Cerezo Osaka 4 - 1 Shimizu S-Pulse

The first half was exciting and either team could have been winning at the break. Fortunately for us S-Pulse couldn't finish off their best chances. The second half was a different story. It looked like Popovic told the players "Look, you can't defend so this is a dangerous scoreline, go out and don't stop attacking until the game is won." Who knows what he actually said but that's what it looked like. A great 45 minutes of attacking football followed and we created lots of chances. Forlan failed to find the back of the net but was getting into good positions. Happily Sugimoto got his name on the scoresheet with the 4th goal after his clumsy challenge gave Shimizu a penalty in the first half. Left back Maruhashi got our second and also hit the bar with a rocket of a shot. Our first and third goals game courtesy of our centre backs Yamashita and Kacar from set pieces. Ogihara was dropped today and Aria moved into the centre of midfield where his performance was much improved. Very promising performance particularly in the second half but we should expect a bit of rotation for our next game against Buriram United of Thailand in the ACL. Our second home game this season saw 20,323 compared to 37,079 two weeks ago which is worrying for the club as we have planned for consistently higher gate receipts this season.

Still not sure who that is on the flag. Any help?

Omae sends Jin-Hyeon the wrong way

Packed behind the goal but lots of empty seats visible elsewhere

Omiya sack their manager after losing 0-3 to Cerezo

Omiya are still 4^th while we should take no small amount of confidence into the next few games with this performance. This was Omiya's fifth straight defeat and signalled the end of manager Zdenko Verdenik's time in charge after leaving Omiya in 4^th place (they have never finished above 12^th in the top flight) and going on a J.League record unbeaten run of 21 games. What's the big idea? Omiya were league leaders back in April but apparently there will be an announcement from the club later which will do well to justify such a move. Moving swiftly on to more positive things and the second goal is becoming Kakitani's trademark, assured first touch and a calm finish. Simplicio put in a good shift today too. After this game Cupli challenged Kakitani to stay near or on top of the goalscoring charts and disappear in games less often while Kakitani himself said he wants to win J1 with Cerezo. Home supporter tickets are in very short supply for the next game against Shimizu S-Pulse on the 17^th. Enjoy the highlights below and for all who come on Saturday, bring the noise!

Emperor's Cup win leads to another Osaka Derby!

Gamba squeezed through past Ossie Ardiles' Machida Zelvia who were rooted to the bottom of J2 for most of the season and find themselves in the JFL (Japan Football League) next season. Shame for Ossie, I was hoping to catch a game to see the Spurs legend but it looks like the Ardiles experiment has backfired for Machida. We knocked four past Shimizu to progress. Special mention goes to “one for the future” (ie. expect him to leave for Germany if he fulfils his potential) 17 year old Takumi Minamino with a great finish for our first and his first senior goal. In the second half Hotaru Yamaguchi made it two connecting with a nice cross from Sakemoto. Kenyu Sugimoto settled the nerves further in an open game with a good finish in off the post. Speed demon Kurata finished things off calmly when he found himself through with only the keeper to beat. The score flattered to deceive but let's see if we can knock out Gamba Suita in the next round. Exciting stuff awaits this Sunday in Nagai Stadium!

Worth watching to see a 17 year old kid's first senior goal.
The Cerezo youth system continues to produce gifted players.

Cerezo Osaka 3 - 2 Shimizo S-Pulse

An entertaining game, bad defending meant we had lots of chances. Kempes missed after a defensive error in the first minute and hit the post twice but did get on the score sheet using his head which was his seventh goal in the league. Kakitani continues to add to his goal tally this season with his eighth in the J-League. Star signing Simplicio made up for giving away a penalty with his first goal since his move from Serie A, he had an almost identical effort ruled out for offside minutes earlier. A great result against a S-Pulse team in transition. We're not out of danger yet but it's nice to write about a match and not say "we were poor" for once. Kansai derby up next and it's a big one with Vissel Kobe needing points to avoid being dragged into the relegation dogfight. Genki Omae with a penalty and Alex Brosque form a free kick scored for S-Pulse. Brosque has just signed for Al Ain FC in the UAE where he joins Asamoah Gyan. Shinji Ono also left S-Pulse to join the Western Sydney Wanderers as their marquee signing.

