BRISBANE ROAR PLAYING FOR SURVIVAL

Tonight the Brisbane Roar face Korean opponent Ulsan Hyundai in a match which could signal the end of their hopes of ACL success in 2012. With a possible 9 points left to play for, and placed 3 points behind 2nd placed Ulsan, tonight is do or die.

With the game kicking off at 7:30pm in Brisbane tonight, a media conference involving both team's captains and managers was held yesterday. Brisbane manager Ange Postecoglou was bristling as the assembled media continued to harass him about his future. Postecoglou was asked were the questions regarding his future annoying, he quipped, "Do you think it is? You keep asking the questions though don't you." The rumour mill has linked him with marquee club Melbourne Victory, however, Postecoglou is firmly focused on his ACL task and the A League Grand Final this Sunday. The manager was not concerned at what some deem inconvenient scheduling. Regarding the game tonight just 4 and a half days before the grand final he said, "that's the nature of the sport we're involved in, there's an international aspect . . ."

Brisbane's opponents Ulsan have had a successful start to their K League season conceding just one match from the opening seven. Just six days ago the tigers had a 0-0 draw with 2nd placed Jeju and notably they have conceded just 4 goals in 7 matches. The Roar will not be taking their opponents lightly given the meeting two weeks ago yielded a 1-1 draw. However, the Australian side had dictated terms, leading 1-nil until Matt Jurman was given a red card in the 47th minute. Striker Besart Berisha had calmly cut back for an oncoming Nick Fitzgerald to put Brisbane ahead in the 36th minute. Unfortunately the red card turned the game and Ulsan were able to equalise in the 55th minute. A very open affair but the result remaining a 1-1 deadlock.

With it all to play for tonight expect Brisbane to take the three points even if some key players get rested. In other action FC Tokyo host Beijing Guoan. The previous meeting between the two teams also resulted in deadlock. Hosted by the giants of the Chinese Super League the home team were recipients of a very helpful piece of refereeing to go ahead via a penalty (click here to see the youtube video) in the 11th minute. Not surprisingly when FC Tokyo hit back it was midfielder Hasegawa who was on target in the 44th minute. The Iranian-Japanese midfielder has been on fire throughout the tournament and in the J League, only recently coming unstuck with some disciplinary issues.

Around the Champions League the other interesting clashes involve Thai outfit Buriram and Jeonbuk Motors. The Thai club travel to Korea attempting to reverse their first ACL defeat just a fortnight ago. They are the giant killers of the competition taking the scalps of Japanese champs Kashiwa Reysol and Chinese champs Gaungzhou Evergrande. Group G seems to be full of shocks though with Guangzhou opening the tournament with a 5-1 win over Jeonbuk. Expect the Koreans to be on song tonight as they have it all to play for, sitting on 3 points while Kashiwa and Guangzhou on 4 points meet, means they will lose contact with the top two unless they take points.

SENDAI STAY TOP

Vegalta Sendai have maintained their undefeated start to the season by giving defending champions Kashiwa a 3-2 touch up. Striker Shingo Akamine grabbed the winner in the 78th minute.

Travelling to Chiba prefecture, Sendai endured the inclement weather and a fiery Leandro Domingues to give themselves a three point buffer at the top of the table. Both midfielder Yoshiaki Ota and the 28 year old striker Akamine have moved to three goals this season. Ota picked up two assists on the weekend with Akamine's goal being decisive. Interestingly Sendai are well ahead in the goals scored department which was an issue last season.

Sendai finished fourth in 2011 with the stingiest defence in the competition. They conceded just 25 goals in the 34 match season. Unfortunately they only scored more goals than 5 other teams. If the goal scoring problem has been nullified than there is no reason why Sendai can't complete an inspiring J League triumph. Sendai was smack bang in the middle of the earthquake and tsunami disaster of 2011. After winning J2 in 2009 the team were lucky to survive their first season in the J League. They finished two places above relegation and just one win clear of the relegated FC Tokyo. It wasn't unreasonable to expect the natural disaster to have a negative impact on the team in 2011 and spell the end of their J1 adventure, but they proved to be made of sterner stuff than most mortals. 

Now 2012 sees Vegalta Sendai head of the table, with big guns Urawa Reds in pursuit, and the usual suspects Nagoya Grampus lurking about. The J League has made a habit of throwing up the fairytale recently and their will be no shortage of people wishing good will toward the team from Miyagi prefecture.

A LEAGUE TURMOIL

JETS OWNER DOES THE RUNNER

Mining (lucky guy) magnate Nathan Tinkler has attempted to pull the rug from under the Newcastle Jets in a display of petulance. The owner of the Jets had a representative host a depressing press conference where the Hunter Sports Group (owned by Tinkler) declared, they were handing back their owner's license due to differences in opinion on how the game should be run. 


