I watched him a couple of times this season so this it what I'll say in regards to his performances. First of all, he was pretty unlucky at the start of the season. He hit the post a couple of times and barely missed out on scoring which probably didn't help his confidence. Scoring in all these games for the NT will hopefully help him regain his confidence. Secondly, from watching him play, it seems as if he became a bit more selfish and trying to hard to score on his own while ignoring the his teammates. I feel that this is due to the increased amount of pressure and expectations that were put on him after his excellent first season and especially after he was called up by Zac.
Sanga are in contention and they can't afford to wait for Kubo getting out of his slump. He's young, that's understandable. And Miyayoshi is no easy competion.
(Sanga are pretty good this year, no coincidence that Nakamura and Miyayoshi are on Zach's radard and could get a call up in a meaningless match)
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDQxMTAxMjQw.html Highlights at the end. Kubo hit the post 3 times during the match. He was also voted MVP of the tournament. Matsumoto has trained with Oita and Sanfrecce, but rumor is that Kashima really want him.
27 minutes of TV and they only manage to show 1 minute FFS. I'm surprised his PK didn't hit the post. At this point I can only think of a curse or a voodoo doll, it has been hurting him all season long. About Matsumoto, it's Masaya the Verdy Boy right ?
http://www.jfa.or.jp/national_team/topics/2012/488.html Training camp. Never heard of this Popp William before. Looks it's Verdy's speciality to form half players.
I'm pretty sure that his name is actually supposed to be "Pope William", but I guess that since its been spelled like that its correct. He's half Japanese half-American. He started the last two matches of the SBS Cup and did pretty well. From what I read, some people said that he was MOM during the S.Korea match especially since he block 2 pks in the shootout. He's actually pretty lucky to have even play in the SBS Cup. Two of the players who are ahead of him, Kushibiki and Nakamura, are injured. Kushibiki was injured in the first SBS Cup match and Nakamura has a long term injury (4-5 months out) and will probably miss the AFC U-19 Championships.
I would have liked to see Fukai, but I guess that would have been pretty optimistic. He recently returned from a long term injury where he was out for 4 months and he's just recently started getting playing time with Consadole Sapporo U-18.
Speaking of U-19, Mochizuki will train with Nagoya. I can't picture a starting eleven yet but I hope Oshima will start, he's really mature and already not so far from the National Team A.