Small news: considering that Kibi I.U. Charme Okayama Takahashi, after their abysmal performance this season, will need all of the help in the world in play-offs to avoid relegation, it can be interesting that they just signed two American players: apparently a GK, Abbie Faingold from University of Portland, and a DF, Mykaylin Rosenquist, from University of Arizona. BREAKING: ✍️🇯🇵Upper V Athlete and former @psuviksWSOC GK and Team Captain @AbbieFaingold9 has signed with Japanese Club #CharmeFC (@all_for_smile). Faingold most recently played with @CalStormSoccer of the @WPSL. Congrats Abbie - the @uppervathletes wishes you the best of luck! pic.twitter.com/nY6MPJ1dHq— Upper V Athlete Mgmt (@uppervathletes) August 15, 2019 SIGNED! ✍️⚽️🇯🇵 Upper V Athlete and former @ArizonaSoccer defender @marosenq has inked a deal with Japanese Club #CharmeFC (@all_for_smile). Congrats Mykaylin - the @uppervathletes family wishes you the best of luck as you continue your pro career in the “Land of the Rising Sun”! pic.twitter.com/XzgDeuHLFN— Upper V Athlete Mgmt (@uppervathletes) August 15, 2019
U19 US tour members (August 24~September 2): GK Tanaka Momoko Ino Maya Ohba Syu DF Takahashi Hana Hara Miina Fnaki Nodoka Matsuda Shino Goto Wakaba Tomioka Chihiro Nagae Ibuki Tabata Haruna MF Miura Haruka Watanabe Mai KanNo Oto Mizuno Fukina Ito Sara Morita Misaki Nakao Momo FW Kojima Seira Takeda Nanako Hirosawa Maho Ohsawa Haruka Yamamoto Yuzuki
Notice of the start of the new program “週イチ なでしこカフェ” New program with the cooperation of this league on the official video distribution channel “Soccer King Channel” (From One Co., Ltd .: Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, President: Naoto Michigami) Distribution of “Week Ichi Nadeshiko Cafe” will start on August 22, 2019 (Thursday). We will deliver women's soccer specialized content including game information of “Plenus Nadeshiko League” and “Plenus Challenge League”. (google translator) Every Thursday 12:00-13:00 (start 22nd August) https://www.youtube.com/user/SoccerKingJP/videos Full Article
Hara Natsuko becomes a coach for team Japan participating in East Mallorca Girls Cup in October. I don't know at all what kind of players are selected in this Japan team.
I remember her from the time when she was Asano Nagasato's best friend in Beleza. I wonder if her hair is the same impressive shade of red as it was back then!
This tournnament (for both men and now women) is quite heavy with future football stars. Best youths (U11-U15) from top club academies are competing. Bayern, Barca, Atletico, Man City, PSG etc.. From what I understood she will overlook selection of Menina players? In other news Japan is to play friendly with Canada on 6th October in Shizuoka.
Well, I will be eager to watch some Nadeshiko Japan NT football again, by then! I am already, actually.
While we wait for Nadeshiko football to start again after the break (should happen next week-end with Division 1, Division 2 and Challenge League play-offs) some of the European leagues already started in this second half of August, so it can be worth doing a round of international updates: let's start with the league that's not European at all and that's around since months, NSWL: - Sky Blue FC are having a string of impressive results (two wins and one draw in the last three games) that lifted up from previous last position and have them in chase for 7th place. The only problem is Kawasumi is not having a meaningful role in that: she's played the 2nd half vs Reign last week and she didn't play a single minute two days ago, in the impressive 1-2 away win vs Houston Dash. Highlights of last game: http://www.nwslsoccer.com/videos/8BB25A1D-D7D6-B0AB-F1D2-C6CAF37D3DBC - Chicago Red Stars are having a string of abysmal results (three losses in the last three games) that could put their play-off position in danger: currently they are retaining third place, but actually the two teams chasing them (Utah and Seattle) have a game in hand to them while being just one and two points behind respectively. Yuki Nagasato keeps anyway playing most of the games, including yesterday's 3-0 loss in Portland, where she picked up a YC at 84': since it's at least the second yellow she picked lately, I wonder if she'll have to sit out next week. Highlights of yesterday's game: http://www.nwslsoccer.com/videos/906F3269-5A7A-8C85-C38E-CAB3EFFC35B2 - Seattle Reign FC are having a string of so-so result (one win, one draw and one loss in the last three games), but they desperately cling to the hope of a play-off spot (currently fifth-placed, but at one point from 4th and with a game in hand to one of the teams ahead; hint: it's Chicago, I already wrote it above). Rumi Utsugi keeps being listed with the tag "calf injury": it's the one that kept her out of WWC at at this point it has to be something very serious: almost three months out of the pitch! Highlights of Saturday's 1-0 loss to North Carolina: http://www.nwslsoccer.com/videos/12DB5C9D-7639-9588-D49C-C6918D058148 