The J-Talk Podcast - Japan & J1 Matchday 14

The J.League returned from a three week recess this past weekend, and Sean Carroll joined me to run through all of the games in J1. Before that though we discussed Japan's World Cup qualifier against Australia played last Tuesday night, a match full of incident that ended 1-1.

In another first for the podcast, Sean was our first guest to appear live from a J.League stadium, as we spoke on Skype while he was in the press room at Ajinomoto Stadium prior to the Tokyo Verdy v Chiba J2 game yesterday. Verdy won the game 2-1, but as we recorded before any of the day's J2 games kicked-off, there is no wrap-up of the second division in this episode

And while you're all no doubt aware of Sean's excellent work with The Daily Yomiuri, Weekly Soccer Magazine, the official J.League website and his personal blog Sakka Nihon (link in the Links section to the left), I'd like to recommend a piece he's just had published on the new The Inside Left blog, which you can find here, it's well worth a read.

This 50 minute podcast runs in two parts:

• Part 1: Australia v Japan reviewed and an overview of Japan's first three qualifiers in the final stage (to around 19 mins)
• Part 2: A full review of J1 Matchday 14, and a brief discussion in the last five minutes about the J2 playoff system.

Listen on the player above, or download the mp3 by clicking on the J-Talk logo to the left. For iTunes subscribers, we hope to have this new episode available for you tonight (Monday).