Omiya sack their manager after losing 0-3 to Cerezo

Omiya are still 4^th while we should take no small amount of confidence into the next few games with this performance. This was Omiya's fifth straight defeat and signalled the end of manager Zdenko Verdenik's time in charge after leaving Omiya in 4^th place (they have never finished above 12^th in the top flight) and going on a J.League record unbeaten run of 21 games. What's the big idea? Omiya were league leaders back in April but apparently there will be an announcement from the club later which will do well to justify such a move. Moving swiftly on to more positive things and the second goal is becoming Kakitani's trademark, assured first touch and a calm finish. Simplicio put in a good shift today too. After this game Cupli challenged Kakitani to stay near or on top of the goalscoring charts and disappear in games less often while Kakitani himself said he wants to win J1 with Cerezo. Home supporter tickets are in very short supply for the next game against Shimizu S-Pulse on the 17^th. Enjoy the highlights below and for all who come on Saturday, bring the noise!

Tut-tut, a bit of booing at the end of our loss to Ventforet Kofu

A game were expecting to win but after a couple of poor results hopefully Kakitani's goals will stop us from freefalling but we are in danger of missing one of our best chances in recent seasons to finish with a spot in the ACL. Kusakami started his first league game since joining us and was our most impressive player. We tried or were instructed to intricately pass our way directly through the Kofu team whilst on numerous occasions while our full-backs waved their arms in despair. One of the key successes of our way if playing is the width provided by our full-backs, which does leave us vulnerable with four at the back, but we didn't use them enough today. Culpi took off Kakitani and Kusukami a few minutes after Ventforet's Akito Kawamoto put the away side a goal up with what proved to be the winner. An odd change as Kusakami was looking dangerous throughout. A change of tactics would have been better especially after the nth attempt of playing through the middle was dealt with by Ventforet. A few fans in Kincho Stadium were booing at the end despite this being a young team needing support and, be fair to them, they aren't flirting with relegation like last season.

Albirex Niigata 1 - 0 Cerezo Osaka

This was a game we were expecting to at least come away from with a point but after Edno spurned our best chance created by Kakitani we were left with nothing as another bit of dodgy goalkeeping from Jin-Hyeon presented the ball to a grateful Kentaro Ohi who wrapped up the 3 points for Albirex. This video shows highlights of the all the recent J.League games with a focus on the returning heroes from the East Asian Cup in South Korea where Zaccheroni was successful with an experimental squad. Kakitani scored 3 goals in the two games he started including a brace that sealed victory for Japan. Yamaguchi was named player of the tournament while Ogihara also made his debut for the national team. From a Cerezo point of view this has raised the profile of the young players making it tougher to hold on to them when foreign clubs start their approaches. But another way of looking at it is that now they are under pressure to be consistent performers which will only help us in the league this season. After that who knows? The Cerezo highlights start at 03:24 on the video and are followed by a chat with Kakitani.

Cerezo Osaka 4 - 1 Sagan Tosu

An entertainingly open game and there could have been more goals but for the woodwork and of course the goalkeepers. Spreading the goals around a bit this game with the player of the East Asian Cup tournament Yamaguchi scoring the first after Kakitani's persistence. Sakemoto scored a bit of a fluke goal before Sagan Tosu scored their only goal of the game. Yokoyama got our third and had a fine game in a midfield lacking Simplicio anchored by him and Ogihara allowing Yamaguchi to play further forward. Defender Yamashita scored the fourth which was also a just reward for his recent performances deputising for Moniwa.

7 game unbeaten run in J1! Cerezo 2 - 1 Nagoya Grampus

Edno scored his first goal in the J-League as we rode our luck a tad on our way to getting 3 points. Another entertaining game and I'm glad the Grampus fans got to see a Kennedy consolidation goal as they really added to a fantastic atmosphere. Kakitani got our second after a sublime first touch from Edamura's through ball. He's now joint top of the J1 goalscorers charts with two other players. Grampus hit the woodwork twice during the course of the game but it's now becoming clear that Culpi may be close to replicating his ACL qualifying formula before his first retirement a couple of seasons back. There's now a one month break in J1 but we face Urawa Reds on the 23^rd and 30^th this month in the quarter finals of the Nabisco cup. This match was sold out possibly thanks to a half-time appearance from FC Nuremberg and former Cerezo midfielder Kiyotake.

Brilliant support from Nagoya

Kincho Stadium sold out

Where does one buy a Cerezo microphone?



