Adelaide taking their city to Asia, and I ain't talking about the Crows!

Anyone who saw Urawa Reds or Gamba Osaka take on Sydney and Melbourne in previous Asian Champions League encounters will have expected the cashed up Japanese club Kashima Antlers to give Adelaide a good thumping in the home game of the Asian Champions League Quarter Finals. Click to continue reading...

With the international break yielding a positive result for Japan and the autumn leaves starting to make their first appearances on the tree-lined avenues surrounding the National Stadium, attention now turns to the business end of the J. League season.

Five teams are still in with a genuine chance of lifting the trophy, but northern outfit Consadole Sapporo are certainly not one of them. Click to continue reading...

(All times UK)

Friday 22 August

19:30 Hannover 96 v Energie Cottbus, Bundesliga, Setanta Sports 1
Both teams were hammered 3-0 last week. Of the two, Hannover can at least say that they were beaten by a title contender in Schalke. Cottbuss lost to one of the few teams tipped to finish below them, Hoffenheim. 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...

Kashima Antlers remain top of the J. League after thrashing Tokyo Verdy 4-1 in front of 21,437 fans at Kashima Stadium.
Shinzo Koroki kicked off a routine victory for the defending champions, before Daiki Iwamasa powered home a header just before the break to hand the Antlers a commanding two-goal lead. Click to continue reading...

(All times UK. Pre-season friendly games are not included.)

Friday

19:30 Barrow v Oxford Utd, Blue Square Premier, Setanta Sports 1
Setanta have reduced the number of live Blue Square games this season. This is possibly because of poor ratings or because they've got other football to show instead. Click to continue reading...

The day before the Olympics officially begin with the opening ceremonies, what is really the U.S. Men's Under-23 National Team (with three over-age players) plays at 2 a.m. our time on MSNBC against Japan in its Group B opener.

The U.S. roster:

goalkeepers Brad Guzan (Aston Villa) and Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake; defenders Patrick Ianni (Houston Dynamo), Michael Orozco (San Luis), Michael Parkhurst (New England Revolution), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC); midfielders Freddy Adu (Monaco), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Benny Feilhaber (Derby County), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Dax McCarty (FC Dallas), Danny Szetela (Brescia Calcio); forwards Jozy Altidore (Villarreal), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF), Brian McBride (Chicago Fire), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew).

Click to continue reading...

Round 19 in the J. League could prove a turning point for several clubs with a number of marquee fixtures set down for the weekend of July 26/27.

The pick of the Saturday fixtures see FC Tokyo host Yokohama F. Marinos at Ajinomoto Stadium, as teams from Japan's two largest cities get ready to rumble in the capital. 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...

Asian champions Urawa Reds are fined a Japanese record $185,000 (£95,000) following violent clashes between rival fans after a J-League game last month. Gamba Osaka's 3-2 victory at Saitama Stadium triggered arguably the worst incident of crowd trouble since the J-League was launched in 1993. Here's a quick video of some colorful Urawa Red fans. Click to continue reading...

New Urawa Reds manager Gert Engels guided the Asian champions to their first win of the season on Sunday, snapping a four-game drought that included two losses in the J.League and a loss and a draw in the league Nabisco Cup.
The Reds defeated Albirex Niigata 3-0 on goals from Takahito Soma, Marcus Tulio Tanaka and Yuichiro Nagai on a rainy afternoon at Saitama Stadium. 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

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After only two games, and two defeats, Urawa Reds have sacked their German coach Holger Osieck and replaced him with assistant coach and fellow countryman Gert Engels.

Osieck's dismissal, the fastest in J-League history, came after the 2-0 home defeat to Nagoya Grampus on Saturday and an emergency meeting between club president Mitsunori Fujiguchi and general manager Shuzo Nakamura. Click to continue reading...

Editor's note: This is the second part in a three part series by furtho looking at Omiya Ardija, a Japanese team living in the shadow of their near neighbours, the Urawa Reds. Read the first part here, which looked at Omiya's remarkable promotion to the top Japanese division, a joy tempered as their inadequate stadium [. Click to continue reading...

Back to Tokyo for the semi finals of the competition and I noted that Sepp
Blatter has already questioned the participation of the Oceania tournament
winner. Not only is this the smallest of the federations it also recently
lost Australia to the Asian tournament, as they wished the national team to
have more competition and also avoid their inevitable World Cup play off
against South American opponents. Click to continue reading...

Editor's note: Urawa Reds spent the past week basking in the global spotlight at the World Club Cup, but there's more to Japanese football than them as Furtho explains in part one of a three part series looking at "Squirrel Nation". The Derby There's half an hour to go before kick-off. Away behind one goal, a huddled [. Click to continue reading...

Urawa Reds fans - tightly controlled, regimented, verging on the fascistic, the hordes from Saitama and beyond are the J-League's noisiest fans.

"We are the Redsu" will be ringing out tonight when Urawa take on Milan in the semi-final of the World Club Cup.




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Argentine giants Boca Juniors booked their place in the final of the FIFA Club World Cup, but they failed to turn on the style in their 1-0 win over Tunisian side Etoile du Sahel.

