Japanese Non-league Football News

Rosso Kumamoto might not be playing their thirtieth fixture of the 2006 JFL season until Sunday, but Saturday was still a pretty terrible day for the ambitious Kyushu side, bearing in mind their dreams of achieving promotion to the J-League. Needing a top-two finish, they have been squeezed out to fourth following wins for both Sagawa Kyubin Osaka and Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo, the former coming from behind to defeat Arte Takasaki with the winning goal coming early in the second half from star striker Sho Gokyu.

Sagawa Tokyo's main forward and the JFL's number one marksman Tetsuya Okubo was also on target as his team eased to a 2-0 victory over SC Tottori. The individual performance of the day, though, came from neither Okubo nor Gokyu, but from Alo's Hokuriku's Yoshio Kitagawa. He managed a sensational hat-trick in only five minutes just prior to half-time during a 4-1 win over Honda Lock, to move joint top alongside the Sagawa Tokyo man at the top of the goalscorers' ranking with 21 for the season.



Arte Takasaki goalscorer Toshihisa Ono. Rabbits and headlights, anyone?

Sat 11 Nov: Alo's Hokuriku 4-1 Honda Lock
Sat 11 Nov: Arte Takasaki 1-2 Sagawa Kyubin Osaka
Sat 11 Nov: Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo 2-0 SC Tottori

1 Honda FC 68 (+31)
2 Sagawa Kyubin Tokyo 65 (+44)
3 Sagawa Kyubin Osaka 60 (+32)
4 Rosso Kumamoto 59 (+25)
5 YKK AP 56 (+30)
6 Alo's Hokuriku 50 (+22)
7 Yokogawa Musashino 50 (+16)
8 Tochigi SC 46 (+11)
9 Sony Sendai 36 (-11)
10 JEF Club 32 (-12)
11 FC Kariya 30 (-14)
12 SC Tottori 29 (-1)
13 Arte Takasaki 29 (-29)
14 Sagawa Printing 28 (-22)
15 Ryutsu Keizai University 25 (-20)
16 FC Ryukyu 24 (-19)
17 Mitsubishi Mizushima 24 (-36)
18 Honda Lock 18 (-45)



Alo’s Hokuriku in blue take on Honda Lock