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.
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 23rd
and 30th 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.
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
