Fagiano Okayama 1 - 1 Cerezo Osaka

Feelgood Factor returns for a few minutes! Cerezo Osaka 3 - 1 Omiya Ardija

Keiji Tamada bagged a brace on his home debut and Ogihara scored a beauty. As usual our defence had a brain fart defending a cleared corner but despite that and the rain (which meant a slightly lower than expected attendance of 15584) everyone was happy for the last few minutes. All the goals came in the 2nd half. Tamada gave us the lead early in the 2nd half with a calm finish after a neat flick from Sekiguchi, who also made his home debut. Omiya equalised with minutes remaining but two injury time goals were enough to see us grab 3 points. Ex-captain Moniwa came on for little cameo as the Squirrels left empty handed. Omiya Ardija came down with us from J1 last year and usually do pretty well when they come to Osaka so this was a good result for us (in J2, always remember this is J2). 

This is J2! Again

Like the old Chelsea shed end but with less cars

One of those horrible heart breaking finishes to a game for away fans

Back in J2! Tokyo Verdy 1 - 1 Cerezo Osaka

We did enough to win but couldn't quite get the winner. Pablo Felipe looked good, well good enough for J2 anyway, but managed to get himself sent off. No predictions for this season based on that performance although you'd hope we won't get relegated again and have only one manager this year. If our players enjoy playing under Paulo Autuori we have more than enough quality to put a run of games together and get back to J1. After the disaster of last season I'll only be truly happy if we return as champions...when the 2 stage format in J1 has been scrapped ideally. I can go back to enjoying football more this year in J2 anyway, Forlan should too if he keeps playing and scoring. Just over 12,000 came to Ajinomoto Stadium and I suspect we will manage to beat that figure this coming Sunday in Yanmar Stadium. I think they lookalike anyway (see the last two pictures). 

Outside the stadium is surrounded by the colours of Verdy's ground sharing partners FC Tokyo

Very impressive numbers and as always loud and enthusiastic 

Dejan Savicevic

Pablo Felipe

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On the 4th Anniversary of the Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami: Some pictures from a trip to the region in 2013

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