MikeTuckerman

JEF United have hired former Rangers star and Liverpool first team coach Alex Miller to take over as coach of the J. League's bottom club.

Presumably United have kept Miller more up-to-date than they did the departed Josip Kuze, who claimed that he was unaware United had sold their five best players before he took over as coach in January.

The Chiba side are already ten points adrift of safety even at this early stage of the season, and they need a drastic change of fortunes if they are to climb out of the J. League basement.

While the question remains as to just how much Miller knows about Japanese football - and why he would even give up a comfortable job with Liverpool to take over an outfit that look destined for the drop, a more pertinent question has been raised over at the always amusing Soilent Green. Just how responsible is the JEF United front office for the Chiba club's current plight? The answer appears to be 'very.'

Verdy fans more than most might question JEF United's hiring policy. Yet more than poor player recruitment, it has been some baffling off-field decisions that have seemingly crippled the 2005 and 2006 League Cup champions.

Tadashi Karai's reward for dragging the once-mightiest club in Japanese football into the depths of J2 in his role as General Manager, was to seal a move from Tokyo Verdy to a JEF United side that was once touted as genuine title challenger.

Yet United's most damaging move was surely installing the inexperienced Amar Osim as coach, following his father Ivica Osim's decision to take over as coach of Japan after the World Cup in 2006. When Osim Jr took United to within an inch of relegation last season, he was stoutly defended by the United back room staff - to the point that defender Ilian Stoyanov was sacked for speaking out against the hapless Bosnian. But after defending Osim Jr for months - and even seeing him keep the Chiba Dogs in the top flight by the skin of their teeth, United then chose to sack Osim Jr after the final game of the season... just two weeks after his father had suffered a life-threatening stroke.

Then came the bizarre post-match interviews after United's most recent 3-0 loss to Urawa Reds, with new coach Josip Kuze insisting that JEF United had pledged their full support to him. Kuze, at least according to his version of events, had even been lining up reinforcements for his struggling side. Yet less than 24 hours later the Croatian was shown the door.

It's a sorry state of affairs for a club that enjoys some of the more passionate support in the league. Unless Alex Miller can pull the proverbial rabbit out of his hat, he could be the next high-profile foreign coach to take the fall for the Chiba Dogs' bumbling bureaucrats behind the scenes.

Tokyo Verdy. Kawasaki Frontale. Gamba Osaka. Not the biggest names in Japanese football, but they've all beaten Nagoya Grampus in the past fortnight.

Dragan Stojkovic's unbeaten run was always bound to come to an end, but few would have expected it to end against Tokyo Verdy. The promoted side were awful over the opening rounds of the season, but their first victory coincided with Nagoya's first defeat, and it catapulted the Toyota-backed club to a run of three straight losses - including a narrow 2-1 defeat at home to Gamba Osaka in a marquee fixture watched by 34,436 fans at Toyota Stadium.

Nagoya bounced back with a1-0 win away at Ajinomoto Stadium in front of 30,825 fans on May 6, although they were fortunate to do so. FC Tokyo substitute Yusuke Kondo had the chance to open his account for the season from the penalty spot in the 81st minute. Going with the tried-and-tested method of closing his eyes and simply blasting his penalty into orbit, Kondo watched in horror as it smashed on to the top of the crossbar and presumably deflected into the streets of Chofu. It's like that for some players.

Nagoya's defender Milos Bajalica is another for whom absolutely nothing has gone right. He was signed by Stojkovic himself from Red Star Belgrade, to fill the decidedly large boots of departed Slovakian defender Marek Spilar. Current PSV Eindhoven coach Sef Vergoossen once labelled Spilar "the best defender in Japan." It's not a label that will be applied to Bajalica any time soon.

Bajalica's J. League career got off to a less than auspicious start when he gave away a converted penalty on the opening day against Kyoto Sanga. Things have gotten progressively worse. His personal nightmare reached a new peak when the shaky Serb encountered Gamba Osaka's monstrous striker Bare. The lumbering front man looked like Baryshnikov against a defender who seemed to be treading on quicksand, with Bare scoring twice - both goals coming because he'd managed to shake off the bewildered Bajalica.

