Go! Go! Omiya Ardija

2012 Squirrels Are Go!

2012-01-26T05:04:00.003+09:00

Omiya Ardija on Wednesday released the numbered squad list of players that now look set to kick off the 2012 J-League season against FC Tokyo on 10 March. It confirms the arrival over the winter of five brand new players and the return from loan of one other. The new signings are:

Kosuke Kikuchi, a defender from Kawasaki Frontale
Takumi Shimohira, a defender from Gamba Osaka
Carlinhos Paraiba, a defensive midfielder from FC Sao Paulo
Cho Young Cheol, a wide midfielder from Albirex Niigata
Yu Hasegawa, a forward from Montedio Yamagata

The returning loan player is forward Masahiko Ichikawa, who spent 2011 at J2 outfit Tokyo Verdy. Midfield star Kota Ueda meanwhile shifts his designated number from 17 to 7 and the full squad listed below also sees a handful of players change their official positions:

Daisuke Watabe moves from midfielder to defender
Daigo Watanabe moves from defender to midfielder
Kazuhiro Murakami moves from midfielder to defender

Here's the full squad:

GK 1 Takashi Kitano
GK 21 Koji Ezumi
GK 31 Keiki Shimizu
GK 35 Shuhei Kawata

DF 2 Kosuke Kikuchi (new)
DF 4 Yuki Fukaya
DF 14 Shusuke Tsubouchi
DF 20 Kim Young Gwon
DF 22 Takumi Shimohira (new)
DF 24 Norio Suzuki
DF 26 Kazuhiro Murakami
DF 30 Daisuke Watabe
DF 34 Yosuke Kataoka

MF 5 Carlinhos Paraiba (new)
MF 6 Takuya Aoki
MF 7 Kota Ueda
MF 8 Keigo Higashi
MF 9 Cho Young Cheol (new)
MF 13 Daigo Watanabe
MF 16 Jun Kanakubo
MF 18 Hayato Hashimoto
MF 23 Shin Kanazawa

FW 10 Rafael
FW 27 Masahiko Ichikawa (returnee)
FW 29 Shintaro Shimizu
FW 32 Yu Hasegawa (new)

But what might this mean when it comes to coach Jun Suzuki's starting line-up against J2 champions and Emperor's Cup winners FC Tokyo? Experience says it is brain-meltingly impossible to predict how Suzuki might deploy the players at his disposal.

For example, if we assume - perhaps wrongly - that Omiya will play a basic 4-4-2 in 2012, the obvious front two following the departure of Naoki Ishihara and Lee Chun Soo is Rafael and Yu Hasegawa, with Ichikawa and youngster Shintaro Shimizu in reserve. However, it is equally possible that Keigo Higashi and dynamic South Korean newcomer Cho might be allocated one of the forward slots, perhaps alongside Rafael and, hey, who knows, perhaps relegating Hasegawa to the bench.

But it's all absolute bloody guesswork with Suzuki. He might perfectly well use Shimohira as a striker and Carlinhos as a substitute goalkeeper for the U12s.

You want an absolute bloody guess as to how things might look? Well OK then. Let's say for the sake of argument that it's a 4-4-2, or otherwise we'll be here all day:

GK Kitano
RB Watabe
CB Kikuchi
CB Young
LB Murakami
RM Higashi
CM Ueda
CM Carlinhos
LM Cho
FW Rafael
FW Hasegawa

For a start there's no reason to think that Takashi Kitano won't continue as first choice keeper after two decent years in the number 1 spot. In 2011 Daisuke Watabe looked like the most favoured right-sided defender until injury ruled him out of the last few months of the season. He's a decent player and deserves the chance.

On the left, the arrival of Shimohira as competition for Kazuhiro Murakami suggests that Suzuki sees Kim Young Gwon's main role as being in the middle of the defence. Potentially, then, the South Korean international will get a starting position in spite of a disappointing 2011 as a partner to experienced new signing Kosuke Kikuchi. Oh, who am I kidding, I have no idea.

Onwards and upwards. In midfield, the final few matches of last season seemed to suggest that Jun Suzuki was losing faith in Kota Ueda as a playmaker. A neat piece of I-have-not-the-first-notion-of-what-I'm-talking-about may indicate that Ueda will get another chance as a creative hub, with Carlinhos taking the place of Takuya Aoki as midfield destroyer.

As far as the wide players are concerned, at least on paper it would be exciting for both Cho and Higashi to get starting places, which surely means that Watanabe and Hayato freakin' Hashimoto will get the nod. Rafael and Hasegawa have to be first choice strikers, although with Suzuki you never know and he might go into the new campaign in the belief that Ichikawa is a world-beater. Let's see how pre-season goes.

Agent Orange: Awaiting Year Eight

2012-01-16T18:49:00.000+09:00

It's been about two months since I've written and there has been a reason for that. In mid-November I was sitting in the supporters' section for the Kashima Antlers game in a very cold rainstorm, after being questioned for a good five minutes about the validity of my season seat pass. Earlier in the day we had locked up our position in J1 so I had hoped that maybe Jun Suzuki would dip into the bench and shake things up.

Instead he opted for a very "defensive oriented" squad with attack-minded players like Naoki Ishihara and Kota Ueda left off the starting XI for Lee Chun Soo and Shin Kanazawa. Yosuke Kataoka, Daigo Watanabe and Hayato Hashimoto retained their starting spots despite putting in consistently substandard performances. No starts for young guys like Shintaro Shimizu or Taisuke Miyazaki despite the game being meaningless. The sixteenth home game of the season came and went and we blew a fortunate lead for the umpteenth time. I had pretty much lost interest in the 2011 edition of the squad.

I had planned on going down to Sanfrecce Hiroshima the following weekend but decided to pull out at the last minute because I didn't really want to spend more money on the team. Again, I was hoping that with Rafael ruled out maybe Naoki or some of the kids would get a start... no. Instead Suzuki doubled down on the mediocrity and opted for erstwhile captain Chikara Fujimoto to go along with a squad that rivaled 2007 in terms of negativity. Long story short, Kataoka commited two awful fouls which led to him being shown the door and Sanfrecce gaining a two-goal lead on their way to an easy win.

The last game of the season against Ventforet Kofu was enjoyable because Chun Soo was out with injury and Kataoka was out with stupidity. And I was angry. We had possibly our best outing of the year because we had eleven guys who just played and attacked. Seventeen games it took the squad to just play good, attractive, attacking football. I just sat there wondering why we couldn't do that all year... and then Chikara came in. For whatever reason, the team stopped attacking on their own and focused on getting him one last goal. The end of game ceremonies all centered on him which, while not surprising, kind of annoyed me.

Since then I have held my tongue because a lot of people felt sad over losing our "captain". I am not in that camp. I'll say it out loud. I'm glad Chikara Fujimoto is gone. And I don't care who knows about it. I'm also glad that Lee Chun Soo is gone. If that makes me less of a fan, so be it - but there was a cancer on our team that started with those two killing our offense every chance they got.

It's been a good offseason for the most part, if only for the fact that we've subtracted some guys who were more concerned with themselves over the team, but I'm not sure if we have enough to do much more than we did last year. I guess I like the Cho Young Cheol signing - combining him with Ueda and Keigo Higashi gives us a very good midfield on paper and an extreme upgrade over the Fujimoto, Kanazawa, Hashimoto and Kohei Tokita midfield of 2009 that we all complained about. I know nothing about Carlinhos except that Cerezo Osaka seemed to want him a lot, which is good if you look at Martinez and Amaral as examples of central mids they targeted in the past.

Kosuke Kikuchi adds another central defender, Takumi Shimohira adds another sideback and Yu Hasegawa gets to be the guy who makes spot starts for Rafael. I'm angry that we lost Ishihara because our coach is a fucking dope, but you know it's probably better that he's gone because he wasn't gonna play... because our coach is a fucking dope.

I guess the team is better but deep down, I have a sick feeling that it will take one bad loss before Kataoka is stinking up our back line and a couple more for Hayato to absolutely clog up our offensive flow like a Roppongi toilet after happy hour. The news that Kim Young Gwon has extended his contract is good because although he might not be a great player at least he takes up one of the back four spots. That narrows the odds of Kataoka starting.

Anyway, it's been two months and I'm still trying to find motivation for 2012. I'm seriously debating whether or not I'll buy a season seat.

Happy New Year.

Orange, blah blah blah, hey opening up against FC Tokyo at home! Like our chances!! Not fucking really!!!

GGOA In Print

2011-12-19T02:31:00.000+09:00

Some time ago I wrote a series of three longer articles for the US-based football blog Pitch Invasion, my topic being the Squirrels' traumatic and dramatic 2007 J1 season (think Robert Verbeek, Satoru Sakuma and the catharsis of Leandro's late, late winning goal at FC Tokyo). I'm very pleased to say that those articles have been included in a recently-published book, which brings together the, ahem, best bits of the site's content.

The Very Best Of Pitch Invasion is an anthology of 39 essays by writers from around the world and indeed as well as my own piece, also featured is an article on Shimizu S-Pulse by friend of GGOA Mike Tuckerman. The book is available in print and a full range of digital formats (Kindle, epub and pdf). Full details, including links via which all the various versions can be ordered, are on the Pitch Invasion site, here.

GGOA Player Of The Year: The Result!

2011-12-10T02:02:00.004+09:00

Squirrels fans have over the last few days been having their say on the 2011 season, but the voting is now over and the results of the GGOA Omiya Player of the Year can be announced. Shortly after the survey went live, it was Ardija's top scorer Rafael who went into an early lead, but by the middle of the week he was level with Omiya's young star Keigo Higashi. And as the closing date approached it was the Japan U22 international who picked up the majority of the votes... all of which means that Keigo Higashi is confirmed as the Player of the Year for 2011. Many congratulations to Keigo - Squirrels supporters are looking forward to another great season from you in 2012.

Here are the results in full of the Player of the Year vote:

1. Keigo Higashi 52%
2. Rafael 23%
3. Takuya Aoki 14%
4. Kota Ueda 9%

Thanks to all Ardija fans who participated.

Kofu Video Highlights

2011-12-05T02:18:00.000+09:00

First half

Second half

GGOA Omiya Player Of The Year: Vote Now!

2011-12-05T00:52:00.000+09:00

The 2011 J-League season is now over, Omiya finished with a win over Ventforet Kofu that has been described as Ardija's best performance of the campaign - and now it's time for the fans to have their say. The polling booth is now open and it's time for Squirrels supporters to vote for the GGOA Omiya Player of the Year 2011. There are five candidates:

Takuya Aoki - for his battling midfield performances and for breaking his goalscoring duck
Keigo Higashi - for his bursts of skill and genuine star potential
Takashi Kitano - for his reliability and self-assurance between the posts
Rafael - for his goals and all-round teamwork
Kota Ueda - for leading the Ardija midfield with such unhurried style

All you have to do to make your choice for the GGOA Player of the Year 2011 is head over to the box on the right-hand side of this page and VOTE VOTE VOTE.

Ardija Finish With Home Win (!!!)

2011-12-04T00:36:00.003+09:00

J1 Game 34/34, Sat 03 Dec 11

Omiya Ardija 3-1 Ventforet Kofu

1-0 Ishihara 13'

1-1 Izawa 25'

2-1 Higashi 29'

3-1 Higashi 47'

GK Kitano

DF Sugiyama

DF Fukaya

DF Kim

DF Murakami

MF Aoki

MF Ueda

MF Watanabe

MF Hashimoto

MF Higashi

FW Ishihara

Subs not used

GK Ezumi

DF Tsubouchi

MF Suzuki

MF Kanakubo

Cards

Y Fujimoto 83'

Y Kim 90+2'

Kofu Preview

2011-12-03T08:07:00.000+09:00

So let's be honest, I've kind of been looking forward to this. The last game of what has been a pretty dismal campaign for Squirrels fans and the last opportunity for Jun Suzuki's team to pull of their, ooooh, second home win of the year. There is a mathematical chance that opponents Ventforet Kofu could have something to play for in their more or less hypothetical chance of avoiding relegation, but the main business of the day is in drawing a line under 2011 and saying goodbye to a few people who have become familiar figures at NACK5.

It's not the time right to review the successes and failures of those people, but suffice it to say that club captain Chikara Fujimoto will be making his last-ever appearance as a Squirrel after seven years at Omiya. Arguably now more of influential figure off the field than on, Fujimoto joined Ardija in January 2005, when the club was preparing for its first ever season in J1. This means that the 34-year-old is along with Hayato Hashimoto one of only two players to have been squad members for the whole time that Omiya have been members of the top division (we should also give a hat-tip at this point to Kofu's returning Squirrels hero Daisuke Tomita - like Fujimoto, a key part of Ardija's J1 history).

Someone else who will be wearing the orange shirt for the final time is Arata Sugiyama, who coincidentally has spent the majority of his career in J2 with Ventforet. Since coming to Ardija a couple of years ago he's picked up more playing time than even he probably would have anticipated, in part due to the idiosyncrasies of Jun Suzuki's selection policy and in part due to injuries to team-mates such as Daisuke Watabe.

At the age of 31 Sugiyama will likely try to get a deal with another club before retirement, but Saturday also marks the sad if inevitable departure from the Omiya squad of Taishi Tsukamoto, tragically struck down with cancer in the early stages of his pro career but someone who has been kept on a player's contract for two years while he has been rehabilitating. It's been announced that that contract will not in itself be renewed, but that Tsukamoto will be able to continue his recovery with the active support of the club.

A further news item issued by the club ahead of the Kofu match is the confirmation that, as expected, Jun Suzuki has had his own contract extended for another year. Which is pretty much where I came in with this preview and the idea of actually being happy enough that the season is coming to an end.

How Omiya can have failed to reach their target of 50 J1 points, won only one home league game (so far!), been knocked out of the Emperor's Cup by a team of university students, been knocked out of the Nabisco Cup at the first opportunity by our local rivals and still take the view that the coach has done enough to get a new deal, well... that's one for another day too. Orange, as AO would perhaps say at this point, Happy, Football.

The Squirrel's Eye View: You Wouldn't Blame 'em If...

2011-11-28T07:14:00.000+09:00

Now that the J1 season is almost over and the Squirrels have confirmed their place in the J-League's top division for next year, the thoughts of many fans are turning to the all-important topic of changes to be made to the squad for 2012. In among all the possibilities of players to depart and arrive there is one particular overarching question that demands an answer, and that is:

Why on earth would any decent player with a modicum of ambition play for Omiya?

In seven years as a J1 club, Ardija have failed to make any significant on-field progress at all. For the seventh year in a row Ardija have ended up in a battle to avoid relegation. For the seventh year in a row Ardija will finish in one of the four places immediately above the drop zone. Despite having set in January what seemed a perfectly realistic target of 50 league points, Omiya under Jun Suzuki never looked like reaching that goal. Instead, the Squirrels went through another season of struggle that has included - with a single game still to play - just one home win. One.

In summary, this is not a club that can realistically offer good or promising players the chance to develop themselves or to achieve any professional goals they might have. God knows I wish the situation was different but this is reality - and it has pretty much been this way for, well, seven years.

Here's another question. If you were Rafael, Omiya's top scorer and a player who has reportedly received at least one offer for 2012 from another J1 club, what would you do? Obviously there are matters such as money and family circumstances that affect a player's decision about a contract or a transfer, but leaving these things aside it is hard to imagine that Rafael would be satisfied staying at Ardija. He has managed to carve out something of a reputation for himself in Japan and while Rafa might not necessarily be the big star if he were to move to a different team, he'd more than likely be at a better club with better players and a better chance of finishing in a decent position. It's also hard to imagine that that opportunity will fall into his lap by staying at Omiya for another year.

There are other players on the Ardija squad that you couldn't blame if they wanted to leave. Among the defenders, Shusuke Tsubouchi and Norio Suzuki have had hardly a sniff of the first team after impressing in 2010. Tsubouchi has picked up some playing time as a substitute and occasional starter - but while no-one would claim that he's the best player in the world, the complete non-appearance of Suzuki has been more difficult to understand. Given that Tsubouchi, Kazuhiro Murakami, Daisuke Watabe, Kim Yong Gwon, Arata Sugiyama and Daigo Watanabe have all been chosen ahead of him at one time or another, Suzuki must be our seventh-choice side back. Really? Why would someone stick around to be that far down the pecking order?

Wide midfielder Keigo Higashi, signed last winter from Oita Trinita, has played a good deal more than was anticipated pre-season, when it was felt that he would gradually be phased in as a longer-term replacement for veteran Chikara Fujimoto. To give Jun Suzuki some credit he has at least recognised that U22 international Higashi brings something different to the team, but the relationship between coach and player hasn't always been plain sailing.

Higashi is clearly an ambitious young man and at this point in his career, he needs above all to consider whether or not Omiya is really the club that can help him to become a member of the full Japan squad. So do we have a track record in taking good young players to the next level? No, we emphatically do not. The Squirrels have achieved extremely limited success when it comes to bringing kids on from the Omiya youth set-up - and as for full international honours, well, there's always Daigo Kobayashi's single appearance in a friendly five years ago to, er, boast about. That's something for Higashi to consider when he's on one of his trips with the cream of Japanese football's young crop.

Someone whose career seemed to go into reverse in 2011 was another wide midfield man, Jun Kanakubo. After a very encouraging rookie campaign last year things looked less clear cut for the former Ryutsu Keizai University student following the arrival at Ardija of Higashi, but even so Kanakubo can hardly have expected to start only three league games. Like Norio Suzuki, he's not a world beater but he's got skill, some speed and a more than respectable free kick. The fact that Hayato Hashimoto is now being selected ahead of him must tell Jun Kanakubo all he needs to know about his future at Omiya: if a mid-ranking J1 team were to come in with an offer, he'd be crazy not to take it.

There's only one place to finish an article like this and that is with Naoki Ishihara. Condemned to be a super sub apparently due to Jun Suzuki's twisted logic that no other member of the squad is good enough to play the role, what is certainly true is that no other member of the squad is as good a finisher or as natural a goalscorer. Top scorer in 2010, Ishihara has this year been omitted from the team in favour of players that either were less capable (Rodrigo Pimpao) or were being deployed in a position that they really weren't much good at (Lee Chun Soo). In some senses it would be astonishing if Ishihara doesn't leave and if he does, I for one would be willing him on to prove Suzuki wrong.

