Posts Tagged ‘shingo akamine’

Tokyo Gas is coming to town!

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

On a cold day in Sendai (wait, that’s every day in Sendai, isn’t it), FC Tokyo met one of their most frequent opponents this season, Shimizu S-Pulse, for a record 5th time.

Like many of their other matches this season, the Gasmen fell behind in the first half, this time on a set play.  But as the second half began, the team was resolute; they’d come this far, and they would keep going all the way to New Year’s Day.

And opportunity came 5 minutes into the second half, when midseason aquisition Katsuya Suzuki was fould in the penalty area and FCT was awarded a kick.  Suzuki deferred to Shingo Akamine, who sent a low shot to the left just past the outstretched hands of Shimizu’s goalkeeper to tie the game at 1.

A minute later, Shimizu’s defense collapsed again as a series of brilliant passes between Cabore and Nagatomo on the left side split the Shimizu defense.  Nagatomo lobbed the ball to Suzuki, who again set up Akamine for a cross and the winning goal.

Though Shimizu did challenge for the rest of the half, FCT held strong and secured a berth in its first semifinal since 1997, when as Tokyo Gas FC beat Kansai University, Ehime FC Youth, Nagoya Grampus, Yokohama FM, and Belmare Hiratsuka before losing to eventual champions Kashima Antlers.

After the game, the fans passed out Santa hats in celebration of the holidays and pulled out what I can only imagine is a classic chant from the old days:

Tokyo’s next opponent will be the ever-tenacious Kashiwa Reysol, who beat out Sanfrecce Hiroshima in a thriller of a match that went into overtime.  The game will take place at Shizuoka “Ecopa” Stadium, out in the ass-end of nowhere, on December 29th.

On the other side of the bracket, tournament surprise Sagan Tosu pulled ahead early but eventually fell 3-1 to Yokohama F. Marinos, who will play the winner of Gamba Osaka vs. Nagoya Grampus.  The remaining quarterfinal match will be played on Christmas Day due to Gamba’s Club World Cup commitments.

It will certainly be an interesting set of matches - Brazillian Alex is playing his last matches for Kashiwa, as is their manager Nobuhiro Ishizaki.  The team finished in the middle of the table in a season that included a stunning upset against Urawa.  They beat FC Tokyo on a rain-soaked field at Ajinomoto during the Golden Week Sprint, but lost to the Gasmen at home, both by 1-0 scores.

Nagoya is arguably the strongest team of the five remaining, having finished third in J1 and secured a spot in the 2009 ACL.  FC Tokyo split their series this year, losing 1-0 at home on a game marred by questionable officiating and won 1-0 at Nagoya.  Several Nagoya players, including Norweigan striker Johnsen, are playing their last matches for the team as their releases or transfers have already been announced.  Because of their already-secured ACL slot, should Nagoya win the cup Japan’s fourth and final ACL slot would go to Oita Trinita, who finished fourth in J1.

Gamba Osaka is a bit of a paradox; they won the ACL this year as their odds of winning J.League shrank and they finished .  Because the ACL champion no longer has a guaranteed invitation to the tournament, Gamba needs to win the Emperor’s Cup in order to return to the competition in 2009.  They’ve just played two matches in two days - against Manchester United and Mexican club team Pachuka in the FIFA Club World Cup, which is why their match against Nagoya is to be played on Christmas.

Yokohama F. Marinos, disappointing underachievers in this year’s J.League, have ascended the tournament ladder with a combination of luck and skill.  They beat J1 basement-dwellers Consadole Sapporo to reach the 5th round, where they dispatched Urawa 6-5 on penalty kicks.  This week they Sagan Tosu on Tosu’s home turf, eventually pulling away with a 3-1 win that was nothing if not contested thoroughly by the home team.  Continuing in the luck vein, Yokohama will have twice the rest of either of its possible opponents.  This is Yokohama’s first semifinal appearance since the 1993 Emperor’s Cup; they were champions the year before.

Though the final two teams are far from decided, some fans across the country are already tempting fate and snatching up tickets for the last match at Kokuritsu.  The front stands are for all intents and purposes sold out, while there are still plenty of tickets remaining in the back stand, where the majority of supporters will likely make a beeline for.  Will Tokyo and Osaka battle for national supremacy once again?  Could Kashiwa and Yokohama slug it out in the Battle of Kantou?  Will Nagoya win it all and give Oita a late Christmas gift?  We’ll all know in a little over a week.

