Kazuki Ganaha finally had his 6-game suspension (imposed by the J.League in May of 2007) overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Tuesday.
The J.League has apologised to Ganaha and promised to help remove his name from FIFA's list of doping violators. However, they have refused to return the 10 million yen fine imposed on the club.
The court ruled that the vitamin infusion given to Ganaha by Frontale's team doctor "was a legitimate treatment...within the meaning of the 2007 World Anti-Doping Agency Code."
The so-called "garlic injection" was administered after the player complained of flu-like symptoms early last season.
"I'm glad that I persisted in my convictions," said Ganaha at the outcome of an appeal which has cost him around $100,000 in legal expenses. "I'm doing this so other players don't end up in the same position."
"We must accept the ruling," admitted J.League chairman Kenji Onitake. "We caused him a lot of hardship for a year and there are things we need to reflect upon."
However, after a meeting with Kawasaki president Shimpei Takeda, a defiant J.League chief secretary Hideyuki Hanyu insisted, "According to the tone of the CAS decision, our original ruling was correct."
Let's hope Kazuki can now put these proceedings behind him and rediscover the form that saw him score 18 goals from 32 appearances in the 2006 season, as well as 3 goals for the Japanese national team.
In the next edition of the Illustrated Dictionary of Footballing Cliches, you'll see a picture of this match under "a game of two halves". Sadly, Frontale conspired to lose a tie which was in the bag after 45 minutes, simply by not turning up for the second half.
With the season back on track, the home team set out to erase the memory of last week's controversial defeat to Urawa. First half dominance eventually led to a breakthrough in the 35th minute. Chong Tese, who looks so much more comfortable inside the penalty area than anywhere else on the field, took down a floated ball from Ohashi, turned his man twice and drove in a cross that deflected in off an Omiya defender.
With the deadlock broken, Omiya were forced to change their defensive tack and push forward more. However, this resulted in a backline that proved far easier to penetrate. Juninho and Yamagishi both had good chances after being sent clean through, but saw their efforts blocked or missing the mark.
Then just before the break a through ball found Juninho with only one man to beat. As he ran past, under very little contact, the defender fell over leaving Juninho to slot home Frontale's second. Omiya clearly felt it was a foul - indeed it was the sort of innocuous challenge where 9 times out of 10 the defender would be given the benefit of the doubt - but from the way the game was going it seemed unlikely that it would have much bearing on the overall outcome anyway. What cruel irony!
In the dressing room at half time, Frontale chalked up the three points and began preparations for next week's trip to Kashiwa. Well, they probably didn't, but that's how it looked in the second half. Suddenly, the boot was on the other foot with Omiya penetrating at almost every attack and Frontale struggling to maintain possession for any amount of time.
Omiya's first may have been offside, but the defence didn't play to the whistle and were left in Kohei Tokita's wake as he ran in on goal. The equaliser was a virtuoso effort from Denis Marques, riding several lunges before clipping one into the corner of the net from the edge of the area.
The winner, however, added insult to injury. Omiya were awarded a free kick well inside their own half following a "pseudo-foul" (like a foul but not) from Harada. The next thing you know the ball is flying high and long in the air, Kawashima's scampering back to his line from god knows where, the ball's dipping under the bar and it's Goodnight Todoroki. Well, I suppose if you're going to be charitable enough to give up a two-goal lead you may as well go the whole hog and let your opponents win with a goal scored from their own half!
To be fair, Omiya did play well in the second half. They showed great spirit to come back after being comprehensively outplayed in the first half and the Denis Marques goal was a moment of true individual quality. But you only really turn round a game like this if the oppostion (to some degree) lets you.
You could blame Takahata's tactical naivety for the result. Omiya's half-time substitutions gave them an attacking edge they had been sorely lacking, yet the Frontale boss made no move to counter this. Maybe Kikuchi on in place of Ohashi would have made life more difficult for the visitors, but then again hindsight is a wonderful thing.
To say Frontale deserved to get something out of the game on Saturday would be an understatement. Rather this performance should serve to confirm the team's return to form.
It was a fairly cagey first half, with the home side playing the more fluid football. Urawa admittedly looked more dangerous on their limited forays into the final third of the pitch.
The game pivoted on the penalty decision midway through the second half. A nice backheel from Tulio put Takahara through on goal. Igawa slid in with a challenge that may have caught some of the ball and may have been outside the penalty area, but the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
Clearly feeling hard-done-by, Frontale had their best spell of the game and put the Reds defence under some real pressure. This culminated in a goalmouth scramble that initially seemed to hit a defender's arm before Taniguchi bundled the ball into the back of the net.
However, the equaliser wasn't allowed to stand as the linesman had his flag up for offside. This despite Yamada being stood on the goalline as the ball was played in to Taniguchi.
Frontale continued to control possession and press Urawa for the rest of the game, but there was a sense that their chance had come and gone. Juninho and Taniguchi had decent efforts on goal, but the Reds defence held firm.
