Ben Mabley English blood,Osakan heart

5 Mar 2010(Fri)

History has shown that it is a fool’s game to try and forecast the outcome of a league that routinely maintains half a dozen or more title challengers until the very last weeks of the season, but then again, that’s never stopped anybody before. With four Japanese representatives in the ACL again, an interesting set of new arrivals from J2, and a two-month break in mid-season for the World Cup, the 2010 J1 season is if anything looking more unpredictable than ever.

 

A poll of 34 pundits for a Japanese football magazine had Kashima Antlers coming out on top again, and as I discovered last year, it is never safe to back against the club that has now won three league titles in a row. That said, there is a sense that the current side may be coming to the end of an era. The honours were secured last year thanks largely to an explosive first half of the season before the team’s weaknesses were brutally exposed in a run of five straight league defeats in autumn. There have been few changes in close season, and with several of the first eleven now past their 30th birthdays, a first ever AFC Champions League (ACL) title would probably be the larger carrot if they were forced to prioritise.

 

Their opponents in last weekend’s Fuji Xerox Super Cup, Gamba Osaka, have set an identical goal of a domestic and continental double, but unfortunately for them, this is not where the similarities with Kashima end. Last season was certainly a story of two halves – sublime in Asia but terrible at home until summer, before a valiant return to J. League title race contention following their ACL elimination in the last 16. The aging midfield responded superbly to the criticism they received midway through the year, but while there are still young players coming through, it is hard to see a reason that Gamba should cope with an assault on two fronts any better than they did last term. A pre-season injury crisis and the resultant lack of opportunity for Akira Nishino to try out his new strikers hardly help matters.

 

So, who else? My tips for the top twelve months ago, Nagoya Grampus, ultimately ended up proving better than anybody how hard it can be to combine domestic and Asian competition, sinking down to ninth in J1 as their first ACL campaign saw them reach the semi-finals. Dragan Stojković’s side will, however, undoubtedly benefit from this experience and – crucially – the fact that they are now free to concentrate on J. League matters in 2010. Young defender Maya Yoshida may have departed for VVV Venlo of Holland, but the signings of Japanese internationals Marcus Tulio Tanaka (from Urawa Reds) and Mu Kanazaki (from relegated Oita Trinita) both represent real coups. Previously goal-shy Australian forward Joshua Kennedy proved a shrewd acquisition last summer as a replacement for the Qatar-bound Davi, and his goals could help Grampus make a real push at the title this year.

 

I can’t shake the feeling, however, that 2010 just has to be the year that Kawasaki Frontale finally banish their trophy jinx. Going so near and yet so far in four different competitions last season (and playing 52 games along the way – more than any other J1 side bar Nagoya) was a sickener, but the players will have grown from their experience and should be doubly determined never to taste such heartbreak again. Well-travelled Japan midfielder Junichi Inamoto looks an intelligent addition to an already strong and well-balanced squad, and while losing manager Takashi Sekizuka was a blow, his successor, Tsutomu Takahashi, has been with the club for many years and led them to second place in J1 as caretaker boss in 2008. Even a ‘group of death’ draw and an opening day defeat in the ACL could serve as a blessing in disguise – making it through would be a boost to confidence, while early elimination only frees them up to focus on the league.

 

As for the best of the rest, Shimizu S-Pulse could have won the title last year but for a late collapse, and the arrival of former Feyenoord and VfL Bochum midfielder Shinji Ono will help their push for an ACL spot at least. Hot on their heels will be FC Tokyo, who could be in genuine contention for the first time if their young strikers Sota Hirayama and Ricardinho can find form. Sanfrecce Hiroshima possibly overachieved in finishing an excellent fourth on their return to the top flight last year, and even the club itself does not appear to be anticipating a repeat in light of the added challenge of the ACL and the departure of midfielder Yosuke Kashiwagi to Urawa Reds – who, meanwhile, still have many unresolved issues despite a number of new arrivals.

 

Vegalta Sendai and Cerezo Osaka were both highly impressive in J2 last term, and neither ought to be heading straight back down to whence they came as long as their winter signings help them off to a good start (Cerezo in particular have fed well from the corpse of Oita Trinita, but will want to get points quickly in case star man Shinji Kagawa leaves for Europe after the World Cup). Shonan Bellmare, however, still have a squad that looks better suited to the second division and are thus favourites for the drop.

