And then there were three. Two familiar contenders, one plucky outsider and four league games are all that stand between Kashiwa Reysol, Gamba Osaka, Nagoya Grampus and the J. League title. Autumn is especially beautiful across the Kantō Plain, when the deciduous leaves fall and a mellow sunlight light frames the back streets and alleys of one of the world's most populous regions. That's true even in the gritty industrial Chiba town of Kashiwa, where the locals are hoping their promoted upstarts can win back to back championships. Kashiwa Reysol coasted through J2 last season, holding off the challenge of Ventforet Kofu to win the second division by ten points. At the helm was grizzled Brazilian coach Nelsinho, whose association with Japanese football is so lengthy his first club Verdy was still based in Kawasaki. The much-travelled tactician won the J. League with Verdy and later took over at the club formerly known as Nagoya Grampus Eight, before embarking on a peripatetic waltz around his native Brazil. He's back in the J. League now and Nelsinho's knowledge of Brazilian has proved especially useful in the realm of player recruitment. In 2010 he signed Leandro Domingues from Bahia club Vitoria and watched contentedly as the playmaker steered the Sun Kings to the second tier title. This year he drafted in veteran Jorge Wagner from Sao Paulo and the versatile attacking talent has produced a stellar campaign. Add to that the goals of strikers Junya Tanaka and Hideaki Kitajima and it's no surprise Kashiwa's sheer attacking strength has propelled them to the top of the table. Standing in Kashiwa's way are defending champions Nagoya Grampus. The Aichi side broke their long trophy drought by winning the J. League for the first time last season, employing the not-so-novel tactic of simply signing the best players from rival teams. Former Urawa Reds talisman Marcus Tulio Tanaka and ex-Yokohama F. Marinos defender Hayuma Tanaka were joined this season by one-time Shimizu S-Pulse star Jungo Fujimoto and ex-Vissel Kobe speedster Kensuke Nagai - widely regarded as one of the most promising talents in Asian football. It's a tried-and-true tactic and combined with Australian international Josh Kennedy's unquenchable thirst for goals, Nagoya have slowly muscled their way up the standings and are currently breathing down Kashiwa's neck in the race for the championship. Sandwiched between the pair are Gamba Osaka, who have endured a strange campaign at their Suita city home. The Osakans started slowly and sold prolific striker Adriano to Qatari club Al-Jaish, after he'd scored nine goals in just eight league games. They looked like they'd struggle without him, until the arrival of Rafinha from J2 side Thespa Kusatsu. The Brazilian has made his compatriot look positively sluggish, blasting home 10 goals in 14 league games - including a hat-trick against Kawasaki Frontale - and just as importantly laying on several more for strike partner Lee Keun-Ho, who has suddenly transformed into one of the most dynamic strikers in the league. With Yasuhito Endo pulling the strings in midfield and plenty of big-match experience behind them, it's unlikely Gamba will be the first to blink in a tense three-team tussle for the title. Nagoya arguably have the easiest run home, while all three teams face tough looking away trips on the final day of the campaign. Grampus are on the road to Big Swan Stadium where they will face Albirex Niigata, while Gamba Osaka face a daunting trip to the parochial Nihondaira Stadium to take on mid-table outfit Shimizu S-Pulse. It's Kashiwa who look set to face the toughest trip of all, as they cross the Kantō Plain to take on a Urawa Reds side battling relegation. Urawa's wretched campaign is perhaps best summed up by the fact they sacked coach Zeljko Petrovic just a fortnight out from a League Cup final. The final straw was a 1-0 home defeat to Saitama city rivals Omiya Ardija, which prompted Petrovic to claim he'd resign at the end of the season. He wasn't given the chance, and former youth team coach Takafumi Hori is the man charged with the task of ensuring one of Japan's most popular clubs avoids relegation for the second time in their checkered history. Urawa are locked in a dogged battle with Ventforet Kofu to avoid the final relegation place - Montedio Yamagata and Avispa Fukuoka are already doomed - and Kofu's lanky Japan international Mike Havenaar is on a single-handed mission to prolong Kofu's stay in the top flight. The man known as "Mike" has scored 16 of Kofu's 36 goals so far and with European clubs rumoured to be taking an interest in the 194-centimetre giant, a player who recently scored his first international goals for Japan could be set for a barnstorming finish to the campaign. There's little doubt another thrilling finale lies in store for one of the world's most entertaining leagues. Will Kashiwa Reysol hold their nerve and become the first team to win back to back J2 and J1 championships? Will Gamba Osaka spoil the party and destroy the dreams of Nagoya Grampus in the process? And can Urawa Reds shake off Ventforet Kofu in the quest to maintain their top-flight status? Time will tell, but as the first of the winter chills rustles the falling leaves on Japan's busy thoroughfares and streets, the J. League is only just starting to heat up. Copyright © Mike Tuckerman & Soccerphile.com Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