HSG chief executive Troy Palmer stated ". . . propping up their [FFA] decisions that we don’t agree with is not what we think is best for Newcastle." With true billionaire contempt it seems the rich man is taking his bat and ball and going home. The tamper tantrum stems from two major issues: the $5 million license acquisition fee paid by Tinkler and the Jason Culina insurance incident. Tinkler has good reason to be bitter about the acquisition fee. The $5 million that he paid is well over the money paid by others and Jason Culina was bought as a marquee player but amazingly the player wasn't insured as the FFA has a different rule for marquee players.

So Tinkler has reason to be angry and to want answers however, trying to hand back the license is a little irresponsible. The Jets attracted the third highest average crowd figures for 2011/12, and manager Gary Van Egmond gave up his post at the Australian Institute of Sport for the job at the Jets. Tinkler has metaphorically said to the fans "to hell with you", he has metaphorically said to Van Egmond "who cares about your family and any other bills you have to pay" and the same goes for all the players.

On investigation into Tinkler's history we see some consistent patterns of this kind of behaviour. In November 2011 he finally ended his dispute with horse trainer Anthony Cummings. Cummings was one of a long line of horse trainers who parted ways with Tinkler. The list includes Jason Coyle, Patrick Payne, Tony Noonan and Mick Price. But it's Tinkler's timing which really proves his class (sarcasm). Hours after the launch of the 2011/12 A League season Tinkler ruthlessly sacked then manager, Branko Culina, who had been on hand for the launch media event. Tinkler sacked Culina for the debacle that surrounded the signing of injured marquee player Jason Culina (his son). And now on the day of the A League awards night Tinkler prods his chief executive officer into the fray to tell the world he doesn't want his 'soccer toy' anymore. Unfortunately for Tinkler he signed a ten year ownership contract and the FFA are ready for court action. By the afternoon of HSG's announcement yesterday, the 'cut and run' group were issued papers from the FFA reminding of their legal commitments to the Newcastle Jets for another eight years.

Catch Football Federation Australia's response to HSG.

NEWS BURST

GAMBA SACK SERRAO


Gamba Osaka have shut the door on manager Jose Carlos Serrao and told a large portion of his assembled coaching staff they aren't welcome either. The club had suffered three straight J-League losses and two ACL losses in a disastrous start to 2012. Club President Kikuo Kanamori revealed that the board , ". . . took into account that the kind of soccer that represents Gamba Osaka is soccer with movement, and we were not seeing this."

Matsunami

The Kansai outfit have ushered in a club legend as the new manager.
Masanobu Matsunami who made 280 appearances for the club will be assisted by Noritada Saneyoshi who made a mediocre (that is sarcasm) 236 games for the club. This weekend Gamba take on Albirex Niigata who are also sitting on a duck after three matches. Matsunami-san has promised he will ". . . work hard in this job." Relatively young by managerial standards, the new man may have his work cut out as some believe it's not just the manager at Gamba who was behind the unsuccessful start to the season, but also a playing roster that is just too old.


GRAMPUS HANG ON FOR DRAW IN GOSFORD


Wednesday night's clash between Nagoya Grampus and Central Coast Mariners saw the A - League outfit acquit themselves well. The Aussie team who have just been crowned Premiers Plate champions (akin to winning the league in most nations) had been experiencing a form slump, but the travelling Japanese club brought out the best in the Mariners. After a start which saw action from end to end before a few soft claims for free kick, Grampus eventually struck. In the 21st minute Tulio got on the end of a low flighted free kick which bedazzled the locals (I'm not sure if it was even meant to travel low to the ground). The national team stalwart poked home the opener, only for Mariners to bounce back within 7 minutes. Josh Kennedy (hardly visible all night) was pick-pocketed 5 metres outside his own box and young Tom Rogic was quick to fire in a cross from the left for Dutchman Patrick Zwaanswijk to head home. Another centre back getting in on the act.


From that point on a points decision went to the Mariners but despite their best efforts, a second goal wasn't forthcoming. With both team playing compact formations and high defensive lines the midfield was a hive of action and the 19 year old Rogic shone for the home team. It was an eventful night with the local fans jeering every free kick awarded to Grampus. An early simulation by Kensuke Nagai got the 'Gosfordians' offside and from that point on there was no turning back. One highlight was centre back Tulio Tanaka's efforts to rile the crowd even more. He played up to the crowd by slowing down play and dummying over the ball when there was no opponent within cooee. A true character that would fit in at any A - League club. If the funds were available . . . he'd be a must.

Kennedy and Co' Arrive

Josh Kennedy and Nagoya Grampus have arrived on the Central Coast. On a mission to snatch and grab three points for their Asian Champions League campaign, Grampus will start favourites. 

