Frankfurt won the annual Frauen-Bundesliga indoor cup this afternoon. Saki Kumagai scored two goals in ordinary play (including one in the final against Duisburg) and, as one of the team's three penalty takers, scored on all her three attempts in the penalty shoot-out which decided the semi-final against Hamburg. According to the Turbine Potsdam live ticker, she even scored a goal for Duisburg against Bad Neuenahr, but it turned out to be Kozue Ando's. The regional TV channel MDR just showed a half-hour feature about the tournament. If I can find a link on the web, I'll post it here.
Please do it!!! I want to see Kozue and Saki score. Especially Saki's penalties. Did she make the "face" of the last penalty vs USA for each of them?
By the way: I had seen some commercials or advertising for the 2012 Nadeshiko League, and I had wondered why it seemed like Kamionobe and not Sakaguchi was the "face" of Albirex Niigata. Now it's clear why. By the way, the third player from the left is from the new Nadeshiko Legue team? Who is she? (I also don't know the names of Elfen Sayama, Fukuoka Anclas and Iga Kunoichi "stars" [or maybe I would know the names but I can't recognize the faces]). The fact that Tomomi Miyamoto is not showed as the "face" of Kunoichi could mean that she's going to sign for a "bigger" team too, in an attempt to fight for a place in the National Team?
The artist did a very nice job. Is the 2nd player from left Nakata? It couldnt be. Micol, now we really need some indoors' video ....
Let me know whether this works for you: Go to this page in MDR's video archive. Make sure the heading says "Sendungen Sonnabend 21.01.2012". If not, click on "Sonnabend" in the navigation on the left Scroll down to "Sport im Osten 16:30 Uhr" In the navigation box on the right, scroll down to the last item, "Hallenpokal: Jubel bei Frankfurter Frauen" If it doesn't work, I can at least offer this, from the dinner after the tournament, courtesy Yuki's tweet.
It does work perfectly, but Saki's pic was welcome anyway. This is strange form of football, isn't it? Different from futsal (unless I am not aware of what exactly futsal is). I mean, the indoor tournament I had seen before had "real" sidelines and you couldn't use the sideline-advertising-boards as cushions... Is it just my ignorance? Anyway, one of the most "japanese" moments was when Saki was fighting with Ando in the corner. ^__^ By the way, I saw Ana Maria Crnogorcevic back on the pitch: so she recovered from her injury? That seems like quite good news for 1.FFC Frankfurt.
You're right, the rules are different from futsal (but I've never watched futsal, so I don't know what the differences are). I've just read it up on the German wikipedia, and it seems that this type of indoor football is specific to Germany and Austria. (Does that make it "strange"? ) Apparently, there is yet another variety which is played in North America ("indoor soccer"? sounds familiar to the German one though). Using the cushions actively in play is actually an "extra" compared to normal football that makes it quite interesting (once the teams - used to normal football - have figured it out ). Yes, she's back. Good news for Frankfurt badly needed at a time when they've just lost Ali Krieger for the better part of the year.
Meanwhile Ayu Nakada, Mai Kyokawa and Yoko Tanaka wore Leonessa's jerseys for the first time (but apparentely they just wore them over their school uniforms, for the moment, as you can tell by the skirts ): Edit: Kyokawa now wears jersey #14 that, if I remember well, was Miwa Yonetsu's number, and in fact Yonetsu just retired. If #13 and #20 were "free" for Nakada and Tanaka, does that mean that previous Leonessa's players with those numbers also retired or changed team? Who had those numbers in the last season?
Ouch!... That girl is a walking hospital Let's hope that doesn't endanger her London 2012 preparation and participation... (we know she'll have many rivals in the FW department)
Good video and photo, thanks Micol...the indoors suits those "small" Franfurt players (plus Bajramaj) well.
Well it definitely endangers it, she will miss the Algarve and probably the April internationals. It must look doubtful if she can impress enough to be chosen. Tough on her. Wonder if this happened in the Nadeshiko Cup? I dont remember an injury report.
