Looking forward for at least further 1 or 2 of the Japan’s U-20 squad to move to Europe this summer. Mitsuki Saito, Tomoya Wakahara, Ayumi Seko, and Koki Saito all deserve a transfer to a team in second tier European leagues, such as the Netherlands and Belgium.
Hopefully Rei Hirakawa, Ao Tanaka, Yugo Tatsuta, Keito Nakamura, Hiroki Abe and Miyashiro as well for this age group even though some of them did not play in the U-20 tournament but in other tournaments e.g Toulon, etc.
📺 インタビュー💬 Eerste interview met Yukinari Sugawara.🔴 'De kleur rood past perfect bij mij.'#WelcomeYukinari #Japan #AZ pic.twitter.com/xn0X9qLEAk— AZ (@AZAlkmaar) June 20, 2019
Hope he won't be like Yasuda 2.0, player i've rated higher than Nagatomo on his early days or Ota. He's very intelligent with his well-timed overlap and positioning. Sometimes wasteful in the final third though, by picking a wrong pass, and definitely need to improve his defending.
Slightly off topic, but what happened to Yasuda? I know what teams he ended up in, but I don't know what happened to his skill/form from his time being in Holland to Div. 2 in Japan/Korea?
Hopefully other talented guys like Vissel Kobe's Yuki Kobayashi, Yugo Tatsuta and Ao Tanaka, etc. also moves to such clubs as well. Could do a lot of their development.
Assist by Sugawara against Club Brugge: 64. GOAL!👌 Johnsen maakt een schitterende vroege voorzet van Sugawara af: 4-0!#azclu pic.twitter.com/2h1WDjJ2mP— AZ (@AZAlkmaar) July 6, 2019
The dude if I remember correctly was the one who called Honda (K.) "mountain gorilla" making fun of him about their school days. Not exactly what a Nagatomo type would say.
I still remember when he was angry at one of Gamba Osaka’s matches and showed the spectators on the stadium the middle finger. I think you can find the picture on @goru_no_ura profile.
🆕 Officieel debuut🇯🇵 公式デビュー#Sugawara #Japan #aznkh pic.twitter.com/DbQ8uFxHTL— AZ (@AZAlkmaar) July 25, 2019
His team qualified to the third qualifying round after defeating Swedish club Häken 0-3 away at Sweden. Sugawara stayed on the bench for the whole match and didn’t play.