Kansai Derby ends 1- 2 as Vissel Kobe leave with 3 points

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

Related articles

• Sports › Cerezo Osaka sign former Germany striker Cacau (japantoday.com)
• Urawa Reds stay top in J-League (usatoday.com)

Cerezo Osaka 2 - 2 Gamba Suita

Expectations were really high for this game which is one reason for the booing at the end from our fans but you have to give credit to Gamba and wonder why some fans thought this would be easy. This didn't help! Popovic lost patience with Jin-Hyeon's erratic keeping in this game and he was subbed after an hour. I don't think I've ever seen a keeper subbed because of their performance before but Takeda,signed as a backup this year, pulled off a great save towards the end of the match to keep things level. Wednesday's game against Pohang is a must win and it looks like Jin-Hyeon won't be starting. A crowd of 42723 (our third highest attendance ever) saw a brace each from Abe and Forlan. I have no complaints about the result, and it was a good game to watch, but we could do with more support during the game, Gamba fans were great throughout, and no booing after the game, did the players really deserve that today?

Related Articles:

Forlan the star in Osaka Derby (MARCA)

2014 J.League Round 7 Wrap-Up: Forlan and Abe shine in Osaka Derby draw (Goal.com)

Albirex Niigata 1 - 0 Cerezo Osaka

This was a game we were expecting to at least come away from with a point but after Edno spurned our best chance created by Kakitani we were left with nothing as another bit of dodgy goalkeeping from Jin-Hyeon presented the ball to a grateful Kentaro Ohi who wrapped up the 3 points for Albirex. This video shows highlights of the all the recent J.League games with a focus on the returning heroes from the East Asian Cup in South Korea where Zaccheroni was successful with an experimental squad. Kakitani scored 3 goals in the two games he started including a brace that sealed victory for Japan. Yamaguchi was named player of the tournament while Ogihara also made his debut for the national team. From a Cerezo point of view this has raised the profile of the young players making it tougher to hold on to them when foreign clubs start their approaches. But another way of looking at it is that now they are under pressure to be consistent performers which will only help us in the league this season. After that who knows? The Cerezo highlights start at 03:24 on the video and are followed by a chat with Kakitani.

9 match unbeaten run ends in injury time away to Hiroshima

Champions and current 2^nd place team Hiroshima kept going in a fairly even match with chances for both teams but a slight error in judgement from Jin-Hyeon in the 95^th miniute delighted the home crowd. Prior to the game this was billed as a battle between Cerezo's Kakitani and Sanfrecce's Sato both of whom are in double figures for goals this season and both missed chances to add to their tallies. We remain in 6^th and face Sagan Tosu who are just above the relegation spots in 15^th at home on Wednesday. In other news Zaccheroni has named Yamaguchi, Ogihara and Kakitani in his East Asian Cup squad so let's hope they can win their first caps for the national team. The cup means a short break in the J1 schedule during which we will be facing the travelling Manchester United pre-season friendly circus. 

Consistency in the league but knocked out of the Nabisco Cup

Zaccheroni was at Kincho for this one as he saw Kakitani put us ahead with a typically cool finish after he was put through superbly by Minamino who did enough to ensure he'll be starting a few more games this season. We looked fairly comfortable despite Yokohama hitting the woodwork on a couple of occasions. Yokoyama came in to fill Ogihara's defensive midfield position and did really well alongside Yamaguchi. Yamashita worked hard in a defence that looked happy to tackle for once. Jin-Hyeon was taken off just after the hour mark after a clash of heads, something similar happened to him a couple of seasons back and he was ruled out for a few weeks, but he should be back for our next game this time. Simplicio picked his spot from outside the box to wrap up the win despite Marquinhos's late header. Looking good in J1 then although we limped out of the Nabisco Cup Quarter finals that hasn't affected our run in the league. Next up is Hiroshima away.

No, no, no! No nicknames on kits please "Bomber"

Yokohama fans brought the noise and someone had a cymbal to accompany the drums

13272 in attendance as a few sections were sold out

 

Cerezo Osaka 1 - 2 Omiya Ardija

League leaders Omiya left with 3 points as they scored very early and very late on with our only goal coming from Kakitani. Shin Kanazawa scored from just past the halfway line after spotting Kim Jin-Hyeon off his line about 22 seconds into the game. An expected result as we are still trying to work out our best system (perhaps something with a striker who can score would help?) while the squirrels on the other hand are comfortably beating all comers at the moment.

