J-League Team of the Week Round 8: Antlers and S-Pulse with three players each after impressive performances

Apr 29, 2012 8:30:00 AM

Four of this week's five defensive players came from the two outfits, which managed to step up a notch and finish the round of fixtures on a positive note

J-League

Team Of The Week:

Week 8

Weekly Roundup

GOALKEEPER

Akihiro Hayashi
Shimizu S-Pulse

Hayashi played with composure throughout the match, which is a difficult feat considering that S-Pulse were down to nine men in the latter stages. Despite the overwhelming disadvantage the goalkeeper still managed to preserve a clean sheet and edges other goalkeepers such as Reds' Nobuhiro Kato to make this week's selection.

DEFENDERS

Toru Araiba Kashima Antlers	Keisuke Iwashita Shimizu S-Pulse	Daiki Iwamasa Kashima Antlers	Yusuke Maruhashi Cerezo Osaka
At centre-half Iwashita was the leader S-Pulse needed in their dramatic win against Tokyo, while Iwamasa stopped most of Gamba's attacks cold before they reached the final third. While Araiba dominated the left side in Antlers' 5-0 win, we've moved him to the right in order to recognise Maruhashi's terrific performance in Cerezo's win over Jubilo.

MIDFIELDERS

Yasushi Endo
Kashima Antlers

Kim Bo-Kyung
Cerezo Osaka

Mihail Mikic
Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Marcio Richardes
Urawa Reds

Toshiyuki Takagi
Shimizu S-Pulse

Holding midfielders Endo and Kim both contributed throughout the match to their respective teams' attacks, with the Kashima Antlers' man netting the first goal for the team against Gamba, while the Cerezo Osaka player scored the winner against Jubilo.

Mikic returns to our Team of the Week after demonstrating precise crosses and recording an assist, while Richardes continues to shine for the Reds as the team moved up to third place with a win against Vissel. Last but not least, Takagi's goal gave S-Pulse one of the most improbable victories so far this season.

FORWARDS

Yuji Ono Yokohama F. Marinos
Bearing the responsibility of the N.10 jersey at just 19 years old, Ono delivered on Saturday, netting the opening goal in Marinos' first win of the season. His strong play and great technical performance means that Hisato Sato and Yuya Osako among others miss out on our team of the week.

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