2013.01.01
Kashiwa Reysol won the Emperor's Cup

Japanese football goes to the off for a while. League will start from 2nd March 2013.

2012.12.01
2012 J.League Final Results

Ex-league champions Gamba Osaka is relegated to J2.

2012.11.24
Sanfrecce Hiroshima won 2012 J.League

2012.11.17
Urawa Stopped Hiroshima. Petrovic's Happy Day.

2012.11.14
Japan finally won the perfect away match in Oman to run alone to Brazil

2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Asian Qualifying Final Round Results

2012.11.11
Kofu and Shonan promoted to J1. 2012 J.League Division 2 Final Table

2012.10.16
Brazil 4. Japan 0, in Poland. 16 October 2012

The result today is awful but I can understand why he said that. In Paris, French power did not allow Japan to play their way. On the other, Japan played their pass game today, or should I say Brazil let Japan play, the match is much more interesting than the match against France. Brazilian attack is very rational and Japanese one is not fruitful. Brazil use Japanese situation cleverly. They taught football is a "proactive-reactive" sport.

2012.10.13
France 0. Japan 1, in Stade de France. 12 October 2012

Kagawa Shinji (right) scored 88 from Nagatomo's cross

Japan beat France in Saint-Denis. France controlled most period of the game, but could not score for some reason. Japan, after accustoming themselves to France and the pitch, began to bring out their organization and a counter from Konno to Nagatomo, Kagawa scored. Japan missing leaders of attacker, Honda, Okazaki, and Maeda, went into a tough game, but finally won the big victory. It seems to Alberto Zaccheroni's luck continues. His team has won aginst Argentina for his first match with Japan National Team.

2012.08.26
FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Japan 2012

Today, I enjoyed Japanese young ladies winning over Switzerland to advance to quarter finals.

Japan 4 - 0 Switzerland. National Stadium, Tokyo.

2012.08.07
This is Wonderful, Japan Women

2012.08.05
Two Big Semi Finals in Wembley for Japan, London 2012

2012.07.08
First Half Table of 2012 J.League Division 1

Vegalta Sendai

Sanfecce Hiroshima

Urawa Reds

This season, some favorites failed toget a good start. Gamba Osaka is still on the bottom line with only three victores. Defending champion Kashiwa Reysol is recovering and now is on the 7th place.

Promoted clubs run differently. FC Tokyo stays on the 5th and the team seems to be prgressing even now. Unexpected Sagan Tosu has already won 24 points with single loss in their home. While Consadole Sapporo won only once and stays on the bottom.

The league lasts until 1st December.

2012.06.03
Japan 3. Oman 0. World Cup Asian Qualifiers Final Rd, Matchday #1

Full House Saitama Stadium

The road for Brazil 2014 last until 18th June, 2013!!

2012.05.26
Football Joy. Supreme J.League Match, FC-Tokyo 1-1 Urawa Reds

Both supporters and both players must remember tonight match.

Possession based two teams concentrated on the ball throughout the game. Both fought in every phases, never stopped running, played faithfully for their tactics, and rushed for the goal.

The match ended dramatically. Marcio Richardes from Urawa scored in 88 minutes and FC Tokyo scored back from Morishige's header in 91 minutes.

Tonight legend must be with a respect for Ivica Osim, the ancestor of possessoin based football for Japanese, and the professor for both coaches, Mihajlo Petrovic and Ranko Popovic. The difference of the approach for the shared football philosophy, short-pass-based Tokyo vs. dynamic Urawa, produced more joy of the match.

There is no super star on the pitch, but with devoted players, the best atmosphere from home and away supporters, and good referees, there is such a exciting match in J.League.

2012.05.15
Kashiwa, Nagoya, and FC-Tokyo qualified to R16. ACL Group League

Qalifiers from East group league of AFC Champions League 2012 are Kashiwa Reysol, Nagoya Grampus, FC-Tokyo with two K-League clubs, and a China and a Uzbek club.
Single match R16 will be as follows.