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Posted in Emperor's Cup 2008, F.C. Tokyo News | No Comments »

The Beatdown Rolls On

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

The wind is blowing a bit colder, daylight is getting shorter, and I’ve abandoned my previous strict naming conventions for these posts.  Must be fall again!

It was a good September for the boys, as they went undefeated in games against Omiya Ardija, Kawasaki Frontale, Jubilo Iwata, and Consadole Sapporo.  They have now won five in a row (stretching back to August’s match against Kashiwa), and Shingo Akamine has scored in each match.  Akamine now leads all Japanese players with 11 goals so far this season.

While the Kawasaki match was a 1-0 slugout played in the rain, the Jubilo affair gave the fans a reason to cheer - a 5-1 drubbing that not only helped FC Tokyo’s aggregate but seemed to give players confidence that they could, indeed, put the ball in the net.  Goals by Cabore, Akamine, Ishikawa (some argued he should be credited with two goals, but the first was credited as an own-goal), and new striker Suzuki made it a match to remember.

The next match, at lowly Sapporo, was slightly more challenging - though FCT fell behind early in the second half, Akamine would equalize on a fantastic header and Otake would score the winner a minute after coming onto the field - strangely reminiscent of his first score against Kawasaki Frontale back in April.  The match was marked by a note of concern when in his first appearance in a long time following injury, Hanyu sustained another injury 8 minutes after coming onto the field and was replaced by Bruno Quadros.

Tokyo has held steady at 6th place in the standings for all of September, but now that the makeup games from last week have been played FCT is tantalizingly close to first place - 4 points behind Kashima (ahead on aggregate) and Nagoya, 3 points behind Oita, 2 points behind Urawa, and tied with Kawasaki but behind on aggregate.  There are seven rounds left in the season, and whether FCT can make up the ground is yet to be seen, but a top-5 finish is almost certainly in the cards.

Our remaining matches are home against Shimizu, away at Oita, home against Kashima, away at Osaka, away at Kobe, home against Niigata, and away at Chiba, ensuring that a decently-sized contingent of supporters will be there at the end.

While Shimizu is a respectable mid-table opponent that will provide a good match one way or the other, the next two triplets are where the big story is - FCT cannot hope to take the title without winning or drawing against Trinita/Antlers/Gamba - the first two are obviously at the top of the ladder and must be pulled down, and Gamba has regained its form and is making a late advantage, though the team will certainly have more pressure on it when one considers their ACL tie against Urawa.

The latter set of three matches - Vissel, Albirex, and JEF - provide a different sort of drama.  All three teams are in danger of relegation, with JEF Chiba in the “oh shit not two more games” slot and Vissel and Albirex joining a half dozen other teams in the “no, we’re not sure we want to be in J1 either” sweepstakes, albiet from positions of relative safety.  Any of these teams might still be fighting for their spot in J1’s 2009 season by the time the boys take the field and will likely make the games must-watches.

Fun times ahead, my friends.  Fun times.  This weekend’s match at Shimizu will likely herald the return of Konno from his red card suspension, which will undoubtedly provide further support to a Tokyo squad that… well, has done pretty fine without him.  Not that we didn’t miss him, of course.

In J2 news, Sanfrecce Hiroshima has secured promotion to J1 (and will likely secure the J2 crown if it hasn’t already) a scant 9 months after losing a tough relegation series to Kyoto.  One can imagine that the Hiroshima/Kyoto matches will be entertaining as all hell to watch next year.  Fighting for the second and third spots are Shonan Belmare, Montideo Yamagata, Vegalta Sendai, and Sagan Tosu.

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Posted in F.C. Tokyo News, F.C. Tokyo Reports, J.League News | 1 Comment »

[MatchRecap] 05.17 Jubilo Iwata 1:2 (1:0) FC Tokyo (J1 W13)

Sunday, May 18th, 2008

So, um, been a while.  Sorry about that.  School got hectic as well as some personal matters and I still have a metric ton of game photos to go through in addition to everything else.  Apologies for no Kashiwa report (I assure you that with a disappointing 1:0 loss in the rain, you didn’t miss much) and no preview for the Jubilo match.

