Matsumoto lose At least, Machidia is being taken down by Ehime without Saito. Jogo best player in J2. I can't wait him to wear JNT. Because it will happen, somehow.
I reckon Verdy have a genuine shot at promotion, Yuki Kobayashi has a bright future, I think I read somewhere that he's now the captain.
Avispa were hanging on for a 2-1 win in the end. Good reorganistaion by Kumamoto at half-time, and Avispa looked like they got very nervous. Still 3 points in a derby with no serious injuries or yellow cards. Can't complain.
Kyoto is doing great masking their overwhelming abilities which will get them to winning the league so far...
2-1 for Shonan with a late counter goal. But it was a brilliant match,either team could have prevailed. And this year Shonan is good team.
Certainly didn't look like a team who are being tipped by almost everyone to get promotion. The guy who scored at the end missed 2 sitters in the 10 minutes before he finally scored a much harder one. The whole Shonan team looked about 16.
That was typical box to box game in the rain without any midfield. Compare that with last year's great Frontale-Gamba with that great Kengo's FK in the end. That was great. This was just a show wasted chances. Davi giving interview with both of his hands in pockets. That's ruuuuddddeeeeeeee!
Just got back from seeing an entertaining game between Gifu and Tottori. A pity only 3321 fans turned up for the opener. Gifu managed to give Tottori an own-goal so that the game was drawn. Looks like their luck is still down from last year but still, they didn't lose and they played positively for 3/4 of the game I was impressed that Kofu managed to win their opening game. I think I heard that they hadn't won out of their last 14 openers or something! Was that right Matsu?? Tokushima showed guts to win at Kitakyuu. Verdy also held their nerves and beat Matsumoto who brought alot of fans with them. verdy have lost their first three games of the season in the last two years so it will be a relief for them and a start that they need if they want to be contenders come november. I didn't see any other full games but Mito and Fukuoka pulled of impressive wins, as did Kusatsu to score in extra time to beat Oita. Machida tried hard but lost to lowly Ehime. It's amazing the amount of media coverage that Machida got compared to Matsumoto. I actually feel sorry for them Damn... this years version of the "aftergame show" on Skyperfectv looks pretty average....
Yeah, the buzz is more or less only about Matsumoto, so Machida is kind of lost in the middle somewhere. I watched all games today, and I think Machida had a little bit disappointing opener. Almost seemed as they had a " J2-level" shock. Matsumoto fared better, and considering they met a better team as well they can be fairly happy with their opener. But we shouldnt base everything on just one game though, and maybe Machida will improve a lot in their next match, when they have home-advantage. There weren't too many players that looked on par with the level of J2 though, but it could have been nerves for all we know. I was a little bit impressed by their FW Katsumata. When Toda comes back from injury maybe they will be invincible!
How on earth can you accuse Fagiano of using an loophole and being morally dubious, cynical and corporate expoitation just because they makes statistical nerds as you a tough job? Seriously come on football is a buisness not a object for people maintaining databases? This is totally normal in the rest of the world, so why call Fagiano morally dubious because no one else does it in Japan???? Or should most database maintainers in european football call all the clubs the same thing? get over it everything changed with the Bossman-Verdict. Why focus so much on Pro or not? its really not important. Again are you saying that Fagiano shouldnt be able to do what they are doing because its not fair for the thousands better players than Fagiano players not playing in J-League? I can only say..... So? who cares!!!!! Its football the thousands of players dont play in J-League, thats it period. I can also argue how sad it is for me I never got a contract in a proclub just because my neighbour being a worse player got one? Football isnt a charity and life is full of these issues.
