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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Cerezo Osaka 2 - 2 Yokohama F. Marinos

Cerezo Osaka 1 - 1 Omiya Ardija

This was played on the public holiday now known as Showa day (my previous post was wrong, apologies, Greenery Day is now May 4th) which encourages reflection on Emperor Hirohito's reign while also giving those on the extreme right an excuse to blast anything they like from the loudspeakers in their usually black vans in various places around Japan. So Omiya Ardija, despite the poor showing in their last home game, could have left with three points were it not for an injury time equaliser from Kenyu Sugimoto. Takeda started in place of Jin-Hyeon and he was given no help from his defense for the goal we conceded from a corner. An odd game, but again the type we should be winning to live up to our (unwarranted in my opinion) hype. It should have been a nice game to try something different, aside from the keeper change, but at least we got a point which is better than the same fixture last season. The superb Toyota Stadium in Nagoya awaits next, no predictions from me, and I have to mention for those in Japan once again J Sports has a feast of Premier League football on Saturday with Spurs vs West Ham first, followed by a chance to see Ryan Giggs as Shinji Kagawa's manager, and then the highest paid sports team in the world AKA Man City. Until then please watch the goals from yesterday as many times as you can. I think you can get to at least double figures if you are committed. I should have known better to be confident about the game yesterday as the squirrels usually seem to enjoy playing against us. The fact that some of our fans booed (again) at the end was mentioned in the Japanese media. Cheer up and enjoy the ride! Unless we get relegated...

   

Cerezo Osaka 4 - 1 Shimizu S-Pulse

The first half was exciting and either team could have been winning at the break. Fortunately for us S-Pulse couldn't finish off their best chances. The second half was a different story. It looked like Popovic told the players "Look, you can't defend so this is a dangerous scoreline, go out and don't stop attacking until the game is won." Who knows what he actually said but that's what it looked like. A great 45 minutes of attacking football followed and we created lots of chances. Forlan failed to find the back of the net but was getting into good positions. Happily Sugimoto got his name on the scoresheet with the 4th goal after his clumsy challenge gave Shimizu a penalty in the first half. Left back Maruhashi got our second and also hit the bar with a rocket of a shot. Our first and third goals game courtesy of our centre backs Yamashita and Kacar from set pieces. Ogihara was dropped today and Aria moved into the centre of midfield where his performance was much improved. Very promising performance particularly in the second half but we should expect a bit of rotation for our next game against Buriram United of Thailand in the ACL. Our second home game this season saw 20,323 compared to 37,079 two weeks ago which is worrying for the club as we have planned for consistently higher gate receipts this season.

Still not sure who that is on the flag. Any help?

Omae sends Jin-Hyeon the wrong way

Packed behind the goal but lots of empty seats visible elsewhere

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

 



Emperor's Cup win leads to another Osaka Derby!

Gamba squeezed through past Ossie Ardiles' Machida Zelvia who were rooted to the bottom of J2 for most of the season and find themselves in the JFL (Japan Football League) next season. Shame for Ossie, I was hoping to catch a game to see the Spurs legend but it looks like the Ardiles experiment has backfired for Machida. We knocked four past Shimizu to progress. Special mention goes to “one for the future” (ie. expect him to leave for Germany if he fulfils his potential) 17 year old Takumi Minamino with a great finish for our first and his first senior goal. In the second half Hotaru Yamaguchi made it two connecting with a nice cross from Sakemoto. Kenyu Sugimoto settled the nerves further in an open game with a good finish in off the post. Speed demon Kurata finished things off calmly when he found himself through with only the keeper to beat. The score flattered to deceive but let's see if we can knock out Gamba Suita in the next round. Exciting stuff awaits this Sunday in Nagai Stadium!

Worth watching to see a 17 year old kid's first senior goal.
The Cerezo youth system continues to produce gifted players.

Emperor's Cup 2nd Round vs Montedio Yamagata

Branquinho looked up for it last night with a point to prove as he's currently on loan from us. His corner was nodded in by Montedio's Maeda as our 2^nd choice keeper Matsui came of his line and achieved nothing but helping to give away a soft goal. After a dreadfully flat first half where if you didn't know beforehand you would be hard pressed to figure out which team was in J1 or J2 Culpi threw on Sugimoto and Edamura for Kempes who was awful today and the lively but ineffectual Heberty. I was expecting these two to start today as it would've given them a chance to prove themselves. As it is despite Sugimoto's goal sadly I don't expect he will get a decent run in the team while Kempes is about. It's a shameful waste of talent especially seens as in the league we have nothing much to play for, start with them Culpi! Captain Kota Fujimoto's belter sees us in the hat for the next round, a goal from an unexpected source and likely to be the best he'll ever score, fabulous winning goal but overall a poor performance. 

 

Kashima Antlers 2 - 1 Cerezo Osaka

On Wednesday in Kashima Soccer Stadium (named to let people now there is no running track here, it's just for football!) the Antlers completed their league double over us. Cerezo captain Teruyuki Moniwa got himself sent off. He got caught out for pace badly (but unusually) and decided to sacrifice himself when it would have been better to let Jin-Hyeon at least attempt a save in the 38^th minute. After that we managed to score first through Jin-Kyung after some lucky set up play Komatsu. As happens too often this season we conceded within 5 minutes of scoring at which point heads started to drop. Yuya Osako got that goal. It was just a matter of time before Kashima scored their winner through Chikashi Masuda in the 74^th minute. Culpi threw on Fabio Lopes and youngster Kenyu Sugimoto who both would have fared better having a full compliment of outfield players to help them get an equaliser. With or without ten men Kashima were the better team overall, some of their attacking play was class. Jin-Hyeon again made some good saves but his distribution was poor. Next up is Shimizu S-Pulse away.

Moniwa gets his marching orders

No protests from anyone

Kashima fans behind the goal

Bo-Kyung thanks Komatsu for his lucky assist

The stadium was affected by the earthquake
hence the position of the floodlights

Applause and bows but no boos after the final whistle