MikeTuckerman

This is the end

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 02:06:39 +0200

Well, it had to happen some day. Shimizu S-Pulse took a giant leap towards qualification for the knock-out stages of the League Cup with a convincing 2-1 win over JEF United in front of a respectable 10,214 fans at a wet Nihondaira Stadium. For me, it was my final game in Japan.

After more than seventy games and far too many away trips to mention, I've decided to call it a day and head back to Australia. I was relieved to see the good guys in orange end with a win thanks to two goals taken with aplomb by Kazuki Hara and Akihiro Hyodo, although the Chiba underdogs gave S-Pulse a scare when captain Tomi Shimomura pulled a goal back in stoppage time.

The win moves Shimizu S-Pulse up to second behind FC Tokyo in Group B and the two sides will meet at Komazawa Stadium on Matchday 7 - by which time both will hope to have guaranteed progression to the knock-out stages.

There was no Eddy Bosnar in the United line-up - after sitting out a suspension in the 1-0 win away at Montedio Yamagata last time out, he was left on the bench this time around - with Yohei Fukumoto and one-time Shimizu S-Pulse defender Takumi Wada preferred at the back instead. United were always on the back foot against an aggressive Shimizu, however, and the hosts took the lead when Kazuki Hara fired an unerring left-foot volley across Masahiro Okamoto and into the far corner.

It wasn't until stoppage-time that Shimizu scored a second when Frode Johnsen laid off a perfect cushioned header for the influential Akihiro Hyodo to lash home from sixteen yards, although United pulled a late consolation back when Tomi Shimomura took advantage of an unconvincing Kaito Yamamoto punch to steer home a skidding finish at the death.

All in all it was a convincing win from Kenta Hasegawa's team, and they will take some confidence into their League Cup clash away at Vissel Kobe on Sunday. I'll be back in Sydney by then, no doubt reminiscing about some of the fantastic football I've seen in what must be one of the world's most underrated football leagues.

I've made plenty of friends along the way - far too many to thank individually - but I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Melanie, Yuichi, Philip and Misa in particular, without whom I'd have never watched as much football in Japan as I have. I'd also like to thank all the readers of the blog, from Sydney to Phnom Penh via Tokyo and beyond. I hope I've managed to share a little bit of the unique world that is Japanese football with you.

As the late, great Jim Morrison once said...

This is the end.

Asia tunes in to Manchester United vs Barcelona, but will its own final prove a success?

Wed, 27 May 2009 17:41:20 +0200

Manchester United vs Barcelona may have Asian football fans tuning in to the UEFA Champions League final at all hours of the night, but there's no guarantee that the AFC's decision to hold the Asian Champions League final as a one-off event in Tokyo will prove a success.

AFC officials must have winced when Gamba Osaka were drawn to host Kawasaki Frontale in a one-off Round of 16 clash in June, with one of the tournament favourites set to depart at an early stage. Gamba are the defending Asian champions, but surely AFC officials are desperate for the free-scoring Frontale to reach the final - for no other reason than that their fans need only cross the Tama River to reach Tokyo's National Stadium.

The crumbling 'Kokuritsu' has been nominated as the venue for Asia's first one-off final since the Champions League was overhauled in 2003 - perhaps as a nod towards Tokyo's bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

But unless a Japanese team reaches the final, the clash could be played out against the backdrop of row upon row of empty seats in Tokyo, regardless of whether the final pits a team from West Asia against an eastern counterpart.

It appears a disaster in waiting for the AFC, who may counter by simply giving away thousands of free tickets to entice Japanese fans to fill the cavernous venue. It's a far cry from the media circus surrounding the UEFA Champions League final, and with millions of fans throughout Asia set to tune into the European equivalent, the AFC can only count on a fraction of that support when the Asian Champions League rolls around in December.

League Cup clash exposes a few home truths

Fri, 22 May 2009 02:06:57 +0200

It's been mentioned elsewhere, but the worst kept secret from the "Kop-end" at Nihondaira Stadium is true - I'm going home. So hectic have attempts to organise the move back to Australia been that I almost forgot about Shimizu S-Pulse's home clash with Montedio Yamagata in the League Cup group stage on Wednesday night. That probably says something about the tournament itself.

