Hope this is Algarve Cup instead. Know the competition is not as stiff but opportunity for fans in Europe to see Nadeshiko.
Mmm, despite the fact that JFA was given the choice, I wonder why they chose Beleza over (most probably) Urawa. I agree that Beleza could have more chances to shine on the international stage, but isn't this quite unrespectful to the 2019 winner, whichever team it will be? I don't want to rely on a Google-translation for such a key-point, so I am asking to any Japanese-speaker here on the thred: has JFA motivated in any way their choice for the 2018 Champion over the 2019 one?
Alas, from reading the US boards I guess the decision has been already made and has been already announced on some official US Federation's media-outlet.
Tomorrow's games: Nadeshiko League 2 Yamato vs Chifure 14:30 Very strong typhoon is attacking Japan again now, so many schedules are uncertain.
It doesn't look good. Very strong winds with record high heavy rains. Lots of flooding. In several prefectures people are encouraged to evacuate into safe centers. Keep strong Japan!
Winning for Ehime, although with the minimal score vs last-placed team, while Orca only manage to draw, is another big step for them in the direction of direct promotion.
Tomorrow's games: Nadeshiko League Nittaidai vs Beleza 13:00 Inac vs Urawa 13:00 Jef vs Iga 14:00 Nadeshiko League 2 Cerezo vs Nippatsu 15:00
Thank You for your concern. Good or bad, I live in the western Japan where we were not so much damaged by the typhoon.
It was a great game. Great thanks to the people who cleaned debris and water to materialize this great game. News media only talk about the scores, usually only the final score. They should cover more about the foreign visitors’ experiences in Japan and their friendship with the locals, etc.
Normally we can't know about players' injury, so we only have to guess. According to today's Beleza lineup, Miura seems OK, but Hasegawa doesn't exist even on the bench.
Speaking about Beleza... Congratulations are in order for Azusa Iwashimizu and not only for her birthday. She shared that she got married recently and will become mom. 【Be】この度、日テレ・ベレーザに所属する岩清水梓選手が入籍したことをお知らせします。また岩清水選手は妊娠しており、現在は別メニューで調整をしております。岩清水梓選手のコメントはこちらからご覧ください→https://t.co/kioAuPLV2Q #beleza #日テレ・ベレーザ #岩清水梓 pic.twitter.com/e39KkCU21F— 東京ヴェルディ(TOKYO VERDY)公式⚽ (@TokyoVerdySTAFF) October 14, 2019
Nice! Between her and Sawa's baby, the next generation of players to win the 2039/2043 cycle of World Cups is underway!
Today's result: Nadeshiko League Nittaidai (Hashitani) 1-6 Beleza (Tanaka 2, Kobayashi 2, Ueki 2) Inac (Takase, Kyokawa) 2-1 Urawa (Sugasawa) Jef 0-1 Iga (Hatanaka) Nadeshiko League 2 Cerezo (Takarada, Hayashi, Yakata, Kitamura) 4-2 Nippatsu (Miyashita 2)
After the FIFA international break, most national leagues resumed. So it's time for a new batch of international updates: Last match-day of NWSL regular season; after that we only have play-offs, starting on October the 20th, so 5 teams out of 9 have finished their season this week-end: - In particular, Nahomi Kawasumi is the only one, out of our three Japanese players in NWSL, who's out of play-offs. Her last game of 2019 season with Sky Blue FC was an away 3-2 loss to North Carolina Courage: for a change, she started and played the whole game (lately she always used to be a late sub, normally around the hour mark or a little later). Highlights: http://www.nwslsoccer.com/videos/F582EF1B-8BED-AEEC-3C36-C3E4F4F528D1 - Very good news from Seattle, not actually for the team, but for our Rumi Utsugi: her recovery keeps looking better and better: on Saturday not only she started and she played a full half of the game (she was subbed-out at HT), but she assisted Jodie Taylor with a wonderful long-range drive (from her half of the pitch to the arc of the opponent box! ). Unluckily for Seattle, Taylor's goal didn't stay to the end, since Orlando Pride equalized with Marta at 85', so Reign failed to catch up with Portland Thorns and finished the season at 4th place: this means that, in the play-offs' semifinals they'll have to clash with 1st-placed North Carolina Courage; not an easy task, but, on the other hand, when you're in play-offs you anyway have to beat everyone else to claim the title. I am happy that Utsugi is back in a good form: despite the duo Miura-Sugita looking quite promising in our holding-midfielder positions, I want the experience of a veteran like Utsugi in the roster for 2020 Olympics: I sure hope her time in National Team hasn't finished yet. Highlights: http://www.nwslsoccer.com/videos/FD9F4DF1-884E-A890-C8A9-C3D7761111B6 - I remind everyone that Chicago Red Stars had already finished their season before the international break (since NWSL has 9 teams, there is at least one who has to sit and rest for each match-day, and for the last match-day it was Chicago's turn). The Yuki Ogimi-Sam Kerr connection will be back on stage next week with the play-offs' semifinal Chicago Red Stars-Portland Thorns. Division 1 Féminine: - 5th match-day: OL-Paris FC 4-0; OL of course still leading alongside PSG, Saki Kumagai just sitting on the bench for all of the game. Move along, nothing to see here. Ok, if you REALLY want to see something, highlights of the game here (but you're no going to see any glimpse of Saki, no camera showing the bench; you're just going to see how easy it is for OL to score headers from set pieces): Frauen-Bundesliga: - 1.FFC Turbine Potsdam-SC Freiburg 4-5. No really, I mean 4 goal to 5! And the winner for Freiburg