With most attention on the exploits of Pohang Steelers in the Asian Champions League and the national team's friendly matches in Europe against Denmark and Serbia, the fact that the K-League is about to embark upon its championship play-off series has almost gone unnoticed.
Six teams are still in with a chance of the domestic title. Click to continue reading...

One last photo from this week's Japanese League Cup final, as FC Tokyo fans utilise some toilet paper.

Photo credit: dokool on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion Photo Pool.

Related posts:

1. Photo Daily: Nabisco Cup Final Kawasaki Frontale vs.

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We start off this week's predictions with the Asian Champions League final as football increases in popularity in Asia this competition is going to get a bigger and bigger profile. Staying in Asia, we have a crunch game for the leaders of J-league, then some big games involving some the front runners in England, France and Spain, before we go south to a basement battle in Argentina.

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Nabisco Cup final, Kawasaki Frontale vs. FC Tokyo, November 3rd 2009.

Photo credit: dillo-h.com on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion Photo Pool.

Related posts:

1. Photo Daily: Kawasaki Frontale Tifo Big flags and little flags in the Asian Champions League.

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Today, our tifo series swings to Asia for the first time.

We check out Japanese fans at the Nabisco Cup (also known as the J-League Cup) final between Kawasaki Frontale and FC Tokyo, held earlier this week.

This video is a little slow to get going, but there's some gorgeous colour, some impressive banners, and generally well choreographed displays from supporters of both teams.

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Pohang Steelers are just 90 minutes away from making soccer history. On Saturday night, the team from Gyeongsang province could become the most successful club in Asia – ever.
The South Koreans meet Saudi Arabia's Al Ittihad in Tokyo in the final of the Asian Champions League. The opposition also has two wins under its belt. Click to continue reading...

Saudi side Al-Ittihad Jeddah took a fantastic lead into the second leg of this Asian Champions League Semi-Final.

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This from football's best journalist Mike Cockerill:

'There are some suggestions that Moore could be looking for a way out following the coaching change - possibly considering a return to Europe sooner rather than later.

Moore, 33, is one of only two A-League players in the Socceroos squad, and has been told by coach Pim Verbeek he needs to keep playing until May to remain in his World Cup plans.

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After only four months in charge of Uzbekistan side FC Bunyodkor, Luis Felipe Scolari is once again facing the sack. Despite earning an astonishing £230,000 a week as head coach of the ambitious side; Scolari has become unstuck once again.
There are parallels to be drawn with his infamous tenure at Chelsea which ended in Feburary 2009.

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With the Chuseok holidays in South Korea over, it is traditionally time for local fans to put down their overheated chopsticks and check out the race for the play-offs.
Past battles have been thrilling and this season is no different. As always, we teams that have long forgotten thoughts of merely finishing in the top six to book a place in the championship play-off series and have eyes on top spot. Click to continue reading...

A burning sense of injustice could spur on South Korea's two teams remaining in the Asian Champions League. In the first leg of their respective quarter finals, both Pohang Steelers and FC Seoul suffered defeats on their travels to Uzbekistan and Qatar respectively.
The K-League clubs have a chance to right the perceived wrongs on Wednesday evening in the second leg of their encounters. Click to continue reading...

Kawasaki Frontale were left kicking themselves after they went down 2-0 to Urawa Reds in front of a capacity crowd at Todoroki Stadium in the J. League last weekend.
That defeat was a further blow to the Kanagawa side's chances of winning a first ever J. League title, but for now coach Takashi Sekizuka will turn his attentions to the Asian Champions League. Click to continue reading...

Aidan Ormond
On-loan Perth Glory striker Matt Mayora is set to sign with Indonesian side Persipura Jayapura, a club which has qualified for the 2010 Asian Champions League.
Mayora, 23, jets out to Jakarta on Wednesday for a medical with the club and has a one-year contract on the table. Click to continue reading...

There is always a last-minute move before the European transfer window slams shut at the end of August but the latest deal to be made involving a South Korean star came so late that it will actually take place at the start of 2010.
Ki Sung-yong has signed for Scotland titans Glasgow Celtic but will join the team next January. Click to continue reading...

Even the most diehard Adelaide United supporter would find it hard to argue that they deserved their point against North Queensland last night. Not only did Ufuk Talay and Daniel McBreen hit the woodwork for the visitors, but in the second half Adelaide were comprehensively outplayed at home, as rarely before. Click to continue reading...

It's been a tough week for the citizens of Shimizu.
Faced with the indignity of not one S-Pulse player making the J. Allstars team, football fans awoke last Tuesday to a sizeable earthquake shattering the peace of their sleepy town.
It'll be a different noise rocking the port city this evening, with all 20,330 tickets snapped up for tonight's "Orange Derby" against high-flying Albirex Niigata. Click to continue reading...

It's an interesting little fact: in the first three A-League seasons, the winners of the season curtain-raiser went on to claim the premiership. And with that in mind, Lawrie McKinna can afford a little grin after last night's surprising result.
There were, in fact, plenty of parallels with the Mariners' dogged first-up win over Sydney FC in the first round of the 2007/08 season. Click to continue reading...

In years gone by, I've attempted to provide a separate preview for all of the A-League clubs prior to the season. This time, with ten teams now taking part and the various pre-seasons being played out a little more obscurely, it's a tough ask, so herewith a quick ramble about the whole lot on the eve of A-League Mark 5. Click to continue reading...

