So the mid-season break has arrived in the J-League, leaving most teams to dream of what once was and possibly what could be in the second half of the season.

Gamba Osaka are in the dream position at the top of the table. They are five points clear of defending champions Urawa Reds - although Urawa have a game in hand, to be played on a Wednesday night on August 1 against Sanfrecce Hiroshima. If Urawa drop points in that match, and it ends up costing them the title, fans will again be questioning the wisdom of participating in the A3 Champions Cup in China earlier this season.

Albirex Niigata are the surprise package of the season (having usurped that mantle from Kashiwa Reysol). Niigata have always had the fan base to rely upon, but to the surprise of many they've also looked the goods on the pitch this season. One catalyst for their upturn in fortunes has been the form of ex-Sao Caetano midfielder Marcio Richardes. Signed just before the season kicked off, Richardes has excelled with his vision and passing range, not to mention his six league goals chipped in from midfield. Just don't mention that missed penalty that cost Niigata a place in the League Cup quarter-finals!

Kashima Antlers are another club that has experienced an upsurge of form. Their demanding fans were up in arms after it took weeks for Kashima to record the first home victory of the season, however Kashima then launched an unlikely nine match unbeaten streak to rocket themselves up the table. They undid their good work somewhat, losing 2-1 to FC Tokyo at home in the last match before the break, which means that Kashima will spend the summer in fourth. Nevertheless coach Oswaldo de Oliveira will be relatively satisfied with that result, if for no other reason than it gives him some breathing space over the summer.

Kawasaki Frontale, Shimizu S-Pulse, Jubilo Iwata and Yokohama F. Marinos fill the next positions, with all four clubs harbouring aspirations of finishing higher in the table come the end of the season. The two Shizuoka clubs - Shimizu and Jubilo arguably have the best chance of doing so, with Kawasaki appearing to be fatigued by their exertions in the AFC Champions League, whilst Yokohama haven't quite clicked under unpopular coach Hiroshi Hayano.

Kashiwa Reysol were flying high in the top three for most of the season, but a recent barren run - including a 3-1 home defeat at the hands of an under-strength Shimizu S-Pulse last weekend, has seen them drop down to ninth.

Mid-table contains the usual suspects, with sleeping giants Nagoya Grampus Eight slumbering on as ever, along with Vissel Kobe, FC Tokyo, Sanfrecce Hiroshima and JEF United. Perhaps with the exception of Vissel Kobe, the rest of those clubs all have the potential to propel themselves up the table - with FC Tokyo arguably the most inconsistent team in the J-League this year. The biggest surprise amongst that list is JEF United, who have been so poor this season it's a wonder that they have managed to haul themselves into fourteenth place.

Ventforet Kofu are treading water just above the bottom three, and Kofu fans may be plagued by some mid-summer season nightmares over the coming six weeks, given the vendetta that the J-League seemingly has with the Mountain Men from Yamanashi-ken. Although a series of diabolical refereeing decisions have gone against them, coach Takeshi Oki will also know that unless his club can sign a decent striker from somewhere - and they seemingly already have about ten strikers on their books, then his team could make the drop, regardless of whether Kofu get a break from the men in black come August.

Omiya Ardija, Oita Trinita and Yokohama FC will spend the summer mired in the bottom three. Of those three clubs Oita are clearly the biggest surprise, and coach Pericles may spend an uncomfortable summer updating his Curriculum Vitae. Omiya have been somewhat unlucky - particuarly through injury, with Daigo Kobayashi, Kota Yoshihara and now goalkeeper Hiroki Aratani all missing key games through injury. They'll need an ounce of luck to avoid the drop - especially if JEF United are hovering around the relegation zone come the end of the season, with the J-League unlikely to be impressed by the thought of the Chiba outfit plying their trade in J2 next season.

Many - including yours truly, thought that the euphoria of their first ever season in the top flight might propel Yokohama FC to a few more wins that they've picked up (just three - the same amount as Omiya Ardija have picked up under conservative new coach Robert Verbeek). An injury that has kept ex-Japan international Tatsuhiko Kubo out for virtually the entire season has crushed Yokohama FC's hopes, however, and it'll take a dramatic twist of Shakespearean proportions to save them from the drop.

