Japanese Non-league Football News

There was no movement whatsoever in the JFL table following the three fixtures on Saturday, but this is not to say that the games were insignificant. SC Tottori put two straight defeats behind them to move onto more familiar territory as the league's draw specialists with a 1-1 tie at home to Alo's Hokuriku - not the most remarkable result, admittedly - but elsewhere FC Kariya's 2-1 victory over JEF Club sees the Aichi-based club take a huge step towards safety at the foot of the table. For Kariya are now eight points ahead of Mitsubishi Mizushima in the relegation play-off positions, and indeed the same can now be said, too, of Sagawa Printing, whose surprise 2-0 win over Tochigi SC came off the back of two heavy defeats. While also enabling Printing to breathe more easily, the scoreline was a hammer blow to Tochigi's hopes of taking the title this season, given that they will be seven points behind Honda FC if the leaders their Sunday game against Sagawa Kyubin Osaka.



Noriaki Sanenobu bursts through the Alo’s defence for Tottori

Sat 22 Jul: FC Kariya 2-1 JEF Club
Sat 22 Jul: Sagawa Printing 2-0 Tochigi SC
Sat 22 Jul: SC Tottori 1-1 Alo's Hokuriku

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 (+12)
6 Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo 36 (+28)
7 YKK AP 36 (+21)
8 Alo's Hokuriku 34 (+15)
9 Sony Sendai 29 (+4)
10 SC Tottori 23 (+3)
11 Arte Takasaki 22 (-10)
12 JEF Club 19 (-8)
13 FC Kariya 19 (-16)
14 Sagawa Printing 19 (-18)
15 FC Ryukyu 12 (-13)
16 Ryutsu Keizai University 12 (-20)
17 Mitsubishi Mizushima 11 (-32)
18 Honda Lock 9 (-35)



Tochigi warm up before their defeat at Sagawa Printing