Japanese Non-league Football News

Although most of the focus of attention in the JFL on Sunday was towards the bottom of the table, Honda FC nevertheless managed to extend their lead at the top to five points over Rosso Kumamoto - but the title hopefuls will surely be feeling that this was a missed opportunity, given that they only drew 0-0 at home against Sony Sendai. The big winners of the day, however, were undoubtedly Ryutsu Keizai University, who dished out a 4-0 thrashing to Mitsubishi Mizushima in their relegation battle. With FC Ryukyu drawing at home to SC Tottori and FC Kariya needing a late equaliser to get a 1-1 tie at Honda Lock, RKU have jumped two crucial places in the division - a move yet bettered by Sagawa Printing, for whom Hideyuki Ishida scored a hat-trick in a 3-0 win over JEF Club. All of a sudden, things look even more serious for Mitsubishi and Ryukyu as they aim to stay out of the bottom two and the end-of-season relegation play-off.



Sagawa Printing before their match at JEF Club

Sun 13 Aug: FC Ryukyu 3-3 SC Tottori
Sun 13 Aug: Honda FC 0-0 Sony Sendai
Sun 13 Aug: Honda Lock 1-1 FC Kariya
Sun 13 Aug: JEF Club 0-3 Sagawa Printing
Sun 13 Aug: Mitsubishi Mizushima 0-4 Ryutsu Keizai University

1 Honda FC 54 (+24)
2 Rosso Kumamoto 49 (+24)
3 Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo 48 (+33)
4 Sagawa Kyubin Osaka 48 (+26)
5 YKK AP 46 (+25)
6 Yokogawa Musashino 41 (+11)
7 Tochigi SC 39 (+10)
8 Alo's Hokuriku 38 (+16)
9 Sony Sendai 33 (+5)
10 SC Tottori 24 (+1)
11 Sagawa Printing 23 (-17)
12 JEF Club 22 (-17)
13 Arte Takasaki 22 (-17)
14 Ryutsu Keizai University 21 (-15)
15 FC Kariya 20 (-18)
16 FC Ryukyu 19 (-13)
17 Mitsubishi Mizushima 17 (-36)
18 Honda Lock 10 (-42)



Honda Lock punish FC Kariya for their truly astonishing away kit