Hi guys. We are ready to open another year of Nadeshiko football (actually, as everyone of you know, the year of Nadeshiko football has already begun with the final of Empress' Cup being played today, but that match actually belongs to 2018 season and it's been rightfully commented on the 2018 thread ). It will be a busy and important year for sure, and I don't want to make a very long "state of Nadeshiko football" introduction, as I did last year. Suffice to say that 2018 has been a glorious year for Nadeshiko Japan: we won three major tournaments (AFC Asian Cup, U-20 WWC and Asian Games) and the only one that was quite disappointing was U-17 WWC (but Kusunose's resignement a week ahead of the tournament wasn't going to remain without consequence and, although New Zealand deservedly won the quarter-final match, I guess Ikeda's plan was just to rotate as many players as possible and to give some international experience to everyone of them). Friendly tournaments (Algarve and ToN) were the only ones where Nadeshiko Japan had plain bad results (and this probably costed us a seeded place at the draw for WWC 2019), but I'd give them away everyday to win those that actually count instead, as we did. Of course, this new year has just one big target: WWC in France! The draw has been quite good for us and we can hope to advance quite deep in the tournament: how much deep? We're going to see. For sure it will be hard to do better that the last two editions (Champions and runner-ups), but we'll go for it for sure. "She Believes Cup" at the end of February/beginning of March will be an interesting and new tool for our preparation (although this means no Algarve Cup this year for us: sorry, @Manchester Nadeshiko ). The fact that Mizuho Sakaguchi played some minutes today in the Empress' Cup's final is a very good omen for WWC. Finalizing the roster with the right balance of veterans and young players will be hard for Takakura, but I have faith that the squad we're going to bring to France will be the best Nadeshiko Japan side as possible and that we're going to challenge the strongest NTs in the world on a parity basis. May the best one win! Later, I'll probably post here my seasonal-scorers chart for 2018. Not sure if locking the 2018 thread will be as easy as usual, but I'm going to try to make it happen: meanwhile, I'd say we should transfer here any ongoing discussion anyway (I am going to post a reminder on the 2018 thread within minutes). A good 2019 Nadeshiko year to everyone!
Well, happy new year and welcome to the new thread And go for the WWC this year. I believe in them, who more?
Mmm... yup, handball for me. It hit Tanaka's upper arm and visibly changed direction, falling perfectly for Momiki. From then on, INAC was chasing the game and Tanaka scores on the counter. Hope it doesn't happen in the WWC; FIFA hasn't said whether we will have VAR for that or not... https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/07/sports/womens-world-cup-var-uswnt.html
I wonder if it was a 100% clear misjudgement. It looks like handball because Tanaka stretches the left arm up, but in fact the ball hit her shoulder on a slowmotion video.
The game to circle on the calendar before the World Cup is the one on February 27 against the USWNT. If there is one team I want to see beaten at all costs, it's the US. Even if we don't win against Brazil or England, beating the US would be a major confidence booster ahead of the World Cup.
As I promised, here are the seasonal scorers from 2018 season (only club level, no National Teams involved). Give a rep to me if you still like the fact that I yearly post this feature, guys! Since most of you should know the format from the previous years, I'll put the general rules in a "spoiler" window, so you can skip them or open the window to watch them, as you like best. Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler The chart has no National Teams goals, no overseas leagues goals, only Division 1 club competitions in Japan (including Empress' Cup, that has clubs from all levels, but no Division 2, no Nadeshiko League Division 2 Cup nor any lesser league). So, basically it is: Nadeshiko League Division 1 + Nadeshiko League Cup (Div. 1 only) + Empress' Cup (only counting goals from Div. 1 clubs). The format works this way (example): 4 – Mai Kyokawa – INAC Kobe Leonessa - 13 (6 / 1 / 6)(+7!) This reads as follows: Mai Kyokawa is 4th in the chart, played in INAC Kobe Leonessa, scored 13 goals, 6 in Nadeshiko League Division 1, 1 in Nadeshiko League Cup (Div. 1) and 6 in Empress' Cup; also she scored 7 goals more than previous season. The