Preview
Short and sweet because it’s Golden Week and I’ve got to pump out 3 or 4 more of these.
Tonight’s match at Banpaku finds both teams struggling; the home team has to play 7 matches in 22 days due to its ACL commitments while FC Tokyo has yet to score more than one goal in any match this season.
I’m going to repeat that because it sounds a little important. FC Tokyo has yet to score more than one goal in any match this season. That includes 7 league matches and 2 Nabisco Cup matches for a total of 9 goals in 9 games. Compare to last season when in 9 games the team scored 14 goals (granted that includes 6 league matches and 3 Nabisco matches, but that’s splitting hairs). The team has excelled in winning close matches it probably doesn’t deserve to win (see Iwata and Oita) but has set new standards for futility in losing matches everyone was expecting it to win (Chiba, Niigata, etc).
In the battle of the forwards, the big head to head is Yusuke Kondo for Tokyo against Gamba’s own former FCT squadmember Lucas. Lucas scored in both matches against Tokyo last year (one of which was a draw, the other a win for the blue and red) and has stated his desire for a 3rd in a row. Yusuke on the other hand has continued to get starts but hasn’t contributed enough in the scoring department to make the case for not being substituted.
If Tokyo can pull off another win in enemy territory, the team might return to Ajinomoto Stadium on Saturday with something resembling momentum. If not, then the struggle will likely continue. Tokyo squandered a great start to the 2008 season in last year’s Golden Week Sprint, maybe the team will find solid ground after a shaky start in this year’s.
| J.League Division 1 Week # |
 |
First Half
0 – 0
Second Half
0 – 1
Final
0 – 1 |
 |
| April 25th 2009, 7PM Kickoff at Kyushu “Big Eye” (Oita, Oita) Attendance 17,246 |
GK 1 Shusaku Nishikawa
DF 22 Taikai Uemoto
DF 6 Masato Morishige
DF 25 Hiroyuki Kobayashi
MF 5 Edmilson
MF 33 Yoshiaki Fujita
MF 20 Daisuke Takahashi
MF 8 Mu Kanazaki
MF 11 Shingo Suzuki
FW 9 Yasuhito Morishima
FW 10 Ueslei |
Starting Members
|
GK 20 Shuichi Gonda
DF 25 Yuhei Tokunaga
DF 3 Hideki Sahara
DF 2 Teruyuki Moniwa
DF 5 Yuto Nagatomo
MF 6 Yasuyuki Konno
MF 22 Naotake Hanyu
MF 18 Naohiro Ishikawa
MF 10 Yohei Kajiyama
FW 9 Cabore
FW 32 Yusuke Kondo |
Half 28 Hiroshi Kiyotake (for Yasuhito Morishima)
83′ 2 Shusuke Tsubouchi (for Mu Kanazaki)
89′ 21 Keigo Higashi (for Ueslei) |
Substitutes |
58′ 19 Yohei Otake (for Naohiro Ishikawa)
65′ 24 Shingo Akamine (for Yusuke Kondo)
79′ 40 Tatsuya Suzuki (for Naotake Hanyu) |
|
Goals |
89′ Yohei Kajiyama (PK) |
29′ Edmilson
32′ Edmilson
66′ Taikai Uemoto
73′ Shusaku Nishikawa
81′ Ueslei
89′ Daisuke Takahashi |
Cautions |
44′ Yuhei Tokunaga |
| 32′ Edmilson |
Ejections |
|
Report
Sadly I didn’t get to watch the match as I had a show in Shinjuku to shoot, but the box score pretty much says it all. Edmilson let his temper get the best of him and got his dumb ass ejected, Oita decided to play physical for the second half and amassed about as many cautions as a team can amass in a single game, and a stupid tackle by Daisuke Takahashi in stoppage time allowed Yohei Kajiyama the chance to win the game with a PK. You can read Matsu’s more detailed report over at the Rising Sun here.
