) Yokohama F Marinos 53

5) Sagan Tosu 53

6) Kashiwa Reysol 52

7) Nagoya Grampus 52

8) Kawasaki Frontale 50

9) Shimizu S-Pulse 49

10) FC Tokyo 48

11) Kashima Antlers 46

12) Jubilo Iwata 46

13) Omiya Ardija 44

14) Cerezo Osaka 42

15) Albirex Niigata 40

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16) Vissel Kobe 39

17) Gamba Osaka 38

18) Consadole Sapporo 14

The Football Japan Minutecast will take a short hiatus through the coldest part of winter before a triumphant return next year – although we hope to record one or two special editions to help plug the gap until the new season.

We are looking for sponsorship to help us keep running in 2013 – please contact Ben Mabley for details.

Minutecast 207

Sanfrecce Hiroshima, one of the J. League’s ten original members, were finally crowned as champions for the first time ever on Saturday afternoon after thrashing Cerezo Osaka 4-1, while closest challengers Vegalta Sendai suffered a shock 1-0 loss at home to Albirex Niigata.

In front of an expectant crowd of over 30,000 people at the Big Arch, Sanfrecce came out of the blocks quickly to open the scoring after 17 minutes. Yojiro Takahagi’s attempted pass was blocked by a Cerezo defender but rebounded straight back to him to fire home first time from 25 yards.

Their lead was quickly doubled when Kohei Shimizu’s overhit cross was brilliantly headed back across goal by Hironori Ishikawa for midfielder Toshihiro Aoyama to finish.

The match was effectively ended as a contest five minutes before the break when Hotaru Yamaguchi was somewhat harshly dismissed for a push on Shimizu, and Hisato Sato dispatched the resulting penalty into the roof of the net for his 22nd goal of the season.

Ishikawa scored his first ever J. League goal with a confident finish five minutes after the restart to make it four, before Takuma Edamura headed a consolation for the beaten visitors.

Attention then switched to Sendai, where Vegalta had begun the day a point adrift and faced a Niigata side needing a win to have any chance of survival.

Shingo Tomita hit the post after just four minutes as the hosts looked to take the game to their opponents, but they were stunned on 17 when Albirex midfielder Yuta Mikado raced onto a Michael through ball and cut the ball across the six-yard box for left-back Kim Jin-Su to slot home.

Ryang Yong-Gi thought he had equalised for Sendai later in the first half, only for the linesman to rule that the ball had travelled out of play before Shingo Akamine had headed it back into his path.

Makoto Teguramori introduced Kunimitsu Sekiguchi and Takayuki Nakahara to add weight to the Vegalta attack in the second half, but despite a desperate six minutes of stoppage time they were unable to break down a stubborn Niigata defence as their title dreams finally slipped away.

Back in Hiroshima, players and staff flooded back onto the pitch in joy as news of the Sendai result filtered through. A jubilant Hajime Moriyasu shouted his thanks to the supporters through the stadium’s public address system before later commenting, “I am simply too happy for words. I so wanted to become champions of Japan with Hiroshima, but I never imagined we would win the league in my first season as manager.”

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2005 champions Gamba Osaka will go into the final day still in the bottom three after they could only draw 2-2 in their last home match against FC Tokyo.

Two goals from Akihiro Ienaga looked to have put them on course for a much-needed victory after Yuhei Tokunaga’s opener for Tokyo, but Kazuma Watanabe equalised with six minutes left on the clock as Gamba once again crumbled when trying to defend their lead.

Omiya Ardija are safe after extending their incredible late-season unbeaten run to ten matches with a 2-0 victory over Jubilo Iwata – Shin Kanazawa’s superb curling opener into the top corner of the net followed up by a second from Daigo Watanabe.

Dutra pounced on mistakes by Nagoya Grampus defender Daniel then goalkeeper Seigo Narazaki to net a brace for Kashima Antlers as they sealed their own survival with a surprise 2-1 away victory at the Toyota Stadium.

But Vissel Kobe slipped to a 1-0 defeat at outgoing champions Kashiwa Reysol, with Jorge Wagner hitting a low shot across goalkeeper Kenta Tokushige from well outside the penalty area for the winner after the visitors had seen Hideo Tanaka dismissed for two yellow cards in the first half.