Let's now travel to Europe, guys: - in France Division 1 Féminine resumed with the shiny new season 2019-2020, that's now called "Division 1 Arkema" (not even the slightest idea of what kind of sponsor it is). Anything new? Well, not really: 1st match-day was played on Saturday and Olympique Lyonnais won vs Olympique de Marseille by 6-0. Yawn. Saki Kumagai only played the full 2nd half. I predict that she's going to find less and less space in an OL side that promises to become even more star-studded than it already was. President Jean-Michel Aulas, probably frightened by the fact that OL didn't win all of the matches in Division 1 last season (2 draws!) and that the Champions' League's semifinal vs Chelsea was actually a contest, is in a "let's-make-the-team-even-bigger-frenzy" and, after International Champions Cup that was played in New York last week, announced the signing of two (!) US World Champions that will play part-time for OL in this season (meaning that they will be only available when NWSL is in break). By the way, OL won that sort of "World Cup for clubs" that International Champions Cup is (actually at the moment just an attempt, as Mobcast Cup had been some years ago), with an 1-0 win over North Carolina Courage in the final game (actually a very good result, considering that OL was in pre-season while NCC were in the middle of the NWSL season). Line-ups were a further indication that Kumagai could have regressed to a lesser role: she wasn't deployed in the "big games" and she only played when OL was putting some sort of "reserve team" on the pitch for less important matches (of course, it sounds silly to talk about "reserve team", when there were players like Van de Sanden, Majri and Kumagai on the pitch). - Frauen-Bundesliga also started and this week-end was already the second match-day. Borussia Mönchengaldbach of course was relegated in Division 2 and I don't think Keiko Kodama is still with them (unless she's injured again), because I didn't see her in their line up nor on the bench. Does anyone know if she got back to Japan? For records, Borussia keep losing in 2nd Division also. SC Freiburg didn't start the season very well: they lost the first game at home, although vs one of the "big teams" on the league, a 1-3 vs Bayern München, and they proceeded to lose again yesterday's away match (1-0 vs Bayer Leverkusen). I am not sure if it can be of any consolation that Hikaru Naomoto was on the pitch for the whole two games, but at least it looks like this year she's physically ok and she's considered a regular starter.
It's a company that builds large boats to escape from the coming Biblical flood ... nah, I dunno either. I usually ignore the sponsor. But thx "Plenus" for the ¥¥¥
AFC U16 Championship members (September 15~): GK Hattori Momoka Noda Nina Ohkuma Akane DF Asakura Kanako Hazekawa Yuuna Ishikawa Rion Hiranaka Kyono Ide Hinata Hayashi Manaka Koyama Shinomi MF Ohta Moe Minowa Chisato TanNo Ririka Ogikubo Yuuri Nishigohri Mahiro Amano Suzu Inose Yuuko Ohyama Aemu FW Nishio Hanon Nishikiori Miki Fujino Aoba Hamano Maika Nebu Momoko
Instead we have Yuka Hirano in FC Koln. also from quick look into La Liga in Spain: Yoko Tanaka (Sporting Huelva) Ayaka Noguchi (RCD Espanyol) Maya Yamamoto (Deportivo Abanca)
https://fc.de/en/fc-info/news/detailpage/details/yuka-hirano-in-profile/ Unfortunately it doesn't say where she came from.
Tomorrow's games: Nadeshiko League Inac vs Mynavi 12:00 Urawa vs Nittaidai 17:00 Nojima vs Jef 17:00 Beleza vs Iga 18:00 Nadeshiko League 2 Cerezo vs Yamato 15:00 Harima vs Shizuoka 15:00 Nippatsu vs Setagaya 15:30 Chifure vs Ehime 18:00 Challenge League 1~4 Nagoya vs JFA 15:00 Jumonji vs Speranza 16:00 5~8 NORD vs Belle 13:00 9~12 Niigata vs Kibi 12:00
Today's result: Nadeshiko League Inac (Masuya) 1-2 Mynavi (Shiraki, Marada) Urawa (Shibata, Sugasawa 3, Seike, Yanagisawa) 6-0 Nittaidai Nojima (Hirata) 1-2 Jef (Sone, Narumiya) Beleza (Doko, Tanaka 2) 3-0 Iga Nadeshiko League 2 Cerezo (Kitamura, Miyamoto ) 2-0 Yamato Harima (Chiba, Katsurama, Nakano) 3-1 Shizuoka (Horie) Nippatsu 0-1 Setagaya (Ohtake) Chifure (Saito 2, Azami 2) 4-2 Ehime (Yamashiro, Yamaguchi) Challenge League 1~4 Nagoya 0-3 JFA (Iwai, Watanabe, Ohta) Jumonji (Toriumi, Hino) 2-1 Speranza (Morisako) 5~8 NORD (Fukasawa, Miura) 2-1 Belle (Adachi) 9~12 Niigata (Tanaka) 1-0 Kibi