Nagoya will be spared Bajalica's so-called defending for their upcoming fixture at home to Vissel Kobe - the Serb is suspended, but the temperament of the volatile Stojkovic could be tested to the limit by the antics of the forever niggling Kobe. It may have been legendary Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger that introduced the pitch side tirade to Japanese football, but the combustible Stojkovic is yet to lose his rag on the sidelines. He has, however, reputedly come toe-to-toe with Nagoya's high profile off-season signing Magnum, who was stunned by his 63rd minute substitution in the loss to Gamba Osaka. Watch this space.

Things could be worse. Nagoya could be JEF United, and Stojkovic could be packing his bags just like Josip Kuze is currently doing. He was handed his walking papers today, following an abysmal start to the season that has seen the Chiba Dogs pick up just two points from their opening eleven league fixtures! The writing was on the wall for the 2005 and 2006 League Cup champions when five of their best players left during the off-season, and while there's still a long way to go, it looks like it will take a miracle for JEF United to stay up. Still, stranger things could happen. Milos Bajalica could become a competent J. League defender. It's that's kind of league.

I read an interesting piece from that redoubtable authority on South American football Tim Vickery the other day, suggesting that derbies are an over-rated aspect of the modern game. While it's difficult to disagree with his assessment that derbies are all blood-and-guts football with very little culture in between, there's no doubt that local rivalries continue to stir the passion of football fans the world over.

That's something that the J. League understands, and in what must rank as part of a policy of instituting just the one good idea per season, the league schedules a number of crackerjack local derbies during 'Golden Week' - when a string of public holidays gives the average worker a much-needed few days off.

Football fans use the opportunity to pack J. League grounds across the country and so, exactly a year to the day since they last met at the picturesque Nihondaira Stadium, the next installment of the fabled Shizuoka derby gets set to rock the port city of Shimizu on May 3.

Last season Jubilo midfielder Fabricio's badge-kissing antics in front of the S-Pulse fans produced a positively nuclear atmosphere, and while Fabricio is long gone, so too is Cho Jae-Jin; Shimizu's hero from their two derbies last season, with the Korean wracking up all three of his side's goals against their bitter prefectural rivals.

In his classic book on Japanese football "Ultra Nippon: How Japan Reinvented Football" (which somewhat bizarrely depicts a Jubilo fan on the cover, despite the fact that it's an account of S-Pulse's 1999 season), Johnathon Birchall paints a vivid account of Shimizu's excruciating loss to Jubilo in the 1999 championship playoff.

Having won the first stage of the 1999 season, Jubilo saw their Shizuoka rivals storm back to be crowned second stage champions. A two-legged playoff ensued, and after both teams played out 2-1 draws away from home, the 1999 J. League title came down to a penalty shoot-out. Jubilo won the shoot-out at Nihondaira, and that's something that the Shimizu faithful have never forgotten, adding extra spice to an already heated affair.

These days the J. League has reverted to a single stage season, and after several years of playing the derby exclusively at Ecopa Stadium - a 2002 FIFA World Cup venue, Shimizu now schedule their home leg for Nihondaira Stadium. That makes perfect sense to S-Pulse fans, since the town of Aino lies some seventy kilometres down the Tokaido line from Shimizu. Rather conveniently for Jubilo fans it's just a short hop from Iwata, and while Jubilo still play their home fixture at Ecopa, gone are the days when they can command fifty percent of the support in both derbies.

As such Jubilo will be up against it when they travel to a seething Nihondaira Stadium, and to complicate matters these two teams have also been drawn together in this season's League Cup group stage. They'll meet again in the Nihondaira foothills on May 25, and both teams will be looking to get the upper hand this weekend, as Shimizu braces itself for another edition of the Shizuoka Clásico.

The excuses were flying thick-and-fast in the aftermath of Gamba Osaka's thrilling 4-3 AFC Champions League victory over Melbourne Victory at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne on April 9. They were mainly flying from the mouths of Melbourne apologists, who were quick to point out that Victory were missing Australian international Archie Thompson, that the salary cap had cruelled their chances of beating a "rich" club like Gamba Osaka, and that, given that the A-League is currently in the midst of its long off-season, Melbourne were lacking match fitness.

