first week action in J-League

By: 21 | March 7th, 2009

The new J-League season got underway with a number of surprises.

The Kashima Antlers started where they left off with a 2 – 0 victory over Urawa Red Diamonds in Kashima. Veteran Takuya Nozawa gave the defending champions the lead midway of the half with last years league MVP Marquinhos scoring the second seven minutes after the break.

Nagoya Grampus defeated Ōita Trinita 3-2 in Nagoya. Ōita’s promising twenty year-old midfielder Mu Kanazaki, who just earned his first cap for the Blue Samurai opened the scoring eleven minutes in before three unanswered goals by the hosts. Dragan Stojković’s side regrouped after the break with Davi finding the net ten minutes after the restart before a flurry of activity in the final fifteen minutes. In a rare series of defending breakdowns Ōita was victimized by two late goals with Keiji Tamada finding the net with fourteen minutes remaining and Davi collecting his second seven minutes later. Brazilian veteran Ueslei drew one back with five minutes remaining but they could not find the equalizer and Grampus had its first win of the season.

JEF United Ichihara-Chiba heroic run to avoid relegation last year came to a crashing end in front of their home fans as they lost 3-0 to Gamba Osaka. Looking to improve on last years disappointing run, Akira Nishino’s side broke the deadlock five minutes before the half with Leandro, formerly of Vissel Kobe, first goal for Gamba. Two minutes after the break Tomokazu Myojin doubled the margin and with twenty two minutes remaining Gamba’s big off-season signing from Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors FC, Korean international Cho Jae-Jin made it 3-0.

The Gas Men fine run came to an end as Albirex Niigata tore apart FC Tokyo 4-1 with three unanswered goals at Ajinomoto Stadium. Yusuke Kondo leveled the match for the host seven minutes after restart with Niigata’s new signing Gilton giving them the lead just before the break. Ten minutes into the new half Pedro Júnior added the first of his two goals. Hideo Ōshima, who came over Yokohama F Marinos made it 3-1 with twenty-one minutes remaining and Júnior finished the scoring four minutes later.

Kawasaki Frontale and Kashiwa Reysol played to a 1-1 draw in Kawasaki. After a scoreless half Minoru Suganuma opened the scoring for Reysol six minutes in before Jong Tae-Se leveled with twelve minutes remaining.

The Yokohama F Marinos problems continued as they were defeated by newly promoted Sanfrecce Hiroshima at Nissan Stadium. After Kazuma Watanabe gave the hosts four minutes in Mihailo Petrović’s side came roaring back with four unanswered goals first with Tomoaki Makino opener twenty minutes in and then took the lead five minutes later with Blue Samurai’s Hisato Satō strike. Sanfrecce strong youth core continued to pay dividends as Yosuke Kashiwagi doubled the margin six minutes before the break. Bulgarian international Ilian Stoyanov sealed the match off eight minutes after the break, only to leave Yuzo Kurihara to score a consolation strike with twenty minutes remaining.

Montedio Yamagata entrance into the top flight was stunning as they defeated Jubilo Iwata 6-2 at Yamaha Stadium. After Gilsinho gave the hosts the lead eighteen minutes after the start, Yamagata stormed back with a late surge. Kim Byung-Suk, formerly of Vitória Setúbal leveled the match eight minutes before the half and only two minutes later Tatsuya Furuhashi gave Yamagata the lead. Goals rained down in the final quarter of a hour as Yu Hasegawa doubled the margin for Yamagata. With nine minutes left Tomotaka Kitamura took advantage of the host pushing forward. Gilsinho drew one back for Jubilo Iwata before Hasegawa found his second and Leonard brought the match to its shocking 6-2 final.

Photo Credit: J-League Photos