New manager Okuma keeps his 100% record: Cerezo Osaka 2 - 0 Kashiwa Reysol

Okuma kept faith with Nagai and Sugimoto up front and they repaid him with a goal apiece. Our first win in the league since May 3rd! The players clearly weren't up for working with Marco Pezzaiuloi or Popovic for that matter. I wonder if we'll get any Rio Ferdinand style revelations about why, but none of our players have a book to sell so maybe not. New, undoubtedly well paid, signing Cacau is injured along with our captain Yamaguchi who was linked with a move to Serie A before the World Cup. Ogihara looks to have regained some form now and Kusukami too looks to be reveling in finally being given a chance at a run in the team. As for the two chaps up front, great stuff which should see them both keeping hold of their places for the foreseeable future. Forlan made a cameo appearance after the game was settled. Sugimoto scored a header from Sakemoto's free kick and it was nice but huge questions marks over the Reysol defending as he wasn't really challenged despite three players being around him. Ryo Nagai scored in the second half. A very similar goal to the last one he scored in the cup as he was going away from goal but swiveled back to score, this one took a deflection on the way though. Be positive stay positive and win in Suita and we can start forgetting about the money Cerezo have spunked away this season and our current league position. A healthy 22491 in Yanmar Stadium thanks largely to the club giving away an enormous amount of tickets to the Osaka primary school kids affiliated to a local or school football club.

"Play Dirty Go Hard" and "We're Kashiwa Stupid" two of my picks from the Kashima Kashiwa banners

Indirect free kick so close to the 6 yard box, a rarity, always looks exciting but usually disappoints and this was no exception

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Kashiwa Reysol 2 - 1 Cerezo Osaka

Kakitani couldn't convert our best chances as we went back to looking like a team that needs more time to gel. Forlan dropped back into midfield too much for my liking where he couldn't really do any damage with his long passing. His best work comes from being closer to the last defenders and finding space which he isn't doing often enough at the moment. We have always needed an old head to calm and inspire our young team as Simplicio did last season. Forlan however just got angry on a couple of occasions instead of leading when our heads were down. His quote later to the AFP that "They don't have to listen if they don't want to be part of it" seems like an odd way to express leadership though. Ogihara has gone backwards, much like his passing in this game, in terms of his development which is highlighted by Hasegawa making it to the Japan team training session while he has been left behind. I don't think Popovic likes how Ogihara plays and on this form he doesn't deserve to be anywhere near the first team. This was not the best preparation for the next game which happens to be the Osaka Derby in Yanmar stadium on Saturday. Kashiwa Reysol's goals came from Tanaka early on and ex-Gamba forward Leandro later in the 2nd half. Maruhashi got our consolation goal in the dying minutes of the game.

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Kashima beats Gamba to maintain lead in J-League (FresnoBee.com)

Kashiwa Reysol beat Cerezo Osaka (Kyodo News)

Kashiwa outclasses Cerezo's stars (The Japan Times)

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Australians Abroad(Goal.com)

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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?

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.

Spurs into the Quarter Finals, Cerezo face Kashiwa Reysol on Saturday

Not our usual type of performance in Europe but that's all we needed to beat AC Milan, the current league leaders in Serie A! Great stuff, COYS! Because AC Milan are my team in Italy and as a reminder of just some of their past glories here's Capello's Milan vs Cruyff's Barcelona back in the 1994 Final. Great game, legendary team. Better than the current Barcelona team? We will never know.

Cerezo's next opponents are newly promoted Kashiwa Reysol who won their first game back in J1 3-0 last week so will be on a high. It will be interesting to see if Culpi tinkers with the starting 11 for this game. The game will be played in Kincho Stadium. A bit of nostalgic trivia, Reysol can boast having once fielded Brazilian star striker Careca and later Bulgarian Hristo Stoichkov. Of their current crop of imports Brazilian midfielder Leandro Domingues is a key player and he got on the scoresheet last week. Come on Cerezo!