Gamba are now one point behind Kobe and three behind neighbours Cerezo, with a significantly superior goal difference. Niigata are now only one point further adrift in 17th position and have a home fixture against Consadole Sapporo, who only have 14 points in total, on the final Saturday.

In the battle for the third automatic AFC Champions League place, Sagan Tosu continued to defy all expectations by defeating Urawa Reds 3-1 to climb to third in the table.

Many had predicted an immediate return to J2 for the top flight debutants this season, but a brace from Yohei Toyoda either side of Ryunosuke Noda’s volley has put the Kyushu outfit in pole position for an Asian campaign next year.

Kashiwa, Urawa, and Nagoya are all just a point behind, but if all three fail to win next Saturday then Yokohama F. Marinos can steal the ACL berth with victory at home to Tosu.

Marinos won 2-0 in Sapporo yesterday, while in the remaining fixture, Kawasaki Frontale beat Shimizu S-Pulse 2-1.

TALKING POINTS

- Takenori Hayashi scored a dramatic late winner against his former club, JEF United Chiba, to take Oita Trinita back into J1 with a 1-0 victory in the inaugural J2 playoff final at the National Stadium in Tokyo on Friday.

J1 results (matchday 33)

Vegalta Sendai 0-1 Albirex Niigata

Nagoya Grampus 1-2 Kashima Antlers

Gamba Osaka 2-2 FC Tokyo

Sanfrecce Hiroshima 4-1 Cerezo Osaka

Sagan Tosu 3-1 Urawa Reds

Consadole Sapporo 0-2 Yokohama F Marinos

Omiya Ardija 2-0 Jubilo Iwata

Kashiwa Reysol 1-0 Vissel Kobe

Kawasaki Frontale 2-1 Shimizu S-Pulse

J2 playoff final result

Oita Trinita 1-0 JEF United Chiba

Ben Mabley is the English Premier League analysis for the JSports programme ‘Foot!’, appearing every Tuesday night at 10pm on JSports 3. He is also a columnist for Goal.com Japan.

Minutecast 206

J1 leaders Sanfrecce Hiroshima slipped to a 2-0 defeat away to third-placed Urawa Reds on Saturday, but managed to hold onto a one-point advantage at the top as Vegalta Sendai were pegged back to draw 3-3 at Kashima Antlers.

Keita Suzuki was the inspiration for Urawa, deploying his range of skills to pierce the Hiroshima defence for both of his side’s goals. Five minutes before half time, his diagonal pass from just in front of the halfway line found the on-running Tsukasa Umesaki to fire home the opener at the far post.

Then, just after the hour mark, Suzuki took advantage of some uncharacteristically hesitant Sanfrecce defending to dribble through from the centre circle virtually unchallenged and double the lead from inside the D.

The news from Saitama would have been music to the ears of Sendai fans, whose side began the day two points behind but opened up a 3-1 lead in the first half at Kashima Stadium.

Shingo Akamine headed in a Naoki Sugai cross before strike partner Wilson pounced for the second after Antlers custodian Hitoshi Sogahata had spilled an attempt from Yoshiaki Ota. Shinzo Koroki pulled one back for the hosts, but Akamine headed his second from a tight angle following more uncertain goalkeeping from Sogahata.

However, Jorginho was able to change the game with a reshuffle and a more attacking approach for the second period. Substitute Juninho crossed for Yuya Osako to halve the deficit two minutes after the restart, before Masashi Motoyama deftly lofted the ball over the Vegalta centre-backs for Koroki to smash in the equaliser.

With Hiroshima set for an easier final two fixtures on paper, Sendai’s failure to hold on for all three points may well prove decisive.

Urawa still head up the battle for the third and final automatic Asian Champions League place, albeit only on goal difference above Nagoya Grampus, who won 2-0 at Jubilo Iwata with goals at the end of both halves.

Sagan Tosu are two points adrift in fifth after coming from behind to win 3-2 at relegated Consadole Sapporo, with Kashiwa Reysol one further back in sixth following their Leandro Domingues-inspired 2-1 victory away to Yokohama F Marinos.

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Omiya Ardija made it nine games unbeaten as their late-season survival instincts continued to amaze in a 3-1 victory away to Cerezo Osaka.

With a waterlogged pitch serving to nullify both sides’ attempts at passing the ball, the match remained goalless until Milivoje Novaković superbly converted a free kick from about 25 yards, left of the goal, after 37 minutes.

