Josip Kuze became the second manager in the J.League first division to be sacked in the 2008 season, following Holger Osieck's marching orders from the Urawa Reds after just two matches. JEF United Chiba announced on their website that they had terminated the 55-year-old Croatian's contract on Wednesday without providing further details. It is not immediately known who will replace Kuze. JEF are winless in 11 matches and are in last place with two points from two draws. We caught up with Kuze following United's 3-0 loss to the Urawa Reds at Saitama Stadium on Tuesday, less than 24 hours before his firing. Did you think you could have gotten something out of today's match with the score locked at 0-0 at halftime? "I'm disappointed, of course. We lost. They scored three goals. We have the right organization but we made mistakes and gave the opponent the advantage." And now you're 10 points out of 16th place (just above the drop zone). "It's a difficult situation and the other clubs have big advantages. We have only two points, we are analyzing everything, we need new players." The Japanese papers cited sources within JEF who said you were planning to step down if you didn't win today. So these rumors were obviously not true? "Newspapers always speculate. I was talking with the club and we are talking about all the possibilities. They say no way, I will stay. I want to stay and they want me to stay. We are thinking positively. Of course we have to analyze things and first of all we want to get more players. That's all I know." So the team told you they were happy with your perform ance? "I didn't say that, I am just trying to be objective. In my opinion we are working hard. As a coach I try all day to analyze things. The players are happy, the coach is happy, everything is OK. But I wasn't prepared to come here and find that we lost four or five players in the midfield before our preseason even started. But even that is not the problem. In my opinion it's because we had many injured players and many players are slowly coming back into the team. For example (Ryota) Aoki, he started playing only three weeks ago. (Seiichiro) Maki has a problem. (Shohei) Ikeda started two weeks ago. Reinaldo played only one game. (Takuya) Kokeguchi also, and (Yuta) Baba. All those players, one by one they have been coming to the team and that's a problem." So in your opinion the mood at the club is good? "It's not a bad atmosphere. We have a good working atmosphere. We are trying to make a more enthusiastic mood and to make a competitive and winning spirit. But everything is OK--in the dressing room and in the training. The only bad thing is that we cannot win." What needs to be done to stop the rot? "In my opinion it is time to analyze everything after the game against Oita (on May 10). Because after that we have a break. It's time to sit down and figure out what's the best thing for JEF. Anyway, I have a lot of experience. I want to stay. I think I can turn things around. But I have demands. To make a good team, we need to change some positions on the team and bring in some strong figures." Do you have any players in mind? "Yes, of course, but it is a difficult time for foreigners right now because we can't do anything until the first of June. And for Japanese players also we are talking to some clubs but they also want to finish that first stage and then they can say for certain who they can or can't trade away." What's JEF's biggest problem right now? "Our problem is our defense. In my opinion we have no intelligence in defense, soccer intelligence. Without intelligence you can't make a compact defense. Individually they have power, they can cover and everything, but thinking and reading the game is a problem. Correcting things during the game is a problem. And we need one leader in defense with intelligence." Your team put up quite a fight today for the first hour. They seem more motivated than in previous games. "This bad situation is motivation for our players. And they know that now each game is so important and so I think our attitude is OK, and our organization is good, but individual mistakes put us in a difficult situation. And that's difficult to learn. That's a problem. Can they learn it or can they not learn it? And how long will it take for them to learn it? We have no time to wait." Copyright: C.G. Williams & Soccerphile.com Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

