The J-Talk Podcast

Just in time for the weekend, Jon Steele and James Taylor review all of the key moments from a full round of midweek J2 games (played on Wednesday this week).

In Part 1, Jon runs you through six of the midweek matches, including a very pleasant afternoon for Yamagata, and what proved to be Naoki Soma's last game in charge of Omiya.

In Part 2, James covers the rest of the Round 16 action, including another win for imperious-looking Machida, and a silly penalty run-up in the Fujieda v Iwata match.

James also casts a keen eye over the upcoming Round 17 fixtures (all on Sunday 21st May).

Hope everyone enjoys this midweek mini-pod - we'll be back with a 'regular' JTET installment next week!

After another busy weekend of J2 and J3 matches, the JTET team whirrs back into action to bring you up to speed with all of the major talking points from Japan's second and third tiers.

On a J2 tip, James Taylor and Jon Steele join forces to cover all of the Round 15 action (Start to 14:30), and Jon sticks around to preview the upcoming Round 16 slate (14:30 to 17:20) - with all of the Round 16 games coming up on Wednesday this week, there's no time for any punditry this time!

To sate your J3 needs, Mike 'Die Mensch-Maschine' Innes has all of the latest news from the third tier in 'J-Talk: Short Corner' (17:20 to Finish).

James and Jon will return later this week to round up all of the midweek J2 action, and we should be back with a full-featured, punditry-focused pod next week! 

Enjoy the midweek games, and thanks for all the support!

The J.League celebrated its 30 Year Anniversary on Monday, and Alan Gibson was the only guest we could call on to reminisce on the tremendous history of the professional game in Japan.

In Part 1 we discuss how far the league has come in 30 years, and what could be done to take it forward in the years to come, before running through the winners of the 'J30 Best Awards' (to 46:22).

Then we turn to matters on the pitch in Part 2. Alan chats about how Kobe have managed to turn things around after last season's struggles, and now top the table by five points after Saturday's win over Hiroshima, before turning to Gamba Osaka, who sunk to the foot of the table after Sunday's reverse at Urawa, before finishing with a state of the union address on J.League officiating (to 1:21:20).

Then in Part 3 we roundup the other seven games from J1 Matchday 13, including the two showpiece games at the National Stadium, and Yokohama FC hauling themselves out of the cellar.

In an attempt to recover from a hectic Golden Week on and off the pitch, Jon Steele and James Taylor met for a review of J2 matchday 14 and a chat about the state of the league so far.

 

In part 1, Jon reviews 5 games (start to 13:10), and in part 2 James takes care of the other 6 games (13:10 to 20:15).

 

In part 3 they worked their way down the J2 table, with some in-depth discussion of Gunma (to 30:10), Kofu (to 35:20), Iwata (to 39:10), Mito (to 44:10), Yamaguchi (to 52:30), and Omiya (to 1:04:40), plus brief comments on other teams along the way. They also previewed the derby-filled round 15 fixtures (to 1:12:10).

 

In J-Talk: Short Corner, Mike Innes rounds up the qualifiers for the Emperor’s Cup involving J3 teams (to 1:20:25) and looks ahead to round 10 of the league campaign (1:20:25 to end).

Oops, they did it again! Urawa claimed the third ACL title in their history with a 2-1 aggregate triumph in the Final over Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia, and Ralf Seidl returns to the pod to give us a taste of the atmosphere of the second leg at a rollicking Saitama Stadium (to 23:50).

Then we shift our attention to the eight games played in J1 Matchday 12 over the weekend, with several teams wrapping up a very 'Golden' Week. Others... not so much.

Phew, that was a hectic 'holiday' period (especially on the J.League beat)!

To help everyone catch up with a breathless midweek of J2 and J3 action, JTET is back and banging with Jon Steele and Mike Innes at the controls.

First of all, Jon looks back at the Wednesday afternoon J2 matches, comprising Round 13 of the season (Start to 15:15). 

There's also a brief-but-hopefully-useful preview of this Sunday's Round 14 games too (15:15 to 17:30).

After that, Mike 'The Magic' Innes has the J3 lowdown from a busy Wednesday and Thursday programme, which made up Round 9 of the third tier season (18:00 to 24:00). 

Mike also casts his forensic eye over this weekend's Emperor's Cup qualifying matches that involve J3 teams (24:00 to Finish).

We hope everyone had a nice Golden Week break, and enjoys this mini-pod! 

JTET will be back again (with a 'regular' episode) next week.

Reds get the result they were after in Saudi Arabia, sleeping giants rouse from their slumber, movement in the top flight top four, and the rest of the J1 matchday - it's all in our new pod.

We begin with Urawa's battling draw away at Al Hilal in the first leg of the ACL Final, leaving it all to play for at Saitama Stadium this Saturday night (to 10:00), then move on to convincing wins on Saturday - that took them both out of the bottom six - for Kashima and Kawasaki (to 27:35).

Next its on to the top four, with Kobe still top of the pile, and Hiroshima now their closest challengers after the draw at the Nissan Stadium (to 45:00), before we finish with wins for FC Tokyo and Sapporo, and the draw between Kashiwa and Kyoto.

With the busy Golden Week fixture schedule upon us, Jon Steele and Mike 'The Magic' Innes guide you through all of the thrills and spills from last weekend in J2 and J3.

First off, Jon covers all of the J2 action from Round 12 (Start to 16:45), and previews the full program of midweek games in Round 13 (16:45 to 19:20).

After that, Mike takes control for 'J-Talk: Short Corner' to cover a very exciting set of J3 games from Round 8 (19:20 to 37:00), and to give us all a heads-up on the midweek fixtures in Round 9 (37:00 to Finish).

Hope everyone enjoys the round-ups, and the Golden Week holidays - we'll back to review all of the midweek action soon!

Jon Steele and James Taylor teamed up to review J2 matchday 11. In part 1, Jon covers Levain Cup matches featuring Shimizu and Iwata and Saturday’s league games, and in part 2 James rounds up Sunday’s games. In part 3 they discussed 3 games in detail: Nagasaki v Akita, Fujieda v Sendai, and Tochigi v Iwaki, and looked ahead to the start of the busy Golden Week football schedule. Then in J-Talk: Short Corner, Mike Innes has details of J3 teams who were involved in qualifiers for the Emperor’s Cup and a preview of J3 round 8.

 

00:00 to 14:30 Jon’s roundup

14:30 to 20:00 James’ roundup

20:00 to 29:35 Nagasaki v Akita

29:35 to 39:20 Fujieda v Sendai

39:20 to 49:50 Tochigi v Iwaki

49:50 to 58:25 Matchday 12 preview

58:25 to end J-Talk: Short Corner (Mike)

It was an absolute pleasure to welcome Ryo Nakagawara on for his J-Talk debut, to chat about the two games he attended in the Kansai region over the weekend, as well as FC Tokyo's win away at Hiroshima.

First up is the huge clash at the Noevir Stadium on Saturday night, which saw Yokohama F.Marinos come out on top against leaders Kobe (to 32:20), then Gamba Osaka's draw with Yokohama FC on Sunday (to 51:10), before we finish up with Ryo on the Tokyo win, and how the capital club are traveling under Albert Puig (to 1:09:25).

Then in Part 2 we cover the rest of the J1 Matchday 9 games, including some of nuttiest VAR stuff you've ever seen.