Fans behind the goal did a great job of trying to put Omae off his penalty

Culpi a lot less animated than usual after his return from retirement

Last kick of the game sees Cerezo leave Shimizu with a draw

Yoichirou Kakitani opened the scoring for us after 15 minutes as Kempes managed to hit the post with an easy header as the Shimizu keeper Hayashi lost his bearings. Kakitani was there to knock in the rebound. It was an odd game, Shimizu could have gone top of J1 with a win but looked disjointed for most of the match until a late surge as they sensed the home fans weren't happy with the performance so far and the prospect of losing their unbeaten home record this season. Cerezo looked nervous and would have been happy with a point prior to the game but after spending most of the match in front must feel slightly downhearted. Bo-Kyung managed to make himself a bit of space for a shot in the first half but otherwise he and Kiyotake were relatively subdued. Kempes managed to completely mess up a one on one with the keeper, although he got himself into that position well, if he was more composed we could have come away with all three points (about 4mins into the highlights video). So with the very last kick of the game Australian Alex Brosque scrambled the ball home which left our keeper Jin-Hyeon down injured and our manager Soares upset with the officials. Japan manager Zaccheroni was at this game although he couldn't have been very impressed by what he saw.







Bando hat-trick in Shimizu but only a point for Cerezo vs S-Pulse

Ryuji Bando came off the bench to secure a point away from home at the Outsourcing Stadium Nihondaira. Since Bando joined us he hasn't actually started under Culpi as far as I can remember. We started with Kenyu Sugimoto up top as Komatsu was injured and Fabio Lopes was given a first start too. Sugimoto missed a good headed chance whilst Lopes didn't do much to suggest he's significantly better than any other average Brazilian import in J1. But anyway the day belonged to Bando who got his first from the penalty spot and finished well for the other two goals in a crazy last 15 minutes which left both sets of supporters with sore throats after the match. As usual Cerezo tend to lose concentration just after scoring and frustration crept in as Bando's double was swiftly cancelled out within minutes, the same happened minutes after his hat-trick goal leaving us with a point from the game. Shimizu's goals came from Ono, Takagi and Takahara who looked like they had the game wrapped up until those unforgettable last few minutes.

Cheerleaders at football?

The screen was broken but the big
kit is always a crowd pleaser

The pink and navy army

Culpi: Right, Bando's coming on,
that'll show you!

Bando awaits his game-changing appearance

Prepares to score his first...

...does so with no problem, two more followed

What happened to S-Pulse? Cerezo 4 - 0 Shimizu

Our first game since Pimpao returned to Brazil after an inconsistent few games in J1 but pretty solid performances in the ACL. He won't be missed too badly (if at all) after this result. Martinez returned and Komatsu took up the front man position. The first half was pretty evenly matched and I was pretty worried coming into this game. But the second half belonged to our Korean midfielder Kim Bo-Kyung. Some pretty poor marking from a corner let Bo-Kyung score the first from in the six yard box. He then won a penalty, a decision which could have gone either way, leaving Kurata to convert. So we got a couple of fortunate goals. A few minutes later and Shinji Ono got subbed due to an injury and that seemed to destroy any hope for Shimizu as they never looked like getting back into things. This left Kim Bo-Kyung to grab his well deserved second and Inui to wrap things up with our fourth goal. Deja vu perhaps I've written this before but that could be Inui's last for us, this was played in Nagai Stadium before heading of to VFL Bochum for a bargain price (or his true worth?) of around 300,000 Euros.

Shimizu away fans full of hope

Bo-Kyung (next to the keeper) waits for the delivery to score his first

Kurata prepares to tuck this one away

Shinji Ono's game is over and with it any sign of hope for Shimizu. Oh no indeed.