0 : 0

And so the season league season fizzles out in what was, perhaps, a fitting finale to Hayano's year in charge, flashes of skill mixed in with comical imcompetence. There were signs of promise, mostly wasted by underperforming players, but signs nonetheless of a bright future. It will depend on who comes in and who leaves during the cold winter months.

Let's be honest from the start, Kobe deserved the three points here and only a combination of woeful finishing and penalty heroics kept them at bay.

It could have all been so different had Hayano not baffled the civilised world and played Yoshida out on the right. Of course, we will never know why he made this decision. Shimizu was nowhere to be seen, perhaps injured, perhaps rested, who knows? One of the things about supporting a J-League team is injury news isn't always forthcoming. But Mini Me was sat on the bench, obviously fit, as was Kota Mizunuma, more of him later.

Yoshida has had a pretty terrible season and this game was further proof of that. A number of times he was to be found free on the right, ball at his feet, with all the time in the world to pick out a good cross. How many times did he manage it? A couple of times less than one, at the last count.

Thanks to Okubo's love of the big space outside the woodwork the Marinos were able to go in at halftime all square. To the relief of the crowd, well, MOIST as least, Yoshida didn't emerge for the second half. Instead out trotted Mizunama for his third and longest appearance.

And, in the words of Bruce Forsyth, didn't he do well? Yes, he did. He ran, he harried, he chased, he tried. He also had a couple of very slim chances to score and was unlucky not to do better. But for 45 minutes he looked like he wanted to wear the shirt. On a day when Oshima had the chance to be sole top Japanese scorer in the J-League it was sad that Mizunuma was the one player who really stood out for effort.

And maybe therein lies the weakness of the team. MOIST, as you may very well not know, are Leicester City fans. Back in the glory days of Martin O'Neill a team was assembled of misfits, hasbeens and potentials. The one common factor amongst them? They would run their arses off for 90 minutes. They wouldn't let better teams play against them and they would overwhelm lesser teams. And it worked.

On Saturday it didn't really look like Oshima needed to score a goal for any reason and, let's be frank, he certainly doesn't have the skill level to create one out of nothing.

At the other end Tetsuya did all the right things and followed up his two great saves from the Albirex game with a wonderful penalty stop against Okubo. Okubo, by the way, was the man level on goals with Oshima and should really have eased ahead but was unable to find the back of the net no matter how simple the chances.

And so it ended. Roll on the Emperor's Cup.

J-League Table (after 34 games):

.	Team	Pts	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	G.Dif
1	Kashima Merde	72	34	22	6	6	60	36	24
2	Okama Bottlers	70	34	20	10	4	55	28	27
3	Gamba Osaka	67	34	19	10	5	71	37	34
4	Shimizu S-Pulse	61	34	18	7	9	53	36	17
5	Kawasaki Unkotale	54	34	14	12	8	66	48	18
6	Albirex Niigata	51	34	15	6	13	48	47	1
7	Yokohama F-Marinos	50	34	14	8	12	54	35	19
8	Kashiwa Reysol	50	34	14	8	12	43	36	7
9	Zubilo Inaka	49	34	15	4	15	54	55	-1
10	Vissel Kobe	47	34	13	8	13	58	48	10
11	Nagoya Grampus	45	34	13	6	15	43	45	-2
12	FC Gas	45	34	14	3	17	49	58	-9
13	Disney F Sea	42	34	12	6	16	51	56	-5
14	Oita Trinita	41	34	12	5	17	42	60	-18
15	Omiya Ardija	35	34	8	11	15	24	40	-16
16	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	32	34	8	8	18	44	71	-27
17	Ventforet Kofu	27	34	7	6	21	33	65	-32
18	Yokohama FC - Pride of the Marinos	16	34	4	4	26	19	66	-47

The Official Ryuji Kawai I Scored THREE Goals Beat That Goalscoring Chart

(J-League goals only)

14 - Oshima

11 - Koji

10 - Sakata

4 - Mini Me

3 - Yoshida, Ryuji

2 - Own Goal, Yuji, Hayuma

1 - Ueno, Naoki, Shimizu

The tee:

So, somehow Yokohama FC - Pride of the Marinos were able to win a game and what a game to win. The Champions of Asia, The World and the Known and Unknown Universe battled for 90 minutes against a collection of faded and jaded stars, one of whom can only kick the ball into his standing leg when stood in fornt of an open goal, and weren't able to even grab a draw. A fantastic end to the season. And, before you ask, no, I am not going to congratulate Kashima Merde. Well, not in public, anyway.

In J2 the Midori Mushi threw away the title and came up second after Consadole with Kyoto playing Sanfrecce for the prize of probably being able to beat us at the Nissan next year. Any chance we can baggsie Ueslie and Komano if Hiroshima slides into J2? No. Didn't think so.

Tune in tomorrow (maybe) for a MOIST Marinos Season Review.

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