Feelgood Factor returns for a few minutes! Cerezo Osaka 3 - 1 Omiya Ardija

Keiji Tamada bagged a brace on his home debut and Ogihara scored a beauty. As usual our defence had a brain fart defending a cleared corner but despite that and the rain (which meant a slightly lower than expected attendance of 15584) everyone was happy for the last few minutes. All the goals came in the 2nd half. Tamada gave us the lead early in the 2nd half with a calm finish after a neat flick from Sekiguchi, who also made his home debut. Omiya equalised with minutes remaining but two injury time goals were enough to see us grab 3 points. Ex-captain Moniwa came on for little cameo as the Squirrels left empty handed. Omiya Ardija came down with us from J1 last year and usually do pretty well when they come to Osaka so this was a good result for us (in J2, always remember this is J2). 

This is J2! Again

Like the old Chelsea shed end but with less cars

One of those horrible heart breaking finishes to a game for away fans

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

Kashiwa Reysol 2 - 1 Cerezo Osaka

Kakitani couldn't convert our best chances as we went back to looking like a team that needs more time to gel. Forlan dropped back into midfield too much for my liking where he couldn't really do any damage with his long passing. His best work comes from being closer to the last defenders and finding space which he isn't doing often enough at the moment. We have always needed an old head to calm and inspire our young team as Simplicio did last season. Forlan however just got angry on a couple of occasions instead of leading when our heads were down. His quote later to the AFP that "They don't have to listen if they don't want to be part of it" seems like an odd way to express leadership though. Ogihara has gone backwards, much like his passing in this game, in terms of his development which is highlighted by Hasegawa making it to the Japan team training session while he has been left behind. I don't think Popovic likes how Ogihara plays and on this form he doesn't deserve to be anywhere near the first team. This was not the best preparation for the next game which happens to be the Osaka Derby in Yanmar stadium on Saturday. Kashiwa Reysol's goals came from Tanaka early on and ex-Gamba forward Leandro later in the 2nd half. Maruhashi got our consolation goal in the dying minutes of the game.

Related Articles:

Kashima beats Gamba to maintain lead in J-League (FresnoBee.com)

Kashiwa Reysol beat Cerezo Osaka (Kyodo News)

Kashiwa outclasses Cerezo's stars (The Japan Times)

Nagoya thumped despite Kennedy brace (SBS)

Australians Abroad(Goal.com)

Forlan says J-League move positive (SBS)

Albirex Niigata 1 - 0 Cerezo Osaka

This was a game we were expecting to at least come away from with a point but after Edno spurned our best chance created by Kakitani we were left with nothing as another bit of dodgy goalkeeping from Jin-Hyeon presented the ball to a grateful Kentaro Ohi who wrapped up the 3 points for Albirex. This video shows highlights of the all the recent J.League games with a focus on the returning heroes from the East Asian Cup in South Korea where Zaccheroni was successful with an experimental squad. Kakitani scored 3 goals in the two games he started including a brace that sealed victory for Japan. Yamaguchi was named player of the tournament while Ogihara also made his debut for the national team. From a Cerezo point of view this has raised the profile of the young players making it tougher to hold on to them when foreign clubs start their approaches. But another way of looking at it is that now they are under pressure to be consistent performers which will only help us in the league this season. After that who knows? The Cerezo highlights start at 03:24 on the video and are followed by a chat with Kakitani.

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. 

Cerezo kick off the season with a win

Kakitani's calm finish secured an incredibly undeserved 3 points as Albirex will be wondering how they are going home with nothing. No outfield player for us performed particularly well as Jin-Hyeon had to be in top form to keep us in the game. Worryingly our new no.9 Edno “the Rock” lived up to his nickname by being a motionless inanimate object for most of the game before being subbed. Hopefully Culpi will change the starting line-up for the next game as quite a few players failed to impress but Ogihara's introduction added some urgency and bite to the midfield. An unexepectedly depressing moment came as we brought on the re-branded Branquinho who now goes by “Branco”. This is a guy we have on loan and we subsequently loaned to Yamagata in J2 as he proved to be largely ineffective last year. As he came on looking at his name on the scoreboard I thought it was a new signing until on closer inspection it turned out to be our unsuccessful loaned loanee sneaking back on to the pitch under a different name, very odd. In other news congratulations to Shinji Kagawa who grabbed a hat-trick in the early hours this morning for Man U against Norwich. Man U will visit Osaka in the summer for a friendly bringing with them overpriced tickets, an extra game in the middle of the J1 season and the Japanese superstar we sold for 350,000 Euros. All said and done we got 3 points but if we can't improve drastically we could well be flirting with relegation again. 

 

Cerezo news update

Japanese clubs' fortunes are heavily linked to the companies which own them so this year as Yanmar's stock has risen we have a little bit more cash than usual to spend. Thanks in part to Shinji Kagawa Yanmar has become a sponsor of both Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United. Traditionally Yanmar Deisel's sales have been from industrial farm equipment in Japan but recently they have been expanding by providing emergency power generators in Europe. This explains their push to sponsor European teams and also a newly found desire to back Cerezo to help further increase their international profile. Man Utd are pencilled in for a friendly in Osaka this year. The plan seems to be working judging by this in the Daily Mail mentioning Yanmar in an article. So will this renewed effort lead to wise investments or will we squander the cash on journeymen Brazilians? All of the transfers listed below have been announced on the Cerezo website as of today with the exception of Edno Cunha for some reason. It seems the 29 year old is on loan from Mexican club Tigres. He represented Brazil at U20 level and has played for a lot of clubs in a few different countries managing to score over 10 goals in a season just once in career playing as a second striker. He's pretty much guaranteed to start every game whether or not he's any better than the players we already have so check out his YouTube highlights. His nickname is “The Rock”. Fingers crossed he can do the business in the J-League. As for the other transfers there aren't any players that stand out as obvious starters but they should help be able to help out as squad players. Sadly Daisuke Takahashi is now out of contract and going through rehab for his knee injury after previously fighting back from a fractured skull. Hopefully he can come back from this too. At the moment Takahiro Ogihara remains a Cerezo player despite a bid from FC Nurnberg. He will move but it remains to be seen whether it will happen this winter or more likely in the summer. Yoichiro Kakitani is also interesting a number of European clubs.