was scored at 90'+2', after they had led by 0-3, and then by 2-4, and Potsdam had managed to equalize on 4-4. Hikaru Naomoto was subbed in at 68' (probably back from an injury) when the score was on 2-3; one minute later Freiburg scored their 4th goal and in fact the goal came when a team-mate shot from the rebound of a Naomoto's blocked shot. If you want to watch the utter craziness that this game was, you can find highlights here: https://tv.dfb.de/video/highlights-1-ffc-turbine-potsdam-sc-freiburg/26425/ - in 2nd Division, SV Meppen-BV Cloppenburg 1-1: both Shiho Tomari and Natsuki Kishikawa started for Cloppenburg and played the whole game. Liga Femenina: - Sporting Huelva- FC Barcelona 0-1; ok, not an easy macth-up for sure and Huelva managed at least to keep it close, but the team keeps sadly sitting in 15th position in the league (out of 16 teams) with just 3 points in 5 match-days. Yoko Tanaka at least started and she was subbed out at 77' only. - Espanyol-Real Betis 2-2. Ayaka Noguchi started and played the full game, for a change. - Deportivo Abanca-Rayo Vallecano 3-0; this time Maya Yamamoto was at least on the bench and she was even subbed in at 80', when the score was on 2-0. Deportivo is now leading the league, along with Barcelona. Austrian OFB Frauen-Bundesliga: - FC Wacker Innsbruck is spiraling down in flames and by now it's not even funny. You were thinking that 4-5 was an odd score? What about 14-3? Yes, it's not a day of the month or something of the kind: it's 14 goals scored to 3 against Innsbruck by their opponents of SKN St. Pölten. See the scoreboard by yourself if you don't believe me (in this case I would find a certain amount of skepticism totally reasonable). Can it be of any consolation that 2 out of 3 Wacker Innsbruck's goals were scored by our Saya Kawasaki and Kanako Fuse? I don't think so. They're probably about the only decent players in the team. Ok, this was a top vs bottom clash, St. Pölten being leader of the league, but Innsbruck now sits in last place with just 1 point in 6 games and a goal difference of -23 (8 goals scored, almost all Japanese, and 31 goals against). Serie A Femminile: - debut in the league for the two Japanese players of UPC Tavagnacco, Mizuho Kato and Shiho Kunisawa: judging by the article on the team website, there were high hopes about these new players, and you can see in the highlights that Kunisawa had even already be made the captain of the team! But Fiorentina revealed too much strong for them and won by 2-1 (let's not forget that Fiorentina was playing Champions' League at the beginning of this season and that they sport big international names, including Italian NT's Alia Giagni and Australian NT's Lisa De Vanna). Tavagnacco are now 9th-placed out of 12 team and they have another very difficult away game scheduled for next week vs Milan! Highlights: Also, although I am not regularly covering South Korean league, @sbahnhof does and it's worth reposting the video he mentioned in a recent recap of the league he made on the WK-League thread: it shows a recent goal, scored in the last part of September, by Mayu Ikejiri who, along with Madoka Haji, is a regular starter in Suwon (there is a third Japanese player in the team, Henmi Momoko, but she's not a starter). Phew! Guys, I am not sure I'll always have the time to cover leagues from overseas so extensively, especially now that we have so many Japanese players around the world! We'd almost need a dedicated thread, like the one they have for Yankee players abroad on the US boards! Well, at least NWSL has almost finished. But then Aussie league will soon start! Ok, I'll do my best. I'll sure try to keep you updated at least on the main news regarding our players. -_-"
Well, look at the bright side: at least this time Nittaidai didn't took 11! Riko Ueki was subbed-in at 64' and two minutes later she was scoring from PK: it was her first goal since the injury that took her away from the WWC roster (later she'll add another). Was it also her first official match since the injury, or had I missed her presence in previous games? Wow, this is the result that re-opened the league! Urawa had took the lead early in 1st Half with Sugasawa, but then INAC turned the tables. And now, although Red Diamonds remain at 1st place, Beleza is lurking at three points and with a game in hand. Can the "green machine" make it once again? On the other hand, INAC have now a glimmer of hope: yes, they're 6 points behind Urawa, but next week we have... Beleza-INAC! Will they manage to beat them also? It wouldn't be enough, without the teams ahead of them stumbling quite a lot, but INAC are anyway keeping it opened. Meanwhile, JEF show they just can't compete for the title: this loss with a goal at 89' breaking a depressing 0-0 tie put the final nail on the coffin of Chiba's hopes to fight for the top positions; they're now 10 points behind Urawa and, despite a game in hand (vs Beleza), this is frankly too much. Interesting (?) tidbit: after 15 match-days, Iga FC Kunoichi's record is 5-5-5 (5 wins, 5 draws, 5 losses), with 14 goals scored and 14 goals against. They sure like simmetry. Takarada, Hayashi, Kitamura! If it wasn't for Yakata, judging by today's scoreboard you could believe that Cerezo is U-20 2018 World Champion NT. They're sure back in contention for promotion; Ehime, Chifure, Cerezo, Orca: four teams for two spots (one direct promotion and one promotion play-off). That's quite exciting, and all of the postponed matches make it even more complicated.