The big games just keep on coming in J2 and J3, so the JTET team of Jon Steele, James Taylor and Mike Innes are on hand with analysis and opinions. Jon and James start the episode with two important games in the relegation dogfight, Tochigi v Mito (start to 13:05) and Kagoshima v Kumamoto (13:05 to 21:30), then look at a meeting of playoff hopefuls Sendai and Fujieda (21:30 to 32:45). That’s followed by Most Bravo Player chat (32:45 to 36:15) and a preview of upcoming fixtures (36:15 to 43:30). To round off the episode, Mike has all the details of the latest twists in the J3 playoff and relegation battles in J-Talk: Short Corner (43:30 to end).

Thanks as always for your support of JTET, JTSC, and the J-Talk Podcast!

• Buy tickets for J-Talk Live (Saturday 12th October) at the Yokohama Football Film Festival here: https://teket.jp/6232/38395
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J1 returned with a bang after the international break, and on our new episode Jonny and Ben round up all the action from a drama-filled weekend.

We begin at the top with the pulsating draw between Kashima and Hiroshima on Saturday night, a result that allowed Machida to return to the summit after they claimed a terrific away win over Fukuoka, with Kobe keeping pace after cruising past Cerezo Osaka on Friday night, though Gamba Osaka's title hopes were dealt a major blow as Maciej Skorza returned to the Urawa dugout and led Reds to a win at the Suita City Stadium (to 40:10).

Next we shift our attention to the relegation dogfight, with Kyoto continuing their excellent recent form to maintain their gap above the bottom three, though Tosu and Sapporo both lost, to further dent their faint hopes of survival. Iwata stunned Kashiwa to move within a point of safety behind Shonan, who were never at the races in their loss at Niigata.

We finish our Matchday 30 roundup at the National stadium (to 1:20:10), then wrap up the episode with a look at upcoming ACL and domestic fixtures, including an intriguing-looking J1 Matchday 31.

You can get tickets for our live show as part of the Yokohama Football Film Festival here, we'd love to see you there on October 12th!

The Samurai Blue swept aside both China and Bahrain during the international break, and Alan Gibson from JSoccer.com and JSoccerMagazine joined Jonny and Ben to chat about the two emphatic victories (to 22:22).

Then in an elongated Part 2, we chat about Hiroshima's disappointing cup quarter final defeats - losing to Gamba Osaka in the Emperor's Cup on Wednesday, and to Nagoya on penalties in the Levain Cup on Sunday - then rest of the Levain quarters (to 45:00), before we discuss the current top five in J1 and their runs to the next international break (to 1:06:45), and finish with the J.League's plans for the '0.5 Season' in 2026 that will be a bridge to the autumn-spring calendar.

Get your ticket(s) to J-Talk Live, our first-ever live show as part of the Yokohama Football Film Festival, here! The page is in Japanese, but can be easily navigated using a translation site.