In yet another piece written by an Australian media outlet containing the perjorative terms "Asian clubs" and "cashed-up," the Sydney Morning Herald has hinted that 2007-08 A-League champions Newcastle Jets - who curiously finished the current campaign bottom of the table - could be casting their eye over three Japanese players in preparation for their upcoming AFC Champions League campaign. 

The three players in question are Taro Hasegawa, Yukihiko Sato and Masaya Nishitani, and fans of Japanese top flight clubs could be forgiven a bout of quizzical head-scratching, with all three having just been released by teams in J2. 

Of the three, 30-year-old Nishitani has the most recent top flight experience. He got on the pitch 21 times for doomed Consadole Sapporo last season, as the Hokkaido club spent an ignominious 2008 campaign glued solidly to the bottom of the J1 table. Despite joining Consadole midway through 2005 - the fact that he only got on the pitch twice at Urawa Reds wasn't enough to stop the Herald labelling him an ex-Urawa player - Nishitani has now been deemed surplus to requirements as the northern strugglers attempt to steady their ship in the Second Division.

Veteran striker Taro Hasegawa managed just 14 appearances for Yokohama FC in their 45 league games in J2 last season, and a strike rate of zero goals won't exactly have Newcastle fans holding their breath that Hasegawa can prove a ready-made replacement should Joel Griffiths decide to join his brother Ryan at Chinese club Beijing Guoan.

Yukihiko Sato arguably carries the most pedigree, having graduated from the veritable football factory that is Shimizu Commercial High School (does that school hold the world record for the highest number of professional footballers produced, or what?) and having started his career at local club Shimizu S-Pulse, he also counts spells at FC Tokyo and Yokohama F. Marinos among his many postings. Sato was at J1 outfit Kashiwa Reysol as recently as 2007 - although he joined the Chiba-based side when they were in the second tier.

One thing that stands out with all three is the fact that they have so far been unable - or perhaps unwilling - to secure employment in the Japanese Second Division. With Australia's little corner of cyberspace often working itself into a frenzy in attempts to draw favourable comparisons with other leagues, it's hard to see how the fact that three ageing, off-contract Japanese journeymen being touted as potential A-League recruits is anything other than a slap of reality.

And that's to say nothing of the fact that convincing just one of the players to move to Australia - let alone all three of them - is a tough task in itself. With Tochigi SC, Kataller Toyama and Fagiano Okayama all joining the J2 party in 2009, there's plenty of work to go around, not to mention the fact that most of the clubs in the third-tier Japan Football League operate on a semi-professional basis.

I certainly hope that Japanese players start making the trip Down Under. So far only Hiroyuki Ishida has graced Australian shores with Perth Glory, and the tricky Sagan Tosu winger is apparently on the radar of several A-League clubs. Yutaka Tahara, meanwhile, once courted by Adelaide United, looks set for a switch to the K-League. That's a shame because he's certainly the kind of player that could do some damage on the Australian scene.

I'm not so sure about Nishitani, Hasegawa or Sato though.

I hope I'm wrong, but only time will tell.

After lifting their first ever Emperor's Cup title a week ago - following back-to-back extra-time victories in the semi-final and final - the luck has finally run out for Gamba Osaka, after the Suita-based side were handed a tough draw in the 2009 AFC Champions League.

Gamba only qualified for this year's draw by virtue of being crowned domestic Cup champions - apparently lifting the Asian Champions League isn't enough to allow you to back up and defend your title the following season - but Akira Nishino won't be particularly thrilled with a draw that pits Gamba against K-League runners-up FC Seoul, Chinese champions Shandong Luneng and Indonesian outfit Sriwijaya FC.

I caught FC Seoul in action last season and they'll be no pushovers, even if Seoul World Cup Stadium isn't necessarily the most hostile of venues.

Sumatra could certainly prove a hostile venue, however, and with Indonesian star Budi Sudarsono on Sriwijaya's books, Gamba will hardly relish a trip to the island to face the Indonesian side.