Young Ardija In Friendly Win

2011-11-28T06:08:00.000+09:00

2x30mins Friendly, Sun 27 Nov 11

Omiya Ardija 4-1 Saitama University

1-0 Kanakubo 2'

2-0 Kihara 19'

2-1 scorer unknown 36'

3-1 Hayashizaki 52'

4-1 S Shimizu 60'

GK Ezumi

DF Kihara

DF Tsubouchi (Aoki 40')

DF Suzuki

DF Kikuike

MF Kanakubo

MF Ueda

MF Aoki (Hayashizaki HT')

MF Miyazaki

FW Ishihara

FW S Shimizu

Kataoka Off As Squirrels Collapse

2011-11-27T06:26:00.001+09:00

J1 Game 33/34, Sat 26 Nov 11

Sanfrecce Hiroshima 4-2 Omiya Ardija

1-0 Tomic 41'

2-0 Sato 45+1' (PK)

2-1 Kanazawa 56'

3-1 Lee 64'

4-1 Aoyama 71'

4-2 Lee 88'

GK Kitano

DF Sugiyama

DF Fukaya

DF Kataoka

DF Murakami

MF Kanazawa

MF Aoki

MF Watanabe

MF Hashimoto

MF Fujimoto

FW Lee

Subs not used

GK Ezumi

DF Suzuki

MF Ueda

MF Kanakubo

Cards

Y Kataoka 40'

Y+R Kataoka 44'

Y Murakami 47'

Y Aoki 59'

Y Kitano 90+3'

Kashima Highlights

2011-11-27T06:20:00.002+09:00

Marinos Friendly

2011-11-21T01:13:00.001+09:00

Friendly, Sun 20 Nov 11

Yokohama F Marinos 4-2 Omiya Ardija

0-1 Murakami 18'

0-2 Fujimoto 22'

1-2 Ono 25'

2-2 Ono 45' (PK)

3-2 Hanato 76'

4-2 Watanabe 78'

GK Ezumi (K Shimizu HT')

DF Kihara

DF Tsubouchi

DF Suzuki

DF Murakami

MF Kanakubo

MF Ueda

MF S Shimizu

MF Miyazaki

FW Ishihara

FW Fujimoto

What Makes It Worse, It Was Koroki

2011-11-21T01:04:00.002+09:00

J1 Game 32/34, Sat 18 Nov 11

Omiya Ardija 1-1 Kashima Antlers

1-0 Lee 67'

1-1 Koroki 90'

GK Kitano

DF Sugiyama

DF Fukaya

DF Kataoka

DF Kim

MF Kanazawa

MF Aoki

MF Watanabe

MF Hashimoto (Tsubouchi 86')

FW Lee (Ishihara 89')

FW Rafael

Subs not used

GK Ezumi

DF Murakami

MF Ueda

MF Fujimoto

FW S Shimizu

Cards

Y Kataoka 60'

Y Aoki 72'

Kashima Preview

2011-11-19T07:32:00.001+09:00

Omiya enter the closing straight of the 2011 season knowing that a point in Saturday's match against Kashima Antlers is almost a guarantee of J1 survival for another year. The last round of matches fully two and a half weeks ago did Ardija a massive favour in the fight to avoid the drop, the Squirrels scrambling a win at Kawasaki Frontale thanks to Keigo Higashi's early goal, while nearest rivals Urawa Reds and Ventforet Kofu were both losing. Those three results shifted the balance hugely in favour of Omiya and so now, even if Jun Suzuki's team fail to draw with Kashima, they in fact will still be safe if Kofu don't beat Jubilo Iwata. The pressure, in other words, is to a great extent off Ardija and on Reds and Ventforet.

Which is pretty lucky, really, because it's a weak-looking Squirrels team that is likely to take to the field against the Antlers, Yahoo predicting an unusual 4-1-4-1 formation in the absence due to U22 international duty of Higashi. The preferred option must be that Daigo Watanabe slots in at right back while Suzuki's wide men of choice seem now to be Lee Chun Soo and... Hayato Hashimoto, a man who up until a few weeks ago seemed unlikely ever to play for Omiya ever again. Mind you, we thought that about Yosuke Kataoka - with good reason, I mean the club actually sold him for cash money - and look what happened there. If you dare.

Someone who also seems unlikely to play for Omiya ever again is Rodrigo Pimpao, who departed for Brazil on Friday on the basis that his injury will prevent him from participating in any of the remaining league fixtures. Given that his contract expires at the end of the calendar year, the 24-year-old can fundamentally be regarded now as an ex-Squirrel: someone who started six games, made three brief substitute appearances, never played a full ninety minutes and scored just a single goal, on his debut against Vegalta Sendai. It's a shame to see his Ardija career come to an end like this, having been stretchered off in a training game, but in truth it never really happened at NACK5 for Pimpao.

Not that NACK5 has been that much of a hunting ground for Omiya during the course of the season, of course. An unbelievable one home win all year underlines the problem that Jun Suzuki has faced in reaching the club's target of 50 J1 points and, even though the 2011-vintage Kashima is way off the standard of previous Antlers teams, they will still provide a difficult test for the fragile Ardija. And so in a strange kind of way the closing straight of the season actually leads towards the more intriguing prospect of the winter buying and selling, as preparations begin for 2012. Who's going to get cut from the Omiya squad? That's something we'll be taking a look at here at GGOA over the next few days.

Kawasaki Highlights

2011-11-06T02:54:00.002+09:00

Agent Orange's Safari Planet

2011-11-06T01:59:00.002+09:00

Two years ago in Kobe, I had a now legendary encounter with a Humboldt penguin outside of Home's Stadium. When it happened, I thought it was a once in a lifetime event. Really, what were the odds of repeating the experience of coming across a small polar creature standing in a wading pool outside of a football ground in the sweltering heat of a Japanese summer?

Gloriously, I was mistaken. Outside of historic (trans. old and crappy) Todoroki stadium on Thursday, Kawasaki Frontale was putting on a fan event complete with food, souvenir booths and an event stage with an adjoining animal pen. Oooh! Animals! I'm in!

There was a sign advertising a petting ground for large, sedated creatures that resembled giant gophers. It turned out they were capybara. If you are not familiar with capybaras (as I was not until I perused Wikipedia), they happen to be the largest rodents in the world. Native to South America, the capybara are noted for their gentle nature and their ability to remain underwater for long periods of time. These cousins of the squirrel can reach up to 100kg in weight, much like Vegalta Sendai midfielder Diego, and eat as much as 3.5kg of grass a day. Very nice animals, kind of similar to an old labrador retriever. I definitely want one laying around my room.

Two things surprised me about capybaras, though. First, petting them is kind of like petting a Christmas tree. They have long, coarse, quill-like hairs covering their body. Second, they really don't have any smell... unlike your average Tokyo salaryman, who has perfected the art of offending, confounding and nauseating with an odiforous and pungent blend of cigarettes, sweat and toilet stench, topped off with a hint of desperation and a touch of garlic. A veritable potpourri of BO!

If the capybaras had been the only animals I encountered at Todoroki, my day would have been complete. However, only a mere stall away, another surprise awaited. Not one but TWO majestic Humboldt penguins stood around grooming themselves and taking in everything around them, like a young Tom Jones accepting a pair of undergarments from a middle-aged temptress in the second row.

If I had had any doubts about the result of the upcoming match with Frontale, they were crushed in an instant. Up until that point, Omiya was undefeated in games before which I had seen a Humboldt penguin... the stats stood at a resounding 1-0-0 if you are keeping score at home. Victory was in the bag, even though the last time I visited Kawasaki we lost badly, Klemen Lavric ended his Japan career with a petulant ten-minute performance and a seagull crapped on me right as the final whistle sounded. I don't know if the good people of this little Kanagawa burg felt bad and decided to make it up to me with a menagerie of creatures. Maybe they did. I was already satisfied with my trip and nestled in, awaiting the game.

Wait! What's this? Kawasaki had one more surprise before the opening whistle! An alpaca! Hmmm, would the alpaca throw off the good mojo of my visit with the capybaras and the penguins? Are alpacas good luck or bad luck? As I watched, it got perilously close to keeper Takashi Kitano, who couldn't decide whether to pet the fuzzy creature or run as far away as possible. Luckily, the South American fur machine found the Todoroki turf more to his/her liking (I apologize for my lack of detail regarding the alpaca's gender but I didn't get close enough to check the pipes) and deposited some of Kanagawa's finest grass into its belly. What a delightful little beast!

As for the game itself, absolutely horrifying. A goal in the first minute combined with 89 minutes of defensive play. Thank God we don't have to do that again... do we?

Well enough of that. Capybaras! Penguins! And alpacas! In the words of immortal gay dude George Takei, oooh myyy!

Kashiwa Friendly

2011-11-06T01:36:00.001+09:00

Friendly, Fri 04 Nov 11

Kashiwa Reysol 2-5 Omiya Ardija

1-0 Tanaka 14'

2-0 Hayashi 28'

2-1 Fujimoto 36'

2-2 Murakami 41'

2-3 S Shimizu 73'

2-4 Miyazaki 76'

2-5 Murakami 87'

GK Ezumi

DF Sugiyama

DF Tsubouchi

DF Suzuki

DF Murakami

MF Kihara

MF Kanazawa (Kanakubo 63')

MF S Shimizu

MF Miyazaki (Trialist 88')

FW Ishihara (Trialist 88')

FW Fujimoto

Squirrels Step Towards Safety

2011-11-04T06:02:00.002+09:00

J1 Game 31/34, Thu 03 Nov 11

Kawasaki Frontale 0-1 Omiya Ardija

0-1 Higashi 2'

GK Kitano

DF Watanabe

DF Fukaya

DF Kataoka

DF Kim

MF Aoki

MF Ueda (Kanazawa 55')

MF Lee (Ishihara 66')

MF Hashimoto

MF Higashi (Tsubouchi 85')

FW Rafael

Subs not used

GK Ezumi

DF Sugiyama

DF Murakami

MF Fujimoto

FW Ishihara

Cards

Y Kitano 84'

Kawasaki Preview

2011-11-03T07:12:00.001+09:00

Been pretty quiet around here lately, huh? Well, there's a reason for that. Having started GGOA in early 2005, I can honestly say that I've never felt so disenchanted and disappointed with Ardija as I do at this moment. As far as I'm concerned the 2011 season, the seventh consecutive campaign in which Omiya have displayed no progress whatsoever, can't end soon enough. Another year in which the Squirrels come into November fighting for their J1 lives. Jun Suzuki may have managed one home win all season, but still club president Shigeru Suzuki - supposedly a breath of fresh air when he came in to replace the disgraced Saigo Watanabe - has reportedly pronounced himself satisfied with how the club is developing. I just want to know who they're going to get rid of in the close season.

Here on GGOA we have made the same sorts of points about the club and team's failings again and again and again and again... because we've pretty much had to. On occasions we've even tried to make them halfway interesting - amusing, even - to the non-Ardija fan, for example Agent Orange's story about seeing a penguin at Vissel Kobe. Come on, that was pretty funny. Well I liked it. But we're banging our heads against a brick wall here. Seven years, it's been. Seven years and still Chikara Fujimoto is club captain, Hayato Hashimoto gets playing time and Yosuke Kataoka is a first-choice defender. Seven years and we still don't have a productive youth system to speak of. That's tough to take when your ambitions are as sky-high as ours. Hell, we still dream of finishing tenth.

AO feels this team still has a win and a draw in it during the last four matches of 2011. That would be great. A season total of 39 points? Any Omiya supporter would bite your hand off for that. Me, I know that the Squirrels have a strange habit of pulling off those sorts of improved results right at the end of a year. They've done if every time since 2005, so I wouldn't count myself as surprised if they do it again this time too. But equally, I can well imagine Suzuki's team closing out the fixture list with four more defeats. We don't score that many and the defence, with Kataoka and the immobile Yuki Fukaya at its heart, is so weak that it's never going to keep the opposition out unless they themselves are playing disastrously badly.

Wednesday's opponents Kawasaki Frontale aren't playing in a manner that you'd describe as disastrous, but they certainly have had a poor season and are currently slumped just below halfway in the standings... that's right, in the sort of position Omiya would love to be in. Could the game at Todoroki be the Ardija win that AO believes to be a possibility? It's the same deal as all the last few matches; with minor tweaks, the same as the last seven years, in fact. We need Rafael, Keigo Higashi, Takashi Kitano and Kota Ueda to be on top form and we need Frontale to be inexplicably feeble in front of goal. I guess it might happen. But roll on December, when the action must surely start.

Nagoya Highlights

2011-11-03T06:35:00.003+09:00

First half

Second half

Staying Up? Well...

2011-11-03T06:33:00.000+09:00

J1 Game 30/34, Sat 22 Oct 11

Omiya Ardija 2-3 Nagoya Grampus

0-1 Tulio 3'

1-1 Higashi 64'

2-1 Rafael 66'

2-2 Tamada 77'

2-3 Kennedy 84' (PK)

GK Kitano

DF Sugiyama (Lee 12')

DF Fukaya

DF Kataoka

DF Kim

MF Aoki

MF Ueda (Kanazawa 74')

MF Watanabe

MF Hashimoto (Rodrigo Pimpao 83')

MF Higashi

FW Rafael

Subs not used

GK Ezumi

DF Tsubouchi

MF Fujimoto

FW Ishihara

Cards

Y Higashi 81'

Nagoya Preview

2011-10-22T06:06:00.000+09:00

"The English motorway system," sang Black Box Recorder on their 2000 album Facts Of Life, "is beautiful and strange." Well, in a funny way maybe it is; the piercing steeple of Hanslope church viewed across fields from the M1 as it cuts through rural Northamptonshire, for example. And it's not the only thing. Saitama Derby matches have a tendency to have a kind of eerie appeal to Squirrels fans at least, in that in recent years they have often followed a similar pattern: Urawa Reds dominate the majority of possession, but Omiya win the game. Last weekend was something of a departure from that norm in that while Ardija still took the points, on balance they were probably the better team. Beautiful. And, being honest, strange.

The twist is that it was in its own way an extraordinary encounter, a relegation match of critical importance to both teams played for much of the ninety minutes with the speed and intensity of a training game. Tentative attacking play was the order of the day, exemplified at one end by Rafael's frequently feeble shooting and by Reds' stunningly poor set plays at the other. While Rafael eventually converted a header from a looping Hayato Hashimoto cross, Urawa's solitary half-chance for Ranko Despotovic was easily blocked by Takashi Kitano. After that, Zeljko Petrovic's men produced nothing. For Omiya this was hardly a break in the bad form of the previous couple of games but against an Urawa team in so much disarray, it didn't need to be - Reds couldn't even score against a central defensive pairing of Yuki Fukaya and Yosuke Kataoka.

So while the victory was very welcome, placing Ardija six points above the relegation places with five games remaining - in fact, given the compressed nature of such a large proportion of the J1 table, they're actually the same number of points behind Shimizu S-Pulse in eighth - the strangeness of this beautiful derby win is that it's actually unhelpful to regard it as anything more than the Squirrels being just a little bit less bad than a dreadful team. We're in the bottom five at this stage of the season, again, because we deserve to be. Vissel Kobe, Albirex Niigata and Kawasaki Frontale, for instance, mightn't be much good but they're better than we are.

Another superior team is Saturday's opponent high-flying Nagoya Grampus - and of all the fixtures it's hard to imagine Omiya winning, this is just about the hardest. The mobility of Keiji Tamada, the goal threat of Josh Kennedy and Grampus' impressive midfield supporting cast, coupled with Dragan Stojkovic's absolute determination to push his team to a second successive J-League title, means that this one has away win written all over it. Keigo Higashi looks set to return to the Ardija starting line-up and the engine room of the Kota Ueda and Takuya Aoki needs to put in an especially strong performance to counter the palpable weaknesses in other areas of the side. A home victory? Well, now that really would be gorgeous to behold. And frankly bizarre.

Urawa Video Highlights

2011-10-19T22:15:00.002+09:00

Surely The Worst Friendly Result Ever

2011-10-17T17:34:00.003+09:00

Friendly, Sun 16 Oct 11

Omiya Ardija 0-3 Yokogawa Musashino

0-1 Yamashita 23'

0-2 Hashiba 31'

0-3 Hashiba 39'

GK Ezumi (K Shimizu HT')

DF Kihara (Miyazaki HT)

DF Tsubouchi

DF Suzuki

DF Murakami

MF Kanazawa (S Shimizu 63')

MF Kanakubo

MF Lee (Kihara 65')

MF Fujimoto

FW Ishihara

FW Rodrigo Pimpao

Agent Orange: Reds Dead? Redemption?

2011-10-17T17:05:00.001+09:00

Immediately after a vital derby victorymight be a strange time to say it, but this has to be my least favorite OmiyaArdija season ever. Of the 32 games played this year, I've managed to get to25. My personal record is a dismal 4-9-12.

I was there to see Omiya get blown out by an increasinglyunimpressive Kawasaki Frontale squad. I was present for not one but two lossesto a cynical Shimizu S-Pulse side. I watched as the team failed to scoreagainst bunkering Kashiwa Reysol, Cerezo Osaka and Sanfrecce Hiroshimateams. I was in attendance as YosukeKataoka and Kim Young Gwon conspired to let Avispa Fukuoka geteasy goals and pick up their lone away win this season. I even headed toKumagaya to see Kataoka lamely attempt a heading clearance that was picked upby an awaiting Fukuoka University attacker for their goal, setting the stagefor Chikara Fujimoto to choke on a PK.

I missed the victories against Kashiwa,Jubilo Iwata, Cerezo and Urawa Reds. Omiya - is it something I said?

I'm happy about the win over Urawa, in what many are saying wasa dismal game. I'm overjoyed that my misgivings about starting Hayato Hashimoto turned out to be grossly incorrect. Idon't even mind missing the game to spend nine hours having elementary schoolmothers give me the stink eye while I perform my daily routine as the talkingEnglish monkey, in a tie, on a Saturday.

But none of what happened at NACK5 on Saturday masks the factthat this team is fundamentally fucked. Even if Omiya is able to stave off relegation,as looks increasingly likely, it still doesn't cover the fact that this seasonhas been a waste, mostly of my time and money. Trying in this articleto identify reasons for Ardija's poor results this year, Daily Yomiuri andWeekly Soccer Magazine writer (and avid Reds supporter) Sean Carroll puts theblame squarely on the shoulders of coach JunSuzuki and his playerselection and strategy. I'm not completely sure why Carroll goes to somany Omiya games - hell, I don't understand why I go half the time - althoughas one of the few members of the Japanese media who pays attention to the squadI appreciate the columns.

And I for one can't argue with his point that Suzuki is responsiblefor Omiya's failings, given that GGOA has consistently criticized Suzuki formismanagement. However, that doesn't mean that I agree with the article, inwhich Carroll argues that the team is not attacking enough and advocatesincorporating substitute striker NaokiIshihara along with Rafael, Keigo Higashi and either Lee Chun Soo or RodrigoPimpao in an attacking4-4-2.

I think that would be suicide. First, I don't completelybuy the premise that we aren't an attacking team. In fact, the limited statsavailable - that is, on crossing, passing, dribbling and shots - actually havethe Squirrels ranked in the top half of the league. For instance, the WeeklySoccer Digest dated 25 Oct places Omiya fifth in shots, trailing only Kawasaki,Cerezo, Vissel Kobe and Kashima Antlers.

The problem isn't that the team doesn't attack... it's that theydon't attack well. Carroll uses current league leader Kashiwa asan example of a team that has a strong offense. However, the Sun Kingsrank lower in every one of the aforementioned attacking stats than Omiya. Oftheir nineteen victories, Reysol managed ten or more shots on only nineoccasions - and two of their victories came in games when they mustered onlyfour shots. The real difference between the two squads is efficiency.Kashiwa is very good at completing chances, doing so at nearly a 17% clip,whereas Omiya ranks at the bottom of shot efficiency with a paltry 7.8%success rate.

I'm not sure how Naoki Ishihara helps alleviate thisproblem. Carroll thinks that coach Suzuki is making a mistake by notstarting the mercurial striker, an opinion that seems to be popular among manymembers of the Squirrel Nation. He states, "So, essentially, it seemsthat Ishihara doesn’t start because he’s good, whereas a less adaptable player,Pimpao, gets a starting shirt because he’s a crap sub. Hmmm."