Here is video of the event, and a second video listing what Moukoko24 knows so far of ALL the L-league retirements, transfers, etc. I see that IGA is getting a Korean international.
Wow, it's really super-interesting (as always all Moukoko24 material is ). That Rina Suzuki who's going to join Urawa Red Ladies is the very tall player that we saw some time ago in a video about the Tokiwagi High School team? So, one of INAC Korean players (not the most important one ) got back in SK, and another one came to Iga FC Kunoichi (so, for the moment, two clubs have foreign players, INAC and Iga).
Lol, yes, she's the prettier one probably... And they also look quite pretty in their school uniform (at least for us European, who are not used at all to watch high school girls dressed this way... . I teach in an high school here in Italy, but my students wear no uniform and they use to dress quite casually).
I'm sad for Iwabuchi, she had a great season with her club and could get more chances in the NT this year... And indeed, Ayu is just too cute! Mai and Yoko are kawaii as well s2
Kind of hard NOT to follow the world cup over here. I'll watch most sports, and by the time it got to the knockout stages it was All Nadeshiko, All The Time. Which was no bad thing. I believe there was a bit of a spat over England's games being shown on digital TV. I have to confess to not being overly interested in any of the specific women, but I am very interested in what they represent for Japan. My kid (maybe kids) is/are going to grow up here, and I think the Nadeshiko are significant beyond just the sporting side of it. Seeing the way you guys are reacting over here has prompted me to witter on a bit more about it, if you're interested, and if you'll excuse the shameless self-publicity. Plus I've quoted blissett, so it's only fair I give him a heads up. If you're only interested in the football maybe skip down to the alarm clock. How'd you get interested, mumf?
She seems to have been playing while feeling pain during the last season, and decided to have surgery to play in London. They say that a born beside the little toe of her right foot has a crack.
I don't know about the other members of these threads, but I am eagerly interested in all cultural issues (i graduated in linguistics and I like to assess linguistic and cultural differences, that after all are often quite tightly connected). If the other members get annoyed by this kind of discussions, i'll end private messaging you, kamo... ^__^ Anyway, I liked your article overall, it was very insightful about Japanese culture and about all you really meant with your previous article (you had enough clarified it here, but you were more exhaustive and addressed a wider audience there). About my quote, you were authorized to correct my "contest" in "context", lol (my awful english is often a source of misspells or other horrors). As an aside, but I know it's a lost battle from the very start (and so I won't waste many words about it), there is no way I can repeat enough that Berlusconi is NOT representative of italian culture as a whole. But I am aware that this man damaged Italy's image for the century to come.. Obviously, when I talked about a more-than-average misogynous country, I was also thinking about him and about the kind of "culture" ("sub-culture", really) he represents (and alas a part of italian people for sure did identify themselves in it). But I'd like to stress that this is NOT the way most Italians feel and that, at least formally (if not substantially, for many people I know), there are some rules about respect for women that are normally publicly respected here in Italy, and a question like the one to Homare Sawa would have raised some eyebrows for sure here and would have stirred some debate. End of the aside, because I am aware that this isn't in any way a political thread, not a thread about Italy, but I felt somehow involved by your article... (if you want to answer me without driving the thread out of topic, feel free to private-message me)
Yes, and Urawa got another famous one, Hikaru Naomoto, who played at a regular starter of the U-17 WWC and U-19 AFC championship, in addition the most beautiful girl.
Videos you will like - this one shows the first INAC training session with the 3 new kids in the mix.... and this one is a visit to Kozue in Duisburg (who's the DF she meets? Its not Nagatomo? Sorry I barely know the men's team, and dont know who's in Germany). How famous is she in Japan? Not as famous as the golfers (Miyazato, Ueda)?
The good teams get better, the poorer teams get worse? I think I recognized one more name on that long list. She is joining Jeff, and if I am right Erina Yamana is the tall GK from the youth world cups. I hope she improves because she was the right size for a GK, taller than Hope Solo probably.