It's a blog (in English mostly) all about football...in Japan with the J-League and Cerezo Osaka, in the English Premier League with Spurs and anywhere else the football takes us.
Well, Spurs did lose to Blackpool away earlier this season but still, we had a chance to close the gap on Man City and didn't take it. Gomes from great to goof in the space of a few minutes and we were behind despite playing pretty well from a penalty. Defoe earned us a point in the dying minutes but it's been a poor set of results for us recently despite patches of playing really well, quite simply more goals needed...also starting to lose patience with Gomes but Redknapp remains a big fan, 1-1 the final score.
What's this? It looks like Defoe's in Cerezo colours for some reason, why? Where did this come from? Very odd.
At home to Vegalta Sendai (click the name to find out where the name Vegalta comes from, interesting) and the same result 1-1. This time Komatsu Rui earned us a point in injury time. It was only in the last few minutes we looked urgent and went for it. Again some worrying signs, the ref got some stick but it was masking over another average performance. A fair result, Sendai fans were great as usual with a fine repertoire of songs. It looks like Pimpao will score at least one amazingly spectacular goal this season, he seems to try for something special but at the moment all Cerezo need is 3 points please! Crunch time in the ACL next with the visit of Shandong Luneng on Tuesday, a draw or a win will do, back to Nagai Stadium for this one.
Komatsu, not wearing a Spurs kit, but he's our Peter Crouch, give him a chance Culpi!
Shandong Luneng were good, well done to our fans who made the trip, it was emotional after the earthquake/tsunami and I think most people at the stadium felt that. So we lost, but our first away game in the ACL was action packed and we had some good chances, it's all very new for Cerezo and the group itself is still obviously wide open. We can qualify but need to concentrate a whole lot more for 90 minutes. Jin-Hyeon also made a penalty save at the second attempt. Renato and Wang Yongpo scored for Shandong.
Shandong Sports Centre
...and the army were waiting inside.
A warm welcome...
In other news Spurs drew with West Ham which was shown live on J-Sports 2,featuring a MOM performance from their keeper Robert Green and an "I still love West Ham" performance from Jermain Defoe missing some good chances, and Wayne Bridge played really well for the Hammers. Plus we have Real Madrid to look forward to in the Champions League quarter finals. The main worry at the moment though is whether we (Spurs and/or Cerezo) can clinch another Champions League spot for next season.
A great weekend in the Premier League with loads of entertaining games and refereeing as usual. Our game against Wolves was a highlight, a nice tribute to Dean Richards (RIP) before the match followed by two goals for Defoe and one for Pavlyuchenko, all great goals. Despite that, fairplay to Wolves they certainly deserved something, they had a perfectly good goal ruled out too. We still need to do more to get back in the Champions League qualifying spots. Shame Aston Villa have Kyle Walker on loan from us as he may well have done better than Alan Hutton in that game. The game was played at a really high tempo which is something I guess AC Milan won't be able to do at White Hart Lane.
England won against the Danes. Everyone was raving about Christian Eriksen who plays for Ajax for now.
No debut for Kyle Walker and Defoe stayed on the bench but Dawson played for a while. Lots of other Spurs players had a run out mid-week though including Sandro for Brazil who lost against the French. Lucky Harry, couldn't get rid of Nico Kranjcar during the window and he ended up scoring a beauty to get us the 3 points against Bolton, live on J-Sports 2 last weekend. Our game tonight against Sunderland is also going to be shown on J-Sports 2 which is a rare double treat for Spurs fans in Japan but this one will will kick off just before half two on Sunday morning over here. No Bale, Van Der Vaart, Modric, King ( of course, back soon? ) and Kaboul. Xavi the Spain and Barcelona maestro gave an interesting interview this week, Scholes eh?
The current squad includes Jermain Defoe, Michael Dawson and Kyle Walker from Spurs, no room for the recently playing decently Lennon though which is odd. Fair play to Kyle Walker for his call up at right back, a position Harry has tried three players so far in the league for us... Walker has also scored more Premier League goals (1) than Defoe (0) as of today, here is his effort against Fulham.
One of our right backs...playing for Villa
Good luck to him if he gets his first cap against Denmark later today. Lampard has been named captain as the other conteders are out. It might not be the pick the pick of the friendly internationals, France vs Brazil could be interesting, but there's enough to keep Spurs and England fans interested. Although if you live in Japan watching it live is possible but needs some stamina and you should be willing to bend the law a little. Redknapp has withdrawn Peter Crouch and Van Der Vaart (Holland) due to injuries or he's playing things safe.