Some of these statements contained an element of truth, but they masked the fact that Melbourne were beaten on the back of making elementary mistakes. It's notable that for all of the Victory's pre-match claims that they had been "scouting" Gamba games - they were apparently unaware that Yasuhito Endo always looks for captain Satoshi Yamaguchi from corners (which is how Yamaguchi scored in Gamba's clash with Shimizu S-Pulse just three days earlier), or that Takahiro Futagawa is one of the best long-range shooting specialists in Japan.

Perhaps the most irritating claim, however, was the one made by Melbourne fans claiming that their team had been beaten by a "full strength" Gamba line-up. Pardon?

A cursory glance through the Gamba team-sheet for the match at the Telstra Dome reveals that the Osakans were missing defender Akira Kaji and striker Ryuji Bando. Kaji has won over 60 caps for Japan. Bando has seven, but would surely have more had he not been struck down by a series of injuries over the past couple of seasons.

Their replacements were Hideo Hashimoto - an experienced player, but nominally a midfielder, and ex-Oita Trinita striker Masato Yamazaki. In over 250 league appearances in Japanese football, Ryuji Bando has scored more than 80 goals. Yamazaki has made about 80 league appearances. He's scored just three times. Full strength line-up? Not quite.

It's notable that Melbourne fans were so quick to highlight the absence of Archie Thompson but were oblivious to Gamba's own injury woes. Not only does it suggest a lack of grace in defeat, it also highlights that when it comes to Asian football, Australians remain - on the whole, fairly oblivious to the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents. That's not surprising - Japanese fans would be hard pressed to name a single A-League player. Yet their fans are arguably more circumspect when it comes to assessing an opponent in the aftermath of defeat.

Now, as both teams prepare for the return clash at Expo '70 Stadium on the northern outskirts of Osaka, it's Gamba who hold all the ready-made excuse cards. Not only is first choice shot-stopper Yosuke Fujigaya injured, but so too is his deputy Naoki Matsuda. That means that 23-year-old rookie Atsushi Kimura will feature between the posts for the Panasonic-outfit, for what could be a nerve-wracking Champions League debut.

As for Akira Kaji and Ryuji Bando, both were expected to return from injury towards the back end of April, but with Gamba set to play five J. League fixtures over fifteen days at the end of the month, it's unlikely that either man will feature against Melbourne. Indeed Gamba will no doubt have an eye on their upcoming regional derby with Vissel Kobe - a club that seems to exist merely to irritate their Kansai cousins from down the road.

Melbourne captain Kevin Muscat has already proclaimed that his team can't offer any excuses, with the Victory's AFC Champions League campaign hanging in the balance. Noble sentiments from the fiery skipper, but only time will tell if they ring true.

So, it has come to this. Six games played. One victory. One draw. Four losses. Shimizu S-Pulse are in a bit of a slump. It was bound to happen.

Several months ago I hypothesised that Shimizu S-Pulse's new Brazilian signings Marcos Paulo Alves and Marcos Aurélio might struggle in an S-Pulse jersey. The former was signed despite the fact Shimizu already had a player in his position - the inimitable Teruyoshi Ito.

The latter's signing was even more puzzling. In Korean striker Cho Jae-Jin, S-Pulse once possessed a reliable goal scorer. He took a while to get going in Japanese football, scoring just nine goals in 29 league games in 2005. The next season was more profitable, as he found the net 16 times in 32 league games. Last season he scored 13 goals in 28 games - a decent return in an injury-blighted season from a player who suffered personal disappoinment at the Asian Cup.

Most importantly, Cho Jae-Jin was exactly the type of player that Shimizu needed. Powerful. Direct. Strong in the air, and with the ability to hold the ball up and bring others into play. Sure he wasn't the most skillful of strikers. Sometimes his touch resembled a brick wall. But you could always rely on the big man barging defenders out of the way to power home another Daisuke Ichikawa cross.

Now the 185cm tall Jae-Jin has been replaced by the 167cm Marcos Aurélio. Shimizu's once bustling forward line has been reduced to a parade of midgets. I can only guess that Marcos Aurélio was signed in case the 161cm Fernandinho needed to borrow a pair of boots.

