What happened to S-Pulse? Cerezo 4 - 0 Shimizu

Our first game since Pimpao returned to Brazil after an inconsistent few games in J1 but pretty solid performances in the ACL. He won't be missed too badly (if at all) after this result. Martinez returned and Komatsu took up the front man position. The first half was pretty evenly matched and I was pretty worried coming into this game. But the second half belonged to our Korean midfielder Kim Bo-Kyung. Some pretty poor marking from a corner let Bo-Kyung score the first from in the six yard box. He then won a penalty, a decision which could have gone either way, leaving Kurata to convert. So we got a couple of fortunate goals. A few minutes later and Shinji Ono got subbed due to an injury and that seemed to destroy any hope for Shimizu as they never looked like getting back into things. This left Kim Bo-Kyung to grab his well deserved second and Inui to wrap things up with our fourth goal. Deja vu perhaps I've written this before but that could be Inui's last for us, this was played in Nagai Stadium before heading of to VFL Bochum for a bargain price (or his true worth?) of around 300,000 Euros.

Shimizu away fans full of hope

Bo-Kyung (next to the keeper) waits for the delivery to score his first

Kurata prepares to tuck this one away

Shinji Ono's game is over and with it any sign of hope for Shimizu. Oh no indeed.

Slightly tarnished Cerezo 5-0 home win against the league leaders Kashiwa

I would have been happier if we got a result against 11 men over the whole game but we were 2-0 up before Kashiwa's No.10 Leandro Domingues got his marching orders after 28 minutes. Before that Inui cooly finished a fine through ball from Kiyotake. A mix-up between the keeper and defender then allowed Pimpao to grab our second. Inui was in good form today taking on players and even beating them! At this point the game was was well poised and looked like serving up some good entertainment. Until Leandro's sending off. He picked up his first booking for a deliberate handball, wasn't in a dangerous position and it's debatable whether it was deliberate. Anyway Martinez waved the annoying imaginary card at the ref who booked Leandro. A couple of minutes later during a Cerezo counter Leandro appeared to take Martinez (who rolled around a lot before getting up) out after he had released the ball. The ref made a good decision and allowed an advantage which Pimpao wanted to take by playing the ball to Inui. Inui instead of continuing a promising attack let the ball go out preferring to wave an imaginary card at the ref who turned around and showed Leandro his second yellow. Cue protests from the Kashiwa players. This signalled the end of the game as a contest. It was a bit hard to enjoy the rest of the game, we did our best to get the guy sent off basically, even though we were doing well enough anyway. This ref was actually really good with playing advantages but a couple of times players refused to take them. Play to the whistle! Also waving an imaginary card should be a yellow card offence, it's not really in the spirit of the game. So we knocked in another three in the second half. Martinez, Kurata and the ever excitable Bando with a great turn and finish were the goalscorers but it all left a slightly sour taste in my mouth after the sending off. The victory would've meant so much more 11 vs 11 for 90 minutes. Perhaps I should be happier, it was after all our long-awaited first home victory in front of 13741 fans in Nagai Stadium most if not all of whom left in better spirits than I did! 

Inui looking on ominously below the Kashiwa support. Felt sorry for them in the end, there was a lone trumpeter in there somewhere who kept their spirits up.

Is Maruhashi holding his head in shame here? Martinez about to get up after Leandro got sent off.

Officials, players, coaches and subs all try to stop Bando going nuts after scoring so the game could actually finish!

Final score with a sad looking blank space where Leandro's name would still have been on another day.

Still no home win, Inui scores but will it be his last for Cerezo?

An entertaining 2-3 loss to a strong Nagoya team. Inui came off the bench to score our second after Pimpao got the first for Cerezo. Jin-Hyeon had to face another Kennedy penalty straight after saving the first when the referee deemed a retake was needed. This was Nagoya's third of the night. Not for the first time this season the home fans (and Culpi) got peeved with the officiating.

Kennedy gets another penalty chance

Culpi was restrained then stormed off

How many games does Inui have left for Cerezo? Will he be a great loss?

