It's been a difficult few years for Tsuneyasu Miyamoto. More or less frozen out at Gamba Osaka - despite captaining Japan at the time - in 2007 Miyamoto set off for Austria for a new challenge at Salzburg.

Hooking up with another ex-Japan international in the form of Alex, who joined Salzburg on a one-year loan deal from Urawa Reds, Miyamoto made a positive impression in the Austrian Bundesliga, before a series of debilitating injuries cut short his Austrian sojourn - on the pitch, at least - with Miyamoto failing to play a single game during the 2008/09 campaign.

Now one of Japan's most popular players is back in the J. League and he's back in the Kansai region... but not, as one might expect, at Gamba Osaka.

Instead the central defender has signed for Gamba's local rivals Vissel Kobe, who have a new coach in the form of Brazilian Caio Júnior and a totally remodelled squad.

Gone are key men Yoshito Okubo and Leandro - the former jetting off to the German Bundesliga to link up with Makoto Hasebe at VfL Wolfsburg, the latter having made the short journey to link up with Gamba Osaka - with Brazilians Alan Bahia and Marcel and ex-Kawasaki Frontale striker Kazuki Ganaha arriving in their stead.

Miyamoto's arrival cushions the blow for Vissel, after they failed in their bid to lure talismanic Yokohama F. Marinos defender Yuji Nakazawa away from Nissan Stadium.

Unfortunately for Omiya Ardija - who also tabled a NTT-backed mega-deal for the Japan stalwart - they are left empty-handed, with Nakazawa opting to stick it out at his beloved Marinos, despite the club's problems on and off the pitch. 

Nakazawa now looks set to link up with Japan team-mate Shunsuke Nakamura at Nissan Stadium, with Nakamura expected to leave Scottish giants Celtic when his contract expires in June.

They represent the kind of personnel that Omiya Ardija can only dream of, with the Squirrels instead having to make do with Croatian defender Mato Neretljak, signed from K-League giants Suwon Bluewings.

Also moving to Japan are a plethora of Koreans, with ex-Pohang Steelers midfielder Park Won-Jae one of many to have inked a J. League deal, as he likewise moves to Saitama to line up at Omiya Ardija next season.

Speaking of next season, there are now less than 50 days until the 2009 campaign kicks off! I know because I checked the handy countdown clock over at the S-Pulse UK Ultras site, which saves me the laborious task of figuring these things out in my head.

The 2009 version of the J. League looks like it will be bigger and better than ever.

Tsuneyasu Miyamoto is back. Soon enough, the football will be too.

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. 

It was widely expected, but Gamba Osaka have made public the signing of Korean striker Cho Jae-Jin from K-League side Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors for the 2009 season.

As mentioned elsewhere, Jae-Jin became a cult hero during a goal-laden three-year spell at rival J. League club Shimizu S-Pulse from 2004 to 2007.

With his contract at S-Pulse set to expire the Korean had set his sights on a move to the English Premier League, but talks with a host of clubs including Fulham, West Ham United and Newcastle United came to nought.

On a recent trip to Korea I spoke with a source close to Jae-Jin, who claimed that the Korea Republic international was keen on a return to Shimizu S-Pulse. With the Shizuoka side having already signed Brazilian striker Marcos Aurelio - who was ironically released by S-Pulse this week - Jae-Jin was instead forced to return to the K-League, where he struggled to win over fans with some nervy displays for Jeonbuk.

Jae-Jin will now call Expo '70 Stadium in Suita City home for the foreseeable future, with Shimizu S-Pulse having pounced to sign ex-Nagoya striker Frode Johnsen, who has been replaced at the Aichi club by former Consadole Sapporo striker Davi.

Just another dizzying spell of musical chairs in the J. League, but Gamba's signing of Jae-Jin could prove significant for football in the region, with the K-League looking an increasingly attractive source of ready-made talent for a league that the likes of Korea Republic captain Kim Nam-Il already call home. 

Manchester United beat LDU Quito 1-0 in front of 68,682 fans at Yokohama International Stadium, with Wayne Rooney scoring the only goal of a largely one-sided affair.

United had to work hard for their victory following the 49th minute dismissal of central defender Nemanja Vidic for an elbow to the face of Liga de Quito striker Claudio Bieler.