I think that's a pretty simplistic take based on the obviouslyreasonable idea that coaches need to use their players in ways that will getthe best output from them. In 2009 Ishihara was starting and not getting muchtraction in the offense, instead getting walloped by opposing defenders. Lastyear, he went through similar struggles before he was moved to the bench andused as a super-sub.

Few people have the ability to succeed in the role - Cerezo's Ryuji Bando is one that comes to mind and Ishiharais another, a guy with speed and touch off the bench who can be mentally readyto affect the game the minute he comes in. He's a hard-working player whodoes the little things and is good when matched up against tiredopponents. But in the few starts he's had this year, Ishihara has managedto get off only four shots, or about one a game. What happens is that Ishiharadefers to players who are more aggressive personalities - and so thespectacularly inefficient Chun Soo (shooting at a 7% success rate) and Rafael(9%) still take the lion's share of shots.

Two of the candidates for a wide midfield slot in Carroll'sscheme, Chun Soo and Pimpao, seem to me to be players who need a lot of theball to have an impact on the game. Both like to isolate on the wing and try todribble into the box instead of getting more teammates involved in theoffense. This usually has the effect of stagnating the rest of the attack anddragging players over to their side of the field. Neither player seems to beinterested in helping out on defense - so Carroll's Omiya plan effectivelyleaves the wing vulnerable to attack, with either an undersized Arata Sugiyama or a slow Kazuhiro Murakami forced to handle counterattackers andcausing poor decision-makers Kim Young Gwon and Yosuke Kataoka to have tochoose either to sit back in the middle or come out and help against wingattackers. Numerous times this has spelled disaster for the squad.

One aspect of Carroll's argument that I do agree with isthat Suzuki always seems to wait until the situation is dire to make hismove. Pimpao and Chun Soo will be ineffective in games and last for sixty orseventy minutes, even though it's clear that they should be subbed at halftime. This corresponds with the overall risk-aversion and fragility of thesquad, which rarely possesses the mental strength to bounce back in adversesituations: Omiya has only managed one come-from-behind win in 2011,although they've managed to blow leads on eight occasions. By contrast Kashiwahasn't lost a game they were leading all season.

That's the real Ardija problem that Suzuki hasn't addressed. Andit's not surprising considering the team's DNA comes from the J1 catastropheclubs that were 2009 Oita Trinita (Higashi, Yuki Fukaya and ShusukeTsubouchi), 2010 Kyoto Sanga (Kataoka and Daigo Watanabe) and 2010 FCTokyo (Kim).

The bad news is that while presumably very few Omiya supportersare enamored with the product on the field (I overheard a boy talking to hisfather after the Avispa game and calling the team boring), Ardija clubpresident Shigeru Suzuki is evidently satisfied with the direction of thesquad. So we're probably in for more of the same next year, or worse if some ofthe bigger squads come sniffing around for KotaUeda, Higashi and Rafael. As for 2011, five more games to go.It's not over yet.

No Doubts Whatsoever

2011-10-16T01:10:00.000+09:00

J1 Game 29/34, Sat 15 Oct 11

Urawa Reds 0-1 Omiya Ardija

0-1 Rafael 84'

GK Kitano

DF Sugiyama (Lee 69')

DF Fukaya

DF Kataoka

DF Kim (Murakami 75')

MF Aoki

MF Ueda (Kanazawa 57')

MF Watanabe

MF Hashimoto

MF Higashi

FW Rafael

Subs not used

GK Ezumi

MF Fujimoto

FW Ishihara

FW Rodrigo Pimpao

Cards

Y Fukaya 76'

Urawa Preview

2011-10-15T06:04:00.003+09:00

And so the Squirrels find themselves on the edge of an abyss, coming into the last half-dozen matches of the J1 season off the back of truly terrible performances against bottom-placed Avispa Fukuoka and then in the Emperor's Cup against the students of Fukuoka University. Five points is still the gap between out-of-form Omiya and Ventforet Kofu in the relegation zone - but with Japan's Kings of Underachievement Urawa Reds placed between Ardija and VFK, Saturday afternoon's clash at Saitama Stadium represents the most important Saitama derby since September 2007.

On that day, an Omiya team battling its way up from the very foot of the table pulled off a brilliant 1-0 win over Urawa. Goalkeeper Koji Ezumi put in one of the best performances of his Squirrels career to keep Reds out, while Leandro's barging run past Marcus Tulio Tanaka and his sweet through ball that enabled Hiroshi Morita to score the winner will live long in the memory of all Ardija supporters. Those three points helped Omiya to turn the corner and ultimately scrape out of the bottom three to remain in J1, when for many months of boring football and pitiful results all had seemed lost.

Right now, however, the 2011-vintage Squirrels team appears to be heading in exactly the opposite direction. It has been a characteristically rocky year with just the occasional highlight, such as the excellent 3-1 win over Kashiwa Reysol, but the lows have been a lot more numerous and very worryingly the lowest of those lows have occurred in the last two matches. With only a Kota Ueda free kick to show for 210 minutes of football against the poorest side in J1 and a bunch of college kids, Jun Suzuki's team have been almost completely absent as an attacking force.

At the other end the defence seems in disarray: always likely to concede and, at a basic level, quite simply not up to the standard required to compete in the top division. Of the players in and around Suzuki's current starting team, even a generous assessment would conclude that Yosuke Kataoka, Arata Sugiyama, Kazuhiro Murakami and Daigo Watanabe are not good enough, that Yuki Fukaya is too slow and Kim Young Gwon has been a major disappointment. Couple that with the rumoured start against Urawa of out-of-favour - for a good reason - midfielder Hayato Hashimoto and it is easy to see why Omiya could be heading for J2.

Can Ardija do it, against an Urawa who somehow have not yet fired Zeljko Petrovic? Despite a million and one misgivings, not to mention the recent Nabisco Cup win for Reds at NACK5, it is not completely impossible to imagine a Squirrels win, or at least a breathlessly tedious 0-0 draw. After all, the Urawa squad also contains too many mediocre and/or under-performing players. But if the Omiya defence has become utterly unreliable, we need a big-match display from our key creative players. Ueda, we need your vision and accuracy. Keigo Higashi, we need your speed, touch and aggression. Even you, Chikara Fujimoto, we need your imagination - and you owe us. Rafael, we need your goals. Come on Omiya.

Avispa Highlights

2011-10-15T05:10:00.003+09:00

Fukuoka University, um, Highlights

2011-10-15T05:07:00.003+09:00

Game

Penalty shoot-out

No No No No No

2011-10-15T04:49:00.001+09:00

Emperor's Cup Second Round, Mon 10 Oct 11

Omiya Ardija 1-1 Fukuoka University (AET, PK 3-5)

1-0 Ueda 70'

1-1 Tanaka 72'

GK Kitano

DF Fukaya

DF Murakami

DF Sugiyama (Lee 99')

DF Kataoka

MF Aoki

MF Higashi

MF Watanabe

MF Kanakubo (Ishihara 73')

MF Ueda (Fujimoto 106')

FW Rafael

Subs not used

GK Ezumi

DF Tsubouchi

MF Kanazawa

FW Rodrigo Pimpao

Cards

Y Higashi 27'

Y Kataoka 48'

Y Sugiyama 87'

How Many Of These Teams Will Be Playing In J2 Next Season, Do You Think?

2011-10-02T03:29:00.002+09:00

J1 Game 28/34, Sat 01 Oct 11

Omiya Ardija 0-2 Avispa Fukuoka

0-1 Matsuura 48'

0-2 Jogo 69'

GK Kitano

DF Sugiyama (Hashimoto 77')

DF Kataoka

DF Kim

DF Murakami

MF Aoki

MF Ueda

MF Watanabe

MF Kanakubo (Rodrigo Pimpao 84')

MF Fujimoto (Ishihara 56')

FW Rafael

Subs not used

GK Ezumi

DF Tsubouchi

DF Fukaya

MF Kanazawa

Cards

Agent Orange: Best Game Ever!

2011-10-02T03:22:00.000+09:00

Wow, just got back from NACK5 Stadium and boy am I pumped from that performance! WOOO! Seriously a TON of positives to take out of today's game against Avispa Fukuoka!

1. I love me some reffing! Hoooo boy, Takuto Okabe and his crew were ON FIRE! Thirteen calls in the first ten minutes. Kyoji Ishikawa put his flag up against Omiya a whopping twelve times! Including nullifying a goal in the fifth minute! Sweet, baby, that's why the fans come to games! Hooooo boy!

2. Free upgrades from category three to category two! There's nothing that gets me more psyched than free giveaways! Especially ones that screw people who paid good money for more expensive seats, only to see them given away to people not paying face value. Stupid category two people! Move over! (Just checked my ticket... I'm in category two... Awww FUCK ME!)

3. Great plan by Jun Suzuki to rest most of the starters in the meaningless Nabisco Cup game against Urawa Reds by playing guys like Chikara Fujimoto a full ninety minutes in midweek! I'm sure we'll come out on fire against Avispa!

4. Oooooh, lineup surprise! Keigo Higashi has a cold and he's out for... CHIKARA FUJIMOTO? Awww FUCK ME!

5. Hey, Chikara scores a goal! Oh no, flag's up! Sweeeet, reffing is what I come to games for!

6. There is nothing more magnificent than watching Kim Young Gwon and Yosuke Kataoka look on with childlike wonder as an attacking player runs right past them with the ball. The only thing better than that is Kataoka moving left, then right, then left again before making a sideways pass, like a dog going around in circles before laying down.

7. Here's a funny story. In the last six games Omiya lost 2-0 to Gamba Osaka, lost 2-0 to Urawa Reds, tied Cerezo Osaka 0-0 in Kumagaya, beat Kashiwa Reysol 3-1, lost to Urawa 2-1 (on a Ranko Despotovic brace no less) and lost 2-0 to Fukuoka. I went to five of them, can you guess the game I didn't go to?

8. There seems to be a theory going around that Avispa's win over Sanfrecce Hiroshima was "fixed" because Hisato Sato whiffed on a sure goal and Kohei Morita made a stupid play that led to the Avispa game winner. Obviously this game was fixed too because Omiya has screwed up a bunch of chances and Kataoka and Kim are making stupid decisions in the back. What a relief... all this time I thought it was just bad players... it's actually CORRUPTION!

9. Ken Matsushima thought that the official in the game against Kashiwa was biased in our favor. He brought up a good point that Nobutsugu Murakami usually gives straight reds to people when he grants penalty kicks. It would have been a great point if Murakami actually was the ref in that game. Alas, it was Junpei Iida! Hey, you remember Junpei Iida, don't you? He's the same ref that gave Vegalta Sendai a PK when Yuki Fukaya fouled Kodai Watanabe's hands with his back. Or when Omiya scored a goal against FC Tokyo that didn't count, even though the keeper was pulling it out of the back of the net. Or his performance against Shimizu S-Pulse where he let Naohiro Takahara assist him in reffing (and gave Lee Chun Soo a card... actually that kind of helped us).

So yeah, Junpei Iida... despite two PKs, a red card and a non-goal goal, he's definitely in the bag for Omiya. Rafael gets his plant foot taken out on a clear shot in the box today by Daiki Niwa and no call. Here's my question. If you are a ref and you favor one team over another, wouldn't it be easier to do what Takuto Okabe did and just ignore the foul instead of giving the team you're against a chance to tie with a PK? Just a thought.

10. Second half and Ishikawa is obviously tired from all the times he held up the flag in the first half. Only does it once and it stops an Omiya break. He's from Tottori so he's obviously biased against Omiya. It's historical fact that Tottorians hate Saitama. Something about witchcraft. I'm not quite sure but it's in a book somewhere. Tottorians... PISH POSH!

11. If Kohei Morita was trying to lose the game last week, does that mean when he scored against us, he was trying to win the game? Cause that makes no sense at all. God, he's like an evil genius!

12. Hayato Hashimoto is still on the team?

13. Game over. Not only are we the only team to not get a single point from last place Fukuoka, we're the only team to lose at home to them. That's a double that's worth celebrating! Almost as useless as winning the Nabisco Cup!

14. I bought the gray sweatjacket after the game. Biggest size and I can't get the zipper to connect. Almost as good a buy as the season ticket!

15. Watching Rodrigo Pimpao blow another open shot, I had a thought. Would Shintaro Shimizu really be that much worse? I liked the fifteen minutes he played against the Reds. He did much more than Pimpao, Chikara or Hayato and they played far more. Do you think Suzuki is trying to get fired? Or trying to prove a point that we don't have enough good players? Or is he just an awful coach?

16. Got consoled after the loss by Miya-chan, the female Omiya mascot that looks like Haruna the transsexual. It was a nice moment between a foreign guy and a gender-confused squirrel.

17. The good news is I made a decision not to watch us lose to another Fukuoka team next week in Kumagaya. The better news is I won't have to deal with the mouth-breathers from North Tokyo, er, I mean Kawaguchi, er, Urawa.

BEST GAME EVER! Awww FUCK ME!

Fukuoka Preview

2011-10-01T06:56:00.008+09:00

Seven games to go, five points ahead of the relegation zone. Three points in Saturday's home match with not-quite-certain-to-go-down Avispa Fukuoka would constitute a huge boost to Omiya Ardija's hopes of securing J1 football at NACK5 Stadium next season, and would be an excellent way to build on last weekend's triumph over Kashiwa Reysol. But the Squirrels have yet to win consecutive games throughout the whole of 2011, and long-time observers of the club will know that this is exactly the sort of encounter in which Ardija are apt to struggle.

It's the lack of consistency that has dogged Omiya, a characteristic of the team that is perhaps personified by Fukuoka native Keigo Higashi - someone who is a talented young player, but is just as likely to give the ball away in a dangerous position or fade out a match completely as illuminate play with a brilliant touch and turn. Coach Jun Suzuki seemingly hasn't discovered how to get the best out of the Japan U22 international and there were signs in the middle of the year that their relationship was turning frosty, when Higashi reacted to being substituted with obvious annoyance.

But all that was forgotten when a delicious instinctive flick opened up the Kashiwa defence for Rafael to score the vital second goal in the most recent league game, an example of Higashi at his best. Rested in the midweek Nabisco Cup defeat to Urawa Reds both players are needed fresh and alert for the Avispa game. There are some promising signs that following the introduction of Jun Kanakubo to the team Ardija are stirring themselves for an improved finish to the year. And with relegation rivals Urawa and Albirex Niigata facing difficult matches with title-chasing Gamba Osaka and Yokohama F Marinos respectively, this is just the weekend to start putting together a winning run.

Our Cup Runneth Over And Out

2011-10-01T00:43:00.000+09:00

Nabisco Cup Second Round Second Leg, Wed 28 Sep 11

Omiya Ardija 1-2 Urawa Reds agg 1-4

0-1 Despotovic 6'

0-2 Despotovic 23'

1-2 Kanazawa 73'

GK Ezumi

DF Tsubouchi

DF Fukaya

DF Kim (Watanabe HT')

DF Suzuki

MF Kanazawa

MF Hashimoto

MF Fujimoto

MF Kanakubo (Ueda 61')

FW Ishihara

FW Rodrigo Pimpao (S Shimizu 81')

Subs not used

GK Kitano

DF Kihara

MF Higashi

FW Rafael

Cards

Urawa Preview

2011-09-28T17:01:00.000+09:00

In the last two J1 matches Omiya coach Jun Suzuki has brought about two significant changes to his struggling team's line-up and the rewards have been fairly instant. For the home game against Cerezo Osaka ten days ago Suzuki introduced a 4-5-1 system with Rafael as the main striker and wide player Jun Kanakubo re-introduced in midfield. Omiya managed a goalless draw against the inconsistent Cherries but followed that up at the weekend with one of the season's best results so far, a 3-1 triumph in the so-called Noda Line derby at title-challenging Kashiwa Reysol.

It was Rafael who starred in the Reysol game, lashing in a volley after a half-cleared Kanakubo corner to give the Squirrels an early lead and then brilliantly combining with Keigo Higashi to make it 2-0. Things weren't exactly perfect - for the Kashiwa goal, how could the Ardija defence have believed it a good idea to give so much space in the penalty area to Leandro Domingues, one the J1 players of the year - but a Takashi Kitano penalty save and a Rafael-would-have-killed-him-if-he'd-missed-it clincher by Takuya Aoki rounded things off extremely well for Suzuki's team.

And with those three points Omiya overtook both Albirex Niigata and Urawa Reds in the battle to avoid getting pulled into the relegation zone. Since then there's been some slightly hysterical talk about Wednesday's Nabisco Cup opponents Urawa going down, which while obviously a possibility neglects to take account of twin facts, (a) that Ventforet Kofu are still a couple of points off the pace and, (b) that Albirex's inferior goal difference provides Reds with an additional buffer zone. I mean, we'll see, but come on - twin fact (c) is that it's the end of September and nothing whatsoever is decided.

In the midst of all this excitement it's been easy enough to forget that there's a Saitama derby at NACK5 this evening, as Urawa come to Omiya with a 2-0 first leg advantage in the Nabisco Cup Second Round. What with the lack of a group stage this year, it's a tournament that in 2011 seems to have had an even lower profile than normal and Ardija's priorities will inevitably be to finish as high as they can in the league. Further playing time for Kanakubo and of course GGOA favourite Naoki Ishihara would go some way to providing meaning to the match ahead of the J1 run-in, as well as offering some kind of lifeline back into the tie. Go Squirrels!

Kashiwa Video Highlights

2011-09-26T03:25:00.002+09:00

Yokohama FC Friendly

2011-09-26T03:22:00.001+09:00

Friendly, Mon 19 Sep 11

Omiya Ardija 3-4 Yokohama FC

0-1 scorer unknown 30'

1-1 Miyazaki 49'

1-2 scorer unknown 68'

1-3 scorer unknown 72'

2-3 S Shimizu 88'

2-4 scorer unknown 88'

3-4 Nakayama 90'

GK Ezumi

DF Kihara

DF Tsubouchi

DF Kim

DF Suzuki

MF Kanazawa

MF Hashimoto

MF Hirano (Koyama HT')

MF Miyazaki

FW S Shimizu

FW Ishihara (Nakayama HT')

Rafael Gives A Lifeline

2011-09-26T03:11:00.000+09:00

J1 Game 27/34, Sun 18 Sep 11

Kashiwa Reysol 1-3 Omiya Ardija

0-1 Rafael 5'
0-2 Rafael 53'
1-2 Leandro Domingues 63'
1-3 Aoki 77'

GK Kitano
DF Sugiyama (Tsubouchi 75')
DF Kataoka
DF Kim
DF Murakami (Suzuki 83')
MF Aoki
MF Ueda (Kanazawa 70')
MF Watanabe
MF Kanakubo
MF Higashi
FW Rafael

Subs not used

GK Ezumi
MF Hashimoto
FW Ishihara
FW Rodrigo Pimpao

Cards

Y Ueda 25'
Y Kataoka 41'
Y Kim 67'

Cerezo: No Goals!