Sitting, or standing in this case, pretty at the top of J1

 



Kashima Antlers 1 - 0 Cerezo Osaka

It's been a while since Jin-Hyeon made this kind of blunder and unfortunately it cost us today as we suffered our first defeat in the league when it allowed Yasushi Endo to score the winner in the 58^th minute. Some of our early season performances haven't warranted the points we've been getting so it's no surprise about the result although the manner of the loss is frustrating. FC Tokyo visit Osaka for a Nabisco Cup match on Wednesday night.

Cerezo kick off the season with a win

Kakitani's calm finish secured an incredibly undeserved 3 points as Albirex will be wondering how they are going home with nothing. No outfield player for us performed particularly well as Jin-Hyeon had to be in top form to keep us in the game. Worryingly our new no.9 Edno “the Rock” lived up to his nickname by being a motionless inanimate object for most of the game before being subbed. Hopefully Culpi will change the starting line-up for the next game as quite a few players failed to impress but Ogihara's introduction added some urgency and bite to the midfield. An unexepectedly depressing moment came as we brought on the re-branded Branquinho who now goes by “Branco”. This is a guy we have on loan and we subsequently loaned to Yamagata in J2 as he proved to be largely ineffective last year. As he came on looking at his name on the scoreboard I thought it was a new signing until on closer inspection it turned out to be our unsuccessful loaned loanee sneaking back on to the pitch under a different name, very odd. In other news congratulations to Shinji Kagawa who grabbed a hat-trick in the early hours this morning for Man U against Norwich. Man U will visit Osaka in the summer for a friendly bringing with them overpriced tickets, an extra game in the middle of the J1 season and the Japanese superstar we sold for 350,000 Euros. All said and done we got 3 points but if we can't improve drastically we could well be flirting with relegation again. 

 

Cerezo Osaka 1 - 2 Omiya Ardija

The squirrels showed more urgency in their fight to stay in J1 and deservedly came away with 3 points. Jin-Hyeon's positioning invited the first goal from a free kick as our players seemed happy enough to know that although mathematically we could still go down it's pretty unlikely. The good thing is the result leaves Gamba in the relegation zone. Today we are away to league leaders Hiroshima Sanfrecce so I'm not expecting us to come back with anything from the game but it's the J-League and Cerezo so anything is possible.

Novakovic takes advatage of Jin-Hyeon's positioning

Our recent form has earned Levir Culpi  a contract extension for next season, who will look after his Japanese restaurant in Brazil?

It wasn't raining

Cerezo Osaka 0-1 Albirex Niigata

Just under 10,000 for this game which started at 7pm on Saturday which this season will be the normal K.O. time at home for some reason. The Niigata fans gave their usual pre-match version of “Can't help falling in love with you” by Elvis, good stuff and fairplay to the traveling support in one of the most unwelcoming away areas in J1 (in Kincho Stadium at least). Yellow cards aplenty in this game, mostly for dissent with a couple of bad challenges thrown in to the mix too. Our new gaffer Sergio Soares has us trying harder to play possession football but...again it might be too early for a rant but so far our new striker, Kempes, looks awful (despite his derby winner). He managed to put one header over and contribute nothing else. Our other new Brazilian, Branquinho (who hasn't looked too bad so far) was taken off for Kakitani and later Ogihara was replaced by Bando as Soares decided to go all out for the three points. We weren't looking too solid at the back at this point as despite having lots of possession, Michael, their lively No.10 missed an open goal in the second half. Jin-Hyeon also made a couple of timley saves during the game. Clearly we were going to be exposed as our main attacking threat Bo-Kyung retreated to try and fill in for one half of our Olympic bound defensive midfield partnership. Niigata sub Yano scored close to full time with a well placed shot (did Kempes,our No.9, see that and realise it's possible?). So despite a great result away from home in the last match some Cerezo fans booed the team although you couldn't fault the team as a whole or indeed the manager going for the three points at home. Next up away to Urawa Reds tomorrow in the Nabisco cup followed by a trip to Kashima Antlers on Saturday in J1.   

Our fans in good voice, the boos came later...

The Niigata away supporters on a tiny grass patch below a huge screen (they obviously couldn't see)
displaying Cerezo and Japan U23 Olympic hopeful Hotaru Yamaguchi...it was worth the trip for them though.

