Tsukuba has been a disaster all season, so it doesn't surprise me that they lose the first leg of the play-off to remain in Challenge League. Funny name, this Gunma White Star team: where is it from?
Takakura says after Nadeshiko Challenge training, "I had thought 90% is already decided for the members of WWC, but it was degraded to 80%. Several members here showed some great potentials in this training. While our attacking players are many and very competitive, we are thin in defensive area. I want one more set for DFs." Matsubara Kei picked out some outstanding players in this training, like Ohga, Dokou, Takase, Takahasi, Hayashi, Nishikawa, Kobayashi, Ikejiri etc...
I don't expect too many changes at this point, but if there is one player i really would like to see at the World Cup next year, this would be Rikako Kobayashi. She has been very good this year for Beleza and her versility to play on several positions in the attack, would give Takakura a strong hand, i believe. And i also think without her bad injury, that kept her out for almost 2 years , she would have given her debut for the Senior Team a long time ago.
I encourage whoever didn't vote yet (and/or didn't watch the video) to do it, even if you're not regulars (or if you're regulars with very scarce time to do that ). It's very funny!
Okay. as you asked so nicely. 1 Yokoyama Kumi v Australia Asian Cup 2 Hasegawa Yui v North Korea Asian Games 3 Sugasawa Yuika v China Asian Games 4 Sakaguchi Moena v USA T.O.N. 5 Yokoyama Kumi v Norway Friendly I see that Naho has been in Kobe and is training with INAC for a few days. I presume it is just to keep her fitness levels up rather than any sort of playing contract. There is a lovely picture on her blog of her and Sameshima enjoying some meats.
Yes, very funny, i had missed that! Considering the scarce playing time Naho has been given in the second part of the season, I have the feeling that Seattle Reign won't sign her again next season (also considering that NWSL will partly overlap with WWC, so there would be no particular advantage in having her in the squad). Maybe she could get back to INAC and plan to retire after Tokyo Olympics? Or trying to be signed elsewhere in USA or overseas? We're going to see what happens: for sure INAC remains her "family".
Today's result: Tokiwagi 2-0 (ag 3-1) Nojima Tsukuba 2-0 (ag2-2, PK 3-2) Gunma Bunnys 2-3 (ag 5-4) Jumonji
Well, it's a shame that Yamamoto, Otaki & Co. didn't make it. They had managed to reverse the 1st leg's score and they were leading by 1-2 (one of the two goals by Ami Otaki herself!), but in the end Hikari Hirata managed to equalize at 89' (other Nittaidai's goal was by their Korean player Ri Song-A, who chose a key-moment to score her 2nd goal of the season). Oh, well: @And G will be happy that Nittaidai and their 4-3-3 system remain in Division 1. The other big play-off, Bunnys-Jumonji, was only apparently as much close: Bunnys were leading by 2-0, then were caught on 2-2 before the end of 1st half, but at that point Jumonji Ventus would have needed two goals to advance and they scored the first one of them at 87' only: it was too late.
Yuki on a good run of form for Brisbane... That's 2️⃣ goals in as many games for @Yuki_Ogimi as we edge a thriller at Lions Stadium! #RoarAsOneMatch report 📰 https://t.co/NcMo1iEV2U pic.twitter.com/5hkSJkFh6p— Brisbane Roar FC (@brisbaneroar) December 16, 2018
Thank you for this update, @frideswide. In these days before Christmas' holydays I am so busy at work that I have no time at all to post my usual international updates, so everyone is welcome doing the same for other leagues if anything significant happens (I've just read from @shlj that Division 1 Féminine just played the last match-day before the break, but nothing interesting happened: both OL and PSG won their respective games by scoring a boatload of goals and consequently nothing changed at the top of the rankings). By the way, frideswide, talking about time and things to do: did you vote here on the thread for Nadeshiko Japan's goal of the year?