 

One also fears for Montedio Yamagata’s second season in J1, after they started so well last year but ended up needing to win a couple of six-pointers late on to survive, having seemingly being found out come summer. The final relegation place is probably the hardest to decide – I’ve gone for Kyoto Sanga, but Vissel Kobe should watch their backs too as neither of these two Kansai rivals inspire a great deal of confidence ahead of the new campaign. Omiya Ardija are a popular relegation choice for many, but their transfer activity looks positive (not least the arrival of former Oita defender Yuki Fukaya) and they are well used to defying the critics by now.

 

2010 J1 table prediction

1. Kawasaki Frontale

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2. Nagoya Grampus

3. Kashima Antlers

4. Shimizu S-Pulse

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5. Gamba Osaka

6. FC Tokyo

7. Urawa Reds

8. Yokohama F Marinos

9. Sanfrecce Hiroshima

10. Jubilo Iwata

11. Albirex Niigata

12. Cerezo Osaka

13. Vegalta Sendai

14. Omiya Ardija

15. Vissel Kobe

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16. Kyoto Sanga

17. Montedio Yamagata

18. Shonan Bellmare

 

(Click here to see how the predictions I made in March 2009 matched up – or didn’t, as the case may be – with last year’s final standings.)

4 Mar 2010(Thu)

In the interests of fairness and transparency, it’s only right that my 2009 predictions be exposed for what they were. Below are the final J1 standings for last season, together with where I had expected each team to finish in March:

 

1. Kashima Antlers (my prediction: 4th)

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2. Kawasaki Frontale (2nd)

3. Gamba Osaka (3rd)

4. Sanfrecce Hiroshima (13th)

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5. FC Tokyo (7th)

6. Urawa Reds (5th)

7. Shimizu S-Pulse (9th)

8. Albirex Niigata (15th)

9. Nagoya Grampus (1st – champions)

10. Yokohama F Marinos (11th)

11. Jubilo Iwata (17th – relegated)

12. Kyoto Sanga (16th – relegated)

13. Omiya Ardija (14th)

14. Vissel Kobe (8th)

15. Montedio Yamagata (18th – relegated)

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16. Kashiwa Reysol (12th)

17. Oita Trinita (6th)

18. JEF United Chiba (10th)

 

(Well, as I keep saying, the J. League is simply unpredictable. Click here to see my best efforts for the 2010 J1 table.)

22 Feb 2010(Mon)

When Takashi Sekizuka stunned the Kawasaki Frontale players at the end of last year by stepping down from his post as manager for the second time – ostensibly in light of the team’s narrow failure to turn promising runs in each of the four competitions in which they competed into actual silverware – one had to wonder if he’d not had one eye on the group stage draw for the 2010 AFC Champions League, held in Kuala Lumpur on 7 December.

 

With the 32 qualifiers split into West and East sections until the quarter-finals and teams from the same national association kept apart, each of the four Japanese representatives were guaranteed to be paired with sides from both China and South Korea, with the tightness of the group then hinging on the identity of its final member – a 50:50 chance of either a dangerous meeting with Australian opposition, or the somewhat easier proposition of a minnow from Southeast Asia. A-League champions Melbourne Victory certainly represented the shortest possible straw as far as Kawasaki were concerned, but as if that wasn’t enough, the addition of Chinese Super League winners Beijing Guoan and K-League runners-up Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma as well looks to have made their Group E a real group of death. If Sekizuka decided he didn’t fancy it, you couldn’t really blame him.

 

As it is, tomorrow’s visit to Seongnam represents Frontale’s first competitive fixture under the permanent charge of former head coach Tsutomu Takahata, who stepped in temporarily during a period of ill health for his predecessor in 2008. The new man at the helm is able to call upon national team midfielder Junichi Inamoto, who returns to the J. League this season following almost nine years in Europe, and will look to get his quest to finally secure Kawasaki’s first ever trophy on track with victory against the most decorated side in Korean history.

 

Inamoto’s old club, meanwhile, look to have things a little easier. Gamba Osaka embark on what appears set to be their biggest challenge of the group stage on Wednesday with a trip to Suwon Samsung Bluewings, but Cha Bum-Kun’s side are a shadow of the 2008 double winners who went on to thrash Kashima Antlers 4-1 in their opening continental fixture twelve months ago. Suwon finished down in tenth position in the 15-team K-League last season, and only scraped back into the ACL thanks to a penalty shootout victory over Seongnam in the final of the Korean FA Cup last November. Gamba coach Akira Nishino has striking problems, with Cho Jae-Jin suffering a broken bone in his right hand and new signing Zé Carlos told to stay behind and lose weight, but one feels that even if the Osaka club were to slip up this week, they should have few difficulties qualifying from a group that also contains Henan Construction (who finished a surprising third in the Chinese Super League) and Singapore Armed Forces FC (who conceded 19 goals in six group matches last year).