Despite enjoying a one-man advantage Liga offered little in the way of attack, with midfielder Alejandro Manjos going the closest for the underdogs from Ecuador with two ferocious long-range strikes that were brilliantly saved by United's veteran keeper Edwin van der Sar.

Wayne Rooney scored the only goal of the game in the 73rd minute as he took an intelligent pass from Cristiano Ronaldo before burying an accurate right-foot strike in the bottom corner of the goal.

In the day's other game Gamba Osaka won the 3/4 playoff, beating Mexican outfit Pachuca 1-0.

Masato Yamazaki scored the only goal of the game, as the J. League team largely outplayed their central American opponents.

Manchester United will take on Liga de Quito in the final of 2008 FIFA Club World Cup after both sides won their respective semi-finals.

English giants United beat J. League outfit Gamba Osaka 5-3 in a pulsating encounter watched by 67,618 fans at Yokohama International Stadium, with Wayne Rooney coming off the bench to score twice for Sir Alex Ferguson's team.

A day earlier a crowd of 33,316 braved driving rain at the National Stadium in Tokyo as Liga de Quito took advantage of two defensive lapses to beat Mexican side Pachuca 2-0 in an error-riddled encounter.

Cristiano Ronaldo remained tight-lipped about the prospects of a move to Real Madrid in the aftermath of Manchester United's win, instead preferring to concentrate on the prospect of United becoming the first British club to lift the FIFA Club World Cup in its current incarnation.

The final will take place at Yokohama International Stadium on December 21. 

On the surface, things look fairly bleak for Adelaide United going into the second leg of their AFC Champions League final clash at Hindmarsh Stadium on November 12. 

3-0 down from the first leg to Japanese outfit Gamba Osaka, missing key men Eugene Galekovic and Angelo Costanzo through suspension and with a 17-year-old goalkeeper in the form of Mark Birighitti between the posts. 

Still, if ever there was a chance for an Australian team to demonstrate the kind of "fighting spirit" they're always banging on about, it is now.

All tickets for this match were snapped up within hours of going on sale, so it will be a disappointment if anything less than a capacity crowd of 17,000 crams into Hindmarsh Stadium. With a vocal crowd behind them - hopefully former United skipper Ross Aloisi has managed to fire up the locals with another impassioned pre-match call to arms - United should at least be able to put Gamba under pressure, whether they can pull the three goals back or not.

Should United lose this game then both clubs will go through to the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan. That will likely herald another showdown between the two, provided United can overcome New Zealand side Waitakere United in a qualifying play-off, and the South Australians won't want to go into a one-off clash with Gamba on the back of another demoralising defeat.

The return of the hard-running Paul Reid from injury is a bonus for United in midfield. It's a cliché as old as the game itself, but if United can pull an early goal back then they can put Gamba under an inordinate amount of pressure. Gamba are not quite from the same stock as a team like Kashima Antlers - able to control possession in midfield and used to the pressure cooker of title showdowns.

The Osakans have choked before. How cool they are under pressure in Adelaide may go a long way to determining whether Gamba chokes again.

Hope springs eternal, so the old saying goes, and if Adelaide United were looking for signs that they can claw their way back into their two-legged AFC Champions League final clash with Gamba Osaka, they may have just found them in Gamba's 3-1 home defeat to FC Tokyo in the J. League at the weekend.

It wasn't that Gamba lost in a match in which neither side looked particularly impressive, but rather the way that Gamba conceded their goals that should pique interest in South Australia. 

Missing tall defender Sota Nakazawa through a back injury, Gamba coach Akira Nishino switched to an 3-4-3 formation that saw former Yokohama F. Marinos striker Roni handed a rare start, with Gamba still harbouring slim hopes of winning just their second J. League crown.

They could have been on their way had ex-Japan international Ryuji Bando not missed two golden opportunities in the first eight minutes. First Bando raced through one-on-one with FC Tokyo shot-stopper Hitoshi Shiota in just the second minute of the match, but as Bando picked his spot, Shiota guessed right and stuck out a lunging foot to deflect his effort wide.

Then Bando ran on to an excellent chip over the defence, only to turn and volley his effort straight at Shiota, with the former Japan international looking rusty in front of goal after missing most of the campaign through injury.

