18 Aug 2003(Mon)

Yokohama F Marinos will find it difficult to "do a Jubilo" and win both stages of the league season.

But there is no doubt Takeshi Okada's team has a good chance.

I went to the Nabisco Cup quarterfinal first leg at Yokohama on Wednesday night between Marinos and Jubilo and was very impressed with the spirit, organization and determination of one side: Jubilo Iwata.

Marinos started slowly and did not create much in the first half, but picked up in the second half and had several clear chances to equalize. In the end, I thought a 1-0 win for Jubilo was a fair result.

They played with 10 men for 72 minutes after the early sending off of Aleksandar Zivkovic, scored a beautiful goal through Yasumasa Nishino and then defended well to keep out the home team.

This is why I think Yokohama will have a tough battle to win the second stage, as now they are the team everyone wants to beat.

Jubilo, who finished second in the first stage, still looked hungry for success on Wednesday night, but will miss Toshiya Fujita very much in the second stage.

Kashima Antlers announced their second-stage intentions, too, by thrashing Grampus 5-1 in the Nabisco Cup, and I also think Urawa Reds could challenge in the second stage.

This is not because of the addition of the experienced Russian international Yuri Nikiforov, but because Hans Ooft is building a team of good young Japanese players.

Players such as Tsuboi, Yamase, Hasebe, Hirakawa and Tanaka are giving the Reds squad much more energy and depth, and with Emerson always going to score goals, they could be in with a chance of the second stage.

JEF United, third in the first stage, will find it difficult to repeat that performance, even though Brazilian forward Sandro can contribute much more to the team than he did in the first stage. Clearly he was taking his time to settle into life in the J.League.

FC Tokyo, fourth in the first stage, concede few goals (11) but do not score enough (only 14) to be a genuine contender. Fifth-place Cerezo Osaka let in too many (29), but have lots of forward power (29 goals) to keep out of relegation trouble.

I will tip Jubilo to win the second stage, resulting in a Marinos-Jubilo championship playoff and an understrength Japan team for the East Asian Championship.

ends