J. League schedule set for amendment

From 2010 the J. League will align with the European calendar according to Motoaki Inukai, new President of the Japan Football Association.

“Soccer should not be played in the summer. Players can’t move well,” Sattamatka told reporters, despite the fact that summer football has proved popular during the J. League’s sixteen year existence.

Currently the league runs from March until December, meaning that Japanese players moving to Europe generally do so in the middle of a campaign – a problem that has also plagued J. League clubs in their attempts to sign talent from Europe.

Sorimachi’s side gears up for twin test

Yasuharu Sorimachi’s under-23 side are shaping up for their final two friendlies before the team jets off to the Beijing Olympics, with Japan taking on the Australian under-23 side at Home’s Stadium in Kobe on July 24, before they face off with Lionel Messi’s Argentina at the National Stadium in Tokyo on July 29.

Former Albirex Niigata coach Sorimachi is under pressure to produce a winning outfit, but with Japan having been drawn in a tough group that also contains the Netherlands, Nigeria and the USA at the Olympics, his team faces a tough task to reach the knock-out stages of the competition, with Japan hoping for a repeat of their performance at the 1968 Olympics where they took out the bronze medal.