J1 Kashiwa Reysol 1 - 3 Cerezo Osaka May 18th

We conceded first after another spell of choosing not to tackle anyone. Yamaguchi equalised with a free-kick that the Reysol keeper misjudged badly. Kakitani wrapped things up for us adding to his impressive tally this season with a brace that keeps Cerezo hovering around the ACL spots. Have we found consistency at last?

Kawasaki Frontale 2 - 2 Cerezo Osaka

Highlights of the match in J1 on May 11th with goals for Cerezo from Edamura and Simplicio. Ex-Cerezo favourite Okubo got a brace for Frontale and while his father was ill and sadly passed away the next day.

 

Cerezo Osaka 2 - 2 Urawa Reds

Both teams were evenly matched and a draw was always on the cards but it was by far the most entertaining game this season. Golden week, discount tickets and Urawa Reds helped to fill Nagai Stadium with 32,378 people enjoying the match. The Reds supporters didn't cause any problems this time except for their usual uncourteous (for Japanese football fans) behaviour. Sugimoto's strike and all round play means Edno will be on the bench for the foreseeable future. As usual at home after taking the lead we always look like letting the other team back into the game. Also our policy of not tackling or defending corners properly allowed Urawa to take the lead. Yamaguchi equalised and after that both he and Simplicio came close with long range efforts. Very positive signs from this game although our lack of width is worrying especially for Sugimoto who would thrive on some decent crosses. Hopefully playing away at Kawasaki Frontale will give us a chance to build on this performance and cement our position in the top half of the table.

Football fans and/or wannabe hooligans

They're not scarves BTW they're called "towel mufflers"

Keeping things in order

 



The "Renewal Open" Kincho Stadium witnesses a goalless draw against Oita Trinita

Oita Trinita currently languish at the bottom of J1 but left with a point despite hitting the woodwork in quick succession. To be fair to Cerezo they did manage a pretty decent 16 shots this game whilst always looking susceptible to an Oita counter. Edno was dropped today for the first time but looked lively when brought on. As usual our brightest spark throughout was Kakitani who seems likely to leave this summer with Dortmund being touted as one possible destination. This was the first game this season in the slightly revamped Kincho Stadium with a larger standing section behind the goal which our fans celebrated by chipping in together to pay almost a million yen for a new banner.

If you wear the away colours in this section you can't watch the game, new rules this season.

Locals show their support

Trinita supporters gave it their all to help lift their team

Impressive!
 

 

Cerezo Osaka 1 - 2 Omiya Ardija

League leaders Omiya left with 3 points as they scored very early and very late on with our only goal coming from Kakitani. Shin Kanazawa scored from just past the halfway line after spotting Kim Jin-Hyeon off his line about 22 seconds into the game. An expected result as we are still trying to work out our best system (perhaps something with a striker who can score would help?) while the squirrels on the other hand are comfortably beating all comers at the moment.

Sitting, or standing in this case, pretty at the top of J1

 



Kashima Antlers 1 - 0 Cerezo Osaka

It's been a while since Jin-Hyeon made this kind of blunder and unfortunately it cost us today as we suffered our first defeat in the league when it allowed Yasushi Endo to score the winner in the 58^th minute. Some of our early season performances haven't warranted the points we've been getting so it's no surprise about the result although the manner of the loss is frustrating. FC Tokyo visit Osaka for a Nabisco Cup match on Wednesday night.

2nd with a 100% record...after 3 games

Didn't make it to the game but these highlights (and commentary if you understand Japanese) can't really do justice to a couple of crucial offside decisions leading to a goal for Cerezo's Hotaru Yamaguchi and one disallowed for FC Tokyo. Next game is in the Nabisco Cup against Grampus in Nagoya. That's on Wednesday 20^th at 4pm as it's a public holiday here in Japan to celebrate the Vernal Equinox.

Notching up 2 wins in 2

A great start from us led to a Kakitani goal after some fine work from Sugimoto early on. Leaving Hugo unmarked in the 6 yard box after a corner could only mean a Kofu equaliser later in the 1^st half. Culpi might have been annoyed with the two Brazilians Edno and Simplicio who both picked up yellow cards just before half time and were taken off at the interval with Edamura and Minamino replacing them. The promising teenager hit the post in the 79^th minute and Yamaguchi was well placed to slam home the rebound. This was a vast improvement on what we saw last week. Not a great performance though but we have a 100% record so no complaints! Next up is another team with two wins in two, FC Tokyo. They travel down from the vast overcrowded soulless metropolis that is Tokyo to the vibrant, friendly, foodie Osaka.

