The J-Talk Podcast

Another week, another welcome new addition to the J-Talk family, as we proudly present the inaugural episode of FC Tokyo Kai-Guys Radio, featuring the co-founders of the Kai-Guys: Thomas and Alex.

In their debut pod, the guys review Tokyo's 2021 season (to 23:10), chat about new majority owners mixi (to 29:15), run the rule over the club's winter signings (to 45:30) and new manager Albert Puig (to 54:25), and finish with their expectations for the new campaign.

We begin the episode by discussing another fruitful international break for the Samurai Blue, as Junya Ito's incredible run of form continued to put Japan within touching distance of an automatic World Cup qualification spot (to 16:45).

Then Ben is joined by long time friend of the pod Cesare Polenghi, to chat about the work his company, Ganassa LLC, has been doing with major European leagues, and clubs from across the continent, in expanding their reach on social media (to 59:55).

Then we resume our club-by-club previews of the new J1 season by discussing Sapporo (to 1:14:00), Kashima (to 1:37:30), Urawa (to 1:57:20) and Kashiwa

These fellas don't mess around! Announced on the new pod this week, we proudly present the inaugural Tricolore Pridecast!

This is the series introduction with Jamie, Tony, and Stuart from Tricolore Pride, in which they talk about how they started to follow Marinos, favourite players and goals, and then proceed to run through the 2021-22 winter transfer window, chatting about new signings and leavers up until Dec 31st.

While we did consider a 400 minute podcast for Episode 400, you'll have to settle for this 110 minute blockbuster, as we kick off our team-by-team previews of the 2022 J1 season and make a couple of huge announcements along the way.

Stuart Woodward is first cab off the rank and shares his thoughts on how last year's second-placed finishers Yokohama F.Marinos are shaping up for the new campaign (to 32:30), then Thomas Pennington makes his J-Talk debut to chat about brighter times ahead for FC Tokyo under new Spanish coach Albert Puig (to 1:04:50).

Next we run the rule over Shonan, who have reason for optimism after a decent winter in the transfer market (to 1:19:45), and then wrap up our first group of clubs with the defending champions, the juggernaut, Kawasaki (to 1:42:42). Finally we finish off the episode by looking at the Japan squad selected for the World Cup qualifiers against China and Saudi Arabia.

After a just-long-enough year-end break, Mike Innes and Jon Steele reconvened to finish off their comprehensive review of the J3 season by looking at the bottom 6 sides from the 2021 league table.

The gents discussed positives for Fujieda, Imabari, and Hachinohe... and did their best to do the same for Tottori, Numazu and Sanuki!

Hope everyone enjoys the show - many thanks for all of your support for JTET, and 'J-Talk: Short Corner', last season!

Happy new season! In our first episode of the new year, we begin with some major transfers from the J.League to Europe - highlighted by Celtic's triple swoop - and elsewhere in Asia (to 18:30), before moving on to talk about a number of players who have left the four relegated teams and found new top flight homes (to 37:30). We finish with a check of the ACL group stage draw, and ponder Hajime Moriyasu's thoughts as he gets set to announce his next Japan squad.

With the dust now fully settled on the 2021 J2 season, James Taylor joined Jon Steele for the first installment of the JTET Season Review for Japan's second tier.

James and Jon covered the bottom 10 sides from the final standings, starting with the four relegated sides, and ending on a more positive note discussing mid-table safety for Akita, Tochigi and Yamaguchi.

Enjoy the show - Part 2 (covering the top 12 sides from the final table) is coming soon!

Typical, isn't it? You wait ages for a JTET episode, then two come along at once!

For Part 2 of our J3 Season Review (recorded on Christmas Day), Mike Innes & Jon Steele took a look at the teams finishing from 6th to 9th in the 2021 J3 table. 

There was a stellar performance from Yuki Stalph's YSCC, but disappointing campaigns for Gifu, Kagoshimaand Nagano.

Enjoy the show!

To get 2022 started with a bang, Jon Steele and Mike Innes look back over the 2021 J3 season in a 3-part special.

In this episode (Part 1), Jon quizzed Mike on the third-tier season's top 5 finishers, including promoted Kumamoto and Iwate, high-flying debutants Miyazaki, an ultimately disappointing Toyama, and much-improved Fukushima.

Tomoaki Makino ended his Urawa career in sensational style on Sunday, scoring a stoppage time winner to win Reds the Emperor's Cup 2-1 over Oita, and in our final episode of 2021 we celebrate the talismanic defender, and wonder how he might fare at his next stop (Kobe?).

There's also props for friend of the podcast Ricardo Rodriguez on delivering a trophy, and ACL football, to the Saitama giants, while we sympathize with Trinita, who were so close to forcing extra time before Makino's dramatic intervention (to 21:20).

Then in Part 2 we run through some of the major transfer news and rumours from the past week.