 

Indeed, the toughest hurdle that awaits the 2008 Asian champions could once again come immediately after the group stage. Should Gamba, as expected, make it through in either first or second, they will face a side from Group E in what for a second year will be a one-off, do-or-die eliminator in the last 16 – throwing up the prospect of a rematch against Kawasaki.

 

The latter’s 3-2 victory at Banpaku at the same stage last year came about after they had surrendered top spot in their group with a surprise 2-0 loss at home to Pohang Steelers on matchday six – both sides had already been guaranteed qualification – and it remains a source of frustration to some Japanese observers that the Koreans were then able to go all the way and clinch the title without facing another J. League opponent (Nagoya Grampus – the weakest J. League representative on paper – then beat Kawasaki in the last eight, before their tame elimination at the hands of Saudi Arabian side Al-Ittihad in the semi-finals put paid to any hopes of a Japanese three-peat). It will be interesting to see how ACL newcomers Sanfrecce Hiroshima fare in their encounter with the defending Asian champions in Group H, which also contains 2008 runners-up Adelaide United (who qualified as 2008-09 A-League runners-up but finished bottom in the recently completed 2009-10 regular season) and Shandong Luneng (who scraped into fourth place in the Chinese Super League on head-to-head record).

 

This season, country protection in the quarter-finals should hopefully prevent a repeat of last year’s succession of all-Japanese knockout ties, but the new rule will not apply in the event that three or more teams from the same association are still standing at this point. Whether the J. League is able to achieve such domination as in 2008 will likely depend on the ability of three-times defending domestic champions Kashima Antlers to overcome their demons on the continental stage. Oswaldo de Oliveira and his players have spoken in pre-season about a desire bordering on obsession to fill the ACL-shaped hole in their club’s trophy cabinet at the fourth attempt. However, while Kashima usually have no problems making it out of their group – this year’s draw with Korean champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Chinese runners-up Changchun Yatai, and Indonesian side Persipura Jayapura looks manageable enough – they are still yet to win a single knockout tie in the competition’s history.

15 Feb 2010(Mon)

The East Asian Championship may attract little attention throughout the rest of the world but it should serve as an interesting point of reference to observers in the United Kingdom, following as it does an almost identical template to the old Home Internationals. The British Home Championship was the world’s first ever international football tournament, pitting England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland (later Northern Ireland) together in round-robin competition on an annual basis from 1884 – some 46 years before the inaugural FIFA World Cup – and lasting exactly a century until its eventual demise following the 1983-84 season. Alongside contemporary sociopolitical factors such as hooliganism and the Troubles, reasons cited for its cancellation include fixture congestion and declining supporter interest, but recent nostalgia for the old British derbies has given rise to a resurrection of sorts in the form of the 4 Associations’ Tournament, whose first edition will be played in the Republic of Ireland next year.

 

The inaugural hosts take the place of England, meaning that the new competition becomes an all-Celtic affair but undoubtedly lacks its greatest potential draw. The Football Association are said to agree to the idea of a relaunched Home Championship in principle, but fear that fixture congestion makes English participation impractical – which may as well be a paraphrasing of Phoebe Buffay’s immortal line: ‘I wish I could, but I don’t want to’.

 

In any case, the Irish (and indeed their three opponents) will certainly hope to fare much better in their new adventure than the Japanese national side did as hosts of the East Asian mini-league this month. Negative press has surrounded Takeshi Okada and his squad since even before the tournament kicked off, with a 0-0 draw in their warm-up match with Venezuela on 2 February serving as a dismal prelude to a similar goalless stalemate in Japan’s opening fixture with China four days later. Attendances were highly disappointing – the hosts were booed off then by a half-full Ajinomoto Stadium before beating Hong Kong 3-0 in front of just 16,368 at the National Stadium in their second game, while the two matchdays not involving the home side attracted less than 7,000 supporters between them. Finally, even when crowds did pick up for the decisive match with South Korea last night, Japan were beaten 3-1 in a game where just about everything that could have gone wrong for them did just that. As his opposite number, Huh Jung-Moo (who looks more and more like ‘Beat’ Takeshi Kitano every time I see him), danced on the touchline in celebration, Okada was left to defend both his position and his target of a semi-final appearance at the World Cup in front of a nation baying for blood.