In the end I shuffled down to Nihondaira at the last minute as part of a respectable crowd of 8,245 - and the fans on display were treated to a tolerable affair, albeit one that the tiny band of travelling Yamagata supporters were more inclined to celebrate in the end.

Having brought their physical brand of football down from the north, the mountain men left Shimizu with a well-deserved 1-0 win that puts them top of the table with two-wins-from-two in Group B.

A well-taken strike from midfielder Katsuyuki Miyazawa - who then spent the rest of the game throwing elbows in the direction of any Shimizu player with the temerity to go near him - coupled with an excellent performance from stand-in keeper Yuki Uekusa, was enough to get the visiting team over the line.

But the League Cup group stage has problems - not the least this new two-group format that the J. League has been forced to adopt because of changes to this year's Asian Champions League.

While the diehards generally tend to turn out for any competitive fixture - and the fact that League Cup group stage games are practically thrown in for free with season-ticket packages surely helps - more and more casual fans are realising that the League Cup group stage holds very little allure.

Shimizu S-Pulse and Montedio Yamagata could hardly be accused of not wanting to win this match. Both sent out strong squads, and Yamagata celebrated their goal like it had just won them a league title. But with J1 teams already facing each other on such a regular basis, surely the time to revamp a tired-looking League Cup is now.

Wet wet wet

Sun, 17 May 2009 02:23:23 +0200

Perhaps they'd be better utilised as drought-breakers, as for the third game in a row at "Outsourcing Stadium Nihondaira," Shimizu S-Pulse were forced to run out in the wet - although it didn't prevent them from avenging last season's League Cup final defeat as they beat Oita Trinita 3-1.

Yet again thousands of ticket holders failed to turn out in steady rain lashing the Nihondaira foothills, meaning that the near-16,500 tickets sold before the match counted for little when only 13,141 fans braved the conditions... not that the club loses a great deal of money from those ticket holders who don't show.

At any rate, the result on the pitch was surely a foregone conclusion in this one.

Taikai Uemoto. Yuki Fukaya. Roberto. Edmilson. Ueslei. Daiki Takamatsu. Yasuhito Morishima. Shunsuke Maeda. Those were just the Oita players who MISSED the game through suspension or injury (seven of whom are first team regulars).

So it was that Oita ran out with a team featuring squad numbers 25, 28, 32, 33 and 34, with a new-look formation and two midfielders playing up front. They didn't have much hope.

Shimizu defender Keisuke Iwashita got the scoring under way with a routine header from a corner on the quarter-hour mark, but what Iwashita brings to the team in terms of aerial ability and defensive positioning is surely wasted when the fragile defender goes down at every single opportunity. I've seen wet paper bags with a stronger disposition than the delicate Iwashita - not surprisingly he limped off after the hour mark with another mysterious injury.

Iwashita was just one of several Shimizu players to be targeted by irate S-Pulse fans in this game, but the hosts hit Oita with a classic one-two punch as Frode Johnsen fashioned a half-chance just three minutes after Iwashita's goal, with the big Norwegian volleying a finish between the luckless Shusaku Nishikawa's legs.

Shimizu looked like they could win this game at a canter, but Oita found a way back when the tireless Daisuke Takahashi cushioned an expert header in off the post just before the break, to ensure that the two teams still had plenty to play for in the second half.

With the rain increasing and the hosts content to sit back and try and hit Oita on the break in the second half, it was no surprise that the bounce of the ball played a pivotal role in settling this encounter. Midway through the half Frode Johnsen's speculative twenty-five yard strike took a late deflection to wrong-foot Shusaku Nishikawa in the Oita goal and skid into the corner to end the scoring.