2011-09-26T02:58:00.001+09:00

J1 Game 26/34, Sun 18 Sep 11

Omiya Ardija 0-0 Cerezo Osaka

GK Kitano

DF Sugiyama

DF Fukaya

DF Kataoka

DF Murakami

MF Aoki

MF Ueda

MF Watanabe

MF Kanakubo (Hashimoto 75')

MF Fujimoto (S Shimizu 88')

FW Rodrigo Pimpao (Ishihara 58')

Subs not used

GK Ezumi

DF Tsubouchi

DF Kim

MF Kanazawa

Cards

Y Fukaya 18'

Y Fujimoto 67'

Cerezo Video Highlights

2011-09-26T02:02:00.002+09:00

Urawa Nabisco Video Highlights

2011-09-26T01:59:00.003+09:00

Gamba Video Highlights

2011-09-26T01:57:00.001+09:00

There Will Now Be A Brief Intermission

2011-09-15T21:27:00.001+09:00

Cup Run On The Cards, Definitely

2011-09-14T21:25:00.001+09:00

Nabisco Cup Second Round First Leg, Wed 14 Sep 11

Urawa Reds 2-0 Omiya Ardija

1-0 Marcio Richardes 52' (PK)
2-0 Haraguchi 65'

GK Ezumi
DF Sugiyama (Kanakubo 75')
DF Fukaya
DF Kataoka
DF Kim (Murakami 25')
MF Aoki
MF Ueda
MF Watanabe
MF Higashi
FW Rafael
FW Rodrigo Pimpao (Ishihara 66')

Subs not used

GK Kitano
DF Tsubouchi
MF Kanazawa
MF Fujimoto

Cards

Y Fukaya 29'
Y Aoki 41'
Y Sugiyama 50'

Urawa Preview

2011-09-14T17:19:00.002+09:00

So what went wrong? It's hard to imagine Omiya having a much better chance to win away against the top team in J1 than they did in the weekend's game at Gamba Osaka, but it felt as if Jun Suzuki's team just couldn't get it together enough to put the Blue and Blacks under real pressure. Back in July, Ardija lost the home match against the same team by virtue of having a worse defence; on Saturday, in a generally poor-quality encounter, it was a case of the Squirrels being more lacklustre.

In the closing seconds of an error-strewn first half, Shin Kanazawa sold his defensive colleagues short with a disastrous backpass that enabled Gamba's South Korean striker Lee Keun Ho to steal in for the opener. bearing in mind what had gone before it was appropriate enough for a mistake to have led to a goal, but this was pitiable stuff from Omiya. Rafinha made it 2-0 from close range midway through the second half and after that the result was never in doubt - a frustration given that up until Lee pounced there was nothing much to choose between the teams: they were both awful.

For the Squirrels, the absence through suspension of central lynchpin Kota Ueda upset the balance of the side, preventing Ardija from taking control of the middle of the pitch. It is hard, for example, to imagine Ueda getting caught out with such sloppy defensive play as Kanazawa, while Naoki Ishihara was forced to retreat towards the halfway line in order to have any influence on the game at all, thus nullifying his threat as a penalty box player. This coupled with some terrible individual performances - step forward Rafael and Daigo Watanabe - gave Gamba the three points.

On Wednesday evening Ardija have a chance to put things right with a Nabisco Cup tie against their underperforming neighbours Urawa Reds, who themselves are fresh from a poor league result in the shape of a home loss to relegation-threatened Montedio Yamagata. The Nabisco Cup can never be that high a priority given Omiya's ongoing struggles in J1, but any competitive match that presents the opportunity for a confidence-boosting win has to be welcomed. It would be especially good to see Ueda come back and show what was missing against Gamba, together with strong and consistent performances from Rodrigo Pimpao and Keigo Higashi. And how about a run-out in defence for forgotten man Shusuke Tsubouchi?

Wow, That Was Pretty Bad

2011-09-13T05:08:00.001+09:00

J1 Game 25/34, Sat 10 Sep 11

Gamba Osaka 2-0 Omiya Ardija

1-0 Lee 43'
2-0 Rafinha 77'

GK Kitano
DF Murakami
DF Fukaya
DF Kataoka
DF Kim (Sugiyama 80')
MF Kanazawa (Hashimoto 78')
MF Aoki
MF Higashi
MF Watanabe
FW Rafael
FW Ishihara (Rodrigo Pimpao 83')

Subs not used

GK Ezumi
DF Tsubouchi
MF Kanakubo
MF Fujimoto

Cards

-

Gamba Preview

2011-09-10T07:22:00.000+09:00

After last weekend's break for the Japan international matches, the J1 schedule resumes on Saturday - and it could hardly be with a tougher challenge for Omiya than a trip to current leaders Gamba Osaka. The Blue and Blacks are unbeaten in nine games and their famously potent attack, which picked up a mid-season boost via the signing of Rafinha from minnows Thespa Kusatsu, has registered no fewer than twelve goals in the last three matches. Gamba's notoriously leaky defence has even managed to keep a couple of clean sheets lately, including one against highflying Kashiwa Reysol.

In other words the Squirrels are up against it. And Jun Suzuki's team will go into the game without three probable starters in the shape of long-term injury victims forward Lee Chun Soo and wingback Daisuke Watabe, plus suspended midfield lynchpin Kota Ueda. This will truly be ninety minutes to test Ardija's strength in depth. One positive aspect is that it increases the chances of talismanic supersub Naoki Ishihara picking up what would be only his fourth start of the season, but this is no means certain given Suzuki's preference for him as an impact replacement - it is more likely that veteran Chikara Fujimoto will return to the starting line-up.

Oh happy day Arata Sugiyama would seem to be the most probable choice to come in for Watabe, despite a string of substandard performances throughout this year from the former Ventforet Kofu man; Shin Kanazawa may step in for Ueda, although Omiya really have no-one else with Ueda's ability to retain possession and keep the ball moving in midfield. The Squirrels have been unfortunate not only to lose this trio of players - but also that the break in the fixture list has occurred just at the point when they'd managed their much longed-for first home win of the year.

The confidence boost provided by that 2-0 triumph over Jubilo Iwata will have had more of a chance to dissipate over the subsequent two-week break, during which the only notable incident seems to have been Watabe breaking his metatarsal in training. But still, Gamba tend to allow the opposition to create opportunities to score and in the home game between the teams two months ago it was Ishihara who shone, with an inspirational performance from the bench that included a couple of outstanding goals. If anyone can take the chances on Saturday evening, it's got to be that man Ishihara.

GGOA Special Feature: What Would WE Do?

2011-08-30T01:05:00.000+09:00

Thinking about Omiya's poor form prior to the win over Jubilo Iwata, a couple of things I read stuck in my mind. The first was Agent Orange's Crap Sundae polemic on this very site, as angry and frustrated a piece as he's contributed to GGOA and one that points clearly in the direction of coach Jun Suzuki when it comes to responsibility for the recent Ardija slump. A misguided approach to player selection and deployment are at the heart of the problem, argues AO, citing examples from throughout the team.

Whether or not you agree with the overall theme of that article, it's more or less unarguable that Omiya were one of only a handful of J1 clubs to make significant investment in the squad over the close season. As such, and in the light of the club's target of fifty points in the league this year, it's reasonable to expect some improvement on previous seasons - which Suzuki has not delivered.

So where might the Squirrels' coach be going wrong? Well, another piece I read was this interview in the UK's Sunday Telegraph with new Chelsea coach Andre Villas-Boas, in which he discusses aspects of his tactical ideas. There are a few quotes from Villas-Boas that strike a chord when thinking about this Omiya team, so in this special GGOA feature Agent Orange and I will take a look at three of them and consider how they apply not to the upper reaches of the EPL, but to a club that can't seem to break out of its habitual position near the bottom of J1.

Andre Villas-Boas "Match control always has to have a purpose, a main goal."

Furtho In other words, possession on its own is not enough. Keeping the ball is all very well but if teams do nothing with it they will never create chances, or score goals, or win games. Ardija 2011 do actually keep the ball better than previous vintages were able to, but the Goals For column of the J1 table demonstrates that however much more Omiya have possession, the team don't make chances that the forwards can put away.

Of course that may be due to a lack of quality in front of goal, but it's my perception that the Squirrels don't have a clear idea about what Suzuki's system is, or how they're supposed to construct attacks. What do you think about that?

Agent Orange I almost think an argument could be made that this is exactly what Suzuki's system is designed to do. It seems like he realizes that the back line is awful and he's telling wide players like Lee Chun Soo and Chikara Fujimoto to hold up possession on the wings. There's a lot of passing, but as far as forward movement goes the ball seems to die when it gets out to the side.

I've seen time and time again that quick shots are discouraged in favor of lower-percentage long-range shots. You don't see too many assaults on the opposition net until the last twenty minutes or so, when it seems like the team pushes up in numbers. In a way the style that Suzuki has adopted might be just as defensive as coaches past.

AV-B "As a coach you have to know exactly what kind of players you have and analyse the squad to decide how you want to organise your team."

F So do you feel that Jun Suzuki fails to make the most of the assets he has available to him?

AO Yes, I do. If you look at it in terms of formation, following a flirtation with a 4-2-3-1 system at the start of the year we've reverted to a 4-4-2 with personnel who magnify the weaknesses more than they accentuate the strengths of our team. I think a 4-3-3 in the style of current champions Nagoya Grampus would probably be the best formation for our needs.

F What are the problems with 4-4-2 for Omiya's current squad?

AO Fans of Avispa Fukuoka and Ventforet Kofu might disagree but we can make a credible argument that our sideback play this year has been the worst in the division. All combinations of the limited Kazuhiro Murakami, the inexperienced Daisuke Watabe and the woeful Arata Sugiyama have failed.

The problem gets magnified with the downturn in form of last year's solid central pair, Shusuke Tsubouchi and Yuki Fukaya. Neither have been able to gel with promising Korean defender Kim Young Gwon, while the fourth centerback, Yosuke Kataoka, shouldn't have been an option in the first place and honestly shouldn't play for Omiya again.

And the fragility of the back line is made worse by Suzuki's selection of ageing captain Fujimoto and selfish wing Lee. Fujimoto to his credit has been willing to dig in and get back on defense, but the speed isn't there. When he's combined with the below-average pace of Murakami, the left side is very open to counter-attacking.

The right has enough physical capability but the poor decision-making of Sugiyama and Kataoka, coupled with Chun Soo's less than exuberant displays on defense, leaves keeper Takashi Kitano exposed from that side on a constant basis.

Another problem we have is a lack of size. In order to play the 4-4-2 system as he sees it, Suzuki selects players like Chun Soo, Fujimoto, Sugiyama, Watabe and Kota Ueda, who happen to be very small. We have at least four guys on the field who are between 167cm and 174cm, and a side-effect of that is that we're vulnerable at free kicks and corners.

F OK, that's an interesting one. Villas-Boas actually talks about the role of smaller central midfielders - guys like Ueda, in fact - so we'll come back to that later. But how can 4-3-3 help us to get better results by maximising our assets?

AO We actually ran a 4-3-3 in 2008 for a couple games and had some success with Kataoka in the role of defensive midfielder. However, I think we can do much better with the lineup. Let's make some changes.

I'll start by going with a couple of centerbacks that have combined to go 8-7-0 in the fifteen games they have started together. I think that this year communication has been a problem for Kim and whomever he has teamed up with, so I'd rather have a pair who have a history of working well together - and Tsubouchi and Fukaya fit that bill.

I'd also advocate shifting Kim into the holding position ahead of the back four. The big risk associated with this is that communication is still going to be an issue and Kim is inexperienced as a midfield type. However, his size and athleticism are matched by nobody else on the squad and the new spot gives him freedom to roam forward in the offense or slot into the back when the sidebacks push up. It also takes the pressure off being the last man between the opposition and the goal.

F To me the holding position is the deal breaker, because if you introduce a dedicated player whose job it is to sit in front of the back four and move from side to side as the situation requires, it completely changes the balance of the team. It more or less rules out the option of having a line of three behind one main striker, for example, which I'd previously felt might be a solution to Ardija's goalscoring difficulties.

But I think that the current situation underlines the fact that we need to take a wider view of things: it's one thing just to look at the lack of goals and think, "Oh, we have to reorganise the front players," but to my mind shoring up the defence by allowing Kim to play this role would also give the team a stronger foundation for building attacks. Plus I think he's got the ability to do it well and the slightly more solitary nature of the task might make the communications side of things easier for him.

AO Sideback is a tougher nut to crack. Murakami seems like a lock to play and he does offer something offensively. He might be the answer on the right if Norio Suzuki is given a chance to play on the left. The back four of Murakami/Fukaya/Tsubouchi/Suzuki played respectably last year, I'm not sure why the manager has soured on it so quickly.

Sugiyama is fine as a spot starter or a ten-minute change-of-pace substitution, but he lacks so much that he's a real liability: S-Pulse exposed him in about fifteen minutes, Marinos exploited the matchup and even Sendai had dangerous chances against the diminutive sideback. He's not a serious option.

Somebody who should get a look might surprise you. I think Daigo Watanabe should at least be given a game or two to see if he is the answer at right back. He's been a disaster on the wing but maybe a return to a position he played a lot of at Kyoto Sanga might be the answer to getting the most out of him.

F Yeah, if you were out to surprise me then mission accomplished with Watanabe. How about Watabe?

AO He's not a sideback. He can do it for stretches but a full ninety minutes, game in and game out is too much to ask right now. Watabe had his best moments in 2010 and at the start of this year in a more natural attacking wing position.

I'm not exactly sure why Omiya has taken young midfielders and decided that they should spend all of their formative years at the sideback position. Masakazu Kihara and Taisuke Miyasaki are stuck in this same trap at the moment - and you can compare our young talent to what Urawa is doing. Genki Haraguchi and Naoki Yamada are playing their natural positions and are blossoming. If they had come up through the Omiya system and signed on to the big team, chances are at least one of them would now be struggling to cope with the sideback position.

I understand trying to get what you think are your eleven best players on the field, but you also have to put your players in a position to succeed. Let Daisuke be Daisuke.

F Yeah, right back would probably be the position that I'm least sure about. Murakami isn't that good and he's basically left-sided anyway, Sugiyama isn't a J1-standard player and he's not now going to become one, I share your frustration about this constant tinkering with younger players and the sense that Watabe, Kihara and the hapless Miyazaki really ought to be able to play anywhere at the coach's whim and the performances of Watanabe don't inspire any confidence.

Norio Suzuki may not be the most thrilling of players but he's reliable, solid and can pass the ball accurately to a player wearing a shirt the same colour as his own. That to me makes him a good candidate to be a starting choice defender and left-back is the obvious place. Why he hasn't had a look-in this year is a mystery to me.

So anyway, that gives a defensive core of...?

AO That gives a defensive core of:

GK Kitano
RB Murakami (Watanabe)
RCB Fukaya
LCB Tsubouchi
LB Suzuki (Murakami)
CDM Kim

F OK, so the next part of the team relates to the other Villas-Boas quote I mentioned. Here's what he had to say:

AV-B "... there are maybe some players more important than others. For instance, many teams play with defensive pivots, small defensive midfielders. And [with a few exceptions] they are players that are limited to the horizontal part of the game: they keep passing the ball from one side to another, left or right, without any kind of vertical penetration. Can’t you use your defensive midfielder to introduce a surprise factor in the match? Let’s say, first he passes horizontally and then, suddenly, vertical penetration?"

F That jumped out at me because since the start of the year I've felt that although Ueda is a really good player, he's stuck in a more defensive, let's-just-retain-possession role when in fact he has the quality to control the team's play much more widely. To use Villas-Boas' terminology, he's spending the vast majority of his time playing horizontally when I think it would be great if he was freer to play more vertical, penetrative passes.

AO Yes, and in my 4-3-3 the offense does start with the pair of Ueda and Takuya Aoki. Pushing them up more is something that I also think will help give them more attacking freedom. They will still be in a position to aid the defense but if they go forward, Kim is covering their backs.

Moving further upfield, Rodrigo Pimpao is a no-brainer for the leading forward position: he has the size and speed to be effective as the main point of attack. It's the two attacking wings that are the difficult choice in this conversation. Rafael has played on the left wing in the past with mixed results. I'm afraid that if he does that he'll get dragged back into defense and be less effective as an offensive presence.

But the difference between 4-3-3 and another option like 4-2-3-1 is that diminutive players like Chun Soo and Fujimoto wouldn't be in the middle - it would be the bigger Pimpao - and Murakami wouldn't be the only man covering the left side: Kim would be back to assist as well.

The right side, in Jun Suzuki's world, comes down to either Fujimoto or Chun Soo. My choice would be Keigo Higashi because he is a much better two-way player - but Chun Soo and Fujimoto have proven to be better at assisting on the offense. I like Higashi because he provides coverage in defense and is another player with good size and strength. He doesn't have the speed of Chun Soo or the organizing skills of Fujimoto but he does have the most upside of the three.

I'm a little hesitant to have Fujimoto and Chun Soo on the bench because neither have shown the inclination to be successful in the role of bench player and Higashi has the tools to slot in anywhere in attack. I guess it comes down to what the team needs most. I think it's players who can defend.

Chun Soo could be the perfect twenty-minute change-of-pace guy off the bench - if he committed to it. His speed against tired defenses would be a valuable weapon - if he bought into it. Fujimoto would be a good option to hold up the ball and ice opponents on those rare occasions we hold a lead. I think both guys have a role, but featuring them for sixty to eighty minutes isn't it.

F I'm surprised that Pimpao is a "no-brainer" for the main striker. Suzuki's on record as saying that he likes to use Naoki Ishihara as an impact substitute who has the ability to reinvigorate the team in the second half. Do you think he's right about that?

AO It's nothing against Ishihara, who I think is one of the most under-rated talents in the J-League. I say it's a no-brainer (and maybe I should qualify that as a no-brainer... for me) for various reasons. I don't think playing one top works with smaller strikers and Pimpao has the size to deal with bigger centerbacks. Ishihara is deceptively strong but he gets worn down after all the pounding. Ishihara seems to be a more versatile player and better suited to filling a slot where he is needed, Pimpao is a more classic forward.

I think it's good to have Rafael and Pimpao start the game because it seems like they already have good chemistry going. Ishihara has a mentality where he could succeed in any role you put him in and he stays focused even after sitting on the bench for eighty minutes. His ability last year to change the game moments after coming on was remarkable and a very rare commodity in the J-League. I also like having a speed guy as plan B.

F Your point about Rafael on the left is a good one. In some senses we're lucky to have a decent-quality foreign player who doesn't mind getting his hands dirty to help out the team. But when he spends too much time tracking back to support the likes of Murakami, he's doing stuff that other players are better at and he isn't doing the stuff that only he can do. It's a total killer of his effectiveness.

Of course the whole point of this exercise is that we try to work out who ought to be doing what, which is achieved by having a good balance in the way that the team is organised. If Rafael is going back to defend a lot, the balance is wrong. But in the system you've described here, Kim can do that or if he's busy, Aoki or maybe Ueda can instead. That's a much better deployment of resources.

Where I actually think Rafael would be best used is in a central position just behind a lead striker. He's good at connecting up the midfield with the front line and not being out on either flank would mean he could use his vision, technique and occasional explosive shooting to best effect. There are going to be compromises in setting out a team and to me the biggest is that if we have a holding midfielder, we can't have Rafael playing in the middle unless he's the main striker - which other squad members are better at.

So where does that leave us with the attack?