New Urawa Reds manager Gert Engels guided the Asian champions to their first win of the season on Sunday, snapping a four-game drought that included two losses in the J.League and a loss and a draw in the league Nabisco Cup. The Reds defeated Albirex Niigata 3-0 on goals from Takahito Soma, Marcus Tulio Tanaka and Yuichiro Nagai on a rainy afternoon at Saitama Stadium. Afterwards we caught up with Engels, the former assistant manager who was promoted after the firing of fellow German Holger Osieck two games into the 2008 season. Engels said the win meant a significant weight had been lifted from his and his team’s shoulders and added that he hoped the victory would lead to greater things to come this year as the Reds look to regain the league and Emperor’s Cup titles they lost to the Kashima Antlers last year. Q: You must be relieved to have won today … A: Yes that’s the right word, relief. It was very important for us to win here and to win with such a goal difference is even better. 3-0 sounds good, even though it could have ended 3-1 or even 5-2. But I think we got the crowd to support because we tried to play aggressive and go forward and it’s important we do that here at home. Q: It looked like the players were keen to run up the score. A: In the second half we pushed a little too hard. We have to remember that we have a game on Wednesday. There were some situations where we shouldn’t have looked for the fastest way to the goal, we should have kept the ball a little more. There were a few scenes where (Hajime) Hosogai played the ball to Umesaki when he was under pressure. He should have stopped and passed back or tried the other side of the pitch. But I’m happy my players did this, they are young and can recover in the next two days. It’s better than playing too slowly. It was important for our fans that we pushed till the end. Q: You used Tulio as a (defensive) midfielder for the first time. It looked like a stroke of genius in retrospect. A: I think it worked. But everyone knows he’s not the big mover. And we have three games in a row now. We will see. The defense line worked well and Hosogai played 90 minutes with the Olympic team so I really though Tulio could influence the game more from the center of the pitch than from the back. I know he’s a player who likes to push forward and I thought (as a defender) there would be situations where he pushed forward too much and left us with only two defenders. As a midfielder he was in a situation where he could push. If he pushed too much, Keita (Suzuki) was there, Hosogai was there and even (captain Nobuhisa) Yamada, who was told to cover in the middle a little bit. I thought Tulio’s movement was good, and he scored a beautiful goal, which was a very good combination from everybody up front. Q: Keita Suzuki went off injured today and hasn’t looked at all sharp this season. Do you think he’s overworked? A: As you see, not only in our team but the national team they are not in good shape. And there are a few injuries in the national team, including now our Keita and (Naohiro) Takahara and even from other teams. It’s a big problem. I’m going to try to give the players more rest. If we play in the Nabisco Cup, these players play national team. It’s difficult to get them rest. We can try to rest them in training. If they have a lot of games we need to take care and maybe we can give them special training. It could be a problem with the Olympic squad, with Hosogai and (Tsukasa) Umesaki. We had a tough and long season last year and our players started up again in the middle of January. Q: This is your first win as Reds manager. Was it a special victory for you? A: I’ll remember this game, definitely. Whatever happens from now you never know. But I think the first win at home as a manager of a team like the Reds, I will remember it, definitely. A: You left defender Keisuke Tsuboi on the bench today in favor of rookie Shunsuke Tsutsumi. Can we have a few comments on that? A: We need to do this. If you are not really satisfied and you feel a player doesn’t have the confidence he usually has … We have a good squad and we can change players from game to game. And if they are used to this tension you can rest them and make them fresh again if you find the right way to do it. I think it’s very important for our team. Last year of course the pressure from the Champions League was immense, that’s why we couldn’t change players so much, we didn’t want to, and it didn’t pay off in the final weeks. I hope I can change players with the same quality more often to give them more rest and to push them. I spoke to Tsuboi and I think he himself was not very comfortable. He resigned from the national team and I thought that this would be a step forward to concentrate on his game and on his play. It showed that he was a little unsure. I said to him that if everything goes normal you will be a vital player for our team. But at the moment you don’t have the self confidence to do this. And he did very well in training the two days after. I think it was a relief for him, to be honest. But I’m sure we will need him. We will be playing offensively and we will need him to defend against counterattacking teams and I am sure we will need him. He’s a very important player for our team. Q: Osieck was canned two games into the season. What do you feel you need to do to ensure you’re still around at this time next year? A: It’s very easy: I need to win as much as possible. If we play good soccer like we did today, if we play Reds soccer, the people will forgive us if we don’t win all four titles. But my objective is of course to win titles with the Reds and to keep the team moving. And maybe also to bring young players in. Q: On injured striker Takahara: A: Takahara himself feels good with his injury. He moved well yesterday but the doctor sees an injury on the X-ray so we have to be careful. I hope for him and for us he can play against Jubilo (April 5). But the medical staff says he’s got a better chance of being ready for the game here against Kashima (April 13). It’s a risk in a young season to bring him in. We’ve got Edmilson up front, Nagai and surely we will need Takahara, but now it’s a risk. Q: On striker Nagai: A: I’m happy with what he’s been doing the last couple of games. He works very hard and he’s in good shape. He is of the age now where he also has to take responsibility. I think he suffered in the past because he never really had the stability of playing regularly in a season. But he’s become a little bit stronger mentally which is very important for him. Q: On striker Edmilson’s tantrum at being substituted late in the match against his former team: A: We need to talk about that, definitely. That’s what we don’t need now, situations like this. It was 3-0, the game was shut out and I thought we should rest him a little bit. Of course he thinks about Niigata, his former teammates, which I understand 100 percent. But I am not in the position to think about Niigata, or how he wants to score against his old club. The game was won, he’s not yet in his best physical condition and we need him on Wednesday so that’s why I made the decision to take him out. We need to talk about this and then it’s finished. There will be no problem from my side. Copyright: C.G. Williams and Soccerphile Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

