Challenge League consists of 12, while Nadeshiko 10, so there are 4 more games. U20 WWC will be held from August 19th to September 8th. The members are mostly from Nadeshiko League. In fact, there are only four candidates in the squad from Challenge League teams: Sayama of Iwata Bonita, Takano and Nishikawa of Takahashi FC and Michigami And in the case of Michigami, it is not a problem because Tokiwagi are not aiming at only victory in the league.
Well, as unepomme said, no plan to replace her, thus I so hope she can be at Olympics. They all seem to believe she will, but I'd start thinking at a possible replacements, in the unlucky case that she won't make it instead... As you noticed, there is no DF in the back-up players, and I agree that, without Iwashi, the starting CB duo should be Kumagai-Yano (who played together a lot in Urawa and quite impressed for their harmony in the Kirin Cup Brazil match). Utsugi and Tanaka can be decent back-ups during the match (wait: ok, Utsugi only... ), but I'd try to think at someone else from Nadeshiko League, should Iwashimizu be out for longer than what we hope. Yuuri Kawamura is an obvious name coming to mind. Not sure if Vegalta's Kana Osafune and JEF's Motoyo Hosokawa use to play as center backs or lateral backs. Well, then there's beautiful Satomi Shibata from Sayama. Ok, joke, but she would add prettiness factor. More interesting is who will be chosen as a replacement for Iwabuchi, since it's been said that one of the back-up forwards will follow the team in Sweden; but who? I'd exclude Maruyama, I guess it's between the two top scorers of Nadeshiko League: Kira or little sister Nagasato? I guess Kira would be more similar to what Iwabuchi was giving to the team, while Asano would just be more of the same (basically a carbon copy of her big sister). So, if it was up to me, I'd take Kira, but we'll see what Sasaki will say about it... I admit, I don't know much about U-17/U-20 teams of the past... There was a certain match that made poor Nao Nao cry? Can you talk about that without breaking your heart?
I see. Problematic indeed. By the way, you'll find it silly from me, but I never actually saw a japanese keyboard, and I wonder how it is and how it can make all of the carachters... Even counting that, if i am not wrong, in semptember Nadeshiko League should play 9 other matches (all of the second leg), while there should be no more than 5-6 other matches to play for Challenge League. What they will do afterwards? They will begin elimination rounds for All-Japan Women's Champioship, while they wait for Nadeshiko League teams to finish the League and to join them in the championship?
Don't forget the last friendly vs France. If it's confirmed, I definitely want to watch it live! I gave up going to Sweden next week, 'cause i am quite busy in these days and I also gave up watching the Olympic tournament in London: too much chaos and too much difficult chasing the tickets and finding a proper place to sleep in London during Olympics... But I definitely don't want to miss the last pre-Olympic test vs France: going in France from northern Italy is really easy, fast and unexpensive and you never need too much of an excuse to visit Paris again (although I've been there at least 5-6 times) . So, i plan to go watching Nadeshiko and cheer for them one more time, before the Olympic tournament start. Any confirmation and additional info about the match from french friends (Virany * blink blink * ) will be very welcome.
Yeah I know, but that match won't be used to decide 18 player squad. The squad will have been decided then. I'm not even sure if they'll come back to Japan after that match before they head off to London.
OK. To be accurate, the second half of the Nadeshiko League is from September 15th to November 11th, and the Challenge League will finish 16th rounds on August 5th (in fact, July 22nd is the final day for most teams except for two games), then 17th to 22th starting from September 16th and finishing November 4th.
Completely off topic maybe, but I explain it a little. You switch it into Japanese input mode, and for example about your name, you write "burisetto", and press space key, you choose "ブリセット” from various candidates (not so simple, but it goes that way). In the case of kanji, for example you write "wada", then press space key and you get a lot of kanji or mixed kanji-kana candidates, then you just choose a proper one, "和田".
