FC Tokyo aiming to step on the gas

What does a club do when it has just won the second division at a canter and has been crowned national Cup champions for the first time in its history? Sign a new coach, if that club is FC Tokyo.

The capital outfit celebrated beating Kyoto Sanga 4-2 in the Emperor's Cup final on New Year's Day by officially announcing Serb tactician Ranko Popovic as its new coach barely a day later. Popovic takes over after leading third-tier neighbours Machida Zelvia into J2, with former FC Tokyo Kiyoshi Okuma coach moving back to an administrative role within the club.

Popovic has some experience at this level. He arrived in Japan as an assistant to compatriot Mihailo Petrovic at Sanfrecce Hiroshima in 2006, before taking over the doomed Oita Trinita after their relegation from J1 had been all but confirmed in 2009. When the Kyushu side couldn't afford to retain his services, Popovic moved to western Tokyo to take charge of the upwardly Machida Zelvia.

Now he's has made the short hop over to Chofu to take on an FC Tokyo squad rippling with talent. Japan international and fan-favourite Yasuyuki Konno may have moved to Gamba Osaka, but 'the Gasmen' still have plenty of strikepower on their books. Goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda, winger Naohiro Ishikawa and towering striker Sota Hirayama are often on the fringes of national team selection, while the gritty Masato Morishige, veteran striker Lucas Severino and youngster Takuji Yonemoto - who is looking to re-establish himself after a couple of injury-riddled campaigns - would force their way into most top-flight squads.

Equally impressive is the fact the Gasmen have strengthened their squad with a couple of impressive signings. Bustling striker Kazuma Watanabe and Iranian-Japanese midfielder Aria Jasuru Hasegawa have both joined from nearby Yokohama F. Marinos after struggling to make an impact at the Tricolore last season. Both offer versatility and will increase the battle for squad places, as does youngster Hiroki Kawano, who joins from stadium co-tenants Tokyo Verdy. Add to that the fact Yohei Otake and Kentaro Shigematsu both enjoyed top-flight football on loan last season and the capital club should prove a formidable force on their return to the top flight.

But while FC Tokyo are looking to build on the performances of Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Cerezo Osaka and Kashiwa Reysol before them - who all qualified for the AFC Champions League just a season after promotion, the latter as J1 champions - the Gasmen already have Champions League football to contend with. They've been drawn in Group F of the Champions League alongside A-League champions Brisbane Roar, South Korean side Ulsan Hyundai and Chinese powerhouses Beijing Guoan, courtesy of winning the Emperor's Cup. And with the Champions League group stage once again jammed up against a packed J. League fixture list, rumours have already surfaced Popovic will field a second-string line-up for continental fixtures and play his first team in the league.

Whatever happens over the early rounds of the 2012 J. League season, the phrase "too good to go down" will reappear any time FC Tokyo take to the pitch. The club from the western outskirts of Tokyo city may only have a League Cup and now an Emperor's Cup trophy to show for their efforts, but they remain one of the more popular and better resourced outfits in the division. Yet such sentiment hasn't spared them before. They went down in 2010 despite being tipped as one of the favourites to win J1, and they'll hope history doesn't repeat itself when top-flight football makes a welcome return to Ajinomoto Stadium in March.

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Agony for FC Tokyo, ecstasy for Vissel Kobe

What has numerous stadia, 35 million people and two struggling football teams?

You're wrong if you answered Qatar - it barely has any of those - but closer to the mark if you answered Tokyo; that megalopolis of neon lights, dense alleyways and comic kitsch so often associated with the less serious side of Japan.

In the same week Japan's bid to host the 2022 World Cup ground to a predictable halt, so too did top flight football in the capital, courtesy of a pair of extraordinary results on the final day of the 2010 J. League season.

Going into their last league game of the season away at Kyoto Sanga, FC Tokyo held a one-point advantage over sixteenth placed Vissel Kobe. That meant the capital club needed to win to guarantee themselves a place in J1 next season, or hope Vissel Kobe lost to Urawa Reds.

As fate would have it, neither occurred, with FC Tokyo surrendering meekly to Kyoto in a 2-0 defeat on the road, while Vissel Kobe thumped a lifeless Urawa Reds 4-0 in front of a stunned crowd at Saitama Stadium.

That means both of Tokyo's professional clubs will languish in J2 next season, with FC Tokyo joining Ajinomoto Stadium co-tenants Tokyo Verdy in the second tier of the Japanese game.

FC Tokyo's fall from grace is a surprising one given that some critics tipped them as dark horses for the title this season. In coach Hiroshi Jofuku, they had an attacking tactician not afraid to hand youth a chance, while names like Yasuyuki Konno, Naohiro Ishikawa and the mercurial Sota Hirayama suggested the capital club should have had enough talent to finish in the top half of the table.

But fresh from winning the 2009 League Cup title, FC Tokyo simply never got started in the 2010 league campaign, and with the club struggling in the lower reaches for most of the season, Jofuku was dismissed to make way for Kiyoshi Okuma to steady the ship.

Okuma was in charge when FC Tokyo made its top flight debut in 2000, but the former player failed to steer the Chofu-based outfit to safety, leaving one of Japan's best supported clubs to scrap it out in the second division next season.

FC Tokyo's despair is in stark contrast to Vissel Kobe's joy, as the Kansai side went on a seven-game unbeaten run to salvage their J1 status at the death. Vissel also sacked coach Toshiya Miura late in the campaign, but his replacement Masahiro Wada came up trumps to steer the much-maligned outfit to safety.

Vissel's regional rivals Nagoya Grampus had already wrapped up the title weeks ago, and with Gamba Osaka and Cerezo Osaka edging out Kashima Antlers for the remaining two AFC Champions League places, the balance of power could be shifting west in Japanese football.

The Kanto plain has long been a J. League stronghold, but with Kashima failing to win a fourth straight title and the likes of Kawasaki Frontale, Yokohama F. Marinos and Urawa Reds struggling to make much of an impact, it's the traditionally baseball-mad western region currently celebrating football success.

Kashiwa Reysol coast to J2 title

It's not all bad news for Kanto football fans after Kashiwa Reysol coasted to the J2 title, finishing ten points ahead of second placed Ventforet Kofu.

The pair will be joined in the top flight next season by Kyushu side Avispa Fukuoka, who ended a three-year spell in the second tier by comfortably securing a promotion place.

'King Kazu' strikes again

He's almost old enough for a walking stick, but in a land that venerates experience, Kazu Miura shows no signs of slowing down. The ageing veteran broke his own J2 goalscoring record on the final day of the season, scoring for Yokohama FC in a 2-2 draw away at Oita Trinita.

Copyright © Mike Tuckerman & Soccerphile.com

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