AO The offense looks like this:

RM Aoki
LM Ueda
RW Higashi
LW Rafael
FW Pimpao

F We've been frustrated in the past at the way Suzuki uses his substitutes. As you said, things worked out amazingly well with Ishihara for a period last year but as a rule some of the changes made by the coach have been pretty hard to understand.

AO I think a 4-3-3 like this gives Suzuki more options in terms of substitutions:

* he always has the option of reverting to a 4-4-2 or the 4-2-3-1 by removing one of the centerbacks or sidebacks and pushing Kim into the back line
* he can retain the 4-3-3 shape by pushing Kim back and replacing him with Shin Kanazawa off the bench, or by pushing Aoki back and slotting a sub into the middle
* it frees up Higashi to play in one of five attacking positions, or Ishihara to play in one of three
* it wouldn't change things much for a player like Watabe, but Jun Kanakubo could get more looks

There are flaws to this and implementing a new system this late in the season is a risk, but recycling guys in positions where they have previously failed or playing players out of position and expecting good results has so far failed us. So I think it's worth a look. Then again I thought that the J-League was conspiring with FC Tokyo to relegate Omiya and push NTT over as a sponsor.

F Christ, yes, I'd forgotten about that.

Shonan Friendly

2011-08-28T23:57:00.002+09:00

Friendly, Sun 28 Aug 11

Shonan Bellmare 1-1 Omiya Ardija

0-1 S Shimizu 62'
1-1 scorer unknown 64'

GK Ezumi
DF Sugiyama
DF Tsubouchi
DF Suzuki
DF Miyazaki
MF Kanazawa
MF Hashimoto
MF Kihara
MF Fujimoto
FW S Shimizu
FW Kanakubo

Jubilo Extended Highlights

2011-08-28T22:01:00.002+09:00

First half

Second half

Nearly Ten Months Later... A Home Win

2011-08-27T20:56:00.004+09:00

J1 Game 23/34, Sat 27 Aug 11

Omiya Ardija 2-0 Jubilo Iwata

1-0 Higashi 72'
2-0 Watanabe 76'

GK Kitano
DF Watabe
DF Fukaya
DF Kataoka
DF Kim (Murakami 84')
MF Aoki
MF Ueda (Kanazawa 83')
MF Higashi
MF Watanabe
FW Rafael
FW Rodrigo Pimpao (Ishihara 65')

Subs not used

GK Ezumi
MF Hashimoto
MF Kanakubo
MF Fujimoto

Cards

Y Fukaya 14'
Y Ueda 29'
Y Ishihara 79'

Jubilo Preview

2011-08-27T06:54:00.000+09:00

Going into Saturday evening's game with Jubilo Iwata it's one win in eleven for Jun Suzuki's lacklustre Omiya team, lacklustre also being an appropriate word to describe the midweek encounter at Albirex Niigata. The home side probably came closer to taking all three points on Wednesday, most notably when Takashi Kitano had to scramble to keep Yuuta Mikado's long range shot from bouncing over the line. It was lucky for the Squirrels that Swans forward Bruno Lopes had a poor game, seemingly unaware of the lack of pace of Yuki Fukaya.

Coincidentally Fukaya almost put Omiya ahead in the second half with a powerful header that fizzed just past the post, but other than that the game was most memorable for the unhappy sight of Lee Chun Soo being stretchered off after less than fifteen minutes' play, with what looked like a hamstring injury. There's been no indication yet from the club as to how long Chun Soo is expected to be out, but it looks like it will be a good few weeks on the sidelines for the unlucky South Korean.

So who to come in in his place for the Jubilo game? Agent Orange's favourite Daigo Watanabe it was who got the call from Suzuki for an unexpectedly lengthy substitute appearance at Niigata, but Chikara Fujimoto and even, he says in hope rather than expectation, Naoki Ishihara must be in contention for a starting position. Whoever gets the nod will have their work cut out, anyway, dealing with the imbalance of Jubilo's strong attack line - which fired six past title-chasing Kashiwa Reysol only two weeks ago - in comparison with Ardija's fragile defence and the second-worst scoring record in the division. To win a home game! It must feel amazing. But all this hoping for a victory stuff, it's making me feel a bit forlorn, really. A bit pathetic.

Niigata Short Highlights

2011-08-25T02:09:00.002+09:00

An Actual Clean Sheet!

2011-08-24T20:57:00.001+09:00

J1 Game 22/34, Wed 24 Aug 11

Albirex Niigata 0-0 Omiya Ardija

GK Kitano
DF Watabe
DF Fukaya
DF Kataoka
DF Murakami
MF Aoki
MF Ueda
MF Higashi (Fujimoto 79')
FW Lee (Watanabe 13')
FW Rafael
FW Rodrigo Pimpao (Ishihara 63')

Subs not used

GK Ezumi
DF Kim
MF Kanazawa
MF Kanakubo

Cards

Y Watabe 29'
Y Rodrigo Pimpao 45'

Niigata Preview

2011-08-23T19:04:00.000+09:00

A big game it might have been for Omiya Ardija on Saturday, but it was a pitifully small performance by Jun Suzuki's men. Facing a lumbering, one-dimensional opponent in Montedio Yamagata, Ardija controlled the majority of possession but as soon as they got within 25 metres of goal the players in orange seemed clueless as to how to penetrate the visitors' defence. Lee Chun Soo came close with a couple of his trademark longer-range blasters that both hit the bar and the Brazilian duo of Rafael and Rodrigo Pimpao worked hard - but as a team display in which all eleven Squirrels were committed to winning the match, it was feeble stuff.

For regular readers of this site Omiya's goal was a moment of high excitement... and dark comedy. Even we're bored of saying what an underused resource Naoki Ishihara is, so for him to fashion enough space on the edge of the area to fire past Yamagata keeper Kenta Shimizu within sixty seconds of coming on as a substitute was, well, let's say bleakly amusing. What was a whole lot less funny was the reaction of the Ardija team as a whole to Tetsuro Ota's equaliser just four minutes later. Less than a quarter of an hour to go with the score at 1-1 in a must-win home game means all-out attack, right? Urgency, movement, dynamism?

Not if you're a member of this Omiya line-up. The sight of Yuki Fukaya and Yosuke Kataoka passing the ball ponderously back and forth ten metres inside their own half as the game moved into stoppage time will live long in the memory. Even if the general standard of the Ardija play was without question better than that of Montedio, there was no evidence that Suzuki's team actually believed that they could win. And the way that some Omiya players hurled themselves to the ground in response to the goal by Ota illustrates how little self-belief exists in the squad: score twice in a single match at home to the team second-bottom in the league? How can we be expected to do that?

Without a league victory at NACK5 since early November, it's not surprising that the Squirrels are involved in a relegation battle. Two things at least in Suzuki's favour are that the J1 table is characteristically close, meaning that a couple of scrambled wins can make a big difference; and also that he does actually have a few decent players at his disposal - not that Saturday's excruciating performance by U22 international Keigo Higashi does much to support that idea. So Omiya go on Wednesday to Albirex Niigata, another team not far from the bottom three. Can Ardija win? Sure - Niigata aren't that good. Whether Jun Suzuki knows how to coach these players to victory is another matter.

S-Pulse Video Highlights

2011-08-22T01:29:00.000+09:00

Defensive Weaknesses Strike Again

2011-08-20T21:12:00.002+09:00

J1 Game 21/34, Sat 20 Aug 11

Omiya Ardija 1-1 Montedio Yamagata

1-0 Ishihara 73'
1-1 Ota 77'

GK Kitano
DF Watabe
DF Fukaya
DF Kataoka
DF Murakami
MF Aoki
MF Ueda
MF Higashi (Watanabe 85')
FW Lee
FW Rafael
FW Rodrigo Pimpao (Ishihara 72')

Subs not used

GK Ezumi
DF Tsubouchi
MF Fujimoto
MF Kanazawa
MF Kanakubo

Cards

Y Fukaya 80'

Yamagata Preview

2011-08-20T06:37:00.000+09:00

Big game, Saturday. Biiiiiig game. After a disheartening defeat at Shimizu S-Pulse last weekend, Omiya go into the home match with Montedio Yamagata knowing that a further loss will drag the Squirrels right into a relegation fight. If results go against Jun Suzuki's team, by the end of the night they could be only three points ahead of sixteenth-placed Ventforet Kofu. Ardija are of course still looking for their first home win of 2011 - indeed, their last home win was on 6th November last year, a 2-1 triumph over... yes, Montedio. That's a run that surely not even the gloomiest Omiya supporter could have envisaged.

Meanwhile Yamagata have experienced a reasonably predictable J1 season. Having lost 2010's top scorer Yuzo Tashiro back to Kashima Antlers the Mountain Gods have struggled even more than Omiya to score goals: seventeen times they've hit the net in 21 games, a figure that tells its own story of struggle. Even so Montedio have picked up a couple of vital wins over the last month, beating both their main relegation rivals Kofu and Avispa Fukuoka to provide a huge boost to the team's chances of avoiding the drop. Ardija of course lost against Avispa in feeble circumstances at the start of July and since then have scraped a single victory at Vegalta Sendai.

And yet there's cause for optimism among Omiya fans. El Golazo magazine in its match preview suggests that the previously-successful central defensive pairing of Shusuke Tsubouchi and Yuki Fukaya will be in the team again, with U22 international midfielder Keigo Higashi also returning to take a pivotal role in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Previously it looked as if Higashi was falling out of favour with coach Suzuki but, if true, his comeback would be a welcome turn of events - as would El Golazo's indication that right back Arata Sugiyama has been dropped from the starting XI.

There are all sorts of questions over what Omiya's best team might be - in fact there will be a GGOA feature article coming soon on exactly that topic - but surely there is extensive evidence that the likes of Sugiyama and Yosuke Kataoka are not players who can help the Squirrels to improve. So let's hope for a solid defensive performance against Yamagata, a hardworking midfield and some vision, movement and scoring chances for Higashi, current top scorer Rafael and dynamic newcomer Rodrigo Pimpao. Now, more than ever, is the time for a home win.

Agent Orange: Crap Sundae

2011-08-15T00:42:00.000+09:00

I'm writing this 24 hours after Omiya Ardija's awful 3-0 loss against Shimizu S-Pulse and I'm still angry. I can accept a mediocre opponent taking a result from us in a very cynical way. I can accept a ref being one sided. I can even accept the team having an off-day. What happened Saturday was pure, unadulterated crap. And I still have the stink on me.

Shimizu was coming off a string of 4-0 routs. They were boasting a backline of guys who previously had featured for Yokohama FC, Shonan Bellmare and JEF United - three of the worst teams in J1 history and defensive sieves. That's not what bothers me. They spent the last twenty minutes or so rolling on the ground in fake agony (I'm thinking six times they did that, but maybe it was seven*. Magically all the players were able to get up with no ill effects. Not one of them needed to go out and get checked).

OK, you do what you have to do, right. I guess if you can get away with it, then you do it. Referee Yuichi Nishimura was giving virtually every call to S-Pulse on the night. When Shinji Ono or Naohiro Takahara went down, Nishimura had his whistle ready to give the home team a plethora of dangerous chances around Omiya's goal, while waving off similar fouls by Shimizu players. To be fair, there was one debatable call that went Omiya's way on a hard shoulder charge by Takuma Edamura. Even that was arguably lenient for S-Pulse: Rodrigo Pimpao was in front of Edamura with a path to the goal free of other defenders. I'm not sure it was a foul, but if Nishimura thought it was - and he did - it should have been straight red.

So the actions of Shimizu and the one-sided hack job by Nishimura didn't help my mood, but even they really aren't the cause of me being angry. No, the major cause of me being angry is Jun Suzuki. And not really Jun Suzuki but Ardija in general. I've sung this song many a time and honestly over the past seven years I could have substituted Suzuki's name for a number of gentlemen who have shown that they weren't up for the job of J1 manager.

But in many ways, Suzuki has been the worst coach that we have had. Toshiya Miura kept a promoted team in J1 and exceeded expectations. Robert Verbeek had one of the least talented J1 squads in history and a front office not willing to spend. Satoru Sakuma was a temp who did enough not to get relegated. Yasuhiro Higuchi was a neophyte who had no J1 experience. Jang Wae Ryong was... odd... and was put in the middle of a total team overhaul (and he was odd). Every one of these coaches had a legitimate excuse not to succeed.

Suzuki doesn't have that. It started out encouragingly with Omiya bringing in Keigo Higashi and Kota Ueda to shore up an awful midfield. Mato Neretljak and An Yong Hak were cut from the squad and promising but untested Korean Kim Young Gwon was brought in to make the lineup stronger. In the early part of the season Daisuke Watabe was getting real playing time after some promising play at the close of last year. It looked like Omiya was serious about improving their athleticism and building for the future.

And then Yosuke Kataoka came back into the team. My mood turned sour last week when I saw his name in the starting lineup for the Vegalta Sendai home game alongside Arata Sugiyama, who proved long ago that he isn't capable of being a J1 player on a consistent basis. The back four last week was bombarded by a Vegalta team unlucky not to put five goals on the board.

My mood got worse during the week as previews touted the same duo as starters at Shimizu. It grew to a boil at kick-off when their places in the line-up were confirmed, blew up at half time as the pair bumbled through a 0-0 half - and then completely went code red as both conspired for two pathetic and very predictable goals for a previously impotent S-Pulse. Kataoka then flailed ridiculously in front of Takahara for the last of the Shimizu scores, managing to have the best view of all three goals. Kind of like a hat-trick for really lame centerbacks.

I wish these two were the only problems with Suzuki. They aren't. His lineup choices have been awful all year. The coach insists on playing disappointing forward Lee Chun Soo, first at the expense of 2010 top scorer Naoki Ishihara and now instead of U22 international Keigo Higashi. The one-dimensional Korean has rendered a very vulnerable right-hand side even more exposed with his lack of defensive acumen. On the left, Suzuki has opted to go with my personal whipping boy, Chikara Fujimoto. For his part Fujimoto has put out the effort, but like defender Kazuhiro Murakami doesn't these days have the athletic chops to keep up with most J1 wings.

Norio Suzuki has yet to see a minute of playing time this year after putting in reasonable performances last year. Shunsuke Fukuda was shipped to J2 and Kataller Toyama. Daigo Watanabe, who was brought in to challenge for the right back spot, doesn't even appear there in practice matches, instead playing the wing - badly - and pushing promising prospects Jun Kanakubo and Taisuke Miyasaki out of position, reducing their chances of picking up match experience. It seems as if Jun Suzuki is out of ideas.

So now it's almost Monday and I'm still upset. Upset about blowing money on a game that all the important actors seemed to conspire in to guarantee that Shimizu would win. Upset about having to see the same awful script played out another year. Upset about having to take a bite out of what seems to be the only item on Omiya's menu: the crap sundae. Referee Nishimura and the timewasting was only the rotten cherry on top.

* Let's see, goalkeeper Kaito Yamamoto went down for about a minute on a collision, then Keisuke Iwashita went down in a heap on a yellow card call and stayed down for a very long time (you might remember him rolling on the ground in mock pain during Shimizu's 4-1 win at NACK, with his team up four and at a man advantage). Naohiro Takahara, not to be outdone, went down for a spell, Alex Brosque stayed down for a while after getting elbowed in the nose (and still having the facilities to spike Lee on his way down), Eddy Bosnar "cramped up" and had to take time to stretch and then finally two more Shimizu players went down and rolled on the ground in pain before looking up and seeing that play was stopped as their own team was making a substitution.

All In All, A Great Weekend

2011-08-14T19:48:00.002+09:00

Friendly, Sun 14 Aug 11

Omiya Ardija 0-1 Tochigi SC

0-1 trialist 24'

GK Ezumi (K Shimizu HT')
DF Watabe
DF Fukaya
DF Suzuki
DF Miyazaki
MF Higashi (Hashimoto HT')
MF Kanazawa
MF Watanabe
MF Kanakubo
FW S Shimizu
FW Ishihara (Kihara 45')

Mito Friendly Highlights

2011-08-14T05:03:00.001+09:00

Sendai Longer Highlights

2011-08-14T04:55:00.001+09:00

Oh Bloody Hell

2011-08-13T20:27:00.000+09:00

J1 Game 21/34, Sat 13 Aug 11

Shimizu S-Pulse 3-0 Omiya Ardija

1-0 Edamura 48'
2-0 Ono 54'
3-0 Takahara 78'

GK Kitano
DF Sugiyama (Watabe 56')
DF Kataoka
DF Tsubouchi
DF Murakami
MF Aoki
MF Ueda
MF Lee
MF Fujimoto (Higashi 54')
FW Rafael
FW Rodrigo Pimpao (Ishihara 73')

Subs not used

GK Ezumi
DF Fukaya
MF Kanazawa
MF Kanakubo

Cards

Y Rodrigo Pimpao 69'

S-Pulse Preview

2011-08-12T20:01:00.000+09:00

Shimizu S-Pulse were indirectly - hell, let's call it directly - responsible for me getting as wet as I have ever in my life been, outside of a bath. Agent Orange and I were pictured on television after Omiya's 4-1 defeat at NACK5 in May, sodden and sullen as a consequence of an afternoon spent sitting in the absolute pissing rain. We had just watched Naohiro Takahara bossing the game and scoring twice for S-Pulse, the Squirrels' defence collapsing in the second half and, capping a performance that had contributed absolutely nothing to the team, Lee Chun Soo getting himself needlessly, idiotically sent off. Even Rafael's injury time consolation goal for Omiya was rubbish. And I was wet. Oh so very, very wet.

So it is with quite some sense of anticipation that I've been looking forward to Saturday's return fixture at Nihondaira. The Ardija team is in a different place now and in some senses the drubbing handed out by Takahara and co. was the top of a slippery slope down which Jun Suzuki's defence has since tumbled. The last few matches have seen a shaky back line give away chance after chance and it is only in the away game at Vegalta Sendai that the opposition were so lacking in confidence and focus that they failed to take advantage.

Suzuki for his part is simply running through the various options of central defender pairings and there is no sense that the Squirrels coach has a clear idea about what works and what does not. Yosuke Kataoka thus finds himself back in the team having been discarded at the end of 2010 by a disastrously bad Kyoto Sanga and Kim Young Gwon - stretchered off during South Korea's midweek international in Sapporo - has over the course of the season so far found it difficult to fit into the Ardija team. Meanwhile last year's main duo of Yuki Fukaya and Shusaku Tsubouchi may not have looked as solid this time around, but their record is still comparatively impressive.

Whoever is selected looks set to have to contend with Naohiro Takahara's return to an S-Pulse side coming off the back of an extraordinary run of three straight 4-0 defeats. With the instability of both defences tomorrow's encounter is difficult to predict, although the first half against Sendai last week did give cause for Omiya optimism. The early goal from Rafael was excellent and debutant Rodrigo Pimpao put in an energetic display topped off by a neat finish to put the Squirrels 2-0 up. A repeat of that tomorrow would be, well, unbelievably miraculous, although personally I'd be happy just to stay dry.

Agent Orange: House Of Pain

2011-08-11T07:18:00.000+09:00

A very sad and eventful week just passed us by. I'll get to Sunday's Vegalta Sendai game in a moment but first I have to say a little bit about Naoki Matsuda. I originally wasn't going to write anything about the passing of the former National team defender because, frankly, I didn't really remember too much about him. The first game I saw in Japan was on TV, coincidentally it was the Yokohama F Marinos - Urawa Reds stage winners' match in 2004. I'm guessing that Matsuda played but I don't honestly remember. The only real memory that I have of him was the last game of 2010 between Marinos and Ardija.

