Club World Cup 2015: Club America 2 - 1 TP Mazembe & Sanfrecce Hiroshima 0 - 1 River Plate

I lost two tickets for these games but a match run by FIFA emphatically takes credit cards (VISA) and it was worth it. The normally calm and expert beer pourers were mobbed, the shops closest to the River Plate Ultras sold out of draught beer and the Argentinians supporters did themselves proud. The first game showed TP (stands for Tout Puissant meaning 'Almighty' which shows the roots of the team from the Benedictine monks) Mazembe have a lot to offer the competition as do Club America but it was more like a friendly as throughout the River Plate fans chanted about their Copa Libertadores victory which got them here. Hiroshima were spot on with their tactics but an unfortunate error by their keeper meant the River fans left happy, drunk and the stadium was largely unscathed, only the beer pourers mental state was affected. I can't wait for the next time this competition is held here, when you notice some fans carrying bog rolls you know you're in for a treat.

Not a good picture as the stadium was rocking, literally AC/DC for some reason, but from the away end the tallest building in Japan, Abeno Harukas, can be seen

Club America supporters vastly outnumbering TP Mazembe fans

I was wondering about this before the game but...flair play to the River fans they brought flares

2 flares to be precise but again flair play to them

The moment I realised the planned Hiroshima stadium project (which looked amazing) had been cancelled

Hiroshima fans can be proud of their team if not the result, I usually praise any away fans that make the trip but the River Plate fans displayed a new level of dedication 

So many flags and banners, did they have room in their suitcases for anything else? A rooster suit?

At the bottom of this picture, it looks huge, but it was one of many UFO-like balloons handed out in the River Plate section

Studying Spanish? Speak Spanish? Knock yourself out

Related articles

• Result: Club America beat Mazembe to fifth place in Club World Cup (sportsmole.co.uk)
• TP Mazembe vs. Sanfrecce Hiroshima | 2015 FIFA Club World Cup Highlights (onenewspage.us)
• TP Mazembe Of Congo DR Eyes FIFA Club World Cup (ghjoy.net)

Club World Cup 2015: Club America 1 - 2 Guangzhou Evergrande & TP Mazembe 0 - 3 Sanfrecce Hiroshima

The Mexican fans weren't happy after this one. Ex-Spurs 'player' (did we really get 9.8 million GBP for him?) scored the winner. This was the first time FIFA has held Club World Cup games in Osaka and there was a whiff of money making around. The matchday programmes were more expensive than the tickets. Yanmar Stadium reverted to Nagai Stadium or Osaka Nagai Stadium which meant the massive Yanmar sign on the stadium was painted over. The tickets were very reasonable though with the cheapest starting at ￥2000. This was some of the best football I had seen in the stadium for a long time, mainly because Cerezo weren't playing. Evergrande showed their riches with Robinho starting, their 2nd World Cup winning coach, Scolari (he won the Japan/Korea 2002 WC with Brazil) patrolling the dugout and the club even giving out free football tops to fans. Thank you for taking Paulinho from Spurs.  

Celebrating the win, when they were quiet you could hear a pin drop but when they got going it was quite the racket 

Club America's custom flags for made for Japan 

Someone managed to bring this one from Mexico

Hiroshima fans started to take up seats for their game as the Guangzhou supporters filed out

Lots of Guangzhou Evergrande support, many with free kits from their generous team

Related articles

• Eriksson and Scolari centre stage in Chinese Super League title race (espnfc.com)

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)
• UPDATE2: Soccer: Hiroshima launch J-League title defense with win at Cerezo (english.kyodonews.jp)
• Sports › Hiroshima beats Osaka in Forlan's J-League debut (japantoday.com)
• AFC Champions League Preview: Defending champions host Victory (soccerway.com)

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. 

Congratulations to Hiroshima! We are in a spot of bother now

Well done to Hiroshima. A great championship winning last home game at the Big Arch for them. Now we have a small chance of being relegated on the last day of the season. Don't want to write or think about it any more. Bad memories of 2005. Something horrible could happen at the reverse end of the table this time.

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

Incredible stuff as Hiroshima visit Osaka!

The first half ended with boos from the home fans. Things started badly when we lost our captian and most experienced defender Moniwa early on. Sanfrecce then knocked three past us before half time. There wasn't much choice for Culpi, only a Bando hat-trick could salvage anything so he came on along with Kim Bo-Kyung for the second half. Then all kinds of craziness after the restart. Kiyotake got things going with a great strike Bando got a couple to square the game then Bo-Kyung scored with another fine effort. Bando wrapped up his hat-trick, another riciculously clinical displat from him. Also worth noting was new forward Fabio Lopes who was a great creative force today with some incisive set-up play. Sanfrecce grabbed the last goal in what proved to be one of the craziest games of football you will ever witness.

3-0 up? Don't celebrate yet

Captain stretchered off

Bando reminding the ref he wants the match ball

The highs of being a Cerezo fan

No more boos

Another victory against 10 men! Hiroshima 1 - 3 Cerezo

Sanfrecce Hiroshima were in 4th place before this game. A terrible back pass in the 2nd minute allowed Tadanari Lee to fire home and get their keeper to join in an amusing goal celebration. Lee, Japan's Asian Cup final hero, looks likely to join the growing number of Japanese plying their trade in the Bundesliga with Hertha Berlin a possible destination. A similar defensive error by the home team this time allowed Kurata to equalise in the 33rd minute as Nishikawa, their keeper, looked for sympathy from the ref.

The whole team celebrate a fortunate opener

The keeper's luck soon changed for the equaliser

The ref had shown Sanfrecce three yellows by this point in the game. Sanfrecce's Morisaki was shown his first yellow shortly after our goal. In similar circumstances to last week he picked up a second yellow soon after this in the 42nd minute when he appeared to handle the ball deliberately. Cerezo players looked bemused as the Sancfrecce ones argued in vain with the card happy official. We still had some work to do as were drawing the game but we could certainly afford to relax a lot more.

 The ref ignores the protests and puts his cards back while our players look forward to another 2nd half against 10 men.

We came out with all guns blazing in the second half with Kiyotake's reputation growing further with an impressive curled finish from just outside the box. The big man Komatsu starting today in Pimpao's absence put the game to bed in the 51st minute and despite Jin-Hyeon being forced to pull off a couple of saves we were in no real danger after that. Again after the final whistle the officials had to leave the stadium to a chorus of boos. I wasn't too fussed this time, our players didn't egg the referee to show so many cards or in any way contribute to Morisaki's sending off so it was quite an enjoyable away victory which sees us climb to 10th in the league. Next up Jubilo Iwata, who are 9th visit Kincho Stadium in Nagai on Wednesday.

Our away support, happy.

The Hiroshima Stadium partially surrounded by greenery

A big uniform in the Big Arch Stadium

Culpi congratulates Kiyotake after his stunner

The Great Violet Kingdom, not happy.