Disappointed Japanese national team players were trying to stay positive Wednesday night in light of their surprising 1-0 loss to Bahrain in World Cup qualifying in Manama. It was the first loss in seven matches for the Asian giants under new manager Takeshi Okada, but it left the team three points adrift of Bahrain in Asian Group B of qualifying for South Africa 2010. Japan conceded in the 77th minute to an Ala’a Hubail header after goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi made a mess of an attempted punch of an Ismail Abdullatif cross. The ball fell kindly to Hubail, who nodded it over Kawaguchi as defender Yuji Nakazawa vainly attempted to prevent the shot from crossing the line. “In the dressing room after the game the talk was all about what we need to do in our next games. We have to stay positive,” said Nagoya Grampus striker Keiji Tamada. “Of course, we can’t dismiss what happened today. We have to learn our lessons and correct them.” Japan struggled to find any kind of rhythm and looked confused and apprehensive going forward in a new-look 3-5-2 formation. The players admitted the 33 degree heat and state of the pitch worked against them but were also quick to accept the blame for playing far below expectations. Midfielder Yasuhito Endo pointed to Japan’s failure to dictate play, particularly up front. “We didn’t create a lot of chances today, especially in the first half. We need to get our act together better in front of goal and vary the tempo of our attack more,” Endo said. Japan played without injured striker Naohiro Takahara of the Urawa Reds and Europe-based stars Shunsuke Nakamura of Celtic and Junichi Inamoto of Eintracht Frankfurt, fielding an all-J.League lineup that featured JEF United Chiba striker Seiichiro Maki and Yoshito Okubo of Vissel Kobe up front. Bahrain lead the group with six points after a 1-0 win over Oman in the first round. Oman, who beat Thailand 1-0 on Wednesday, sit behind Japan on goal difference in third. Winless Thailand pull up the rear. “Fortunately we still have some time,” said Maki. “We’ve got to regroup, think about how we want to play and execute it in our next games. Whatever we do we need to stay positive.” The next round of matches is scheduled for June 2. Bahrain travel to Thailand while Japan host Oman. Copyright: C.G. Williams & Soccerphile.com Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

The Urawa Reds became the first Japanese team since Shimizu S-Pulse in 2000 to win a continental championship when they defeated Sepahan of Iran 2-0 in the final of the Asian Champions League on Wednesday at Saitama Stadium.

By the skin of their teeth the Urawa Reds staked their place in the finals of the Asian Champions League on Wednesday. The J-League holders beat K-League champions Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma 5-3 on penalties in the second leg of the home-and-away semifinal at Saitama Stadium after playing to a 2-2 draw in regular time.

Urawa Reds manager Holger Osieck remains optimistic about his side’s chances of advancing to the semifinals of the Asian Champions League despite losing hold of a stranglehold on the home-and-away quarterfinal clash against Jeonbuk Motors on Wednesday night. The Reds outclassed the reigning ACL champions from start to finish and were up 2-0 heading into the waning moments of the match at Saitama Stadium when Jeonbuk defender Choi Jin-cheul blazed home through a maze of players to take the glean off a terrific showing by the home side. Since away goals count as double in the event of a stalemate, Choi’s last-gasp strike throws the rematch on Sept. 26 in South Korea wide open.

Kawasaki Frontale's exit from the Asian Champions League earlier this week proved what many had feared about Takashi Sekizuka's men over the last couple of weeks: they're a spent force whose season has gone the way of a Britney Spears comeback. Only time will tell how their freefall into irrelevancy in 2007 will affect Frontale in the foreseeable future, but there's no denying that the team has suffered a major setback. Frontale has improved in the league standings every year since finishing 7th in J2 in 2001, returning to J1 in 2005 before shocking all but the most optimistic supporters with their runner-up performance last season.