fact that the comparison is in bold and with an exclamation mark (+7!) means that the difference from previous season is more than 5 goals better or worse than the goals scored that season; otherwise, the number in bracket isn't in bold and has no punctuation. I don't make comparisons with previous season if the player was in a different league, even if I have the data from that league, because I don't think it makes sense to compare the number of goals scored in Nadeshiko League Division 1 with those scored in Division 2 or in Frauen-Bundesliga: in those cases, a note will state: (can't be properly compared). If a player was in Division 1 for only a part of the season, the goals she scored there will be counted, but no goal in other leagues will be counted (for instance, Kumi Yokoyama only has the goals scored in Japan in 2018, not also those scored in Germany; I'll compare anyway her record with previous season, although a note will state that she didn't fully play it).Also: when two players were even on goals, I've written first the one with more goals in Division 1 (arguably, the most important competition); when they were even in Division 1 goals, I just used alphabetical order. These are the first 20 positions of the chart (actually the first 23 position: 8 players were tied at 16th place, so I added 3 positions to accomodate them all): Nadeshiko League Seasonal scorers 1 - Mina Tanaka - Nippon TV Beleza - 27 (15 / 5 / 7)(-1) 2 - Arisa Minamino - Nojima Stella Kanagawa Sagamihara - 16 (10 / 5 / 1)(+3) 3 - Riko Ueki - Nippon TV Beleza - 15 (4 / 8 / 3)(+5!) 4 - Yuika Sugasawa - Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies - 13 (7 / 1 / 5)(-1) - Mai Kyokawa - INAC Kobe Leonessa - 13 (6 / 1 / 6)(+7!) 6 - Yuka Momiki - Nippon TV Beleza - 12 (4 / 2 / 6)(-2) 7 - Megumi Takase - INAC Kobe Leonessa - 10 (6 / 2 / 2)(+3) - Mizuki Sonoda - Albirex Niigata Ladies - 10 (5 / 5 / 0)(+1) 9 - Moeno Sakaguchi - Albirex Niigata Ladies - 9 (5 / 3 / 1)(+4) 10 - Haruka Hamada - Vegalta Sendai Ladies - 8 (5 / 3 / 0)(+2) - Yoko Tanaka - Nojima Stella Kanagawa Sagamihara - 8 (3 / 2 / 3)(+5!) 12 - Mebae Tanaka - Nojima Stella Kanagawa Sagamihara - 7 (5 / 2 / 0)(+7!) - Emi Nakajima - INAC Kobe Leonessa - 7 (5 / 1 / 1)(-5!) - Chinatsu Kira - Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies - 7 (3 / 3 / 1)(-1) - Yui Hasegawa- Nippon TV Beleza - 7 (3 / 3 / 1)(+2) 16 - Kumi Yokoyama - AC Nagano Parceiro Ladies - 6 (6 / 0 / 0)(-4) (only played part of the season: transferred from Frauen-Bundesliga)* - Naoko Sakuramoto - JEF United Ichihara Chiba Ladies - 6 (5 / 1 / 0)(=) - Hina Sugita – INAC Kobe Leonessa - 6 (5 / 1 / 0)(+2) - Risa Fukasawa - JEF United Ichihara Chiba Ladies - 6 (4 / 2 / 0)(+3) - Fuka Kono - Nittaidai Fields Yokohama - 6 (4 / 2 / 0) (can't be properly compared: in Nadehiko League Div. 2 last season)° - Hinata Miyazawa – Nippon TV Beleza - 6 (4 / 2 / 0)(+6!) - Miyu Yakata – Cerezo Osaka Sakai Ladies - 6 (4 / 2 / 0)(+3) (can't be properly compared: in Nadeshiko League Div. 2 last season)° - Rika Masuya - INAC Kobe Leonessa - 6 (3 / 2 / 1)(=) * Kumi Yokyama transferred back from 1.FFC Frankfurt to AC Nagano Parceiro Ladies in September 2018. ° Anyway, Kono has scored three more goals than in season 2017, when she had scored 2 goals in Division 2 + 1 goal in Nadeshiko League Cup Div. 2, for a total of 3. Yakata, instead, has scored six goal less than in season 2017, when she had scored 6 goals in Division 2 + 5 goals in Nadeshiko League Cup Div. 2 + 1 goal in Empress' Cup, for a total of 12. Some observations: - For the second consecutive year, Mina Tanaka is Best Seasonal Scorer, and for the second consecutive season she's the only player scoring more then 20 seasonal goals, a sad tendency we had seen last season also. Of course, the best potential challenger could have been Kumi Yokoyama, who was Best Seasonal Scorer in 2016, but Kumi missed more than half of the season both in 2017 and this year, because of the overlap with Frauen-Bundesliga 2017-2018. It's quite significant that she always manages to make top 10 despite missing most of the season: in 2017 she had scored 6 goals in the league + 4 in Nadeshiko League Cup; this year she didn't get the chance to play Nadeshiko League Cup, so she "only" scored 6 goals in a minimal portion of Nadeshiko League, as she had done last year. Not sure if it should be worrying in a National Team perspective, but one of our main offensive players, Mana Iwabuchi is just at 44th place on the domestic scene, having scored just 3 goals in the whole season (2 in Nadeshiko League + 1 in Empress' Cup); could it have