Following the breakdown of a Cerezo set play, Daisuke Watabe broke away from the right-back position to hit a powerful low shot across Kim Jin-Hyeon for Ardija’s second. Kenyu Sugimoto quickly pulled one back for the home side, but Takuya Aoki sealed the points late on.

If Kincho Stadium was waterlogged, the pitch at FC Tokyo positively resembled a lake for the visit of Vissel Kobe, who fired manager Akira Nishino earlier in the week but adapted to the conditions to seal a vital first league win in ten thanks to a superb first ever goal from rookie right-back Ryo Okui.

Gamba Osaka will be wondering what on earth they need to do to break out of the bottom three after they also gained an impressive 3-1 victory away to Shimizu S-Pulse. Shu Kurata scored a brace either side of a 14th goal in 13 games for Leandro, who also held off the entire Shimizu defence to set up Kurata’s second.

Albirex Niigata are in a perilous position after they succumbed to a 95th-minute winner by Kawasaki Frontale’s Yu Kobayashi, to drop five points adrift of safety with just six more available.

Gamba are still two points behind Kobe and three behind Omiya. Kashima and Cerezo are now suddenly right back in the relegation picture too, respectively three and four points clear of danger.

TALKING POINTS

Oita Trinita and JEF United Chiba will contest the inaugural J2 playoff final on Friday after each achieving astonishing 4-0 victories in their semi-finals on Sunday afternoon.

The idiosyncratic rules for the J. League’s new experiment dictated that, by virtue of respectively finishing the regular season in third and fourth, Kyoto Sanga and Yokohama FC would not only enjoy home advantage for the single-legged semis, but only needed to draw to progress to the final.

Perhaps the need to win in 90 minutes galvanised the eventual victors, with Oita’s Yu Kijima hitting all four against ten-man Kyoto while Yoshihito Fujita scored two for Chiba in Yokohama.

J1 results (matchday 32)

Kashima Antlers 3-3 Vegalta Sendai

Urawa Reds 2-0 Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Yokohama F Marinos 1-2 Kashiwa Reysol

Albirex Niigata 0-1 Kawasaki Frontale

Jubilo Iwata 0-2 Nagoya Grampus

Consadole Sapporo 2-3 Sagan Tosu

FC Tokyo 0-1 Vissel Kobe

Shimizu S-Pulse 1-3 Gamba Osaka

Cerezo Osaka 1-3 Omiya Ardija

J2 playoff semi-final results

Kyoto Sanga 0-4 Oita Trinita

Yokohama FC 0-4 JEF United Chiba

Ben Mabley is the English Premier League analysis for the JSports programme ‘Foot!’, appearing every Tuesday night at 10pm on JSports 3. He is also a columnist for Goal.com Japan.

Minutecast 205

Ben Mabley presents a brief roundup of Wednesday night’s matches from J1.

J1 results (matchday 31)

Vegalta Sendai 1-1 Cerezo Osaka

Omiya Ardija 0-0 Kashima Antlers

Kashiwa Reysol 2-2 Gamba Osaka

Kawasaki Frontale 4-2 Urawa Reds

Shimizu S-Pulse 0-1 Albirex Niigata

Nagoya Grampus 1-0 FC Tokyo

Vissel Kobe 1-2 Yokohama F Marinos

Sanfrecce Hiroshima 3-0 Consadole Sapporo

Sagan Tosu 3-2 Jubilo Iwata

Minutecast 204

Zlatan Ljubijankič scored a superb hat-trick as Omiya Ardija moved three points clear of the J1 relegation zone with a sensational 4-1 victory away to reigning champions Kashiwa Reysol.

The Slovenian, whose only previous goal since his mid-season transfer from Gent was a penalty in defeat to Sanfrecce Hiroshima, took advantage of hesitation in the hosts’ defence to open the scoring for Omiya after 21 minutes.

He then took firm control of the match for both himself and his team with two more goals in the opening four minutes of the second half.

Ljubijankič ran onto a through ball from Cho Young-Cheol to round the Kashiwa goalkeeper Takanori Sugeno and roll in Ardija’s second, before knocking a bouncing ball past Hidekazu Otani and brilliantly firing home with the outside of his right foot.

