Official 2019 Nadeshiko Japan Thread [R] - なでしこジャパン（英語スレッド）

Well, as I had predicted, there was no worry at all about goal difference. Heck, Australia didn't even manage to get to that!

 

By the way, if North Korea is as strong as everyone depict them, Australia could easily miss U-17 WWC.

 

Wow, huge results, and quite unexpected ones.

Yamato Sylphid, with their third win of the season, lift themselves up from the relegation zone!

And Cerezo Ladies probably grab the last train for getting back in the fight for promotion by beating one of the most serious candidates. They can maybe still say something about that, despite still being some points behind.

 

Our #10 Nishio looks quite tall, by Japanese standards: where does she play?

Most goals were due to Thai defensive blunders or bad marking; maybe the best one was Oyata's curling middle-range effort: Thai defense shouldn't have allowed it, but it was a beautiful shot nonetheless.

 

Nadeshiko League's traditional powers fall apart, with INAC and, especially, Beleza, losing their home games! Now Urawa has an open road to the title; it's true that their current 6 points advantage over Beleza can be misleading, because Beleza actually have a game in hand to them, but it sure won't be an easy one, since it's vs JEF.

Looks like Urawa learnt their lesson from Nadeshiko League Cup's semifinal, when they had wasted a 2 goals advantage vs "the Green Machine", and this time they must have been still brilliant and fit in the last part of the game if they scored their second and third goals at 71' and 77'! Mina Tanaka scored again for Beleza (it's the third consecutive match she does), while Sugasawa didn't, but other Urawa players stepped up to the task: first goals in this league for Nagashima and Takahashi, who even had a brace (although, to be honest, she had already scored three in Nadeshiko League Cup).

@Manchester Nadeshiko's criticism of Beleza was an insteresting piece. Since I hadn't the time to watch the game, has anyone else his/her take about the reasons of Beleza's defeat? And do you think Urawa will manage to stay at the top in these last match-days and to win a title that would put a stop to the latest years of Beleza's dominance?

This result will most likely make @pierre bezukhov happy, both for Minamino's goal (her 5th of the season) and for Nojima's win. I expect a thorough comment from him. (And consider I am an INAC's supporter! ).

In what had quite unexpectedly basically turned into a direct clash to avoid relegation, Yokoyama comes back to goal: maybe the fact that Takakura didn't call her stung her quite a bit? Anyway, it's only her 4th of the season (her 7th, of you factor in Nadeshiko League Cup), so there's a reason if she fell from grace.

For records: the Division 2 match ended 2-0 for Harima Albion, with goals from Sonoko Chiba and Kanami Shinbori! After Orca Kamogawa's loss and Chifure Elfen Saitama's draw yesterday, it looked like Ehime FC Ladies could have run away with the title and the direct promotion spot: everything is up for grabs again instead! Very interesting season in Division 2!

 

International updates:

very brilliant week for Japanese players in NWSL, with almost only positive news!!!

- let's have a crescendo; the "almost" was basically only justified by the fact that Seattle Reign FC's 0-1 home loss to Sky Blue FC complicates their run for the play-offs; their rivals of Utah also lost home, but surely this loss was an huge roadblock for Seattle. The good news, though, are that Rumi Utsugi was finally seen on the bench, as you can see from the official line-ups!!! She didn't get a single minute on the pitch, but it was months we were waiting for Rumi to recover from her injury, so it's sure a good day for her, despite her team's loss.
If you now reverse the point of view, and see this game from a Sjy Blue's perspective, it was a brilliant win and you know what? The winner goal came from a Nahomi Kawasumi's assist to Carli Lloyd, late in second half (as usual, Naho had been a late sub, at 62')! By the way, if you think at Kawasumi's and Lloyd's rivalry in two World Cup's finals in 2011 and 2015 (with one victory apiece), their hug after the goal looked like quite the funny sight!
Highlights: http://www.nwslsoccer.com/videos/89FA31BD-AD5C-73C3-C93E-577B1D7B97D2