to do with the role she plays in INAC? - Nippon TV Beleza and INAC Kobe Beleza have both 5 players in top 20 (Mina Tanaka, Riko Ueki, Yuka Momiki, Yui Hasegawa and Hinata Miyazawa for Beleza; Mai Kyokawa, Megumi Takase, Emi Nakajima, Hina Sugita and Rika Masuya for INAC); Nojima Stella Kanagawa Sagamihara manages to place three names in the chart! New entry Mebae Tanaka at 12th place, good "old" Yoko Tanaka at 10th place (with 5 more goals than last season!) and Arisa Minamino for the first time at second place in the seasonal goals' rankings (from 4th place of last year). Not only Minamino is the higher-placed player in this chart that has never been called in NT, but she's the highest seasonal scorer who's never been called in NT since when I started making these charts (the first one was for season 2014). - Apart from Nojima's players (and from the ones who basically debuted this year in Division 1, as Hinata Miyazawa), the bigger moves up were from Riko Ueki and Mai Kyokawa. Ueki had scored in 2017 5 more seasonal goals than in 2016; now she raise it up by another 5 (and basically she scored them all in Nadeshiko League Cup, since the difference from last season is that she's scored 8 goals instead of 3 in this particular competition); Mai Kyokawa had quite a disappointing season in 2017, but she more than made up in 2018, with 7 goals more, for a total of 13. She got back to her old habits from her youth years and she's now clearly the key player of INAC's offense line. Could it have to do with the fact that she's now assisted by some Mana Iwabuchi? This could also explain why Mana scores so few goals, since she probably most plays the "last-pass-woman" for Kyokawa. - There are no many other observations to make about this years top 20: NT's Forwards Sugasawa and Momiki score decently, and are into top 6 positions, although there's actually nothing to write home about. Megumi Takase manages to remain on a 10 goals seasonal record despite her new role as a Right-Back: something to think about for NT also, in a Kinga-like role? Albirex places two players at 10 or 9 goals, Mizuki Sonoda (very consistent for the second consecutive season, although never considered by Takakura) and Moeno Sakaguchi. Yui Hasegawa won't ever be a striker, but she anyway puts her 7 goals in. Risa Fukasawa, after crashing out of the top 20 in 2017, barely squeezes back in this year with 6 goals. - Notable names from last year who are now out of top 20 Seasonal Scorers: Mizuho Sakaguchi (-7!) Shiho Tomari (-7!) Sawako Yasumoto (-6!) Risa Ikadai (-6!) Azusa Iwashimizu (-6!) Sayaka Oishi (-4) Shoko Chino (-3) Kozue Ando (-2) The Australian player Caitlin Foord, who was tied at 10th place with 8 goals last season, has since left Nadeshiko League. Most of these moves are easy to explain: Mizuho Sakaguchi has been basically out injured the whole season, so she just scored one single goal st the beginning of it. Ikadai retired at the end of last season, if I remember correctly. Iwashimizu apparently only thinks about defense these days. I wonder about Tomari: did she retire too? I can't trace her in any Nadeshiko roster from this season. Yasumoto of course suffered from Vegalta's disastrous season. It can be interesting that a player that was quite used to be a regular of seasonal-scorers top 20, Ami Sugita, will be back in Nadeshiko League Division 1 in 2019, coming back from Nadeshiko League Division 2, where she scored a respectable numer of goals (8).
Oh, yeah, now I remember: one of these days I should give a look to Austrian League, somewhere on the net, to assess how did Tomari fare in her overseas adventure!
Did some research: looks like FC Waker Innsbruck is a middle-table team in Austrian Frauen-Liga: we're 9 matchdays into season 2018-2019 and the team holds 5th position out of 10 teams. The official OFB (Austrian Federation) website didn't even have a top-scorer chart for women's league (or at least it wasn't easy to locate on the website)! I anyway found another source, and it looks like our player didn't un-learn how to score: she's currently 4th-placed in the top-scorers' rankings of the league with 7 goals out of 9 matches. Long live Shiho Tomari! We'll have to remember about her, when we post our occasional updates from leagues overseas. While I was looking for news about Tomari, I discovered (or probably re-discovered: I vaguely remember these news being already posted here at the time when we were discussing Tomari's transfer) that there is another Japanese player in FC Wacker Innsbruck's roster: Marin Fujisawa. Could someone please remind me of where she comes from?
