Official 2016 Nadeshiko Japan Thread [R] - なでしこジャパン（英語スレッド）

So she's still in germany, I suppose?

 

Oh, ok. It would be good to know something about Mana's health, right now...

 

SGS Essen deservedly lost: that's what you get for subbing out Kozue Ando just after you scored 1-0!

 

Ohno always funny!

And I like the way Fukumoto hugged Takenaka.

The game is still underway? Merry Christmas anyone, by the way!

 

Lol, the part about Fukumoto's gloves is a funny detail!

Wow, if they finished at 7th round, but Takenaka stopped 2-3 PKs, there must have been many mistakes from both parts! Can the exact list of PKs be read anywhere?

Wow, I would have liked to see Saki in the comment booth! Was she good at commenting the game? Were she asked anything about first OL's loss in the league after three years?

 

Thank you very much, Titus Sol: I really enjoyed the whole PK shootout sequence and the following award ceremony!

Some observations:
- the best taken PK was Hina Sugita's one, in my opinion: fast, strong, well-angled, just a few centimeters from the post; PKs like this leave no hope to GK. I like the fact that the girl is so cold-blooded at her young age. Fun fact: after this PK, Rika Masuya was all smiles and excited, waiting for Hina to high five her... but she ignored her! (See at about 10':50").
- Saki Kumagai's opinion was repeatedly asked: after WWC 2011 and Champions' League 2016, she's rightfully considered the maximum expert of penalty shootout in women's football. It's funny that the game she guest-commented ended this way.
- Cho So-Hyun hairdress is just incredible. She seems quite playful and looks like she gelled well with INAC's group, included veterans as Ohno and Kawasumi. Also, her PK was a good one also.
- There were many reasons for players to cry, today: Albi's girls lost yet another chance to win this trophy; Ayaka Watanabe missed the deciding PK, and against her former team (sniff... how bad she had to feel! ); Asuna Tanaka sent her PK crashing below the crossbar, and had to be much relieved that her team-mates made up for that; Junko Kai was at the last match of her career, and she was quite emotional in the final interview (anyway she finished on a high note and she even managed to hold back the tears, somehow); but, unexpectedly, the biggest crier of the day was one of the winners, one of the PK scorers and, incidentally, litterally the biggest girl on the pitch I guess: Ayaka Michigami!!! She looks so tough on the pitch, and yet she couldn't stop crying like a little girl, at the end! Also, there was another INAC player on the bench who was crying a lot, but I couldn't tell who she was: a girl with long hair, who was often shown next to Fukumoto and who wasn't part of the team that was given the medals in the award ceremony: who was she?
- I guess Takenaka talked about Fukumoto's gloves in the after-match interview? She looked quite emotional too (although she was on the "all-smiles-can't-seem-to-figure-what-to-say" kind of emotional ). Although I often criticized her in the past, I have to admit that she was good today: not only she saved two PKs, but she had an hand on at least two others. Yes, in PKs it's always more the taker who does wrong, than the GK who does right, but she was anyway quite impressive!
- Did I see right that Shiori Miyake was on crutches on the bench? When was she injured? Is it something very serious, or she will be for sure ok by the beginning of next season?
- Everyone wanted to hug Junko Kai, and captain Takase was class when she wanted her to lift the trophy along with her. It's the last trophy of a long career: Junko even looked older than ever during the interview; probably she felt the moment a lot... Anyway, she was deserving this honour.
- At some moment, an impressive piece of statistics was shown: since 2007, two teams only won Empress' Cup (ok, technically in the past it had another name): INAC Kobe Leonessa (6 titles) and Nippon TV Beleza (4 titles)! Ok, meanwhile it's not like there was much more variety in the league, but at least Urawa got 2 titles there (and Belle won a regular season). Actually Nadeshiko football in general (and Empress' Cup in particular) looked so interesting to me in the last years, that I hadn't the feeling that everything was so one-way! Well, let's see if other clubs can have a word in the future: at the moment, Vegalta and maybe Nagano look like the most serious candidates for next season.

Anyway, it's been an impressive 2016 season overall for Nadeshiko football (and I mean it, despite not being in Rio and not winning the title at U-17 and U-20 WWC)! And it's been another good year for our thread also, despite missing (or partially missing) some good friends along the way. Let's get ready for an even better 2017 (a shiny new thread will soon appear on this boards ).

 

Oh, so they were in Chiba: I was wondering... Looking at the players, it seems like the temperature was very cold! Brrrr...

Looks like Miyake was really on crutches, as I had seemed to notice. The long-haired player that I was talking about in the post above, instead (the one who cried a lot), is shown in this picture next to Takenaka. Who is she?

In general, there were 6 INAC players on the bench who didn't receive the medal: one is Fukumoto; the others are the ones in red in this picture: from the left I can recognize Minamiyama, Miyake and Noguchi: I can't tell who the one next to Moriya and Michigami and the one next to Takenaka are.

Edit: as far as I can tell, the names in the picture above are:
standing: coach Matsuda, Miyabi Moriya, ???, Ayaka Michigami, Mai Kyokawa, Cho So-Hyun, Megumi Takase, Aya Sameshima, Hina Sugita, Shiori Miyake, Ayaka Noguchi, Miho Fukumoto, Rei Takenaka;
crouched: Chiaki Minamiyama, Nahomi Kawasumi, Asuna Tanaka, Shinobu Ohno, Junko Kai, Emi Nakajima, Miki Ito, Ayu Nakada, Rika Masuya, ???.

Is there anyone hidden behind Michigami, or is it just an impression?

 

Did you hear him? Won't he be back?