Official 2012 J1 Thread [R] - part I

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20....japan.crime.1st.ld.writethru.0209/index.html

Best news of the month.

 

Hopefully it's taken seriously, far too many "interesting" scorelines last season.

 

http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/domesoccer/imgs/f/7/f76820ef.jpg (bigger)

Title predictions

 

Matsu's predictions:

http://www.the-rising-sun-news.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2964

 

A great duel between Nagoya and Kashiwa seems to be the J1 2012.
I keep saying: keep an eye on Kobe, they might starting winning also in football..
If F.C. Tokyo wouldn't have to dispute ACL 2012, i would have said that they would have a great chance to do another "Kashiwa Reysol surprise".

 

Hehe I don't think Japanese journalists are any worse than others in that manner.

Take England for example: I dont think any journalist over there put any other team than Man Utd, City or Chelsea at 1st place.

 

I don't think that's anything to do with boldness or otherwise, just that the EPL is so uncompetitive you would have to have been nuts to predict that any of the other nineteen teams had a chance of winning it.

 

This!

 

A bit of translation anyway, the experts giving their predictions are Takashi Mizunuma, Masahiro Fukuda, Tetsuya Asano, Hiroshi Nanami, Atsuhiro Miura and Yoshikazu Nonomura.

 

Yeah, EPL was a bad example perhaps, but in pretty much any league, competitive or not, u usually have the usual suspects predicted at the top, and I don't see Japan as much different than others in that way.

But whether or not the so called "experts" actually have the knowledge or have done the research to justify their title is another question, and I would suspect a lot of them just go with the hype of certain teams.

This year for example in J2, the hype seems to be about Kyoto.

 

Great Hiroshi, i remember him here in Italy, with the shirt of Venice

 

Has anyone seen Kashiwa Reysol's player profiles?

http://www.reysol.co.jp/team/players/2012/19.php

Look how many questions they asked each player. They want a life story.

 

This is quite normal in Japan and not only in football. I think this is one of the reasons why somebody says Japanese media talk too little about the football played on the field compared to other things talke about. The thing is its just very Japanese. Its a bit like in japanese radio when you call in the first thing youre asked about is which famous person o you look like? For an non Japanese itstotally not important but its just Japan.

 

I don't want to nitpick but, I just read the preview for Consadole and I found a few things that I would like to sort out.

First of all, when referring to Quirino not having a good season in J2 last year I'm assuming its a mix-up with the awful Diogo. Cause Quirino spent the entire 2011-season in Korea, and lost most of 2010 to injuries, so last time he had a full season in Sapporo was in 2009, when he actually scored quite a lot of goals. He's actually one of few players that seems to be able to come in and strengthen this team.

And I think coach Ishizaki is given a bit too much credit too. He's been there for 3 years, not 2, and was on the brink of losing his job in 2010, and were extremely unpopular with the fans after uninspiring football both that season and in 2009. I'm sure that have changed now though, although not the style of football, but personally I don't see him as a major reason for Consadole's success last season, and many of my fellow Consadole-fans share that view.

I agree that most of the players brought in are a bunch of "journeymen", but realistically none of those except North ( and the returning Quirino) will go straight into this Consadole-team, and both of them looks decent even by J1-standards. And looking at their expected starting eleven, most of the players are either homegrown or players who have had their breakthrough in Consadole ( Lee, Nara , Iwanuma, Miyazawa, Furuta, Okamoto and to some extent Uchimura), so I'd say they have atleast just as many "talents" as Sagan does, if not more when we add other youngsters like Kushibiki, Yokono and Mikami.

Age can certainly be a problem yeah, but again, its only Kawai and Sunakawa who are above 30 of players who are likely to see regular playing-time ( Yusuke Kondo at 27 should still have some gas left in his tank =) ). Kazunari Okayama is probably one of the best things that have happened to Consadole over the last couple of years, as with his marvellous leader and motivation skills is not just a perfect rolemodel for all the young players( much more than Gon is, who doesn't seem to contribute that much really except for with his fame), but also serves as cult-hero among the Consadole-fans with his performances in front of the home-crowd every match in order to psyche them up. He's not playing much anymore though, but that's probably a good thing cause he's really not much of a player=)

There is a whole lot of clubs who have produced far less talents over the last 5-6 years than Consadole, and their youth program is arguably one of the best in Japan ( didnt they reach the final of the Youth Cup?). They have also not been afraid to give young players a chance with the first team, and when speaking about talents at Consadole today, I wouldn't only focus on the teenagers Nara and Kushibiki ( as only one of them are expected to play anyway), but also keep an eye on GK Lee ( although Korean), Furuta and Miyazawa, as well as an underrated Okamoto and the sideback Iwanuma.

I think its pretty spot on that they will have a hard season though, but I think their chances are just as good, if not better than Sagan's when it comes to survival. I might be a bit biased though, but I see more players of J1-quality at Consa then what I do at Sagan.

At last, one thing though I find surprising is how so many is rating Shunsuke Maeda a "key" signing, and expect him to go straight into this team. Sure, he got a great technique and knows how to dribble, but what has he really achieved over the last couple of seasons? not much, and for a striker/attacking player he scores an awful few goals too. In my eyes Okamoto / Uchimura / Furuta / Takayanagi / Sunakawa / Uchimura are all better than him, and those players will fight for more or less the same roles.

 

Does anyone have a link to a picture of the full J1-prediction from this show ? Would be interesting to see who they got for relegation etc.

 

OK . . . .
And I wrote that he (and the other foreigners) has "not really proven himself in the J.League before", as is also true of North who barely played at Tokyo, and Juninho who is a complete newcomer. You said essentially the same thing I did, only in different words. Are you complaining about the wording, or what?

In truth I may have subconsciously confused Qurinho and Diogo, since Consadole isnt a team I follow that closely, but it doesnt change the point I was making one bit. Everything else you said is a question of opinion, not fact. If youre posting it as contrary opinion/argument, thats fine. But in that case you shouldnt use the word "nitpick", which has a very different nuance in English.

 

I'm sure fans of each club may have things to question/discuss based on Matsu's previews, that is to be expected. What I like about his writing is that he isn't afraid to put his opinion out there and it gives you something to think about, even if you disagree with him.

If it was me doing that, with my limited knowledge of the league, well that's a different matter...

 

Fuji Xerox Super Cup
The season is officially started!

Reysol 2 FC Tokyo 0 at half time.
Jorge Wagner with a long range shoot and Domingues from PK (pretty soft to tell the truth).

 

2-1 ft.

 

a good second half for FCT,but the biggest chances was always for Reysol counter attacks.

 

Actually I was surprised how F.C. Tokyo basically dominated the game from the beginning until Kashiwa Reysol scored. And even after that they were quite comfortably in possession and did extremely well.



P.S. where are the highlights