Summary: Taking us through the full range of football from Land of the Rising Sun is ONE World Sports contributor Ken Matsushima who helps us break down a very unpredictable J League once again, as well as the evolving fortunes of some big club names in the AFC Champions League. We begin nowhere else but the Golden Week Sprint where the fixtures come fast and furious and really now begin to test the resilience and endurance among the clubs poised to take control of the table in a World Cup year which could have lasting impact past the summer. We examine some of the surprises near the top, the full effects of the AFC Champions League, what has not yet begun to gel with Cerezo Osaka with its new leading man in Diego Forlan and how tiny Sendai may have just dug itself too deep a hole too soon. Then its off to maybe the one team in Sanfrecce Hiroshima who could look to the AFC Champions League as a bit extra validation to its dominance before we turn completely to the test laid before the Samurai Blue and Alberto Zaccheroni featuring two stars in Keisuke Honda and Shinji Kagawa who have struggled to meet expectations at new European clubs, yet will be expected to deliver this summer in Brazil. Are the Japanese darlings or darkhorses for the World Cup, time will answer that. However, expectations have never been higher and Ken explains why the answer may not lie in the stars, but in a key part of the pitch where Zaccheroni has major issues to consider.
