The J-Talk Podcast

Japan unfortunately saved the worst for last in this international break, and after celebrating Australia's streak of World Cup appearances reaching five (and commiserating with New Zealand), we launch into a post mortem of the Samurai Blue's 3-0 defeat at the hands of Tunisia on Tuesday night (to 21:10).

Next we discuss our lists of players who we think are already 'On the plane' to Qatar as locks in Hajime Moriyasu's squad (to 37:35), and then discuss some players that could be potential bolters for the World Cup, and celebrate Japan's Under 21s after they reached the semi finals of the U23 Asian Cup (to 54:40).

Finally, we chat about the Levain Cup Playoff Stage, and look ahead to the resumption of the J1 season on Saturday.

James Taylor was joined for a JTET debut by Victor Arroyo (@JFootballAnaly1) to take a look at Kanazawa’s pummelling at the hands of Okayama, and Victor talked in more detail about his thoughts on Kanazawa’s season so far. They also discussed Yokohama FC’s draw with Tokyo Verdy. Then James reviewed the rest of the weekend’s games, before Victor came back to preview matchday 21. Finally, Mike Innes reviewed the action from round 11 of J3 and J3 teams’ participation in the 2nd round of the Emperor’s Cup, and previewed the upcoming league fixtures.

 

00:00-14:00 Okayama v Kanazawa

14:01-34:51 Kanazawa half-season review

34:52-43:20 Yokohama FC v Tokyo Verdy

43:21 to 53:24 J2 MD21 roundup

53:25 to 59:41 J2 MD21 preview

59:42 to 1:06:21 Emperor’s Cup 2nd round review

1:06:22 to 1:24:30 J3 MD11 review

1:24:31 to end J3 MD12 preview

The polls are done and dusted, the votes have been tallied, now it's time to assemble the J-Talk Best XI from the first half of the J1 season, with the one and only Jonny Nicol guesting.

We begin the episode with an extended look at Japan's friendly against Brazil played on Monday night, and also touch on the Samurai Blue's win vs Paraguay the previous Thursday (to 22:15), before diving in to our team, position by position.

We begin between the sticks, and after thrashing out our back four (to 1:02:10), we take a brief interlude to get Jonny's thoughts on Gamba Osaka's season so far and how they might look to improve in the second half of the campaign (to 1:14:55), before finishing off our team with the central midfielders and both wide and central attackers.

A little bit later than planned, Jon Steele and James Taylor take a quick look back the Emperor's Cup games from last midweek that involved J2 sides.

In the first section, Jon casts a glance over 6 of the Round 2 games that contained at least one J2 participant, with James covering 6 more ties in the second part of the show.

The games that involved J3 teams are going to be covered by Mike 'The Magic' Innes in this week's regularly-scheduled JTET, so please stay tuned for that!

Hope everyone enjoys this mini-pod!

Once again, the JTET crew swing into action to look back on all of the latest J2 and J3 news.

This week, Jon Steele and James Taylor take an in-depth check on the situation at the foot of the J2 table, with a special focus on Iwate, Ryukyu and Omiya. 

After that, Jon rounds up all the rest of the weekend J2 action, before reconvening with James to preview the upcoming Round 20 matches.

As if that wasn't enough, Mike 'The Magic' Innes is in control of the 'J-Talk: Short Corner' segment, reviewing all of last week's third-tier games, and looking ahead to both the midweek Emperor's Cup ties involving J3 sides (as well as the next slate of league fixtures coming up on Saturday and Sunday).

Hope everyone enjoys the show - it's a packed one this week!

It had a hard act to live up after the madness of Wednesday's Matchday 15, but the weekend's round of top flight games also served up a few surprises, with a lot of 'big clubs' needing to do some soul searching over the international break.

We begin with a brief look back at the carnage from the previous midweek (to 10:30), then begin our Matchday 16 wrap with musical chairs continuing at the top of the table, with Yokohama F.Marinos returning to the summit after Kashima and Kawasaki suffered surprise defeats (to 30:30).

From there we give more praise to Kashiwa after their free-scoring week, and also cover the wins for Cerezo Osaka, Hiroshima, Tosu and Kobe.

After a full round of J2 action on Wednesday night, Jon Steele looks back on the main events at both ends of the table in a 16-minute mini-pod, including a change of manager for struggling Omiya (Start to 14:00).

With another slate of matches coming up at the weekend, there's also a short-but-perfectly-formed Round 19 preview thrown in for good measure (14:00 to Finish).

Hope everyone enjoys the show - thanks for all the support, and enjoy the weekend footy!

After one of the most dramatic and action-packed matchdays of this, or any, J1 season, Sam and Ben reconvene to wrap it all up.

We begin with Shonan's win in the battle of the bottom over Kobe, chat about the huge derby wins for Cerezo Osaka and Hiroshima, and the top three all slipping up on the same weekend, with VAR playing a huge part in almost every result and a couple of unsavoury incidents that could linger for a while to come.

James Taylor rounds up all of the J2 matchday 17 action from the weekend, plus the rearranged round 15 match between Omiya and Iwate from last Wednesday, and takes a quick look at this Wednesday’s fixtures. Then, Mike Innes reviews rescheduled J3 games from last week and J3 teams’ matches in the Emperor’s Cup first round, and looks ahead to this weekend’s league action.

 

00:00-11:12 J2 MD17 roundup (and Omiya v Iwate)

11:13-12:15 J2 MD18 preview

12:16-17:54 J3 review

17:55 to 29:23 Emperor’s Cup roundup

29:24 to end J3 MD 10 preview

FC Ryukyu finally got their first home win of the season (1-0 v Tochigi) and pod debutant James Gallagher (@FLManInJapan) told James Taylor all about it, as well as sharing his insights on Ryukyu more generally. Then James T rounded up the rest of the matchday 16 games, before the Jameses took a look at the upcoming J2 fixtures. Finally, Mike Innes has all the latest from J3 round 9 in J-Talk Short Corner.

 

00:00-31:17 Ryukyu 1-0 Tochigi

31:18-41:18 MD16 roundup

41:18-47:10 MD17 preview

47:11 to end J-Talk Short Corner

 

Thanks to James G for coming on the pod, and to Geoff Osborne for putting us in touch. We hope you enjoy this episode of J(ames)-Talk Extra Time!