In front of 22,000 fans, the Asian Champions League holders, Gamba Osaka, were sent back to west Japan after being thumped 4-0 by a lively Kawasaki Frontale at the Todoroki stadium yesterday. Under blue skies, the team from Osaka will be ruing some half chances in the first half. If they had have taken some [. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal should be in the Championship. If footy bloggers ruled the universe. Brazil's search for the country's sexiest fan. Italy's all-refugee football club. Didier Drogba flings currency into the crowd. Japan's no country for second-string players. Derek Parlane McQueen: The biggest name in football Steven Appiah's gone from the pitch to the courtroom. Click to continue reading...

Some clubs bring the full cavalry to their cup matches because it's the only competition they have a chance at making a decent showing. Other clubs have more important things to worry about. Like fatigue, injuries, other competitions, and how the owner's going to feel about losing a superduperstar to injury for the year up [. Click to continue reading...

Japanese club Gamba Osaka won the Asian Champions League when they beat Adelaide United 2-0 in Adelaide on Wednesday. The J. League side tallied a 5-0 aggregate against the Australians. The Australian side's hopes of overcoming a 3-0 deficit incurred in Japan were thrashed when striker Lucas scored twice within the opening 15 [. Click to continue reading...

Shimizu S-Pulse lost the Shizuoka Derby against relegation-threatened Jubilo Iwata 0-1 at Ecopa Stadium. A poor game was settled in the first minute of the second half after a terrible mistake from the kick-off by the S-Pulse defence.

Shimizu, fresh from defeat in the League Cup, were booed off the field by their passionate support. Click to continue reading...

TOKYO - Japanese giants Gamba Osaka brushed past Australian A-League side Adelaide United of 3-0 in the first leg of the Asian Champions League final today. Brazilian striker Lucas put the Gamba in front in the 37th minute as he sprung Adelaide United's offside trap before finding the net with a deflected shot. Click to continue reading...

THE Football Association of Singapore (FAS) have tried hard to get their most promising Lions to ply their trade abroad, to gain more exposure in bigger leagues. Earlier this year, Singapore striker and skipper Indra Sahdan went for a trial with MLS side Real Salt Lake, while his national team-mate, keeper Lionel Lewis, trained with Manchester [. Click to continue reading...

Defending champs Urawa Red Diamonds had the upper hand as they hosted Gamba Osaka in the semifinal of the Asian CL semifinals today, having drawn in Osaka through The Almighty Away Goal. They made it 2-1 in the first half, but 45 minutes and some shoddy corner defending later, Gamba were through to their first [. Click to continue reading...

Looks like this J-League goalkeeper forgot his Ritalin. And while I was trying to figure out where that video came from (no luck so far anybody?) I came up with this one. I guess it just doesn't pay to be a goalkeeper in Japan. Click to continue reading...

Add this to the list of many reasons why the J. League needs to come mainstream. Kashiwa player Alex was lining up to take a standard corner against the Kashima Antlers when a fan wielding a giant flag whacked him upside the head with it. Alex stayed down for a while but got back up [...] Click to continue reading...

Courtesy of MLSNet.com


NEW YORK -- Major League Soccer and its Japanese counterpart, the J.League, continued to develop their relationship this month, as a J.League delegation toured several MLS markets during the month of September. The 33-person delegation included representatives from 28 of the J. Click to continue reading...

Shimizu S-Pulse fans are some of the best in the J-League - friendly, vocal and loyal. They turn up in numbers both home and away.

S-Pulse are having a poor season in the league this year and lost this match away to Nagoya Grampus at the Mizuho Stadium in Nagoya.

Look out for the woman falling off her seat about 60 seconds in. Click to continue reading...

Here are some words and phrases you can hear on languagecaster's Full Podcast's Good, Bad and Ugly section - a review of the footballing news. For more English practice check out our worksheets, football glossary and English for football phrases as well as the Learners' Podcast. Indian summer - warm weather late in the year, summer [. Click to continue reading...

This week's show looks back at Olympic gold for Argentina, a Champions League escape for Liverpool and a warning for Roma. Click on the links below to find out more on the stories that appear on this week's show. The Good It was good for Argentina as they retained their Olympic title by defeating Nigeria 1-0 in [. Click to continue reading...

