Consadole are coming to town!

Next up for the Squirrels is a home game against bottom of the League Consadole Sapporo. In fact we will be playing Consadole at home twice in quick succession, as we also take them on at the Nack5 on May 16th in our next game in the Yamazaki Nabisco Cup.

Saturday's game is far more important to me, as J1 survival remains our key target and the first seven games have done nothing to suggest that it is going to be an easy ride. Therefore when the team propping up the table comes to town, even the most despairing of Ardija fans must be thinking of bagging all three points. Our record so far is played 7, won 2, drawn 1 and lost 4. Those four losses make particularly bad reading this early on, however we do go into this game right off a confidence boosting 2-0 win over our local rivals Urawa Reds, so this is a big opportunity to back that up with a win over Sapporo. Football is a simple game, and simply put, goals win games. The key lesson of our two wins this season is the fact that it is only in those 2 wins that we have scored more than one goal. I'm guessing that injuries aside, Suzuki will stick with the same starting eleven that took the field last Saturday so we will hope to see Cho pushing on to support Rafael up front.

In the game against Urawa we basically played on the counterattack, and did it very successfully of course.Having said that, I'm hoping to see a more dominant performance against a team which has lost every league game so far and has only managed one draw and that point came on the very first day of the season against Jubilo Iwata a long time ago now. Just to throw in a bit of caution though, in their last outing at home to Kawasaki Frontale, Sapporo did race into a 2 goal lead. Sadly for them they failed to hold on to that lead, or even a share of the points and went down 3-2. One wonders how demoralizing such a loss might have been and will they fancy the long trip away from home. 

My prediction then is for a home win. I'm going to plump for a 3-1 win to the Squirrels. 

Let's go Omiya Let's Go!

Go! Go! Omiya Ardija

Omiya Ardija might be one of the smaller and less fashionable clubs in the J League, and they are certainly one of the least successful! But that does not stop them from having an internet presence in both Japanese and English.

The leader in the English language stakes is the brilliant Go! Go! Omiya Ardija.

Now I don't know too many details about who is behind this website, but if you have any interest in Omiya Ardija and it's place in Japanese football, then I urge you to read it. The writing is humourous and irreverent, and is definitely one of it's strong points. You can't be a Squirrels fan without a sense of humour.

The writers (there seems to be more than one but not sure quite how many - a post at the top of the site mysteriously hints at a legion of dedicated members of the Squirrel Nation.) have a detailed knowledge of the goings on at Nack 5, at least to do with the team and squad. I'm sure they also know a lot more about behind the scenes at Ardija than the average fan too. If the sheer joy of watching Ardija's first team games is not enough for them, they also go and watch the practice games. More evidence of the dedicated members of the Squirrel Nation at work. I'm not sure how long it has been going, but I could find posts going back to 2008 available on there site if you are looking for a bit of recent Ardija history.

As a fan of Omiya Ardija, it is a site that I love to check regularly and get a all sorts of useful information and much more besides. Why not check it out? I certainly hope the members of the Squirrel nation keep on producing fine work on the site, which, you never know, might even inspire the lads to do the business on the pitch.

omiyaallezallezblogspot.com
twitter - @GoGoOmiyaArdija

J League info in English

When I first came to Japan, I knew very little about Japanese football and could find out even less information about it. The games I went to in my early days living in Japan were usually thanks to a kind Japanese friend who shared my passion for football and would sort out all the arrangements for me.

If you don't speak Japanese fluently and can't read the language either, it can often be very difficult to keep in touch with what's happening in the J League and to find decent match day information. Especially for tourists coming to Japan and hoping to take in a game on foreign soil. Furthermore, I got very little information about what was happening in the J League, about the players, managers and the teams and all the usual highly charged and enjoyable debate about football you find in England every day of the week. This is starting to change.

With the advent of the internet and social media there are now far more ways to keep in touch with Japanese football, to debate the issues and to find help to get tickets and go along and support your local J League team.

Your first stop on the internet should be JSoccer.com - a website about all things on Japanese football. It is also a very good magazine which has been published 3 times so far and a new issue should be coming soon in early May and will be available at all the usual outlets, and also for overseas readers. You can get interesting articles, match previews and reports and much more besides.

Podcasts in football have become very popular over the last few years with football fans all around the world. James Richardson's football podcast on the Guardian has been particularly praised and has garnered a loyal and large following. I know of two podcasts in English which cover the J league and both are well worth a listen, and appear regularly on Mondays during the season.

