Vissel Kobe (ヴィッセル神戸) is a professional Japanese soccer club, currently playing in the J. League Division 1. After finishing last season in 9th position last season, Vissel Kobe is currently...

Urawa Red Diamonds (浦和レッドダイヤモンズ ) is a professional soccer club playing in Japan's J. League Division 1 (J1). The side is one of Japan's best supported teams and often boasts...

In this week's review of the footballing action, we take a look back at the football life of the great Brazilian player Socrates as well as congratulating his former club Corinthians on winning the Brazilian title.

Kashiwa Reysol secured the J-League title and a place in the FIFA Club World Cup as the host nation's representatives following a climatic finish to the season in Japan this weekend. The title triumph was all the more remarkable given that the team had only won promotion from the Japanese second division last season.

To coin a well-known footballing phrase, it's squeaky bum time in two of Asia's biggest leagues.

In Japan the title will go down to a last day showdown with any one from Kashiwa Reysol, Nagoya Grampus Eight and Gamba Osaka all capable of winning the championship. Kashiwa currently hold the advantage of topping the table with 69 points from 33 games whilst Nagoya and Osaka trail the leaders by just one and two points respectively with one round of matches to be played next weekend.

Yes, I'll go ahead and say it. Jared Borgetti, eat your heart out. (Not really, it's still pretty epic.)

Ryujiro Ueda of Fagiano Okayama earns the title with his bombing own-half header into the back of the net, which he then celebrated like a tap-in on the goal line. Smooth.

Hidetoshi Nakata is getting more press after his retirement than he did during his whole entire career. For those of you who don't know, Nakata is one of Asia's most famous footballers. In 1995, he started his career with Bellmare Hiratsuka, now called Shonan Bellmare. During his time in the J League, he won the Asian Football the Asian Football Confederation Player of the Year award in 1997

This week on languageacster.com, we spotlight the run in to the title in the J League in Japan, looking at who can win it and at a big team staring at relegation.

This week on languageacster.com, we spotlight the run in to the title in the J League in Japan, looking at who can win it and at a big team staring at relegation. Remember, you can also:

• Listen only to the main report here complete with transcript and vocabulary
• Learners of English can review the footballing news from around the world in our good, the bad and the ugly section of the show
• Check out a new football expression in English for Football
• For learners of English check out our Football Language Resources page with:
• A page with all our Football vocabulary posts
• Football glossary (a huge collection of football vocabulary, football cliches and football phrases)
• Worksheets and transcripts from previous podcasts

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Main Report: The Japanese J League - who will clinch the title? And will we see Urawa in J2 next season?

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The European leagues are about a third of the way through their seasons and the Champions League is in the middle of the group stages, but what about elsewhere in the world?

With twelve rounds of matches to play in the Japanese J-League there is an intriguing four way battle for title honours. Last season's champions Nagoya Grampus Eight are, along with Yokohama Marinos, just one point behind the top two of Gamba Osaka and Kashiwa Reysol (22 games, 43 points).

Gamba Osaka were involved in the tie of the weekend getting the better of Kawasaki Frontale by six goals to three with Brazilian Rafinha scoring a hat-trick and helping stretch Gamba's unbeaten run to seven matches.

Former Japan international defender Naoki Matsuda remains in critical condition after collapsing during his club Matsumoto Yamaga's training session early this morning.

Matsuda (34) was rushed to Hospital after he collapsed 35 minutes into a routine training session in what is belived to have been a heart attack, Matsuda made 40 appearances for his Country and also won 3 J-League titles before moving down a division to his new club.

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This week, languagecaster casts its eye around the world to take in games from Japan, where the season gets underway again after the terrible earthquake and tsunami, Argentina, Spain, England, and the Champions League semi final first legs.

Following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that occurred in Japan on March 11, the J-League has rearranged the schedule for the Yamazaki Nabisco Cup.
The two group format has been abandoned in favor of a straight two-leg knock-out competition.
1st Round 1st Leg June 5
Urawa Reds vs Yamagata
Kashiwa Reysol vs Sendai
Yokohama F Marinos vs Vissell Kobe
Venforet Kofu vs Shimizu S-Pulse
Jubilo Iwata vs Fukuoka
Sanfrecce Hiroshima vs Kawasaki Frontale
1st Round 2nd Leg June 27
27 Jul Wed
Sendai vs Kashiwa Reysol
Yamagata vs Urawa Reds
Kawasaki Frontale vs
Shimizu S-Pulse vs Ventforet Kofu
Vissel Kobe vs Yokohama F Marinos
Fukuoka vs Jubilo Iwata
Second round two-leg games will take place on 14 September and 28 September when Omiya Ardija and Albirex Niigata will join the competition.

Gamba Osaka (ガンバ大阪) is a Japanese professional football club, currently playing in the J. League Division 1 and AFC Champions League. Located in Suita, Osaka, the team's home stadium is Osaka Expo '70 Stadium. Gamba are one of only six teams to have competed in Japan's top flight of football every year since its inception [.

Nagoya Grampus (名古屋グランパス) is a Japanese association soccer currently playing in the Japanese J. League Divsion 1. The club has been a fixture in the top flight of Japanese soccer since 1993 but did not win its first J. League championship until 2010. Nagoya Grampus is current managed by Serbia and Nagoya Grampus legend Dragan Stojković.

Urawa Red Diamonds (浦和レッドダイヤモンズ ) is a professional football club playing in Japan's J. League. It is one of Japan's best supported teams boasting the highest average crowds for eight of the J-League's sixteen seasons thus far. The club has never won a J. Leasgue title and finished last season in 10th position.

Vissel Kobe (ヴィッセル神戸) is a Japanese professional football (soccer) club, currently playing in the J. League Division 1. After finishing last season in 15th position last season, Vissel Kobe is currently in pre-season training for the 2011 J. League season. This past weekend Vissel Kobe launched its Asics 2011 home and away kits and presented some [.