PERTH Glory are prepared to let star players Mile Sterjovski, Jacob Burns and Chris Coyne go on loan to A-League rival Adeladie United, Foxsports has reported.
The trio all are chasing a spot in Pim Verbeek's Socceroo squad for the World Cup and Glory coach Dave Mitchell has confirmed that he could loan them out to Adelaide for their Asian Champions League matches next year. Click to continue reading...

As the rainy season, hopefully, comes to an end, the football season in South Korea is just past the halfway stage. It has been a very interesting and unusual campaign so far with some big fish struggling down in the murky waters while minnows play around in unfamiliar waters near the surface.
Usually, there is no smaller catch in the K-League than Gwangju Sangmu. Click to continue reading...

What a week of exciting football action, MLS, Superliga, Recopa Sudamericana, Copa Libertadores, Asian Champions League, and of course FIFA Confederations Cup. You know summertime is just as busy as the fall, spring, and winter in football. Thankfully for us football lovers, its a year round sport. Click to continue reading...

If there's one team that can stop the Kashima Antlers juggernaut from steam-rolling to a third successive J. League title, it's Kawasaki Frontale.
The Kanagawa side geared up for an epic showdown with Kashima on Sunday by beating Gamba Osaka 1-0 at Todoroki Stadium in a rescheduled Round 10 fixture overnight. Click to continue reading...

With just over a month until the start of the new season I thought it about time I resume this blog. I lot has happened in the last couple of months but there are few items I want to mention specifically.
Firstly, congratulations to the Socceroos on qualification to their second world cup in a row (only our third in total). Click to continue reading...

What a week of exciting football action, MLS, Superliga, Recopa Sudamericana, Copa Libertadores, Asian Champions League, and of course FIFA Confederations Cup. You know summertime is just as busy as the fall, spring, and winter in football. Thankfully for us football lovers, its a year round sport.

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Nearpost football hosts Russ and Aaron are convinced the Jets will lose, nay get pumped tonight against the Pohang Denilson led Steelers in the Asian Champions League one-off last 16 game in Korea.
I'm not. I think they can win.
Either way watching Ben Kantarovski, Jason Hoffman, Tarek Elrich, Brodie Mooy, Mark Jesic, Adam D'Apuzzo, Kaz Patafta and Sean Rooney all young Aussies being tested on the continental stage is a joy. Click to continue reading...

Chinese league champs Shandong Luneng were knocked out of the Asian Champions League the other day.
The club did not take it well. All the players on the team were fined.
Fined. For losing.

"Players have to display the spirit of improving as well as good results otherwise the fans will never forgive them," Cui Faqiang, the club's deputy manager, told the Qilu Evening Post.

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That's why they're champions. Effortlessy is a good word but you don't effortlessly destroy a team like Sriwijaya. The reigning champions did their bit by showing the world just why they fared so poorly in the Asian Champions League this season. Their midfield, where Zah rahan and Wijay are normally so imperious were just brushed aside by a rampant Black Pearls side. Click to continue reading...

The big European leagues have declared their champions and shut up shop for the summer. They won't be back until August. So this is where we separate the fairweather footy fans from the die-hards. The fairweathers will get distracted and find some other way to pass the time. The die-hards will ask: What else can I [. Click to continue reading...

That's the record attendance for an Asian Champions League game...held last week in Iran.
Perhaps only an Indian team, from Mumbai, in future years could break this record given they regularly get over 100,000 for local derbies.
Shows the potential of the game in Asia though.

KUALA LUMPUR: Piroozi's Round of 16 clash with Bunyodkor smashed the ACL attendance record with over 95,000 spectators going through the Azadi Stadium turnstiles to watch the Iranian giants' shock 1-0 loss to the Uzbeks.

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Dirty Tackle beat us to this by about three days, but it's too good not to post. It's from the May 19th Asian Champions League game between China's Tianjin Teda and Australia's Central Coast Mariners. Very nice PDF match report here (maybe the future really is Asia?) Tianjin are 1-0 up and CCM have a corner [. Click to continue reading...

Please forgive that awful pun.
Needless to say, the FFA's mooting of a second-tier competition has been the hot issue in Australian football over the past few days. It is a natural enough response to the draconian (and largely political) new requirements put in place by the AFC regarding places in the revamped Asian Champions League, and was bound to come onto the agenda at some point in any case. Click to continue reading...

FFA are drawing up plans for a Second Division. Read the SMH article below.
The move into Asia means if we want more teams in the Asian Champions League we need a second division.
So an A-League team for Canberra AND a second division team, maybe Belconnen United or Canberra Vikings, or Canberra FC, although ground, shirt and dressing room issues remain there in the eyes of the FFA and their brand. Click to continue reading...

The group stage of the Asian Champions League concluded today, and a CONCACAF player figured in the biggest result of the day, and one of the biggest upsets of the group stage. Indonesian side Sriwijaya FC came back from 0-2 down to defeat Chinese team Shandong Luneng 4-2, which earned them their first points in the group stage and eliminated Shandong in the process. Click to continue reading...

Like it's much-maligned English cousin, the League Cup in Japan is facing an image crisis. That's nothing new for J. League officials, who for years have struggled with the competing interests of Japan's biggest clubs.
A revamped Asian Champions League has brought the League Cup issue to a head. Click to continue reading...

Watching Ben Kantarovski last night was awesome as the young Jets player strode across Asia.
I could see the Green and Gold shirt on this young man for years to come. Another gem I'm sure.
But I also noted the impact of Jason Hoffman, Brodie Mooy, Adam D'Appuzzo, and in recent games Sean Rooney and Marko Jesic. Click to continue reading...