For everything regarding the following:

Japanese Football team
The J-League and J2-League
Emperors Cup
J-League Cup
The JFA


Season starts on March 7

Japan target Laudrup says not leaving Qatar before May


Michael Laudrup will not leave his post as head coach of Qatari champions Lekhwiya before May despite confirming the Japanese Football Association are seeking his services.
"I am aware of the interest from Japan but... we have a lot of games coming up and they have, absolutely, first priority at the moment," the Dane told Kyodo News on Wednesday.
"When the season finishes in May, I will think about my future. It could be here in Lekhwiya or somewhere else."
Laudrup played briefly with Japanese club Vissel Kobe at the end of a glittering career which included league titles with Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus and Ajax Amsterdam.
The JFA have said they would like Javier Aguirre's successor in place by March 7 so the new manager can take in the start of the J-League season and be fully up to speed before the World Cup qualifying campaign gets underway in June.
The JFA said previously the manager would be foreign and picked from a shortlist of five after sacking Mexican Aguirre early this month because of fears his alleged involvement in a match-fixing case in Spain could hurt the team.
But the JFA have also not ruled out appointing a caretaker boss for the friendlies against Tunisia and Uzbekistan at the end of March.
Laudrup signed a one-year deal to coach Lekhwiya in July -- the latest stop on a nomadic managerial career which has taken him to Spain, Russia and England.
Lekhwiya are one point behind leaders Al Sadd with seven matches remaining in the Stars League. They also begin their AFC Champions League Group A campaign next week side away to Iran's Persepolis.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-2958090/Japan-target-Laudrup-says-not-leaving-Qatar-May.html#ixzz3S4qWtaw8

2014 Tables

J-League Division 1


J-League Division 2


Zweigen Kanazawa will play in the J2 after becoming J3 champions and gaining a J2 Licence.

2015 will be the first time that the J-League will be reverting to the rather unpopular Apertura and Clausura since it was canned in 2005.

And they will have a final series, not unlike the A-League.

Yeah from what I gather from my mates there and a few other media sources, a lot of fans aren't too impressed. The whole thing is a mess compared to better systems in South America and feels contrived to generate cheap interest rather than determine a proper champion. Apparently the whole thing is a huge knee jerk reaction to maintain interest in the J-League after losing players like Kagawa or Nagatomo and pretty much ignored the fact that the fans didn't want change.


This article explains the whole farce of it pretty well.


J. League courting disaster with return to two-stage season
BY ANDREW MCKIRDY
SEP 20, 2013


The J. League has built up a richly deserved reputation for leadership and vision since it began two decades ago, but this week’s decision to revert to a two-stage championship risks setting the Japanese game back by years.

The J. League on Tuesday announced that it will implement a new split-season format as of 2015, ending 10 years of single-league competition in a bid to lure back lost fans, sponsors and broadcast revenues.

Under the new system, the champion of the first stage will meet the runnerup of the second and vice versa, with the two winners playing off to determine which team faces the side that finished the season with the most overall points in the championship final.

If that sounds confusing on paper, the reality is likely to be even messier. The chances of the winners and runnersup of each stage and the side with the most overall points being five different teams are practically nonexistent, and the potential for misunderstanding, anticlimax and discontent is obvious.

Had the same system been in place last season, Vegalta Sendai and Sanfrecce Hiroshima would have qualified as champion and runnerup of the first stage, with Sanfrecce and Yokohama F. Marinos filling the same positions for the second. The overall points champion, meanwhile, would also have been Sanfrecce.

What the J. League would do to resolve such a situation should it occur in 2015 has — unbelievably — yet to be decided. Such vague thinking does nobody any favors, but it is indicative of the league’s determination to drive the changes through regardless of widespread and increasingly vocal opposition from fans.

“Our core fans are very important, but we have realized there are issues we have to view as being bigger problems,” said Daisuke Nakanishi, director of the league’s competition and business department, earlier this week.

Ignoring the opinion of its loyal fan base, however, is perhaps the worst and most basic mistake the J. League could possibly make. And if attracting new supporters is the aim, it is worth remembering how quickly casual interest dropped off once the initial excitement of the league’s 1993 launch had died down.

The J. League undoubtedly has its problems, with too many young players leaving for Europe, the standard of foreign players lower than in the past, and the majority of the national team plying their trade abroad.

But surely the answer is to confront these issues head on rather than pulling the rug from under everyone’s feet. The J. League has made enormous strides to establish itself as a well-managed and highly respected competition over the years, and this latest development seems remarkably out of character for an organization with such a proven track record of competence.

The J. League can rightly be proud of the progress it has made over the last 20 years, but it is hard to see this week’s decision as anything other than a serious and potentially very harmful backward step.

