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. 

Consistency in the league but knocked out of the Nabisco Cup

Zaccheroni was at Kincho for this one as he saw Kakitani put us ahead with a typically cool finish after he was put through superbly by Minamino who did enough to ensure he'll be starting a few more games this season. We looked fairly comfortable despite Yokohama hitting the woodwork on a couple of occasions. Yokoyama came in to fill Ogihara's defensive midfield position and did really well alongside Yamaguchi. Yamashita worked hard in a defence that looked happy to tackle for once. Jin-Hyeon was taken off just after the hour mark after a clash of heads, something similar happened to him a couple of seasons back and he was ruled out for a few weeks, but he should be back for our next game this time. Simplicio picked his spot from outside the box to wrap up the win despite Marquinhos's late header. Looking good in J1 then although we limped out of the Nabisco Cup Quarter finals that hasn't affected our run in the league. Next up is Hiroshima away.

No, no, no! No nicknames on kits please "Bomber"

Yokohama fans brought the noise and someone had a cymbal to accompany the drums

13272 in attendance as a few sections were sold out

 

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.







Gambare Nippon Charity match in Nagai

Zaccheroni's JFA (Samurai Blue)  beat Stojkovic's J-League (Team as One) 2-1 last night. A free kick from Endo and a calm finish from Okazaki in the first half followed by a crowd pleasing wonderfully taken goal by the Japanese (44 year old) legend Kazuyoshi 'King Kazu' Miura. All the proceeds from this match go towards helping those affected by the earthquake/tsunami on March 11th.

A moment's silence

A sold out Nagai Stadium

In other news England drew with a vibrant Ghana side 1-1, the 8th most expensive player ever, Andy Carroll, scoring for England before Sunderland striker Asamoah Gyan scored an injury time equaliser. But of course the main story is about Japan with many supporters at Nagai Stadium donating plus the magic of seeing a Japanese superstar footballer scoring in front of an adoring crowd. Gambare Nippon indeed. Anyone watching Football Italia many years ago might remember this from Kazu while he was playing for Genoa in Serie A.

Some notes about the Asian Cup

Congratulations to Japan, Zaccheroni and finally Tadanari Lee for this spectacular winner!

The final also saw fans with tickets being locked out but not to worry Qatar has many years to avoid a repeat before the World Cup. Low attendances in the tournament could have been due to the poor showing from the teams from Qatar and her close neighbours.