After the Ilian Stoyanov saga at JEF United, Vissel Kobe's sacking of Atsuhiro Miura and the incredible seven match suspension handed down to Ventforet Kofu striker Takehito Shigehara - the lastest soap-opera style drama revolves around the sacking of ex-Jubilo Iwata midfielder Naoya Kikuchi. The 2004 Athens Olympian is likely to be prosecuted for having sex with a minor, after he admitted to having consensual sex with a fifteen year old school-girl in the back seat of his car. Unfortunately for the young midfielder - whose judgement was already questionable, he attempted to hand the girl some money after the deed was done - and promptly left his wallet in the basket of the girl's bike. She handed it in to police, who were immediately suspicious as to how she obtained Kikuchi's wallet, and when questioned she admitted that the two had had sex. This is a crime in Shizuoka-ken - where the deed took place, and so now Naoya Kikuchi is scouring the unemployment pages following his roll on the back seat of his car. Not all is lost for Kikuchi, however - at least he has the mid-season break to try and find himself a new club.

So it's come down to this. Given the turmoil at Sydney FC prior to the start of their Asian Champions League campaign - with coach Terry Butcher given the sack and Branko Culina brought in as interim manager, it was difficult to envisage the Harbour City club unduly troubling the likes of Urawa Reds and Shanghai Shenhua United in their ACL group, right? Wrong.

Going into the final group game at Saitama Stadium on May 23, the 2005 A-League champions Sydney FC are still in with a chance of qualifying for the knock-out stages of the competition at their first attempt. They'd have been in prime position, had midfielder Ufuk Talay not crashed a penalty into the crossbar in Sydney's most recent 0-0 draw at home to Shanghai Shenhua.

That draw, coupled with Urawa's 3-3 draw with Persik Kediri in Indonesia means that the Japanese giants have nine points going into the final match, with Sydney FC just behind them on eight. Urawa can afford to draw in front of what should be a vociferous home crowd at Saitama Stadium, but Sydney FC will come at them with all guns blazing.

Urawa were stunned when these two clubs met at Aussie Stadium back in March, having seemingly underestimated the 2005 Australian champions, as they fell two goals behind after just twenty minutes. The J-League champions showed their mettle, however, more than matching Sydney for the rest of the game and roaring back thanks to strikes from Robson Ponte and Yuichiro Nagai. The latter arguably scored the easiest goal of his career in Sydney, and Clint Bolton's uncharacteristic handling error - he spilled a cross at the feet of Nagai, could come back to haunt the A-League giants.

Urawa, however, are under the pump in Japan. Rumours that several squad members don't see eye to eye with new coach Holger Osieck just won't go away. Despite the over-abundance of talent at his disposal, Osieck rarely makes changes to a team that has already made gruelling trips to Sydney, Shanghai and Solo City this season. As a result, Urawa have rarely looked their best in 2007.

Thus a fascinating battle should ensure between a club written off before this competition kicked off, against the over-hyped J-League champions. Before this competition commenced, Urawa loudly proclaimed their desire to become the first Japanese team to reach the quarter-finals of the Asian Champions League since the competition was revamped in 2003. They have already been beaten to that punch by Kawasaki Frontale, and with Sydney FC looking to do business in Saitama, there might just be another nasty surprise in store for the 2006 J-League champions Urawa.

There's nothing like bandying about some good old clichés to get your point across. So there'll be no love lost when two of Japan's biggest rivals clash at Saitama Stadium this weekend! There, I said it. Urawa are playing Gamba Osaka, and no doubt the English-language media in Japan will be working themselves into a frenzy.

Saburo Kawabuchi - head of the Japan Football Association, claimed last week that the Asian Champions League needs reformatting. It invariably does, but it's difficult to see how Kawabuchi's vision of allowing more clubs from Japan, Korea and Australia to enter is going to help clubs from South-East Asia develop.

Recently the Australian media has been falling over itself to proclaim Urawa Reds as "the biggest club in Asia." Eh? Two years ago Urawa weren't even the biggest club in Japan. Maybe that fact has been lost on the likes of Kawabuchi, who dream of full houses at matches between clubs like Urawa Reds and Sydney FC.

