It's a blog (in English mostly) all about football...in Japan with the J-League and Cerezo Osaka, in the English Premier League with Spurs and anywhere else the football takes us.
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.
Well done Spurs, great stuff, Crouch somehow always looks like he'll score in Europe, good work from Lennon too for the goal. AC Milan were petulant to say the least but what can you say? Sandro was very impressive and Redknapp knows what he's doing. The 'amazing scenes' in the title refer to Gattuso and ex-Milan player/hard man turned Spurs coach Joe Jordan. The last thing I would have expected was the Milan captain losing it after Jordan supposedly called him a "f******g Italian b******d" which Jordan denies. Milan meet UEFA today to find out how long his ban will be. Perhaps AC Milan owner and Italian PM Berlusconi is happy with him for deflecting media attention away from his personal life with an audacious headbutt after the final whistle? Bring on the second leg (we won 1-0)!
The current squad includes Jermain Defoe, Michael Dawson and Kyle Walker from Spurs, no room for the recently playing decently Lennon though which is odd. Fair play to Kyle Walker for his call up at right back, a position Harry has tried three players so far in the league for us... Walker has also scored more Premier League goals (1) than Defoe (0) as of today, here is his effort against Fulham.
One of our right backs...playing for Villa
Good luck to him if he gets his first cap against Denmark later today. Lampard has been named captain as the other conteders are out. It might not be the pick the pick of the friendly internationals, France vs Brazil could be interesting, but there's enough to keep Spurs and England fans interested. Although if you live in Japan watching it live is possible but needs some stamina and you should be willing to bend the law a little. Redknapp has withdrawn Peter Crouch and Van Der Vaart (Holland) due to injuries or he's playing things safe.