Still waiting on the team to score a second goal but maybe the Golden Week Sprint will be just what the doctor ordered.
| J.League Division 1 Week 8 |
 |
First Half
2 – 0
Second Half
2 – 2
Final
4 – 2 |
|
| April 24th 2009, 7PM Kickoff at Expo ‘70 “Banpaku” Stadium (Osaka City, Osaka) Attendance 16,853 |
GK 22 Yosuke Fujigaya
DF 27 Hideo Hashimoto
DF 2 Sota Nakazawa
DF 5 Satoshi Yamaguchi
DF 19 Takumi Shimohira
MF 17 Tomokazu Myojin
MF 7 Yasuhito Endo
MF 16 Hayato Sasaki
MF 9 Lucas Severino
FW 18 Cho Jae-Jin
FW 23 Leandro |
Starting Members
|
GK Shuichi Gonda
DF 25 Yuhei Tokunaga
DF 3 Hideki Sahara
DF 2 Teruyuki Moniwa
DF 5 Yuto Nagatomo
MF 6 Yasuyuki Konno
MF 22 Naotake Hanyu
MF 18 Naohiro Ishikawa
MF 10 Yohei Kajiyama
FW 9 Cabore
FW 32 Yusuke Kondo |
74′ 8 Shinishi Terada (for Hayato Sasaki)
78′ 11 Ryuji Bando (for Cho Jae-Jin)
89′ 20 Shu Kurata (for Lucas Severino) |
Substitutes |
58′ 33 Kenta Mukuhara (for Hideki Sahara)
61′ 24 Shingo Akamine (for Yusuke Kondo)
69′ 40 Tatsuya Suzuki (for Naotake Hanyu) |
19′ Own Goal
25′ Lucas Severino
47′ Leandro
68′ Cho Jae-Jin |
Goals |
79′ Naohiro Ishikawa
81′ Tatsuya Suzuki |
|
Cautions |
31′ Naotake Hanyu |
|
Ejections |
|
Report
No report as I didn’t watch the game, but this should be noted as the first game of the season that Tokyo scored more than one goal so I guess that’s progress?
| J.League Division 1 Week # |
|
First Half
1 – 0
Second Half
0 – 2
Final
1 – 2 |
 |
| April 18th 2009, 7PM Kickoff at Ajinomoto Stadium (Chofu, Tokyo) Attendance 27,486 |
GK 20 Shuichi Gonda
DF 25 Yuhei Tokunaga
DF 3 Hideki Sahara
DF 6 Yasuyuki Konno
DF 5 Yuto Nagatomo
MF 22 Maotake Hanyu
MF 28 Takuji Yonemoto
MF 18 Naohiro Ishikawa
MF 10 Yohei Kajiyama
FW 9 Cabore
FW 32 Yusuke Kondo |
Starting Members
|
GK 1 Masahiro Okamoto
DF 2 Masataka Sakamoto
DF 14 Shohei Ikeda
DF 4 Eddy Bosnar
DF 31 Ryota Aoki
MF 10 Kohei Kudo
MF 22 Koki Yonekura
MF 3 Daisuke Saito
MF 5 Alex
FW 9 Masaki Fukai
FW 18 Seiichiro Maki |
64′ 40 Tatsuya Suzuki (for Naohiro Ishikawa)
69′ 7 Satoru Asari (for Takuji Yonemoto)
78′ Shingo Akamine (for Cabore) |
Substitutes |
Half 13 Takumi Wada (for Shohei Ikeda)
63′ 16 Tatsuya Yazawa (for Koki Yonekura)
69′ 6 Tomi Shimomura (for Daisuke Saito) |
| 18′ Naohiro Ishikawa |
Goals |
86′ Seiichiro Maki
89′ Masaki Fukai |
| 20′ Yuto Nagatomo |
Cautions |
35′ Kohei Kudo
44′ Shohei Ikeda
75′ Takumi Wada |
|
Ejections |
|
Report
Fuck it. You want to know what happened at the game, go watch a tape of last year’s Verdy match at Kokuritsu and imagine different-colored uniforms you’ll see pretty much the exact same thing. FCT scores first and then fails to capitalize on its many chances thereafter. In the second half the team’s speed and agility seem to fade to about the level of molasses, and the opposing team gets a goal to tie it up and then a clincher in the waning minutes of the game to win it. Shameful. Absolutely shameful. I’m not even going to discuss JEF’s overaggressive play or the poor refereeing. Shouldn’t have mattered.
Hell, now that I think of it, you don’t even have to imagine different-colored uniforms, both Verdy and JEF have white away kits.
The booing started last night. At this rate it might continue for a while.
Background
In a move set to coincide with Tokyo’s presentation to site evaluators for the 2016 Olympics, tonight’s match between FC Tokyo and JEF United Chiba will be played at the old Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. Both teams are hoping for an Olympian effort from their players as the squads have so far failed to meet expectations. FC Tokyo is off to a shaky start and coming off of a well-fought loss to Kashima, while Chiba has completely failed to play up to expectations and is still winless after 5 rounds. FC Tokyo will be looking for revenge as Chiba’s come-from-behind victory in front of a sold-out home crowd at Fukuari at the end of last season saved the team from relegation. Given how Chiba is playing at the moment, perhaps they would have been better off taking a J2 vacation after all.