So basically the actual keyboard device is similar to western ones, with roman characters, but then you use some keys to get access to particular Kana or Kanji combinations? Do I get it right? I repeat, i never actually saw a japanese PC or keyboard, so I maybe ask very silly questions, but this would mean that any japanese that wants to use a PC have to know romanji? Edit: sorry for anyone if it was off-topic. I swear that, if I'll have other questions about this subject, I'll send a private message to unepomme.
I don't mind off-topic, in fact I find it very interesting. A google search for "Japanese keyboard" nets results such as this picture: I assume one of the additional control keys lets you switch between the kana modes, so that would circumvent romaji usage and also be about twice as fast when writing kanji. But I think a Nihonjin who wouldn't know romaji would be considered illiterate anyway, no? Also, for teh lulz: Talk? No, not really. But I can give you this video: (Genres: Drama, Tragedy) And I saw it live... T_T
Yes. And in addition, as you see on the board, you can use direct hiragana mode too, but I don't know how to use it. Once I changed the mode, I would have some trouble to return to the romaji mode.
Lol, what that round keyboard should be for? I doubt it can be usable by humans... Thank you very much to you and unepomme for all the info about japanese keyboards. Oh my gosh, tragedy indeed... It was the final of that famous WWC in Trinidad & Tobago where Yokoyama scored her legendary goal in the semi-final, isn't it? If I think about the names in that U-17, I still can't believe that they could lose the final... And basically they're the same names (except poor Kyokawa) that can redeem themselves by winning U-20 WWC this year. Seriously, I don't want to be cruel, but basically anything was wrong in that Wada's PK, from trembling preparation, to run-up, to the shot itself... Poor little Nao...
Indeed thats the game Kawasumi also scored the INAC goal in regular time... and the star was Kaihori who stoped three PKs. Yamago stop one INAC PK and another gone over the bar. And younger Kumagai always was a good penalty kicker .
Damn. To judge from the replay, the guy hardly touched her, and you have to think that she has a more chronic problem than a "sprain". Anyway, here is a Chiba day-3 video this time featuring Otaki - who can score even against the boys. Question is - what does Sasaki think?
Children learn how to write Japanese on a Romaji keyboard at about age 10. We've just got big new Pokemon posters showing how to do it in recently. Unfortunately it kind of messes up their English spelling sometimes. For instance, to write a syllabic 'n' you write 'nn', which can cause confusion, such as writing 'penn' for 'pen'. That's just some pupils though. Also, you still have to know some tricky shortcuts, like du for づ and xi for ィ and so on. I've never used the Japanese keyboard either, though that's because modern operating systems can handle it. I use an X68000 from over 20 years ago and you have to look up all kanji in the manual.
At least Ando's recent injury hasn't blonwn up like the other two. Makes me wonder about the Beleza doctors. That INAC win of the Cup was a surprise as it was just before they contracted the NT stars (Sawa, etc) dumped by Verdy (sponsor of Beleza). Kawasumi scores a great header, but theReds #15 goes even better with her Messi moves - who and where is she now? Kitamoto misses the first PK - and I believe this was the last time she ever kicked a competitive ball? Remember that video of her I posted 1 or 2 weeks ago - did it say why she retired? She was on the fringes of the Nadeshiko for years.
If the core of the girls from that U-17 team, can move up to the U-20's and remain as successful as they were in T&T, I would honestly claim that achievement to be as significant a sign of Japan's new found legitimacy, as when the seniors won the WWC . Japan's record at U-20 level is actually really quite , similar to the seniors prior to 2011. So going on the form of history, if we're all honest, anything beyond a quarter final appearance in the up coming tournament should be classified as a major achievement for the girls this time around. Saying all that though, after seeing how good the Nadeshiko program can be at the U-17, and senior levels, the next step is surely seeing the U-20's wining or pushing to win the U-20 WWC, so.... A semi final, a final, or final victory, and I think your looking at the confirmation of a real deal golden generation within Japanese women's football .