IN:

Takeda Yohei from Shimizu S-Pulse

Mukuhara Kenta on loan from FC Tokyo
Kusukami Junpei from Kawasaki Frontale
Toru Araiba from Kashima Antlers
Gu Sung-Yun from a high school in Korea!

OUT:

Kenya Matsui to Tokushima Vortis

Tada Ryosuke to Thespa Kusatsu on loan
Ogino Kenjiro to Albirex Niigata Singapore FC
Kodama Arata to Oita Trinita
Funatsu Tetsuya returns to Toyama Kataller after loan
Daisuke Takahashi released

Last game of the season 2 - 2 and we are still in J1!

We could have been relegated if other results conspired against us and we didn't get at least a point against Frontale. So I spent most of the match looking at the updates from other matches in particular those involving our fellow Kansai strugglers Gamba and Vissel Kobe which reminded me of watching football scores on Ceefax (RIP). Others listened to the radio and the more prepared fans were watching streams from these games. As is turned out we could have lost and still stayed up. This is why the celebrations when our equaliser went in from our players seemed a bit over the top to say the least. When it might have mattered we were losing for long periods. When it got to 2 – 2 we were safe anyway. Overall the league campaign wasn't a particularly impressive one with managerial changes and us, inevitably now it seems, losing another star player to a German club in the summer. Takahiro Ogihara is lined up to sign for Nurnberg this winter too. Gamba and Vissel both lost and go down. This means no derby games for us next season and while I was delighted to see Gamba go down most of our fans were just happy to stay up. In fact most of our fans were/are sympathetic to their plight, but I personally enjoyed seeing their supporters crying! The other team at the wrong end of the table on the last day, Albirex Niigata, spanked the newly crowned and possibly hungover champions Hiroshima 4 – 1 ensuring they stay in J1. Here are the highlights and the rather embarrassing celebration scenes when our second equaliser goes in, seriously it looks like we've won the league instead of just avoiding relegation thanks to the results of other teams. On the positive side Tomonobu Yokoyama chipped in with two goals against his old club. At least his wild celebrations were warranted.

HIghlights, OTT celebrations at 02:45!

3-2 again but this time Cerezo win!

Extended higlights taken from the mainstand at Kincho

Jubilo pulled back two goals in the last 5 minutes but the game should have been over as a contest with Kempes missing two easy chances in either half and Kakitani also being wasteful on one occasion. Kiyotake scored a lucky first with a mis-hit shot then another Olympic bound Cerezo midfielder, Ogihara, added the second as the Jubilo defence looked shaky. Bo-Kyung (heading to London 2012 with Korea) continues to play out of his skin though which is nice as he got our 3^rd of the night. Some news from our last away game against Kashima Antlers. The plastic bottle throwing fans have been banned for life while the Cerezo team bus kicking supporters have been banned for five games. Next game is in Sapporo on Thursday as it's Golden Week followed by a Kansai Derby vs Kobe in Osaka on Sunday.


Jubilo fans in the tiny away section



Just over 12,000 for this game



Detective Conan's half-time appearance



Kiyotake with Kakitani, as Kiyotake goes to Nuremburg
this summer Kakitani will be looking to take his place.

6 goals from 6 different players...Yamagata were poor

Earlier this year we drew with Montedio in Yamagata but this was a completely different set of teams. In terms of the players and confidence. Even though Cerezo were missing Kiyotake, injured in the Olympic qualifier, this game had the biggest gulf in class between two J-League teams I've ever seen. I hope for the Montedio supporters this was a one off display from them! That man Bando opened the scoring with his 9th goal in J1 this season. Fujimoto added the next with a header. Yamagata showed no resistance or fight in the 2nd half and we soon added two more within 5 minutes of the restart from Sakemoto and Ogihara, who came through the Japan Olympic qualifier unscathed. With the match won Culpi made some changes looking to rest some players before the ACL quarter final in Korea on Tuesday. The creative Fabio scored his first goal for us followed by our new number 7, Yohei Otake scoring a penalty to end a miserable night for Montedio. We face a much bigger challenge next in Korea to keep our 4-3 advantage from the first leg against Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.

Spirits still high with the away fans

Now realising this won't be a good away trip?

Ogihara being congratulated

Creativity and now goals...looks a bit like Ronaldinho?

Otake's penalty

Kiyotake helping Japan get to London next year

Kiyotake had a hand in both goals against Malaysia and he's making progress for the full national side too this year. Great pass for the first goal and he picked out someone in the box for the second. From Cerezo Yamaguchi and  Ogihara also made appearances.

Youngsters perform against Urawa

Athough Bando started he couldn't add to his goals scored this season. We ended winning up 3-1 in a packed Nagai Stadium. Particularly pleasing were the contributions from the younger squad members including goals from Hotaru Yamaguchi and Takahiro Ogihara both of whom are members of the Japanese squad aiming to qualify for the Olympics next year.



Great atmoshpere and superb support as usual from the Urawa Reds fans