I am actually surprised that the TV coverage was intense at that point! Here is a sad YT video of them returning from the 2008 Olympics having lost both the semis and the bronze playoff.... to silence. Your blog is damn good, you write well, in fact you should be a blogger. So many others should not..... Well please write one for the Algrave Cup, it starts barely 5 weeks from now. Me, I am Irish living in the USA and the first women's soccer game I ever saw was the famous USA v China 1999 World Cup final, which almost 100,000 attended (Rose Bowl). The screaming schoolgirls made it unforgettable, even if the football was short on skill, it was a media firestorm. But I had just a casual interest. But somehow in 2007 I saw a video of Miyama's two FK goals (against England by the way) and it seemed remarkable. But perhaps the real difference was that there are a few on YT who follow the Nadeshiko religiously, and so my PC cookies were always serving me up new videos like this ...
The DF is Maya YOshida who is now playing in VVV Venlo, Netherlands. He is similar to Saki in the current standing position in Japan NT, young, tall and strong but a little bit shaky. You can easily recognize Nagatomo because he looks like a little monkey, 170cm. A year ago, Japanese women athletes who can make tabloid headlines were Mao Asada, Ai Miyazato or else, and no football players. If you saw Ando on the front page, it definitely meant Miki Ando. I think now two football players have been added to the list, of course Sawa and Kawasumi. The other members, especially the players abroad, might be not so famous.
Ando so we know that also Kozue don't drive the Audi car given by the sponsor as an award for WWC victory. But she apparently doesn't need it, because she's driving a Seat instead, that's been provided by the FCR 2001 Duisburg club itself (it has the Duisburg's badge on the door).
I heard Norio's speech in Niigata on January 15th on Podcast. He spoke there about the way to the world cup victory, the roots of his coaching career and what to do to win a medal in London. In that speech, he spoke about Karina as an example of a good effect of the post-disaster. Karina had been not in the NT for long before the earthquake, and he had never thought of her as a NT member because she had been able to play good only for a short time in a match. But after the disaster she ran 20km everyday to gain strength, and when he watched one game, he realized her change. So he called her up at the matches against the US last spring, and confirmed her good condition. As you know it led to her crucial goal in the match against Germany.
Great story about Sasaki & Karina, thanks. I am a bit surprised that Kozue is unknown. I looked up that skater who I had never heard of, and it was sad that her mother just died, and very young. I am sure that was a big headline.
There are several reasons about it. After the WWC, the number of Nadeshiko fans drastically increased, but most of them are ordinary people, not specific football fans. It means that they mostly pay attention to conspicuous ones, so the order is following: Sawa, Kawasumi, Miyama, Ohno, Kaihori... Sakaguchi and Ando are very subdued compared to them. Few people can notice that they play very important roles in the team. And one more thing: Players appearing on TV in Japan are mostly Inac members, which leads to their popularity. By the way, I have a question to you, though this is somewhat off this thread, just from my curiosity. Could you tell me who the most famous five women athletes in the US are?
Wow, with those frilly pink Nadeshiko flowers it really doesn't look like a "normal" football jersey... Somehow makes me want to see them play with it, though. Mmm, let's see... who could they use the away shirt against? France, probably... or Costa Rica, should they qualify for Olympics, but I don't think so. (one of the CONCACAF semi-finals is USA-Costa Rica, to be clear, so i guess Costa Rica's chances are quite slim...) Well, it seems I have to hope for a Japan-France match at Olympics, to watch the away uniform in action. It would make a good semi-final, or maybe even a final.
Maybe they could use against Brazil? This pattern is the same that Adidas used in the Yokohama Marinos jersey: Seagulls in the home uniform and the anchor in the away uniform:
It took me a while to figure out what those pink stains were. Then I thought "fireworks because they won the WWC"? The "nadeshiko" took a bit longer to dawn on me. I think they look like graffiti on something that is otherwise very neat and structured. So no, I'm not so keen.
Well if you want an "official" list, try this - http://www.marketingcharts.com/topi...illiams-repeats-as-1-female-us-athlete-18326/ (click on the table if you like). I would have guessed Serena Williams might be #5, with Danica Patrick, Natalie Gulbis, Hope Solo and maybe one of the skiers or ice-skaters completing the list. But I am wrong, the list doesnt make much sense really. I am surprised that Kozue is not more famous simply because of her looks - that alone usually works in the USA. Also I am surprised Miyama is close in popularity to Kawasumi simply because she seems so low-profile in her mountain town. But anyway, here she is in a new video - with a birthday cake (she turns 27 on Saturday). When I met her in 2009, I reminded her that she once scored two FKs in a single World Cup game, something that I dont believe any male or female has done - both are in this video, and the 30m screamer was in the 95th (!) minute.
Homare Sawa and the Nadeshiko have been nominated for the Laureus World Sportswoman and Team of the Year awards, respectively. The awards ceremony will be held in London on 6 Feb.
Well if she plays as good as she looks, who knows, maybe she will even bump Kawasumi off the Olympics..........lol. Actually it is so surprising that Otaki, who could never get on the u-17 or u-20 teams, can now get signed by OL who are possibly the strongest club in the world? (well, say equal with INAC). Could it be she has improved so much ?! Speaking of Kawasumi, she made a sentimental to the City where she had her greatest success - and met Saki (and Tanaka turned up of course) - here and here (only skimmed thru the 1st yet - anything interesting spoken?)
She said "kankoku" - "South Korea"... and "doitsu" - "Germany" ... my Japanese class is beginning to bear fruit!
Congratulations to Ami Otaki signing with Olympique Lyonnais Féminin! I didn't know about her, but reading up on articles, she's seem to be a great player, a key player for her team at York University (Canada). So this means there's now currently 3 Japanese players in France, along with Rumi Utsugi and Aya Sameshima of Montpellier. In addition there are 3 in Germany - Saki Kumagai (Frankfurt), Kozue Ando (Duisburg) and Yuki Nagasato (Potsdam). I just know of these six players currently playing overseas. Are there more Japanese ladies playing abroad?
Mami Yamaguchi was playing in Sweden, until she suffered a very severe injury. I am not sure about what she's actually doing at the moment and if she signed up for any team.
Her comments: I've never experienced that a team has been stronger with every match it played. (About the Japan NT at the WWC) I decided to become a football player when I met Sawa san at the age of 12, so I couldn't believe I was playing with her in the final of WWC.
Well, it wasnt so much severe injury, but she elected to go for surgery, so its a bit like Iwabuchi. There was a link somehwere that she was talking to her old club, Umea, which is so far north that daylight is probably about 4 hours long at this time of year! One more video, focus on pretty Nakata (can she rival Kawasumi for looks ?.... tough at the top, lol)
Oh, by the way, since we were talking about french league and Otaki's chances of stealing the starting-team status to Schelin , I guess we haven't underlined enough how the last turn of Division 1 Féminine went: PSG was unexpectedly stopped on a 1-1 tie by Rodez and so Montpellier, winning 1-3 vs Vendenheim (And Delie finally got back to scoring, although at 92'! ), gained 3rd place again, passing PSG by 1 point. OL and Juvisy obviously won and currently they seem virtually impossible to catch, but at least Montpellier is back lurking at third place. (this week-end there will be no league matches in France if I am not wrong: next turn on 4th of february).
The schedule of the Algarve Cup was announced: 2/29 Japan vs Norway 3/2 Japan vs Denmark 3/5 Japan vs United States