The 39th Empress' Cup Semi-Final (21 December 2017) NTV Beleza vs Urawa Red Diamonds L.(4 p.m. Japan Time) JEF United Ichihara-Chiba L. vs Nojima Stella Kanagawa (7 p.m. Japan Time) Live stream
Empress's Cup semifinals result: Beleza (Tanaka, Ueki) 2-1 Urawa (Seike) Nojima (Minamino) 0-0 (extra time 1-0) Jef
Random thought: Perhaps Takakura should call Arisa Minamino? 50 goals in 80 games by her for Nojima since 2014 including 8 goals in this year 1st league debut. All that without playing in star packed team like Beleza...
I remember te first time I noticed her; must have been 2014 indeed (or 2015): there were preliminary rounds of Empress' Cup and some girl with this funny "doublin" name of Minamino had just scored a poker against some unfortunate opponent. After that, it was a constant flow of goals and, although a lot of them have been scored in minor divisions, I guess she could deserve a look indeed...
Festive season/end of the year bits and pieces.... If there is an annual prize for the most imaginative and entertaining post of 2017 I would like to nominate Lechus7 for the above gem posted during the final game of EAFF December 15........ Brilliant! (just picture the scene....I defy you not to laugh) Edit...for those of you who weren't able to watch....the above was Lechus7's astute observation of the fitness levels of DPR Korea team. p.s. Beleza.... but I hope Stella take it to extra time
Empress's Cup Final Looks like Stella may be expecting a shock....they are reminding supporters to abide by the JFA spectators rules whilst at the game on their web site whilst on the other hand Beleza would like you to know that the 2018 calender is going on sale on their site.
Likely, yes (in my case, today's also my dad's birthday ). Apparently, not even the official website have been updated yet. (nor Full Bloom Guidebook, for that matters) I also assume Beleza won: does anyone know the exact result and scorers? Did anyone here watch the game?
Wow, I was assuming unwrapping gifts was going to start tomorrow in the morning, but Lechus7's one is already here! Ok, looks like I will have to somehow find 20 minutes to watch this video, on the Christmas day!
I know that Mina Tanaka scored the first after about 6 minutes..... I haven't watched the remainder of the game yet (there was an email).
I indeed found a window, just before Christmas dinner, to re-watch all of 2017's goals. Many observations could be made, for instance about the respective importance of Nakajima, Mina Tanaka, Iwabuchi, Hasegawa... I'll only feed you a piece of statistics: if I counted well, Nadeshiko Japan scored 23 goals this year. Out of the first 10 ones, a whopping 6 had been scored by Kumi Yokoyama! After that, she scored... nothing! At the end of the season, she remained with those 6 goals she had scored initially. Ok, she often didn't even played (most notably in this last East Asian Cup, because of committments with her club), but a lot of what we missed in the second half of this year was her goals' contribution. And can it be a combination that she basically stopped scoring with NT after she moved overseas? Ideally, she should get a boost from this kind of experience: is it possible that her style of play in Frankfurt is less suited to her scoring instinct and tends to make her more of an assist-woman? Well, all food for thought. Now, I go for the actual food for stomach. Merry Christmas, everyone!