 

There were, of course, a number of mitigating circumstances. The fact that the tournament kicked off a full month before the start of the club season (with the Japanese squad meeting up in Kagoshima just 24 days after the Emperor’s Cup final brought an end to the 2009 calendar) meant that neither individual players nor the team as a collective ought to have been in much better condition than they would be for any other pre-season friendly. This most likely affected attendances too, as did the absence of star names plying their trade in Europe where domestic competition takes precedence over international matches on dates not pre-approved by FIFA. Eventual champions China undoubtedly benefited the most from the resultant levelling of the playing field, and whereas Japan and South Korea have the small matter of a World Cup to prepare for, glory in East Asia really was the be-all-and-end-all for Gao Hongbo and his men.

 

Still, however immaterial Japan’s ‘failure’ at the East Asian Championship may indeed be when viewed in such practical terms, the psychological effects of the critical fallout and the forwards’ continued woes in front of goal could prove an unwanted distraction ahead of the considerably more important challenges that await. Okada is under pressure, and attempting to instil a siege mentality into his squad might now be his only option given that much of the bad feeling stems from above. The repeated outbursts from Motoaki Inukai may well be justified were they aired in private, but for the president of the JFA to speak so vociferously to the press about his national team and manager is surely both unprofessional and entirely unhelpful.

1 Feb 2010(Mon)

The restrictions of the Japanese phonetic alphabet – with five pure vowels and only 14 consonants to fit around a (fairly) rigid CVCV pattern – may leave a certain scope for confusion, but the extent of this country’s lexical borrowing continues to know few bounds. Upon flicking on the TV yesterday evening to catch what was ultimately a straight-sets defeat for Andy Murray in the Australian Open tennis final, I was initially disappointed not to have the option of an audio feed from the host broadcaster as I often like to choose for football, but I needn’t have worried as it turns out English is the only language this sport makes any sense in anyway. When, in a rare and all-too-brief moment of hope for British fans, the Japanese commentator kindly informed us that Murray led faivu gēmusu tu surii, sāvingu fō za setto (five games to three, serving for the set), you had to wonder if any casual Japanese viewers would have the faintest clue what on earth was going on.

 

This is probably quite an extreme example, and it does of course follow reason that when part of a country’s culture is exported overseas, it should take with it a certain amount of vocabulary. English, for example, has seen no reason to translate the names of karate, judo, or any of the other martial arts that arrived in its spheres from Japan; nor even the kihon (basics), kata (forms), or waza (techniques) that budding karateka or judoka might learn in the dojo where they are practised. For all the naitokurabu (nightclubs) and hanbāgā (hamburgers), you are bound to get a bit of karaoke and sushi in return.

 

No doubt aided by the relatively recent nature of its popularisation, bastardised Anglicisms are notoriously abundant within Japanese sakkā (soccer – I shall resist the urge for an Anglo-American debate by acknowledging that futtobōru can be a blanket term for a number of codes, including ragubii etc). A game in the riigu (league) or kappu (cup) begins with the kikkuofu (kick-off), after which a middofirudā (midfielder) might attempt a surū pasu (through pass) or an ārii kurosu (early cross) to a fowādo (forward) in the penarutii eria (penalty area). Supposing the intended recipient has not strayed ofusaido (offside), there are then three possible outcomes: either this tiimumēto (teammate) will shūto (shoot), a difendā (defender) will burokku (block) and concede a kōnā kikku (corner kick), or the opponents will kuriā (clear) and perhaps try and mount a kauntā atakku (counter attack) of their own. Failure to achieve the right result, of course, runs the risk of being subjected to būingu (booing) from your own sapōtā (supporters).

 

Although you do get the odd exception creeping in from a third language – ‘defensive midfielder’, for example, is boranchi after the Portuguese volante, while J. League fans inspired by Serie A might sing forza ragazzi or facci un gol – this probably all serves to underline the ‘universal language’ claims both of English and of football itself. Things can, however, get a little confused when you throw in wasei-eigo, which are essentially pseudo-Anglicisms invented by – and/or for the dubious benefit of – Japanese who don’t really speak English. Heddingu (heading) is all well and good in the present participle, but feels a little strange when used without any morphological alteration to mean ‘header’, and is derived into the even more cumbersome heddingu shūto when the striker tries to divert the ball into the net off his noggin. An attempt on goal from just outside the eria is called a middoru shūto (‘middle shoot’), which I can’t decide if it’s actually quite handy or just plain wrong, while a defender’s illegal use of an arm to burokku would just be a hando (‘hand’), with no mention of the poor ball whatsoever.