- Once again, Yuki Nagasato had a goal and an assist (to Kerr, of course: who else? Also, Kerr herself assisted Yuki for her goal)! Huge achievement for our players, since, on top of reaching 8 assists in the season (more than ever at the top of NWSL) and 7 goals, she saw her team, Chicago Red Stars, clinch a play-off spot with this 3-1 win over Washington. I guess we can comfortably say that this is one of the best seasons in Nagasato's club career (and we know she already had some outstanding ones!).
Highlights: http://www.nwslsoccer.com/videos/B5319987-C3CF-0B39-27F8-577A014A4827


Frauen-Bundesliga:

- Freiburg won an away game in Duisburg by 0-1, but the bad news are that, for the second consecutive week, Hikaru Naomoto wasn't seen on the pitch nor on the bench : I suspect an injury and I hope it won't be anything too much serious.
Meanwhile, in Second Division BV Cloppenburg won an home game by 2-0 vs Bayern München's secondary team. Natsuki Kishikawa played the whole game, while Shiho Tomari was a late sub at 87'.


Division 1 Féminine:

- French League was on break, but yesterday the "Trophée the Championnes" final was played: it should be a clash between league's winners and Coup de France's winners from last season, but since OL had of course scooped both titles, PSG stepped in as the league's 2nd placed team. The match was actually a quite contested one. since it ended 1-1 and was decided at penalty shooutout, with OL emerging once again the winner. You could have expected that one of the PK-takers had been Saki Kumagai, but, although she had started the game, she had been subbed out at 63', when the score was 1-1 already.
Anyway, well: umptenth title for our Saki!


Liga Femenina:

- Sporting Huelva finally had an encouraging result, since they won by 1-0 at home vs Sevilla; the only problem was that Yoko Tanaka sat on the bench all time. I hope the coach, after this win, didn't decide that their best line-up doesn't include her!
As for the other Japanese girls in Spain's First Division, still no trace of Maya Yamamoto in Deportivo Abanca line-up (the team anyway had an 1.-1 draw), while Ayaka Noguchi's script was basically the same as last week: she was subbed-in at HT and her team, Espanyol, lost (2-1 to Madrid CFF). The only difference was that this time, at least, the score was already set by the time Noguchi entered the pitch.


Austrian Frauen-Bundesliga:

- FC Wacker Innsbruck downwards slope goes on, as they lost by 5-2 to SK Sturm Graz. There are other repeating patterns in their script: once again they basically held up for one half (they had come back from 2-0 to end 1st half on 2-2), just to crumble apart in the second part of the match; and once again a Japanese scored: this time is was Kanako Fuse, with her second goal on back-to-back Saturdays.
I anyway have a bad feeling about Wacker Innsbruck's season: they're now 10th and last-placed in the league, with just 1 point in 5 match-days and a goal difference of -12 (+ 5, -17). At least, 3 of their 5 goals were scored by our Japanese players.

 

In fact, when I read Chino as Albi's scorer I was already thinking at some devious plan by @unepommekun to increase Albi's "prettiness factor" again by stealing Shoko Chino from JEF! In fact, it appears Shoko Chino is still at her place in Chiba and Albi's scorer is some Nanami Chino: never seen her, but I highly doubt she can be prettier than Shoko!

Ami Otaki had some kind of a late wake up call, and she now scored in two consecutive games, but this draw wasn't anyway good for JEF's ambitions: with a win they could have caught up with Beleza and then, with a win vs them in the postponed game, they could have become the only actual rivals for Urawa. They can still pass Beleza and settle at 5 points from the top, but of course it's not the same thing.

Yes, Shizuoka's "wins" was one of the few 0s remained in Nadeshiko League's major divisions' rankings. This first win of the season wasn't enough to catch up with Bunnys, but was probably enough to grab Bunnys and carry them down with them.
For this occasion, both Asami Hirano and Mistuki Horie (who were Shizuoka's iconic top scorers in Challenge League) came back to goal, Horie even with a brace. They were surely waiting for this day since a longtime.