The J-Talk podcast is presented by Ben Maxwell, an Australian sports-mad guy who loves his football. He is a fan of Liverpool FC and more relevantly an FC Tokyo fan. In fact he has a blog on FC Tokyo, so if you are interested in FC Tokyo or finding more out about the Capital's J1 team, you should check it out.  The show has only started recently and I have listened to all the episodes so far. It's a great addition to the Japan football scene. The format so far is Ben with one invited guest and they discuss the previous week's football in the J league, the Asian Champions League and any Japan national team news, followed by a look at the next week's fixtures. Players, coaches and team performances are assessed and criticized and I feel as a listener are dealt with fairly and honestly without too much undue bias. It gives me an update on how Omiya's rivals are playing, and information on players to look out for. It's fun and engaging and so far the guests have been value for money. Ben has talked to a mixture of journalists based in Japan, or guys who are huge fans of certain teams and are often involved in running blogs or websites on those teams. From the journalists you tend to get an overview of the whole league from a rather neutral standpoint, whilst from the fans you get a look at that same league but from a far more passionate perspective. Both work.

The second podcast I know of, which concentrates on the J League is presented by a journalist called Ben Mabley and is called The Football Japan Minutecast. Interestingly enough, it usually lasts longer than a minute. Most of the shows I've listened to, seem to be about 5 or 6 minutes but one I heard was a much longer discussion. The regular Minutecast appears on Mondays and is a round up of that weekend's fixtures with any key talking points also highlighted. The listener gets all the relevant info in a timely manner, so it's perfect for people who are busy on Mondays and who just want to get the salient points of what happened in the J League over the weekend, and then perhaps they will delve into the details at a later date. Or at least that's how it works for me, and in that sense I find it useful. Ben also publishes the text of his podcast. To be honest, I'm not sure of the purpose behind the Minutecast, but as I said I get some value out of it. The longer discussion I mentioned earlier, came after the Osaka derby between Cerezo and Gamba and was a roundtable between Ben and two other journalists discussing the match and everything surrounding it. I found that show very informative and entertaining, and I hope that at some stage more episodes like that are produced. Ben also has a website which I have glanced at too and seems to be all about football in Japan. He is based in Osaka and is a Gamba Osaka fan, but writes very well on all Japanese football, and I'm sure if you are looking to find more out about Japanese football, then you might do very well to give his website a look too.

Here are some details about the websites I mentioned above.

JSoccer.com
twitter - @jsoccermagazine

jtalkpodcast.blogspot.com
twitter - @jtalkpod

mabley.footballjapan.co.uk
twitter - @benmabley

on-the-gas.blogspot.com
twitter @On The Gas1999   (FC Tokyo)

Anyway, if you don't know much about Japanese football and want to know more. Or if you are already a fan but just want to get more involved, then give these guys a try as a starter. There are more guys out there writing about Japanese football in English and I will review them at a later date.

The Saitama Derby

Last Saturday was the first Saitama derby of the 2012 season and it took place at the home of the Squirrels. Ardija have been struggling to find any form recently but what a way to cheer up the players, staff and fans with a win against your biggest rivals, the Urawa Reds.

Prior to the game, the Reds were sitting pretty in the league, in second place, whilst the home team were in a lowly 13th place. Most tipsters were looking to an away win, and I wouldn't have disagreed with them. Those same tipsters would have been burying their heads in shame after the first half-hour , whilst I was half in joy and half in shock as the Squirrels raced into a surprise 2-0 lead through goals by Cho and Rafael.

Despite some pressure from the Reds, Omiya managed to waste a few chances to get a third, but held on for a double whammy - a derby win and three very important points.

 Our first goal from Cho came in the eighth minute and the players worked the ball forward well on our left with some neat interplay passing and Cho got free of the Reds defence, turned inside the covering defender and slotted the ball home. The second goal came just before the half hour when Cho crossed the ball from the left wing perfectly for Rafael to finish with a smart header. Rafael seems to enjoy scoring against Urawa which is something the Omiya fans are very happy to see continue.

Key pointers were having Higashi fit and back in the midfield, Cho being able to push forward from midfield and link up with Rafael, and finally getting the 2nd goal gave us a bit of a cushion upon which we could defend with more confidence than has been evident of late.

A great win for Ardija, that saw us move up once place in the league to 12th place on 8 points, 5 points and 6 places behind the Reds.