Nor will a match-up with Shandong Luneng provide much comfort - with clashes between Japanese and Chinese sides among the fiercest in Asian football.

Lucky for Gamba they've put their ACL winnings to good use then, with the latest arrival Brazilian striker Leandro from local rivals Vissel Kobe - with the burly hit man expected to partner fellow new recruit Cho Jae-Jin in attack.

It'll be a tough ask for Gamba to repeat their heroic double of 2008, however, and with the Osakans desperate to lift just a second ever J. League title, they will be wary of trying to balance their Champions League commitments with a demanding domestic schedule next season. 

There was an excellent piece by SBS football analyst Scott McIntyre last week that managed to put Gamba Osaka's upcoming two-legged AFC Champions League final with Adelaide United into perspective.

In it, McIntyre rightly rubbishes the myth that Japanese clubs have merely "bought" success in Asia, pointing out that clubs such as Gamba Osaka have run fully-fledged youth academies for years that have promoted countless numbers of youngsters into the ranks of professional football.

Just as alarming a myth being perpetuated in Australian football circles suggests that Gamba Osaka have already qualified for the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup. While "fact-checking" seems to be a byword for "time-wasting" within certain sections of the Australian media, the reality is that Gamba Osaka have certainly not qualified for the Club World Cup.

With Gamba's chances of winning the J. League looking increasingly remote, they need to win the AFC Champions League to qualify for the Club World Cup, which is precisely why Scott McIntyre claims that Gamba Osaka have much more to play for than Adelaide United, who will take part in the Club World Cup whether they win the Champions League or not.

Certainly Gamba will be looking to take something back to South Australia from the first leg of this clash at the dilapidated Expo '70 Stadium in Suita City on November 5, however Akira Nishino's side may not go into this match brimming with confidence after being smashed 3-1 by a rampant Shimizu S-Pulse in their last match in the J. League, while Gamba's weekend Emperor's Cup clash with J2 side Ventforet Kofu has been postponed until November 16.

Nevertheless having beaten Adelaide's A-League counterparts Melbourne Victory twice in the group stage of this season's AFC Champions League, Gamba will be desperate to become the second Japanese side to lift the current incarnation of the Champions League following Urawa Reds' success last season.

In midfielder Yasuhito Endo, Gamba possess one of the shining stars of Asian football, and the talismanic Japan international is well rested having sat out Gamba's defeat to S-Pulse through suspension. Indeed the entire Gamba squad is well rested - their last competitive match came on October 26 - and there is plenty of experience within the Gamba ranks as captain Satoshi Yamaguchi approaches 400 professional appearances, while long-range shooting specialist Takahiro Futagawa has played more than 250 times for Gamba.

What Gamba will come up against is an Adelaide side that has made winning the Champions League their mission. Aurelio Vidmar's side have played with obvious passion and constant grit throughout this tournament. Unfortunately for Vidmar he comes up against a Gamba outfit synonymous with precisely those qualities.

With Gamba forced to subsist in a baseball heartland in which J2-dwelling city rivals Cerezo Osaka have far more potential to command popular support, an AFC Champions League title would do nicely for a club looking to increase their popularity throughout the Kansai region. Moreover with Gamba having announced ambitious plans to build a 35,000-capacity "English style" stadium on the site of their current Expo-land home, the Champions League final has suddenly taken on "must-win" proportions for the club that started out a modest existence as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Soccer Club in 1980.

Still, Adelaide United will be just as desperate for victory in this continental showpiece final - particularly after their most recent 3-2 home defeat to Melbourne Victory, and with full houses likely to pack into Expo '70 Stadium on the northern fringes of Osaka on November 5 and again in Adelaide's Hindmarsh Stadium on November 12, all eyes will be on East Asia for this mouth-watering clash of Asia's best in the 2008 AFC Champions League final.

What a time to be alive! These are certainly heady days for fans of Shimizu S-Pulse, who are gearing up for three massive clashes in just seven days.