Johnsen was named Man of the Match for his efforts, although the former Nagoya striker received little supporter from fellow front-man Kazuki Hara - who struggled to impose himself on this game. Indeed, the decision to play Japan international Shinji Okazaki as a wide-lying midfielder appeared to backfire, with neither Hara, nor Okazaki influencing the outcome of this relatively one-sided affair.

A win is a win, as they say, but there was a palpably hostile atmosphere on the terraces. Perhaps Shimizu fans are simply tired of turning out in the rain, although the catcalls aimed at coach Kenta Hasegawa would suggest otherwise. Hasegawa may be living on borrowed time, and he will need to work diligently to win back the trust of Shimizu's frustrated fans - with two-thirds of the season still to contest.

Hooligan headquarters?

Thu, 14 May 2009 03:15:04 +0200

It's a heck of a machine... the computer that generates the J. League fixture list. How else would it know to schedule so many regional derbies on public holidays?

I'm not sure if there was a glitch in the computer down at J. League headquarters or someone is trying to kill two birds with one stone this weekend though, for why else would the J. League schedule Urawa Reds vs Gamba Osaka and Kashiwa Reysol vs Kashima Antlers on the same day?

Maybe the J. League is hoping that NHK can wrap up any hooligan-related incidents from both grounds in the same four-minute news wrap?

Of course, suggesting that the J. League has a bona fide hooligan problem is a bit like insisting that the English Premier League is the most exciting in the world. An interesting premise... but not entirely true.

Nevertheless it'll be "strap on yer helmets, lads!" time for security forces at both Saitama Stadium and Hitachidai as four sets of the league's most volatile supporters go head-to-head to answer the question that has plagued many of us in Japan for quite some time: "which J. League club houses the most bone-headed supporters?"

The answer, as everyone knows, is Urawa Reds... but didn't Kashima Antlers fans give them a run for their money last season? I doubt Kashima fans will be bonking any Kashiwa Reysol players over the head with flag-poles this season, but Reysol probably could have avoided tempting fate by playing this game at the truly awful Kashiwanoha Stadium... even if their abysmal attendances this season don't warrant such a move.

Meanwhile at Saitama Stadium, Round 2 of the showdown between two of the league's most dislikeable clubs will see Urawa's new German coach Volker Finke pit his wits against the wily Akira Nishino in a fascinating duel of football minds. Let's just hope the game makes headlines for the football on the pitch, rather than the action in the stands.

Personally I'll be heading out to "Outsta" (is that what we're supposed to call it nowadays?) on Saturday night to catch two of the most out-of-form teams in the league go around. Shimizu S-Pulse may be out-of-form, but with the amount of injuries and suspensions Oita Trinita have been racking up, I wouldn't be surprised to see Oita's ridiculous Yertle-the-Turtle mascot running out at left-back for this one.

Should be a clash of sizzling mediocrity, I'm sure... but with so many other big-time encounters taking place this weekend (Yokohama F. Marinos vs FC Tokyo, anyone?), I'm sure no one will begrudge Shimizu's long-suffering fans from flicking around the grounds on the tele, to tune in to what should be a fascinating round of J. League action.

Frode Johnsen saves the day

Wed, 6 May 2009 06:04:09 +0200

They may have waited ten rounds to see it, but Frode Johnsen's first ever goal for Shimizu S-Pulse was a vital one, as the Norwegian struck a critical reply in Shimizu's 2-2 draw at home to JEF United.

Some 15,129 fans braved driving rain in Shimizu and the home fans among them will have left the happier, after substitute Johnsen pulled a goal back with ten minutes remaining. The former Norwegian international also played a role in Shimizu's equaliser just two minutes from time, as Takuma Edamura slid home on the rebound after Masahiro Okamoto could only parry a point-blank strike from another substitute in Kazuki Hara.

Before that the Chiba Dogs had taken a two goal lead, as first Daisuke Saito took advantage of a lucky richochet off Shimizu defender Naoaki Aoyama, before lashing home on the volley just after the half hour mark.

JEF United then doubled their advantage some nine minutes after the half-time break, as a swirling Tatsuya Yazawa cross was headed home in textbook fashion by slightly-built Brazilian midfielder Michael.

