World Cup player to watch - Japan

Japan are perhaps due to have a strong World Cup campaign. They became the first team to join hosts South Africa in the tournament draw, their fourth consecutive appearance, and are well-equipped according to the FIFA World Cup odds to finally do themselves justice on the world stage.

A last 16 appearance in 2002 was no mean feat, but that effort on home soil was over-shadowed by co-hosts South Korea’s run to the semi finals. That campaign was over-reliant on the craft of Hidetoshi Nakata, as were most of Japan’s recent appearances at major tournaments.

The rest of the squad was comprised of limited, hard-working players whose energetic pressing of the opposition did not achieve the same level of success that a similar style of play did for South Korea. Takeshi Okada’s current squad has a similar complexion, with World Cup In-play betting experts naming Shunsuke Nakamura as the current ace in the pack.

The former Celtic midfielder is a veteran of Japanese football but has flourished in recent years. He is set to become the fourth player to reach 100 caps for Japan and is playing the best football of his career.

Versatile enough to play across midfield, Nakamura’s outstanding quality is his wand-like left foot that unlocks defences with disguised passes and dangerous crosses. It gives him a fair share of superb goals, with long range shots and direct free-kicks a speciality.

Nakamura was left out of the 2002 squad due to a perceived lack of physical presence, but eight years in European leagues has helped him become stronger on the ball and more robust in the challenge.

However, Okada will not want his star man mired in midfield battles. The rest of his well-organised team can lay the foundations for a successful campaign; it is down to Nakamura to provide the special factor that can deliver another knockout stage appearance.

Are the Nevilles set for an England recall?

With just three months to go until the World Cup the race to make the plane to South Africa is most definitely on.

For England a mini injury crisis has really opened things up for players who may have thought their international careers were over or that a chance to play at the tournament was beyond their reach.

Two of those players are the Neville brothers, Gary and Phil. Fabio Capello has had to deal with a host of injuries in the full-back positions with Ashley Cole and Wes Brown both out with long-term foot injuries and Glenn Johnson easing his way back after three months on the sidelines. Wayne Bridges' decision to declare himself unavailable after the John Terry scandal has only compounded Capello's troubles.

But in the Nevilles he has an experienced pair of heads who would slot into the side with no trouble. Older brother Gary has 85 caps to his name and his experience would be invaluable. He has come in for criticism this season for his lack of pace and although the 35-year-old isn't as quick as he once was, his recent steady performances, including an excellent game against Liverpool last weekend, have fuelled rumours of a recall and boosted Manchester United's Premier League title hopes.

His younger brother Phil is also enjoying a fruitful run of form. Since leaving Manchester United five years ago the younger Neville has become more accustomed to playing in the midfield, where he displayed his leadership skills as captain. But in recent weeks he has had an extended run back at right-back and has helped Everton recover from their poor start to the season and climb the table - winning seven home games on the spin into the bargain.

With 59 caps to his name Phil also has plenty of experience, along with the added ability of being able to play right across the back four. He has been in the squad for three European Championships in 1996, 2000 and 2004 but has always missed out on playing at a World Cup. He last represented England in October 2007.

It would be a fairytale if one or both of the Nevilles made it to South Africa after effectively conceding in their international careers were over. One thing's for certain - Capello will need to plug those defensive gaps if England are to have any chance of justifying their online World Cup odds.

Indeed, the World Cup is often being in the right place at the right time and with England's injury woes mounting the Nevilles are certainly in the right place.

World Cup player to watch - Argentina

Lionel Messi will celebrate his 23rd birthday during the World Cup, a reminder of how young the Argentinean is to be an established world star. The 2009 FIFA World Player of the Year will be one of the major attractions at this summer's finals, as it seems inconceivable that Messi will miss out as he did in 2006.

Coach Jose Pekerman handed Messi, who had struggled with injury in the run-up to the tournament, only one start in Germany. He still managed to become the youngest player to represent Argentina at a World Cup and the event's sixth youngest scorer. However, it was not a happy tournament for Messi who struggled to find his role in a team whose manager did not know his best line-up.