2012.04.14
Kashima Altlers and Gamba Osaka. First league victory for two leading clubs.

Gamba Osaka sacked coach Jose Carlos Serrao on 26th March, after five consecutive defeats in league and champions league. Serrao was the first new coach after ten years of the club's legend coach Nishino, but he left Osaka earliest in this season for J1 club. Does Gamba get back thier best form? The question for the club of the reason of new coach's selection still remains.

Kashima Antlers also has decided to change the coach. They put an end with the legendary coach Oswaldo Oliveira of happy five years and welcomed the clubs/Brazil legend Jorghino. Kashima believes Jorghno and clubs own style, at this moment Kashima shows no sign of the family trouble.

Another big club's anxiety is from Yokohama F-Marinos. They have sacked coach Kimura at the end of December 2011. It seems the vision of the team is still not clear for players and supporters. Yokohama won four points already but they have not presented a triumph for fans.

J.League Season 2012 is still beyond calculation. Come together to the stadium.

2012.03.31
Kashima Antlers, Yokohama F-Marinos, Gamba Osaka Remain Winless for Four Matches

2012.03.14
Japan U23 Booked a place in the London Olympic Game 2012

Japan 2 - 0 Bahrain

I have just came back from the National Stadium in Tokyo to announce that Japan qualified in 2012 Olympic Asian Qualifying Final Round. Although, win or draw will be enough for the Japanese last match, it took 55 minutes to score the first goal by midfielder Ogihara followed by Kiyotake. Korea, UAE and Japan qualified and Oman, Uzbekistan, and Syria go to play off to win the last 0.5 Asian place.

2012 Olympic Asian Qualifying Final Round Group C .

2012.03.11
Japan. Thank You 3.11 2011-2012

One Year from the Earthquake

20th Season of J.League

Now we are on the new season. Why don't you visit Japan and come to our stadiums.

I followed Urawa Reds to pray with Sanfrecce Hiroshima

2012.03.09
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Asian Qualifying Final Round Draw

2012.03.07
One Victory, Two Defeats, One Draw. 2012 ACL First Matchday for J.League

2012.03.03
2012 Season Starts with Kashiwa Reysol's Super Cup

Kashiwa 2. FC-Tokyo 1. 3 March 2012 Tokyo National Stadium

2012.02.29
World Cup Brazil Asian Qualifying 3rd Round Results

2012.02.25
Icelandic Handspring Throw-ins Took Center Stage - Japan 3. Iceland 1, Friendly

Steinthor Freyr Thorsteinsson

25 February, 2012. Friendly, International A Match. Japan 3. Iceland 1 in Osaka Nagai Stadium

2012.01.21
League announced first home matches for each clubs

The league format follows;

J1
18 clubs home-and-away league from spring to winter 2012.
J1 match is mostly played on Saturday .

FC Tokyo, Sagan Tosu, and Consadore Sapporo are protemoted from J2 to play 2012 J1 league.

Champions will be qualified to 2012 FIFA Club World Cup as the host coutry champion.

1st, 2nd, and 3rd place club will be qualified to 2013 ACL.
16th, 17th, and 18th place club will be relegated to 2013 J2.

J2
Expanded 22 clubs home-and-away league from spring to winter 2012.
J2 match is mostly played on Sunday .

Machida Zelvia and Matsumoto Yamaga FC joined to J.League from JFL.

Top two clubs and a winner play-offs* will promote to 2013 J1 and upto two clubs will be relagated to lower division** .

* J1 promotion play-offs:
A knock out tournament to decide the 3rd J1 promotion seat from four clubs. Semifinals will be 3rd vs 6th (3rd's home) and 4th vs 5th (4th's home). The final is on the neutral place.

** Relegation to lower division:
As J2 clubs reached to the limit 22, the relagation from J2 is newly introduced from this season. Upto two clubs will be relagated to JFL. J2 22nd team is automatigally relagated and 21st goes to the test match against JFL 2nd to decide the one to play in J2.