That's why I'm putting my hand up for a club in need. Hasegawa-san, you can pick me. Yes I've lost a bit of pace since my halcyon days as a libero for Hills Independent u-13's, but I think I can get the job done. I've got my jersey sorted (we just need to find a new squad number for Naoaki Aoyama).

It's not that I'm anti-Marcos Aurélio. It's just that missing a stoppage time penalty thirty seconds after coming on to the pitch in a 0-0 draw with Omiya Ardija is perhaps not the best way to endear yourself to the fans.

I don't think the former Santos man will be scoring nine goals in 29 league appearances this season. He looks to be on his last legs at the club already. He needs a goal. If he can't score one against Tokyo Verdy in the League Cup on Wednesday evening, then help us all. I'm limber. I'm ready. And goodness knows, I can bang them it at a rate of more than zero goals per game as well!

It took Urawa Reds all of two matches to sack coach Holger Osieck and replace him with Gert Engels. Reds fans could be forgiven a sense of déjà vu - not because of the sacking, but because like Osieck before him, Engels is a familiar face within the Urawa camp. He's been at the club since 2004, but has surely leapt from the frying pan into the fire as he takes over as head coach at a club simmering with internal dissent.

The Reds have been outplayed in each of their opening two matches, losing firstly to Yokohama F. Marinos in front of more than 62,000 fans at Nissan Stadium, before just under 55,000 fans turned out at Saitama Stadium to see Nagoya Grampus snatch all three points from a club that is quickly becoming one of their favourite opponents.

Speaking of Nagoya, Pixy Stojkovic is yet to spontaneously combust on the Grampus touchline, although the exciteable Serb has shown signs that the only thing left of him could be a smouldering pair of shoes come the end of the J. League season. He was reportedly furious after Nagoya's opening 1-1 draw at home to Kyoto Sanga, in a match in which the visitors outplayed their more fancied opponents. Nevertheless following Nagoya's defeat of Urawa the diminutive former Grampus midfielder claimed that it was one of the best days of his life, leading one to ponder how Stojkovic might react if Nagoya actually won a trophy.

The topsy-turvy results continued on day two of the J. League, with the pick of the scores surely Vissel Kobe's 4-1 hammering of Kawasaki Frontale. Indeed Kawasaki's much-vaunted strike force hasn't looked remotely close to scoring yet, with coach Takashi Sekizuka suddenly the last to have realised that fitting Juninho, Hulk, Chong Tese, Kazuki Ganaha and Masaru Kurotsu into three striking places is not necessarily one of those "difficult selection scenarios that the club is happy to have."

With the League Cup taking centre stage for Matchday 1 and 2 of the group stage next Thursday and Sunday, certain clubs will invariably look to tinker with their line-ups in the hope of discovering a winning formation. Others will just be desperate for a win - foremost among them Urawa Reds, as they head into the Gert Engels era more quickly than anyone could have imagined.

After last weekend's Super Cup stupidity, league action finally returns to Japan as football fans up and down the country awake from their two-month hibernation.

As usual, the fixture list (ie. some bloke at J. League headquarters) has thrown up some fascinating opening day encounters - not the least being Urawa Reds' return to Nissan Stadium, where they face bitter rivals Yokohama F. Marinos. It was at Nissan that the Reds incredibly choked on the final day of last season, losing 1-0 to the already relegated Yokohama FC and handing the J. League title on a plate to Kashima Antlers.

The Antlers kick start their proceedings by hosting J2 champions Consadole Sapporo, with Antlers coach Oswaldo de Oliveira still smarting at Masaaki Iemoto's hysterical refereeing performance in the Super Cup. Nevertheless the Antlers will expect to kick off the new season with a win - in the league at least, with troubled Sapporo plagued by financial worries and hindered by the fact that their training pitch is usually under about ten feet of snow.

