I was at Kokuritsu today for the opening ceremony and the first game. Unbelievable atmosphere with what I believe had to be at least 15,000 people. Luther Gakuin Kumamoto beat deservedly 3-1 a very disappointing Teikyo Tokyo. The star of the game was Kumamoto's #11, Yammamoto. he picked twice Tokyo's goalie out of the goal and punished him with two clinical lobs, the second really beautiful, from about 25m. Kumamoto had great fans, while the home team had numbers but more than a soccer support they seemed as a brass-band+dancers show. They played perhaps 20 songs, including Lupin III's theme, We Will Rock You and some Beach Boys. More of a soundtrack than soccer chanting. Tomorrow I will be at Komaba for Shiga-Yamanashi and Kyoto-Akita. If you area round Tokyo, make sure you catch some games. As said, the atmosphere is rather unique. If I have time I'll post a couple of pictures later. PS=Dok, if Ritsuji wins tomorrow, get ready. Game two (if... if...) is on the 2nd at Saitama 2002, so you will have perhaps probably by then.
Good luck to your team Goru!!! Go beat that Akita boys!!! And would be nice if you can keep us updated!
Here are three pictures from today (mouse on the thumbs below and patience to see them!). Please notice the megalomaniac flag sported by Teikyo...!! And thanks for the best wishes, we'll do our best, but this is in any case a tournie for the future of Japanese soccer. I just hope the kids play well and have fun! (I am surely having some!)
thanks for the pictures, really seems great!!! sure this is for future of Japanese football, are there any prospects/players already people talking about before the tournament starts? any we should watch closely? anyway i try to follow it a bit the next days
Here is a link to tv broadcasting... http://www.ntv.co.jp/soc/oa/index.html Aomori's Shibasaki (2nd grader) is supposed to be the brightest star, but we'll see. Maebashi's Kojima and saga's Akasaki both very promising midfielders. The best player from Kyoto was Morioka from Kumiyama. We beat them in the final, but he still go a contract with Vissel. Plenty of promising players, but mostly I'd follow a whole team: Maebashi Ikuei.
Ok, thanks. I know about Shibasaki and Kojima (both U17 national team players). Akasaki turned down the offer by the Reds recently and decided to go to Tsukuba University.
The integration/options of Japanese high school and university soccer relative to pro and pro youth setups are so well arranged in Japan. Kids really have meaningful options and the HS and uni teams actually play a big role in development. In the US we should be so lucky, but our amateur/scholar athletics authorities at all levels could teach 3rd world dictators about arbitrary power-tripping and the IRS about bureaucratic perversity.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrk_banutg8"]Why does the embedding of Youtube clips work so weirdly here?[/ame] Check out this injury-time goal to win the Hyogo prefectural final.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx_C22eKdwE"]YouTube- [??????]2009??????? ???? 1-0 ?? ?????[/ame]
Goru, if you guys win I'll be at Saisuta with bells on! ...how much are tickets, anyway? I dunno how much time I'll have for banner-making but I'll try to whip up セザーレ京都 and maybe FORZA RITSUMEIKAN. Email me details as soon as you guys win ;-)
When I was in university it was just the opposite. Back then there was no pro league, and almost the whole US national team structure depended on Duke and one or two other universities. If it were not for the university programmes there wouldnt have been any USMNT. (incidentally, I got to play in one tournament against Duke when I was a sophomore, and they were miles ahead of any other team in the country. We got killed: I think it was like 11-1 or 12-1 -- obviously Ive done my best to repress the memory)
They won! And as fate would have it, so did Yamanashi Gakuen, setting up a Kyoto-Yamanashi clash at Saitama Stadium on January 2. I never would have expected our boys to beat Yasu HS. They really did not even deserve to win the prefectural title, but they fought back from a 0-1 deficit and beat Nihon Kohku (Japan Aviation High School). However, they do have some EXTREMELY speedy wings and a solid defence. Make sure you tell your boys not to let Sano, Ito or Kabe get behind them, because if they do, you need a motorcycle to catch up with them . . . As long as you can keep the speedsters contained, youve got a good chance. Oh, and tell your strikers to shoot at the slightest opportunity. The keeper is probably the weakest player on the team. Oh yeah . . . another point to watch out for. Throughout this tournament Yamanashi Gakuen has a habit of starting out slow and then pouring it on in the second half. Dont let your team get complacent, especially if they have a halftime lead. The second half is when the team's speedy legs really start to have an impact so if you dont match their intensity in the second half, youll risk the same fate as Yasu and Nihon Kohku.