Loosely translated from Wacker's press release: Started in Belezza's youth teams, then Jumonji high school team, then Nippon Sport Science University (won university cup two times), joined Fukuoka J Anclas after graduating from university (captain for two years there), last team was Athletic Sports Harima Albion (won league cup in 2016). There's also an interview with both of them (Japanese with German subs): Edit: Masaki Morass is the director of sports and coach btw, a Japanese-Austrian coach (since 1997) and interpreter (born 1979 in Tokyo).
That's true, although to be fair they are newly promoted, having won the 2nd League title last season.
Well, I wasn't aware. So, I guess their position is quite an achievement (also considereing that their last match was an hard-fought 2-3 home loss; hadn't they lost that one, they could be in a much better position right now).
On the topic of Nadeshiko players in foreign leagues... Keiko Kodama since August is apparently Borussia Monchengladbach player. (one cap so far in DFB Pokal in September)...hmm injury?
Yes, someone (maybe @datschge himself? Or @And G?) had mentioned in the 2018 thread that she has suffered a quite serious injury, although I don't think we had been given any clue about the time needed for her to recover.
Highschool tournament and U18 tournament start today. http://www.tbs.co.jp/joshisoccer/result/1.html http://www.jfa.jp/match/joc_womens_2018/schedule_result/ It's surprising that Jef and Urawa youths were beaten in the regional tournaments. Menina, Setagaya, Chifure and Nojima from Kanto area participate in this competition.
Randomly watching 2ch, that Ninomiya team is nice to watch, fast and direct, high pressing, decent passing if required. Edit: They won 4-1 in the end. What's up with (what seems) only mothers being at the event though?
Today's result: high school: Fujieda Junshin 0- 0(PK 2-4) Tokiwagi Sendai Kitagami 1-1 (PK 4-2 ) Kobe Koryo Hokkaido Meisei 0-1 Hinomoto Shutoku 7-0 Shugakukan Jumonji 6-0 Matsue Shogyo Fukui 0-1 Kagawa Nishi Kaishi Gakuen 1-0 Hiroshima Bunkyo Kamimura Gakuen 0-2 Teikyo Nagaoka Daisyo Gakuen 1-4 Seisa Shonan Muroran Ohtani 0-1 Chikuyo Gakuen Hanasaki Tokuharu 2-1 Naruto Uzushio Nihon Koku 4-1 Kyoto Seika Iwata Higashi 1-9 Tokaidai Fukuoka Kashima Gakuen 2-5 Harima Seiwa Gakuen 1-1 (PK 2-4) St. Capitanio Maebashi Ikuei 1-1 (PK 4-5) Sakuyo
Today's result (2): U18 Menina 3-0 Konomiya Ehime Mikan 4-0 Hioki Seagulls Nojima Due 7-2 Ange Violet Hiroshima U18 Shline.L.FC 1-17 Sfida Setagaya Youth (not typo) Chifure Mari 2-1 Kumamoto Flora Inac Leonchina 2-0 NGU Nagoya Hokkaido Lira Consadole 1-2 Albi U18 Nagoya Luminas 0-4 Cerezo Girls
I remember a game between Hina Sugita (Fujieda Junshin) and Nana Ichise (Tokiwagi) a few years ago. I think it was a final (probably one of many), but i cant remember who actually won that match? And it would be interesting to know, if some other notable names were playing for one of these teams, when they were younger?
A lot, especially for Tokiwagi: Tokiwagi Sameshima Aya Tanaka Asuna Obara Yuria Kumagai Saki Goto Michi Sakuramoto Naoko Nakamura Kaede Kyokawa Mai Nakada Ayu Michigami Ayaka Nishikawa Ayaka Okino Kurea Takikawa Yume Fujieda Kitahara Kana Kohata Shiho Sakaguchi Moeno Sayama Momoko Kono Fuka Kurosaki Yuka Fukuta Yui
Thank you very much @unepommekun that's really helpful Just now i realise how important these two teams are for Womens Football in Japan. I mean Kumagai, Sameshima and Ichise were all playing for Tokiwagi, right. Thats 3 quarters of the National Teams backline They must have some really good coaches there. And Moeno Sakaguchi, Hina Sugita and of course Yui Fukuta were playing for Fujieda, thats also quite impressive.