Fortunately, after dropping two consecutive 1-0 games at home, FC Tokyo went on the road and pulled off a much-needed win against Jubilo Iwata this afternoon.  Trailing 1-0 after the first half, Shingo Akamine came back strong in the second half, scoring a brace (that’s apparently two for any Americans who are reading this) and pulling the Gasmen to victory.  Notable in the lineup was the return of midfielder Emerson to the squad as a substitute in his first match since his injury sustained during the team’s away campaign in Niigata.  Emerson came on for Hanyu in the second half, proving in his fitness that manager Jofuku has one more weapon in a Tokyo offence that lately has struggled to get the job done.

More importantly, around the league a miraculous series of results has brought FC Tokyo to within reach of the top spot in the league yet again.  Urawa fell to Gamba Osaka at home in a match that included altercations among the fans, apparently.  Kawasaki dropped a 2-0 lead to fall to Omiya Ardija 3-2.  Kashima extended its winless streak to 7 games with a 1-1 draw against Kashiwa, and Nagoya beat up on the helpless Consadole Sapporo.  Even JEF Chiba has won two games in a row since sacking its manager.

So, what’s all that mean?  Urawa and Nagoya are at the top of the ladder with 26 points (with Urawa leading in goal differential).  FC Tokyo is alone in 3rd place with 23 points.  Kashiwa Reysol has surged to the top of the ladder with 20 points along with Kawasaki Frontale.  Kashima continues to struggle, now tied with fellow ACL contenders Gamba Osaka as well as Omiya Ardija at 19 points apiece.  Yokohama F. Marinos sit alone in 9th place with 18 points.  With a mere 8 points separating the top half of the ladder, it is quite clearly anyone’s season.  Well, except for Consadole and JEF Chiba, but there’s always gotta be a whipping boy.

Last season at this point, FC Tokyo was in 13th place and pretty much had no hope of rising any further (indeed, they would finish 12th in the standings).  This year, although there have certainly been some bumps in the road, FC Tokyo goes into the 1/3rd-season-break with a strong squad that can easily stay a contender for the remainder of the season and perhaps even vie for the title.  Good times ahead for the gasmen!

The next month brings good times as well - this coming Sunday is the Tokyo Derby against the ever-hated Kawasaki Verdy, followed by a “home” match on the 31st against Shimizu at Alwin Stadium in Nagano (hell knows why we’re playing a home game in Nagano, but hey).  On June 8th is another Tokyo Derby match (this time as the “away” team) at National Stadium, followed by a friendly versus FC Seoul in Korea on the 15th.
All matches (with the obvious exception of the FC Seoul campaign) are for the Nabisco Cup and won’t count in the standings, but naturally wins against Verdy will do much to rebuild the fan’s morale following the recent spate of home losses.  If Tokyo wants to go on to the next round of the Nabisco Cup, the game against Shimizu will be a must-win given the current standings.

In anticipation of the next Tokyo Derby match I’ll try to do a post regarding supporter chants later in the week.  Stay tuned!

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Posted in F.C. Tokyo Reports, J.League Nabisco Cup 2008, J.League News | 2 Comments »

[Match Report] 04.29 FC Tokyo 1:0 (1:0) Oita Trinita (J1 R9)

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

The boys in red and blue quickly rebounded from their loss against Shimizu on Saturday with a dominating performance against Oita Trinita to remain undefeated at Ajinomoto Stadium.

Today was the first official Golden Week holiday, and as a result there were plenty of promotions to get families to bring their kids to the stadium.  Nets for shooting games were set up around the pitch, and it was officially Gegege no Kitaro Day, which meant that characters from the show were out and about.

In the stands, the FC Tokyo supporters are definitely in a transitional period - when everyone started to stand on their chairs after the player introductions but before You’ll Never Walk alone, there was a weird silence in the air, and someone commented on how it felt like it was the Verdy match.  Instead of the usual third chorus of YNWA the supporters jumped into one of the main anthems, which surprised me slightly.

On the pitch, while Oita started the game with a moderate attack, FC Tokyo struck the first and only blood of the match when roughly 15 minutes in Shingo Akamine converted a corner kick into a well-placed shot into the upper left corner of the goal.  The defenders did what they had to do and although Oita made several transgressions into Tokyo territory, all of their shots either went far wide or were a simple task for Shiota to recover.

While FCT found itself on the defensive occasionally during the match, the turning point seemed to be when they decided to break down Oita by grinding off 2-3 minutes of the clock with long passes back and forth near the end of the first half, slowing donw the pace of the game and disruting Oita’s offensive flow.