Inui started away to Albirex Niigata but it took an effort from sub Sakemoto in injury time to salvage a point for us in Niigata, 1-1. Still finding it hard to believe the scouts think he's that good but it looks like Inui (4 goals in J1 last season) will be heading to Europe and the Bundelsiga looks the most likely destination. Supposedly his contract has a similar 350k Euro release clause that saw the now highly valued Shinji Kagawa leave for Dortmund. Surely the outcome won't be the same, I expect to see a fair number of bemused Bundesliga fans when they see him in action, even if he is cheap as. Not sure if he'll be starting, on the bench, or left out of the matchday squad (hot inside gossip ahoy!) for Kashiwa Reysol's visit to Osaka which will also see a return to Nagai Stadium this Saturday.

Two wins in the J-League so far!

We played Ventforet Kofu without Kiyotake who was on Olympic qualifying duty (see you in London!) with Japan U22s and Inui becuase of his possible move to the Bundesliga. Read Culpi's thoughts about an Inui move here. Is Inui that good? He's been great in the ACL this year and previously in J2 but he must have a good agent I guess, he managed 4 goals in 33 matches in J1 last season. Despite that it only took a goal each from our subs Komatsu and Bando in the 85min and in injury time respectively to get us our second win this season. Tomorrow Nagoya visit Kincho with their legendary manager Dragan Stojkovic, Japanese international defender Tulio and the J-League's joint top goalscorer last season (they were champions by the way) Australian Joshua Kennedy.

Kiyotake scores the first against the mighty Kuwait 3-1 to Nippon 

Cerezo...back down to planet J-League

We got our first win of the season away to Avispa Fukuoka. Our last game was at Kincho against Yokohama and the referee. Uemoto got sent off for...nothing? We tried our best, Nagai ran his heart out. Inui was missing due to a possible move to the Bundesliga? Next game on Saturday away to Ventforet Kofu. Cerezo fans don't look below:

We only had 10 men

Marinos fans applauding the referee?

But unlike any other J-League team we are in the next round of the ACL facing Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in September.

Arema 0-4 Cerezo

On a horrible pitch Cerezo looked really good in Indonesia, Inui got a couple following goals from Kiyotake and Pimpao. All of the goals featured some pretty slick passing and build up play. I don't know what happened to Arema, the team just didn't turn up and there was a huge gulf in class between the teams this time around.

We now have two home games in four days. Vegalta Sendai in the J-League will be a good test to see if we keep our confidence (Inui in particular) after an impressive performance. Vegalta of course is the team worst affected by the earthquake and there will a show of support from our fans with banners and memorial scarves.

Vegalta have started strongly this year and sit top of the table after four matches. Star player? Osaka-born captain Yong-Gi Ryang who plays for North Korea can provide and score goals if given the chance. It's a little worrying as our last performance at home (especially the first half) was awful against Albirex Niigata before Inui earned us point. It could be another frustrating night at Kincho Stadium. Midweek we have the crucial game against Shandong in the ACL where a win or draw will see us through to the next round.

C'mon linesman!

Insert Brazilian goalkeeper joke here.

On to Spurs, well on our way to blowing our chances of Champions League football next season. Although two non-goals by Chelsea weren't helpful we shouldn't be in the position of now worrying whether Liverpool can grab 5th and the Europa League spot by the end of the season. We play Blackpool at the Lane which will be on J-Sports Plus for viewers in Japan.

Mixed fortunes for Spurs and Cerezo

Cerezo did OK for spells away in Korea (in a fairly empty Japan/Korea world cup stadium) against Jeonbuk but we wasted our best chances, didn't do too well defensively and had some injury problems. It was an exciting game we lost 1-0. We have a decent enough chance of making it through to the next stage though. Jin-Hyeon was good, Inui was...Inui, had a great chance but fluffed it horribly, he can do so much better and has to this season. Martinez was struck down with an illness (Lennon-like for Spurs in Europe) and only made it to the bench and on for a few minutes in the second half. Spurs of course are well and truly out of the Champions League and it's going to be a close call whether or not we make it again next season, thanks for the adventure this season! Bale won player of the season without actually being the best player for Spurs this year. A fantastic North London derby last night/this morning (depending on where you live) even though the result didn't really help either team football was the winner, match of the seaon so far? Arsene Wenger acting like a kid after losing out on three points and none of our strikers scoring, Van der Vaart picking up the slack, business as usual.