Cerezo kick off the season with a win

Kakitani's calm finish secured an incredibly undeserved 3 points as Albirex will be wondering how they are going home with nothing. No outfield player for us performed particularly well as Jin-Hyeon had to be in top form to keep us in the game. Worryingly our new no.9 Edno “the Rock” lived up to his nickname by being a motionless inanimate object for most of the game before being subbed. Hopefully Culpi will change the starting line-up for the next game as quite a few players failed to impress but Ogihara's introduction added some urgency and bite to the midfield. An unexepectedly depressing moment came as we brought on the re-branded Branquinho who now goes by “Branco”. This is a guy we have on loan and we subsequently loaned to Yamagata in J2 as he proved to be largely ineffective last year. As he came on looking at his name on the scoreboard I thought it was a new signing until on closer inspection it turned out to be our unsuccessful loaned loanee sneaking back on to the pitch under a different name, very odd. In other news congratulations to Shinji Kagawa who grabbed a hat-trick in the early hours this morning for Man U against Norwich. Man U will visit Osaka in the summer for a friendly bringing with them overpriced tickets, an extra game in the middle of the J1 season and the Japanese superstar we sold for 350,000 Euros. All said and done we got 3 points but if we can't improve drastically we could well be flirting with relegation again. 

 

New uniform, 2013 fixtures and a reminder of why the number 8 is so important!

First match of the season in Nagai Stadium

New kit revealed

"Adventure" (Dancing Heart) Our slogan for this season

Here are the first set of fixtures in J1 with the kick off times available. The rest can be found here in Japanese. There's a pleasing number of Saturday afternoon games before summer and we start the season in Nagai Stadium. Golden week fixtures this year feature an away trip to Shonan Bellmare and Nagoya Grampus at home. Strange not seeing another Kansai team here as we keep our fingers crossed that Gamba can make it to the JFL this year. The new kits are looking good. New signing Kusukami has the number 10 while Kakitani inherits the number 8 once worn by club legend Hiroaki Morishima. No number 9 yet as the club have yet to finalise the Edno Cunha signing. Pre-season we're heading to Thailand to face our partner club Bangkok Glass on the 7th this month. Click here for more information on the partnership.

1 2/3 Sat 14：00  Albirex Niigata 大阪長居スタジアム 2 9/3 Sat 14：00  Ventforet Kofu (A) 山梨中銀スタジアム 3 16/3 Sat 15：00  ＦＣ Tokyo 大阪長居スタジアム 4 30/3 Sat 13：00  Vegalta Sendai 大阪長居スタジアム 5 6/4 Sat 15：00  Kashima Antlers (A) 県立カシマサッカースタジアム 6 13/4 Sat 19：00  Omiya Ardija 大阪長居スタジアム 7 20/4 Sat 13：00  Shimizu S-Pulse (A) 日本平スタジアム 8 27/4 Sat 14：00  Oita Trinita キンチョウスタジアム 9 3/5 Fri 16：00  Shonan Bellmare (A) Shonan BMWスタジアム平塚 10    6/5 Mon 16：00  Urawa Reds 大阪長居スタジアム 11 11/5 Sat 15：00  Kawasaki Frontale (A) 等々力陸上競技場 12 18/5 Sat 15：00  Kashiwa Reysol (A) 日立柏サッカー場 13 25/5 Sat 19：00  Nagoya Grampus キンチョウスタジアム 14 6/7 Sat 19：00  Jubilo Iwata (A) ヤマハスタジアム（磐田） 15 10/7 Sat 19：00  Yokohama F. Marinos キンチョウスタジアム 16 13/7 Sat 19：00  Sanfrecce Hiroshima (A) エディオンスタジアム広島 17 17/7 Wed 19：00  Sagan Tosu キンチョウスタジアム 18 31/7 Wed 19：00  Albirex Niigata (A) 東北電力ビッグスワンスタジアム 19 3/8 Sat 19：00  Venforet Kofu キンチョウスタジアム 20 10/8 Sat 19：00  Omiya Ardija (A) NACK５スタジアム大宮 21 17/8 Sat 19：00  Shimizu S-Pulse キンチョウスタジアム 22 24/8 Sat 19：00  Nagoya Grampus (A) 名古屋市瑞穂陸上競技場 23 28/8 Wed 19：00  Vegalta Sendai (A) ユアテックスタジアム仙台 24 31/8 Sat 19：00  Kawasaki Frontale 大阪長居スタジアム

Last game of the season 2 - 2 and we are still in J1!

