Japanese Non-league Football News

Former Rosso Kumamoto defender Daisuke Ueno's goal four minutes into the second half gave New Wave Kitakyushu victory in their crucial clash with fellow promotion hopefuls Volca Kagoshima in the Kyushu League on Sunday. Aiming for a top two finish and with four matches remaining, New Wave still have Nippon Steel Oita in their sights in spite of the latter's 1-0 win at Kaiho Bank SC - and just as importantly, NW still have a game in hand with which to overhaul the two-point gap between the teams. V Varen Nagasaki look certainties to take the championship itself, following their 3-2 defeat of Okinawa Kariyushi. But there was important action, too, at the bottom of the division, where Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagasaki dealt a hammer blow to Nanakuma Tombies' hopes of staying up with a 5-0 win, which enables Mitsubishi themselves to move above Osumi NIFS United and further towards safety.



New Wave Kitakyushu celebrate their goal against Volca Kagoshima

Sun 16 Jul: Kaiho Bank SC 0-1 Nippon Steel Oita
Sun 16 Jul: Nanakuma Tombies 0-5 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagasaki
Sun 16 Jul: New Wave Kitakyushu 1-0 Volca Kagoshima
Sun 16 Jul: Okinawa Kariyushi 2-3 V Varen Nagasaki

1 V Varen Nagasaki 34 (+24)
2 Nippon Steel Oita 31 (+25)
3 New Wave Kitakyushu 29 (+17)
4 Volca Kagoshima 27 (+17)
5 Okinawa Kariyushi 21 (+4)
6 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagasaki 9 (-11)
7 Osumi NIFS United 8 (-17)
8 Nanakuma Tombies 5 (-37)
9 Kaiho Bank SC 4 (-22)

The 2006 Kansai League Division 1 season drew to a close on Sunday, with reigning champions Banditonce Kobe confirming the fact that they have retained their title as without doubt the strongest team outside of the J-League and the JFL in the Kansai area. Their 4-1 win over Kobe FC 1970 meant they finish six points ahead of their nearest challengers, FC Mi-o Biwako Kusatsu, who ended what for them has also been a highly successful year with a 2-2 draw against Ain Food. The big battle to avoid relegation was fought out between Kyoto Shiko Club and AS Laranja Kyoto, an emphatic 4-0 win for Laranja ensuring that the 2004 league winners stay up, whilst condemning their cross-city rivals to return immediately to Division 2. Joining Shiko in the second tier will be Takada FC, who wound up the year on something of a low as they suffered a remarkable 9-3 thrashing from Sanyo Electric Sumoto.



Banditonce Kobe celebrate taking the Kansai League title with some chic new merchandise

Sun 16 Jul: FC Mi-o Biwako Kusatsu 2-2 Ain Food
Sun 16 Jul: Kobe FC 1970 1-4 Banditonce Kobe
Sun 16 Jul: Kyoto Shiko Club 0-4 AS Laranja Kyoto
Sun 16 Jul: Sanyo Electric Sumoto 9-3 Takada FC

1 Banditonce Kobe 35 (+26)
2 FC Mi-o Biwako Kusatsu 29 (+17)
3 Kobe FC 1970 22 (-5)
4 Sanyo Electric Sumoto 19 (+4)
5 Ain Food 17 (-1)
6 AS Laranja Kyoto 16 (-6)
7 Kyoto Shiko Club 12 (-10)
8 Takada FC 11 (-25)

A dramatic late goal from Isao Kubota gave Tochigi SC a crucial 3-2 win against SC Tottori in perhaps the most significant of the three JFL fixtures to be played on Sunday, meaning that Tochigi cut the gap between themselves and Yokogawa Musashino in fourth place to a single point and therefore stay in touch with the leading group of teams. It was hard luck on Tottori, who when pulling the game back to 2-2 on the 86th minute must have expected a point - whereas YKK AP must in the end be thrilled with a draw in their game against FC Kariya, for whom Takeshi Kobayashi had made it 2-0 with just four minutes remaining. But the former league leaders YKK fought back and amazingly scored twice in the last couple of minutes to send Kariya back to Aichi no doubt just a touch disappointed. The third game of the day was the company derby match between Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo and Sagawa Kyubin Osaka, with goal machine Tetsuya Okubo's 63rd-minute strike giving the win to Tokyo and preventing their rivals from down country going back above Rosso Kumamoto in second place.



A somewhat misty view of the Sagawa Kyubin derby

Sun 16 Jul: Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo 1-0 Sagawa Kyubin Osaka
Sun 16 Jul: Tochigi SC 3-2 SC Tottori
Sun 16 Jul: YKK AP 2-2 FC Kariya

1 Honda FC 44 (+20)
2 Rosso Kumamoto 40 (+16)
3 Sagawa Kyubin Osaka 39 (+20)
4 Yokogawa Musashino 39 (+13)
5 Tochigi SC 38 (+14)
6 Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo 36 (+28)
7 YKK AP 36 (+21)
8 Alo's Hokuriku 33 (+15)
9 Sony Sendai 29 (+4)
10 SC Tottori 22 (+3)
11 Arte Takasaki 22 (-10)
12 JEF Club 16 (-9)
13 FC Kariya 16 (-17)
14 Sagawa Printing 16 (-20)
15 FC Ryukyu 12 (-13)
16 Ryutsu Keizai University 12 (-20)
17 Mitsubishi Mizushima 11 (-32)
18 Honda Lock 9 (-33)



The Tottori defence under pressure at Tochigi