Argentina will arrive at the 2010 World Cup with in a similar quandary, as Diego Milito, Carlos Tevez, Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Aguero all have excellent cases for inclusion. One thing is for sure, Messi will not be warming the bench as he was four years ago.

Inevitable comparisons with current manager Diego Maradona have been drawn - Messi possesses the same mesmeric dribbling ability, low centre of gravity and wand-like left foot. The protege would no doubt be happy to make half the impact Maradona did at Mexico 86.

The current Argentina vintage have more strength in depth, but their inconsistency makes them something of an outsider in the World Cup betting prices. Still, they will be fun to watch, not least due to the presence of Messi, who has all the attributes to be named winner of the Golden Ball.

2010 - The year of the crisis club?

With the global economic crisis affecting everyone from car makers to shopkeepers it is no surprise that football, arguably the second most financially mismanaged industry in the world after banking, would be affected.

The club making the most headlines in England is Portsmouth, given their dramatic fall from FA Cup winners in 2008 to becoming the first top division side to enter administration.

But lower down the leagues there is another example of a club that has fallen to due to financial mismanagement yet has failed to garner such publicity.

125-year-old Chester City were officially expelled from the Football Conference last week after a meeting of their fellow clubs. The side admitted breaching five league rules and their results have now been expunged.

Unable to fulfil their fixtures it is also a possibility that they will be shut down completely in a high court winding-up order in March 10th over an unpaid tax bill of £26,125.

But how did they get into such a mess?

Well the fans put much of the blame at the door of chairman Stephen Vaughan, who has been at the club since 2001, though the credit crunch and a period of general belt tightening can't have helped.

With the club struggling in League Two last season a lack of funds meant they failed to strengthen their squad and as the club sunk to the foot of the table the subsequent drop in attendances resulted in the club going into administration when the season ended in May.

After being docked 10 points, it was revealed they had debts of up to £7 million and they were initially refused a trading licence by the Football Association. They were allowed to start this season, thanks to a unanimous vote from their fellow Blue Square Premier clubs, but only after the acceptance of a massive 25-point penalty.

However, due to the continued presence of the Vaughan family as the club's owners - who incidentally failed the FA‘s fit-and-proper person's test - the Football League chose to deny Chester a payment due to them after relegation from League Two. They were also overlooked for a one-off £30,000 hardship payment provided to all other Conference clubs by the Premier League.

This meant the players went unpaid from October onwards, resulting in them refusing to board the team bus for a recent match at Forest Green, and ultimately their expulsion from the Conference.

They may yet be a happy ending with talk of a fans-run phoenix club rising from the ashes, but there is no guarantee of league football ever returning to the city. So while we continue to read the tales of woe on the south coast remember they aren't the only ones suffering from football's financial disease.

However, things are not totally bleak at Portsmouth. Despite the problems they face they are in the FA Cup semi-finals and the FA Cup betting odds make them 12/1 shots to go all the way.

Meanwhile, England manager Fabio Capello is confident defender Wes Brown will recover from a broken foot in time to play in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Kashima begins J-League 2010 with a win

Kashima dispatched Urawa by a score of 2-0 to begin the 2010 J-League season. For an in-depth preview of the league, see Ben Maxwell's J-League 2010 season preview

J-League 2010 Season Preview: Prodigal sons return to challenge Kashima's dominance

By: Ben Maxwell

The 2009 J-League season ended in all too familiar fashion, with Kashima taking home their third straight title after holding off the late charges of perennial bridesmaids Kawasaki and Kansai-region powerhouse Gamba Osaka.

The 2010 Season kicks-off on Saturday, March 6, and several major talking points both on and off the pitch have raised expectations higher than for any season in recent memory. We've seen three of the biggest names in Japanese football return home from Europe; an established Japan international sign for a rival following an acrimonious split from his former club; and, perhaps looming largest of all, is the faltering performance of the national team and the battle for spots in manager Takeshi Okada's 23-man squad for the World Cup. As many as nine or ten places appear up for grabs and players will have roughly two months to impress Okada before the league goes into World Cup recess in mid-May.

