The J-talk Podcast

Jon Steele and James Taylor were reunited after a week of solo pods for this episode of JTET. In part 1, James runs through 9 games from J2 matchday 9 (start to 09:20), before chatting with Jon about Kataller Toyama v Renofa Yamaguchi (09:20 to 26:35). There’s also Most Bravo Player discussion and mention of the J.League’s official awards for February and March (26:35 to 33:55), before a brief preview of matchday 10 (33:55 to end).   Thanks for your support of the J-Talk Podcast and J-Talk: Extra Time. *Join the J-Talk Podcast Patreon here: https://patreon.com/jtalkpod *Find our JLeague Chat Discord server here: https://discord.gg/UwN2ambAwg *Follow JTET on Bluesky here: @jtalket.bsky.social

In a fashionably late mini-pod, Jon Steele looks back at last Wednesday's Levain Cup action from a J2 perspective. There were derby wins for Imabari (in their rescheduled Round 1 game) and Iwata, as well as a night to remember for Yamaguchi as they slayed a J1 giant in the form of Kashima Antlers. Jon also picks a Most Bravo Player, and previews the remaining Levain Cup fixtures in Round 2 (being played this Wednesday evening). Sorry about the slow upload this week - Jon has been working at full capacity!

Sean Carroll made a very welcome return to the podcast this week, as we round up J1 Matchday 10, and the surprises and disappointments of the season so far. We begin with the history makers in the top two, Fukuoka and Kyoto both flying higher than they ever have in the top flight, then move on to the incredible story that is Okayama, after their away win at Hiroshima. We also discuss Kashiwa's strong start, and Tokyo Verdy's early struggles (to 52:30). Then in Part 2 Jonny and Ben chat about the other five games, and look ahead to upcoming midweek and weekend action.

A bit later than scheduled (sorry!), James Taylor gives us a solo review of all of last weekend's J2 action (Round 8 of the season). In a 10-minute pod, James also nominates a Most Bravo Player for the matchday, and previews the Round 9 matches coming up this weekend. *Jon Steele is working on a review of the midweek Levain Cup action from a J2 perspective - that will be posted as soon as it's ready (let him cook, etc.)! Hope everyone enjoys the pod!

Jonny and Ben round up two full rounds of J1 fixtures, with a focus on the weekend's Matchday 9, in our new episode. We begin with the new frontrunner for game of the season - Kyoto's remarkable away win over Kashima on Sunday - before discussing the hard fought draw between Machida and Kawasaki, and the rest of an eventful Sunday chock full of tremendous goals.

In this episode of JTET, James Taylor reviews 9 of the J2 matchday 7 games (start to 05:00) to start off, then chats to Jon Steele about Fujieda v Nagasaki (05:30 to 16:00), Most Bravo Players (16:00 to 19:55), and the league and Levain Cup matches coming up over the next week (19:55 to end).   Thanks for your support of the J-Talk Podcast and J-Talk: Extra Time. *Join the J-Talk Podcast Patreon here: https://patreon.com/jtalkpod *Find our JLeague Chat Discord server here: https://discord.gg/UwN2ambAwg *Follow JTET on Bluesky here: @jtalket.bsky.social

Regular JTET co-hosts Jon Steele and James Taylor step up for an update of the goings-on in J3 during March. In part 1, Jon and James focus on the top half of the table (start to 14:25), and after the break they shift their gaze downwards to the bottom half (14:25 to end).   Thanks for your support of the J-Talk Podcast, J-Talk: Extra Time, and J-Talk: Short Corner. *Join the J-Talk Podcast Patreon here: https://patreon.com/jtalkpod *Find our JLeague Chat Discord server here: https://discord.gg/UwN2ambAwg *Follow JTET on Bluesky here: @jtalket.bsky.social

J1 returned after the international break over the weekend, and Daniel Hawkins joined Jonny and Ben to chat about goings-on at Avispa Fukuoka. After a brief review of Japan 0-0 Saudi Arabia, and our review of Kashima's hard-fought win over Kobe (to 9:07), Daniel hopped on board to discuss Avispa's draw with Machida on Saturday, how the club's new signings have settled in, and more (to 29:42). Then in Part 3 we round up the rest of the games, including Kawasaki having their way (again) against FC Tokyo in the Tamagawa Classico, and Nagoya notching a first league win of the season.