Sometimes brilliant Welshman

Asian and UEFA Champions Leagues

Cerezo 1-0 Jeonbuk. Inui played better than he has in a long time, he looked dangerous and was rewarded with the winning goal. Pimpao missed from just outside the six yard box in the second half. Jin-Hyeon made a great save one on one with Jeonbuk's most dangerous player on the night. We are looking good to progress. An unexpected bonus on the night was Gamba losing in their ACL game.

Away support, it's not like Europe.

Home support, it's like Europe

Indeed they are "mad green"

Inui and co. celebrate

I4 celebrates

The team celebrate with our mascot

Spurs on the other hand, Crouch's red card means we have little chance in the next leg, Lennon pulling out at the last minute, literally. It was painful to watch, Real had a stupid amount of shots on goal and we ran out of steam with 10 men. Di Maria with a fantastic goal (while Bale was getting treatment on the sidelines). But it has been great so far, the Real fans were chanting (in Spanish of course) "stupid" when Crouch got his marching orders and it's tough to argue with that. Our fans were superb throughout. Japan are considering, or re-considering, their decision to withdraw from the Copa America. Man U did well against Chelsea, Schalke did brilliantly against Inter after this amazing goal from Dejan Stankovic.

Cerezo and Rodrigo Pimpao's first goal in the ACL

Inui with the cross and Pimpao with the finish, Kagawa celebrates!

Cerezo 2 - 1 Arema - Pimpao bags a brace on his debut!

Pimpao celebrates his second 

The I4 section of Nagai Stadium

Special guest appearance

We didn't play well. Inui set up Pimpao's header for the first goal and Pimpao also finished well from a fortunate free kick. We conceded a penalty for handball but Arema didn't play well either. Bo-Kyung Kim showed some nice touches and hit the crossbar. Perhaps I've been watching too much Premier League recently but I think we'll struggle against Gamba this Saturday if we don't improve our performance. I'm a little scared to be honest. Inui did little to remind people why he is capped at full international level despite his assist. At least Pimpao couldn't have done more, he only had two good chances and he finished them. Limping ex-Cerezo star Kagawa Shinji, now of Borussia Dortmund, gave an interview at half-time which was a nice distraction from a pretty poor game attended by just over 10000 people which was a disappointing number for our first game of the season.

Arema fans adding to the numbers while the stewards make sure there's no trouble

Waiting for the season to kick off!

Our first game will be against Gamba away with Adriano lining up for the home team. Gamba have also signed Seung-Yong Kim from Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, the team we face in the ACL, so perhaps they may have done us a favour? Our fixtures for the season have recently been added to the Cerezo site. We have signed a young centre-back from North Korea, Song-Gi Kim and Amaral has left the club. We also have Shu Kurata on loan from Gamba. In the last few seasons Cerezo have followed an odd pattern of being very good, then getting relegated so I'm not sure what to hope for this season. If Inui can up his game once more and remind people why he has been capped at full international level and Bo-Kyung Kim, who has returned from loan in J2 with Oita, (8 goals in 27 matches for the attacking midfielder) contributes and Pimpao scores some of those goals you can see elsewhere on this site, and Mr.Nagai steps up  we need not worry. But we are Cerezo and after the highs come the lows. Too much thinking too little football...

Lost in translation or Judas? What will our squad look like when the season starts?

Adriano has signed for Gamba. What happened there? There were rumours about this a few months ago but it seemed that he wasn't willing to make the switch back then. But... check this out. It's not Sol going to Arsenal... but it's pretty bad. Our top goalscorer last year, he got four in the last game of the season helping us get to the Asian Champions League. Although he did manage to get sent off when we were playing Gamba. Also it looks like Inui wants to follow Kagawa and Ienaga (who was on loan from Gamba) to Europe and has been linked with FC Cologne.