Despite only managing a draw in their first game of the Champions League Grampus have the smarts to beat a Central Coast team whose form is heading in the wrong direction at the wrong time. The Mariners got their Champions League campaign off to a creditable draw in China, but Tianjin aren't setting the world on fire in the Chinese Super League. With one win in their last five the Mariners have fallen upon tough times due to the loss of Rostyn Griffiths to Ghuangzhou R&F, Matt Simon to Chunnam Dragons, and others on national duty (Olyroos). While the Mariners have youngster Tom Rogic, he doesn't add the same mettle as Griffiths and this is where the game is won. 

Grampus have started the J-League with a win against highly rated Shimizu S-Pulse (including Alex Brosque) and a 3-2 defeat away to FC Tokyo. Fans of Brisbane Roar can tell you about the quality of FC Tokyo whom seem capable of emulating the deeds of the 2011 Kashiwa Reysol outfit. Reysol won the J-League in their return to the top flight. Anyways, Grampus should have to many guns with the usual suspect Kennedy, Tulio and the speedy Nagai the players to watch out for. 

Meanwhile Adelaide United are set to rock the Asian Champions League tonight when they face Gamba Osaka. Gamba lost their opener at home to Pohang Steelers 3-nil. The new coaching staff will be feeling the heat if Gamba don't get the points, but they will have to find goals against an Adelaide outfit set to play on the counter. This one looks tough, and not even Endo can make the task look easy. 

My best wishes go out to Brisbane Roar for if they continue to employ the predictable pass it out from the back style, they will get ambushed by Beijing tonight. Beijing go into the match with winning form, after toppling high spending Shanghai Shenhua (Joel Griffiths, Nicholas Anelka) in the Chinese Super League over the weekend. This hasn't deterred Brisbane manager Ange Postecoglou though, "The important thing is that we play our style of football and not to get into a negative mindset worrying about whether we win, draw or lose." 

Reds Shock Kashiwa

Urawa Reds have provided the shock result of section 2 of the 2012 J -League season. The Reds got home 1-nil in front of a home crowd of 41069. The Saitama based Reds were under the hammer for the majority of the game, but their resilience was rewarded with a 36th minute goal to Despotovic.

Japanese international Yuki Abe was given man of the match for his efforts at closing down the dangerous Leandro Domingues (Kashiwa's topscorer in 2011). The fact that the Reds' goal came as a result of a defensive blunder by Kashiwa means Reds fans shouldn't get carried away. After a loss to Sanfrecce Hiroshima last week, the Reds needed this win with new manager Mihailo Petrovic saying "I knew this would be a hard match . . . but we prepared for this match and the important thing is how you react to defeat."

Elsewhere 30764 fans of largely Kansai decent looked on as Cerezo Osaka used up the very last kick (actually a header) of the game in order to deprive derby rivals Gamba of any points. With Gamba equalising from a free kick via Paulinho the first half ended 1-all. However, Cerezo weren't happy to settle for a draw and the winner came via a Kempes header. The 29 year old Brazilian was able to rise higher than his marker and headed home the sweetest of goals for the pink and blue.

Other results of note:

• Hasegawa and Ishikawa steer FC Tokyo to 3-2 victory over Nagoya
• 83rd minute goal gets Vissel Kobe a 2-1 victory over Consadole Sapporo
• Brosque and Shimizu S-Pulse in comfortable 2-1 win over Sanfrecce Hiroshima

check out the J league standings on this link

Worrying Signs for Gamba

New manager Jose Carlos Serrao will be feeling a little nervous after Gamba's first up loss in the ACL and a surprising first round defeat to Vissel Kobe in the J-League.

The Kansai team have had a great run of success in preceding seasons (finishing top 3 since 2004, except 2008) but this season the alarm bells are beginning to ring. With a new coach and a new outlook the team have added Japanese international defender Konno to shore up a leaky defence. Unfortunately the first two meaningful games of the campaign have begun with a glut of goals at the wrong end for Gamba.

The ACL game against Pohang Steelers of Korea saw three goals flow into the Gamba net. One goal was a result of new signing Konno mis-controlling, while another saw an unmarked Kim Tae Su head home from six yards. The 3-nil defeat at home prompted manager Serrao to state, "this was a big loss for us and now means that really we have to win away to qualify for the next stage."

In the J-League clash it took less than 17 minutes for Kobe to go ahead and only a long range pot-shot got Gamba back into the game before half-time. Before injury time came around it was 3-1 Kobe, with two goals coming from set pieces. Gamba pulled one back to restore some pride in front of the home fans.
Other notable results from week one were:

• Defending champions Kashiwa Reysol 3-3 Yokohama F-Marinos
• Title contenders Nagoya Grampus 1-0 Shimizu S-Pulse
• Home defeat for Omiya Ardija 0-1 FC Tokyo

Highlights available on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DSLiXncJErc