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

Related articles

• Rio Ferdinand hits out David Moyes's tactics while in charge of Manchester United (telegraph.co.uk)
• Reds thrash S-Pulse to strengthen lead atop table (japantimes.co.jp)
• Rio Ferdinand calls John Terry an idiot over Anton Ferdinand race row (theguardian.com)

Related articles

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

Related articles

• Cerezo win first game under new coach to reach Emperor's Cup quarters (japantimes.co.jp)
• Sports › Cerezo fires second manager this season (japantoday.com)
• Holders Reysol march into Nabisco Cup semis (japantimes.co.jp)

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.

 

 

 

Cerezo...back down to planet J-League

We got our first win of the season away to Avispa Fukuoka. Our last game was at Kincho against Yokohama and the referee. Uemoto got sent off for...nothing? We tried our best, Nagai ran his heart out. Inui was missing due to a possible move to the Bundesliga? Next game on Saturday away to Ventforet Kofu. Cerezo fans don't look below:

We only had 10 men

Marinos fans applauding the referee?

But unlike any other J-League team we are in the next round of the ACL facing Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in September.

Waiting for the season to kick off!

Our first game will be against Gamba away with Adriano lining up for the home team. Gamba have also signed Seung-Yong Kim from Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, the team we face in the ACL, so perhaps they may have done us a favour? Our fixtures for the season have recently been added to the Cerezo site. We have signed a young centre-back from North Korea, Song-Gi Kim and Amaral has left the club. We also have Shu Kurata on loan from Gamba. In the last few seasons Cerezo have followed an odd pattern of being very good, then getting relegated so I'm not sure what to hope for this season. If Inui can up his game once more and remind people why he has been capped at full international level and Bo-Kyung Kim, who has returned from loan in J2 with Oita, (8 goals in 27 matches for the attacking midfielder) contributes and Pimpao scores some of those goals you can see elsewhere on this site, and Mr.Nagai steps up  we need not worry. But we are Cerezo and after the highs come the lows. Too much thinking too little football...