Midfielder Neri Cardozo scored the only goal before a crowd of 37,255 fans at the National Stadium in Tokyo, while midfielder Fabian Vargas was sent off for a second bookable offence with twenty-five minutes remaining. Click to continue reading...

Like the teams at the World Club Cup I have now adjusted to my surroundings, having arrived in Japan last Friday lunchtime, after an 11 hour flight and nine hours time difference.
This gave me enough time to check in at my hotel and have something to eat before collecting my tickets for the tournament and attending the opening game. Click to continue reading...

Urawa Reds defeated Sepahan in a rematch of their ACL final showdown, this time 3-1 in front of a partisan 30,000 crowd at Toyota Stadium.

On a crisp night in the suburbs of Nagoya, the result never looked in doubt once Yuichiro Nagai converted a low cross from the ever-dangerous Takahito Soma's low cross on the half hour mark.

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Iranian side Sepahan beat New Zealand outfit Waitakere United 3-1 to advance to the quarter-finals of the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup.

Iraq-born striker Emad Mohammed got Sepahan off to a dream start, scoring twice inside the opening four minutes to set up a comfortable win for the Iranians.

Sepahan were recently defeated in the 2007 AFC Champions League Final by J-League side Urawa Reds, but their win here sets up a rematch with Urawa just a month after the west Asian team lost to the Reds in their continental decider. Click to continue reading...

It's been a rough week for the Urawa Reds to say the least.
Last Wednesday the two time defending Emperor's Cup champions were sent packing from this year's tournament by second-division club Ehime FC, an embarrassing 2-0 loss that was followed by an even greater disappointment on Saturday—-failure to repeat as J-League champions. Click to continue reading...

Kashima Antlers are the unlikeliest of J-League champions.

On a day of drama in Japan, Kashima beat Shimizu S-Pulse 3-0 in front of 31,384 fans at Kashima Stadium on December 1.

With referee Yuichi Nishimura blowing full-time at Kashima Stadium, the video screen switched to a live broadcast from Yokohama, and desperate Antlers fans watched in amazement as bottom-placed Yokohama FC clung on to beat Urawa Reds 1-0 in front 46,697 fans at Nissan Stadium.

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The Urawa Reds became the first Japanese team since Shimizu S-Pulse in 2000 to win a continental championship when they defeated Sepahan of Iran 2-0 in the final of the Asian Champions League on Wednesday at Saitama Stadium.
An elated Holger Osieck spoke afterward about the win, the season and his preferred celebratory poison of choice:

Q: Did you feel Sepahan were capable of scoring tonight? Click to continue reading...

I would not like to take a penalty in front of Urawa Reds' supporters at their Saitama stadium, myself. Watch this shootout from an Asian Champions League semi-final against South Korea's Seongnam Ilhwa last week, and marvel at the spectacle of the giant flags. It's really no surprise they won, is it? [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/UVjKYntK5LY" width="425" height="350" [. Click to continue reading...

By the skin of their teeth the Urawa Reds staked their place in the finals of the Asian Champions League on Wednesday.
The J-League holders beat K-League champions Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma 5-3 on penalties in the second leg of the home-and-away semifinal at Saitama Stadium after playing to a 2-2 draw in regular time.
The teams also played to a 2-2 draw in the first leg in South Korea on Oct. Click to continue reading...

The Korean thanksgiving holiday is a time to spend with family and pay respects to ancestors that have passed away. What it is not, is a time to do any unnecessary travel. More than half the nation moves around the southern half of the peninsula to visit hometowns. The nightly television news programs all start by broadcasting the same pictures with relish. Click to continue reading...

Urawa Reds manager Holger Osieck remains optimistic about his side's chances of advancing to the semifinals of the Asian Champions League despite losing hold of a stranglehold on the home-and-away quarterfinal clash against Jeonbuk Motors on Wednesday night.
The Reds outclassed the reigning ACL champions from start to finish and were up 2-0 heading into the waning moments of the match at Saitama Stadium when Jeonbuk defender Choi Jin-cheul blazed home through a maze of players to take the glean off a terrific showing by the home side. Click to continue reading...

Photo credit: redia_09 on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion photo pool. Click to continue reading...

While many news reported how Manchester United started their Asia Tour in a disappointing manner, in reality they showed great movement and passing, only to be denied the win by a goalkeeper blunder and some naive defending by the reserves in the form of Mr. Simpson in the second half.

Altogether, it is a useful workout for the Red Devils, after second half strikes from Darren Fletcher and Cristiano Ronaldo appeared to have saved Edwin Van der Saar's blushes after the veteran goalkeeper gifted Hideki Uchidate a 25th minute opener.

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Manchester United's pre-season tour to Asia kicked off with a 2-2 draw with J-League champions Urawa Reds in Saitama tonight.

United last played the Reds in 2005 winning 2-0 with a goal from Wayne Rooney being the highlight of the match.

This time it was 2-2 at Saitama Stadium. United twice held the lead with goals from Darren Fletcher and Cristiano Ronaldo, Urawa replying with strikes from Hideki Uchidate and Shinji Ono in front of a passionate crowd. Click to continue reading...