The return of Tokyo Verdy to Todoroki Stadium will have the locals hot and bothered, as Kawasaki Frontale host their former city rivals. The 25,000 capacity stadium is likely to be packed for the first clash between the sides since Verdy decided to leave the city of Kawasaki and reestablish themselves in the capital. That move has worked out wonderfully well for Verdy... if you exclude the fact that both FC Tokyo and Kawasaki Frontale are now more popular than Verdy, who've spent the past two seasons scrapping it out in the glamourous surrounds of J2.

Elsewhere Nagoya Grampus will slug it out with Kyoto Sanga FC at Toyota Stadium, with both clubs having deemed a shortening of names was in order. More importantly the match marks the return of legendary former Nagoya midfielder Dragan Stojkovic, who takes over as coach from the departed Sef Vergoosen. 'Pixy' has a street named after him Nagoya, but the diminutive Serb will be hoping that his Messiah-like return doesn't end in crucifixtion if he is unable to lift the Toyota-backed giants into the top five.

Personally I'll be down at Nihondaira Stadium and from the looks of it, I won't be the only one. Shimizu S-Pulse are expecting one of their largest opening day crowds in history and given that visitors Oita Trinita are likely to bring a couple of hundred away fans at most on the 1000 kilometre journey to Shimizu, that's quite an effort from the orange faithful. The atmospheric ground will thus be rocking to the tune of 20,000 partisan locals, as the Kyushu-based Oita Trinita get set for an uncomfortable afternoon.

So stay tuned for all the thrill, spills and old-school skills because the J. League is back, bigger, better and with more blind referees than ever! 

The so-called Pan-Pacific Championship kicks off in Hawaii this afternoon, with Los Angeles Galaxy (that's right kids... the team that contains DAVID BECKHAM) taking on Japan's Gamba Osaka, while Sydney FC do battle with Houston Dynamo.

With a marketing drive that would make even the most over-the-top American sports promoter proud, the tournament will supposedly answer the question that has plagued not that many people for lo these many years - which league produces the best teams?

Don't ask me what the criteria for taking part in the tournament is - in the case of the LA Galaxy I suppose it's having at least one famous player, while Sydney FC were generously described by the Honolulu Advertiser as having just been crowned A-League champions, despite the fact that the A-League season is still going, and Sydney came fourth... out of eight.

Gamba Osaka, meanwhile, have made the friendly kickabout a top priority by releasing a mere seven players for international duty with Japan. The tournament didn't even receive a mention on the Gamba Osaka website until yesterday, while contrary to the Advertiser's semi-factual claims, the matches will not be screened on Japanese TV, where interest in the tournament rates somewhere between zero to nothing.

Still, I personally can't wait for the competition for the simple reason that whoever wins it will trumpet themselves as "the unofficial best team in the region!" It might be a friendly tournament involving teams that are either out-of-form or that haven't played for months but by golly, it'll sure tell us who can play! I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it...

Pan-Pacific Championship

The third East Asian Cup has kicked off in the Chinese city of Chongqing, no doubt provoking a flurry of questions from the Japanese national team like "what are we doing here?" and "when can we go home?"

This time around the competition is being contested by hosts China, Korea Republic (South Korea), Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Japan. Whilst North Korea might be the last remaining Stalinist state on earth, anyone with a cursory knowledge of East Asian history will know that Japan are the black sheep of that particular group.

History has been the fuel that has fired many a great football rivalry. During his time as England coach, Sven-Göran Eriksson's obvious under-estimation of the rivalry between England and Australia led to an ill-fated friendly at Upton Park that saw Australia thump their English counterparts in a result that almost cost Eriksson his job. More obvious is the rivalry between countries that have been the victims of various wrong-doings over the years - the Netherlands vs Germany remains one of the world game's most hostile international rivalries for a reason.

Spare a thought then for the young men that make up the Japanese national team, and who are thrown like lambs to the slaughter every few years in front of East Asian audiences that are baying for their blood. It's certainly true that of all countries, Japan has been one of the most reticent in acknowledging their role in the bloody conflict that was World War Two. But what that has to do with a group of young footballers representing their country in an international competition, I'm really not sure.