Those misses proved costly as FC Tokyo took the lead with the first attack of the game. There appeared little danger when winger Naohiro Ishikawa floated an innocuous looking cross deep towards the far post, but powerful Brazilian striker Cabore had only the diminutive Yasuhito Endo as his marker, and the ex-Gyeongnam FC striker Cabore simply shrugged the midfielder off and headed the ball back across the face of goal and into the far corner.   

FC Tokyo scored again with practically their next attack of the game. A long throw seconds after the half-time interval was aimed at the 192cm tall Sota Hirayama, but with the ball sailing over Hirayama's head and the Gamba defence paying far too much attention to the former Heracles Almelo front man, Naohiro Ishikawa dashed in behind the defence to side-foot a half-volley passed Yosuke Fujigaya for FC Tokyo's second.

Sota Hirayama was proving a real handful in this match, vindicating coach Hiroshi Jofuku's decision to leave top scorer Shingo Akamine on the bench, and Hirayama then scored the goal his dominant performance warranted. With his back to goal Hirayama used his powerful frame to shield the ball from Gamba midfielder Tomokazu Myojin, before turning and firing into the far corner of the goal.

The hosts pulled one back in front of a disappointing crowd of just 13,515 at Expo '70 Stadium, with Lucas Severino flicking on a chipped assist from Takahiro Futagawa to register a goal against the club he left in January. Yet Gamba never looked like winning this match, and it was FC Tokyo - and not the Osakans - who kept their faint hopes of winning an unlikely J. League title alive.

Three things stood out from the defeat. One is that Gamba missed Sota Nakazawa more than they would care to admit. While Michihiro Yasuda and ex-FC Tokyo man Akira Kaji are adequate in attack, they struggle in defence - particularly when Gamba are being put under pressure, and particularly when that pressure comes in the form of crosses into the box.

The second is that chipped passes over the defence are very much the modus operandi for Gamba's attack. Several times Gamba caught out the FC Tokyo back four this way, indeed that's how Lucas Severino scored his goal, but cutting off the supply line from midfield and in particular from Endo and Futagawa, seems like a sensible option in halting Gamba's forays forward.

Most importantly, Gamba tend to struggle under pressure. Since lifting their one and only J. League crown thanks to a dramatic final day in 2005 (ironically it was a stoppage-time FC Tokyo equaliser against Cerezo Osaka that saw Gamba win the title), Gamba have been involved in three subsequent title races. They've choked in all three of them.

Admittedly the J. League is as tough a domestic competition as it gets. But there's no doubt that pressure seems to affect Akira Nishino's team, especially when they're away from home.

Food for thought for Aurelio Vidmar then. He could do worse than demand a red-hot atmosphere from the home fans at Hindmarsh Stadium, while instructing tall timber Robert Cornthwaite and Sasa Ognenovski to get amongst it at set pieces. Overly simplistic it may seem, but that might be all that Adelaide United have to hold on to having been comprehensively outplayed in the first leg of this tie.    

"Mike Tuckerman has a massive problem with the A-league.

And is always making comparisons. Ignore any article he writes, I could fill this forum with his anti-aussie diatribe.

That said it is ridiculous to compare the J league with the A league, and many Australians need to stop doing this, it just gives idiots like Mike the ammunition they require."

That was just one of the responses posted on the message board of a well-read Australian football website, after I wrote this suggesting that perhaps Australian football doesn't have as much in common with the J. League as we think.

Well, after watching Gamba Osaka demolish Adelaide United in the first leg of the AFC Champions League final, the suggestion that the J. League is the current benchmark of Asian football seems about right to me.

What have we learned from Gamba Osaka's astonishing 3-0 thrashing of Adelaide United in the first leg of the AFC Champions League final? 

The first thing is that Gamba should have won by a wider margin. If I were a cynic I might suggest that referee Bashir Abdul Malik looked suspiciously like he was trying to keep the score down, by not sending off Adelaide keeper Eugene Galekovic for a blatant professional foul and then ruling out Yasuhito Endo's "goal" after he subsequently curled his free-kick past Galekovic and into the top corner. But that is to miss the point. 

The point is that Gamba Osaka proved that Australian football is light years behind the Japanese game in terms of technical skill.    

