As most of you probably know, our main "summer" leagues are J-League, Brazil and MLS, the first of those got underway last week and the US "soccer" season starts tomorrow, which means we will have six of "our" leagues in action at once and from the middle of next month, all seven !

 

We had a terrific run right through September-October-November , when all were last in play at the same time, posting 12 winning weeks from 13, whcih augurs really well for the next few months and of course, June and July have been my best consecutive months in three of the last four years....exciting times ahead !

 

You can read one today's previews below

 

J-League:
 

Round 1 averaged exactly 3.0 goals, just as it did in 2013, last year was the highest scoring year since 2006 and hopefully this campaign will follow suit and the trend for more open games will continue.
 

J-League have hugely ambilious plans for the future and to extend their reach, starting in Asia but far beyond and I think we will see a number of big name players coming to play in Japan in the near future and for the league to actively encourage the open nature of matches, as an entertaining product is far easier to sell.

Repucom, who are one of the largest sports marketing research agencies in the world  and already have the NFL , the PGA Tour and MLB as clients, has been brought on board to help promote the product. They will "supply the J. League with large amounts of accountable marketing research data and will evaluate it in a way that helps the league best maximize its marketability in the Asian region." Whatever that might involve !!

 

Tokushima Vortis -Cerezo Osaka
 

I usually ignore newly promoted J-League teams for a month or so, but I am happy to oppose newcomers Tokushima today, they made it into the top flight after finishing 4th in J-L2 and were 20 points behind leaders Gamba Osaka and five teams ( down to 9th) finished within a win ( 3 points) of Vortis. They also lost eight times at home last season and the only team to be promoted with a similar record in recent seasons was Oita Trinita in 2012 and their top flight campaign ended in tears ( 2-8-24), with relegation almost assured with three months left to play and to be honest, I fear similarly for Vortis.
 

There is/was always the chance that they would hit the ground running, but they opened up with a trip to Sagan Tosu last week, who had struggled badly themselves last year (14th) and had only earned promotion in 2011 and who had not really strengthened in the off season and lost 5-0. I could go for one of my favourite lines and say they were lucky to score nil, but they did hold out for 36 minutes, unfortunately, four came inside 14 minutes and I suspect we will see plenty of that from them, first goal and then the floodgates will open, in what is their first ever season in J-L1.

 

Of course they will be "up" for this today on their home debut, but Cerezo are a game further ahead in terms of preparation and after losing at home to Hiroshima last week (brief notes reproduced below) they will be desperate to post a win ahead of their midweek AFC Champions League fixture. They got 81 minutes out of Diego Forlan last week and he fired five attempts on goal and should relish the far weaker opponent today. Rising star and Japanese international midfielder Yoichiro Kakitani (34 apps-21 goals-4 assists last season), spent three years at Tokushima as a teenager and so will feel very comfortable in the surroundings and will want to show that Forlan is not the only show in town this weekend.
 

Not all good news for the visitors though as central defender Kota Fujimoto (28-0-1) picked up an injury in training this week and could be out for a month, they did however, win 3 of the 4 away games he missed last season and he will probably not be as sorely missed today as he will in the next couple of outings.
 

Good Luck.
 

 

Cerezo Osaka - Sanfreece Hiroshima (written 28/02)
 

The Champions Hiroshima start on the road, this will be their third competitive match of the new campaign having played in the Super Cup game last week and AFC Champions League in midweek, they were at home in the latter, so should be ahead in terms of match fitness and also freshness. With Cerezo having played in Pohang in midweek, it is not a long journey, but was their first AFC CL game and a tough introduction. Their new marquee signing Diego Forlan (yes, it is he) made his debut from the bench, but only played for  28 minutes and is far from 100% fit at present. I guess Cerezo will be under pressure for him to play some part in their first home game of the camapign, but it might be a costly mistake. The 34 yo is on a reported $6m per year and can star in this league and in a World Cup year, will be eager to do well, maybe that was behind his move and not the final big pay day,as it will be easier for him to make headlines here, than it would in Brazil, but it might take a while. Hiroshima are looking for a third straight title and manager Hajime Moriyasu has made it clear that is his target for this season, his team have a good record in this fixture and have scored 17 goals in their last eight visits and I favour them with perhaps a fitness edge.