Of course, Urawa's final Asian Champions League encounter with Sydney on May 23 very well COULD draw a full house. But it would be a first. The reality is that clubs like Kawasaki Frontale, Gamba Osaka and anyone else that qualifies for the Champions League, will continue to play in half-empty stadiums, fielding less than full-strength teams. The fact that Urawa have somewhat bucked that trend recently (even though few media outlets pointed out that two crowds of around 30,000 in the Champions League so far still meant that Saitama Stadium was only half full) makes it easy for the media to claim that Urawa are Asia's biggest club.

The fact that they have just one league title to their name suggests that they are not. The same could be said of Gamba Osaka, with the Panasonic-funded club having only the 2005 J-League crown to show for their efforts. Yet the winds of change have blown through Japanese football, so no longer can traditional powerhouses like Kashima Antlers, Jubilo Iwata and Yokohama F. Marinos claim to be the biggest teams in the country.

These things are often cyclical, so now it's Urawa and Gamba Osaka's turn to be labelled "the biggest arch rivals in Japan!" In reality, they've probably only been rivals for two years, but since Urawa thwarted Gamba Osaka at every turn last season - and Gamba responded in kind by smashing Urawa 4-0 in the 2007 Super Cup - this match is sure to be a hotly contested affair.

There are plenty of stars on show, and Marcus Tulio Tanaka's tussle with Magno Alves should prove fascinating. There will also be plenty of scrutiny on Urawa's Brazilian striker Washington - if he gets on the pitch. Out-of-form, heavily criticised, dropped and then restored...now Washington "supposedly" has an injury, but the rumours coming out of Saitama are that the temperamental striker doesn't see eye to eye with new coach Holger Osieck.  

Anyway, it should prove an exciting match, irrespective of how dubious any claims of "the biggest club in..." are. Gamba are currently on top of the table, while Urawa are in second, and with the likes of Jubilo Iwata, Yokohama F. Marinos and Kashima Antlers all floating about in mid-table, it looks like the new status quo of Japanese football is here to stay for some time yet.

Just kidding folks, just kidding, but you've gotta strike while the iron is hot! 

And things are certainly hotting up in the J-League, where several scintillating matches took place this weekend.

Things kicked off in front of 22,168 fans at Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo, where FC Tokyo finally cracked a home win, beating Oita Trinita 1-0. Paulo Wanchope made his first start in some time for Tokyo, and he laid on the only goal for the capital club, heading down for ex-Japan international Yasuyuki Konno to finish.

The real excitement took place just up the road, however, where 50,531 fans packed into Saitama Stadium to see a genuine slugfest between Japan's two Asian Champions League combatants. This match had everything, including a bizarre public spat that took place before kick-off between Marcus Tulio Tanaka - arguably Japan's best defender, and Japan coach Ivica Osim.

Coach Osim had scheduled a brief training session for Japan before this weekend's round of J-League matches. Urawa had claimed that Tanaka was injured, but sent the tenacious defender to the camp anyway. It was here, Tanaka claims, that Osim forced him to take part in several drills, where he further inflamed the injury that kept him out of the match with Kawasaki. 

A forlorn Tanaka sat high in the stands at Saitama Stadium and watched in horror as ex-JEF United midfielder Yuki Abe (these days a defender at Urawa, whose policy of signing ten midfielders for every one position now appears to be hindering them) stood idly by while Kazuki Ganaha burst in behind him to tap home Masaru Kurotsu's gently rolling cross.

For all those non-Urawa fans watching on TV (like myself) things got even better, when Urawa generously allowed the rangy Juninho time and space to deliver a cross. He delivered a cross alright, straight into the path of Magnum, who gleefully waltzed in front of goalkeeper Ryota Tsuzuki to "knee" the ball into the back of the net, in a somewhat unsightly fashion. 

Not to be outdone in the scrappy goal stakes, Urawa then scored the scrappiest one of them all, when Satoshi Horinouchi produced a spectacular - and rare - diving shoulder goal, after he appeared to be bear-hugged from behind by several desperate Kawasaki defenders. That was the only goal that the Reds could muster, however, as Frontale silenced the legion of Urawa glory-hunters fans packed into the stadium.