Incidentally, if you want to see one of the greatest goals a high school kid ever scored . . . . and also one of the most inexplicable officiating calls in history . . . check out this overhead kick by Kabe, from the Yamanashi finals. It took almost three minutes for the goal to be disallowed! [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xrUUeh6-2c"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xrUUeh6-2c[/ame] (starts around 2:20)
Hi there. It was a long day, I was so overwhelmed at the final whistle and after the whole team was cleaned, interviewed and put on the bus that I decided to walk home from Komaba (more than one hour) just to let the fumes off of my soul. I don't think I ever cared for a soccer game more than I did today. After the final whistle I felt as if I had climbed Mount Everest! Our DF, which is usually very reliable, was dreadful, and if it wasn't for our GK Kishigami (take note of the name, he is twice as good as any other goalie I have seen so far), we would have been two or three goals down after 30m. Sure enough, a few of our players were very tense, and it showed. Kyoto lost at round 1 for seven consecutive years, and the pressure on the team, after eliminating Kumiyama (probably the best team in Kyoto, was top-16 at the Inter-hai last summer), was near to unbearable. It took the happy-go-lucky effort of two 2nd graders (Oda and Kanbara) to put us ahead: one very cleaver dash on a ball that seemed lost and a massive header on a CK. At that point (early 2nd half) we had the game in hand, and things were even better when our captain Tatemizo scored a wonderful direct free-kick some 20m later. When I thought I'll finally enjoy the last five minutes in peace, another unlucky mess in the back put Akita's Sugawara (good player) 1v1 with our goalie, and it was 3-2. We held with no problems until he end, mostly because Akita played so intensely and bravely that they were exhausted. *** PHEW *** So, in two days we're at Saitama 2002 vs Yamanashi, that played a fantastic second half against Yasu today. As Matsu already said, they have a few extremely speedy players, and they ripped apart a very disappointing Yasu's defense more than once. The game seemed dead on the 3-1, but an unbelievable mistake by Yamanashi's goalie meant Yasu pulled one back. Then, the Shiga team has three huge chances to make it 3-3, but on the counterattack from the third miss, Yamanshi scored again. IMHO, Yamanashi has what it takes to beat Ritsuji IF we fall back and if we concede too many meters and space in the midfield. But their defense looked not exactly impenetrable. I believe that the team that scores first will have a HUGE advantage, as both teams seem better at counterattacking than at attacking. I'd say 55/45 for Yamanashi, but these games are highly unpredictable. Matsu gave you the names for Yamanashi, I believe that among our boys Kishigami (3rd, GK), Oda and Kimura (2nd, MF) and Kanbara (2nd, FW) are those who have a chance to go pro. There are a few more good 3rd graders, but they are all going to university, and their destiny will be unveiled there, I think. Lastly, I honestly believe that our head-coach, Ryan is a very competent man. Kudos to him and his experience. He really made an awesome team out of what he had, and the players improved enormously under him. He too would deserve a better job! Boys and girls, this with Ritsuji has been an unexpected as much as exciting ride! I was coaching U10 boys in Hawaii one year ago!
Hay, you said it now! Thanks! But I believe it is better to leave me out of banners, I am undeservedly famous enough! I am sending you a message at your gmail. I hope you're not too hangover'd tomorrow! See you in the den of the Reds in two days!
Alright, waiting for the email. Give me at least one or two suggestions bc I have no idea where to find a giant Italian flag on such short notice =P
Haha, I was taking my time since I thought you went boozing already. Ok, Will email you in 30 mins. Thanks! Edit: sent email.
Overall, most the results were as expected. Hiroshima and Chiba scored five each, but we knew they were strong. The only result that surprised me was the defeat of Ichijo (nara). We invited them to play a scrimmage on our field, and we were lucky to come away with a tie, but they looked to me better than us. Today, thou, they lost 1-2 to Miyazaki because of a FK with some 3 mins left. Here is the link to an article about our game, by the way: http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/article.php?mid=P2009123100110&genre=L1&area=K00
Are you saying that the inexplicable thing is that it took so long to disallow it? Because I think what's inexplicable is that it was disallowed at all. That is a classic passive offsides if there ever was one... not in the play, not interfering with the keeper or defenders. Terrible call, in my opinion. Its one thing to take three minutes and turn a wrong call right, and another to do that and turn a right call wrong.
No, what is inexplicable is that they even disallowed it. The call was actually "dangerous play" for a high kick, but as you can see the ref didnt initially think there was any problem. It was actually the fourth official who ruled that the kick was too high (perhaps influenced by the injured player), but fourth officials arent allowed to overrule a call by the main ref. The Gakuen coach must not know the rules (on edit: Kabe obviously DOES know the rules because he keeps gesturing that the head ref pointed to the other goal, meaning that it was a legitimate goal...) because he had every right to insist that the goal stand, and refuse to play on unless it was awarded. If I had been the coach there would have been at least one dead referee.
Wow, that's even worse, because it sure looks like there was no contact with the defender at all and that he dived and did ham-actor death-throes hoping to get the goal chalked off. Shame that he succeeded.
What disturbs me of Japanese refs is not that they get a PK or an offside wrong, but how they seem to get so often carried away mentally, and they are inconsistent in their judgment. In the Teikyo-Luther game there was a violent (frustrated) charge on the keeper as he tried to punt the ball. Clearly a yellow card. But of course it was not to be. Why? Somebody please tell me... It reminded me of when Stojanov and Tulio put their hands on each-other faces, but both got away with a short sermon. These, or the one in Matsu's videos, are the basic technical mistakes I'd like to see gone--it shouldn't be so hard.
To be honest, I am rather shocked by the Kansai editions of today's newspapers. I am of course happy that they underscore Ritsuji's good performance, but entire pages with massive titles and huge pictures seem to me a bit excessive for a bunch of 17-18yo High School students. First thing I'll tell them tomorrow is to think how many teams had pages like that, and how many of those teams' players actually made it as a pro... It is great to celebrate youth and these achievements, but it seems to me that the Japanese newspapers easily lose the sense of measure when it comes to events such as this one or baseball at Koshien. (Btw, Ritsuji qualified for that too... )
Zannen! I feel bad for Ritsumei-Uji: they really played their hearts out. Its tough to lose on a weak PK call like that one, though I dont think you could say it was totally undeserved. There was another foul that looked like a more legitimate PK right after the break, and I think the ref awarded the second one to make up for not calling the first. All in all, Yamanashi Gakuin really had the vast majority of the chances, but just werent connecting with one another in the final few meters. So Goru, what are your plans? Are you going straight back to Kyoto, or can you drop in here for a visit? I taped the match and there was one shot of you on the bench (at least it looked like you, under the huge parka). I looked everywhere for Dokool and the gateflags, but didnt spot them. Where were you sitting?