More Preseason Summaries

As the start of the 2009 campaign approaches, teams are starting to put the final touches on their preseason preparations. In some cases, though, it seems like some of the big names in the J1 are still not ready for prime time. Below is the second installment in our review of the preseason action

J1 - Pre-season games.

Games played between 2/12 and 2/21.
Games are 90 minutes long where not indicate otherwise. Scorers for J1 teams only given.

2/12 - Kawasaki Frontale 3-1 Yokohama FC (J2)  ( Renatinho (2), Takasu;  Takeoka )
180 minutes game.

2/13 - Mito Hollyhock (J2) 0-2 Kashima Antlers  (-Osako; Endo)

2/13 - Omiya Ardija 5-0 Suwon Bluewings (South Korea) ( -Hashimoto (2); Rafael (2); Ishihara)

2/13 - FC Tokyo 3-1 Kyoto Sanga (-Suzuki ; Shigematsu ; guest player  Thiego )  180 minutes game.
The top teams played the first 90 minutes (1-1), while reserves played the second game. FC Tokyo was still missing its international players, who were with Japan’s national team.

2/13 - Shonan Bellmare 2-0  Sagawa Printing (JFL)  (Han, guest player)

2/13 - Shonan Bellmare 2-2 FC Seoul (South Korea)  ( Arai; Teragawa)

2/15 - Kawasaki Frontale 5-0 Ventforet Kofu (J2) (Renatinho (2); Chong; Taniguchi, guest player)
The top teams played the first 90 minutes (4-0), while reserves played the second game. Kawasaki Frontale successfully tried the line-up they will field in the ACL, with Kurotsu on the right, and Renatinho (who scored another two goals) on the left.

2/15 - Urawa Reds 2-1 Ulsan (South Korea)   Ponte (2)

2/16 - Urawa Reds 5-2 Fagiano Okayama (J2) (Tanaka; Takasaki (2), Escudero, Abe)

2/16 - Kyoto Sanga 2-2 Shimizu S-Pulse (Yanagisawa; Diego  Ono; Hara) - 180 minutes game.
All four goals were scored in the first 90 minutes, when the clubs fielded the top teams. Shimizu S-Pulse played all 180 minutes with a 4-5-1, alternating four central forwards. The first pick was former Urawa Reds’ striker Nagai.

2/17 - FC Tokyo-Omiya Ardija 0-0
Hirayama and Nagatomo played in the first half.

2/17 - Vegalta Sendai 2-3 Avispa Fukuoka (J2) (Nakahara, 2) - 180 minutes game.

2/17 FC - Tokyo 2-1 Honda FC (JFL)  Ricardinho (2)
FC Tokyo fielded mostly reserves for this game.

2/18 - Sanfrecce Hiroshima 3-0 Kataller Toyama (J2) (Sato (2); Lee)

2/18 - Kashima Antlers 7-2 Ryutsu Keizai University (JFL)  (Marquinhos; Inoha; Iwamasa; Endo; Sasaki; Koyano; Oiwa).

2/18 - Urawa Reds-Jubilo Iwata 2-1 (Edmilson (2); Funatani ) - 180 minutes game.
All goals were scored in the last 45 minutes, when Edmilson teamed-up with Tanaka. For Jubilo, the two strikers were Maeda and Lee Keun-ho.

2/19 - Cerezo Osaka 1-1 Sagan Tosu (Adriano)

2/20 - FC Tokyo 1-3 Vegalta Sendai  (Matsushita, Hirayama, (2); Nakajima) - 135 minutes game.

2/20 - Yokohama F Marinos 2-2 Ventforet Kofu (J2)  (Shimizu; Hyodo)

2/20 - Nagoya Grampus 2-3 Shimizu S-Pulse (Burzanovich; Maki ;  Fujimoto; Okazaki; Hara;  - 135 minutes game.

2/20 - Shonan Bellmare 3-3 Machida Zelvia (JFL) (Nakamura; Yamaguchi; Kobayashi) - 135 minutes game.

2/20 - Omiya Ardija 2-1 Montedio Yamagata  (Mato; Watanabe;  Kitamura) - 180 minutes game.

2/21 - Albirex Niigata 2-1 Jubilo Iwata (Cho; Suzuki; Yamazaki (JI)

2/21 - Tokushima Vortis (J2) 2-1 Urawa Reds  (Escudero)
The J2 side came from behind to administer an ominous defeat to the Reds. The Urawa team outshot the hosts 15-11, but got few positive indications from the match.

2/21 - Vissel Kobe 2-1 Consadole Sapporo (J2) (Miyamoto; Ganaha)
Fifteen minutes on the field for 42 year-old Gon Nakayama.

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

While Takeshi Okada’s national team is making the winter even colder for Japanese soccer fans, most J1 clubs are warming up their engines with their pre-season camps, mostly in Guam or Kyushu. Here is a first installment of a series about pre-season games that hopefully will begin to give you an idea of what should we expect form 2010. Mostly I will pass you selected friendly games results (played against J1, J2, JFL, or foreign clubs) and also some info on how the starting line-ups are developing. Data are gathered from the magazine El Golazo and from various official Internet sites.

- Urawa Reds

1/31 - vs SC Tochigi, 3-2. (Escudero; Takahara, 2) - 135 mins game

2/6 - vs Shonan Bellmare, 1-1 (Suzuki) - 135

2/11 - vs FC Seoul, 0-1 - 90

In the last game vs FC Seoul, Finke used a 4-2-3-1 in the first half, to switch to a classic 4-4-2: in the second. The starting eleven saw: Yamagishi; Hirakawa, Yamada N., Tsuboi, Ugajin; Suzuki, Horinouchi; Kashiwagi, Tanaka, Haraguchi; Edmilson.

- Kawasaki Frontale

2/1 - vs Oita Trinita, 2-0. (Kikuji, Taniguchi) - 90

2/6 - vs Kanto Gakuin University, 5-0. (Kurotsu, Taniguchi, Noborizato, guest player, Kusukami) - 140

- Shimizu S-Pulse

2/6 - vs SC Tochigi, 2-1 (Hiraoka; Nabeta) - 135

- Yokohama F Marinos

2/6 - vs Tokyo Verdy, 2-0 - 135

2/7 - vs Giravanz Kitakyushu, 2-2 (Bastianini; Mizunuma) - 135

2/10 - vs Kyoto Sanga FC, 1-1 (Sakada, YM; Suzuki, KS) - 135

2/11 - vs Oita Trinita, 4-1 (Watanabe, 4) - 90

Kazushi Kimura has so far rotated continuously, trying different combinations. The one that seemed to work better so far was the 4-4-2 (with diamond-shaped midfield) used in the second half versus Oita Trinita: Enomoto; Tanaka, Ogura, Matsuda, Fujita; Sakada, Hyodo, Yamase, Kano; Bastianini, Watanabe. The latter scored three goals between the 47th and the 58th minute, and added one in the 87th.

- Vissel Kobe

2/6 - vs FC Gifu, 1-0 (Ogawa) - 135

- Kashima Antlers

2/11 - vs Honda Lock, 2-0 (OG; Osako) - 90

- Gamba Osaka

2/10 - vs Kashiwa Reysol, 2-1 (Hirai; Otsuka) - 90

- Omiya Ardija

2/9 - vs Kashiwa Reysol, 2-3 (Watanabe; Seo) - 90

- FC Tokyo

2/10 - vs JEF United Chiba, 2-2 (Akamine, 2) - 90