Now, more than ever, the fans need to make their voices heard.


http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2013/09/20/soccer/j-league-courting-disaster-with-return-to-two-stage-season/#.VOXhslOUcmc

Thanks, that's interesting.

But not half as interesting as how this will all turn out. Like the article says, strange way to go after all the strides they have made.

Got on the Gamba bandwagon at the start of their league run last season, see how they fare this season. :lol:

[youtube]HoinNhnV-KM[/youtube]

Lets go Yokohama F. Marinos.

going to try catch a game when i go over there just waiting for the annual leave[-o<

How the new system works. Far to complicated and contrived imo

Japan has to toughen up, says J-League boss

Japan must kick its obsession with style over substance to avoid being left behind by other countries, J-League boss Mitsuru Murai told AFP before the weekend start of the domestic season.

Gamba Osaka will be the team to beat when the J-League kicks off on Saturday after winning the treble last year, flexing their muscles by beating fierce rivals Urawa Reds 2-0 in the curtain-raising Super Cup last weekend.

But as Japan's national side lurches from one crisis to the next, Murai acknowledged that world football had developed at a staggering pace over the past 20 years and called on clubs to "toughen up" for the benefit of the Blue Samurai.

"Japan has reached five straight World Cups and the J-League has played a big role in raising the level of the game," Murai said in an interview. "Japan had never qualified before the J-League arrived.

"But at last year's World Cup in Brazil and again with Japan coming up short at the Asian Cup, we've seen how the world game has improved at an incredible rate.

"I hope to see the J-League become tougher, quicker and more aggressive to help raise the level of the Japan national team."

Holders Japan were ambushed by the United Arab Emirates at the Asian Cup in January, crashing out on penalties in the quarter-finals before sacking coach Javier Aguirre over his alleged involvement in a match-fixing scandal.

Hosts Australia beat South Korea in a pulsating final, but Murai insisted Japan had the quality to reclaim their crown as Asia's best, despite a poor start by Japanese teams in this season's Asian Champions League.

"I definitely don't think Japan stacks up unfavourably with Australia or South Korea," he said. "We need to be stronger, physically and mentally, tougher in terms of physical contact -- the J-League needs to become that kind of league."

- Stubborn refusal -
Vahid Halilhodzic, Algeria's coach at the 2014 World Cup, looks set to take charge of Japan and Gamba's prolific striker Takashi Usami will be on the Bosnian's radar after a clinical goal in the Super Cup underlined the folly of Aguirre's stubborn refusal to select him.

"Usami scored a lot of goals after coming back from an injury last year," Murai said of the former Bayern Munich forward. "Hopefully he can reproduce that form and we can see him playing for Japan."

Gamba's fairytale season was all the more remarkable as the former Asian champions had spent 2013 in Japan's second tier. They won their second championship by one point from Urawa, while seven-time champions Kashima Antlers finished third.

Few would bet against the top three again this year as the J-League reverts to a two-stage format for the first time since 2004. Shonan Bellmare, Matsumoto Yamaga and Montedio Yamagata will have more modest goals after winning promotion.

Murai admitted the J-League faced competition from China and Major League Soccer, although he called the exodus of players such as Hidetoshi Nakata, Shunsuke Nakamura and more recently Shinji Kagawa and Keisuke Honda an "honour" for the country.

"We're seeing a trend of players moving to America and China," he said. "The financial rewards are a little higher there, so we need to do more to bring in star players."

But Murai insisted that Japan would soon reap the rewards of the J-League, a generation after its launch in 1993.

"As the ratio of players moving to Europe rises, the J-League is playing a direct role in the evolution of the Japan team," he said.

"But players like FC Tokyo's (Yoshinori) Muto and Kashima's (Gaku) Shibasaki are making their mark in the national side. It's the J-league's mission to nurture talent like this."

http://tenplay.com.au/news/2015/03/05/japan-has-to-toughen-up-says-j-league-boss

This weekends fixtures
AEDT

I'll see what streams are available for the Yokohama F marinos game.

Good articles posted, Melbourne Terrace.:)

No broadcaster in Australia, you should be fine to post streams here.

The Yokohama vs Kawasaki game slots in pretty perfect between two pretty quality A-League games.

I might check into Gamba Osaka vs FC Tokyo as well as Uruwa's tonight if i have time but the best game is clearly tomorrows affair.

So it isnt just our dumb fuck politicians and coporate douchebags who resort to the 'toughen up' slogan when they are the obvious ones to fuck it all up.

Mah nigga!

Japan is currently beating Uzbekistan 1-0.

live HD stream in English
http://www.streamsp.com/

yeah watching it on foxtel at the moment. missed the goal unfortunately

Japan smashed the Uzbeks 5-1