After some sterling work on the main 'J-Talk Podcast' this season, we were finally able to book J.League expert Jonny Nicol (@BlogGamba) for a JTET appearance this week!

The episode begins with Jon Steele and James Taylor teaming up to review all of the match action from the Round 5 games played in J2 last weekend (Start to 16:40).

After that, Jon sat down with Jonny for the first 'Two Jonnies' chat of 2023, with in-depth discussion of Iwata v Shimizu (16:50 to 27:40) and Oita v JEF Chiba (27:40 to 36:50).

Keenly aware that it could be some time before we're able to pick Jonny's brains on a J2 tip again, Jon pressed him for some overall thoughts on the state of the second tier as well (36:50 to 50:40) - Tochigi supporters might want to skip this bit.

Jonny then exacted instant revenge by asking Jon about which J2 players could find themselves on the fringes of the Japan national team squad this time next year (50:40 to 01:00:15).

To finish off the chat, the Jonnies previewed the upcoming J2 games in Round 6, with a pair of Levain Cup matches for Iwata and Shimizu thrown in for good measure (01:00:15 to 01:09:35).

After all that, the pod concludes, as ever, with another superb edition of 'J-Talk: Short Corner' from Mike 'The Magic Innes' (01:09:35 to Finish) - Mike talks us through a fascinating weekend of action in J3 (Round 3), and looks ahead to the Round 4 games coming up soon.

Hope everyone enjoys the episode - arigato gozaimasu to all guests, contributors, and listeners!