Still no Kono which is a real shame. She was having a very good season until she got injured (I assume). Any idea what happened to her? Nojima were a bit unlucky today. Probably deserved to win or at least draw. Again bad defending let them down on both goals. Nojima played well in the first half after going behind early. They brought in Hirata to play up top as a striker with Minamino in support. Ohno was pushed out to the right like she was last season and in the first half they looked a lot better. Also Matsubara was back in the starting lineup which helped. Nojima appear to be using Hirata as the rabbit that chases the direct ball chipped over the defence. It worked today, because that is how she scored her goal which was calmly finished. I will be curious to see if they persist with her as striker. Because Noda does like catching sides on the break. Nojima should have had a penalty at the end of the first half. I really do not know what the referee was looking at. You know it is a penalty when even the defender has that look of "I've made a mistake!" It was Ichinose who did the deed on Nakano. In the end it was a good tackle, because she got away with it, though I do not believe there was anything sinister, she just got out of position and clumsily brought down her opponent. Take a look. You have to wait about fifteen seconds. I do not know why but it is coming in fifteen seconds early. In the second half Jef tightened up in midfield and made it much more difficult for Nojima to play through midfield. Narumiya played well in midfield for Jef and so did Ootaki as striker. They are a pretty solid unit Jef, and defend much better than Nojima, like most teams in the competition. In the end a draw probably would have been a fair result. I do not often say this kind of stuff - because it should only be about the football - but I think Jef have the best looking team.
Tomorrow's games: Nadeshiko League Albi vs Nagano 16:00 Nadeshiko League 2 Orca vs Bunnys 14:30 Challenge League 5-8 Ange Violet vs Tsukuba 13:00 9~12 Cerezo Girls vs Tokiwagi 14:00
After a so long break, almost feels like a different season! And with today's results, I'd say INAC is virtually out from the fight for the title: 6 points from both Beleza and Urawa are too much, especially if you even lose at home to the last placed team! (Although it has to be said that with this second win of their league-season Lady Vega managed to leapfrog Nittaidai and to reach one-to-last place: I was curious about this Marada that I had never heard of and that wasn't listed in my rosters: the family name almost sounded Japanese, but actually she's a new signing from USA, University of Southern California: scoring at her debut the winner goal of an away win vs a much higher-ranked team, sporting many NT members that were playing the World Cup a few months ago, must have felt quite great to her ). Meanwhile, Urawa try to shore up their goal difference, although they're still quite far from Beleza's one (on the other hand, Beleza had bludgeoned Nittaidai by 11-0, not "just" by 6-0: these 5 goals of difference vs the Yokohama team make almost single-handedly the gap between Urawa and Beleza, since Beleza's goal difference is currently +22, while Urawa's is +14). JEF, at the moment, almost look like a legitimate contender, since they're just at 3 points from the top, but they somehow never seem to be really "there": they had some good seasons in the last years, including winning a Nadeshiko League Cup in 2017, but for some reason they never look "for real" when it's about winning the whole league. What do you think, guys? Could they actually make it? Or will it just be as theoretical as always? Urawa has a real chance to stop the "green machine" instead, I guess, although Nadeshiko League Cup's semifinal was quite indicative of their current weaknesses. In Division 2, very important win by Chifure Elfen Saitama, who, by winning vs current leader of Ehime FC, completely re-opened a very exciting fight both for the title and for promotion. Orca FC Kamogawa, by winning tomorrow vs Bunnys Kyoto FC, could take the lead, but also Cerezo FC Ladies and Sfida Setagaya FC have to be considered legitimate contenders (at least for a play-off-granting 2nd place, if not for the title). It looks like NHK Spring Yokohama FC Seagulls, after this very disappointing home loss vs Sfida Setagaya FC, are out of contention instead. It's a shame, since last year they had managed to reach the play-off for promotion (that they subsequently lost to Nittaidai), but this season they're already 11 points behind 1st place and 10 points behind 2nd place (could become respectively 12 and 11 by tomorrow): it's frankly too much. Former NT player (at the beginning of Takakura's cycle, Algarve Cup 2017 for instance) Sonoko Chiba scored her first of the season. Meanwhile, I always like when Fumina Katsurama scores. In Challenge League all of the East Division teams won vs the West Division teams! (Ange Violet Hiroshima's and Tokiwagi's fans feel free to make their superstitious rituals for tomorrow's games) Eriko Adachi somehow manages to keep West Division's honour high with her 15th goal in 16 games (current record from all three major divisions in Japan). Despite their recent American signings, Kibi lost again, although by just 1-0. It has to be said, though, that those American players didn't appear in Kibi's line-up: maybe some documents still need to be cleared?
No, it's not true. The former Albi was that one, but now Saito, Obara, and Yasaka all left the team. My best 5 in Nadeshiko Leaue may be Pomme, Narumiya, Shimizu, Kitamura and Tamazakura.