 

Meanwhile, the amount of borrowings used within management speak, both in business and in sporting circles, suggests that virtually any loan word can become a buzzword with the right suit and tie, and this makes you wonder where it’ll all eventually stop. Perhaps we should be thankful that football and language in general haven’t quite reached the level of tennis just yet, but then again, I suppose corruption wouldn’t be corruption without the odd little perk for some. It would certainly save me a lot of time each week if, instead of painstakingly translating these articles for the Japanese version of my column, I could simply produce a Japaniizu bājon obu mai koramu instead.

25 Jan 2010(Mon)

From Kolo Touré’s insistence on being the last player onto the pitch (even when this means waiting for a teammate until after the referee’s whistle) to John Terry’s urinal preferences, footballers remain a notoriously superstitious bunch, and their love of matchday routines so devoid of obvious logic has naturally influenced and been imitated by many a Sunday League wannabe or fan who contends himself with dressing like his heroes on the terraces. My personal record of dabbling into these murky waters extends only to a briefly-owned pair of lucky pants in 2007 – with which I discovered that I would enjoy a guaranteed winning probability of 75%, as long as the team I happened to support generally won three out of every four games anyway – but since then, I have reached the reasonably watertight conclusion that we’ve all been looking at this subject the wrong way around.

 

Baselessly idiosyncratic pre-game preparations are, as we all know, by their very nature unlikely to influence the outcome of any game of football, but once we have accumulated a certain amount of statistical data about past outcomes (another guilty pleasure of a certain type of football observer), there’s nothing to stop us employing trend analysis tools (better known as ‘hindsight’) to determine whose pair of pants were cursed and whose, as it were, contained the Midas touch. For example, all known and related formulae will tell you quite clearly that, if Gamba Osaka are playing more than 100 miles away from their own home stadium, then I should never, ever be there watching.

 

In my last ten trips to see Gamba games outside this safe zone – I’m generally OK within Kansai or as far as Nagoya – my record reads just one win, just one draw, and fully eight defeats. This hasn’t even been a lean few years for my team. I was there for the Nabisco Cup final defeat on penalties in 2005 and subsequent collapse in the run-in, but missed the final day miracle when we beat Kawasaki Frontale 4-2 and clinched the championship in the last minute of the season. I did see the 2006 title decider go the way of Urawa Reds, who’d also denied me a trophy celebration in that year’s Super Cup, but when I decided to give the following season’s curtain-raiser a miss, we only went and hammered the same opposition 4-0. Once I finally broke my duck in the 2007 Nabisco Cup final, I decided to lay low for a while, until reverting to type with a couple more defeats in 2008, and a devastating 5-1 mauling in Kashima that put paid to our league title hopes last November. Needless to say, I was safely home in the UK for Gamba’s back-to-back Emperor’s Cup wins, and only watching on TV for the second leg of the AFC Champions League final in Adelaide 14 months ago.

 

However, I’m not panicking too much about my desperate plight as I realise that, as with all such matters of sophisticated mathematics, you have to take the rough with the smooth. Take, for example, the recent signing of Brazilian youngster Dodô, who joins Gamba on a ‘C’ contract that allows overseas players yet to celebrate their 20th birthdays to circumvent the usual ‘foreigner’ allocation. I witnessed this explosive forward in the flesh twice during his brief spell with Ehime FC in J2 last year, and each time was thoroughly impressed with a level of raw skill, speed, and invention that set him apart from his teammates. Crucially – and this is my point here – the 19-year-old capped his displays with fine goals in both matches, and while these were ultimately the only two occasions he found the net in eight matches played in orange, he does therefore have a 100% strike rate whenever I am cheering him on. You can say what you like about sample sizes; if picked to play, I fully expect Dodô to guarantee us 17 goals in the league at home this year, and at least have a jolly good go at banishing my curse should I ever venture to see him play on the road.

