Oita Trinita 2-1 Shonan Bellmare
The surprise packages of J1 this season, newly promoted Oita Trinita punched above their weight by staying competitive in the J1’s top half, mostly due to the goalscoring efforts of Noriaki Fujimoto and Ado Onaiwu, with the former earning himself a move to Vissel Kobe that hasn’t gone down well with the Oita faithful.
However, with Fujimoto and Onaiwu taking the plaudits, it’s easy to forget that the players that had served the Turtles during their darkest days in the 2016 J3 League are still playing and fighting for the badge to this day, two of which shone as Shonan Bellmare paid a visit to the Showa Denko Dome. Continuity was the key behind Oita’s rapid rise underneath manager Tomohiro Katanosaka, and players such as Kohei Isa, Kazushi Mitsuhira, Yusuke Goto and Rei Matsumoto to name a few are the key beneficiaries.
Fujimoto’s sale and a long-term injury to Thitiphan Puangchan enabled Isa and Mitsuhira to regain their positions in the starting lineup, and they paid their manager’s trust in them by delivering Oita’s first win in six J1 matches. The duo rolled back the clock to their rampant J2 playing days as they combined to disrupt Shonan’s defense in the first half, with Isa assisting Mitsuhira for the opener in the 42nd minute before scoring himself moments before the referee blew for half-time. Shonan gave the home faithful a scare after Ryunosuke Noda scored in the 82nd minute, but Oita held on for the three points. Their unlikely ACL hopes may be slim, but Oita Trinita are here to stay.
Kawasaki Frontale 2-0 Jubilo Iwata
Defending J1 champions Kawasaki Frontale welcomed basement dwellers Jubilo Iwata to the Todoroki for match week 26, with Shizuoka’s sky-blue side struggling immensely in the J1 this season and are desperate for a win to boost their slim survival chances. However, Kawasaki’s very own sky-blue team blew a huge hole into Iwata’s survival chances by running out 2-0 winners, with first half goals from Yasuto Wakizaka and Kazuya Yamamura more than enough to earn Kawasaki three important points in their bid for a top 3 finish with their chances of defending their title being quite slim. As for Iwata, they remained bottom of the J1 with 18 points, with manager Fernando Jubero, appointed last month as Iwata’s 3rd manager of the season, urging his team to keep on fighting.
Yokohama F. Marinos 3-0 Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Third-placed Yokohama F. Marinos welcomed Fourth-placed Sanfrecce Hiroshima for an intriguing top-of-the-table clash at the Nissan Stadium. While most observers are looking at a closely-contested match between two sides who are vying for ACL qualification and perhaps the title, Yokohama absolutely blew Sanfrecce out of the water with three goals with no replies that cemented their position in the top three and pretty much ended Sanfrecce’s slim title bid. After a goalless first half, the 67th minute saw Teruhito Nakagawa etching his name into Yokohama folklore as the man who scored their 1,400th J-League goal, the third J-League team to reach this milestone since the league’s inception in 1993. Thai international Theerathon Bunmathan scored Yokohama’s second in the 81st minute, before Erik Lima’s penalty three minutes later sealed the win for Ange Postecoglou’s men. While Yokohama’s three goals came late into the game, the Tricolore’s dominance within the match was shown by their 19 shots to Sanfrecce’s 8 as well as having the fair share of possession. This defeat, coupled with Kawasaki’s win over bottom-placed Jubilo Iwata, meant that Sanfrecce are now down to 5th, five points off Yokohama on 3rd.
Vissel Kobe 2-1 Matsumoto Yamaga
A lot of pre-season fanfare involved Vissel Kobe’s attempt in building their own Galacticos squad thanks to the financial backing of their sponsors Rakuten. Having already had former Arsenal man Lukas Podolski and former Barcelona maestro Andres Iniesta within their ranks, Vissel added former Valencia, Barcelona, and New York City man David Villa and former La Masia graduate Sergei Samper into their squad in the off-season, before adding former Arsenal and Barcelona defender Thomas Vermaelen in the mid-season transfer window.
However, inconsistencies in form, managerial changes, and also disharmony behind-the-scenes meant that a side that was molded to become a dominant force in Japan and Asia ended up battling relegation in the first half of the season, before German manager Thorsten Fink somewhat steadied the ship even though they’re not out of the woods yet.
The first half of the league saw Vissel losing to newly promoted Matsumoto Yamaga 2-1 at Nagano Prefecture as one of Vissel’s more embarrassing results of this season, however when the two met again on match week 26 at Vissel’s Misaki Park Stadium, the hosts are steadily improving with three wins, one draw and one defeat in their last five matches even though they remain 14th in the table, while Matsumoto are in a freefall with one win in their last 5 matches, leaving them second from bottom.
David Villa and Keijiro Ogawa scored for Vissel as Serginho pulled one back for Matsumoto, and Vissel suddenly found themselves 9th with 32 points, 7 points off Oita Trinita on 8th. If Vissel keep this consistency in the next few matches, they could create a gap between themselves and the relegation battlers, while at the same time cementing a mid-table finish and perhaps challenging the top half of the table. For Vissel, the dream of dominating J1 may have been postponed for another year, but they can hope to try it again next year. For Matsumoto, their most recent defeat meant that they’re still second from bottom with 24 points, 3 points off the play-off zone. If manager Yasuharu Sorimachi couldn’t turn things around in time, Matsumoto’s stint in the J1 might be limited to just a cameo appearance.