The man was known as Mr Marinos after all, so it makes sense that the photos and videos that most of the media outlets chose to show were of his times in Yokohama. That's why I kind of found it (happily) odd that the two weekly soccer magazines used the pictures that they did. Weekly Soccer Digest opted to go with Matsuda's farewell photo at the end of last year, the giant defender smiling with the crowd in the background.

I liked the image but thought there was no context given to it. It was pretty much a meaningless game in terms of standings, a 2-0 win to Omiya in a fairly low-quality performance for both sides and a not too fond sayonara to putrid referee Masayoshi "Justice" Okada. The real excitement was going to happen later, when the faithful Tricolore fans let the Nissan board and manager Kazunari Kimura know how they felt about the decision not to renew the contracts of Matsuda and other popular Marinos players.

Naoki Matsuda (in what I learned was totally in character) did not go quietly, first by threatening a boycott of the last game and then giving a good snub to management in his farewell speech. It was the perfect way for him to go out, defiant and triumphant. In some ways, I wish that Ardija's own Masato Saito could have had a moment like that; at least a last game to say goodbye, instead of a slide show in January surrounded by guys he never played with.

Weekly Soccer Magazine meanwhile went with Matsuda in a Matsumoto Yamaga jersey. I don't know why, but it made me kind of happy that they did it. I guess it's because I feel that Yamaga deserve this moment as much as Yokohama (not the grief, of course, just the recognition that they were a part of the Matsuda story). Literally, he was a Matsumoto player and the last thing he did was in a Matsumoto uniform.

In a strange way, that cover recognizes that Matsumoto exists. Half the J1 teams won't be featured on the cover of one of those magazines, most of J2 won't see one either. For a little JFL club to get a cover, even in terrible circumstances, is a really big deal. For one week, people in convenience stores and bookstores and boarding trains will see that cover and know there is a team called Matsumoto Yamaga.

I'm a little sorry now I didn't pay more attention to Naoki Matsuda. And I will always kind of wonder why we didn't try and sign him when he was released by Marinos. A big, intense centerback who has years of playing in high pressure seems kind of like it would have filled a need, doesn't it? Instead of saying goodbye or offering condolences, I guess I'll just say thanks for being the catalyst for one of the most genuine moments I've seen at a sporting event.

Bitter Thoughts About Our Last Game

I wish I had a better answer to why we can't win at home, or at least a less bitter one. At the start of the season, if you had told me that we would tie Sendai 2-2, I would have been overjoyed, considering how dire we were against them last year. The game on Sunday started out bright enough, with our Brazilian duo combining for both goals. We were exposed a couple of times on defense, but came out of the first half unscathed.

The second half was really the disaster that you would expect with two very non-defensive wings combining with a non-athletic left back, a left center back who is young, foreign and has his mind on National Team duty, a right back who wasn't good enough to hold a spot in J2 and Yosuke Kataoka... yeah, that Yosuke Kataoka. Omiya lost the midfield in the second half and instead of changing things around, Jun Suzuki opted to take out Rodrigo Pimpao and allow Vegalta to key on Rafael, essentially killing off the offense.

After what had been a balanced first period, ball possession was dominated by the right-sided pairing of Arata Sugiyama and Lee Chun Soo. The duo managed not only to kill offensive flow, they also caused the left-sided midfielders to drift over to the right, causing a huge gap that Sendai eagerly attacked. When Vegalta wasn't attacking Kazuhiro Murakami and Kim Young Gwon, they were exploiting the lacking skills of Kataoka, burning the bumbling centerback on at least four occasions.

I guess the lesson in all of this is, bad players eventually play bad. And we had a line-up filled with bad players.

That's not what concerns me though. What concerns me is that one of our more talented players doesn't seem like he's fitting into Suzuki's scheme. We saw glimpses of a chasm between U22 midfielder Keigo Higashi and the Omiya coach early in the second half of the Yokohama game. Higashi clearly showed his unhappiness about being pulled from what was then a 1-1 contest. Things magnified on Sunday when it was announced that he would start from the bench. In warm-ups, you could tell that the player wasn't all that happy about his demotion and the usual smile was replaced by a very dour frown.

During the match Higashi was vocal in his frustration about not being involved in the offense, screaming for the ball while standing in a wide open position. I'm worried about this development and the lack of playing time for young wings Daisuke Watabe and Jun Kanakubo. It seems like we are in a bit of panic mode, especially considering that our line-up is trending older. I wish I could dissect the moves and tactics right now, but honestly I think it's just panicky decisions by a coach who I'm starting to lose faith in.

Finally...

Wouldn't you credit it, after my GGOA half-season review articles several of the teams I abused would show exactly how much I know. Vissel Kobe put up four and three goals in their last two games, Gamba Osaka put up a shutout after eighteen tries, Kashiwa Reysol vaulted back up to first place and Marinos got a rare win against us. I think whipping boys Mitsuo Ogasawara, Sota Nakazawa, and Yoshito Okubo all managed to contribute goals in winning performances. So hey... you're welcome.

Ten games without a win at home... House Of Pain!

GGOA Readers' Survey: 2011 Top Scorer

2011-08-09T17:27:00.000+09:00

Over the last few days GGOA has been running a readers' survey to find out which player the fans think will be Omiya's top scorer in the league this season. The background to this was the arrival at Ardija on loan of Rodrigo Pimpao, coupled with uncertainty over the role of Lee Chun Soo and the inconsistent performances in front of goal of Rafael. The vote has now closed and the supporters have made their choice: there is cause for optimism over the Rafael/Pimpao combination which came up with goals in the draw with Vegalta Sendai on Sunday - and which also arguably pointed the way ahead for the most useful deployment of Chun Soo. Full details of the survey question and results are as follows:

Q. Who will be Omiya's top J1 scorer in 2011?

1. Rafael 45%
2. Rodrigo Pimpao 20%
3. Naoki Ishihara 16%
4. Lee Chun Soo 12%
5. Keigo Higashi 4%

Sendai Highlights

2011-08-09T16:53:00.001+09:00

Mito Friendly

2011-08-09T16:49:00.002+09:00

Friendly, Mon 08 Aug 11

Omiya Ardija 4-0 Mito Hollyhock

1-0 Ishihara 21'
2-0 Kanakubo 37'
3-0 own goal 57'
4-0 S Shimizu 70'

GK Ezumi
DF Watabe
DF Fukaya
DF Tsubouchi
DF Suzuki
MF Kihara (Watanabe 75')
MF Kanazawa
MF Watanabe (Hashimoto HT')
MF Miyazaki
FW Ishihara (S Shimizu HT')
FW Kanakubo

Ardija Throw Away First Win

2011-08-09T16:35:00.001+09:00

J1 Game 20/34, Sun 07 Aug 11

Omiya Ardija 2-2 Vegalta Sendai

1-0 Rafael 14'
2-0 Rodrigo Pimpao 40'
2-1 Akamine 55'
2-2 Sugai 77'

GK Kitano
DF Sugiyama
DF Kataoka
DF Kim
DF Murakami
MF Aoki
MF Ueda
MF Lee (Kanakubo 82')
MF Fujimoto (Higashi 68')
FW Rafael
FW Rodrigo Pimpao (Ishihara 63')

Subs not used

GK Ezumi
DF Tsubouchi
DF Watabe
MF Kanazawa

Cards

Y Sugiyama 69'

Sendai Preview

2011-08-07T00:18:00.000+09:00

It's been a tragic week for Japanese football. Players and fans alike have been stunned at the death of ex-Yokohama F Marinos defender Naoki Matsuda, who on Tuesday collapsed unconscious while training with his JFL club Matsumoto Yamaga and simply never woke up. A little over 48 hours later a Marinos hero, stalwart international player and J-League giant passed away. The footballing community in Japan as a whole has been in mourning since that time, with many former Yokohama and national team colleagues making the trip to the Matsumoto hospital where Matsuda lay, still wearing his boots, green Yamaga shirt and trademark headband.

There's an inevitably somewhat bleak Ardija connection to two key dates in the latter stages of Naoki Matsuda's life as a footballer. On 4th December 2010 he made the very last of his 385 appearances for Marinos as an 84th-minute substitute in what turned out to be a 2-0 Omiya win. It was a bit-part player, Lee Ho, who had the final word in Matsuda's sixteen-season J-League career, scoring the Squirrels' second goal with the last kick of the game. And the last game that Naoki Matsuda was ever to attend was last Saturday, when his beloved Marinos beat Omiya 2-1 to consolidate their place where he wanted them to be: at the top of J1.

We would like to offer our condolences to the family and friends of Naoki Matsuda. May he rest in peace.

****************

The two goals scored against Ardija by Marinos' Masashi Oguro highlighted the modest gap that there seems to be between most teams in J1 this year. Omiya put up a decent enough display and took the lead in the first half via a flicked header by Rafael, converting a delicious Kota Ueda ball into the area. But after the interval, Oguro was at his lethal close-range best while at the other end Lee Chun Soo missed two outstanding chances. That was the difference between the sides. And it could be that those wasted opportunities prove to be something of a turning point in the South Korean's Ardija career.

Because now there is a big question mark hanging over Lee in terms of where he may be used on the field and how much playing time he might get. Press reports suggest that new signing Rodrigo Pimpao is likely to start Sunday's game against Vegalta Sendai up front alongside Rafael, which if correct means that Chun Soo will either switch to a wide midfield role or be dropped to the bench. Both options, frankly speaking, are better than maintaining the current system and just hoping that Lee will become the consistent, dangerous goalscorer that Jun Suzuki wants him to be.

A small irony is that Chun Soo's last goal for Omiya was a tremendous header that brought victory in the away match at Sendai. It also ended Vegalta's unbeaten home record and with the northern side on something of a slump in form, tomorrow provides a real chance for Omiya to conclude their own infamous home record of no league wins. The prospect of picking up three vital points at NACK5 and seeing newcomer Rodrigo Pimpao for the first time means that there's a heightened sense of anticipation ahead of kick off. But for now the question remains, where will the goals come from?

Tsukamoto Interview

2011-08-06T22:37:00.002+09:00

Urawa Friendly Highlights

2011-08-06T22:35:00.002+09:00

Marinos Long Highlights

2011-08-06T22:34:00.002+09:00

Readers' Survey: Vote Now!

2011-08-05T03:15:00.000+09:00

The arrival at Omiya of Rodrigo Pimpao raises questions about how the Squirrels are going to get the goals throughout the second half of the J1 2011 season. Up to now Rafael has scored a few but missed a lot, Lee Chun Soo has shown flashes of brilliance but streaks of something else, young Keigo Higashi has contributed a handful from midfield and last year's main marksman Naoki Ishihara has found it hard to make an impact from the bench.

So how will things go between now and the start of December? Will Rodrigo make a big impact, or will Rafael or one of the other struggling strikers hit a run of form? Yes, it all seems to point towards another GGOA Readers' Survey - and this time the questions is, Who will be Omiya's top J1 scorer in 2011? This one will be open for only a few days, so head on over to the box on the right-hand side of this page and vote now!

Rodrigo Pimpao Signs!

2011-08-03T21:02:00.000+09:00

The Squirrels have confirmed the rumours that have been circulating in both Japan and Brazil over the last couple of days with the announcement that Rodrigo Pimpao has joined the club. The 23-year-old forward played the first half of the season at Cerezo Osaka, scoring four goals in fourteen J1 appearances, but the Cherries turned down the option to extend the loan deal from Vasco da Gama. Rodrigo Pimpao played his last game in a blue and pink shirt on 16th July, a 4-1 loss to Vissel Kobe. He has now signed for Omiya on loan until the end of this year.

The last few weeks have exposed a major area of weakness in the Ardija squad, which the arrival of Rodrigo Pimpao is presumably an attempt to address. Following the injury against Gamba Osaka of Naoki Ishihara, Omiya have been left with a grand total of no attacking options: coach Jun Suzuki evidently feels that teenager Shintaro Shimizu is not ready even for a place on the bench, meaning that Rafael and Lee Chun Soo are the only two forwards left. Both of them have good points but both have been disappointing in front of goal this season - predictably enough, given that neither of them can be considered out-and-out scorers in the way that Ishihara is.

Naoki fans will be concerned that his first team opportunities will be reduced yet further by the new arrival. But given coach Jun Suzuki's tendency to use players out of position (and how Ardija have suffered as consequence of winger Lee being played as a striker, not least in Saturday's loss to Yokohama F Marinos) it is impossible to imagine how Rodrigo Pimpao will be deployed. Regular starter or substitute? One of the two main forwards or an offensive midfielder? With Suzuki in charge, who knows - and this is on top of the things that fans always wonder about incoming players, such as whether they will settle at a new club.

But Rodrigo Pimpao does at least provide a choice. If Shintaro Shimizu isn't up to the job, maybe the Brazilian can contribute, improving the squad and doing a better job at taking chances than Lee and Rafael. He might not be a target man but he's fast and has scored a few times for an erratic Cerezo team struggling to keep its league form going while progressing in the ACL. That might be enough to push Omiya in the right direction by enabling us to win close games like Marinos - which we'd likely have won if Chun Soo and an actual scorer, Masashi Oguro, had swapped sides. But from hereon in it's down to the coach to make the right decisions.

Reds Crushed In Sunday Friendly

2011-07-31T21:30:00.002+09:00

Friendly, Sun 31 Jul 11

Urawa Reds 1-6 Omiya Ardija

0-1 Watanabe 4'
0-2 own goal 28'
0-3 Kanakubo 38'
1-3 Yajima 66'
1-4 Ishihara 77'
1-5 Watanabe 81'
1-6 Hashimoto 89'

GK Ezumi (K Shimizu HT')
DF Watabe
DF Fukaya
DF Kataoka
DF Suzuki
MF Kanazawa (Hashimoto 62')
MF Kihara
MF Watanabe
MF Miyazaki
FW Kanakubo (Ishihara 74')
FW S Shimizu

Marinos Highlights

2011-07-30T21:40:00.000+09:00

Oguro vs Lee = Marinos Win

2011-07-30T21:05:00.002+09:00

J1 Game 19/34, Sat 30 Jul 11

Yokohama F Marinos 2-1 Omiya Ardija

0-1 Rafael 36'
1-1 Oguro 53'
2-1 Oguro 65'

GK Kitano
DF Sugiyama
DF Tsubouchi
DF Kim
DF Murakami
MF Aoki (Watabe 81')
MF Ueda
MF Higashi (Kanazawa 63')
MF Fujimoto (Kanakubo 81')
FW Rafael
FW Lee

Subs not used

GK Ezumi
DF Fukaya
DF Watabe
MF Watanabe
MF Kanakubo
MF Kanazawa
MF Kataoka

Cards

Y Ueda 5'
Y Fujimoto 78'
Y Watabe 85'

Marinos Preview II

2011-07-30T05:54:00.001+09:00

So then, enough of Agent Orange and his facts and his information and stories and opinions and jokes and anecdotes and statistics. Time instead to go back to basics, with a preview of Saturday's match against J1 leaders Yokohama F Marinos. Yes. Let's do that. I'll start now. Well, as it turns out Ardija will start tomorrow on the back of a unbeaten run stretching back - count 'em - two games, having drawn the original rearranged fixture with Marinos a couple of weeks ago and then beaten Vegalta Sendai last Saturday. Experience says it would be foolish for Omiya fans to put the previous woeful loss to Avispa Fukuoka too far out of their minds, but in all fairness coach Jun Suzuki has brought about a major improvement since that embarrassing result and performance.

The win over Sendai, Ardija's first in six games and a first clean sheet in ten, was a close-fought affair that had a sharp upturn in quality in the second half. Shortly after the re-start Lee Chun Soo put the Squirrels in front with a pinpoint long-range header that eluded Vegalta keeper Takuto Hayashi and although Sendai then pressed forward, they never truly threatened Takashi Kitano's goal. In fact it was Omiya who came closest to scoring as both Daisuke Watabe and Daigo Watanabe missed what appeared to be unmissable opportunities within a matter of seconds of each other.

Overall it was a close game, but the flash of quality from Lee was enough to unlock the home defence. And so Ardija came away with all three points from a Vegalta team clearly feeling the pressure from their recent downturn in form. With Naoki Ishihara still unavailable it seems unlikely that Suzuki will change a winning team for the trip to Yokohama and despite the Marinos' high position in the standings Omiya have nothing to fear from the game. Most observers agreed that a lacklustre Sailors were lucky to get a draw at NACK5 despite taking the lead through starlet Yuji Ono and a Squirrels win will help close the gap between them and the top half of the standings.

Agent Orange: Extra Time - My Best and Worst XI

2011-07-27T18:15:00.001+09:00

Best keeper Yokohama F Marinos' Hiroki Iikura. It's hard to get credit when you are behind a very decorated back four but on more than one occasion Iikura has bailed them out. Much maligned last year, he's doing the job this year.

Worst keeper Montedio Yamagata's Yuki Uekusa. When your team bunkers and you still bleed goals, look at the keeper. Uekusa has been a disaster for Yamagata and has probably cost them a chance at 2012 top league play.

Best sidebacks Kashiwa Reysol's Hiroki Sakai and Kawasaki Frontale's Takanobu Komiyama. Both players have been respectable in defense and key to getting the offense started for their respective squads.

Worst sidebacks Kashima Antlers' Alex and Avispa Fukuoka's Takumi Wada. Alex moved to Kashima at the worst possible time so I feel a little bad about throwing him under the bus, but he's been one of the most disappointing signings of 2011. As for Wada, he left S-Pulse for Marinos for their record-setting 2007 campaign of destruction, then moved to Tokyo Verdy and the year that nearly killed their franchise, then went to JEF United and saw the bottom drop out of them... and now finds himself at Fukuoka. Just saying.

Best centerbacks Ventforet Kofu's Daniel and Vegalta Sendai's Cho Byung Kuk. Daniel is probably better suited for midfield but the burly Brazilian has been a real bright spot in an otherwise dour Kofu defense. You can tell his value by looking at the four games he missed - four straight losses and a combined 11-1 drubbing. Meanwhile Cho has been the anchor of a Sendai back four who are allowing less than one goal a game and really has stabilized the position after the rotating mess of last year.

Worst centerbacks Avispa Fukuoka's Daiki Niwa and Gamba Osaka's Sota Nakazawa. Really any centerback for Avispa or Gamba could be thrown in here. I picked Niwa because he also serves as the captain of Avispa and he's been poor. Nakazawa gets the nod because he's been the consistent presence among the Gamba back four (and the goal he scored against us didn't help his cause).

Best volante Shimizu S-Pulse's Shinji Ono and Gamba Osaka's Yasuhiro Endo. Both players have had better years but for sheer leadership you'd have to say that the pair are indispensible for their respective clubs. Take Ono off of Shimizu and they are in relegation territory. Take Endo off and Gamba is not in the championship conversation.

Worst volante Kashima Antlers' Mitsuo Ogasawara and Urawa Reds' Keita Suzuki. Ogasawara has been distracted by all the stuff going on in Tohoku, more so than any other player in the league. He's been off his game and it has really hurt his squad. Suzuki keeps getting worse but his power in the clubhouse keeps him in the Reds starting lineup. The major failing of Urawa was not addressing the defensive midfield spot and letting Suzuki fester.