 

Superstition’s whimsy aside, the signings of Dodô and former Portuguesa striker Zé Carlos last week represent an intelligent evolution of Akira Nishino’s policy of bringing in Brazilian forwards with J. League experience. This tactic has seen a succession of relative big shots in and out of the doors at Banpaku – generally bringing with them plenty of goals before leaving turmoil behind when they up sticks without notice – but Dodô is a fresh diamond who will surely benefit from a good polishing by the youth-friendly Gamba coaching staff. A more immediate impact will be expected of the 26-year-old Zé Carlos, who is new to Japan but scored 34 goals in 73 K-League appearances with Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i and Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors between 2004 and 2008. His spell with the latter saw him play against Gamba on the way to ACL glory in 2006, and one hopes that having just spent 18 months recharging his batteries back in Brazil, he will arrive suitably motivated for his next Asian challenge.

18 Jan 2010(Mon)

All in all, it seems like I timed my trip back home pretty well. 24 hours after I wolfed down my last proper British breakfast (black pudding included) and flew out of Bristol, it and almost every other airport in the country was forced to close its doors and runways as a thick blanket of snow covered virtually every square inch of Great Britain.

 

The first indication I had of the disruption came when, at the very peak of my jet lag, I stared confused at the big hole in the Japanese satellite TV schedules at 5am where the Carling Cup semi-finals were supposed to be. Both games had evidently fallen victim to the weather (or, possibly, to the clubs’ fear of litigation arising from wintery mishaps occurring on their properties, but that’s another can of worms), and a few days later, only two fixtures survived the most heavily disrupted weekend in Premier League history. Jealous though I was of the friends I’d left behind – with their snow days, snowballs, and, in one case, an igloo – I quickly found comfort in the pile of DVDs I’d received for Christmas, as well as in the thought that I’d have been far more cheesed off had the elements prevented me from enjoying English football while I was actually in the right time zone for a change.

 

As it was, the fortnight I spent back in the UK was merely very cold and icy, meaning that while I did fall on my behind a couple of times, I had no problems catching a match or two. Any New Year’s Day grogginess was shivered out of my system in the largely unsheltered away end at Fairfax Park, as my annual pilgrimage to support my local eighth-tier club Taunton Town took me about ten miles up the A38 for a local derby with Bridgwater Town. Taunton are now in the midst of a third successive battle against the drop since flirting with promotion to the heights of the Southern League Premier Division in 2007, and not even a man advantage for the final quarter of an hour (courtesy of a thoroughly entertaining off-the-ball bust up) was enough to help them recover from a 1-0 deficit stemming from an unnecessarily conceded penalty. 24 hours later, on FA Cup third round Saturday, I travelled with my Luton Town-supporting uncle to watch the Hatters, currently seventh in the fifth-tier Blue Square Premier, go down by the same narrow scoreline away to League One side Southampton.

 

Bridgwater Town v Taunton Town (yellow), 1 January 2010

 

The nature of my personal interests means I am often asked by people both back home and in Japan about how J. League clubs might fare in the English league system, and vice versa. With only one official match (Gamba Osaka 3-5 Manchester United in 2008) to go on, the history books provide little in the way of direct comparison, and my default answer is to claim that while the very best J1 clubs should fancy themselves on technical merit against most of the Premier League’s bottom half, the age-old problems of physical strength would almost certainly see them bullied into a relegation battle over the course of a season. Lower down the pyramid, on the evidence of the first two days of 2010, you would probably have to look as far as the sixth-tier Japanese prefectural leagues or even beyond to find a team so bad that even Taunton Town might beat them, but a fitting analogy for Southampton-Luton is even more open to conjecture. The Saints have fallen a long way since their 27-year stay at the highest level of English football ended in 2005, but one suspects that the speed of their play alone would give them a strong chance of survival were they suddenly transplanted into the Japanese top flight. Luton’s drop from grace has been even more dramatic, but one hilariously missed open goal from Adam Newton aside, there still appeared to be more quality and higher-level experience in their display than is regularly shown, say, by the similarly orange Ehime FC side in J2 that I look a little shine to last autumn.

 

Southampton v Luton Town (orange), 2 January 2010

 

Still, although hollow threats of ‘see you outside in the car park’ (usually shouted across 20 metres of segregation) rarely make anyone look too clever, banter between opposing supporters is one thing I do often miss about back home. The derby occasion brought over a thousand supporters to Bridgwater on New Year’s Day, and ensured that the entertainment was supplemented with heckles so heavily accented that I would need several pints of scrumpy to even begin to emulate. At St. Mary’s, meanwhile, the two sets of fans combined gallows humour with jibes at the degree of each other’s misfortunes, with the Luton contingent quick to ring out the Pompey chimes and hail the influence that Harry Redknapp had on Southampton’s relegation in between his two successful spells down the road at their local rivals. Aside from the odd taunt at a particular, long-standing foe or the cry of ‘J2!’ to a doomed opponent, one rarely hears anything to compare even when a J. League crowd might constantly sing for 90 minutes, and while you wouldn’t wish the kind of financial mismanagement that has plagued so many British clubs over the last decade on anyone, I do wonder if the supporter experience in Japan – even at my own club, Gamba – couldn’t sometimes be a little more imaginative and interactive.

