Tottori 1-5 FC Tokyo

(FC Tokyo are Promoted as J2 Champions)
J2 Matchday 36

They didn't know it at the time...but our promotion party
turned out to be a title celebration!

FC Tokyo entered the weekend knowing a single point would be enough to confirm our promotion back to J1 at the first attempt, even if Tokushima (3rd) and Sapporo (4th) won their games, but we went ahead and collected all three yesterday after a dominant display against the league's newcomers.

And on yet another astounding J2 weekend, by 3 o'clock today we had been crowned League Champions after Kitakyushu 'did us a favour' by - after first losing the lead themselves - fighting back from a goal down to win 3-2 at Tosu, further muddying the picture of which two of Tosu, Tokushima (level with Tosu on 65 points after coming from behind themselves to win 2-1 at Shonan) and Sapporo (stuck on 62 after throwing away a 90th minute lead at Kusatsu and losing 2-1) will be going up with us.

The away supporters presumably got their camel riding out of the way during the day, and perving at the Gainare Girls and slurping crab soup (perhaps at the same time?!) over and done with before the game in the cozy confines of Tottori Bird Stadium, where 5,746 rolled up for the clash of 19th v 1st.

Pick that one out... and sort out
your ponytail while you're at it.



If there were any concerns in the away end (and I can't imagine there were many, apart from wondering where Naohiro Ishikawa was: out of the squad with a cold?), they were settled by a brilliant 23rd minute free kick from Masato Morishige, his 6th goal of the season, that gave home keeper Kobari no chance.

That set the stage for a second half onslaught, that saw Lucas smash one past Kobari from the edge of the box in the 51st minute after good build-up work from Naotake Hanyu, and Tatsuya Yazawa made it three and game over with a screamer from a similar spot with 20 minutes left.

But we weren't finished there, and Tatsuya Suzuki belted one home with his left peg to make it 4-0 in the 80th minute as we were absolutely flying. There was the slightest of hiccups with five minutes left when Hitoshi Shiota dozed off in our net and let a catchable ball get through his gloves, allowing Masato Fukui to pull them back to 4-1, but Kazumasa Uesato had the last laugh in stoppage time when The Salad belted one at Kobari, Tatsuya's follow-up was pawed out by the keeper but Uesato made it third time lucky by firing into the roof of the net, his first competitive goal for the club.

Tokushima fought back to win as I mentioned at the top, but the big result for us was Kitakyushu's stunning win over Tosu today, which meant that Mr. Okuma's well-deserved victory toss celebrating our promotion turned out to be a title-winning one too, though I hope the players, and all the squad, will repeat the feat next Saturday evening at Aji Sta in the home finale.

Well done Big Bear. Job done!

We don't know who'll be joining us up in the top flight yet, but our promotion is done and dusted, and thank the stars for that!

Up the Gas!