20 Mar 2006(Mon)

March 17, 2006: It's only two games into the new J.League season, but things already don't look too good for Kyoto Purple Sanga.

Two games, two heavy defeats, and a crowd of under 8,000 for their first home match of the campaign.

Of course there is plenty of time for things to improve, but it's just the kind of start any team coming up from J2 must fear and avoid.

Even before the season kicked off, Purple Sanga's squad looked a bit thin and inexperienced.

They had made only two significant signings during the winter, striker Hayashi from JEF United and defender Kodama from Gamba, as manager Koichi Hashiratani kept faith with the players who had won the J2 championship in 2005.

Playing away to Yokohama F Marinos on the opening weekend of the season is not the easiest of returns, and Takeshi Okada's team won comfortably 4-1, aided by some poor goalkeeping.

Next up was Kawasaki Frontale at home. These two were meeting in J2 not so long ago, but they were in a different league at Nishikyogoku as Frontale ran riot and won 7-2!

That's 13 goals for Frontale in two matches, but for Kyoto it was 11 conceded and a goal difference of minus 8. Needless to say, this kind of form is certain to guarantee you last place in the J1 table, and that's exactly where Kyoto stand -- in 18th position and already looking up at the rest of the division.

I haven't attended either of Kyoto's two games to date, but have seen the highlights on the sports news programmes.

The defending has been calamitous, especially at home to Frontale, when the Kawasaki forwards took it in turn to race through, almost unchallenged, and have their own scoring contest.

You couldn't help but feel sorry for the Kyoto fans, who have seen it all before.

Yet there were only 7,921 supporters for the Frontale game, and it would be unreasonable to expect all the Kyoto fans among them to return immediately.

After playing Jubilo away on Saturday, Kyoto will entertain Sanfrecce Hiroshima in an evening kick-off on Tuesday, a national holiday.

Sanfrecce have made steady progress under Takeshi Ono, and will provide another stern test -- and a guideline -- for Purple Sanga as they attempt to cement a place in the top flight.

Kyoto will need to adjust quickly and gain some confidence, as they can't afford to fall too far behind too early in a long season.

ends