The J-Talk Podcast

JTET - J2 Round 16 Review

Screamingly late this week (apologies!), Jon Steele presents a solo review of all of last weekend's J2 action (Round 16) in a 17-minute mini-pod.

As well as reviewing the on-field action, Jon picks a 'Most Bravo Player' (14:00 to 15:00), and previews all of the upcoming Round 17 matches (15:00 to Finish).

The sound quality of this week's episode is noticeably worse than usual, so apologies for that too - not sure exactly what the issue is, but we'll try to get it sorted for future pods!

Episode 521 - J1 Matchdays 14 & 15

Jonny and Ben dive right into their round-up of the weekend's J1 Matchday 15 with Machida's big home win over Tokyo Verdy and Kashima's home triumph over champions Kobe (to 13:50), before running through the other eight games, linking in results from Matchday 14 played in midweek where appropriate.

We finish the episode with a look at what's coming up in the Japanese game, including Yokohama F.Marinos' trip to the UAE for the 2nd Leg of the ACL Final.

J-Talk: Short Corner – J3 Round 14

After another action-packed round of fixtures in Japan’s 3rd tier, JTSC host Mike Innes has a full review of J3 round 14, and a preview of Wednesday’s Levain Cup and the weekend’s Emperor’s Cup matches involving J3 teams.

J-Talk: Extra Time – J2 Season So Far & JTSC

In a slight change of pace, James Taylor and Jon Steele decided to step back and take stock of the J2 season so far, focusing on 5 teams in particular: Shimizu S-Pulse (start to 07:35), Vegalta Sendai (to 14:45), Iwaki FC (to 23:45), Montedio Yamagata (to 33:15), and Tochigi SC (to 41:10). That’s followed by a preview of the matchday 16 fixtures and Levain Cup matches involving J2 teams (to 53:10). After that, J-Talk: Short Corner host Mike Innes has all the details of J3 teams’ efforts to qualify for the Emperor’s Cup via prefectural qualifying tournaments (to end).

 

*To get some pass notes on any of the games that we don't discuss on the pod, feel free to join our dedicated JTET/JTSC Discord server here: https://discord.gg/pngqMZ7hwD

Episode 520 - ACL Final 1st Leg & J1 Matchday 13

This bumper episode features Stuart Woodward on the first leg of the ACL Final, then a full review of the nine J1 games played over the weekend.

In Part 1 Stuart takes us inside the Nissan Stadium for that roller coaster of a first leg, with Yokohama F.Marinos holding a slender advantage after a VAR-assisted 2-1 victory over Al Ain on Saturday night (to 31:50).

Then in Part 2 Jonny and Ben run through the top flight results, beginning with the 3-3 draws involving the two Tokyo clubs (to 50:30), before we move on to Kobe's statement of intent away at Cerezo Osaka, Gamba Osaka's rise and more, before we finish with a look ahead to the next two rounds of fixtures.

#Apologies if the audio is not up to our usual standard, our regular recording software was not co-operating on Monday night, so we had to go to Plan B.#

JTET - Golden Week Review (J2 Round 13 & 14 / J3 Round 12 & 13)

After a packed double-header of Golden Week matches in both J2 and J3, the JTET team are back to catch you up on all of the major talking points from last week's action.

In Part 1, James and Jon look back on some of the big games from last Friday in J2 (Round 13). The focus is placed initially on Yamagata's exciting 2-2 draw against Okayama (02:00 to 10:10), then the boys talk about Fujieda's massive home win over Gunma in the relegation dogfight (10:10 to 20:50).

In Part 2, the gentlemen turn their attentions to Monday's J2 slate (Round 14). Under examination are Tokushima's statement win away at Okayama (21:00 to 31:15), followed by more relegation dogfight news with under-new-management Mito's win at home to Kumamoto (31:15 to 43:30).

After a quick break, James and Jon then select their 'Most Bravo Player' of the Golden Week games (43:35 to 48:45), and preview the upcoming Round 15 games on the weekend card (48:45 to 54:45).

It's then time to hand over the reigns to Mike Innes for the regular 'J-Talk: Short Corner' segment of the pod, with all of the J3 action from the holiday period rounded up (54:45 to Finish). Mike also looks ahead to the weekend's J3-inflected football, as the third tier takes a break to allow most teams to take part in prefectural tournament finals/Emperor's Cup qualifying games.