United were in control of this game, but they will rue missed chances in front of goal as the hosts roared back to life late on in this match, thanks mainly to the contribution of substitutes Hara and Johnsen.

Johnsen's goal was a well-taken one in slippery conditions, although a deflection off United talisman Seiichiro Maki seemed to wrong-foot Okamoto in the United goal.

With two minutes remaining and the visitors pouring forward at every opportunity, Johnsen then did well to hold the ball up on the edge of the area and lure former Shimizu defender Takumi Wada into a mis-timed challenge, before intelligently laying the ball off for captain Akihiro Hyodo to send a skidding pass across the six yard box. Kazuki Hara was the quickest to react, but after seeing his shot well-saved by Okamoto, the ball looped in the air and allowed Takuma Edamura to pounce and slide home on the half-volley.

This may have been a morale-boosting comeback for Shimizu S-Pulse, but questions will once again be asked of how the league's second-from-bottom team could outplay the hosts for large stretches of this match.

The wet weather made conditions tough for both sides, and having faced four gruelling clashes in Golden Week so far, it remains to be seen how Kenta Hasegawa's team holds up when they make the trip to Kashima Stadium to face defending champions Kashima Antlers on Sunday afternoon.

Fun in the sun in Fukuroi humdinger

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:47:17 +0200

Shimizu S-Pulse and Urawa Reds played out a pulsating 2-2 draw in front of 30,851 fans at Ecopa Stadium in Fukuroi yesterday.

In bright sunshine on a glorious Shōwa Day public holiday, it's unlikely that too many of the fans inside Ecopa were reflecting on Japan's period of prosperity under the former Emperor, with football fans concerned by more pressing matters as two of the league's most passionately supported clubs came head-to-head.

The first surprise of the afternoon came with Kenta Hasegawa's ultra-defensive starting eleven, as veterans Teruyoshi Ito and Marcos Paulo Alves were both recalled to start alongside the similarly defensive Masaki Yamamoto, with the S-Pulse game plan apparently to bamboozle Urawa with a series of square balls and back passes.

An even bigger shock was the decision to leave out 4-goal top scorer Shinji Okazaki, as fellow youngster Kazuki Hara started in his stead alongside the recalled Frode Johnsen, with former Urawa striker Yuichiro Nagai dropping back to the bench.

It was the effervescent Hara who was causing all sort of problems for the Urawa defence in the first half, and not surprisingly it was he was who was up-ended in the penalty area some seventeen minutes in. With most S-Pulse fans expecting Frode Johnsen to step up to the spot, it was instead the redoubtable Hara who confidently sent Ryota Tsuzuki the wrong way from the spot.

Despite stringing a defensive wall in front of the back four, S-Pulse were still struggling to contain Urawa's pacy counter-attacks. Not surprisingly it was the Reds who scored next, as Robson Ponte took advantage of Urawa's superior numbers inside the box to level the scores before the break.

With two outstanding teenagers on the pitch in the form of 17-year-old Genki Haraguchi and 18-year-old Naoki Yamada, Urawa possessed plenty of pace and penetration. And didn't the S-Pulse defence feel it, as with sixteen minutes remaining the electrifying Yamada brushed off a series of attempted tackles, before bursting into the penalty area and curling an inch-perfect strike into the far corner of the goal.

Roared on by a partisan and increasingly desperate home crowd, Shimizu S-Pulse surged forward in search of an equaliser. They almost found one when substitute Nagai got his head to a cross, but somehow Ryota Tsuzuki managed to scramble back and claw the ball out before it crossed the goal-line.

Nevertheless with three minutes remaining S-Pulse eventually managed to pull a goal back, and they did so through the unlikeliest of sources, as stand-in captain and full-back Arata Kodama demonstrated his years of experience to place a precise side-footed volley between Tsuzuki and his near post, and send the massed ranks of Shimizu fans behind the goal wild with delirium.