After that match I set out for Nihondaira in high hopes and with high spirits.  It wouldn't last. Kashima Antlers beat Shimizu S-Pulse 2-1, with former Messina striker Atsushi Yanagisawa - who some believe the word ineffective was actually invented for, miraculously scored twice to see off the home team. Worse still, his finishes were clinical - and the second came from a cross by ex-S-Pulse striker Marquinhos! Shimizu could only respond with a thirty-five yard rocket from defender Daisuke Ichikawa that threatened to send the goal-frame hurtling over Mount Fuji, but that was as much as a disappointing S-Pulse could conjure, as they sunk to a second home defeat of the season.

I came home to learn that Ventforet Kofu had come from behind to beat Kashiwa Reysol 3-2. I had the opportunity to watch Ventforet Kofu vs Vissel Kobe a few weeks ago, but chose not to. A wise decision, if I may say so, given that Kofu only managed a weak, last minute, come-from-behind 4-3 win over Kashiwa, who were at the time flying high near the top of the table. This time around Kofu opted for a more subtle comeback of the two goal variety. They went 2-1 down when substitute Tadanari Ri scored for Reysol, and things looked bleak with ten minutes remaining when another substitute in Kazunari Hosaka entered the fray. "Not to worry," thought Hosaka, who promptly scored twice for Kofu in the space of six minutes, to seal an improbable 3-2 win for the team from rural Yamanishi Prefecture.

Fortunately things calmed down on the Sunday, where nil-nil draws were always going to be the order of the day. That's not how it panned out, mind you, as Gamba Osaka smashed Jubilo Iwata 5-2 - bringing joy to the hearts of disgruntled Shimizu fans everywhere. Not to be outdone, Yokohama F. Marinos annihilated Oita Trinita 5-0 at Nissan Stadium, prompting thousands of J-League fans to simultaneously quip, "I never expected that!" Such is the wonder of the J-League, where unexpected results are never more than ninety minutes away.

So the League Cup kicks off here in Japan this week, and woe any coach who doesn't take this competition seriously!

With talent spread so evenly in the J-League, plenty of clubs realise that the League Cup represents an excellent chance to pick up a piece of silverware.

Conversely, a poor run in the Cup can spell doom and gloom if you're a highly paid foreign coach brought in to win trophies. Just ask Paulo Autori!

The League Cup in Japan features only J1 clubs, and kicks off with a four-team Group stage. There a couple of interesting looking groups this year, but none of that is important...because my home-town team Shimizu S-Pulse have been drawn in the same group as Kashiwa Reysol.

Now I'm a mild-mannered man and I try to be fair and objective. But last weekend in the J-League, Shimizu were robbed thanks to what can only be described as THE WORST DECISION IN THE HISTORY OF FOOTBALL.

Okay, it wasn't really that bad. But I reckon Shimizu will be out for revenge, since it was Kashiwa Reysol to whom they lost at Nihondaira Stadium for the first time in ages, and since they kick-off their League Cup campaign, predictably, against Kashiwa Reysol.

As for the decision in question - let's just say it was another classic piece of J-League refereeing, which saw Shimizu striker Cho Jae Jin pulled down in the box, Shimizu midfielder Fernandinho slot the ball into the net, and J-League referee Tsutomu Anazawa blow for a foul - after the ball had hit the back of the net - against Shimizu.

Anyway, I would say that JEF United are the team to beat in the League Cup, since they've won the last two editions, but I reckon a team of blind monkies could probably beat United at just about anything right now. Kashima Antlers obviously couldn't, but that's another story.

On a final note, Kawasaki Frontale and Urawa Reds are absent from the group stage of the League Cup, as they are competing in the "prestigious" (according to the AFC) Asian Champions League. Kawasaki take on Bangkok University tomorrow, but I must confess a personal interest in the Sydney FC - Urawa game.

I was a Sydney FC season-ticket holder during their inaugural A-League season, and since I possess a healthy disdain for all things related to Urawa, I'll be cheering louder than usual for their opponents in this one.