Victory with 10 men in Nagoya followed by a footballing lesson from Lippi's Evergrande

Yamashita got sent off but with both Forlan and Kakitani now looking increasingly dangerous in the J. League we left Nagoya with three points, excellent result. Later that day Spurs would lose to West Ham after Kaboul got sent off in an eerily similar fashion to Yamashita but Spurs showed no fight or confidence at all. I want the Premier League season to finish soon, which it will on Sunday, West Ham have beaten us three times this season.

A proper footballing lesson here. Everything Guangzhou Evergrande did was so much better than us. Amazing to see Marcelo Lippi in Yanmar Stadium but that was pretty depressing to watch. Particularly as I realised one of their best players on the night, Alessandro Diamanti, is ex-West Ham.

This is the AFC Champions League!

Incredible number of away fans

A big flag for a big occasion

Elkeson's penalty

Popovic and Lippi

Final Score

We should have known we were in trouble when a World Cup winning manager looks on!

Related articles

• Reds drop out of first place with scoreless draw against Ventforet (japantimes.co.jp)
• Guangzhou's Diamanti a World Cup certainty says ex-Italy boss Lippi (tribalfootball.com)
• Football: Guangzhou hit title form in five-goal romp (channelnewsasia.com)

Cerezo Osaka 1 - 1 Omiya Ardija

This was played on the public holiday now known as Showa day (my previous post was wrong, apologies, Greenery Day is now May 4th) which encourages reflection on Emperor Hirohito's reign while also giving those on the extreme right an excuse to blast anything they like from the loudspeakers in their usually black vans in various places around Japan. So Omiya Ardija, despite the poor showing in their last home game, could have left with three points were it not for an injury time equaliser from Kenyu Sugimoto. Takeda started in place of Jin-Hyeon and he was given no help from his defense for the goal we conceded from a corner. An odd game, but again the type we should be winning to live up to our (unwarranted in my opinion) hype. It should have been a nice game to try something different, aside from the keeper change, but at least we got a point which is better than the same fixture last season. The superb Toyota Stadium in Nagoya awaits next, no predictions from me, and I have to mention for those in Japan once again J Sports has a feast of Premier League football on Saturday with Spurs vs West Ham first, followed by a chance to see Ryan Giggs as Shinji Kagawa's manager, and then the highest paid sports team in the world AKA Man City. Until then please watch the goals from yesterday as many times as you can. I think you can get to at least double figures if you are committed. I should have known better to be confident about the game yesterday as the squirrels usually seem to enjoy playing against us. The fact that some of our fans booed (again) at the end was mentioned in the Japanese media. Cheer up and enjoy the ride! Unless we get relegated...

   

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.

Spurs in action and a J1 update, COYS!

Spurs fans were in good voice but much like the last game I went to the away fans were significantly more vociferous. Van Der Vaart scored the first and set up the second from a corner. Swansea did well at the lane and danger man Gylfi Sigurdsson was...dangerous and scored for the visitors as well as forcing an exceptional save from Brad Friedel. Gareth Bale had another sublime game and when Aaron Lennon returned from injury in the second half and we immediately looked a lot more balanced so things are looking up for our last few games. Lennon crossed superbly for Adebayor's second.  My hope for this year is that Spurs can finish above Arsenal and Cerezo above Gamba and a cup win would be nice too! Back in Japan Cerezo picked up three points against Frontale thanks to a Kim Bo-Kyung goal in Kawasaki. We lost our first home game in Kincho Stadium 1-2 as Vegalta Sendai look like having consecutive flying starts in J1, Bando scoring our only goal. Gamba sacked their manager after a poor start to the season. Next up for Spurs is a trip to Sunderland while Cerezo travel to Omiya Ardija.
                                                                                        

The High Road but it could be spring in Japan!

The White Hart Lane cockerel 

Swansea fans celebrate Sigurdsson's goal

Adebayor scores his first from a Van Der Vaart corner

                                                                                      

Injury time equalisers

Well, Spurs did lose to Blackpool away earlier this season but still, we had a chance to close the gap on Man City and didn't take it. Gomes from great to goof in the space of a few minutes and we were behind despite playing pretty well from a penalty. Defoe earned us a point in the dying minutes but it's been a poor set of results for us recently despite patches of playing really well, quite simply more goals needed...also starting to lose patience with Gomes but Redknapp remains a big fan, 1-1 the final score.