Kashima Stadium is one of the more remote venues in Japanese football. Sandwiched between Lake Kitaura on one side and Kashima Sea on the other, most fans make the long-haul trip to Kashima Stadium by train, as it trundles through the urban sprawl of Greater Tokyo and out into the open fields of Ibaraki. The stadium is rarely full - only travelling hordes of Urawa Reds fans push attendances towards capacity - yet it remains a hostile place to come and play, not least because the J. League's most successful club Kashima Antlers possess a relentlessly imposing home record. So it was that Nagoya Grampus made the slow journey out to Kashima Stadium on November 7, hoping that a 10-point gap over second placed Kashima Antlers would be enough to see them cruise to the title. Instead it was Kashima who left the champions-elect bloodied and bowed, as a goal from Brazilian veteran Marquinhos on the hour mark hauled the Antlers back into an improbable title race. Kashima are now eight points behind long-term league leaders Nagoya with five games to play, but if any team has experience of reeling in a front runner, it's Kashima. In 2007, they lifted the most dramatic of league titles by snatching the trophy from a shell-shocked Urawa on the final day of the season, as Kashima thrashed Shimizu S-Pulse and saw the Reds slump to defeat against relegated Yokohama FC. Kashima coach Oswaldo de Oliveira knows results must once again go his team's way if they are to have any chance of lifting the title, but it would take a hardy soul to bet against the three-times defending champions - even if Nagoya are still in the box seat. Nagoya's run home is relatively simple. They face easy-beats Omiya Ardija, Shonan Bellmare and FC Tokyo, before finishing the season with an away trip to Tokai rivals Jubilo Iwata and a home clash against Sanfrecce Hiroshima at Toyota Stadium. Kashima start their run home with a tough test on the road at Kawasaki Frontale, before easier matches against Vissel Kobe, Jubilo Iwata, Kyoto Sanga and Montedio Yamagata follow. With third-placed Gamba Osaka breathing down Kashima's necks, the title race still has some spark left in it yet. One more victory should be enough for Nagoya Grampus to wrap up their maiden J. League title: surely they can't choke now, can they? Never say never, in the weird and wild world of the J. League. Kashiwa Reysol lead the way in J2 Chiba side Kashiwa Reysol look home and hosed in J2, and they should be joined in the top tier next season by fellow promotion certainties Ventforet Kofu, with Shonan Bellmare and Kyoto Sanga dropping down to replace them. Reysol and Ventforet will almost certainly be joined by another former top-flight club in the form of Avispa Fukuoka, as the southern side have opened up a six-point gap on fourth-placed Tokyo Verdy with only five games remaining. Jubilo Iwata win a dramatic League Cup final The 2010 Yamazaki Nabisco League Cup final was as dramatic as they come, and it was Jubilo Iwata who walked away with the spoils, winning 5-3 in extra-time at a sun-drenched National Stadium in Tokyo. Opponents Sanfrecce Hiroshima came within a minute of lifting the title, but a late equaliser from Jubilo's prolific striker Ryoichi Maeda sent the match into the added period. Midfielders Minoru Suganuma and Ryohei Yamazaki then gave Jubilo a two-goal cushion, only for Sanfrecce star Tomoaki Makino to cut the deficit with a superb free-kick. Maeda put the game beyond doubt with his second goal of the afternoon, and Sanfrecce's misery was compounded when Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi saved Makino's penalty with virtually the last kick of the game. The win saw Jubilo collect their first major piece of silverware since 2003, as one of the fallen giants of the Japanese game finally returned to the winner's circle. Copyright © Mike Tuckerman & Soccerphile.com Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