The Matchup
Rookie Yonemoto looks like he could be making his first pro start, as he was used as part of the main force in practices this week. Jofuku will continue to tweak the lineup in an effort to finally get all of the pieces of the puzzle to fall into place. Wish I had more than that, but I’m quite burned out this week. On the plus side we’re against a team that’s winless in its first 5 games so deep analysis isn’t really necessary.
Predictions
A win, most likely. It’d be very good if we went to town on Chiba and started to make up some of that goal differential. We’ll see!
| J.League Division 1 Week # |
|
First Half
1- 2
Second Half
0 – 0
Final
1- 2
|
 |
| April 12th 2009, 1PM Kickoff at Ajinomoto Stadium (Chofu, Tokyo) Attendance 32,913 |
GK 20 Shuichi Gonda
DF 25 Yuhei Tokunaga
DF 2 Teruyuki Moniwa
DF 3 Hideki Sahara
DF 5 Yuto Nagatomo
MF 6 Yasuyuki Konno
MF 22 Naotake Hanyu
MF 18 Naohiro Ishikawa
MF 10 Yohei Kajiyama
FW 9 Cabore
FW 24 Shingo Akamine |
Starting Members
|
GK 21 Hitoshi Sogahata
DF 2 Atsuto Uchida
DF 3 Daiki Iwamasa
DF 19 Masahiko Inoha
DF 35 Park Joo-Ho
MF 15 Takeshi Aoki
MF 40 Mitsuo Ogasawara
MF 10 Masashi Motoyama
MF 8 Takuya Nozawa
FW 18 Marquinhos
FW 34 Yuya Osako |
58′ 40 Tatsuya Suzuki (for Cabore)
61′ 19 Yohei Otake (for Naohiro Ishikawa)
74 13 Sota Hirayama (for Shingo Akamane) |
Substitutes |
53′ 7 Toru Araiba (for Masashi Motoyama)
59′ 13 Shinzo Koroki (for Yuya Osako)
82′ 14 Chikashi Masuda (for Takuya Nozawa) |
| 40′ Shingo Akamine |
Goals |
1′ Marquinhos
15′ Yuya Osako |
| 58′ Yuhei Tokunaga |
Cautions |
44′ Marquinhos
89′ Mitsuo Ogasawara |
|
Ejections |
|
Report
Sorry, readers – with my work starting this week I’ve been too busy to write a full report, but suffice to say that this was a hard-fought match and if a ball or two had gone a foot lower and if Kashima’s GK Hitoshi Sogahata wasn’t such a tool, we might have gotten a draw (which I think we deserved) or even a win.
For completeness sake I’m going to backdate this entry. Sorry for the delay!
Background
This is going to be quick and dirty because it’s about 12 hours before kickoff and I’ve been busy as all hell with school. In any case anyone who’s reading this page probably realizes that the Antlers are defending league champs, but have to juggle their quest for a 3rd straight league title with halfhearted aspirations for the ACL. Tokyo’s last match was a rain-soaked 1-0 victory against basement-dwellers Jubilo Iwata in which the man of the match was probably Gonda for his superb saves. Kashima’s last match was against some Singapore team on Tuesday in ACL play, which was apparently a 4-1 thrashing. In any case Kashima might be a wee bit jetlagged and Tokyo’s itching for a chance to continue its climb up to the top of the table, with many still wondering when Tokyo will play up to its potential. It should be notable that the two teams’ last meeting was a dramatic 3-2 victory for FCT; it was also the last loss the Antlers would take for the rest of the season.
The Matchup
Apparently Jofuku is trying some weird system out, 4-3-2-1 or 4-4-2-1, something along those lines. As I’ve said in previous posts, I don’t care if he does 2-3-5 as the team wins. I wish I had a more complex analysis for the readership but I’m falling asleep in my chair so we’ll leave it at that.
