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.
It's the hope isn't it? For so so long we looked comfortable especially after Minamino's deflected effort gave us the lead. Then Jin-Hyeon was called upon a couple of times to keep us in it. But eventually new boy Cacau, who had shown some nice touches, lost the ball for the move that led to old boy Simplicio (why did we let him go?) equalizing before we were finished off in injury time with Morioka slotting home despite an army of pink shirts around him. Changes in the management structure loom while I have to put up with Gamba fans remembering my insults as they slipped down to J2 and fellow Cerezo fans just worried, furrowed brows everywhere.
They left happy but they would have been disappointed not to leave without 3 points against relegation candidates
The scoreboard indicates why the Kobe fans were happy leaving behind so many disappointed fans in Osaka
This Kansai Derby is always a highlight of our footballing calendar (when Vissel Kobe and Cerezo are in the same division) and this didn't disappoint as we put in a really good performance against an in-form side in the lovely Noevir Stadium. Another brace from Forlan so if you like you can enjoy a video of all his touches from the game. Otherwise the second video has your standard highlights omitting some key non-Forlan related moments. Apparently our next opponents, Omiya Ardija, were poor today so we can look forward to our encounter on "Greenery Day" the public holiday to appreciate nature but which the squirrels might not enjoy.
Love didn't conquer all, although he did score the first after a ridiculous penalty decision. So, however unlikely it seems, we made it through!Sakemoto was dropped and our formation was altered but ultimately I don't think that made a huge difference as two nice finishes from two players we expect to produce the goods got us the points we needed to squeeze through to the knockout stage. Jin-Hyeon gave us a scare as he fell very awkwardly but played on and he and the rest of the defense proved too strong for Shandong to get back in the game. Enjoy the video and happy days! Marcelo Lippi's Guangzhou Evergrande awaits us in early May. A Kansai Derby awaits us tomorrow back in J1.
This was sold out as I believe was last season's fixture at Ajinomoto Stadium. Last time we came away with three points, despite a goal from Hasegawa (now of Cerezo), Minamino and Kakitani scored in November last year. Sadly it was not to be today as our defence was easily breached. I feel Sakemoto will bear the brunt of Popovic's (who brought Hasegawa with him from FC Tokyo this year) wrath again after a poor defensive display. Both FC Tokyo goals came from his side of the defense as well another great chance to score sandwiched in between the two goals. We had chances but nothing is going consistently well for Kakitani or Forlan so far this season as they don't look like a strike partnership capable of rescuing us from our defensive frailties. Time will tell, there are glimpses of a footballing understanding between them interspersed with shrugs and complaints. If we can't defend we need to score more, pretty simple. We can't even use the excuse of being in the ACL as we have a pretty big squad compared to previous years with lots of opportunity for rotation of which we have seen very little. Two massive games coming up (with us in poor form) in China against Shandong Luneng to determine who will qualify from our ACL group followed by a trip to current league leaders Vissel Kobe for Kansai bragging rights.
Kobe
play in J2 this year which means no away trip with Cerezo to their
lovely stadium and my usual pre-match trip to the Hobgoblin pub,
Chinatown and the German beer and currywurst shop. As J2 games are
held on Sunday (when an English breakfast is 999yen) I went down and
saw a marvellous comeback from Fagiano Okayama as they scored 3 in
the space of 10 minutes with the last coming in injury time to leave
Kobe still leading J2 but their fans slightly miffed (there were boos
at the final whistle). Fagiano is the Italian for pheasant in case
you were wondering about Okayama's name. Noevir is a make-up company
as the stadium has it's third sponsorship change in as many years.
This is one that builds on the great women's team INAC Kobe Lionessa
which features many of the national team players. Fans that made
the trip were given a free sample of face cream. Kobe will welcome Gamba Suita at the Noevir for their Golden Week Kansai Derby.
The flag waving didn't put off the penalty taker although finally the Okayama fans went home happy
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.
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 2nd half and
oddly enough it was thanks to our left-back Maruhashi receiving his
marching orders in the 60th 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 73rd 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 12th and looking
pretty safe. Enjoy the highlights!
An entertaining
game, bad defending meant we had lots of chances. Kempes missed after a defensive
error in the first minute and hit the post twice but did get on the
score sheet using his head which was his seventh goal in the league. Kakitani continues to add to his goal
tally this season with his eighth in the J-League. Star signing Simplicio made
up for giving away a penalty with his first goal since his move from
Serie A, he had an almost identical effort ruled out for offside
minutes earlier. A great result against a S-Pulse team in transition.
We're not out of danger yet but it's nice to write about a match and
not say "we were poor" for once. Kansai derby up next and
it's a big one with Vissel Kobe needing points to avoid being dragged
into the relegation dogfight. Genki Omae with a penalty and Alex Brosque form a free kick scored for S-Pulse. Brosque has just signed for Al Ain FC in the UAE where he joins Asamoah Gyan. Shinji Ono also left S-Pulse to join the Western Sydney Wanderers as their marquee signing.
Fans behind the goal did a great job of trying to put Omae off his penalty
Culpi a lot less animated than usual after his return from retirement