We could have been relegated if other results conspired against us and we didn't get at least a point against Frontale. So I spent most of the match looking at the updates from other matches in particular those involving our fellow Kansai strugglers Gamba and Vissel Kobe which reminded me of watching football scores on Ceefax (RIP). Others listened to the radio and the more prepared fans were watching streams from these games. As is turned out we could have lost and still stayed up. This is why the celebrations when our equaliser went in from our players seemed a bit over the top to say the least. When it might have mattered we were losing for long periods. When it got to 2 – 2 we were safe anyway. Overall the league campaign wasn't a particularly impressive one with managerial changes and us, inevitably now it seems, losing another star player to a German club in the summer. Takahiro Ogihara is lined up to sign for Nurnberg this winter too. Gamba and Vissel both lost and go down. This means no derby games for us next season and while I was delighted to see Gamba go down most of our fans were just happy to stay up. In fact most of our fans were/are sympathetic to their plight, but I personally enjoyed seeing their supporters crying! The other team at the wrong end of the table on the last day, Albirex Niigata, spanked the newly crowned and possibly hungover champions Hiroshima 4 – 1 ensuring they stay in J1. Here are the highlights and the rather embarrassing celebration scenes when our second equaliser goes in, seriously it looks like we've won the league instead of just avoiding relegation thanks to the results of other teams. On the positive side Tomonobu Yokoyama chipped in with two goals against his old club. At least his wild celebrations were warranted.

HIghlights, OTT celebrations at 02:45!

Congratulations to Hiroshima! We are in a spot of bother now

Well done to Hiroshima. A great championship winning last home game at the Big Arch for them. Now we have a small chance of being relegated on the last day of the season. Don't want to write or think about it any more. Bad memories of 2005. Something horrible could happen at the reverse end of the table this time.

Cerezo Osaka 1 - 2 Omiya Ardija

The squirrels showed more urgency in their fight to stay in J1 and deservedly came away with 3 points. Jin-Hyeon's positioning invited the first goal from a free kick as our players seemed happy enough to know that although mathematically we could still go down it's pretty unlikely. The good thing is the result leaves Gamba in the relegation zone. Today we are away to league leaders Hiroshima Sanfrecce so I'm not expecting us to come back with anything from the game but it's the J-League and Cerezo so anything is possible.

Novakovic takes advatage of Jin-Hyeon's positioning

Our recent form has earned Levir Culpi  a contract extension for next season, who will look after his Japanese restaurant in Brazil?

It wasn't raining

Cerezo Osaka 3 - 2 Sagan Tosu

Another action packed game finishing 3-2, thanks to a truly woeful penalty by Tosu's Toyoda. Both the penalty decisions were dubious. Ours was given for an accidental handball which Kakitani remained cool enough to score. Tosu's was for an accidental collision which earned Jin-Hyeon a booking. So a pretty fortunate three points keeps us out of the relegation zone for now and it was nice to see the Sagan Tosu fans after they gave us such a great reception in Saga on the opening day of the season. Sagan Tosu are enjoying a solid first season in J1 managed by former Cerezo and South Korea midfielder Yoon Jong-Hwan. Kodama came in at left-back for the suspended Maruhashi but did little to suggest he could keep that spot. On Wednesday we face Montedio Yamagata in the Emperor's Cup which will see the return of Branquinho who they have on loan from us at the moment.

Crazy Kansai Derby! Vissel Kobe 2-3 Cerezo Osaka

Dodgy defending from both sides contributed to another exciting Kansai derby at the beautiful Home's Stadium in Kobe with 12,868 in attendance. We were two down after 17 minutes thanks to goals from Ogawa and Soma for Vissel. Fabio Simplicio pulled one back after some clumsy gaolkeeping in the first half as both sides spurned some good chances. The turning point for us came in the 2^nd half and oddly enough it was thanks to our left-back Maruhashi receiving his marching orders in the 60^th minute after a dangerous looking but probably unintentional lunge. Culpi took off the profligate Kempes for Sugimoto who promptly headed against the bar from a set piece. Simplicio scored his second from a well delivered Kakitani cross in the 73^rd minute. Culpi then threw on S-Pulse loanee Edamura who scored a cracking goal to give us the 3 points and leapfrog over Vissel up to 12^th and looking pretty safe. Enjoy the highlights!