The first takes them to a sold-out National Stadium in Tokyo, where one of Japan's most popular clubs will be looking to see off Oita Trinita in the League Cup final. "Kokuritsu" will be a sea of orange with more than 30,000 S-Pulse fans expected to turn out in the capital, but with Shimizu red-hot favourites to claim the title, coach Kenta Hasegawa will do well to dampen some of the euphoria currently surrounding his team.

Any suggestions that this will be a mere walk in the park should be dispelled by memories of Shimizu's opening day home defeat to Oita Trinita in the J. League this season. That spelled a catastrophic start to the new campaign for S-Pulse, but for Oita it set off a fairytale run that is yet to cease, with the Kyushu side not only qualifying for the League Cup final - they are also sitting fourth in the table, just two points behind league leaders Kashima Antlers with four games to go.

Oita's chances of winning a first ever trophy have been cruelled by a suspension to influential midfielder Shingo Suzuki for this match. Worse still for coach Pericles is that goalkeeper Shusaku Nishikawa has not recovered from injury in time to take his place between the posts, while fellow Beijing Olympian Masato Morishige is also suffering from injury, meaning that Oita could start the League Cup final missing arguably their three most important players. Much will rest on the young shoulders of midfielder Mu Kanazaki who has been the driving force of the Oita attack for most of the campaign.

Travelling up to Sendagaya could prove problematic for S-Pulse fans given that seemingly half of Shizuoka is planning to decamp to the National Stadium, but spare a thought for Oita supporters - who have probably left for the game by now - with barely enough seats on JAL and ANA airlines between the two to accommodate those wishing to fly up to the main island of Honshu for Oita's big day out. 

As if one Cup outing wasn't exciting enough, S-Pulse are back in action on Wednesday evening, this time in the Emperor's Cup. There'll be no repeat of Shimizu's nail-biting penalty shoot-out win over the students of Meiji University in the fourth round last season - no sir, this time it's the big guns coming to town, as Alex Miller brings top flight outfit JEF United down from Chiba to the atmospheric Nihondaira Stadium. Both clubs must have sighed a collective groan of disbelief to have been drawn against each other - particularly as the two also meet at Nihondaira in the penultimate round of the league campaign - but only one will progress to the fifth round of the Cup and a chance to claim a coveted place in the newly cashed-up AFC Champions League next season.  

If S-Pulse fans weren't already frothing at the mouth at the prospect of these two clashes, they'll be suffering from severe heart palpitations come next Saturday when Shimizu make the seventy kilometre trip down to Ecopa Stadium to take on bitter local rivals Jubilo Iwata in the fabled Shizuoka derby. S-Pulse fans are still revelling in the glory of last season's double over Jubilo, but the hero from those fixtures is long gone, with Cho Jae-Jin these days not endearing himself to K-League fans by missing open goals for his new club Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.

The big South Korean will always be a legend around these parts, but S-Pulse fans can't afford to dwell in the past, and they've already played Jubilo three times this season as the two clubs drew 1-1 in front of a full house at Nihondaira Stadium in the league. They met again in the League Cup group stage, with S-Pulse crushing Jubilo 4-2 at Nihondaira, only to be on the end of a 2-0 defeat at Yamaha Stadium in the final group game.

Kenta Hasegawa will hope that his team is not punch-drunk given the critical fixture list come November 8, but with Jubilo Iwata sitting second-from-bottom in the league and Dutch coach Hans Ooft desperate to drag the Shizuoka giants to safety, this will be a bitterly contested clash with more than 40,000 fans expected to pile in to the windswept Ecopa Stadium to witness it.

All to play for, then, for Shimizu S-Pulse and fans of the popular seaside club will hope that it doesn't end in tears in seven days time.

On a quick personal note, I hope you guys are digging the new banner and profile pic I've come up with as a means of increasing readership from more than just that Mongolian yak herder and the Obscure Leagues Of The World fanclub in the Faroe Islands. I had a thousand monkeys working for a thousand years on a thousand typewriters to come up with that one (but seriously, cheers to Soul Rebel for the professional-looking banner and my old mate Rieper for the life-like portrait). Hold on to your hats, guys, I can feel a Pulitzer prize coming on here.