7 Dec 2009(Mon)

(1) Quite simply, Kashima Antlers have championship quality

Their Jenson Button-esque stumble over the finishing line (42 points from the first 17 games, followed by just 24 in the last 17), their playing style, and their attitude may not always win them many friends, but there is little doubt that Kashima Antlers are deserving champions yet again this year. After blowing a 10-point lead with five straight defeats in autumn, Kashima recovered their form to go back on top two weeks ago, but the visit of third-placed Gamba Osaka and a trip to Urawa Reds was just about the hardest conclusion they could have asked for. While everyone around them were losing their heads, Oswaldo de Oliveira’s side once again kept theirs.

 

(2) Marcus Tulio Tanaka remains a difficult customer both on and off the pitch

One man who didn’t enjoy the Antlers’ scenes of celebrations in Saitama was Marcus Tulio Tanaka, whose six-year Urawa Reds career ended in defeat on Saturday. As well as expressing his bitterness over Kashima’s title win, Tanaka’s final appearance in red was notable for his refusing to shake hands with Reds chairman Mitsuo Hashimoto, whom he accused of forcing him out of ‘his’ club. Wigan Athletic have been mentioned amongst his potential suitors, but while Tanaka would surely strengthen a defence that has conceded 38 goals in 16 games this season, one wonders how much a player who clearly fancies himself as a born winner would enjoy a Premier League relegation battle.

 

(3) Ryuji Bando is truly a man of the people...

No league goals and just 421 minutes of action all year meant the announcement of Ryuji Bando’s departure from Gamba Osaka came as little surprise, even if one of the two goals he did manage this season was a dramatic last-ditch winner against Urawa. Nevertheless, while some may have criticised his recent performances, the fans at Banpaku will always hold a special place in their hearts for the former Japanese international forward. Not content with the traditional bows and farewell speeches after Gamba’s 2-0 win over JEF United Chiba on Saturday, Bando decided instead to climb the wall into the stand behind the goal for a properly personal goodbye. Now you don’t see that in the cash-flushed Premier League.

 

(4) ...but giving someone the bumps on a packed terrace is not really a good idea

As part of the hardcore at the front of Banpaku’s Curva Nord, I was right in the thick of things when Bando came up to lead an impromptu song or two, which was brilliant until someone had the smart idea of giving him the bumps there and then. Thrown off-balance by some overenthusiastic supporters on the opposite side to me, our number 11’s flailing elbow cracked me square on the face – leaving me bruised, bloody, and scrabbling around on the floor for my glasses before they got even more trampled out of shape. Still, at least I can say that Bando genuinely did leave a lasting impression on me.

 

(5) If Japan want to make the last four next year, they’ll have to do it the hard way

Tweeting on the World Cup draw as part of the Guardian’s fans’ network, it grew progressively harder to remain positive about Japan’s chances of realising their dreams in South Africa next year. In order just to make it out of Group E, they will most likely have to beat either Cameroon or Denmark, not lose to the other, and then just keep their fingers crossed and see what happens. The physical strength of each of Japan’s opponents is little help either, and while Takeshi Okada’s side may win a midfield battle against the Danes on technical merit, one fears for the chances of his famously indecisive strikers against a defence that conceded just five goals in qualifying.

 

(6) TV pundits should really just be honest

Aside from their general end-of-season cheer, the dozens of Japanese fans I spoke to over the weekend all had two things in common – a dismissive attitude towards the national team’s chances of making the last 16, and a sense of anger towards Takeshi Okada and the national media for repeating Japan’s objective of a place in the semis. Certainly, it is hard to imagine the press in any other country remaining quite so supportive – or, more likely, scared of being contradictory – about a target as outlandishly optimistic as this. I don’t know if this column counts as ‘punditry’ but, just for the record, I’ll say it anyway – miracles aside, Japan have no chance of making the last four in South Africa, and it will be a massive achievement just to get through their group.

 

* This column will now take a short break until the New Year, during which time it will be extolling the virtues of Japanese football to the good people of Somerset, England. In spite of what it just said at the end of point number six.