The three returnees have reversed the trend of big J-League names heading to Europe to further their careers, started when Hidetoshi Nakata moved to Perugia in the late 90s. Most newsworthy of the trio of returning stars is Yokohama's prodigal son, Shunsuke Nakamura, who has returned to F Marinos following spells at Reggina, Glasgow Celtic and, most recently, Espanyol, where his much hyped "dream move" this past summer turned into a nightmare. Nakamura is the wrong side of 30, but his dead-ball artistry remains a weapon, and he will be counted on to improve a Yokohama team that has consistently underachieved since their last title in 2004, while also looking to fine-tune his own game ahead of South Africa after being starved of first-team action in Spain.

Junichi Inamoto, who spent the past eight and a half seasons bouncing around Europe (seven teams in four different countries), is starting afresh with Kawasaki, ostensibly to guarantee himself playing time before the World Cup, while Shinji Ono, a veteran of the past three World Cup squads, signed for Shimizu, following two and a half seasons in Germany with Bochum, having also spent almost five seasons with Feyenoord in an earlier spell in Europe.

These veterans still have plenty left in the tank, and haven't returned home simply to wind-up their careers, they will all play major roles for contending teams, especially in Inamoto's case, with Kawasaki hoping he will be the man to provide the extra steel in midfield to help deliver their first league title, or trophy for that matter, following consecutive second-placed finishes in the league and their third loss in the final of the Nabisco (League) Cup to F.C. Tokyo last November.

The two teams that appear most likely to push up the table in the new season, Urawa (who finished 6th in 2009) and Nagoya (9th), were at the centre of the biggest domestic story of the off-season, after national team defender Marcus Tulio Tanaka announced he would be leaving Urawa after six seasons. Tanaka, who was widely rumoured to have fallen out with Red Diamonds manager Volker Finke, eventually signed for Nagoya, despite having reportedly received offers from several European clubs. The big Brazilian-born centre half will help to shore up Grampus' defence, and a full season from giant Australian striker Josh Kennedy (no, he's not Jesus, he just looks like him), who scored six league goals in 15 appearances after his mid-season move from German club Karlsruhe, should enable Nagoya to score enough goals to push for a top six finish at worst.

Urawa wasted no time mourning Tanaka's absence however, signing Australian international central defender Matthew Spiranovic as a direct replacement, and adding emerging talent Yosuke Kashiwagi to an attack already boasting Brazilian striker Edmilson, who has averaged 15 goals a season in his six years in Japan. After two seasons out of contention, the sleeping giants of the J-League seem to have reloaded for a big season.

As for Okada's World Cup squad, 14 players appear nailed-on for trips to South Africa, which leaves nine spots to be fought for from a lengthy list of probables and possibles. The five games Japan has played so far in 2010 (in order, a friendly, three games in the East Asian Championship, and one dead-rubber Asian Cup qualifier) have only served to further muddy the picture for Okada, with the team playing in a decidedly disjointed fashion, and struggling against the physical approach of friendly opponents Venezuela. Therefore, the previously mentioned list of probables and possibles, headed by reigning J-League MVP Mitsuo Ogasawara of Kashima and flamboyant F.C. Tokyo winger Naohiro Ishikawa, have two months (12 league games) to make their cases to the under-fire Okada.

Once league play commences, the makeup of the World Cup squad is sure to dominate headlines, but on the pitch Kashima will certainly take some toppling, and Kawasaki and Gamba Osaka will again be right in the mix, but look for Urawa, Nagoya and F.C. Tokyo to make progress and make this, the 18th season of the J-League, the most hotly contested and most exciting yet.

Be Back Shortly...

Sorry for the delay in posts. My wife went down with an injury, thus real life calls till she heals. Thank you all for your continued support here at Soccer City FC