His contribution did not end there, as there was still time to lay on an assist for Daigo Watanabe to net the fourth, before Neto Baiano spotted Takashi Kitano off his line to score an astonishing late consolation goal for Kashiwa from fully 45 yards.

Omiya are now unbeaten in their last seven league matches.

The result was bad news for Albirex Niigata, who succumbed to a Yohei Toyoda brace at home to Sagan Tosu, and for Gamba Osaka, who outperformed league leaders Hiroshima for much of their game but were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw.

Deft footwork from Yasuhito Endo allowed Japan’s most-capped international to evade both Hiroki Mizumoto and Ryota Moriwaki to slot home a deserved opener for the 2005 champions on 56 minutes. However, they were made to pay for their attempts to defend their lead when Kazuyuki Morisaki levelled for Sanfrecce a quarter of an hour from time.

A decent result in isolation became all the more painful for the Osakans later on Saturday evening when local rivals Vissel Kobe came back from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 at home to Kawasaki Frontale.

Akira Nishino’s men displayed all the misfortune of a side in freefall when Junpei Kusukami’s cross-cum-shot appeared to give Kawasaki an unassailable advantage midway through the second period, but their determination thereafter reaped its rewards with goals from Yuzo Tashiro and a second of the night for Ken Tokura.

Gamba are now three points adrift of both Omiya and Kobe in the final relegation position, with Niigata two further back in 17th.

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Vegalta Sendai were unable to take advantage of the two dropped points for Hiroshima as they also drew 1-1 in their match away to out-of-form Jubilo Iwata.

Makoto Teguramori’s side looked to have reclaimed their position at the top of the table when right-back Naoki Sugai broke forwards and cut back for Shingo Akamine to net his 12th goal in 16 matches against Iwata with 13 minutes remaining.

But Ryoichi Maeda fought off the attentions of two Sendai defenders to pull the ball across for substitute Kosuke Yamamoto to score the equaliser moments after coming onto the pitch.

A Marcio Richardes effort that rebounded off the crossbar was the closest that third-placed Urawa Reds came to breaking the deadlock in their scoreless draw with Cerezo Osaka, meaning that it remains as you were in the title race with just four matches remaining.

Hiroshima lead Sendai by three goals, while Urawa are still six points off the pace.

Elsewhere, Shimizu S-Pulse moved up into fourth position after winning 2-1 at Kashima Antlers in a match that was marred by scuffles between opposing supporters.

FC Tokyo thrashed already-relegated Consadole Sapporo 5-0, while a trademark free kick by Shunsuke Nakamura rescued a 1-1 draw for Yokohama F Marinos away to Nagoya Grampus.

TALKING POINTS

- Machida Zelvia earned a stay of execution at the foot of J2 as they beat second-from-bottom FC Gifu 1-0 to cut the gap to three points.

- An own goal and a defensive error saw Kyoto Sanga lose 2-0 at Giravanz Kitakyushu, allowing Shonan Bellmare to move within a single point in the battle for automatic promotion.

J1 results (matchday 30)

Urawa Reds 0-0 Cerezo Osaka

Kashiwa Reysol 1-4 Omiya Ardija

Jubilo Iwata 1-1 Vegalta Sendai

Nagoya Grampus 1-1 Yokohama F Marinos

Gamba Osaka 1-1 Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Kashima Antlers 1-2 Shimizu S-Pulse

FC Tokyo 5-0 Consadole Sapporo

Albirex Niigata 0-2 Sagan Tosu

Vissel Kobe 3-3 Kawasaki Frontale

J2 results (matchday 40)

Montedio Yamagata 0-2 JEF United Chiba

Mito HollyHock 0-0 Fagiano Okayama

Machida Zelvia 1-0 FC Gifu

Oita Trinita 1-0 Avispa Fukuoka

Tokushima Vortis 2-1 Tokyo Verdy

Kataller Toyama 0-2 Shonan Bellmare

Gainare Tottori 0-1 Roasso Kumamoto

Giravanz Kitakyushu 2-0 Kyoto Sanga

Yokohama FC 3-0 Thespa Kusatsu

Tochigi SC 3-2 Matsumoto Yamaga

Ehime FC 0-0 Ventforet Kofu

Ben Mabley will be analysing the English Premier League for the JSports programme ‘Foot!’ this season, every Tuesday night at 10pm on JSports 3.