We are in the draw for the next round of the Emperor's Cup! Cerezo 2 - 0 Jubilo Iwata

New manager Yuji Okuma started with a win against Jubilo Iwata who are 3rd in J2 and as we are currently 3rd from bottom in J1 that should make us pretty evenly matched right? Just over 4000 people turned up for this in a stadium that was used in a World Cup so you can imagine it looked a bit odd. Kusukami started and showed what he can bring to the team by setting up Minamino who finished well for the first. Ryo Nagai worked tirelessly all night and was rewarded with a goal he took thanks to his speedy footwork and thinking. Our injured captain Yamaguchi wasn't missed as we got our first meaningful win in a long time. Everyone put a decent shift in tonight compared to our performances in the league. I'm hoping Okuma doesn't feel pressured to bring back any big names, match-fit or not, for the next game on Saturday against 6th place Kashiwa Reysol. Kagawa has returned to Dortmund recently but in bigger news Mitch Nichols quietly joined Perth Glory on loan after a ridiculously wasted (first?) spell in Osaka. 

The unusually sparsely populated I4

This is what a world cup stadium looks like for a dry Wednesday night Emperor's Cup game in Osaka

Someone's sitting there mate

The acoustics are great in Yanmar Stadium so their efforts were heard

Lonely jobs, all of them, cameraman (or woman?), manager and linesman (or woman or assistant referee?) 

New gaffer Yuji Okuma gets nervous as he is surrounded...by drink bottles lined up and ready to spring the offside trap

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The season opener is as damp as the weather for Cerezo

A crowd of 37079 were in the renamed Yanmar Stadium yesterday to watch the J1 season opener against reigning champions Hiroshima. Our fans were a bit impatient throughout perhaps expecting immediate results despite a new manager and a few new signings. Ogihara was disappointing but having more competition for places this season means he will be forced to perform with greater consistency. Hasegawa didn't contribute much either hopefully he just needs a few games to settle in. Forlan wasn't fully match fit but showed glimpses of how his link up play with Kakitani could lead to a fair few goals. Ultimately this was the kind of performance and result you would expect against Sanfrecce. Our defending, as ever, never looked solid enough to inspire confidence while we were having one of those days when our attacking play wasn't clicking either. Shiotani scored an unchallenged volley from Chiba's pass who despite being surrounded by pink kits was allowed to find his man. Sugimoto was brought on for Forlan but it would have been nice to see Ryo Nagai who is more direct and arguably more of a goal threat. Interesting to see his development after being loaned out to Perth Glory. Ogihara was eventually subbed for Serbian loanee Kacar. Hasegawa came off for Kusukami and he immediately injected some urgency into our attacking play. Notsuda missed a great opportunity to make it two for the visitors but one goal was enough to bring us back to reality. I fear that a lot of our support were expecting too much too soon especially considering this was our first game in the league and it was against the defending champions. Although there wasn't a huge difference in terms of quality with Cerezo and J1 all predictions for this season are out of the window although considering Yanmar's considerable investment this season it would be nice to improve upon our 4th place last year. New manager Popovic will be looking to introduce some of our new signings for a full 90 minutes especially as we have a busy few weeks ahead with our Asian Champions League group matches. It will be interesting to see how Popovic utilises the likes of Mitch Nichols and Gojko Kacar. We have to get used to not having Simplicio's midfield presence too. Last week we did well to get a point away in an ill-tempered game in Korea against Pohang Steelers with Kakitani scoring another beauty (video below).

The pink ponchos were out in force on a rainy day

Bad boys, bad boys, watcha gonna do? Leave with 3 points thank you

Kacar's positions according to Football Manager

Related articles

• Sports › Forlan restores glamor to frumpy J-League (japantoday.com)
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Scary stuff, weather and Cerezo's Performance

Cerezo Osaka 0-2 Nagoya Grampus

The kick off was delayed as once again Nagai park was hit by a thunderstorm. We were poor despite the return of fan favourite and supposedly retired manager Levir Culpi. Ryo Nagai who I though could do well for us coming off the bench is on trial with Perth Glory in Australia with a view to a possible loan move. Nagoya showed why they feel they have a shot at the title this year while we showed our usual inconsistency. Highlights don't show the second goal by Kennedy but clearly show our terrible set piece defending for Nagoya's first. Some fans booed the team off at the final whistle which is not a good sign at this stage of the season. 


The light show before the game, the video below shows the Grampus fans
at the peak of the storm keeping dry and preparing for some happy
times for their team on the pitch later.