27 Dec 2007(Thu)

December 25, 2007: One of the biggest surprises of the 2007 J.League season was the relegation of Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

Looking through their list of players, they had enough youth and experience to stay up, but lost in the play-off to Kyoto Sanga.

So full credit, then, to the Three Arrows for finding a second wind and winning their way through to the Emperor’s Cup semi-finals.

Whatever happens from here, at least they have regained some of their pride and given their supporters something to cheer after the bitter disappointment of relegation.

I must admit I did not expect Sanfrecce to be involved in the relegation dogfight, let alone go down to J2, due to the amount of quality players throughout the squad.

A team backbone of Stoyanov at libero, Toda and Aoyama in the centre of midfield, and Ueslei and Sato up front, was fleshed out with Kashiwagi behind the front two and Komano and Hattori on the flanks. Add to this the experience and craft of the Morisaki twins, national youth team captain Makino at the back and Shimoda in goal, and it is hard to work out where Sanfrecce went wrong.

Overall, they were probably one good defender short of being a mid-table team – and their relegation is further evidence of the rise of the J.League.

Two other examples of this in recent months was the success of the under-22s in qualifying for Beijing, and the almighty struggle Reds had in trying to close out the league championship.

Sorimachi’s Japan lacked the individual stars of yesteryear, but played well as a team toughened up by regular J.League football. The JEF United duo of Mizumoto and Mizuno spring to mind immediately.

As for Reds, they looked home and dry at one stage, but failed to win any of their last five matches: drawing three on the trot before losing the last two, at home to Antlers and away to Yokohama FC. Again this proved the depth in the top flight, with Grampus, Frontale and S-Pulse all taking a point off Urawa on the home stretch.

Sanfrecce have paid a big price, too, but can still end the campaign with a trophy.

ends