Football Japan Minutecast

National team stalwart Shunsuke Nakamura has reportedly agreed to end his eight-year spell in Europe and return to the J. League with former club Yokohama F. Marinos.

The former Reggina and Celtic star has struggled to settle into life in Spain with Espanyol despite being heralded as a genuine coup for the Barcelona-based club when his signature was announced last June. Nakamura made only his 13th La Liga appearance as an 86th-minute substitute during his side�fs 2-1 defeat in Malaga last night, but having not even been named on the bench for the previous four matches, the 31-year-old was given permission earlier this month to begin talks with the club he first joined out of high school back in 1997.

The Marinos management have made little secret of their desire to bring Nakamura back �ehome�f for a number of years, but were left disappointed when he opted for Espanyol despite flying into Yokohama for talks last summer. Seven months on, negotiations with the player�fs agent now finally appear to have succeeded, and a long-awaited return to the Nissan Stadium should be concluded within the week as soon as a transfer fee is agreed between the two clubs.

Nakamura spent three years in Serie A with Reggina before enjoying the most successful spell of his career in Scotland, helping Celtic to six major honours in four seasons and being named both Player and Footballer of the Year in 2007. Newly-appointed Marinos coach Kazushi Kimura has expressed the hope that a J. League return will allow the midfielder to recover his form ahead of this summer�fs World Cup, where he will seek to add to his 93 Japan caps and 24 goals.

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The East Asian club season gets under way this week with the first round of matches in the 2010 AFC Champions League. J. League title-holders Kashima Antlers host Changchun Yatai of China tomorrow evening, Kawasaki Frontale visit Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma of Korea, while Wednesday�fs matches see Gamba Osaka travel to Suwon Samsung Bluewings and first-time qualifiers Sanfrecce Hiroshima take on Shandong Luneng.

Kashima and Gamba will then meet for the Fuji Xerox Super Cup in Tokyo to officially open the Japanese season on Saturday.

China are the winners of the 2010 East Asian Championship after host nation Japan went down to a ill-tempered 3-1 defeat in the tournament�fs final game against South Korea in Tokyo yesterday evening.

Needing to better China�fs 2-0 victory over Hong Kong earlier in the day to take their first ever honours in the competition, Japan got off to a perfect start when Yasuhito Endo fired home a 23rd minute penalty after Marcus Tulio Tanaka had been hauled to the ground by Korean defender Kang Min-Soo. The lead lasted just ten minutes, however, as Atsuto Uchida�fs trip on Kim Bo-Kyung gave Lee Dong-Gook the chance to level from the spot - heralding eight minutes of madness that saw the hosts fall both a goal and a man down.

Lee Seung-Ryul�fs speculative shot deflected off the back of Japan captain Yuji Nakazawa - making his 100th appearance for the national side - to give South Korea the lead on 39 minutes, before Tulio was sent off for allegedly aiming a kick at Kang Min-Soo moments later.

Japan rallied after the interval and were given a huge boost when numerical parity was restored with a second yellow card for visiting skipper Kim Jung-Woo, but once again struggled to create enough clear chances despite dominating much of the possession. Instead, it was the Koreans that broke down to the other end and sealed all three points courtesy of a fine curling effort from Kim Jae-Sung from the edge of the box with 20 minutes remaining.

Coach Takeshi Okada apologised for the performance after the game, but defiantly refused to change his opinion that a semi-final appearance at this summer�fs World Cup remains a fair and realistic objective.

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Japan had gone into the final day in joint first place after beating Hong Kong 3-0 last Thursday thanks to a Keiji Tamada brace either side of a headed effort from Tulio, but it was China�fs shock win by a similar scoreline over South Korea 24 hours earlier that ultimately proved most crucial. The title is China�fs second from the four East Asian Championships held to date, while Japan - runners-up on all three previous occasions - were ultimately relegated to third.


East Asian Championship 2010 results
China 3-0 South Korea
Japan 3-0 Hong Kong
Hong Kong 0-2 China
Japan 1-3 South Korea

The Japanese national team suffered the ignominy of being booed by their own supporters after opening their East Asian Championship campaign with a 0-0 draw against China in Tokyo. The result came off the back of a similar goalless stalemate in a friendly with Venezuela in Oita last Tuesday.

Having given a much heralded start to Mitsuo Ogasawara against Venezuela, Takeshi Okada opted to replace the Kashima Antlers midfielder on Saturday with the returning Keiji Tamada, who had missed out through injury four days earlier. The Nagoya Grampus striker and Kengo Nakamura of Kawasaki Frontale were both guilty of firing off target with Japan�fs best two opportunities in a scrappy first half, which saw Chinese defender Rong Hao hit the side netting from distance as the visitors grew in confidence.

Japan picked up the tempo after the half time interval and were unlucky not to go in front when Atsuto Uchida�fs shot bounced off the inside of the post into the grateful arms of goalkeeper Yang Zhi, but the home side struggled to create many clear cut chances thereafter despite continuing to control much of the possession. Indeed, it was China who came closest to breaking the deadlock when Yuto Nagatomo was penalised for handling in the area ten minutes from time, but Seigo Narazaki kept out Yang Hao�fs weak spot kick to at least ensure that the game finished even.

Despite the chorus of boos that echoed around a half-full Ajinomoto Stadium at the final whistle, Okada was quick to take encouragement from the domination that his team had enjoyed, and suggested that greater penetration in the final third would come with more match practice.

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In the weekend�fs other match, reigning champions South Korea got their title defence off to a fine start with a 5-0 victory over tournament underdogs Hong Kong. Goals from Kim Jung-Woo, Gu Ja-Cheol, Lee Dong-Gook, and Lee Seung-Ryul gave the Koreans a 4-0 advantage inside just 37 minutes, before No Byung-Jun added a fifth in second half stoppage time. Japan will now look for a similar performance against Hong Kong on Thursday, before taking on South Korea in the competition�fs final game on Sunday.


East Asian Championship 2010 results
Japan 0-0 China
South Korea 5-0 Hong Kong

Friendly match result
Japan 0-0 Venezuela