The second half was one of steady domination by Tokyo including several shots that found posts or crossbars but unfortunately didn’t make it into the net.  Cabore smashed through the Trinita defense on several occasions and DF Nagatomo appeared to be everywhere - making passes, drawing penalties, and swarming Oita attackers by himself.  Otake brought his youthful enthusiasm and deadly corners to the match but has yet to find his second goal.

As the seconds ticked down, Trinita appeared to become more and more desperate to stop the Tokyo attack, making risky tackles that almost every time resulted in fouls or yellows.  Near the end of the match, Oita sealed its fate when two of its players were handed red cards in the span of about five minutes - both for heinous tackles that while fortunately didn’t result in injury, were worthy of ejection (both players had already been shown yellow cards).  Oddly enough, over the course of the match the referees sided with FC Tokyo more often than not.  Players on the home team were shown no yellow cards through the entire match, a stunning first for the season if I recall correctly.

Overall, this was a match that Tokyo had to win (especially after the Shimizu campaign) and they performed well (though, naturally, another goal or two on the scoreboard wouldn’t have hurt).  Players are starting to become more daring on offense, particularly Cabore and Akamine; rather than going around the defenders they are attempting time and time again to go through them, more often than not creating scoring opportunities.  The defense, particularly Moniwa in strong form, managed to keep Shiota with little to do throughout the match except for the occasional goal kick, but as we all know a bored goalkeeper is a happy goalkeeper.

Nagatomo got the Hero Interview and actually momentary lost his composure when he was asked about his recent call-up to the National Team, recovering after a few seconds and repeatedly thanking the fans for their support.  He then gave the obligatory sha-sha-sha cheer to the supporters and was showered with “Nagatomo Tokyo!” and “Nagatomo Nihon!” cheers as he left for the locker room.

Overheard on the way to the station after the game: Yeah, the official attendance was 20,283… 20,000 of that was FC Tokyo fans, the rest was Oita. I do not believe that’s very far off from reality, quite frankly.

Match notes:

Starting Lineups

FC Tokyo - (GK) Shiota, (DF) Tokunaga, Moniwa, Sahara, Nagatomo, (MF) Kajiyama, Konno, Kanezawa, Kurisawa, (FW) Akamine, Cabore

Oita Trinita - (GW) Nishikawa, (DF) Fukaya, Morishige, Uemoto, (MF) Roberto, Edmilson, Suzuki, Nemoto, Fujita, (FW) Kanazaki, Matsuhashi

Substitutions

FC Tokyo - Otake (Kurisawa, 59′), Asari (Kanezawa, 72′), Kawaguchi (Cabore, ‘89)

Oita Trinita - Maeda (Nemoto, 57′), Kobayashi (Edmilson, 70′), Ichihara (Uemoto, 83′)

Goals

FC Tokyo - Akamine (14′)

Yellow Cards

Oita Trinita - Morishige (31′), Uemoto (56′), Roberto (70′), Maeda (77′)

Red Cards

Oita Trinita - Morishige (86′), Maeda (89′)

I’ve got a big exam on Friday but if I have time before then I’ll try to get the pictures up, otherwise I might just do an epic photo post after the away match at Omiya.  Stay tuned!

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REPORT: 04.19 FC Tokyo 4:2 (2:2) Kawasaki Frontale (J1 Week 7)

Saturday, April 19th, 2008

Let’s get the TL;DR version out of the way…

FC Tokyo, if by some microscopic chance you’re paying attention to this little blog? that is how you win matches, and how you will continue to win matches.

On a day that started sunny, clouds threatened throughout the match but it didn’t start to rain until most of us began to leave the stadium. But a storm was brewing on the field as the 13th round of the Tamagawa Clasico was one to remember.

The boys in blue and red dominated the pitch almost from start - none of the mistakes we’ve seen in the past, or at least if they were made they were all done in the last few minutes when the match was all but decided. Tokyo dominated the midfield and kept constant pressure on Kawasaki to the point where it was only a matter of time before they would score - the question was when.

Kawasaki drew first blood with a set piece - these seem to be Tokyo’s weak point as of late (recall that Verdy’s one goal against Tokyo was from a free kick). Tokyo was unable to clear and Kashima foward Chong Tese kicked to the lower right post past Shiota. However, FCT quickly countered, and 6 minutes later Cabore slammed in the equalizer. Just a minute later, Frontale capitalized on a miscue near the Tokyo goal - an FC Tokyo player fell over Shiota as he was diving to make the save and as a result Shiota got caught outside of the box, leaving midfielder Taniguchi a practical open net. This would end up being the last major defensive mistake Tokyo would make for the rest of the game.

