10 Jul 2008(Thu)

July 8, 2008: "Every game is like a cup final from now."

This is a popular phrase around the football world, and it is usually reserved for the end-of-season run-in when teams are fighting for every point to escape relegation or win a championship.

Kashiwa Reysol, though, appear to have adopted this philosophy early, judging by their excellent league form of late.

They have won five of their last six games, and followed up a 1-1 draw at Kashima before the break with wins against Reds and, on Sunday, Gamba.

All of this has been good enough to lift them into a lofty third place in the table, just three points off the pace and with confidence sky-high.

It's all looking very positive at Kashiwa at the moment, and they have one big advantage over their rivals at the top in that they can concentrate solely on J1.

They are out of the Nabisco Cup and, unlike Reds, Antlers and Gamba, have no involvement in the AFC Champions League.

There is no need to rest players, no need to rotate the squad to avoid exhaustion in a fixture backlog; their only focus is on the next league game.

In addition to this, they don't have any players in the national squad, and will lose only one -- Tadanari Lee -- to the Olympics.

This is enabling coach Ishizaki to turn out a fresh and full-strength team for every game, while most other clubs do not have this luxury.

Although Lee will be a big loss with his pace and his vibrancy, the artist Franca is back in business, and the lively Suganuma is ready to step up from the bench and can fit into the Reysol style smoothly.

Franca is far from match fit after his long injury lay-off, but his feet and his brain are as quick as ever, as he proved by setting up Ota's decider against Reds with a nonchalant through-ball and Lee's winner against Gamba with a lay-off from Popo's pass.

Gamba's keeper, Fujigaya, should have done better with Lee's low drive from the edge of the box, but that is not Reysol's problem.

Player for player, Reysol fall short of Reds, Antlers and Gamba, but in terms of a settled team and detailed preparation for the next league match, Kashiwa have an advantage.

For them, they can indeed treat every J1 game like a cup final, even before the season has reached halfway.

ends