To quote Sir Alex Ferguson, we are approaching "Squeaky bum time" in the J-League in Japan. Now, at the summer break, Kashima had their noses well in front, and where looking solid for the title.
However, the mid-season mini-break in the summer put paid to the sheen of invincibility that they had.
Since the summer break, all the top 6 teams have been dropping points to lower teams, and taking points off each other. It has closed up the top of the table, with only 5 points between 6th, and top spot!
As it stands, Shimizu S-Pulse are top, on 50, Kashima in second on 50 (goal difference), third goes to Gamba Osaka who are just 1 point behind, Kawasaki and Niigata are 4th and 5th on 46 points. Again, split only by goal difference. The surprise is, Urawa, who have been a perrenial challenger, have since slipped out of the top , and been replaced by Sanfrecce Hiroshima. Urawa currently hold 8th.
To show how this has gone, Just to highlight Niigata. The first game back off the break saw Albirex Niigata claim a 1-1 draw with Shimizu, then went on a 3 game losing skid. 2-1 losses to Osaka, and then Kyoto. Osaka is a fellow top team, so losing was not such a surprise. Kyoto Sanga are currently 12th, so most pundits where predicting a Niigata win. Oops.
Niigata dropped all the points to Nagoya in a close fought game that saw Niigata lose 1-0. However, they only had themselves to blame. The game was tight, but Niigata did have the better chances, and yet, contrived to fluff the lot!
So, duking it out at the top of the table, and dropping 9 points. In most leagues round the world, that would sound the death-knell to any chance, as you would expect the top teams round you to claim at least half those points and pulled further ahead. As it was, after this 3 game skid, Niigata dropped only 3 places, from 3rd, to 6th.
Looking to get the challenge back on track, Niigata had a game against the leagues basement team, Oita Trinita. Trinita have a pretty shoddy defence, and a strike force that is still gun-shy.
Oita managed to hold off Niigata for a good 0-0 draw.
Finally, Niigata managed to get things back on track with a 2-1 win over top 6 rivals Hiroshima. Niigata then went on to do a massive favour for the top of the table, by going to Kashima, and scrapping out a 1-0 win!
So. All the teams in the top 6 have been chopping and changing. Niigata have sprung from crashing round the bottom of the league, and mounted a challenge. S-Pulse have improved a lot on last year, but the big surprise this year has been Urawa! For some reason, Japans best supported (Niigata is 2nd!) team, a perennial challenger, has fallen apart this year!
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