World Soccer - UK (2021-03)

WORLD SERVICE

ThursdayJanuary 21

SPAIN:Barcelona and Athletic
Bilbao survive Copa del Rey scares
against third-tier sides. Barca beat
Cornella in extra-time and Athletic
score in the 90th minute in Ibiza.

FridayJanuary 22

UAE:Shabab Al Ahli beat Sharjah
1-0 in the UAE Super Cup.
FRANCE:PSG move three points
clear at the top of Ligue1 after
a 4-0 victory over Montpellier.

SaturdayJanuary 23

ENGLAND:Cheltenham Town

score first but lose 3-1 to

Manchester City in the FA Cup.

ITALY:Milan remain top of Serie A

despite a 3-0 defeat to Atalanta.

SundayJanuary 24

ASIA:Tottenham forward Son

Heung-min is named the AFC’s

Best International Player of 2020.

ENGLAND:Manchester United

beat Liverpool 3-2 at OId Trafford

in the FA Cup fourth round.

TuesdayJanuary 26

ENGLAND:West Ham United move

into the top four with a 3-2 victory

at London rivals Crystal Palace.

ITALY:Inter come out on top

in a feisty Milan derby to reach

the Coppa Italia semi-finals.

WednesdayJanuary 27

ENGLAND:In one of the season’s

biggest upsets, Sheffield United

win 2-1 at Old Trafford.

ITALY:In another Coppa Italia

thriller, ten-man Atalanta come

from 2-1 down to beat Lazio 3-2.

ThursdayJanuary 28

ENGLAND:Liverpool end a five-

match winless run in the league

with a 3-1 win at Tottenham.

FridayJanuary 29

USA:Japan withdraw from

February’s SheBelieves Cup

in Florida due to a surge in

coronavirus cases in the USA.

to score South Korea’s second goal against Germany

deep in time added on at the 2018 World Cup.

Remarkably, Gamba will beJu’s first foreign club.

Massimo Ficcadenti, now starting his third year

in charge, lifted Nagoya

Grampus to third place in

the table last season to

secure their first Asian

Champions League berth

since 2012. The losses of

Schmidt to Kawasaki and veteran Korean defender

OhJae-suk to Incheon United will hurt, but the

attack has also been beefed up by the signing of

two quality veterans, Yoichiro Kakitani from Cerezo,

who played at the 2014 World Cup, and Manabu

Saito, capped six times forJapan, from Kawasaki.

Both had poor seasons in 2020 by their own high

standards but still have plenty to offer.

2021 could be the year of Osaka in the

J.League with Cerezo, fourth last season, also

advancing to the Asian Champions League play-off

stage and hoping to challenge for both domestic

and international success. Cerezo have turned for

the third time in nearly a quarter of a century to

veteran Brazilian coach Levir Culpi to mastermind

those campaigns. He previously managed Cerezo

in1997 and from 2007-13, nurturing such future

national team stars as Shinji Kagawa, Hotaru

Yamaguchi and Takashi Inui. Levir Culpi replaces

Spanish coach Miguel Angel Lotina, who moves

across to Shimizu S-Pulse.

Cerezo’s big signing is 2014 Australia World

Cup striker Adam Taggart (27), the A-League’s

top scorer with NewcastleJets in 2013-14, and

K League’s top scorer for Suwon Bluewings in 2019.

Yoshito Okubo, now 38, also returns to Cerezo, the

nest he left in 2006, from Tokyo Verdy.J.League

Player of the Year in 2015 and theJ.League’s top

scorer for three seasons

in a row from 2013-15

at Kawasaki, Okubo

representedJapan at the

2010 and 2014 World

Cups. But the illustrious

veteran has been warned

not to expect any favours.

Cerezo director of football

Satoshi Kajino says Okubo

willhavetoprovehis

worth or may last only a

couple of months, if that,

at his old club.

Cerezo have, meanwhile, lost three core foreign

players, striker Bruno Mendes to Avispa Fukuoka,

midfielder Leandro Luis Desabato, and Croatian

defender MatejJonjic, who only missed one league

game for Cerezo in the past four seasons, to

Shanghai Greenland Shenhua. It waits to be

seen how this will pan out.

Kashima Antlers, FC Tokyo and Kashiwa Reysol

can also be expected to mount strong challenges.

Kashima, champions eight times, haven’t won

anything for four seasons since their league and

Emperor’s Cup double of 2016, the year they were

also runners-up to Real Madrid in the FIFA Club

World Cup, but have always stayed in the hunt and

Everaldo, especially, was on fire last season with18

goals. Kashima have added two Brazilian midfielders

to their squad, Arthur Caike from Cruzeiro (where he

was on loan from Saudi club Al Shabab) and Diego

Pituca from Santos.

FC Tokyo have made few changes for Kenta

Hasegawa’s fourth year in charge but Kashiwa must

now learn to live without 2020J.League top scorer

Michael Olunga, who has moved on to Al Duhail of

Qatar. There could be pain at the back as well, where

Kashiwa have lost risingJapan keeper Kosuke

Nakamura to Portimonense.

With four teams going down this season (two

came up but none were relegated last year due to

COVID) the 2021 relegation battle may be especially

brutal. Shonan Bellmare and Vegalta Sendai were

the clubs spared automatic relegation in 2020 but

many others in the now 20-team first division will

also have to focus on avoiding the drop. That

number may even include 2020 Asian Champions

League semi-finalists Vissel Kobe, the club of Andres

Iniesta, Thomas Vermaelen and Sergi Samper, who

require a drastic upturn in domestic form after

winding up fifth from bottom last season.

Struggling...Vissel

Kobe duo Thomas

Vermaelen and

Andres Iniesta

Taggart...

left Suwon

Bluewings

for Cerezo

Osaka

The question in Japan today is not

which but if any club can catch

Kawasaki

One to watch...
Kashima Antlers
forward Everaldo