J League Update: Antlers continue to tumble

By: Ian Rose | May 10th, 2008

At my old high school, our symbol was the Buck, leading not only to a ridiculous mascot that looked more like a moose, but also to a principal’s office filled (creepily) with trophy deer heads. Over in the J League, no stranger itself to ridiculous mascots, the Kashima Antlers continue to fall down the league table as more and more teams feel like they can now add the defending champs to their own collection of victims.

Kashima lost only six matches in their victorious 2007 season, but ‘08 has started much differently. After opening their season with eight straight wins in all competitions, things seemed to go all wrong on April 13th. That was the day that Kashima lost 1-0 to Urawa Reds, now the leaders of the J League table. Since then, they haven’t won a game in the league, drawing three times and losing last weekend to Kawasaki Frontale. They now sit in sixth place on 18 points, eight behind Urawa. There’s nothing like a crisis quite yet for the Antlers, but if things don’t turn around soon, their title defense might just be over sooner than anyone expected. On a bright note for Kashima, they did manage to dole out an absolute pummeling to Krung Thai Bank in the AFC Champions League this week, 8-1. In the two group stage meetings between these two, it’s been 17-2 to Kashima, so at least advancement in the CL shouldn’t be a problem.

Elsewhere in the league of superhappy anime goodness, JEF United Ichihara Chiba actually managed their first win of the season today, edging out 15th-place Kyoto Purple Sanga 1-0. The lone goal came from midfielder Kohei Kudo in the 69th minute, eliciting perhaps the first cheers of the season from the already weary Chiba fans. One win in twelve matches, and nine points from safety, doesn’t give much reason for cheer. Our old friend Whale! (I know his real name, but I really do prefer to call him Whale!) and his buddies at Grampus Nagoya continue their good run, and now sit in second, three points behind Urawa. They could be closer, but only managed a scoreless draw with Vissel Kobe today. Kobe seem to be toughing out the season more than anything else, drawing half of their matches played so far, with an oddly symmetrical 16 goals scored and 16 conceded. Those are pretty close to LA Galaxy numbers, only Kobe has taken twice as long to achieve them, indicating that their offense is probably not nearly as good, and their defense not as poor.

FC Tokyo, the J League team that dares not to have a mascot, continues to be one of the surprises of the season. Though they’ve lost their last two matches 1-0 to high-ranking opponents, they are still in fourth place, with six wins in twelve matches. With their fixtures getting easier in the next month or so, they should be able to stay close to that spot at least well into June.