Both teams collapsed to the turf in exhaustion at the final whistle, following a battling display in what was a bruising encounter at times. Respective coaches Kenta Hasegawa and Volker Finke will have plenty of food for thought, however, after an encounter in which both defences were beaten for pace by exciting youngsters, only to see a couple of veterans in the form of Robson Ponte and Arata Kodama chime in with priceless goals of their own.

When it pains, it roars

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 02:21:14 +0200

With due credit to influential 90's scenesters Jawbreaker for the title, it was one of those days in Shimizu yesterday as mother nature and a rookie referee conspired to make it a painful day out for Shimizu S-Pulse fans, with the Shizuoka side held to a 1-1 draw at home by bottom club Kashiwa Reysol.

A pre-match trip to the dentist made it an even more eye-watering outing for your correspondent, and the mini-typhoon that swept in off the Pacific to lash the Nihondaira foothills made it one of the most uncomfortable afternoons of football I can remember.

So apocalyptic were the conditions in the hours before kick-off that I eschewed my usual bicycle ride to the ground in favour of hitching a ride with my friend Yuichi. As we drove to the ground in tumbling rain, the picturesque country lanes and back alleys that wind their way around the Nihondaira foothills were soon enveloped by a ghostly fog, so much so that I half expected a pipe-smoking Sherlock Holmes to emerge from the mist with the trusty Watson by his side.

Talk about English weather - these weren't so much April showers as an April monsoon, and to make matters worse, the temperature dropped alarmingly, guaranteeing a bone-chilling reception for both teams and the hardy (or foolish?) souls who ventured out in the less than welcoming conditions.

My first mistake was taking up my place on the terraces some forty minutes before kick-off, ensuring that by the time debutant referee Jumpei Iida blew his whistle for kick-off (ironically it was the only decision he got right all day), I was already soaked. Then when I whipped out the camera in a vain attempt to capture just how inhospitable the conditions were, I realised at an unhelpfully inconvenient moment that the battery was dead.

Given the treacherous conditions, the game was unsurprisingly nothing to write home about - although any attempt to blame the litany of misplaced passes and elementary mistakes on the conditions overlooks the fact that these are two of the most out-of-form sides in the league.

Former S-Pulse midfielder Kota Sugiyama earned warm applause from the home fans, and he was at the heart of Kashiwa's best moves, as the combative midfielder urged his side forward. Nevertheless neither keeper was really tested in a first half in which the most interesting aspect was Kashiwa striker Popo's set-pieces - three times the Brazilian fired in crosses that sailed over the heads of team-mates and out of play.

"We believed" was the quip at half-time from a less than impressed Yuichi - Shimizu S-Pulse's 2009 slogan is We Believe - and it turned out to be more accurate than my suggestion that Popo was "the worst foreign player in the league" and "unlikely to contribute anything of note in the second half."

For a match in which relatively little occurred, there was certainly several talking points - not the least the performance of rookie referee Jumpei Iida. Most young referees earning their taste of top flight experience would be satisfied to fly under the radar and simply let the game flow. Not so our Iida!

Instead he infuriated both teams with a series of bafflingly pedantic decisions, the best of which saw him order Takuma Edamura from the field for a seemingly indeterminate period of time - which I've since learned from The Rising Sun News was an order for Edamura to change his boots.

It's hard to argue with Iida's decision to award Reysol a free-kick on the edge of the area for Jumpei Takaki's cynical foul just before the hour mark, but the fact that Reysol players would go down if they felt so much as a gust of wind made the decision harder to bear.

Cue Popo firing in a virtually unstoppable free-kick that Yohei Nishibe somehow conspired to claw out, only to watch in disbelief as Masahiro Koga simply headed home the rebound into an unguarded net.

By now things were looking dire - at least for the S-Pulse fans amongst the crowd of 9,756 that chose to brave the conditions - and the goal saw S-Pulse maraude forward in an increasingly desperate fashion.

The late introduction of strikers Kazuki Hara and Frode Johnsen saw both play an important role in the S-Pulse equaliser, as a series of one-touch passes opened up the Reysol defence and allowed Shinji Okazaki to burst through and slide home the equaliser.