What's this? It looks like Defoe's in Cerezo colours for some reason, why? Where did this come from? Very odd.

At home to Vegalta Sendai (click the name to find out where the name Vegalta comes from, interesting) and the same result 1-1. This time Komatsu Rui earned us a point in injury time. It was only in the last few minutes we looked urgent and went for it. Again some worrying signs, the ref got some stick but it was masking over another average performance. A fair result, Sendai fans were great as usual with a fine repertoire of songs. It looks like Pimpao will score at least one amazingly spectacular goal this season, he seems to try for something special but at the moment all Cerezo need is 3 points please! Crunch time in the ACL next with the visit of Shandong Luneng on Tuesday, a draw or a win will do, back to Nagai Stadium for this one.

Komatsu, not wearing a Spurs kit, but he's our Peter Crouch, give him a chance Culpi!

Arema 0-4 Cerezo

On a horrible pitch Cerezo looked really good in Indonesia, Inui got a couple following goals from Kiyotake and Pimpao. All of the goals featured some pretty slick passing and build up play. I don't know what happened to Arema, the team just didn't turn up and there was a huge gulf in class between the teams this time around.

We now have two home games in four days. Vegalta Sendai in the J-League will be a good test to see if we keep our confidence (Inui in particular) after an impressive performance. Vegalta of course is the team worst affected by the earthquake and there will a show of support from our fans with banners and memorial scarves.

Vegalta have started strongly this year and sit top of the table after four matches. Star player? Osaka-born captain Yong-Gi Ryang who plays for North Korea can provide and score goals if given the chance. It's a little worrying as our last performance at home (especially the first half) was awful against Albirex Niigata before Inui earned us point. It could be another frustrating night at Kincho Stadium. Midweek we have the crucial game against Shandong in the ACL where a win or draw will see us through to the next round.

C'mon linesman!

Insert Brazilian goalkeeper joke here.

On to Spurs, well on our way to blowing our chances of Champions League football next season. Although two non-goals by Chelsea weren't helpful we shouldn't be in the position of now worrying whether Liverpool can grab 5th and the Europa League spot by the end of the season. We play Blackpool at the Lane which will be on J-Sports Plus for viewers in Japan.

Mixed fortunes for Spurs and Cerezo

Cerezo did OK for spells away in Korea (in a fairly empty Japan/Korea world cup stadium) against Jeonbuk but we wasted our best chances, didn't do too well defensively and had some injury problems. It was an exciting game we lost 1-0. We have a decent enough chance of making it through to the next stage though. Jin-Hyeon was good, Inui was...Inui, had a great chance but fluffed it horribly, he can do so much better and has to this season. Martinez was struck down with an illness (Lennon-like for Spurs in Europe) and only made it to the bench and on for a few minutes in the second half. Spurs of course are well and truly out of the Champions League and it's going to be a close call whether or not we make it again next season, thanks for the adventure this season! Bale won player of the season without actually being the best player for Spurs this year. A fantastic North London derby last night/this morning (depending on where you live) even though the result didn't really help either team football was the winner, match of the seaon so far? Arsene Wenger acting like a kid after losing out on three points and none of our strikers scoring, Van der Vaart picking up the slack, business as usual.

Sometimes brilliant Welshman

Asian and UEFA Champions Leagues

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.

Weekend roundup and Tuesday's Champions League double!

Spurs ruthlessly drew 0-0 at Wigan to remain in 5th and out of contention for a Champions League spot for now. Lots of live Premier League games this weekend on J-Sports, here's hoping Man City slip up tonight. Here's an interesting interview with Sandro one of our star Champions League performers. Spurs play Real Madrid away on Tuesday with Bale likely to be fit but our usual injury problems at centre back.. Real lost at the Bernabeu this weekend which was, amazingly, Jose Mourinho's first home loss for 9 years! Higuain also returned after a four month absence in this game. Elsewhere in Europe an important result in Italy's Serie A with the Milan derby finishing 3-0 in AC Milan's favour.

Our Korean opponents

Japan were scheduled to make their second appearance since 1999 in the Copa America this July but the JFA are now considering what do after the disaster. Cerezo take on Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in Nagai Stadium this Tuesday. Jeonbuk are previous winners of the ACL in 2006 and scored four without reply in their last ACL game in Indonesia against Arema. They look like the toughest team we will face in this group. In world football news the Asian football boss Bin Hammam will challenge Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency.