The worry for Ardija fans is that this was a one-off performance inspired by the visit of our crosstown rivals, and that we will soon dip again. The good news is that the next visitors to the Nack5 on Saturday April 28th are bottom placed Consadole Sapporo. Is this a chance for the Squirrels to post back to back home wins? Let's go Omiya Let's go!

F Marinos 1-1 Ardija

The Squirrels took part in a very dull and scrappy affair between two misfiring teams last Saturday in wet conditions, which did nothing to improve the quality of fare, in front of a low crowd at the Yokohama Mitsuzawa stadium.

Very misleading was the early shot from Shunsuke Nakamura which hit the bar. If fans thought that would be the start of a great game, then they were sadly very wrong. An ageing F Marinos team failed to keep up with any of their young players, whilst an Ardija side on the slide could not seem to pass to each other for toffee, or tuppence or anything you choose, a roll of sushi perhaps. We certainly didn't seem to put their 38 year old defender under any real pressure. Laughably he seemed to make mistakes of his own accord.

 Whatever, it was poor. 0-0 at half time, no one was too hopeful for the second half and nothing much changed, although the crowd were given two goals to "savour". The first went to the home team and came via one of their young and upcoming players Ono, and it drew lots of praise on twitter and various Japan football forums, and whilst I would agree it was a great strike, I would have to point out the acres of space our defenders lavished on him. This has certainly been a feature of many of the goals we have conceded this season. I find it depressing that when we have a team that so obviously cannot score many goals, we also have a defence that loves to give opposing forwards so much room to move in. Double whammy time.

With the wet conditions and the current form of both teams suggesting this game would not be a high skilled game, any manager with a tall, target man on the bench would surely stick him on, send him up front and send long balls up to him in search of goals and points. It might not be pretty but needs must. And finally Omiya's much maligned coach, Suzuki finally gave in and sent Yu Hasegawa on, and soon after Rafael connected with a high ball and nodded it down to Hasegawa who managed to control the ball well for a big, tall chap and knocked the ball in to the net from close range to bring the Squirrels level at one goal apiece. Typically the game drifted to a close and honestly it was a fair result for two very poor teams.

From an Ardija viewpoint the most positive thing was that we had 12 corners by the end (I think but close), certainly way more than the opposition. Sadly it doesn't point to any domination of play or real skill, and to be fair, most of the corners were wasted. Perhaps Suzuki should have sent the big lad on earlier.

Next up is the Saitama derby at Nack 5, and although the Reds lost midweek 4-1 at home, it was only in the Yamazaki Nabisco Cup, so I'm not reading too much into that. I hope our crowd creates a derby atmosphere and our players respond. However I'm not hopeful and have to say that the Reds must go into the game as favourites. In football, though anything can happen, so Squirrel fans let's hope it's a home win and we put one over our local rival. Let's go Omiya!

Saturday 14th April 2012 J1 fixtures

Reysol v Sendai                      13:00
Tokyo v Antlers                     13:00
F Marinos v Ardija                 14:00
Reds v Kobe                          15:00
S Pulse v Jubilo                     16:00
Grampus v Consadole           16:00
Tosu v Sanfrecce                   18:30
Gamba v Frontale                  19:00
Cerezo v Nigata                     19:00

Ardija 0-3 Cerezo

Well I haven't heard yet that Jun Suzuki has lost his job, or even worse had the Chairman's vote of confidence. However the man must be surely watching his back round the corridors of power at the Nack5.

All the pre-season optimism and early season form has rapidly dissipated and we are left with a team that is lacking any confidence and if Cerezo had been a better team they would have walked away with not only 3 points but a far bigger victory. Ardija offered very little in this game if anything at all in front of their own despairing fans, and in the next few games Suzuki's first job is to stop the rot.

What better place to start than the Nissan Stadium and the struggling F Marinos. In fact we are a point ahead of them. Thus far the FM's have drawn 3 games and lost 2 so a draw looks a likely result then. Despite the fact that the Nissan Stadium held the World Cup Final in 2002 it is a joyless affair for me, a huge soulless bowl of a ground with the dreaded running track, and at a capacity of about 80,000 fans is almost never full for J League games and certainly won't be when we turn up (I don't know if it's being played in the smaller Mitsuzawa stadium). Yet, I think that this gives us a chance to make use of a lack of atmosphere and with Yokohama's manager currently not winning any popularity competitions among the F Marino fans, and pile more pressure on that team by getting something out of the game, even a win. Of course, F Marino fans will likely be thinking much the same at the prospect of our visit coming on the back of conceding 7 goals in our last two games.

