A report on an exciting day in Kawasaki coming up in a few hours or so, but first, made an early morning visit to Yokohama Stadium for the the 10AM kickoff of the JPFF Kanto All-Star game, which, fittingly, ended in a 14-all tie.
This is probably the loosest of all the football leagues (certainly looser than the other shakai-jin leagues in the Tokyo area), with little of the grim seriousness of the top university or X-League teams. In the All-Star game, it seemed hardly a play went by without officials or players on one side or the other- and often both- chuckling at some tumble or another. While attendance was small, the early morning game was blessed by brilliant sunshine throughout the whole stadium to warm things up.
By contrast, as the cold late afternoon shadows enveloped most of the field and stands at Yokohama Stadium, the JPFF Kanto championship game between the Kawasaki Grizzlies (in blue) and the Kamakura Lazarus (in red) heated up rather late. It was scoreless at halftime. In the second half, both teams seemed to move the ball more efficiently. But several Lazarus turnovers near the Grizzly goal line kept the game a 6-all tie until late in the contest, when the Lazarus were finally able to score and come away with a 12-6 victory, and the Kanto division crown.
The Lazarus will face the Kansai winner in February (!) 7th for the JPFF Championship. The Kansai League champ will be determined on 1/10, matching the winner of the KGL (either the Riverside Jokers or the Kyoto Southpaws) and the winner of the OFL (Bootlegs or the Nagoya Club Brutus). Those four teams will meet in semi-final action in a double-header in Kansai on Wednesday 12/23.
