3 May 2007(Thu)

May 2, 2007: There was plenty to admire at Kashiwa Hitachi Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The electric storm that delayed the Reysol-Grampus game for 49 minutes was quite impressive, as a warm, sunny day gave way to thunder, lightning, torrential rain and gale-force winds.

Even Reysol's hardy band of Yellow Monkeys were sent scurrying from behind the goal, presumably to seek sanctuary in the tall trees, their natural habitat after all, just over the wall.

And some of those lightning flashes were mighty close; one of them, in fact, was closer to the goal than any Grampus forward would come during the match.

A chilly evening followed the thunderstorm, but the Reysol fans, especially in the back stand, created a marvellous atmosphere in one of the best stadiums in the league.

Reysol's first goal in their energetic 2-0 victory, scored by Tadanari Ri, was a soft one, but their second was a beauty, set up by Ri and finished in fine style by Minoru Suganuma.

It was Suganuma's fifth goal of the campaign and displayed all his confidence and composure. Ri intercepted a weak Nagoya clearance and headed the ball into the path of Suganuma, who had moved inside from the right wing and was bursting through the inside-right channel.

Without breaking stride, Suganuma took one touch to control the ball before firing it low past Kushino and into the bottom left corner from the edge of the box. Coming, as it did, five minutes before the break, the goal put Reysol in control and they were able to hold off Nagoya's late onslaught to claim all three points.

Suganuma is an interesting player, as Philippe Troussier would say. He graduated from the club's junior youth team through the youth team into the first team, and had spells with Vitoria of Brazil and Ehime FC of J2 along the way -- and he is still only 21.

While on loan with Ehime last season, Suganuma made 45 appearances in the league and scored 11 goals, and has clearly benefited from all those competitive games if his early-season form in J1 is anything to go by.

I always remember Gert Engels stressing how a season in J2 with Kyoto Purple Sanga, in 2001, had helped transform Park Ji Sung.

"You can train and train all week, but there is no substitute for playing competitive matches," Engels said of Park when they were together at Kyoto.

"In J2, teams are often playing Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday, and you could see Park growing and improving throughout the year because he was having so many opportunities to play competitive football. He played 38 league games that season in J2 and it really helped his development."

While it may seem a frustrating step down at the time, dropping from J1 to J2 or moving from a big club to a smaller one (like Suganuma, as Reysol were also in J2 last season), it is a career move worth exploring for young players who feel they are not getting enough playing time where they are.

ends