If it isnt important then why does Fagiano do it? Unless you can resolve that basic logical conundrum, everything else you said just comes off sounding baseless and deliberately antagonistic. The simple fact is that each team is supposed to register just 25 players, plus 3-4 who they view as legitimate prospects, and just havent decided whether or not to put in the reserves, yet. Every other team in Japan knows this. Only Fagiano refuses to follow the standard. And once again, if Fagiano is so blameless and "well run", why is the J.League so angry at them that they refuse to even display the Fagiano mascot on the site? (Since you repeatedly like to pretend you know everything, go research the reasons why this is the case yourself)
Are you assuming that J-League are angry on Okayama because Fagimaru arent displayed on their site or do you actually having proof that they are angry? Again Its me but basically I dont see any problem at all registering 40-50 players at all, whats the big deal... seriously, if noone cant come up with a better argument than its annoying for the databases I cant take it serious. Still why being so focused on pro or not pro? Ever heard of 0 contracts? Pro or not pro is just not that easy to define, and yes I am aware that theres rules on how many S-Contracts, but still to use the words as you use it unserious, get over it the more you try to define the world in boxes the more one will realize that its not possible and quite frankly what Fagiano is doing is more healthy than just follow the stream as everybody else, who says J-Leagues rules are any good.
Yep, it is early days yet! Regarding Katsumata, without him Machida wouldn't have been promoted last year. He had a great season. Whether or not hes a great player at J2 level this year is yet to be seen however he has probably taken a great deal of momentum into the 2012 season with him.
No, the Wikipedia entry about the mascot basically says "for some reason, Fagimaru isn't officially recognised by J-League and doesn't show up on the league website or official guides. As for why, well, even the Wiki doesn't explain and that sort of stuff is far beyond the blanket '大人の事情' excuse that people here use when they can't openly discuss things. So either Matsu is all-knowing and infallible or nobody knows. I'd bet the latter.
Exactly I have been reading a lot of rumours about this issue from different places and sources, and I have to say all are rumours but none of them near was the argument quoted by Matsu. Personally I dont think we shall make conclusions on something we dont know as a fact especially when the words dubious and morally cheap are used.
Oh give it a rest. Fagimaru was created by a professional graphic artists. Professional graphic artists are used to getting PAID for doing things like that. Fagiano said that since the mascot proposals were accepted as part of a "create the mascot" contest they didnt owe anyone anything. The graphic artist got pissed, and tried to block its use. The copyrights for Fagimaru are still uncertain (though I dont have any direct information on whether there is a lawsuit pending) so THAT is why he isnt displayed on the J.League site. Maybe you dont view that as unsavoury corporate behaviour, but most people do. Van-kun was created via exactly the same process, and the graphic artist who proposed him was paid to draw the designs now used on the website. Ehime had a similar contest, and the guy who created Oren-jay now gets regular business from the club (just look at all the nigaoe on their site). What prompts some silly comment like "Matsu must be all-knowing". This is something that theyve been discussing on 2ch for several years now. Im just pointing out what a petty operation they run at Fagiano. But I guess "petty" isnt a very good word to be using in the current company.
And as for "getting the real story" . . . . what are you doing depending on Wikipedia for your info (much less, depending on me to tell you)? Are you the "official Goal.com reporter" or arent you? If you had any journalistic instincts at all you would call up the J.League and ask for a comment. I doubt they would give you the full story, but Im sure they would at least confirm or deny whether it was a "著作権の問題". Even I can sometimes get people at JFA House to give me some tidbits (usually off the record), and as we all know, I dont have any credibility as a journalist whatsoever . . . isnt that right?
I read from the Japanese Wikipedia that Matsumoto's mascot is also missed out in the J. League official page. Don't know if this is due to a similar reason.
That is the reason why I dont believe that you can say Fagianos business is doubtfull when taking in the consideration the argument used is about Fagimaru. If one thinks red cars is the most common car colours you can believe that because you want that to be. I dont believe that Matsumoto has a similar reason to be hated by J-League so that would be too big a coincidence ......... so its a duck!
Avispa lucky to be leading 1-0 away to Machida at half-time. Teams aren't going to enjoy playing there this year, the pitch looks like a cabbage patch, although Machida are trying to pass it around so it is causing them as many problems as us. Having said that they really should have scored at least once, and I'd be very happy to take a 1-0 win with no injuries at this point. How can the pitch be so bad for the first game of the season?! Do they play rugby there?