O: Kobayashi 53’, Leandro 88’
A point a-piece for Albirex and Omiya, which is a result both can live with. On 39 points both, they are not safe yet though, as there’s only 2 points down to 16th place. Albirex-star Alessandro recovered earlier than expected from his foot injury, and started this match. He was involved in alot of the action, and gave Albirex the lead in the 35th minute from the penalty-spot. Omiya received a penaly on their own in the 53rd minute, and Kobayashi made no mistake from the spot and made it 1-1. Minutes after, Alessandro were on target again as he headed home a cross from a free-kick, and put Albirex in the lead again. However, Alessandro were sent off as he took his shirt off in the celebration after the goal, and suddenly Albirex were one man down. Omiya dominated after that, being one man more, and came close on several occasions before Leandro finally equalized in the 88th minute. A dramatic end to a dramatic match, and in the end a draw seemed fair. Albirex had 7 shots to Omiya’s 11.
JEF lost 0-3 at home to Marinos this round, which means they are in deep trouble now with regards to staying in J1. Still only 2 points up to safe place though, but there’s only 2 matches remaining as well. They looked quite poor against Marinos this match, and it was a well-deserved win for the visiting-side. JEF didn’t look too bad before the break, and looked to be on level terms with Marinos. All that changed after the break though, as Marinos scored 3 quick goal within 8 minutes to make it 0-3. A disappointing match for JEF, who looked to be totally without self-confidence. They need to up their game against Shimizu next round if they want to stay in J1. JEF had only 5 shots to Marinos’ 17.
K: Sugiyama 56’, Suganuma 74’, Koga 86’
A last minute goal from Robert Cullen gave Jubilo a much-needed point, which means they are still ahead of 16th placed Verdy on goal-difference. Reysol proved to be a tough opponent though, and it was a very entertaining match with lots of chances at both ends. Gilsinho opened up the scoring in the 18th minute with a nice finish from close range, and Rodrigo doubled that lead in the 56th minute. Sugiyama reduced to 1-2 for Reysol before in-form winger Suganuma equalized in the 74th minute. When Koga scored another one in the 86th minute, Reysol looked to have the win in their pockets,but in injury-time Cullen appeared and scored the 3-3 equalizer. A dramatic end, and in the end a draw seems like a fair result. Jubilo had 16 shots to Reysol’s 17.
C: Davi 27’
Verdy disappointed by only managing a point at home against punch-bags Consadole. That was Consadole’s first point in 9 matches, and Verdy are desperate for points at this stage, which means the 2 points dropped here could turn out to be deadly. Consadole got off to the best start, as Davi were fouled inside the penalty-box after 26 minutes. Davi converted the following PK with ease to give the visitors the lead. Verdy’s striker Oguro equalized right before the break to make it 1-1. IT was a physical match, and the referee handed out 10 yellow cards. Verdy had the most of the chances, but they didn’t really look that good, and Consadole could even had gotten away with the win if they had been a bit more efficient. In the end Verdy should find themselves disappointed with the poor result, which could mean they have to play in J2 next season. Verdy had 15 shots to Consadole’s 8.
Gamba’s season seems over already, and they are probably happy by winning the ACL-trophy and don’t realyl care about the league anymore. After a heavy defeat against FC Tokyo at home last round, it got even worse here as they crashed to a 0-4 defeat at the hands of Frontale. That means Gamba are all the way down in 9th, with 3 straight losses. Frontale are in 3rd, and are 3 points behind leading Antlers now.However, Antlers has a much better goal-difference, so 3 points should be enough for Antlers to be sure of finishing ahead of Frontale. The home-team looked best for pretty much the entire match, but had to wait until the 44th minute for the first goal. Chong Tese headed home the opening goal, which meant Frontale led 1-0 by half-time. 2 quick goals from Taniguchi and Juninho shortly after the break secured Kawasaki’s lead, and Igawa took all doubt away with his 4-0 goal in the 70th minute. A humiliating defeat for Gamba, but for Frontale it should secured them a top 3 finish which will give them a place in ACL next season. Frontale had 20 shots to Gamba’s 12.
Kashima strengthened their title-chances with a well-deserved 1-0 away win against title-rivals Oita away. Kashima were by far the better team, and the win could have been alot bigger if they had scored on some of their other chances. The only goal of the game came 10 minutes into the 2nd half, when Atsuto Uchida came forward on one of his long-runs, and with a delicate finish scored the winning goal. Oita looked a little bit better after conceding the goal, as Kashima seemed to gear down a bit. but in the end it was a well-deserved win for Kashima, who leads by 2 points on Nagoya now with 2 games left. Kashima are up against 2 of the poorer teams in the league in their last matches as well, so they should be able to finish 1st now. Kashima had 9 shots to Oita’s 8.
N: Magnum 1’,26’, Johnsen 90’
With the return of Magnum to the squad, Nagoya looked much better, and the brazilian playmaker scored after only 1 minute in his comeback from injury. He were on target again in the 26th minute after finishing off a nice cross from the wing, and Nagoya looked to be in total control of the game. Some 10 minutes into the 2nd half, Yanagisawa were on target to give the home-team a lifeline, and shortly after the former Japan NT striker scored his 2nd of the day, and 13th of the season to make it 2-2 from the spot. Kyoto suddenly looked the better team, and could have scored even more goals if they had been a bit more efficient. Instead, 6 minutes on injury-time, Frode Johnsen were fouled inside the penalty box and the tall norwegian made no mistake from the spot and gave Nagoya the winner. It was a very controversial decision though, as there are question marks whether or not it was a foul or purely a dive that made the norwegian striker fall to ground. Kyoto had 17 shots to Nagoya’s 9, and should have deserved atleast a point.
S: Edamura 22’, Yajima 82’
Urawa’s title hope took a beating as they fell to a strong SHimizu squad at home,losing 2-1. With a win Urawa would have been just 1 point behind Antlers in 1st, but now the gap is 4 points and with only 2 matches remaining it looks almost an impossible task. Shimizu took the lead after 2 minutes, after Edamura completed a nice attack by scoring on Tsuzuki in Urawa’s goal. Urawa tried to fight back, and both Tulio and Tanaka had big chances to score. Tulio finally managed to break the Shimizu-defence with a strong finish in the 67th minute, and Urawa just continued to attack after the goal and looked the most likely winner at that stage. Shimizu didn’t give up though, and in the 82nd minute Yajima scored on a counter-attack to give SHimizu the win. A real blow for Urawa, who currently are in danger of finishing outside top 3 as well. Both teams had 14 shots.
T: Cabore 83’
Tokyo dropped 2 valuable points as they only managed a point away against Vissel this round. With a win they would be on even points with 3rd placed Frontale. For Kobe’s sake, they have now gone 6 matches without losing. Tanaka gave Kobe the lead after only 17 minutes after a quick counter-attack set him up. The home-team continued to put Tokyo under pressure, but despite several chances the score remained 1-0. Tokyo got more into the match in the 2nd half, but they had to wait until the 83rd minute for the equalizer when Cabore found the net. In the end Kobe should have deserved all points, but they can only blame themselves for the poor finishing. Vissel had 22 shots to Tokyo’s 16.
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