2012.01.10
Sawa and Sasaki triump at FIFA Ballon d'Or 2011

Pep Guardiola, the Spanish coach of FC Barcelona, and Japan's women's national team coach Norio Sasaki were the respective winners of the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men's Football and FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women's Football.

Messi's and Guardiola's FC Barcelona side concluded 2011 with victory in the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan, sealing another fine year which also included the UEFA Champions League, La Liga, Spanish Super Cup and UEFA Super Cup titles.

Japan's women's team, known as the Nadeshiko, memorably claimed their maiden FIFA Women's World Cup with a thrilling performance, twice coming back from behind to eventually defeat the USA on penalties after extra time.

These awards were decided after a poll in which the captains and head coaches of the men's (for the two men's football awards) and women's (for the two women's football awards) national teams, as well as international media representatives selected by French football magazine France Football, voted for candidates in each of the four categories. Each group's votes represented one third of the final result.

Lionel Messi won the FIFA Ballon d'Or after polling 47.88 of the votes, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo (21.6)%) and Xavi (9.23%).

Sawa, winner of the FIFA Women's World Player of the Year award, led Japan to the title at the FIFA Women's World Cup 2011 in Germany, where she also won the adidas Golden Ball as the best player of the competition and the adidas Golden Boot for her five goals. She collected 28.51% of the votes, ahead of Brazil's Marta and Abby Wambach from the USA, who received 17.28% and 13.26% respectively.

Pep Guardiola secured the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men's Football award with 41.92% of the votes, ahead of Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson, who received 15.61%, and Jose Mourinho, the Portuguese coach of Real Madrid (12.43%).

Meanwhile, Norio Sasaki led the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women's Football category with 45.57% of the votes, ahead of Pia Sundhage, the Swedish coach of the USA women's national team (15.83%), and France's women's team coach Bruno Bini (10.28%).

FIFPro, the world players' union, had invited 50,000 professional players from all over the world to select their best team of 2011, the FIFA/FIFPro WORLD XI. The honours went to the following all-star squad: Iker Casillas (Spain) in goal; Dani Alves (Brazil), Gerard Pique (Spain), Sergio Ramos (Spain) and Nemanja Vidic (Serbia) in defence; Xabi Alonso (Spain), Andres Iniesta (Spain) and Xavi (Spain) in midfield; and Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Lionel Messi (Argentina) and Wayne Rooney (England) up front.

The FIFA Puskas Award for the "most beautiful goal" of the year as voted for on FIFA.com and francefootball.fr by more than 1.5 million fans was also handed out. This prize, created in honour and in memory of Ferenc Puskas, the captain and star of the Hungarian national team during the 1950s, went to Brazil's Neymar for his fantastic goal in the Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A match between Santos FC and Flamengo in Sao Paulo on 27 July 2011.

Sir Alex Ferguson received the FIFA Presidential Award from President Joseph S. Blatter for his outstanding dedication, commitment and service to football. On 6 November 2011 Sir Alex Ferguson completed 25 years as manager of Manchester United. During that period the club have won over 30 different trophies, including 12 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, two UEFA Champions Leagues and the FIFA Club World Cup.

The FIFA Fair Play Award was given to the Japanese Football Association, who had to endure many hardships following the earthquake which struck their country in March 2011, and during which many people lost their lives. The team showed great courage to make it to the final of the FIFA Women's World Cup 2011, ultimately lifting the trophy for the first time. The award was collected by the President of the Japan FA, Junji Ogura, and by the captain of the team, Homare Sawa.

Sawa, Sasaki, and Messi



Sawa, after the World Cup Final

2012.01.09
Homare Sawa claimed FIFA Women's World Player of the Year

Homare Sawa claimed FIFA Women's World Player of the Year

2012.01.03
2012 Japan Football Calendar

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaattles. 91st Emperor's Cup Art