Ah, so now I know where my Japanese teacher is coming from when she says that we don't have to learn how to write Katakana because we can just type Romaji on the PC and it will translate it for us. (Hiragana we've practised quite a bit though.)
U20NT will have a friendly match against U20 US team this weekend, on 17th. It could give us some prospect about it.
Some article says that Maruyama was chosen in the squad to Sweden, as a replacement for Iwabuchi. I can see some members here getting mad at this news, but I somehow accept Sasaki's decision. Her unpredictable nature can be a strong weapon at major tournaments like this in a sense.
Wow, nice match! It was some months before I started following Nadeshiko Japan, so I had missed it. The elevation of relatively short Kawasumi on her header goal in 1st half is really impressive! When reading the manga i had thought that the goal from a double post was an invention to add drama, instead it shows once again how much this manga is true to reality. A good half of the INAC team is still there, after 2 years and the "invasion" of the Beleza stars (I recognized at least Kaihori, Kawasumi, Junko Kai, Takase and Nakajima, + Miwa Yonetsu, who retired at the end of last season, and Maiko Nasu, now playing for Iga; was there also Asuna Tanaka, maybe as a sub?). So coach Hoshikawa came to INAC from Beleza a year before the other stars? (Manga is once again true to this). We can expect, in the next episode, the arrival of Kinga + Ohno + Sawa at INAC? I am curious to see how they are showed in the manga... Yamago is always an impressive GK: the match could have ended way sooner, if it wasn't for her saves. But I guess that, although some of the PK were kicked very badly (Yano... ), no-one could object that Kaihori at least has a history of being good at saving PKs. Arakawa is both very good (always dangerous, even quite alone) and irritating (she wasted some incredible goal chance). It had to be very cold that 1st of January, judging by the shutouts that the players are wearing before and after the match. The fact that there were no highlights of extra-time means that they directly went to penalty shootout after 90'?
I guess he thinks that, if all the other FWs die around one after the other, maybe it's time to give Ami a chance... I guess we'll see her get playing time, maybe even as a starter, during this Sweden tournament, because Sasaki will need to know how much excatly he can count on her at a high international level, apart from watching her show good things in training camps. Basically we know that Otaki can impress in training, after all OL signed her mainly based on that, but it's yet to see what she can actually do in "real" matches, vs big teams and for some more than 5-10 minutes to play. I guess Sasaki will test her to know just that and to understand if she could be a legitimate resource for Olympics. (by the way, did you notice that, although Ami Otaki is undoubtedly a beautiful girl, in the photos while she plays or trains she always unwillingly makes incredible ugly faces? ) Mmm, I can't say I am really "mad", but for sure quite startled... I can only explain this with the same logic as for Otaki. Sasaki, in this tour, needs to play some "fringe" players to know how much exactly he can count on them (injured Maruyama having now the status of fringe player, because of his fuzzy state of fitness). probably he knows quite well what Kira and Asano Nagasato could give to the team and doesn't need to test them much: he just could choose them, if needed, but doesn't actually need to play them. Meanwhile, players like Otaki and Maruyama are currently, for different resons, an unknown quantity, and so he wants to test them extensively and in a situation similar to the Olympics tournament to see what they have to give right now. Edit: did anyone notice that Sawa is training with a bandage on her right thigh? -_-" What is that?
Well, I liked a lot all of this info about the fact that Romaji is basically part of the normal culture of a Japanese child. I guess here in Europe we're not so good at knowing foreign forms of writing and their characters, and I don't mean only japanese of chinese, that have thousands of different characters, but also languages with a number of signs that can be perfectly compared to the latin alphabet, like greek or russian-cyrillic. I mean, some people know them, but neither of them is extensively known in the society... (not that there is a special need for that... ^__^)
Anyway, I guess Trinidad & Tobago WWC 2010 showed an impressive dominance of asian teams at U-17 levels... 3 asian teams in the first 4! If that should ever translate to senior level, Europe and North America could be soon shaken in their certainties...