From the multitude of unofficial fan clubs that crowd the terraces to the carefully choreographed chants that ring out for ninety minutes, J. League fans have arguably borrowed as heavily from their native baseball league as they have from European and South American football culture. Michael Tuckerman explains. Click to continue reading...

This goal would be absolutely fantastic at any point during a game. 95th minute down one? Nigh unbelievable. Ball's sent hurtling through the air by Kashiwa Reysol's goal keeper from his box in one last ditch attempt to salvage a point and the next time it hits the ground.....it's in the opposition's net. Click to continue reading...

After over a month of no laser lightshows, and no killer whale mascots, the J League returns to action tomorrow. With the European Championship winding down, the attention in Japan will be returning to domestic football, and since we've been a bit distracted ourselves, let's take a look at how things stand in J [. Click to continue reading...

Rising Sun News

The doyen of English-language J. League websites, The Rising Sun news has documented the ups and downs of the Japanese game for more than eight years.



Reputedly now on strike (according to the author himself), the Rising Sun
News is the definitive voice on Japanese football and, like the sadly dormant Football (Japan)
Lost In Translation blog remains an excellent online record of Japanese football - with a lively and active message board to boot. Click to continue reading...

Sunday, 18 May

Urawa Reds top the J-League going in to the summer break despite a 3-2 home loss to Gamba Osaka in front of 50,000 spectators at Saitama Stadium. The match was marked by some of the worst crowd trouble in J-League history after Gamba fans pelted Reds players with plastic bottles following the final whistle and were in turn attacked by the Urawa hard core. Click to continue reading...

Clasicos, superclasicos and the Ladies FA Cup final in England feature on this week's the good, the bad and the ugly. To get more information about the stories click on the links below to watch the video or read the article. Good A huge week for Real Madrid as they come from behind last weekend to beat [. Click to continue reading...

Josip Kuze became the second manager in the J.League first division to be sacked in the 2008 season, following Holger Osieck's marching orders from the Urawa Reds after just two matches.
JEF United Chiba announced on their website that they had terminated the 55-year-old Croatian's contract on Wednesday without providing further details. Click to continue reading...

Sunday, 20 April

Dragan Stojkovic's Nagoya Grampus top the J-League after a come from behind home win over bottom club JEF United. Reigning J-League champions Kashima Antlers are second after a goalless home draw with Gamba.

Shimizu S-Pulse move out of the bottom three positions after a 1-1 draw away to Marinos. Click to continue reading...

The best thing on display in a Shimizu S-Pulse shirt yesterday at pretty Nihondaira Stadium was the pre-match entertainment dancers.

Listen to the sounds of the Shimizu fans




On the pitch, Shimizu were poor again and lost 2-0 to an improving Nagoya Grampus. The loss of ace marksman Korean Cho Jae-jin seems to be key to the Shizuoka Prefecture club's poor form this season. Click to continue reading...

Sunday, 6 April

Reigning J-League champions Kashima Antlers stay unbeaten with maximum points, followed by Nagoya Grampus, and Gamba Osaka.

The largest crowd of the weekend, 27,866, saw Urawa Reds, improving under new coach Gert Engels, defeat Jubilo away. Only 7,339 spectators were in attendance for Ardija's 2-0 win at home over visiting Trinita. Click to continue reading...

Speaking on BBC's special 4-Hour World Football Phone In (3hr 13mins in), last night, Aidan Ormond, their Australia-Asia correspondent speaking with Bobby Gould in New Zealand stated that discussions are underway with MLS to expand the Pan Pacific Championship tournament next year to include Korean K-League and New Zealand Football Championship clubs in addition to Japan's J-League and Australia's A-League. Click to continue reading...

Click to continue reading...

Gert Engel's first match in charge of Urawa Reds, following the sensational sacking of Holger Osieck, ended in defeat. Urawa's loss to Vissel Kobe 1-0 in the Nabisco League Cup was Urawa's third successive loss without scoring.

