JEF United Ichihara Chiba enjoyed a 2-1 win over FC Tokyo at the National stadium in Tokyo in a Saturday evening game played in late April.   Like Marinos, JEF are one of only a few teams to have competed in Japan's top flight of football every year since its inception in 1993.   After stuggling for a number of months it was felt that the club needed stabilisation and appointed the dour yet defensive Scottish coach Alex Miller.   He managed to stabilse the club a it flirted with relegation and he saved the side form the drop at the end of the 2008 season. 

FC Tokyo are not essentially based in Tokyo city; that is the centre of Tokyo.  Like JEF Chiba and a host of other clubs they are in located in the Tokyo prefecture with games being played in Chufu City at the Ajinomoto Stadium.   For most home matches it uses the Ajinomoto Stadium as its home ground but many games such as the one against JEF are played at the National Stadium in Shinjuku in central Tokyo.    For many years the club has played at various football fields such as the National Yoyogi Stadium, the National Nishigaoka Football Field, the Edogawa Special Ward Stadium, and the Komazawa Olympic Park Stadium.   It was not until 2001 that it finally found a permanent home at the Ajinomoto Stadia.

The club's foundation are in being the works team of the Tokyo Gas company; as such this affiliation with energy can stil be seen through a shirt sponsorship with ENEOS a prominant Japanese petro-chemical company.  At the central Adidas superstore in Shinjuku only two shirts were on sale.  One was the Japan national team shirt and the other was FC Tokyo.

The match was the 6th game of the 2009 J-League season  with the season running March to December and in the previous weeks outing Tokyo had produced a strong performance against Kashima Antlers but had tailed off near full time.    JEF meanwhile were on a winless run stretching back three weeks and were over reliant on counter attack moves through long balls to forward Maki.   

The visitors JEF kicked off shortly after 7pm on a cool spring evening in the National Stadium backed by an enthusiatic travelling support of over 5,000 JEF played in there normal yellow and green shirts.   Like FC Tokyo the JEF team began as the company team of an energy company, the 'Furukawa Electric Soccer Club'.   This has developed into the modern day team name of  JEF United Ichihara Chiba.  Ishikawa's gave Tokyo a deserved Lead midway through the first half

In the 20th.minute Chiba broke and Tokunaga obstructed Fukai in the build up. The Tokyo defence held firm to repel the danger but conceded a corner that Gonda dealt with comfortably. Kondo blazed over the bar from the left of the Chiba penalty area in the 26th.minute and Hanyu and Ishikawa combined neatly to open the visitorsf defence in the 38th.minute. While Tokyo were unable to create further openings the defence calmly smothered the Chiba attack and the first half finished with the score at 1-0.

JEF United started the second half aggressively and with purpose and it would culminate in FC Tokyo conceding twice in the closing few minutes.    Chiba finally made the breakthough in the 86th minute as midfielder Alex took the ball from a throw in and raced down the left before driving a low cross into the heart of the Tokyo area.   Maki slid in completely unmarked to bury the ball past Gonda and tie the score.    Tokyo had lapsed in concentration at a crucial part of the game and had paid the price.  

Desperate to take the three points at home FC Tokyo pressed forward in the time remaining while Chiba hoisted long balls towards Maki in response.   With only seconds remaining in injury time Okamoto hoofed a goal kick upfield, Maki won the header and directed the ball down to Fukai. Fukai held off a defender, exchanged passes with Yazawa and burst through the Tokyo defence before deftly clipping the ball beyond the FC Tokyo keeper as the keeper raced off his line.

Chiba's tenacity and Tokyo's dramatic deflation had allowed the visitors to inflict a shocking defeat, the second consecutive home loss and this was felt hard amongst the home fans underneath the scoreboard.  As the teams lined up at the end of the game the home side were booed off with players bowing in apology before tropping off sadly.

editor in Tokyo