S-Pulse had the bit between their teeth in a frantic finale, and they were desperately unlucky not to win the game when Hara smashed an effort that looked goal-bound for all money, until Takanori Sugeno stuck out a lunging hand to claw the ball onto the post and out for a corner.

There was no applause from either side come the full-time whistle as fans made a beeline for the exits, with the weather somehow conspiring to get even worse in the second half. Indeed, so abysmal were the conditions that for the first time in three years I experienced something almost unthinkable in the J. League - total silence on the terraces.

It's not like Shimizu S-Pulse gave their fans much to shout about. They did just enough to earn a point in this game, but they certainly didn't do anything to convince fans that they can finish in the top half of the table come the end of the season, following this painful outing in the wet for fans from the orange half of Shizuoka.

Shizuoka shame as Jubilo thump S-Pulse

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:55:44 +0200

Talk about a thumping!

The less said about the Shizuoka derby, the better - at least from a Shimizu S-Pulse point of view - as bottom club Jubilo Iwata dished out an embarrassing 3-0 thumping of Kenta Hasegawa's side in front of a dismal crowd of just 22,152 fans at Ecopa Stadium.

Korean striker Lee Keun-Ho made his debut off the bench for Jubilo Iwata and promptly scored twice, while Ryoichi Maeda also got on the scoresheet for a Jubilo side missing top scorer Gilsinho through suspension.

This was a dreadful performance from S-Pulse and questions must be asked of Kenta Hasegawa's inability to motivate his team for their biggest game of the season.

Shimizu were non-existent going forward and even worse at the back, and the club is now likely to lose millions of yen by hosting Urawa Reds at Ecopa Stadium in their holiday blockbuster on April 29.

No excuses for what happened on the pitch, though. Jubilo Iwata simply wanted this more and they out-manouevered their nervy looking opponents in brilliant sunshine in Fukuroi.

Just when S-Pulse fans thought their team was on the up and up, they come crashing back down to earth with a humiliating defeat.

Dark days indeed in Shimizu, and there'll be plenty of wounds to lick following this humiliating loss.

Friday night football

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:29:16 +0200

Round 6 of the J. League kicks off this weekend with an unusual Friday night clash between Gamba Osaka and Montedio Yamagata.

With the Osakans off to the far-flung reaches of Sumatra to take on Indonesian outfit Sriwijaya in the AFC Champions League next Tuesday, the J. League has allowed Gamba to push forward their home clash with surprise package Montedio to give them time to prepare for their Asian gambit.

Australians will be familiar with the idea of Friday night football - indeed Friday night games are key marketing concepts for both the National Rugby League and Australian Football League. However it's a novel concept in Japan, and with fans struggling to leave their office in time for kick-off, Gamba have slashed ticket prices for club members in an attempt to draw a crowd.

The TV ratings would make for interesting analysis too, and with many Japanese working regular business hours on a Saturday, this could prove an interesting round of fixtures for the J. League. Midweek league games are common enough - particularly in J2 - but it remains to be seen what the response for a Friday night encounter is compared to the more common Wednesday-night variety.

However things pan out, I'll be tuning in on TV for a bit of Friday night action, and what's more I'll be making the trip down to Ecopa Stadium on Sunday afternoon for the latest installment of the Shizuoka derby.

These two sides have already met this season, but with league points on the line, the atmosphere will be ramped up a notch for what is always a feisty affair.

Former Urawa Reds striker Yuichiro Nagai is expected to make his belated debut off the bench for the good guys of Shizuoka football, while Jubilo Iwata are not only struggling at the foot of the table - they're also missing top scorer and serial yellow-card-collector Gilsinho through suspension for this one.

Good news for S-Pulse, but these things often have a way of evening themselves out, and after Jubilo Iwata outplayed Urawa Reds at Ecopa Stadium in a 1-1 draw this season, the team from the blue half of Shizuoka will no doubt keep things interesting in what is shaping up as an intriguing contest.