J2-League Soccer!

As mentioned last week the weekend of the Austin game I was in Japan and I attended JEF United Chiba's J2-League home match against Ventforet Kofu.  I figured some people would appreciate a recap.

JEF United Chiba, as you can guess from the name, is based in Chiba. Chiba Prefecture.  They play at Fukuda Denshi Arena, which is about a 10 minute walk from Soga Station.  From there its a 45 minute train ride over the full length of JR East's Keiyo Line into central Tokyo.

One of the reasons I chose this game to go to is that of the games being played in the Tokyo area that weekend it was one of the most easily accessible.  Tokyo's transit system is possibly the most complex in the world and while the trains are navigable without a real understanding of Japanese the bus system is infamously not.  Most of the other games that weekend required a transfer by bus to get within reasonable walking distance.

JEF United Chiba was founded as Furukawa Electric SC when professional soccer was started in Japan after WWII and was one of the original 8 members of the Japan Soccer League in 1965 and were the only team never to be relegated from the JSL.  In 1992 they merged with the JR East Railway company team and through a series of name changes ended up with JEF (combining initials from JR East and Furukawa Electric) United Chiba.  JEF was relegated for the first time in its history in 2009 and has played in the J2 league since then, having failed to win the promotion playoff multiple times.

Not surprising since JR East is a half-owner of the team Soga Station is decked out in JEF colors and logos:

(Those were actually taken on my way back to the station after the game)

There's also some nice tilework inside the station

There's no "tailgating" culture that I could see in Japan.  In JEF's case the pregame is held on a large plaza outside the stadium with entertainment and food arranged by the team.  A number of vendors are set up and for this game the entertainment included some comedians from a Japanese reality TV show and a group of flutists who also danced, among other things.  I didn't spend that much time outside the stadium before going in.  I walked over to the team store (the club HQ with the main store is across the street from the stadium) and was going to get some food but decided that I would try my luck in the stadium rather than deal with the long line at the food truck outside.

The team's trophy cabinet in the team HQ

Some shots from around the stadium

No metal detectors here, just a quick bag check and I was in.  First thing I did was to scope out the food options in my area of the stadium.  There were many and they were cheap.  J-League scran has the reputation it does for a reason.

I ended up going with the chicken curry and naan option.  1000 yen, which with the current exchange rate is about $7.50.  The odd thing was that there was nowhere really to eat it so I took it to my seat and had to balance it on my lap.  Thus the less than stunning picture:

Its hard to tell but that naan bread was dinner plate sized and it was a good amount of chicken curry in that bowl.  A steal at $7.50.  I did see at half that there were some narrow counters set up along the railings of the exterior concourse I could have used as a table but it was too late by then.

Now, on to the actual soccer.  JEF is once again fighting for a promotion playoff spot while Kofu is settled solidly in midtable.  So there was much more on the line for the home team.  The area was fairly full for this match, it seats just under 20K (so a little bigger than the Dick).  Its the more traditional two-level bowl and my seat was right above the tunnel.  The price was 5500 yen, or about $35-$40 depending on exchange rate:

And a panorama shortly before kickoff:

The JEF supporters were in full force behind the north goal and a large contingent of Kofu fans made the 3 our train ride to set up behind the South goal:

I'll say this, I've never heard a louder crowd at any soccer match as I did here.  Both sets of fans were chanting in unison throughout the game in a way that would put even the Timbers Army and their "P T F C" chant to shame.  There was a point about the 66th minute where both supporters groups happened to stop their chanting at the same time and my ears were ringing in the sudden (relative) silence.

The first half of the game was a pretty meh scoreless draw, and the first part of the second half looked like the game was going to continue that way:

My halftime selfie

In the 67th minute Kofu would break through.  A good header was parried by the JEF keeper but would fall to Kofu's Brazilian winger/striker Adailton who easily put away the rebound.  This was, perhaps, the worst thing Kofu could of done.  Up until that point it seemed like both teams were going to muddle through to a 0-0 draw but giving up a goal seems to have pissed JEF off.  Between the 70th and 86th minute the home side would put the ball in the back of the net 4 times.  Now the first and the third would be ruled off due to offside but that meant 2 of them still counted.

The first, in the 76th minute, was after a good spell of possession by Chiba.  A wormburner shot from well outside the box by a JEF midfielder was chipped up and over the Kofu keeper by Yokoyama.  It went off the underside of the bar and over the line to level the score.  The second, in the 86th minute, came from a nice cross floated to the back post by KEF's star striker Hiiro Komori.  Hiiro is in the running for the league golden boot but played setup man on this one.  Tanaka was waiting unmarked at the far post and took a one-time volley into the upper corner to put JEF into the lead.

With that win and a win last weekend JEF United Chiba is sitting in 4th with 2 games to play.  The top 2 are automatically promoted and then next 4 go into a promotion playoff.  While JEF could mathematically catch Nagasaki in 3rd its a 6 point gap so its highly unlikely.  Meanwhile 5th and 6th place are tied on points with JEF and 7th place is only 1 point behind.  That means there are 4 teams within1 point of the final 3 spots.  Its going to go down to the wire.  Luckily JEF has twice the goal differential of the other teams.

One final note, from the time I got on the train out to Chiba to the time I got back to Tokyo I only saw one Westerner.  He happened to be sitting right next to me at the match.  He showed up just after kickoff and was professionally dressed (slacks, polo, business style bag).  He immediately pulled out a pad and started making notes and tracking players.  He didn't say anything to me and my first read on him was Italian, or at least Mediterranean.  Later in the game he reached into his bag and pulled out an iPad and i was able to see that the language was set to Italian so apparently my read was correct.  He left in stoppage time.  So if you see a Japanese player heading to a team in Italy, this game could be the reason.