Official 2018 Nadeshiko Japan Thread [R] - なでしこジャパン（英語スレッド）

We are an insightful enough collection of people here that we can, most often than not, piece together the "true" version of any claim that's made here.

On the other hand, I have to thank you for mentioning that piece of info in the first place: I am too young to remember of Dynamo Moscow in the '50s, so you inspired a discussion that enriched my (poor) knowledge of football. Thank you very much both to you and to @And G.

 

Slightly off-topic: Korea DPR are winning by 2-0 vs USA at half time and they're a pleasure to see. It looks like second match-day is going to be better for Asian teams, after all.

 

Well, I'll make a prediction: a Japanese player will win the AFC Youth Player of the Year Award.

I know, I know, how can I be so bold and so good at predictions?

 

Meanwhile, a round of international updates from last week-end. Nothing really exceptional for our players in particular, but it can be worth watching what's happening in leagues where our international play (active leagues, I mean, of course: so no NWSL, that's in break since a pair of months, and no South Korean league, that ended two weeks ago; I guess by now I can reveal that Fuka Nagano won the title with her Incheon Hyundai Steel Roses, beating in the final Asuna Tanaka's Gyeongju):

- Division 1 Féminine: the real and only BIG match of the tournament was scheduled on 10th matchday and was played yesterday: PSG-OL in Paris (and live on national TV). The match ended 1-1, so OL lost their first points of the season. They remain ahead of PSG by just 2 points, so it looks like this time they didn't kill the league already; on the other hand, one could wonder where they could lose those 2 points: maybe in the retour-match only, that will be played in Lyon though, without the big crowd cheering for PSG. The Parisiennes can anyway be happy with the result, both because they can anyway still chase OL and because they could have very well lost the match if the ref had given what seems a clear PK to me in the 2nd half or if Griedge Mbock Bathy had scored with her solo effort in the final minutes.
Saki Kumagai played 75' and then she was substituted by Jess Fishlock. An Asian player scored in this game, but it wasn't Saki: look at Bouhaddi being Bouhaddi again for the umptenth time in her long career and gifting Chinese rising star Wang Shuang a goal. A few minutes later, Wendie Renard will equalize, with her usual header from set piece.
Highlights worth watching (and hearing: apparently an attendance that was somehow adequate to the match):




- Frauen Bundesliga: the league was actually in break for the National Team's friendly matches vs Italy and Spain, but a round of DFB-Pokal (National Cup) was played. Yesterday SC Freiburg, that's stumbling in the league, had instead a quite convincing away win in Essen by 0-4. Interestingly, the two teams are going to meet again in Essen next week, for the league: I wonder if, seven days after, the result will be similar. Hikaru Naomoto played the whole game. Sadly, no highlights that I am aware of.
For records, after losing all the games in the league, Borussia Mönchengladbach won a game in DFB-Pokal vs a second division team, Herforder SV, by 0-3. Keiko Kodama keeps anyway being longtime injured.


- Liga Femenina. The main clubs with Japanese players clashed together on Saturday: Fundación Albacete-Real Betis 2-3. The former team, actually had no Japanese players in its starters: since a pair of week, Hitomi Tanaka is benched (she was anyway subbed-in to play 10 minutes at the end of the match) while Tomo Matsukawa has to be injured since she's nowhere to be seen on the bench either. Erina Yamane played the whole game for Betis instead and was one of 4 players to be warned with a Yellow Card in this game! Albacete now sit at 10th place in the rankings out of 16 teams, while Betis are at 6th place.
It can be worth looking as some highlights from Real Betis from time to time, in a Japanese NT's persepctive, to assess if Erina Yamane has any chance to be taken into consideration again by Takakura. Judging from highlights, she hadn't much to do: she saved a FK, but she was saved by the post in another circumstance and didn't look particularly sharp in the actions of the two goals she took (in particular, her reflexes looked slow in the first one). Honestly, I was much more impressed by Albacete's GK, Elena de Toro, who, if I remember correctly, was in one of Spain Youth NTs at some time (maybe at U-17 WWC 2014?).




- Aussie W-League. Yuki Nagasato finally debuted in the league, but it wasn't a lucky one: Brisbane Roar lost by 0-1 at home to Adelaide United yesterday, with Yuki on the pitch for the whole match. On Friday, Melbourne City had also lost the local derby to Melbourne Victory by 0-2, with Yukari Kinga playing the whole match. I wonder if reigning Champions of City are especially missing her former coach-captain Jessica Fishlock, who chose France instead with OL, for this NWSL off-season. Anyway, Aussie League has now 7 teams out of 9 all crammed in a just 2 points range (from 3 to 5) after three matchdays: only Victory at 7 and Wanderers at 0 are clearly ahead or behind.
I won't always show all this batch of highights, but enjoy these:
looks like Nagasato brought in Australia some of her assisting prowess, but Brisbane didn't do enough to win this one: https://www.w-league.com.au/match/b...aide-united-women-w-league-18-11-2018/1022461
In the Melbourne game, apparently played among seagulls, Yukari Kinga was close to scoring with an header, but the game went the wrong way for her team: https://www.w-league.com.au/match/m...rne-victory-women-w-league-16-11-2018/1022458

 

this link should work:
http://www.sportingvideo.com/20181119/vv5bf328834bde45.83268156-2091035.html

National anthems: Kimigayo now playing.

 

Tanaka on the pitch, Yamamoto on the bench.

Looks like a mix from the first two matches.

A draw should be enough to get first place in the group, shouldn't it?

 

You're welcome.

This time we're not going to miss a single minute.

 

African referees: central one from Rwanda.

Mexico has three players on the pitch (and one on the bench) under a YC: wonder if they are going to foul a lot and how much the ref will allow.

 

Our pressing looks excellent to me in these first 6-7 minutes. Mexican players are frantic but not as efficient as ours.

I remind everyone that the other match of the group, Brazil-South Africa is being played at the same time: 0-0 at the moment (that's the better result for us, should we happen to lose vs Mexico).

 

Not sure if the attendance is much higher than in the other games, but it's quite noisy for sure. As it could be expected in a Latin-American country, all of the crowd seems to support Mexico.

 

Maybe I am too much spoiled by now, but it seems to me that accuracy in passes is uncharacteristically lower in this incarnation of our U-17 than what we are used to see from our Youth NTs: too many stray passes for my taste.

On the other hand, not that our opponents are much more accurate: on the contrary, they even happen to throw passes in touch.

 

25 minutes and we basically didn't see a shot.

Brazil-South Africa seems to be in the same stale-mate situation at the moment.