Group A
Nagoya Grampus 0 Kyoto Sanga 1
Urawa Reds 0 Vissel Kobe 1

Group B
Shimizu S-Pulse 3 FC Tokyo 1
Tokyo Verdy 0 Jubilo 2

Group C
Kawasaki Frontale 0 JEF United 2
Kashiwa Reysol 1 Sapporo Consadole 1

Group D
F Marinos 1 Oita Trinita 0
Albirex Niigata 2 Omiya Ardija 2

Bet with Bet 365

World Soccer News

Soccer betting tips

Soccer Books & DVDs

Tags

Soccer News soccer football J-League Nabisco Cup Betting Click to continue reading...

Saturday 9 March / 10 Sunday

Kashima Antlers' 4-0 thrashing of newly promoted Consadole sent out a strong message that the Ibaraki-based club is determined to defend its J-League crown in the new season. In the opening round's big clash Yokohama F Marinos edged rivals Urawa Reds 1-0.

J1

Yokohama F Marinos 1 Urawa Reds 0
FC Tokyo 1 Vissel Kobe 1
Kawasaki Frontale 1 Tokyo Verdy 1
Gamba Osaka 0 JEF United 0
Shimizu S-Pulse 0 Oita Trinita 2
Nagoya Gampus Eight 1 Kyoto Sanga 1
Kashima Antlers 4 Consadole 0
Omiya Ardija 2 Albirex Niigata 0
Kashiwa Reysol 2 Jubilo Iwata 0


Leading Positions

Antlers P1 Pts 3
Ardija P1 Pts 3
Reysol P1 Pts 3
Trinita P1 Pts 3
Marinos P1 Pts 3

Bet with Bet 365

World Soccer News

Soccer betting tips

Soccer Books & DVDs

Tags

Soccer News soccer football J-League Betting Click to continue reading...

The reviews of the first ever Pan-Pacific Championship are in and we've got a flop on our hands. Even with David Beckham and hometown hero Brian Ching on the pitch, the combined attendance for the two double-headers was a mere 38,215. On top of that, the field turf was horrible.

So what to make of this tournament? Click to continue reading...

Houston 1-6 Gamba Osaka

Has Houston ever been tossed around the way they were last night against J-League Cup Champions Gamba Osaka? All over the pitch, the team looked the weaker side as Gamba's technical control combined with their lethal counter-attacks gave them the game. Brazilian striker Bare made the top defense in MLS look like amateur night with his unbelievable ability to sneak right past his mark and into one-on-one situations with Pat Onstad. Click to continue reading...

The first round of the Pan-Pacific Championship is over and if there was any surprise, it was just how poorly LA and Sydney played. Houston and Osaka put together quality performances so the final on Saturday night should be a good game.

LA Galaxy 0-1 Gamba Osaka

If LA fans were hoping to see a new look to their club, they were sadly disappointed. Click to continue reading...

The MLS Champions finally know who they will face in the inaugural version of the Pan Pacific Championships (PPC) next week in Hawaii as Sydney FC won the right to represent the Australian A-League after they were knocked out of the playoffs this past weekend.

Sydney FC is a tough team with some quality to it, however, they are in the middle of a major roster problem as they currently have only 16-players available for the trip. Click to continue reading...

Rating: 5 (Very good)

Great news for MLS and the Pan Pacific Championship. Onkyo, Japanese makers of fine home entertainment system products will be a sponsor of the Pan Pacific Championship.

Other sponsors of the February event in Honolulu, Hawaii, are Japan Air Lines, Hilton Hotels, Yamazaki-Nabisco and MLJ, an international communications company. Click to continue reading...

Japan begin their quest to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa when they meet Thailand at Saitama Stadium tonight.

The Blue Samurai warmed up for the fixture by recording a 0-0 draw with Chile at the National Stadium in Tokyo on January 26, before beating Bosnia and Herzegovina 3-0 at the same venue four days later. Click to continue reading...

According to soccer insider Glenn Davis, the upcoming Pan Pacific Championship tournament which takes place next month in Hawaii will be broadcast nationwide on ESPN Classic. We believe this is an excellent move by ESPN in showing their commitment to the game.

Click to continue reading...