5 Nov 2007(Mon)

November 1, 2007: At this late stage of the season, many teams have nothing to play for in terms of winning a championship, winning promotion or avoiding relegation.

One such club is Vissel Kobe, but manager Hiroshi Matsuda still has a target he wants to achieve.

“Our aim is to finish in the top nine,” he said, after a 3-1 victory at Kashiwa had helped his cause considerably.

“There are two halves in J1 – the top nine and the bottom nine -- and our target at the start of the season was to be in the top half. This is what we are aiming for now, and we are close to it.”

Indeed they are, as they stand 10th with 41 points from 30 games, only two points adrift of ninth-placed Yokohama F Marinos with four games remaining.

Vissel are always busy in the transfer market, and a couple of mid-season recruits were on view at Kashiwa: the left-sided midfielder Seiji Koga and defensive midfielder Jun Marques Davidson.

As I touched on in an earlier column, Koga looks a fine acquisition, not only because he brings balance to the left flank but also because it allows captain Okubo to play up front. Okubo never looked right on the left side of midfield, did he, because he is first and foremost a goal-getter, a single-minded striker who is much more effective running at the heart of the defence and shooting.

Matsuda told me that Koga had been one of his favourite players at Avispa, and that he had tried to sign him and centre half Chiyotanda at the start of the season.

“He is a natural left footer, the first at the club,” Matsuda said of Koga.

As for Davidson, he did well for Omiya before falling out of favour with previous manager Toshiya Miura towards the end of last season, but his transfer to Albirex did not work out at all and he never got a kick.

Davidson came on for the second half at Kashiwa to anchor the midfield – anchor being the appropriate word in the watery conditions. His long-term future is still up in the air, but at least now he is getting some playing time.

ends