Yui Hasegawa vs Korea DPR (Asian Games) 2-0 Mizuho Sakaguchi vs Australia (AFC Cup) 1-0 Rika Masuya vs Vietnam (Asian Games) 5-0 Rika Masuya vs Brazil (ToN) 1-2 Kumi Yokoyama vs Australia (AFC Cup) 1-0
Goal of the year 2018 Standings so far...(#4417) (blissett, KAPIJXM, Lechus7, Manchester Nadreshiko, frohike, unepommekun, Grampus, And G) 37 points Kumi Yokoyama vs Australia (AFC Cup) 1-0 27 points Yui Hasegawa vs Korea DPR (Asian Games) 2-0 18 points Mana Iwabuchi vs Netherlands (Algarve Cup) 2-6 12 points Moeno Sakaguchi vs USA (ToN) 4-2 11 points Mizuho Sakaguchi vs Australia (AFC Cup) 1-0 8 points Yuika Sugasawa vs China (Asian Games) 1-0 7 points Mana Iwabuchi vs China (AFC Cup) 0-1 5 points Mina Tanaka vs USA (ToN) 1-1 5 points Rika Masuya vs Brazil (ToN) 1-2 5 points Yuka Momiki vs Norway (Friendly) 4-0 3 points Rika Masuya vs Vietnam (Asian Games) 5-0 3 points Aya Sameshima vs Ghana (Friendly) 7-1 1 point Kumi Yokoyama vs Norway (Friendly) 1-0
第40回皇后杯 準々決勝12月22日(土)キックオフ!11:00キックオフ新潟L vs I神戸14:00キックオフノジマ vs ジェフL16:00キックオフ日テレ vs マイナビ19:00キックオフAC長野 vs 浦和レッズレディース▼詳しくはこちらhttps://t.co/NhUCUsIOcW pic.twitter.com/O2yApPVRcy— JFAなでしこサッカー (@jfa_nadeshiko) December 19, 2018
1. Hasegawa Yui versus North Korea 2. Yokoyama Kumi versus Australia 3. Sakaguchi Moeno versus USA 4. Sakaguchi Mizuho versus Australia 5. Iwabuchi Mana versus the Netherlands Some nice goals, but Hasegawa's is the best. It is interesting that she was involved in three of the five goals I chose.
Transfar info about relatively famous players so far: Yoshida Nagisa (Kibi - Inac), Kawano Syuri (Waseda - Inac) Nishikawa Asuka (Nagano - ?), Nakamura Yushika (Nagano - ?) Yoshimi Natsuki (Nojima - KSPO (S Korea) ), Shono Kanako (Nojima - Orca), Takagi Hikari (retire) Usui Rie (retire) Takizawa Rio (Kanagawa Uni - Albi), Kinoshita Shiori (Nagano -?), Sakamoto Riho (Nagano - ?) Kanda Wakaho (Nagano -?), Mochizuki Arisa (Nagano - ?) Haji Madoka (Mynavi - ?), Fujita Nozomi (Orca - ?) Saito Akane (Nagano - ?) Fukumoto Miho (Inac - Chifure) Ikejiri Mayu (Kibi - 水原WFC (S Korea))
Interesting that, after Fuka Nagano and Asuna Tanaka paved the way, more players are choosing Korean League: probably it's becoming competitive enough to develop good players? Ikejiri was a monster-scorer this season, I am curious to see what she's going to do next year in Korea. Well, Saitama is becoming the land of the veterans, with players like Eriko Arakawa, Kanako Ito, Kaoruko Suzuki and now Fukumoto! I wonder how much playing time she will get; for sure, in INAC, at this point she had two good younger GKs ahead of her in Takenaka and Stambaugh, so, if she wants to play some other seasons, it made sense to move to another club. Oh, this is really unexpected!!! Wasn't she still in the conversation for a place at WWC in our defense? Or maybe Takakura told her that she doesn't plan to bring her anyway, so she decided to leave for good? I am puzzled. She had her moment of glory in the team that reached second place at Asian Games 2014 (that year most of the clubs from overseas hadn't released their players for Asian Games nor for AFC Asian Cup, so Sasaki had to count on domestic league talents and called some players that seldom wore the Senior Team jersey in different circumstances: the group of Urawa players, with Michi Goto, Chinatsu Kira, Shiho Kohata and, indeed, Rie Usui, and other rarely seen players like Nanase Kiryu or Yuria Obara). Rie Usui had been quite good in that tournament, her height making her a more than decent CB. Later her career didn't really take off, so it somehow makes sense that she retire. I thought it was worth remembering the best moment she had in it.