ACL away in China: Shandong 2-0 Cerezo

Shandong Luneng were good, well done to our fans who made the trip, it was emotional after the earthquake/tsunami and I think most people at the stadium felt that. So we lost, but our first away game in the ACL was action packed and we had some good chances, it's all very new for Cerezo and the group itself is still obviously wide open. We can qualify but need to concentrate a whole lot more for 90 minutes. Jin-Hyeon also made a penalty save at the second attempt. Renato and Wang Yongpo scored for Shandong.

Shandong Sports Centre

...and the army were waiting inside.

A warm welcome...

In other news Spurs drew with West Ham which was shown live on J-Sports 2,featuring a MOM performance from their keeper Robert Green and an "I still love West Ham" performance from Jermain Defoe missing some good chances, and Wayne Bridge played really well for the Hammers. Plus we have Real Madrid to look forward to in the Champions League quarter finals. The main worry at the moment though is whether we (Spurs and/or Cerezo) can clinch another Champions League spot for next season.

Spurs into the Quarter Finals, Cerezo face Kashiwa Reysol on Saturday

Not our usual type of performance in Europe but that's all we needed to beat AC Milan, the current league leaders in Serie A! Great stuff, COYS! Because AC Milan are my team in Italy and as a reminder of just some of their past glories here's Capello's Milan vs Cruyff's Barcelona back in the 1994 Final. Great game, legendary team. Better than the current Barcelona team? We will never know.

Cerezo's next opponents are newly promoted Kashiwa Reysol who won their first game back in J1 3-0 last week so will be on a high. It will be interesting to see if Culpi tinkers with the starting 11 for this game. The game will be played in Kincho Stadium. A bit of nostalgic trivia, Reysol can boast having once fielded Brazilian star striker Careca and later Bulgarian Hristo Stoichkov. Of their current crop of imports Brazilian midfielder Leandro Domingues is a key player and he got on the scoresheet last week. Come on Cerezo!

Strikers scoring for Spurs but just the one point

A great weekend in the Premier League with loads of entertaining games and refereeing as usual. Our game against Wolves was a highlight, a nice tribute to Dean Richards (RIP) before the match followed by two goals for Defoe and one for Pavlyuchenko, all great goals. Despite that, fairplay to Wolves they certainly deserved something, they had a perfectly good goal ruled out too. We still need to do more to get back in the Champions League qualifying spots. Shame Aston Villa have Kyle Walker on loan from us as he may well have done better than Alan Hutton in that game. The game was played at a really high tempo which is something I guess AC Milan won't be able to do at White Hart Lane.

Dean Richards (1974 - 2011)

Of course we lost to Blackpool!

Standard stuff from Spurs, an great win followed by a missed opportunity in the league. We need a striker who can score. Still it's much better than any number of seasons I can remember as a Spurs fan. But the failure to land a goalscorer in January despite some desperate attempts could prove costly. We missed lots of chances and it still seems strange to see a formerly pointless QPR midfielder turn into an entertaining manager for the Seasiders.

"I for one would love to see him in that chair"

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1359214/Harry-Redknapp-England-says-Blackpool-boss-Ian-Holloway.html#ixzz1En4Y9Cvk

Amazing scenes at the San Siro

    Who would win? (Jordan is 59 but...)

I'll have a couple quid on Joe

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)!

Premier league magic

Everyone has been talking about the Rooney goal although the man himself wasn't that good in the derby apart from his goal. So here instead is Trevor Sinclair's overhead kick for QPR, this from a player who also managed to play well for England in a World Cup! For Spurs Nico did the business again ensuring we stay in the top 4 and look, dare I say it, comfortable there. The Croat outscoring Torres recently...

                                                                               

Thanks again J-Sports 2 and a short roundup of the week

England won against the Danes. Everyone was raving about Christian Eriksen who plays for Ajax for now.