Best wings Kashiwa Reysol's Leandro Domingues and Kawasaki Frontale's Koji Yamase. Domingues was hands down was J2's best player last year and he's continued that with an impressive albeit slightly erratic campaign. He is the conductor of everything that goes on for Kashiwa and has proven himself time and time again. Yamase has been a very good addition for Kawasaki, leading the team in assists and chipping in with five goals.

Worst wings Urawa Reds' Marcio Richardes and Vegalta Sendai's Kunimitsu Sekiguchi. Richardes has been the disappointment of 2011 after coming off a sixteen-goal, five-assist performance for Albirex Niigata last campaign. He doesn't fit in the Urawa scheme. Sekiguchi, who has been overrated since he set foot in J1, has not contributed much to the Vegalta squad and actually has been a distraction with his attitude and his pining for a job in Europe. Let him go! Yoshiaki Ota is a better player.

Best forwards Nagoya Grampus' Keiji Tamada and Urawa Reds' Genki Haraguchi. The old dog at Nagoya keeps scoring... and flopping. Haraguchi has been one of the rare Urawa players who has lived up to the hype surrounding him. The way the league has worked so far this year he won't be here long, so enjoy him while you can.

Worst forwards Omiya Ardija's Lee Chun Soo and Vissel Kobe's Yoshito Okubo. Both players have had numerous chances that they have bottled consistently. Chun Soo gets the nod over teammate Rafael because he contributes almost nothing if he isn't scoring and sleepwalks through games. We've seen him play hard and the results are usually good... unfortunately that's not often. Okubo sees off the competition as leader of an inept Kobe strike force.

Best manager Kashiwa Reysol's Nelsinho. Unique plan has Kashiwa in championship contention and, for once, the team is disciplined. Honorable mentions go to Makoto Teguramori at Vegalta and Yoshiyuki Shinoda at Fukuoka, both of whom have had to coach through disasters and both have their players playing hard and competing, even through the most trying times.

Worst manager Urawa Reds' Zeljko Petrovic. He doesn't seem to know what he wants or have a coherent plan in place. The fact that people are praising him and Urawa for beating sixteenth-placed Ventforet should tell you how far Urawa has fallen. Dishonorable mentions go to Toshiya Miura at Kofu and Jun Suzuki at Omiya. Miura has been awful. After doing a good job keeping Omiya up in 2010, Suzuki has been a disappointment, especially at home where the team has failed to win. His squad selection has been off and it feels like the team has wasted a lot of opportunities. Not addressing the sideback problem has been inexcusable.

Agent Orange: Another Damn Halfway Report, pt Deux - I'm Not That Into You

2011-07-26T19:39:00.000+09:00

Part two of my halfway report... let's dig in!

9. Sanfrecce Hiroshima Writers seem to like to use the ninth place/tenth place cut-off line as a guide to who is a real contender for the championship and who is relegation fodder. I gotta tell you that is crap. Exhibit A is Sanfrecce Hiroshima, who after a blazing hot start (five wins, four draws and one loss with a +7 GD), the wheels have come off the Hiroshima Express. In their most recent stretch, Sanfrecce is 2-1-5 with a -8 GD and an astounding eighteen goals allowed.

On the road, they have played a style similar to Montedio Yamagata, with no real drive to score. Part of that has to do with the absence of Hiroki Mizumoto, who after a wasted 2010 at Kyoto Sanga was having a good 2011 until he was lost to injury relatively early in the campaign. His replacement, Kohei Morita (an old Omiya friend and - dirty bastard - scorer of the lone goal in the match at NACK5), is 35 and was essentially out of the league at the start of the year. It's not just the defense though, as strikers Hisato Sato and Tadanari Lee have both been less than effective as of late. I'd argue that Sanfrecce are much closer to the bottom than they are to the top.

8. Vegalta Sendai Like a lot of teams in J1, Vegalta lacks the one dependable goal scorer that will get them something when they need it most. More than any other squad, it seems Sendai relies on the counter and the grace of officials to put them in good positions for free kick opportunities. The game is really out of their control. That, however, is not the real problem with Vegalta. It's understandable that the squad would be sort of an emotional rollercoaster considering what went on in March, but - and it's a giant but - the squad was like this last year.

Remember back in March/April 2010 when people were talking them up after the Kashima Antlers win and the draw against Gamba Osaka? Then they lost big to Shimizu S-Pulse and went on a fourteen-game winless streak. Now, following another loss to Shimizu, they are on a six-game winless streak after having been unbeaten for the first twelve matches. Emotion is good for a while but you have to settle down and play. To their credit, the squad is a pretty good defensive unit and the effort is there so if they can get one player hot they could sneak into the money positions.

7. Shimizu S-Pulse Kashiwa Reysol is getting all the credit as the surprise package of 2011, but a word should be given to Shimizu who not only brought in former Iranian head man Afshin Ghotbi to replace a long-time coach, but also turned over virtually an entire starting XI (seven actual starters and four bench players). After all the turmoil, the squad finds itself in seventh, one spot behind their final place last year and far above the expectations given in pre-season.

I haven't seen too much of S-Pulse this season but if I had a criticism of them, I'd say it's that they don't have the athleticism to keep up with the top squads in J1. The teams they lost against (Vissel Kobe, a pre-Mizumoto injury Sanfrecce, Kawasaki Frontale, Kashiwa and Cerezo Osaka) all have weapons that can get past the back lines and attack. The Shimizu back four, anchored by Eddy Bosnar, is just not fast enough right now. When they are able to control the pace and flow of the game they usually are successful. I should add that Daigo Kobayashi has not contributed much and is a huge dropoff from Shinji Ono (suck it Daigo!).

6. Jubilo Iwata If Urawa Reds wants to see a blueprint for rebuilding with veterans and youth, they need only look south to Shizuoka and Iwata. After purging some talented but ill-fitting pieces Jubilo has managed to blend National Team stalwarts Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Ryoichi Maeda and Yuichi Komano with a plethora of young attacking players to create one of the J-League's more dynamic squads. Even with the loss to hyperthyroidism of Ryohei Yamazaki, the team has not missed a beat. Where the trouble with Jubilo seems to lie is in the middle of the defense. The volante play and the centerbacks, while being a major improvement on last year, still lack the talent to really compete for a championship.

5. Gamba Osaka If I gotta say it, you really haven't been paying attention. To paraphrase the former Clinton campaign slogan, "It's the defense, Stupid!". Maybe Gamba coach Akira Nishino is trying to dupicate the feat performed by his 2005 Championship-winning squad, who allowed 58 goals while scoring a whopping 82. This time the scoring hasn't been bad, with a league best 38 in sixteen games, but at the other end the team is hemmorhaging a league worst 33 - even worse by percentage points than Avispa Fukuoka - while not recording a single clean sheet.

The team defense, anchored by much-maligned goalkeeper Yosuke Fujigaya and the twin towers of Sota Nakazawa and Kazumichi Takagi, weren't very good last year. And backup Satoshi Yamaguchi wasn't the answer in 2009. Maybe the answer wasn't raiding Albirex Niigata in 2009 for Pedro Junior, or Cerezo at the close of 2010 for Adriano, or Thespa Kusatsu this year for Rafinha. Maybe it's time Nishino actually went out and got some defensive talent.

4. Kawasaki Frontale To a lesser extent, Kawasaki suffers the same disease as Gamba. The centerbacks have been less than stellar this year. What determines the results for Frontale is really who is holding the whistle during the matches. When you get a guy like Yoshida as referee, Junichi Inamoto is allowed to play as physical as he likes. Another ref and the former international mid is a bit neutered and less effective in his play. His ability to clear people out of the middle is the key to their success.

The midfield also has seen problems when Kengo Nakamura is missing or off his game. Luckily for Kawasaki, one of the best pickups of the offseason was Yokohama F Marinos castoff Koji Yamase, who has responded to suggestions of his demise with a very workmanlike five goals and five assists. How the midfield holds up and the backline copes will be key to Kawasaki's hopes of finally breaking through for a championship.

3. Nagoya Grampus The defending champs shook off a rough start and bad losses to relegation candidates Ventforet Kofu and Urawa Reds to string together a twelve-game unbeaten streak. It seems like the Grampus squad is starting to get the focus back that had them winning thirteen out of fourteen matches against the bottom six teams in J1 last year.

The two problems with Nagoya right now have to be their penchant to drop points at home (tying after leading against both Omiya and Urawa) and their physical well-being. Only three of their players have played a full slate of games this year and the team is winning with erratic netminder Yoshinari Takagi in for world class keeper Seigo Narazaki. Talented attacker Mu Kanazaki has been injured the entire season and other key pieces have been out with various ailments (older ACL squads Gamba and Kashima have faced similar struggles). The focus now looks back and a run of luck with health could see Nagoya hitting their stride and re-claiming the title.

2. Kashiwa Reysol It's a little hard to criticize a team who came up from J2 and has perched themselves at the top of J1 for virtually the entire half-season. Kashiwa uses a unique 4-2-2-2 to stifle play and choke off the attack of opponents. After a blazing 7-1-1 start (the single loss being a fluke to Montedio Yamagata) cracks have begun to show, especially in the back line.

Kashiwa is still getting wins (five of the past nine) but the losses are sending warning signs. In the four losses, the team gave up three, three, four and five goals. Teams are starting to figure out that if you get to Reysol early, you can knock them out of the ball control game. The real test for Nelsinho's squad will be how they handle playing against teams who have seen the coach's scheme at least once, starting with back-to-back games this week against Vegalta in Sendai.

1. Yokohama F Marinos I've seen Yokohama play three times this year and I've come away unimpressed. While it would be a great story for Shunsuke Nakamura and Yuji Nakazawa to lead a merry band of journeymen and starlets to a J-League title after Marinos embarrassed themselves at the close of 2010, I don't think they can do it on their own.

Some things have been very good, especially the play of goalkeeper Hiroki Iikura, and the combo of Kazuma Watanabe (the Watanabe brother that actually can play soccer) and Yuji Ono has shown flashes of brilliance. But it seems that the team has been a bit flattered by the results. I'm not confident that the left-side pairing of 33-year-old Nakazawa and 35-year-old Yasuhiro Hato can continue to hold for an entire season (Chikara Fujimoto was able to exploit the matchup a few times... yes, Chikara!). But if there is a year for a team like Marinos to win the league, it's this year.

Extra Time - My Best and Worst XI coming tomorrow.

Agent Orange: Another Damn Halfway Point Article

2011-07-26T03:10:00.008+09:00

God knows everyone else is writing one. I might as well too.

The name of the game in J1 for 2011 is Wide Open. A lot of factors, both natural and artificial, have led to parity this year. Even the most diehard Kashiwa Reysol fan probably wouldn't have predicted that their squad would still be around the top of the league at the halfway point. By the same token, no-one would have imagined that the two giant red monster clubs would be struggling around the bottom, mere fractions away from being in relegation territory.

Every team this year has a flaw. It's not like Nagoya Grampus, who won the title comfortably in 2010, or the Kashima Antlers teams that took care of business three straight years. This year's champion will probably be one of the weakest title-winners and it won't make a bit of difference to that team or to their fans. Championships are like... they all count the same! (Or something like that.) Anyhow, top to bottom from bottom to top, here's a guide to what's wrong with your club.

18. Avispa Fukuoka I don't like dumping on teams when they are down. I didn't like doing it to Shonan Bellmare and I don't want to crap on Avispa, especially because they beat us. They were flawed from the beginning and the club didn't address the talent imbalance between J2 and J1. Maybe five or six of their players would be regulars on other J1 clubs and two or three could start, but Fukuoka are possibly less talented than the awful team we threw out at the start of 2007.

You have to give the manager and players credit - they have not given up and they are making things difficult, especially at home. But fourteen losses in eighteen games is almost impossible to overcome. Maybe they can knock off one or two big clubs along the way and develop young guys like Kosuke Nakamichi and Hideya Okamoto, who both have provided some good moments.

17. Montedio Yamagata To a lesser degree, Montedio are in the same boat as Avispa. They aren't the deepest team to begin with and some bad personnel moves, combined with injuries, have sapped them of any ambition on the field. The big move they made in the off-season was to replace ten-goal scorer Yuzo Tashiro with a player that Avispa deemed not worthy of keeping.

The third J1 year of Yamagata bunkerball has been figured out and with no major scoring threats on the squad, it's not as hard for the opposition to crack. The thing that doomed them, though, was coach Shinji Kobayashi's decision to sit underrated keeper Kenta Shimizu (29) for a less experienced, dependable and younger Yuki Uekusa (wait... 29).

16. Ventforet Kofu Toshiya Miura is a great J2 coach. Wonderful J2 coach. I've always said that if you were a team near promotion trying to get over the hump, Miura is the guy you should hire. On the flip side, he is a very very simple, negative coach in J1. Exhibit A happened Saturday, where Kofu with a man advantage for nearly 80 minutes could not score against Urawa Reds and lost 2-0. I imagine when Miura saw the red card, his first thought was, "Great, we can get out of here with a tie!"

There is talent on Kofu, especially in the scoring department, where they boast up and comer Mike Havenaar along with three strikers - Yoshiro Abe, Paulinho and Davi - who each have posted at least nine goals in a season. Giving Miura prolific strikers is like giving your grandmother a Ferrari so she can go to the grocery store three blocks away. It's a waste. The defense, which is supposedly a Miura speciality, is not very good. Aside from the excellent Brazilian centerback Daniel, there's just not much there. Miura has done better with a worse squad... and that might be the problem. Some guys just can't coach talented players.

15. Vissel Kobe If you take out the Shimizu S-Pulse game (a 5-1 win), the Cerezo Osaka game (a 4-0 win) and the Gamba Osaka game (a 3-2 loss), Vissel is left with having scored six goals in fifteen games. They've failed to find the net on nine occasions, the second-worst record in the league (Montedio's tally is ten). Although the S-Pulse and Cerezo games demonstrated that when Vissel are hot they are very hot, when they go cold - which has been most of the first half of the season - it doesn't look good.

It would be painfully ironic if the 2011 edition dropped to J2 because it's a much more solid, disciplined Kobe squad than the one that barely survived in 2010. You can't expect to be anything more than mid-table, though, when your featured striker is much better as a complementary player. Yoshito Okubo would be great as the third or fourth option on a team. As "the man," however, he lacks the touch to carry a squad.

14. Kashima Antlers When good teams get old, it's never pretty and we're seeing that with Kashima. It's not really a surprise considering that over the past four years they have been regulars in the ACL. Antlers had a handful of foreign and domestic players flee for jobs in Europe, the Middle East and Brazil. They had their stadium and training ground destroyed by the earthquake. The physical and emotional toll has caught up with them.

For his part, Oswaldo de Oliveira is trying to fast track younger talent in to replace guys like Masahiko Inoha and Takeshi Aoki but it's been painful. The heart of the team, Mitsuo Ogasawara, has been distracted since the earthquake hit and has not been himself. It's going to get worse before it gets better but the front office in Ibaraki won't let it last too long.

13. Albirex Niigata The Niigata squad is a weird mix of young and old. Bruno Lopes is another wonderful signing by Albirex, who of all the clubs in the J-League seem to have the best sources in Brazil. Unfortunately, he'll probably be wearing a Reds uniform in a year or two. Injuries to Cho Yong Cheul and the loss to Urawa of Marcio Richardes have really stunted what was in 2010 a decent offensive squad. For a team with all that support, it seems like they are content to do things on the cheap and not challenge for a title. Ambition is the real problem in Niigata right now.

12. Urawa Reds If you caught last week's Weekly Soccer Digest, you would have seen the little stamp in the corner for each team giving their anticipated ceiling for the year. Teams like Fukuoka, Yamagata and of course Omiya were touted for the relegation line, i.e. surviving is the best they can possibly hope for. Kashiwa and Yokohama F Marinos got the championship stamp because they are up near the top. Teams from Vegalta Sendai down to Niigata received the money tag - top five is the best they can do.

And then there was Urawa, with an ACL stamp. At the midpoint in the season, four wins (all at home... two to relegation candidates Kofu and Fukuoka, one after a full week of rest against a Kawasaki Frontale squad who had played three days before, one after two months' preparation for a banged-up Nagoya side in the middle of the ACL group stage) and a ton of mismanagement later, people still tout Urawa as top four material.

To be fair, they are a talented squad and have a rising superstar in Genki Haraguchi. They just don't seem to fit together. Marcio Richardes should have never left Niigata, he's wasted in the Reds system. Yosuke Kashiwagi shows flashes but he has never really fit in after leaving Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

Coach Zeljko Petrovic is torn between doing a rebuilding campaign and appeasing guys like Keita Suzuki, Nobuhisa Yamada and Tatsuya Tanaka who are well past it. Reds don't know what they want to do. Either rebuild or don't, because another year of half-assing both isn't going to appease anybody. Koichi Hashiratani and the front office are to blame. They brought in a coach who really didn't have any say in who his players are and it shows.

11. Cerezo Osaka Cerezo has a ton of guys capable of getting goals but not one guy who is capable of doing it consistently. Rodrigo Pimpao was supposed to replace the scoring of Adriano but never completely fit the role and after a disappointing half-year finds himself plying his trade in Brazil again. The defense for Cerezo has been exposed on more than one occasion but really in this case, the best defense is a good offense... or a more consistent one, at least.

10. Omiya Ardija I've seen every game this year so the warts are obviously more evident with our squad than others. The finishing hasn't been great and the set pieces are distressing but the real issue - and it's been discussed ad nauseum on this site - is the play of the wings. The side back positions have been the single biggest problem we've had this year. Arata Sugiyama was not the answer. Kazuhiro Murakami doesn't have the legs to be a top flight defender. Daisuke Watabe should be in midfield and Norio Suzuki is appearing in practice games as a centerback.

The midfield wings haven't helped matters much. Keigo Higashi has been up and down, Chikara Fujimoto is allright when he cares, Takuya Aoki struggled when shifted out from a central role, Jun Kanakubo is not even considered and I wrote a whole column about Daigo Watanabe and his shortcomings. Two good sidebacks would help immensely. Even one would be an improvement. Right side. Brazilian. Good athlete who can cover and cross and occasionally score. What's so hard about that?

Part Two coming tomorrow.

Agent Orange: Expecting The Worst

2011-07-25T20:15:00.000+09:00

It was at Yuratec stadium last year that Omiya's season was derailed. Even though Rafael had gone down with injury and we were all still in a bit of shock over the news of Taishi Tsukamoto's cancer, we had come off an opening day 3-0 drubbing of Cerezo Osaka and our spirits were high. For the first time in a long time, our team was likeable and sympathetic... and then Vegalta Sendai crushed us, outfighting Ardija to pull off a 3-1 win.

I was dreading Saturday's trip to Sendai for various reasons but as a fan of Omiya and the J-League, I just had to go. Maybe it was my imagination running wild but I guess my expectation was that the region post-tsunami would be like a disaster movie, with refugees and charred rubble everywhere. Granted, I wasn't in the harder-hit parts of Miyagi but if you hadn't heard about March 11th, you wouldn't really have known anything had happened in Sendai. I think that's a good thing.

