J-League Soccer

About two weeks ago John and I went to a J-League soccer game with a Japanese friend of ours (Kazytoshi). I had been wanting to see a baseball game with him but he informed me that the Urawa Reds were playing and that they were one of the best soccer teams in Asia. I jumped at the chance, as soccer in Japan was also one of the things I wanted to see.


I've also heard of the Urawa team as they also competed in the Asian Champions League that Australian soccer clubs are part of. Urawa actually won the Asian Champions League in 2007, in which both Adelaide and Sydney competed in. The 2008 Asian Champions League contain the Melbourne Victory and Gamba Osaka from Japan. The Victory however, failed miserably.


Anyway, brimming with excitement, off we went to Saitama, the home of Soccer in Japan. We went to the largest soccer stadium in Japan, called the Saitama Stadium 2002 (not really an original name, I know). The 2002 stands for the stadium being built in that year for the World Cup co-hosted by Japan and Sth Korea. I was told that the stadium could hold 80,000 people. Hehe, still smaller than the MCG. Non the less, still an impressive stadium.

The Stadium from the outside.

We rocked up to the stadium without booking any seats and just to buy them from the gate. About 30mins from kick-off, the only seats we could get were not the greatest. For 3000 yen ($30) we were sent to the top of the blechers, one row from the very back.

The view from our seats. It wasn't too bad in the end. It was high but not too far back so that we could see anything. On this night the Urawa Red Diamonds were playing FC Tokyo.

The Reds boys warming up!

A section of the Urawa fans waving all sorts of flags. It seemed that it wasn't just Urawa flags they were waving but anything that contained red was waved including the England flag, Iraq flag, some Che Guvara flags ... anything goes I guess!

Giant screens hung at both ends to show highlights and at this particular point to introduce the home team. This is Ponte, one of Urawa's brazillian imports. He played really well in the first half with deft back heels and touches. Unfortunately, he pulled a hamstring early in the seocnd half and was taken off.

Look how excited John is! Think he wanted some beer girls to walk by but it never happened.

A pan of Saitama 2002 Stadium and the fans warming up their voices.

On this particular, 50,000 fans packed the stadium of which most were the home team Urawa fans. There was a section of the crowd that was there for FC Tokyo and you can actually see them in the photo above. You'll see a section of the crowd dressed in dark blue. You'll also notice that to either side of the Tokyo fans are rows of empty seats. There were actually police standing in between the fans. I wouldn't have thought hooligan behaviour was prevalent in Japan but Kazu said that opposing fans has clashed in the past.


I now know that whereever you are in the world, soccer fans are all the same. The Japanese fans were every bit as loud and vocal as what the Victory fans would be. And while I'm sure they wouldn't have chanted anything like "Tokyo are wankers!" in Japanese. They were indeed chanting something about FC Tokyo. Their chants were loud and in unison, usually started by a small section and then the whole stadium would get involved.




The match under way ... Urawa scored in the first 5mins and went up 1-0. The goal was scored by one of their other brazillians, Edmilson. They dominated for the rest of the half, coming close to scoring a 2nd on several occasions. Tokyo were unlikely not to equalize just before half time when one of their headers hit Urawa's post.




Being a Urawa home game, I had to support the home team by buying a Urawa scarf/towel (eventhough it was about 30 degrees and a scarf was the last accesory that I needed). I followed the trend of wearing anything red and donned my fake Barcelona top for the match (I could have also gone with my AC Milan top). I was not the only one not in a Urawa top, I also saw Arsenal, Mancester United and Liverpool tops.

Me and John rocking it!

The momentum of the game changed in the second half, with FC Tokyo dominating possession and sending wave after wave of attack towards the Urawa goals. It seem that Urawa were just content to hold on to their 1-0 lead. With about 5mins to go, as happens in soccer when one team is pushing all their players up to get an equalizer, Urawa got a long ball off to one of their striker Nagai, who beat one defender and then the goalie to score a 2nd for Urawa. Game over, Urawa Red Diamonds 2, FC Tokyo 0.


I just happened to get my camera on quick enough to capture the last goal. The goal is in the first second of the clip, but you can see the fans reaction.

The video is really bad on youtube, so you may not see the goal, but you'll see the fan reaction.