2 Dec 2009(Wed)

You can now use Twitter to follow me, the Football Japan Minutecast, and other columns and contents from Football Japan. Visit www.twitter.com/BenMabley, or go to the Minutecast website at minutecast.footballjapan.jp and click the ‘Follow Me on Twitter’ icon on the right hand side of the page.

 

From 4.30pm GMT this Friday evening (1.30am JST, Saturday), I will be tweeting on the Japanese reaction to the draw for the 2010 World Cup Finals as it unfolds in South Africa.

 

Remember, if you’ve not done so already, you can subscribe to the Football Japan Minutecast via iTunes by clicking here or on the ‘Subscribe with iTunes’ button on the right hand side of the Minutecast website, or by searching for ‘Football Japan Minutecast’ in the ‘Podcasts’ section of the iTunes Store.

1 Dec 2009(Tue)

The opportunism of their counterattacking was every bit as devastating as its consequences were to the beholders in blue and black at the opposite end of the ground. For 45 minutes on Saturday afternoon, Kashima Antlers rediscovered their mojo in a manner so clinical and ruthless as to reduce Gamba Osaka’s hopes of completing a J. League record 19-point turnaround to rubble, and make the sheer premise of their conception seem little more than one-eyed over-optimism. To Kashima’s long-suffering manager, Oswaldo de Oliveira, it was redemption – the Antlers’ biggest domestic win of the season had arrived with the same perfect timing as each of their five goals, and all the weight of all the troubles of the past four months had, for a little while at least, been lifted.

 

Not that everything was entirely straightforward. After a goalless first half in which Mitsuo Ogasawara might, on another day, have seen red following an altercation with Hayato Sasaki, Gamba were looking the stronger side until committing defensive suicide twice in as many minutes and then, after Takahiro Futagawa had fired home an instant reply, once more for luck moments later. The hosts had referee Toshimitsu Yoshida – he of Uzbekistan, Bahrain, and the non-retaken penalty fame – to thank for ending the game as a contest with a harsh second yellow for Lucas and denying the visitors a penalty for a tug on Cho Jae-Jin; not to mention Gamba’s attacking persistence for the holes that opened up in time for Yuzo Tashiro and Danilo to add their touches of gloss near the end. Still, de Oliveira, the excellent Shinzo Koroki et al played their hands without flaw. It was, as beaten coach Akira Nishino ruefully admitted afterwards, ‘typical Antlers’.

 

The title race, then, moves on into the final day – just as it has every season since the single-stage format was adopted in 2005 – with news flashing up on the scoreboard shortly after full time in Kashima that Kawasaki Frontale in second had held on to squeeze a 1-0 victory at home to Albirex Niigata. With four wins in a row and a two point advantage, Kashima remain very much in pole position, while Urawa Reds falling out of ACL contention (ironically, to the advantage of Gamba Osaka) with defeat at Kyoto Sanga has made a tricky-looking visit to Saitama Stadium on the first Saturday of December potentially that bit easier. Kawasaki have a superior goal difference, but must rely on Kashima dropping points while ensuring to take all three from their visit to already-relegated Kashiwa Reysol.

 

This, though, is a league that everyone seems to do their best not to win, and neither of this year’s contenders are strangers to losing their bottle when it matters most. Having led by ten points at one stage, the only reason that Kashima haven’t been sipping champagne for several weeks already is that they then picked up just nine points in twelve league games – including a club record five consecutive losses – between mid-July and mid-October. This initially allowed Shimizu S-Pulse to overcome a 17-point deficit and go top with six games to play, but having only lost four matches to that point, Kenta Hasegawa’s men have since been beaten five times on the spin and fallen down to seventh. Kawasaki, having ummed and aahed and dropped points themselves during Kashima’s earlier crisis, finally went top on matchday 29, but contrived to surrender their advantage again last week with defeat at bottom club Oita Trinita.

 

In their bid for an unprecedented third straight J. League crown – a run that began by taking advantage of an Urawa collapse in 2007 – Kashima have seen off one rival, recovered their form, and taken back the driving seat ahead of the final hurdle. If recent history is anything to go by, however, this might just prove to be the worst preparation possible. Meanwhile, despite the overreaction to their players’ antics in the aftermath of defeat in the Nabisco Cup final, one still gets the impression that Kawasaki, perennial runners-up and eternal entertainers, remain the preferred choice of most neutrals.