In this episode of JTET, Jon Steele and James Taylor review the second part of the Levain Cup 1st round. Jon kicks things off with a roundup of 5 games (start to 05:55) and is then joined by James to talk about Fukushima v Sapporo (05:55 to 21:50) and Omiya v Iwaki (21:50 to31:00), and select a Most Bravo Player (31:00 to 34:10). James rounds out the episode with a quick review of the remaining 5 matches (34:10 to end). Thanks for your support of the J-Talk Podcast and J-Talk: Extra Time. *Join the J-Talk Podcast Patreon here: https://patreon.com/jtalkpod *Find our JLeague Chat Discord server here: https://discord.gg/UwN2ambAwg *Follow JTET on Bluesky here: @jtalket.bsky.social

This week, JEF Chiba supporter Alan makes a JTET debut to help us to make sense of his side's fantastic start to the 2025 campaign. To get things started, James round up most of the on-field action from Round 6 (Start to 03:30), then Alan joins Jon to chat about JEF's last-gasp win on the road at a blustery JIT Recycle Ink Stadium (03:30 to 18:50). Jon and Alan then talk about their picks for Most Bravo Player for the round (18:50 to 22:20), and wrap up with the standard preview of the big fixtures coming up this weekend (22:20 to Finish). We hope everyone enjoys the show, and thanks to Alan for his time! *You can follow Alan on Bluesky here: @mynameisjef.bsky.social *Find JTET on Bluesky too: @jtalket.bsky.social *Join The J-Talk Podcast Patreon here: https://patreon.com/jtalkpod *Join our JLeague Chat Discord server here: https://discord.gg/UwN2ambAwg

The Samurai Blue cruised into their eighth-straight World Cup with a 2-0 win over Bahrain last Thursday night, and Dan Orlowitz joined Jonny and Ben to review the game, and speculate on how Japan might prepare for the showpiece event, more than a year out (to 31:31). Then we review the Levain Cup results from last Thursday afternoon, and look ahead to J1 Matchday 7. Check out Dan's piece on The Guardian, and follow him on Bluesky.

In this week’s streamlined JTET, James Taylor kicks things off with a roundup of the J2 matchday 5 games (start to 05:30) before being joined by Jon Steele for analysis of Iwata v Kofu (05:30 to 14:30), Most Bravo Player selection (14:30 to 19:30) and a look ahead to upcoming league and Levain Cup matches (19:30 to end).   Thanks for your support of the J-Talk Podcast and J-Talk: Extra Time. *Join the J-Talk Podcast Patreon here: https://patreon.com/jtalkpod *Find our JLeague Chat Discord server here: https://discord.gg/UwN2ambAwg *Follow JTET on Bluesky here: @jtalket.bsky.social

Jonny and Ben kick off this new episode with a good news/bad news ACL review (to 14:56), then they're joined by Jon Steele to chat about Yokohama FC's victory over Cerezo Osaka on Saturday, and the season so far for the Mitsuzawa outfit (to 41:02). Then we run through all of the other games from J1 Matchday 6, including Yokohama F.Marinos and Kobe notching first league wins of the season, Kashima making top flight history with their late leveler against Urawa, and Machida and Fukuoka continuing their upward trajectory, before we finish the episode with a look at the first round of the Levain Cup, and Japan's games against Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, as they look to seal qualification for the 2026 World Cup.

After another busy weekend of J2 action, JTET is back to run through all of the big talking points from Round 4 of the 2025 season. James starts things off with a quick round-up of the bulk of the fixtures (Start to 04:15). After that, you'll hear Jon in conversation with Akita supporter Martin Spivey as they discuss his trip to ND Soft Stadium in Yamagata for the big Tohoku Derby. After talking about Martin's pleasant bus trip to the ground, and the match itself (04:15 to 26:00), the boys pick out some Most Bravo Players from Round 4 (26:00 to 35:45), and finish the pod with a short preview of the big matches coming up in Round 5 this weekend (35:45 to Finish). We hope everyone enjoys the show - thanks to Martin for delaying his dinner to chat to us! *Join The J-Talk Podcast Patreon here: https://patreon.com/jtalkpod *Find our JLeague Chat Discord server here: https://discord.gg/UwN2ambAwg *Follow JTET on Bluesky here: @jtalket.bsky.social

