6th December Playoff Final: Avispa Fukuoka 1 - 1 Cerezo Osaka

How did we get here? Well we drew the playoff semi-final 0-0 (of course) with FC Ehime which meant that we "won" by virtue of finishing above them in the regular season (can you see where this is going?). So we needed to win the final to go up. I was one of the few (perhaps the only) Cerezo fans (there were almost 30,000) who genuinely wanted us to lose. Why? We have been rubbish all season and I'm pretty sure we'd come straight back down. We finished 15 points behind Fukuoka who had a storming season. We played both these playoff games in our home stadium when it should be played on a neutral ground which annoyed a lot of J. League supporters. At this point Paulo Autuori had resigned and Kiyoshi Okuma was at the helm. I was happy to be in J2 another year, Fukuoka deserve it and at least stand a chance of staying in J1. Hopefully we can learn how to put a run together and finish in the automatic promotion spots next year. 

Our fans have been great all season, unfortunately the team has not, we belong in J2

Plenty of Fukuoka fans happy with the 1-1 victory. All the best in J1!

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Cerezo 1 - 2 Thespa Kusatsu Gunma

Second loss at home in a row (in J2). A great attendance of 17212 but it must be said lots of freebie tickets for various Osaka kids teams who despite their youthfulness must have realised there are more problems than answers for Paulo Autuori at the moment. Forlan's early goal only served to infuriate as we once again looked like the team of last season that consistently struggled against lower division opposition in the Emperor's Cup. Now we are in the lower division things have evened out. We still can't defend set pieces for toffee.

Very little power from the team, lots of it from I4, absolutely no glory for anyone in Pink.

At the time we wondered how many fans made the trip, now, if you like, you can count how many did and added to the huge attendance (in J2).

Bemused Paulo Autuori, let's hope we don't see this look too many times this season. The seats that were first used when Man United visited still bear the original stadium name before yet more money flooded in our direction and we ended up...in J2.

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Cerezo Osaka 2 - 0 Yokohama FC

This really felt like an exhibition game, whether I'm still getting used to Sunday matches or seeing 48 year old Kazu Miura being warmly applauded by our supporters for doing the simplest of things it was an odd game. No tackles of note, no real passion or drive and no distinct pattern of play. Our star players failed to dominate this game and King Kazu didn't look his age at all. Forlan missed a penalty but goals from Hasegawa and Pablo Felipe mean another listless performance will soon be forgotten. Shame because on paper it looked like a really attack-minded team. We are now in 3rd place (in J2). We face the early league leaders next.

Enough people turned up today (14518) to make the appearance of the big flag possible

Physio 1: Did you remember to bring the bandages? Physio 2: I'm sure I put them in there. Physio 1: The king is waiting.

Looks worse than it was

This was Autuori's main pose today as we were pretty shoddy for most of the game

Huge respect for the Yokohama FC fans who made the trip down

Back in J2! Tokyo Verdy 1 - 1 Cerezo Osaka

We did enough to win but couldn't quite get the winner. Pablo Felipe looked good, well good enough for J2 anyway, but managed to get himself sent off. No predictions for this season based on that performance although you'd hope we won't get relegated again and have only one manager this year. If our players enjoy playing under Paulo Autuori we have more than enough quality to put a run of games together and get back to J1. After the disaster of last season I'll only be truly happy if we return as champions...when the 2 stage format in J1 has been scrapped ideally. I can go back to enjoying football more this year in J2 anyway, Forlan should too if he keeps playing and scoring. Just over 12,000 came to Ajinomoto Stadium and I suspect we will manage to beat that figure this coming Sunday in Yanmar Stadium. I think they lookalike anyway (see the last two pictures). 

Outside the stadium is surrounded by the colours of Verdy's ground sharing partners FC Tokyo

Very impressive numbers and as always loud and enthusiastic 

Dejan Savicevic

Pablo Felipe

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