When infielder Masahiko Morino popped up a sacrifice fly to edge Chunichi Dragons past Yokohama Baystars and into first place in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League overnight, he ensured Nagoya's two major sporting teams currently top their respective leagues. The Dragons last won the Japan Series in 2007, in a year in which their footballing counterparts struggled to make an impact - ultimately limping into a miserable eleventh-placed finish in the J. League. Much has changed since then, with Nagoya Grampus dropping the "Eight" from their name and appointing legendary former midfielder Dragan Stojkovic as coach in January 2008. His team has been on an upward trajectory ever since, and Nagoya residents are now dreaming of an unlikely double for their baseball and football stars. The J. League resumes this weekend with Grampus facing an uncomfortable trip north to the rugged, rural hills of Yamagata, and Stojkovic will be desperate to see his side add to the 14 victories they've claimed from 21 league games played so far. But despite their lofty position in the table, it's difficult to envisage Nagoya Grampus as the best team in Japan. They may have won 14 times already, but they've lost virtually every marquee fixture they've played. A 3-2 home defeat to Kawasaki Frontale was replicated by a 2-1 defeat on the road at Urawa Reds, and when Nagoya hosted defending champions Kashima Antlers, the Ibaraki side crushed Stojkovic's men 4-1. A subsequent trip to Todoroki Stadium saw Kawasaki swat them aside in a humiliating 4-0 loss, and Nagoya thrice gave up the lead in a pulsating 3-3 draw with Tokai rivals Shimizu S-Pulse. Worse yet for Nagoya fans, they still have big guns Shimizu S-Pulse and Kashima Antlers to face again, while surprise package Cerezo Osaka are currently lying second and itching to avenge a 1-0 defeat to Nagoya earlier the season, when the two sides meet at Toyota Stadium on October 30. Should Nagoya slip up, Cerezo are currently the best-placed side to take advantage, however provincial heavyweights Shimizu S-Pulse are level on points with Cerezo and just five points behind the league-leading Grampus. Like fellow title chasers Nagoya and Cerezo, Shimizu have never won the J. League title, and coach Kenta Hasegawa is desperate to collect some silverware on the back of a fruitless five-year stint in charge. Kashima Antlers and Kawasaki Frontale are lurking just behind the trophy-hungry S-Pulse, but after three years of utter Kashima dominance, J. League fans could be forgiven for hoping to see a different name on the trophy this season. At the other end of the table, yo-yo club Kyoto Sanga and the hapless Shonan Bellmare look doomed, but the fight to avoid the third relegation place could boil down to a four-way tussle. Omiya Ardija, Vissel Kobe, Vegalta Sendai and incredibly FC Tokyo are all locked on 21 points going into the resumption of league football, with none of the four showing signs that they're capable of skipping clear of the bottom three any time soon. Kashiwa Reysol are streaking away with the J2 title, but the battle for the remaining promotion places could be a three-horse race between Ventforet Kofu, JEF United and Avispa Fukuoka in the J. League's second tier. League Cup An all-Shizuoka League Cup final remains a possibility after Shimizu S-Pulse and Jubilo Iwata both scraped through to the semi-finals of this year's competition. Shimizu edged past defending champions FC Tokyo on the away goals rule after the pair drew 1-1 in Tokyo, before playing out a scoreless draw at Nihondaira Stadium. Jubilo Iwata knocked out Vegalta Sendai, while Kawasaki Frontale impressively dispatched Kashima Antlers and Sanfrecce Hiroshima knocked out Gamba Osaka, with Japan's four AFC Champions League representatives parachuting into the tournament at the quarter-final stage. The first leg of the semi-finals will be held on September 29, with Jubilo Iwata hosting Kawasaki Frontale and Sanfrecce Hiroshima welcoming Shimizu S-Pulse to Big Arch Stadium. Emperor's Cup There's always one every season, and this year it was the turn of Vegalta Sendai to suffer the embarrassment of going out to a lower-tier side in the second round of the Emperor's Cup. To make matters worse for Vegalta coach Makoto Teguramori, it was city rivals Sony Sendai who knocked his team out, with the Japan Football League side triumphing in extra-time over a Vegalta outfit who reached the semi-finals last season. Elsewhere, the only other major casualty was embattled J2 side Tokyo Verdy, who went out at the hands of neighbours Machida Zelvia. The third round kicks off on October 9, with Sony Sendai hosting Cerezo Osaka, while JFL side Machida Zelvia face a daunting trip to Big Swan Stadium to take on Albirex Niigata. Copyright © Mike Tuckerman & Soccerphile.com Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters World Cup football

When the draw for the AFC Champions League group stage was made back in December 2008, few tipped unheralded Japanese side Nagoya Grampus as potential title contenders. The general consensus was that Dragan Stojkovic's team had been lucky to sneak into third place in the J. League, and thereby qualify for the Asian Football Confederation's recently revamped continental jamboree. It is perhaps a testament to the strength of the J. League that Nagoya have seen off challengers from Australia, South Korea, China and their native Japan to reach the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League at their first attempt.