The J-Talk Podcast

Episode 404 - J1 Matchday 1: Overreaction Theatre

How's your J1 JPred looking after Matchday 1? Early days of course, but as is tradition here on J-Talk, we like to overreact wildly to a very small sample size, so with our annual hat tip to the ESPN Fantasy Focus (American) Football podcast, Scott McIntyre guests for Overreaction Theatre.

We begin with news of a COVID-19 outbreak at FC Tokyo that has seen their next two games postponed, then chat about Tokyo's trip to Kawasaki that kicked-off the season last Friday night - Frontale took the points thanks to Leandro Damiao, but the visitors drew praise from all quarters for their performance (to 21:00).

Next we move on to the most surprising result from Matchday 1 - promoted Kyoto's terrific 1-0 home win over an Urawa side that many (over 30% of JPred'ers, actually) have tipped for the title (to 29:30). From there we work our way through the other seven games, including first up wins for Nagoya, Kashima and Kashiwa, and finish with the four draws from the opening weekend.

JTET - J2 Season Preview 2022 (Part 3)

With the 2022 season right around the corner, James Taylor and Jon Steele combined forces again to look over 7 more teams from this year's J2 League.

In Part 1, we talk about Niigata, Yamagata, JEF United and Ryukyu. After a quick break to regroup, Part 2 contains our pre-season thoughts on Mito, Okayama, and Tokyo Verdy.

Enjoy the show, and the season kick-off this weekend!

JTET - J2 2022 Season Preview (Part 2)

With the brand new J.League season almost upon us, Jon Steele was joined by James Taylor to run the rule over eight more of the sides comprising this year's J2 roster.

Part 1 begins with the gents analyzing newly-promoted Kumamoto and Iwate, before covering Gunma. Then Jon let James off the leash to bring us up to date on all of Kanazawa's winter transfer business.

In Part 2, we run the rule over four teams from lower mid-table in 2021: Akita, Tochigi, Yamaguchi and Omiya.

Hope everyone enjoys the show - look out for Part 3 before the big kick-off at the weekend!

Episode 403 - Reds Lift Super Cup, J1 Season Previews Part 4

Jonny Nicol guests as we review Saturday's Super Cup, and wrap up our club-by-club previews of the new J1 season.

After some housekeeping, we praise Urawa for their strong showing in taking down Kawasaki 2-0 at the Nissan Stadium (to 18:10), then begin this set of previews by chatting about Gamba Osaka, who will be desperate to atone for a disappointing 2021 campaign (to 40:30). We then shift to the other half of Osaka, and discuss a Cerezo side that is in a similar boat having slipped out of the top half last term (to 54:40).

Next we run the rule over Kyoto, back in the top flight for the first time in over a decade (to 1:11:35), and finish off the Kansai clubs with Kobe, who have lofty goals, and, it appears, the squad to help them achieve them (to 1:26:25). Finally it shapes as a long season ahead for Hiroshima, whose slide in recent seasons could continue and see them battling against the drop (to 1:35:25).

We finish off the episode with a look at the fixtures for J1 Matchday 1.

JTET: J2 Season Preview 2022 (Part 1)

After a (painfully) protracted genesis, the JTET machine is back in action for a brand new J2 season. 

In Part 1 of our in-depth season previews, Jon Steele was joined by Sean Carroll to take a look at the four newly-relegated sides, along with three of last season's high-fliers in the second tier of the Japanese professional game.

Hope everyone enjoys the show - Parts 2 & 3 coming before the big J2 kick-off this weekend!

Episode 402 - J1 Season Previews Part 3

With the Super Cup taking place this Saturday, the 2022 J1 season is almost upon us, and we continue our club-by-club previews with five teams whose prospects for the new campaign are very much up in the air.

We begin with Shimizu, who have underwhelmed in recent years, and would dearly love a season of midtable stability (to 19:15), then look at their Shizuoka rivals Iwata, who are returning to the top flight as J2 champions, but lost Lukian, their top scorer, and replaced him with a pair of retread strikers that hardly inspire confidence (to 35:00).

Next we chat about a Nagoya side that appear to be on the slide and will have to find their feet under a new manager (to 47:45), then finish down in Kyushu by first checking in on Tosu, who have been stripped of practically all of their goalscorers from 2021, and their best defender, but always seem to find a way (to 1:05:40), and wrap up with Fukuoka, who have added to their attacking weapons and appear well equipped to fight off second season syndrome.

Remember to use hashtag #jpred2022 for your JPreds, and follow @JLeague_fantasy for the link to get your J.League Fantasy team set up for the new season.

JTET - J2 2021 Season Review (Part 2)

After languishing in editing hell for a couple of weeks, Jon Steele and Stuart Smith finally put the 2021 J2 season to bed with a retrospective look at the top 12 finishers in the league table. 

There's also some 'soft' preseason preview chat, with more in-depth 2022 preview shows coming this week and next! 

Hope everyone enjoys the episode.

FC Tokyo Kai-Guys Radio Episode 1

Another week, another welcome new addition to the J-Talk family, as we proudly present the inaugural episode of FC Tokyo Kai-Guys Radio, featuring the co-founders of the Kai-Guys: Thomas and Alex.

In their debut pod, the guys review Tokyo's 2021 season (to 23:10), chat about new majority owners mixi (to 29:15), run the rule over the club's winter signings (to 45:30) and new manager Albert Puig (to 54:25), and finish with their expectations for the new campaign.

Episode 401 - Ito Inspires Japan, Cesare Returns, J1 Season Previews Part 2

We begin the episode by discussing another fruitful international break for the Samurai Blue, as Junya Ito's incredible run of form continued to put Japan within touching distance of an automatic World Cup qualification spot (to 16:45).

Then Ben is joined by long time friend of the pod Cesare Polenghi, to chat about the work his company, Ganassa LLC, has been doing with major European leagues, and clubs from across the continent, in expanding their reach on social media (to 59:55).

Then we resume our club-by-club previews of the new J1 season by discussing Sapporo (to 1:14:00), Kashima (to 1:37:30), Urawa (to 1:57:20) and Kashiwa

Tricolore Pridecast January 2022

These fellas don't mess around! Announced on the new pod this week, we proudly present the inaugural Tricolore Pridecast!

This is the series introduction with Jamie, Tony, and Stuart from Tricolore Pride, in which they talk about how they started to follow Marinos, favourite players and goals, and then proceed to run through the 2021-22 winter transfer window, chatting about new signings and leavers up until Dec 31st.