Yano's 85th minute goal celebrations.

 

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

Osaka derby

They had all the possession. Bo-Kyung scored a sweet goal off the inside of his left boot (don't go to Stoke!). Jin-Hyeon made a number of fine saves followed by a disappearing act for their equaliser from Sota Nakazawa within the space of a few minutes after we scored. Some of our fans were booing at the end, why? Fair enough it's a derby but the team from Suita are a level above us this season, challenging for the title for example, so I was well pleased with a draw, could've won it in fact, some of the extra thousands that turned up didn't quite get it, even though they got the uniforms and scarves etc. Anyway we're not going down. Fabio Lopes made his debut but couldn't really do much, and, I almost forgot, Gamba had a penalty shout (it was really blatant but the ref was behind the action) denied, oh well. Next stop Kashima Antlers away, three points above us, Wednesday.

The Suita team brought a big kit to a big stadium

Why don't you come to more games? And don't boo afterwards.... unless we actually deserve it.

Oh dear, Kim Jin-Hyeon goes viral

I don't want to post this but it shows how Jin-Hyeon's error has made it around the world thanks mostly to YouTube.

Kawasaki Frontale 1 - 2 Cerezo Osaka

Kawasaki had some good chances and Jin-Hyeon recovered well after he's become something of a youtube sensation due to his error last week. But he produced a solid display including a couple of quality saves from stinging shots, one of which ended with him hitting the post, dedication. In the end that was enough to see us take the three points. We scored another goal from a very similar corner to our last game where Kiyotake was able to head in from the 6-yard box. Our second came from a nice build up and Kurata finished the move well. Also well done to whoever works on set-pieces in training, we saw some threatening and carefully though out free-kicks the kind of which I have never seen before. Perhaps they do this stuff in Brazil all the time but I haven't seen it. But the three points takes us further away from the bottom which is important for Cerezo fans after we finished 3^rd last season, it's always a worry we might get relegated! Our first half display was too god for Frontale who picked things up in the second half but couldn't get nything out of the game. A good turnout and atmosphere for the game which included a minute silence for the recently deceased Naoki Matsuda. Terrible news. Our fans chanted his name after the silence was over and had a banner to pay our respects. Kiyotake's good form continiued against Korea on Wednesday in Sapporo's full international between the two neighbouring countries. He got a couple of assists while Kagawa got two goals. Kim Bo-Kyung also came off the bench for Korea who were surprisingly poor. Next up it's Osaka derby time!

Kawasaki's stadium, in the middle of nowhere

Cerezo fans' message to Naoki Matsuda

Another innovative free kick

Kim Bo-Kyung delivers a corner

Our away support bring the noise and colour

Inui's last game: Cerezo 1 - 3 Kashima Antlers

A battle between Brazilian managers and finally my prediction comes true. Today was Inui's last home game and he scored one of his best goals. He picked up the ball near the halfway line before jinking between a few Kashima players and netting our only goal of the game. By this time Kim Jin-Hyeon had already made a couple of decent saves so it wasn't looking easy but then Jin-Hyeon completely lost it. Two goals from Yuzo Tashiro followed before the break. For the first he caught Jin-Hyeon trying to pass the ball out from the back and I guess nobody warned him so Tashiro simply nicked the ball and slotted into an empty net. For Antlers' second Jin-Hyeon went to collect a cross he had no chance of getting and Tashiro nodded home another easy chance. In the second half we won a penalty from a push during a corner. Inui wanted to take it but Bo-Kyung stepped up and had his awful effort easily saved. The final embarressment for Jin-Hyeon was getting lobbed from the halfway line by Mitsuo Ogasawara just before the final whistle. Great goal but suspect postitioning from our young Korean keeper. Jin-Hyeon is his own harshest critic so it'll be interesting to see how he recovers from this. Inui said his farewell and will fly to Germany tomorrow to join Vfl Bochum 1848. In other transfer news Stoke and other teams in England are sniffing around Kim Bo-Kyung who has been described as the next Park Ji-Sung by...Park Ji-Sung. We had a crowd of just over 28,000 last night thanks in part to lots of free ticket offers, the effect of the Japan ladies team winning the World Cup and possibly for people to say goodbye to Inui. The atmosphere was one of the best in a long time. Credit to the Antlers fans for adding to a great night. They came, they sang, they won.