 As I wrote in my previous post, our desperate position stems from a real lack of goals, and a shaky defence which can't hold out for 90 minutes. Can Suzuki turn it around with the players he has to choose from? Let's start on Saturday 14th April away to Yokohama F Marinos at 2pm. Let's go Omiya!

Goals and the Squirrels

Let's face it, this great game of ours is nothing without goals and early on in the season I'm starting to think that scoring might be a bit of a problem for Ardija.

In all of our games so far, we have only scored more than one goal in a game on one occasion and that was in the only game of the season we have won so far, away to the bottom of the league side Albirex Nigata. In the league game against Tokyo we played well enough to win but failed to take any of a number of chances, then home to Yokohama we took the lead but ended up with a draw in the Nabisco, home to Nagoya we grabbed an equalizer hanging on for a draw and away to Sendai we got a nice early lead which we failed to build on and crumbled in the 2nd half.

So where are the goals going to come from? Rafael looks out of form, Cho will provide goals but is he going to get 20 goals a season. I don't really know but I have my doubts. I'm not expecting to see hat-tricks at the Nack5, but I'd love to be proven wrong. Finding goalscoring stats out is difficult as I don't read Japanese but I'll try and find some for our forwards and see how they look. I don't imagine they'll make good reading.

The lack of goals of course has a knock-on effect on our defence, putting them under real pressure to hold the opposition out for 90 minutes because they know we are unlikely to get 2 goals at the other end. Omiya have got used to fighting against relegation and winning that battle for several seasons. You might say that they are very experienced in these matters, to the extent that I was fairly confident towards the end of last season that we would stay up. The team just seems to know what to do when the going gets tough late on in the season. Are we the Wigan of the J League? The question always remains for how long can we just continue to survive.

A 20 goal a season strike would surely help ease the battle for J1 survival.

Nabisco Cup - Antlers away

In our 2nd group game in the Nabisco Yamazaki cup we went away to Kashima Antlers. This season the Antlers have been having a torrid time in the J League and if I'm right have failed to score a goal so far. However they have had better luck in the League Cup and they chalked up another victory with a 1-0 win over the Squirrels. The goal was scored by Koroki on 31 minutes when Kitano came out to clear the ball away from an oncoming Antlers forward, but only managed to (unwittingly) pass the ball to Koroki who finished with ease. The game was lost but it remains very early days in the Nabisco Yamazaki Cup group stage, there are plenty of games left for Ardija to get more points. To be homiest though, I would trade success in this 3rd competition for valuable wins in the J League, especially some wins at the Nack 5 in front of our own supporters.

Omiya Ardija 1-1 Nagoya Grampus Eight

Omiya Ardija went into this home game on the back of a thrashing by league leaders Vegalta Sendai. For our next opponents we would have liked an easier proposition than last year's runner up and many people's favorites for this season's title, Nagoya Grampus but that was the wonderful prospect the computer had thrown up. The result therefore must be seen as a good result for the Squirrels even if it meant that our search for a home win goes on (and on???) The first half ended 0-0 and all the goals would come in a 7 minute burst in the second half. Nagoya opened the scoring on 48 minutes through Danilson. Nagoya were able to build an attack on the left side of Omiya's box, they quickly moved the ball about and as we were unable to put in a decent tackle, the ball was laid back to Danilson and he struck the ball home from outside the penalty box. Seemingly Kitano was well beaten but could he have done better fans will ask. And it was yet another goal conceded at home from outside the penalty box. Admittedly Yokohama's in the Nabisco Cup had an element of luck but it could be seen as a worrying trend if teams start to think they can score from distance where against other teams they might not expect to. Our goal came on the 55th minute. Cho made a forward run and took a shot at goal which was missing the target but Kanakubo had got ahead of his marker on the right side of the Nagoya six yard box and finished neatly. Omiya Ardija survived some late Grampus pressure and a valuable point was secured. Again, the value of Cho and Carlinhos to the team was shown and the re-introduction of Jun Kanakubointo the starting lineup clearly worked well here. Next up in the league is a home game against Cerezo Osaka. Let's hope as the Cherry Blossom comes into full bloom in Omiya Park, we can send those Cherry blossoms from Cerezo back to Kansai pointless and wishing they'd stayed at home for Hanami.