How this fact has been overlooked by so many in Australia, I'm not really sure. But I have some idea. I caught the intro to Adelaide station Fresh FM's otherwise excellent radio coverage of the game - and bravo to the station for sending a team over to Osaka at considerable expense in the first place - but when presenter Dom Rinaldo told guest reporter Andrew Montesi that he wouldn't ask for his opinion on Gamba Osaka, I had to ask myself why.

If Lucas Neill can "google" Pim Verbeek, then why can't Andrew Montesi "google" Gamba Osaka? Is it acceptable that a paid sports reporter is not expected to present an opinion on the opposition? How hard is it to look up even the most cursory information in an age where this kind of stuff is supposed to be available at our fingertips?

To be fair to Fresh FM, at least they were at the game, and there have been more galling oversights from other media outlets.

How often do we have to put up with the following cliché?

"Aurelio Vidmar leads his team into the unknown."

You what? Isn't this the same Aurelio Vidmar who spent a season at Sancrecce Hiroshima in the late 90's? Wouldn't that mean that he himself has played at Expo '70 Stadium in Osaka? And wouldn't that make him a decent judge of Japanese football? Leading his team into the unknown! Sounds like he's taking his team to Osaka via Mars.

The build-up and subsequent crushing defeat prompted the usual round of soul-searching from the Australian blogosphere and message boards. Some of it exposed the total naivet'e of Australian fans. One proposal had the A-League playing an All-Star game against a J.League XI. A great idea - except for the fact that the J. League already plays an All-Star game against the K-League.

Other suggestions include implementing "free player loans" between J. League and A-League clubs. How does that work? After a J. League team thumps their Aussie counterparts, they then take some Australian players "on loan" to teach them the basic skills that are drilled into Japanese players from the age of five? Why on earth would the J. League agree to that? And why would the J. League want to develop Australian players in the first place? The J. League is a business, not a charity.

Everywhere I turn, I see myth reported as fact. Gamba Osaka as a "giant" of Japanese football. The crumbling Expo '70 Stadium as one of "the best" in Japan. Even the incredulous descriptions of Gamba's "wonderful chanting fans" leaves me irate. How hard is it to look this stuff up? I can't help but feel that if the Australian football community hadn't approached the AFC Champions League final with eyes wide shut, it wouldn't have been so surprised by the level of Gamba's play.

As for me, suggestions that I'm "anti A-League" are well wide of the mark. I was a season ticket-holder when Sydney FC lifted the inaugural toilet seat, and was at all three of Australia's group stage games at the World Cup in 2006. I missed the second round clash with Italy because I was getting married. Even then, it was a close call.

I am just as proud of Australian football as the next fan, but it seems to me that unless we begin to embrace Asian football there are going to be plenty more nasty surprises in store. We could do worse than starting to pay some attention to the J. League.

"At one of the press conferences, I said it was imperative that one of the Japanese teams become the champions, but I lied," said Gamba Osaka coach Akira Nishino to the Yomiuri Shimbun ahead of his side's AFC Champions League first leg final clash with Adelaide United.

"I know deep down inside it has to be Gamba." 

Gamba coach Nishino may have his wish come the end of the two-legged AFC Champions League final, but in the build-up to tonight's clash at Expo '70 Stadium in Osaka he has highlighted the different physiques of the two sides.

"I think it'll be them in the air, and us on the ground," Nishino told the Shimbun, and in a press conference ahead of the clash Nishino singled out Adelaide's defence - which houses 197cm Robert Cornthwaite and 195cm Sasa Ognenovski - as one of the keys to the clash.

Their height could nullify the attacking threat of full-backs Akira Kaji and Michihiro Yasuda, who are unlikely to bomb forward and rain in crosses with Gamba relatively weak in the air in the final third of the pitch. 

Instead Gamba will rely on talismanic midfielder Yasuhito Endo to drive the team forward with his short passing game and Gamba's strikers will expect to do plenty of off-the-ball running as Endo looks to slip incisive balls in behind the defence.

Nishino expects Adelaide to play for a draw at Banpaku, but United coach Aurelio Vidmar is likely to field goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic and midfielder Diego, despite both going into this clash under serious injury clouds. 

With the first of the winter winds having hit Japan temperatures are slowly dropping across the country, with this match expected to be played under cloudy skies and a temperature of around 15°C in the west of Japan.  

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.