Derby Day Delight
Saturday, 01 September 07, 09:16 PM · Comments(4)
The first day of autumn brought derby day delight for Shimizu S-Pulse and Omiya Ardija, as the two away teams won the Shizuoka and Saitama derby respectively.
Thousands of orange clad supporters made the seventy kilometre trip to Ecopa Stadium in Fukuroi to see their team take on bitter local rivals Jubilo Iwata.
Shimizu won 2-1 thanks to a Cho Jae-Jin brace earlier in the season, and S-Pulse did the double over their local rivals when the Korean striker scored a last minute goal to hand Shimizu a 1-0 victory.
The win sees Shimizu move to within a point of third placed Kashima Antlers on the table.
The real story was at Saitama Stadium, however, where a crowd of 49,910 watched mainly in disbelief as second-from-bottom Omiya Ardija kept their season alive by beating city neighbours and league leaders Urawa Reds.
Hiroshi Morita scored the only goal of the game on the hour mark to hand Omiya a result that has implications at both ends of the table. With Gamba Osaka thrashing an injury-ridden Nagoya Grampus Eight 4-1 at Mizuho, the Osakans have pulled themselves back to within a point of league leaders Urawa. Omiya Ardija, meanwhile, are now just one point behind fifteenth placed Oita Trinita after yet another absorbing round of J-League action.
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Now that I have a minute I'll qualify that reply. Jubilo Iwata's Yamaha Stadium has a capacity of 16,893. In three games at Ecopa Stadium this year they have drawn crowds of 23,142, 35,072 and
33,678. So there is an obvious economic incentive for playing at Ecopa. More importantly, Japan successfully co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup by building stadiums like Ecopa. If Jubilo Iwata can
draw a crowd three times their average attendance by playing select games like the derby there each season, then why wouldn't they? Lastly I'll point out that I watched Middlesbrough - Newcastle on
TV last weekend and no where did I read comments like "a big stadium for a small crowd," despite the fact that I saw empty seats all over the Riverside Stadium. My concern is these
superiority/inferiority complexes that rear their heads when people think about football from non-tradtional football countries.
Great comeback, that is the funniest thing I have read in ages!
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A big stadium for a small crowd.
"A small-minded statement for a big head?"