When the spotlight is on him, or when there is political favour to curry, FIFA President Joseph 'Sepp' Blatter is quick to denounce the booing and general disrespect of national anthems during international fixtures. Yet his silence in regard to East Asian relations is deafening. Japan's victory in the 2004 Asian Cup Final in Beijing prompted riots in the Chinese capital. Urawa Reds' only interest in last year's A3 Champions Cup in China was in getting out of the tournament with all of their limbs in tact. The atrocious refereeing, the scuffling between fans, the general increase in hostility between nations taking part in these international competitions leads me to ask the question, "what's the point?"

I clash regularly with Australian fans who wish to claim to anyone within earshot that Australia joining the Asian Football Confederation is the best thing to happen since sliced bread. Certainly the standard of football in Australia will improve. But when I hear Australian fans suggesting that Australia "must" send a team to competitions like the East Asian Cup - as if they'll find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, I can only shake my head and laugh. The East Asian Cup seems to serve no other purpose than for some countries to take out their historical grievances with other countries on the football pitch. No one cares about the football. It's all about the history. Yet history, it seems, sometimes teaches us nothing all.

About a week back several Japanese sports dailies speculated that troubled J-League club FC Tokyo were set to launch an audacious bid to sign Juventus midfielder Pavel Nedved at the end of the current Serie A season.

It appears that the only thing audacious about the story was the fact that anyone ran it all, since FC Tokyo themselves admitted that the first they heard of the bid was when they picked up the newspapers.

Of course no mention of FC Tokyo would be complete with employing the phrase "once bitten, twice shy" after Costa Rican World Cup star Paulo Wanchope turned out to be one of the most disastrous signings of the last J-League season. He was shipped off about halfway through last season, palpably unfit and having scored just once for the capital club.

With former Stades Rennais striker Lucas Severino having departed for Gamba Osaka and the anonymous Evaldo having rejoined Santos FC in Brazil, FC Tokyo have replaced them with a couple of uninspired looking signings in former Consadole Sapporo defender Bruno Quadros and ex-Iraklis midfielder Emerson. There's room in the squad for one more foreign signing, but with the Gasmen heavily linked with a move for Gyeongnam FC striker Capore, it seems unlikely that the final foreigner in the Tokyo squad will be Pavel Nedved.

When the foreign press mention big-name signings in the J-League, they invariably throw about names like former Kashima playmaker Zico, ex-Nagoya striker Gary Lineker and his infinitely more successful team-mate Dragan Stojkovic. Yet those players signed for J-League clubs almost two decades ago! The reality since then is that most of the successful foreign players in the J-League are unknown outside of Japan.

Korean striker Cho Jae-Jin scored a hat-full of goals for an otherwise struggling Shimizu S-Pulse before departing for pastures anew, while Nagoya's key man is former Rosenborg striker Frode Johnsen. Over the past few seasons Urawa have relied on goals from the likes of newly-naturalised Qatari Emerson and ex-Fenerbahce striker Washington - relatively unknown players even in their home countries.

It's not that J-League clubs can no longer afford genuinely big-name players - no one batted an eyelid when Urawa Reds were linked with a move for Alessandro Del Piero, it's just that more often than not these types of players are ineffective. One might argue that Del Piero would help bring fans through the turnstiles, but given that Urawa already average gates of around 45,000 for most league games, it's not like they need him.

More importantly, as Matsu of The Rising Sun News has pointed out repeatedly, it's cheaper for J-League clubs to stack their teams with cheap Brazilian talent. Why? Because of an abundance of Japanese-Brazilian migrants in Japan who can act as translators for the clubs. When Cho Jae-Jin left Shimizu S-Pulse his chief translator departed with him, and an S-Pulse official admitted to me that they had no compulsion to hire another translator for their teenage Korean striker Kim Dong-Sub. To avoid that situation plenty of clubs simply opt to sign players from the one country, with J2 outfit Avispa Fukuoka currently raiding the A-League under the auspices of former Sydney FC coach Pierre Littbarski.

So I doubt that Pavel Nedved will be lobbing up at FC Tokyo any time soon. Not only would he only feature for half a season in Japan, but judging by his recent performances at Juventus, he's still got plenty to offer in European football. He is even rumoured to be willing to come out of international retirement and feature for his country at EURO 2008. Looks like this is just another one of those stories destined to be consigned to the "slow news day" bin.