Predictions
Gonda needs to play as well as he did against Jubilo if not better. The rest of the team needs to play much better. Kashima will be looking for revenge and the fans will be looking for victory. It’ll be an aggressive match, possibly with a red card somewhere down the line. Hell if I’m going to make a prediction as to the winner.
| J.League Division 1 Week 4 |
 |
First Half
0 – 0
Second Half
0 – 1
Final
0 – 1
|
|
| April 4th 2009, 7PM Kickoff at (Iwata City, Shizuoka) Attendance 8,716 |
GK 1 Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi
DF 5 Yuichi Komano
DF 6 Daisuke Nasu
DF 3 Takayuki Chano
DF 20 Shuto Yamamoto
MF 23 Kosuke Yamamoto
MF 16 Rodrigo
MF 7 Yoshiaki Ota
MF 14 Shinji Murai
FW 18 Ryoichi Maeda
FW 8 Gilsinho |
Starting Members
|
GK 20 Shuichi Gonda
DF 5 Yuto Nagatomo
DF 3 Hideki Sahara
DF 6 Yasayuki Konno
DF 25 Yuhei Tokunaga
MF 7 Satoru Asari
MF 22 Naotake Hanyu
MF 10 Yohei Kajiyama
MF 19 Yohei Otake
FW 9 Cabore
FW 24 Shingo Akamine |
| 70′ 13 Hiroki Bandai (for Gilsinho) |
Substitutes |
65′ 18 Naohiro Ishikawa (for Yohei Otake)
71′ 40 Tatsuya Suzuki (for Cabore) |
|
Goals |
82′ Shingo Akamine |
| 15′ Gilsinho37′ Daisuke Nasu
38′ Takayuki Chano |
Cautions |
42′ Yohei Otake
73′ Tatsuya Suzuki
77′ Naotake Hanyu
89′ Yuto Nagatomo |
|
Ejections |
|
Report
By all accounts, this was an ugly game. I only watched on TV (and I missed some play here and there as I had to finesse my cracked copy of EyeTV into not being a bitch), but given how hard the rain was pouring I’m not altogether surprised.
Again, a tale of two halves. Jubilo challenged a lot in the first half (and looked very threatening most of the time) while Tokyo found its form and took control in the second half, finally deciding it with a beautiful one-touch goal by Akamine off a pass by Tatsuya Suzuki… the kind of goal that everyone’s been waiting for him to make.
So what was the difference this week? Other than the fact that Jubilo apparently can’t hit the side of a barn even if a bullseye was painted on the side, Gonda showed some incredible reflexes, blocking several shots at nearly point-blank range with an outstretched hand, as if he were catching a fly with chopsticks. The boy’s finally settled down and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
It was not the greatest game of all, but it was a win and 3 points (I seem to be saying this a lot, don’t I). Tokyo will not win their next game against Kashima unless they level up a lot in the next 6 days, but two league wins in a row will hopefully continue to boost their confidence.
Background
With Japan comfortably in position to return to the World Cup stage, all eyes turn back to the domestic stage as J.League returns to weekly play. Tokyo’s first game away from the Kanto area comes against Jubilo Iwata, a team in far greater peril than an FCT side struggling to overcome injury and misfires. While Tokyo claimed its first win of the season in Week 3 against Yamagata, Jubilo has one draw (against Urawa) and two losses to its record. The former J.League dynasty managed to fight off relegation last year; but a promotion-relegation series-less J.League will not afford them such an opportunity in 2009.
While the competition record certainly looks good for Jubilo, in truth Tokyo has found its footing in recent years. The two squads met most recently last December in a 5-1 thrashing that pushed Jubilo ever closer to the brink of demotion, with Tokyo sweeping the yearly series overall.
The Matchup
With Hirayama out of the lineup due to injury, the team will likely rely on Akamine and Cabore to get the job done. Akamine has scored four goals against Jubilo and will be looking to add to that count. Cabore found his first score of the season in the loss at Kashiwa, but he also had major roles in the goal against Urawa and Otake’s point against Kobe so look for him to remain a major factor. Speaking of Otake, the young star’s performance in the Kobe match should earn him a starting spot this week. They’ll have no better chance than against Jubilo; the team’s goalkeeper allowed 6 goals in the season opener against Yamagata and has allowed 11 so far this season.
On defense, Nagatomo and Gonda have drawn lines in the sand this week, claiming that from here on out they’re aiming for zero goals allowed. Gonda’s clean sheet against Kobe will have boosted his confidence, and Nagatomo had a solid performance for the national team in their 1-0 win against Bahrain. Mukuhara proved himself against Kobe and could see time as a substitute if Jofuku thinks he’s ready for a league match.
Predictions
After a rough start to the season, the Tokyo everyone was expecting will show up on Saturday night in Iwata City. Tokyo will score more than one goal and the blue and red machine will begin the march to victory.
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