Jonny and Ben are back to round up all eight games from J1 Matchday 5 played on the weekend, while they were also pleased to welcome Ralf Seidl back to the pod to discuss Urawa's first win of the season. After an ACL review dominated by Hiroshima's disastrous oversight in fielding an ineligible player in the first leg against Lion City of Singapore (to 12:00), Ralf returns to chat about Urawa 1-0 Okayama, and his thoughts on Reds' season so far (to 33:28), before your co-hosts review the rest of the games and look ahead to this weekend's Matchday 6.

New JTSC host Victor Arroyo returns after an unexpected hiatus to review all 8 matches of an entertaining opening round of the J3 season and selects his goal of the week. .

Jon and James are together again to look back at an action-packed round of J2 action! First of all, Jon runs you through the scores from most of the Round 3 games (Start to 05:30), then sits down with James to talk about Tosu v Imabari, our Match of the Week, in detail (05:30 to 25:40). Then it's time to nominate our Most Bravo Players (25:40 to 29:40), and peruse the Round 4 fixture list to pick out some key games to focus on (29:40 to Finish). Thanks for all of the support, and we hope you enjoy the pod! *Join The J-Talk Podcast Patreon here: https://patreon.com/jtalkpod *Check out our JLeague Chat Discord server here: https://discord.gg/UwN2ambAwg *Follow JTET on Bluesky here: @jtalket.bsky.social

We round up two full rounds of top flight fixtures (with a focus on the weekend's Matchday 4) in this week's episode, towards the end of which we're joined by Neil Debnam to chat about the early days of Shigetoshi Hasebe's reign at Kawasaki. We begin with the games involving the top three - new leaders Kashiwa, who climbed to the summit with a win away at Urawa, then Shonan's draw at Yokohama F.Marinos and Hiroshima's narrow win at home over Yokohama FC - before moving on to Kashima's win over FC Tokyo, and the battle between promoted sides Okayama and Shimizu, then away wins for Machida, Gamba Osaka and Fukuoka (their first of the season), before wrapping up Part 1 with the draw between Niigata and Cerezo Osaka (to 1:03:35). Then Neil joins us to discuss Kawasaki's 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Kyoto - Sanga's first win of the year - and Frontale's prospects in the ACL Elite Round of 16 against Shanghai Shenhua, before we wrap up the episode with a look at the fixtures in J1 Matchday 5. Please check out Ne

James, Jon, and special guest Sean Carroll look back at another busy weekend of J2 action. James gets things started with a quick review of most of the Round 2 action (Start to 03:00), before Jon and Sean sat down to talk about Omiya's home win over Kofu in depth (03:00 to 15:00). The boys also discuss Omiya and Kofu's prospects for 2025 in more detail, and touch on the new era at Omiya under Red Bull (there are spoilers for classic 90s sports comedy 'Cool Runnings', so be warned). After that, Jon and Sean pick out some 'Most Bravo Players' from the weekend (15:00 to 19:50), and finish things off by looking ahead to the forthcoming Round 3 fixtures (19:50 to Finish). We hope everyone enjoys another streamlined JTET experience this week! *Support The J-Talk Podcast on Patreon here: https://patreon.com/jtalkpod *Join our JLeague Chat Discord server here: https://discord.gg/UwN2ambAwg *Follow JTET on Bluesky here: @jtalket.bsky.social

Jonny and Ben were pleased to welcome Stuart Woodward back to the pod, to chat about his trip to Hiroshima for Yokohama F.Marinos' visit to Sanfrecce on Sunday, a cagey affair settled by a correct, but unfortunate, penalty decision against visiting defender Jeisson Quinones that saw Hiroshima stay perfect after two rounds (to 27:20). Then in Part 2 we chat the other two sides with spotless records, Shimizu and Shonan, then move on to the four teams that won for the first time this season on Saturday, and finish with the three Matchday 2 draws.