I was also dreading going to Sendai because in our most recent string of contests with Vegalta, we haven't even been competitive. The last three games were blowouts, with a combined 10-1 score. Half of the goals by Sendai were the products of set pieces and if you watched the last four games, you know that I don't really have to continue the sentence.

Before we arrived at the stadium, Iwate prefecture got hit with a 6.5 earthquake and rumors were circulating among Squirrels fans that Chikara Fujimoto wasn't going to play much because of poor fitness. I was more worried about the former than the latter, although to be fair to be Fujimoto he had a really good game against Yokohama F Marinos last weekend. Long story short, against Sendai Fujimoto was so-so, but Lee Chun Soo showed up and the team answered the physicality of Vegalta to earn a very important win. Iwate earthquake aside, from a footballing perspective it was a perfect day... almost.

Now, I shouldn't do this after a good win and a good effort but I have to be critical of one thing. Why in the hell is Daigo Watanabe still playing? The former Kyoto Sanga player has failed to impress at Omiya, even though he's leaving an impression. Watanabe started his nervous twenty-minute shift at Sendai by botching a throw-in and kick-starting a Vegalta break for a corner, and ended the game by missing on a point-blank shot mere meters away from what appeared to be an open net. Badly.

Last Monday I saw Watanabe in a training match and it also was not good. He did have a nice cross to a diving Shintaro Shimizu for the second goal in a 3-3 draw with FC Tokyo. Which is ironic, because his awful decision to pass lackadaisically across the field to Yosuke Kataoka deep in Omiya territory led to Tatsuya Suzuki easily stealing the ball and putting it past Koji Ezumi for Tokyo's own second.

Remember the Urawa Reds game in June when Kota Ueda had a rolling shot tipped in by Watanabe for a late winner? No, me neither. What actually happened was that he managed to nullify Ueda's effort by being in an offside position and touching it as it was going in, costing the team two precious points.

It's not a huge sample, but in Watanabe's 238 minutes spread across ten games as an Ardija player, the team has scored one time: a consolation goal in the 4-1 blowout suffered versus Shimizu S-Pulse. Yet he was the choice to come off the bench in games against Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Marinos and Avispa Fukuoka, when in each instance Omiya needed a goal either to tie or take the lead. In contrast Jun Kanakubo hit the winning goal against Jubilo Iwata, played well out of position in training matches and scored the type of goals that Watanabe is wholly incapable of dispatching into the net. His reward? Thirteen minutes against Fukuoka.

I do think that coach Jun Suzuki should go with players he's comfortable with. However, this is a results-oriented business and if you can't get the job done with the guys you have faith in, maybe you should examine why you're comfortable with them in the first place.

Enough with the negativity. It was a good day on Saturday and I was glad to see the people of Sendai smiling and laughing and getting on with life (something I never thought I'd say this time last year). I love Sendai and I hope they can forgive me if I still hate Vegalta.

I think this might be the Orangest! Happiest!! Footballiest!!! I've been all season! I might have to go get my fat ass up a tree!

Tochigi Sunday Friendly

2011-07-24T21:39:00.002+09:00

Friendly, Sun 24 Jul 11

Omiya Ardija 3-1 Tochigi SC

1-0 Watanabe 33'
2-0 Suzuki 48'
2-1 Sugimoto 81'
3-1 Miyazaki 87'

GK Ezumi (K Shimizu HT)
DF Kihara
DF Fukaya
DF Kataoka
DF Suzuki
MF Hashimoto
MF Kanazawa
MF Watabe (Miyazaki 62')
MF Watanabe (Watabe 74')
FW Kanakubo
FW S Shimizu

Marinos Longer Highlights

2011-07-24T17:49:00.001+09:00

Lee Gets Ardija Back On Track

2011-07-23T20:56:00.002+09:00

J1 Game 18/34, Sat 23 Jul 11

Vegalta Sendai 0-1 Omiya Ardija

0-1 Lee 52'

GK Kitano
DF Sugiyama
DF Tsubouchi
DF Kim
DF Murakami
MF Aoki
MF Ueda
MF Higashi (Kanazawa 85')
MF Fujimoto (Watabe 67')
FW Rafael
FW Lee (Watanabe 76')

Subs not used

GK Ezumi
DF Fukaya
MF Kanakubo
MF Kataoka

Cards

Y Lee 61'

Sendai Preview

2011-07-23T06:20:00.000+09:00

Jun Suzuki managed to coax a strong performance but a slightly disappointing result from his beleaguered Squirrels squad last weekend, a curious state of affairs bearing in mind Ardija's recent form and the fact that they were playing against title challengers Yokohama F Marinos. The Sailors previously had picked up five straight wins and Omiya may have gone into the game seemingly with little prospect of victory, but even so it was Suzuki's side that dominated the majority of the play and only poor finishing that prevented an Ardija victory.

A typically sloppy piece of defending from a set play enabled teenage starlet Yuji Ono to head Marinos in front a few minutes before half time but all told it was a surprisingly toothless display from a team heading for the top of the J-League. After the break Omiya took control and it was only keeper Hiroki Iikura who kept Ardija out, until a combination of Chikara Fujimoto and Kota Ueda unpicked the defensive lock for Rafael to equalise from close range. It was a thoroughly deserved point which also served to bring to an end a run of three defeats in a row that had seen Omiya slip towards the relegation zone.

Saturday's opponents Vegalta Sendai are in a slump at present, given that after some sensational early season results they now have not won in five games. Their current position of eighth is the lowest in the standings Vegalta have been all season long, but even so Makoto Teguramori's team are unbeaten at home and this is likely to prove a very tough game for the Squirrels. Suzuki's preferred line-up seems now to include Arata Sugiyama rather than Daisuke Watabe at right back and although Sugiyama is generally feeble as an attacking option, he is at least a defender of experience. Omiya worked hard against Marinos - why is it not possible to say that after every game? - and they'll need to compete in a similarly determined fashion to bring anything back from their trip north.

FC Tokyo Friendly Draw

2011-07-18T21:36:00.002+09:00

Friendly, Mon 18 Jul 11

FC Tokyo 3-3 Omiya Ardija

1-0 Suzuki 8'
1-1 Hashimoto 21'
2-1 Suzuki 25'
2-2 S Shimizu 59'
3-2 Nagira 61'
3-3 Kanakubo 78'

GK Ezumi
DF Watabe (Miyazaki 67')
DF Kataoka
DF Suzuki
DF Miyazaki (Kihara HT)
MF Kanazawa
MF Hashimoto
MF Trialist
MF Watanabe
FW Kanakubo
FW S Shimizu

Marinos Video Clip

2011-07-17T22:48:00.002+09:00

Super Squirrels Hold Title-Chasing Sailors

2011-07-17T21:05:00.003+09:00

J1 Game 17/34, Sun 17 Jul 11

Omiya Ardija 1-1 Yokohama F Marinos

0-1 Ono 37'
1-1 Rafael 74'

GK Kitano
DF Sugiyama
DF Fukaya (Tsubouchi HT')
DF Kim
DF Murakami
MF Aoki
MF Ueda
MF Higashi (Watabe 69')
MF Fujimoto
FW Rafael
FW Lee (Watanabe 85')

Subs not used

GK Ezumi
MF Kanakubo
MF Kanazawa
MF Kataoka

Cards

Y Fujimoto 83'

Marinos Preview

2011-07-17T02:24:00.000+09:00

July's not working out so well, then, huh. Two more home defeats, the first away loss of the season - in characteristic Omiya fashion a result picked up at the bottom team in the division - and Jun Suzuki's team has slipped to within a couple of points of the relegation zone. In fact things have become so serious that Ardija are only just above Urawa Reds and Kashima Antlers. And on Sunday we face a Yokohama F Marinos side who not only are on rattling good form but also who know that a single point will see them overtake Kashiwa Reysol and go top of the league. All in all, it's looking like a pretty unfair fight.

At Fukuoka there was further evidence that the Squirrels have lost their way, conceding a something of a freak goal from a corner just before half time and then squandering several chances to equalise. Up front Rafael and, not surprisingly, Lee Chun Soo resemble players whose confidence is completely shot and the back four is weirdly unreliable whatever combinations Suzuki tries. About the only defensive squad member who hasn't had a look-in this season is Norio Suzuki, not an exhilarating performer but certainly dependable, hardworking and with a reasonable level of mobility. There's been no indication that he's injured, so why hasn't he been given a chance this year?

To be fair to the coach, he has masterminded some good results at times when things have been looking bleak for Omiya. The most recent example came just last month after the 5-0 thrashing by Kawasaki Frontale, which was immediately followed by a come-from-behind draw at champions Nagoya Grampus and a victory at Jubilo Iwata. As was the case against Gamba Osaka, it's not that it's impossible to imagine Ardija getting anything out of the Marinos game - just that everything will have to go very well indeed to avoid defeat. Recent performances have included far too many mistakes, so tomorrow will be the first measure of whether Suzuki's work on the training ground has had any effect. Hey! Maybe the second half of July will be better.

Agent Orange: Lindsay Lohan

2011-07-16T23:51:00.000+09:00

When your team is bad, it causes you to do some soul searching. Am I wasting my time? Should I find someone else to support? These are questions that, for me as an Ardija fan, have been recurrent over the past seven years. When your team is distressingly bad, it causes you to just get angry and come up with bold and utterly stupid proclamations that I am not going to share with you (unless you happen to sit near me at a game... the Tourettes kicks in and all bets are off).

However, when your team is on the verge of doing something historically bad, it takes you to a very dark and disturbing place (no, not Chofu) in which you question your sanity and really your whole existence. I went to that place and came up with some... how do I put this technically... some fucked-up realizations. We are Lindsay Lohan! If you don't know who Lindsay Lohan is, she is a spunky former child star whose life has spun off the rails. Over the past five or six years, her life has been documented in tabloids all over England and the USA. And she is just like Omiya! Watch me blow your mind:

1998 This was the year that Omiya debuted as a professional club prior to the inaugural year of J2. Before that, they appeared as NTT Kanto in the old JSL set-up. That same year Lindsay Lohan appeared as a precocious set of twins in the Disney remake of The Parent Trap. Before that, she had done some commercial work and print ad stuff, but really became a name with her movie debut.

2004 This was Lindsay Lohan's best year ever, as she scored critical and box office success with her role in the movie Mean Girls. Omiya would go on a stunning unbeaten streak at the end of 2004 and secure the second promotion spot for J1... their best year ever.

2005 Lohan would appear in the innocuous but entertaining Herbie Fully Loaded. Omiya would appear in the semi-finals of the Emperor's Cup as an unlikely last four participant.

2006 Lohan's best performance ever came as a woman marrying a man whom she didn't know in order to prevent him from being drafted to Vietnam, in the dramatic retelling of the night Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Daigo Kobayashi had the best performance ever for an Omiya player, as he put up nine goals and nine assists and was capped by the Japanese National Team. Like Kennedy, his NT career was assassinated (although I don't think Ivica Osim killed Kennedy... but who knows!)

2007 Lohan gets arrested for drunk driving and cocaine possession. She is sentenced to prison twice, but serves less than two days because of overcrowding. Omiya dances perilously close to relegation after committing the footballing offense of letting Robert Verbeek run the team for half a season.

2009 Lohan is involved in a disastrous romance with DJ Samantha Ronson that ends very badly and very publicly. That same year, Omiya enters into a disastrous relationship of its own, with Jang Wae Ryong. Things would come to a head when supporters and management clashed in heated arguments over the way the team was run and fan favorites Daisuke Tomita, Yasuhiro Hato and Yoshiyuki Kobayashi were forced out.

2010 This would be the low point for both Lohan and Omiya. Omiya's 2010 has been well documented on this site, starting with Taishi Tsukamoto's cancer fight and ending with Seigo Watanabe resigning in disgrace after a scandal involving the inflation of attendance numbers. Lohan would be arrested again and forced to serve time in jail. Even when she tried to do something positive, it would blow up in her face. A documetary she narrated about human trafficking in India was widely panned by the press and criticized by human rights activists in India. Because of her controversy surrounding her Lohan would lose roles, including one as legendary porn star Linda Lovelace.

2011 More trouble for Lohan as she was arrested for shoplifting and forced to serve house arrest. For Omiya fans, home feels like prison as the team has yet to win at NACK 5.

Wait, there's more!

Daddy issues Lohan has had a very strained relationship with her father Michael. The two have traded barbs in the media and released particularly horrible songs about each other. Omiya fans have had tempestuous relationships with technical directors in the past, including Haruo Yuuki and Satoru Sakuma.

Unhealthy fascinations with legends Lohan has been connected with the late icon Marilyn Monroe, duplicating her final photo shoot in a more macabre way. Chikara Fujimoto has tried to duplicate the moves of legendary player Kazu Miura, often at the expense of the team.

Making the same mistakes Omiya technical directors have failed over the past seven years to address the side back situation, often opting to either fill the spot with journeymen or converting young mids who aren't up to the task of playing the position. Lohan has repeatedly failed sobriety tests and relapsed over the past few years.

Good intentions In 2010, Lohan worked with the British Red Cross for the laudable goal of helping Haiti after their devastating earthquake. Omiya has had ongoing efforts to raise money for victims of the Tohoku earthquake in March.

Overexposed and vulnerable to penetration from behind This year has seen Omiya vulnerable to numerous attacks on their back line and embarrassing goals allowed because of mistakes by a very shaky back four. Lohan has posed nude on numerous occasions and has an exhibitionist streak to her... especially after use of drugs... as for penetration from the back... uhhhh.

A very dark place indeed. I really don't want to go tomorrow.

Fukuoka Video Highlights

2011-07-14T17:07:00.001+09:00

Away Run Ends And Slump Goes On

2011-07-13T20:53:00.001+09:00

J1 Game 16/34, Wed 13 Jul 11

Avispa Fukuoka 1-0 Omiya Ardija

1-0 Naruoka 42'

GK Kitano
DF Watabe (Sugiyama 62')
DF Fukaya
DF Kim
DF Murakami
MFAoki
MF Ueda
MF Higashi
MF Fujimoto (Kanakubo 77')
FW Rafael
FW Lee (Watanabe 69')

Subs not used

GK Ezumi
DF Tsubouchi
MF Kanazawa
FW Shimizu

Cards

-

Fukuoka Preview

2011-07-12T17:05:00.000+09:00

It's probably as well that Omiya play at Avispa Fukuoka on Wednesday because anything is welcome that will help to erase the memory of Sunday's frustrating defeat at home to Gamba Osaka. That said, having written again and again and again on these pages about how Naoki Ishihara should be in the Squirrels' starting line-up it was almost exhilarating to be so demonstrably right about something. Ishihara was brilliant. As well as scoring two superb and very different goals, he also held up the ball fantastically well, never giving it away. His policy seems to be that is he can't get in a shot himself he makes absolutely sure that the ball goes to a team-mate.

But what made that exhilarating was the incredible contrast when Lee Chun Soo came on after Ishihara picked up an unlucky ankle injury. I thought this would mean that the game would take a turn for the worse from an Ardija perspective but I didn't realise it would go that badly wrong. Of course Chun Soo never came close to scoring a goal - it's looking increasingly unlikely that he will do that again between now and the end of the season - but the South Korean couldn't maintain possession if he was on his own in the middle of a field with only a football and a giant pot of superglue for company.

And it was this latter aspect of Lee's play that turned the game so dramatically because when Ishihara had been there, Ardija were able to keep the ball in the attacking third of the pitch really very well. Once Omiya realised that Gamba's defence is terrible (doesn't everyone in the Eastern hemisphere know that Gamba's defence is terrible?) and that the lacklustre visitors appeared to believe they had won the game after scoring early, the Squirrels controlled the play for a good 30 minutes in the middle period of the match. That period of dominance ended the moment Ishihara went off, because the ball simply bounced off Lee and the Omiya defence is now too weak to be able to deal with the amount of pressure that they suddenly were under from Gamba's speedy front line.

Ardija have already announced that Ishihara will be out for three weeks, meaning that ahead of the Fukuoka game coach Jun Suzuki has fundamental decisions to make about virtually every area of his team: who will he play up front with Rafael? What's the best way for the midfield to provide additional defensive cover and to be able to support the attack quickly? And what can be done to bolster a back four that is looking increasingly shambolic? Ishihara's departure underlined the extent to which every part of a team is connected to every other part. His absence means that Suzuki has to solve the conundrum of how these things fit together and if the Squirrels are not to slip further down the standings, he has to do it quickly.

Gamba Video

2011-07-12T05:25:00.002+09:00

Ishihara Is Not Enough

2011-07-10T21:10:00.000+09:00

J1 Game 15/34, Sun 10 Jul 11

Omiya Ardija 2-3 Gamba Osaka

0-1 Lee 5'
1-1 Ishihara 44'
2-1 Ishihara 59'
2-2 Nakazawa 75'
2-3 Kim 77'

GK Kitano
DF Watabe
DF Tsubouchi
DF Kim
DF Murakami (Fukaya 85')
MF Kanazawa (Fujimoto 78')
MF Ueda
MF Higashi
MF Aoki
FW Rafael
FW Ishihara (Lee 65')

Subs not used

GK Ezumi
DF Sugiyama
MF Kanakubo
MF Watanabe

Cards

Y Rafael 22'

Gamba Preview

2011-07-10T06:09:00.000+09:00

OK, so my attempts through last week's preview to bring about victory over Sanfrecce Hiroshima by channelling the power of Naoki Ishihara very surprisingly turned out to be unsuccessful. The Squirrels rejigged frontline couldn't find a way past the Hiroshima defence even despite the awarding to Omiya of a rare penalty kick - awarded controversially for a foul on Ishihara - which was weakly struck by Rafael and saved in comfortable fashion by Shusaku Nishikawa. Even so indications are that, despite their failure against Sanfrecce, the Rafael/Ishihara partnership will also start in Sunday's meeting with Gamba Osaka.

What is less clear is whether Lee Chun Soo will keep his place ahead of Chikara Fujimoto, the South Korean former international having been switched from striker to a wide midfield role as a result of Ishihara's return to the first team. This may be the most obvious move to make but then Chun Soo has never shown himself to be what you'd call a dependable sort of player. When considering this part of the team two things that do seem clear are that Keigo Higashi looks a definite starter - but also that coach Jun Suzuki's views on the best players to use are shifting. There is even enough time in the season for Jun Kanakubo to emerge as key player.

Omiya are likely to get chances against Gamba, who haven't managed to keep a clean sheet in the league this season, and an in-form and hungry quartet of Ishihara, Rafael, Chun Soo and Higashi could well cause problems for Yosuke Fujigaya and his defence. Ardija's back four has hardly been reliable lately but the fact that Kim Yong Gwon is back from international duty does at least provide more speed and mobility. So the Squirrels are still looking for that elusive first home win of the year. Things will have to go pretty darn well for that to happen against the Blue and Blacks. But hey, at least Ishihara's in the team. Go Naoki!

Student Friendly, Sob

2011-07-04T20:27:00.002+09:00

Friendly, Mon 04 Jul 11

Omiya Ardija 0-1 Toyo University

0-1 scorer unknown, first half

GK Ezumi (K Shimizu HT')
DF Watanabe
DF Fukaya (Toyo University trialist 51')
DF Suzuki
DF Miyazaki
MF Kanazawa
MF Hashimoto
MF Kihara
MF Kanakubo
FW Fujimoto
FW S Shimizu