Kashima fans were well rewarded for their sterling effort

A heaving I4

The rare sight of a packed stadium

Jin-Hyeon distraught after he conceded the second

Inui tries his best for his last game, from the resulting corner we win a penalty...

...taken poorly by Kim Bo-Kyung.

Cerezo 3-3 Kawasaki Frontale in J1....ACL Osaka Derby next game

At Kincho Stadium (7pm on a Friday meant an attendance of less than 8000?)

We were down 0-2 at half time and up until that point were poor, our keeper let a soft goal in for the first but to be fair to Jin-Hyeon he made up for that with a couple of good saves later.

Frontale go in front, kit made by Puma so they looked a bit like Spurs, confusing (for me).

Cerezo got a fortunate, in my (even as a fan) opinion, goal from a corner. This was followed by a very good finish from our main goalscoring hope this season, Pimpao. Then Frontale, who played well, got in front again.

Cerezo 2-3 Frontale but we didn't give up

At this point we started to string together some attacks and had a few decent chances culminating in our injury time equaliser. We just about deserved the point, still worried that we can't pick up three points at home, or even be winning at home at some point during 90 minutes. Still that's football and the feel good factor of rescuing something from a game we looked like losing makes up for another Jekyll and Hyde performance. Yet another bigger worry is our next game, Osaka derby, away, to Gamba. This round of the ACL will be just one game, it's winner takes all. The winning team go through to the two-legged quarter finals.

Mixed fortunes for Spurs and Cerezo

Cerezo did OK for spells away in Korea (in a fairly empty Japan/Korea world cup stadium) against Jeonbuk but we wasted our best chances, didn't do too well defensively and had some injury problems. It was an exciting game we lost 1-0. We have a decent enough chance of making it through to the next stage though. Jin-Hyeon was good, Inui was...Inui, had a great chance but fluffed it horribly, he can do so much better and has to this season. Martinez was struck down with an illness (Lennon-like for Spurs in Europe) and only made it to the bench and on for a few minutes in the second half. Spurs of course are well and truly out of the Champions League and it's going to be a close call whether or not we make it again next season, thanks for the adventure this season! Bale won player of the season without actually being the best player for Spurs this year. A fantastic North London derby last night/this morning (depending on where you live) even though the result didn't really help either team football was the winner, match of the seaon so far? Arsene Wenger acting like a kid after losing out on three points and none of our strikers scoring, Van der Vaart picking up the slack, business as usual.

Sometimes brilliant Welshman

Asian and UEFA Champions Leagues

Cerezo 1-0 Jeonbuk. Inui played better than he has in a long time, he looked dangerous and was rewarded with the winning goal. Pimpao missed from just outside the six yard box in the second half. Jin-Hyeon made a great save one on one with Jeonbuk's most dangerous player on the night. We are looking good to progress. An unexpected bonus on the night was Gamba losing in their ACL game.

Away support, it's not like Europe.

Home support, it's like Europe

Indeed they are "mad green"

Inui and co. celebrate

I4 celebrates

The team celebrate with our mascot

Spurs on the other hand, Crouch's red card means we have little chance in the next leg, Lennon pulling out at the last minute, literally. It was painful to watch, Real had a stupid amount of shots on goal and we ran out of steam with 10 men. Di Maria with a fantastic goal (while Bale was getting treatment on the sidelines). But it has been great so far, the Real fans were chanting (in Spanish of course) "stupid" when Crouch got his marching orders and it's tough to argue with that. Our fans were superb throughout. Japan are considering, or re-considering, their decision to withdraw from the Copa America. Man U did well against Chelsea, Schalke did brilliantly against Inter after this amazing goal from Dejan Stankovic.

ACL away in China: Shandong 2-0 Cerezo

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.

Osaka Derby result : Gamba 2 - 1 Cerezo

Our fans in flag waving mode

Wouldn't you know it? Adriano opened the scoring for Gamba. Uemoto gave away a penalty which Endo proceeded to miss thanks to Kim's save. Kurata, on loan from Gamba, got a fortunate deflection to level the score. Endo, who was superb apart from the penalty, ensured Gamba got the three points with a really good finish. It was closer than I expected but depsite Cerezo bringing a very large number of away supporters to Bampaku it was not to be for us.   

Gamba fans were in good voice for the derby

Endo about to have his penalty saved by Kim