Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2011

I bet you thought that when the J. League season ended on December 5, you’d have a nice break from soccer—but then along came the Emperor’s Cup. And then, when Kashima Antlers lifted that trophy on January 1, you were probably looking forward to some respite from the TV stations’ inane soccer commentary. Too bad that the Asian Cup occupied most of January, offering the networks a splendid opportunity to grab advertising revenue in what’s normally a quiet month.

Anyway, that’s all over now, so you can have a nice rest… until February 26, when the traditional J. League curtain-raiser—the Xerox Super Cup—kicks off another busy year of soccer. The season starts in earnest on March 5, and Japan’s first international friendlies will be on March 25 (against Montenegro at Ecopa Stadium in Shizuoka) and March 29 (against New Zealand at Tokyo’s National Stadium).

The national team under coach Alberto Zaccheroni will also feature in the annual Kirin Cup (June 1 in Niigata and June 7 in Yokohama), and appear as “guests” in the Copa America in July, where they’ll face Colombia on July 2, Bolivia on July 7 and hosts Argentina on July 11. The team then has a friendly match scheduled in Sapporo on August 10, to prepare for the third round of Asian World Cup qualifiers, which start from September 2. All this action should help Zaccheroni settle in, but if things start to fall apart, one wonders how much patience the JFA will have.

With the London Olympics only a year away, there’ll also be Olympic qualifiers for the Under-22 team (initially on June 19 and 23). The Olympic side is due to play at National Stadium on March 29 before the senior team’s match with New Zealand, and in Niigata before the Kirin Cup game.

The women’s national team—improving rapidly and now real title contenders—will be appearing at the Women’s World Cup in Germany this summer, with group games against New Zealand (June 27), Mexico (July 1) and England (July 5).

One of the big shocks of last season was FC Tokyo’s relegation to Division 2 of the J. League, which means there won’t be any Division 1 club in the capital in 2011. However, Chiba’s Kashiwa Reysol stormed back into the top league, winning J2 by 10 points over another Kanto-area team, Ventforet Kofu. Avispa Fukuoka also made it back into J1, with Kyoto Sanga and Shonan Bellmare going the other way.

But the biggest story of 2010 was the coronation of Nagoya Grampus as J. League champions. It’s been a long time coming. Nagoya tried to take a shortcut back in the early days when they hired Gary Lineker and Dragan Stojkovic as players, but the former was constantly injured and the latter always seemed to allow his emotions to overshadow his fantastic ability as a player.

So who is this Dragan Stojkovic (pictured) who guided Grampus to the J. League Championship and was named manager of the year? Well, he’s a man transformed and it’s wonderful to see. He makes great sense in interviews—and obviously makes great sense at his club, because his team has changed from a rich (Toyota-backed) group of disparate individuals into a wonderful team of “footballers.”

And toppling three-time champions Kashima Antlers was no mean feat. Antlers finished fourth behind Gamba Osaka and Cerezo Osaka, but Oswaldo Oliveira’s team’s win in the Emperor’s Cup on New Year’s Day qualified them as the Kanto area’s only representative in the Asian Champions League. So that will also be on your schedule.

A break from soccer? Sorry, that’s not going to happen in 2011.