No debut for Kyle Walker and Defoe stayed on the bench but Dawson played for a while. Lots of other Spurs players had a run out mid-week though including Sandro for Brazil who lost against the French. Lucky Harry, couldn't get rid of Nico Kranjcar during the window and he ended up scoring a beauty to get us the 3 points against Bolton, live on J-Sports 2 last weekend. Our game tonight against Sunderland is also going to be shown on J-Sports 2 which is a rare double treat for Spurs fans in Japan but this one will will kick off just before half two on Sunday morning over here. No Bale, Van Der Vaart, Modric, King ( of course, back soon? ) and Kaboul. Xavi the Spain and Barcelona maestro gave an interesting interview this week, Scholes eh?

Stadium choices for Cerezo, Spurs and West Ham!

Tickets went on sale yesterday for our first home Asian Champions League game against Arema from Indonesia. This game will be played in Nagai Stadium, the one with a running track. The choice is most likely down to the fact you can fit a lot more people in this stadium but the fans are pretty far from the action, West Ham take note. Our first home game in the J-League will be in Kincho stadium which has a reduced capacity but the fans are much closer to the action, possibly the closest you can get in Japan. It's a difficult one, since I've been watching we rarely get huge crowds at the former World Cup venue, with the athletics track. Look at the layout of the two stadiums below. The prices are the same for both stadiums with the pink being sections being the cheapest! It seems odd that Cerezo can choose between 2, or indeed 3, grounds all in the same park while Spurs and West Ham have both been encouraged to go for gold, in the Olympic sense so to speak in East London.

Kincho Stadium

Nagai Stadium ( Complete with athletics facilities! )

So West Ham won the bid to take over the Olympic Stadium. It is going to be in East London but there are so many question marks about the future under the Hammers. Can they fill the stadium (heading into the Championship as they are) ? Will the Boleyn faithfull be happy with having the track between them and the players? So it's back to the drawing board for Spurs and the new stadium but here's a quick reminder of what the club had on the drawing board for the Olympic site ( no athletics stuff here! ).

London - look at what we could have had...

Capello's Latest England Squad...International news

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.

Asian Champions League Cerezo kit!

Here it is, a must buy, much like the Spurs UEFA Champions League kit who knows when the next chance will come around. Looking forward to Cerezo and Spurs meeting in the World Club Championship this millennium.

The January transfer window

So Harry Redknapp (or just Levy?) bid for a number of strikers, Aguerro, Llorente, Carroll, Negredo, Forlan, and even midfielder Charlie Adam and utility man Phil Neville. This despite Luis Fabiano having been the most likely mover. At the same time he loaned out Robbie Keane to his first love, West Ham, he scored of course in his first game there, while our three remaining strikers have struggled in the league. We got stuffed by Fulham, down to ten men for some time, but thanks to Peter Crouch's 2nd league goal of the season beat Blackburn. The similarites between Peter and Cerezo's Rui Komatsu are either endless or non-existent depending on whether you are aware of either of them by the way. Anyway Harry seems to have given up on a Champions League qualifying spot although he did say we weren't in the market for any more players before our last minute let downs so let's see what he really means later. The Torres transfer shows the importance of Champions League football for world class players which might be worrying for us Spurs fans (we do have some world class talent) depending on the final table come the end of this season. Torres vs Liverpool and Adriano vs Cerezo on their debut games for their respective new clubs, nice. Chelsea just reminding everyone that their recent success is largely due to Roman's checkbook and fax machine (both still heavily involved in football but largely redundant elsewhere). Mercenaries, outcasts or boyhood supporters, only time will tell. At least we have shown we have cash to spend unlike Arsenal who probably do have money but Wenger knows best. This window around £225 million was spent in England compared to about £30 million last year. Hungry, talented players available for relatively cheap seem to be the best option. Look a the list (link below) and think about how many of those players did not/have not yet prove/proven their worth. With this in mind perhaps Juventus want BAE? Tottenham make the British transfer top ten list thanks to Dimitar Berbatov, outgoing, maybe we could be on the incoming list but if we really meant it we would have started the bidding earlier, not a problem. Then came Andy (when's he due back in court?) Carroll. He is now, quite ridiculously, the 8th most expensive football player of all time! Does that seem right? Yuto Nagatomo went on loan to Inter from Cesena who got Davide Santon in return which has been dominating the sports news here in Japan, rightly so. Pienaar has recovered from his fellow newcomer South African mistaking his head for the ball to be available for the game against Bolton at the Lane later. Thank you J-Sports for showing the game on J-Sports 2! COYS