Right before halftime, Akamine came through with a fantastic goal to tie things up at 2 apiece, and the supporters behind the goal were rabid.

After halftime, Tokyo continued to pressure, but was unable to get a score. Then, in the 63rd minute, Otake came in for Tokunaga and in the same minute sliced through the Kawasaki defense and slammed in what would turn out to be the game winner. As you watched Otake slip past one defender after another, you knew 10 seconds before it happened it was going to be a goal, and what a glorious way to pop his cherry. 7 minutes later Konno pushed a fourth goal in with what appeared to be his knee and was almost an own-goal, essentially sealing Kawasaki’s fate with 20 minutes left in the match. Even the Kawasaki players seemed resigned to going back across the Tamagawa with no points by the 80th or so minutes, despite a few strong offensive pushes that tested Tokyo’s defense and kept Shiota busy. But, in the end, the melody of nemuranai machi rose into the night as FC Tokyo took home the win.

Game notes:

-This match was pretty rough - four yellow cards were given, and a couple were omitted, including a rough collision by Kawasaki GK Kawashima on defender Nagatomo in the second half. Much like in last year’s match, Kawasaki essentially attempted to bully FC Tokyo - except this time, FCT fought back and did so convincingly

-Juninho had a couple breakout moments where he wove past the first line of defense, but in the end he was contained in the same way Hulk was contained.

-Stupid mistakes were way down - like, insignificant compared to the B-Team effort that they put up against Jubilo and even smaller compared to Verdy. Better passing in coverage, fewer turnovers. A few give-and-go plays didn’t go as planned, but more did than didn’t. Additionally, according to the official website FC Tokyo took 8 shots and made 4 of them. I’m not sure whether I should be happy that they’re picking their opportunities or upset that they’re not taking more shots, but 4 is the most they’ve scored since last August against Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

-Attendance was 22,283 - roughly the same as for the Verdy match, which surprised me. I’m inclined to think that a number of Tokyo fans feared the rain and stayed home, and they missed out. Kawasaki’s supporters were loud and impressive - fat lot of good it did them in the end, but they’re probably the largest supporter group we’ve opposed so far this year, including Verdy.

-Defender Hideki Sahara faced his former squadmates on Kawasaki for the first time since joining FC Tokyo. He received a yellow card and plenty of cheers from the home crowd as well as a couple gate flags making note of his change of residence: Photo 1 Photo 2

-Akamine got the hero interview but Otake got summoned for the sha-sha-sha chant. He went right up to the front of the supporter’s section so I didn’t see anything but I expect it’ll show up on YouTube soon enough.

-Speaking of photos I did appear in the Match Day Program - they did not include my plug for the blog but they did fix my bungled Japanese, so one for two. I’ll scan it tonight or tomorrow when I upload my photos from the game.

Finally the match notes:

STARTING LINEUPS

FC Tokyo - (GK) Shiota, (DF) Tokunaga, Sahara, Fujiyama, Nagatomo, (MF) Asari, Kajiyama, Konno, Kurisawa, Akamine, (FW) Cabore

Kawasaki Frontale - (GK) Kawajima, (DF) Igawa, Terada, Ito, (MF) Mori, Nakamura, Taniguchi, Yamagishi, Ohashi, (FW) Chong, Juninho

SUBSTITUTIONS

FC Tokyo - Otake (Kurisawa 63′), Kawaguchi (Cabore 84′)

Kawasaki Frontale - Yabu (Ohashi, 63′), Kurotsu (Yamagishi, 74′), Kukino (Mori, 84′)

GOALS

FC Tokyo - Cabore (25′), Akamine (43′), Otake (63′), Konno (70′)

Kawasaki Frontale - Chong (19′), Taniguchi (26′)

YELLOW CARDS

FC Tokyo - Sahara (’19)

Kawasaki Frontale - Taniguchi (’31), Terada (’46), Mori (’48)

With today’s matches over, FC Tokyo finds itself in 3rd place in the standings - naturally this may (and likely will) change after tomorrow’s games, but things are looking up.  The next match is an away game against Jubilo - I won’t be there but I’m sure I’ll figure out some way to watch the game and get some sort of report up.

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