Hope everyone enjoys the pod, and their weekend football!

Episode 519 - J1 Golden Week Roundup

With Jonny back in the co-hosts chair, this new episode features a full rundown of both rounds of top flight fixtures played over Golden Week.

We begin with Jonny's travels while his mum was visiting the country, and Japan's triumph in the Under 23 Asian Cup final against Uzbekistan, with their ticket to Paris stamped after the semi final win over Iraq (to 13:25).

Then Jonny reviews the Osaka Derby, with Gamba earning a first victory in the fixture for five years (to 27:55), before we move on to the four teams that won both of their Golden Week games - Machida, Kobe, Kashima and FC Tokyo - who all leapfrogged above Cerezo Osaka and now occupy the top four spots in the table (to 54:05).

Next we chat about the rest of the games from Monday's J1 Matchday 12, including Hiroshima's first loss, Tokyo Verdy going two-for-two over Golden Week, and Shonan hauling themselves off the bottom, before we finish with a chat about the first leg of the ACL Final, and the weekend's Matchday 13.

J-Talk: Extra Time – J2 Round 12, J3 Round 11 & Levain Cup

James Taylor, Jon Steele and Mike Innes joined forces for another full and frank review of all the latest J2 and J3 football. First, James and Jon discussed Okayama v Shimizu (start to 07:20), Akita v Yokohama FC (to 17:35), Mito v Fujieda (to 24:55), and Tokushima v Yamagata (to 34:20). Then, they chose their Most Bravo Players of the weekend (to 37:50), and previewed a busy weekend of Golden Week football (to 47:05). After that, Mike Innes takes over for a run through of the Levain Cup games involving J3 teams (to 53:55) and a roundup of the matchday 11 league fixtures (to 1:10:50), before ending with a preview of the holiday weekend’s fixtures (to end).

 

*To get some pass notes on any of the games that we don't discuss on the pod, feel free to join our dedicated JTET/JTSC Discord server here: https://discord.gg/pngqMZ7hwD

Episode 518 - F.Marinos reach ACL Final, & J1 Matchday 10

In this week's episode Alan Gibson slid into the co-hosts chair with Jonny away, as we reviewed a huge week in Japanese football, joined by special guest Stuart Woodward.

In a brief Part 1 Alan and Ben chatted about Japan's Under 23s making it through to the semi finals of their Asian Cup with a very eventful win over Qatar (Update: Japan beat Iraq 2-0 in the semis to qualify for the Paris Olympics), and then some cupsets from the second round of the Levain Cup (to 10:18).

Then Stuart joined us to talk about Yokohama F.Marinos's remarkable (definitely Ben's word of the week) victory on penalties over Ulsan in the semi finals of the ACL, and what qualifying for a first final in the competition means for the club, and also F.Marinos's draw away at Cerezo Osaka on Saturday (to 36:05).

In Part 3 we run through J1 Matchday 10 wins for Kashima and Kyoto over Gamba Osaka and Kobe respectively, Shonan's comeback from 3-0 down to draw at Sapporo, and Iwata's win over then-leaders Machida (to 56:55), before we finish with the other five games from the weekend, a look ahead to the two Golden Week rounds of fixtures, and Alan updates us on the upcoming release of the new issue of JSoccer Magazine.

JTET - J2 Round 11 / Levain Cup Round 2 Review

Fashionably late this week, James and Jon have you covered with another review of the latest events in the second tier of the J.League.

Pesky scheduling conflicts in the real world meant that the boys couldn't record together this time, so in Part 1 of this episode (Start to 10:30), James covers all of the weekend's J2 action (Round 11) in solo mode (including an important win for Nagasaki, and a five-goal thriller at Nihondaira). There's also a quick-but-vital preview of this weekends's upcoming Round 12 fixtures.

In Part 2, Jon takes 'control' for a solo look over the recent Round 2 fixtures in the Levain Cup from a J2 angle (10:30 to Finish), touching on sort-of giant-killings from Nagasaki and Akita, plus a thrilling finale in the all-J2 clash between Okayama and Yokohama FC.

Thanks for being patient with us this week - enjoy the round-ups, and your weekend J.League fix!