Official 2020 Nadeshiko Japan Thread [R] - なでしこジャパン（英語スレッド）

International update (this week-end Serie A Femminile in Italy was scheduled to resume after Christamas break, so we have one more result compared to the previous week):

Aussie W-Legue:

- On Thursday, Melbourne City-Canberra United 4-0. City are more than ever leader of the league, since their main rivals of Western Sydney Wanderers have lost at home to Brisbane Roar by 0-4 today. Only problem is Yukari Kinga didn't start for Melbourne and wasn't even on the bench: I searched everywhere on Aussie-W-League website (including Melbourne City's specific website), but I didn't find additional info, except an article acknowledging that Kinga's was indeed the only change in the line-up compared to the previous game. I didn't find any disciplinary record on the league's website, but it didn't seem to me that Kinga had been recently carded, so I have to suppose she's currently injured, or Melbourne City wouldn't have discarded one of their key-players and she would have been at the very least sitting on the bench. No info, though, about this supposed injury: any mention of it on Japanese media or on Yukari's social platforms, for those having access to them in Japanese?
Anyway, these are the highlights of the game (now, for some reason, I seem to be able to see them again): https://www.w-league.com.au/video/melbourne-city-fc-v-canberra-united-highlights-westfield-w-league


Liga Femenina:

- On Saturday, Atletico Madrid-Sporting Huelva 1-0. Huelva lost with the minimal goal difference to second-placed Atletico, that's not a bad score in a vacuum. They are now 12th-placed in the rankings. The good news are that Yoko Tanaka was subbed in at 81', so it appears that the injury that removed her from the game last week wasn't a season-threatening one at all.

- Also on Saturday, Espanyol-Deportivo Abanca 0-3. Espanyol keep their last position, Deportivo are 4th. Ayaka Noguchi didn't start for Espanyol, but she was hastily subbed-in at 34' when the game was already on 0-2. in Deportivo, Maya Yamamoto started and was subbed-out at 79'.

- I still owe you Deportivo's result from last week (I had posted my update before Liga's games on Sunday): they had a 1-1 draw in Valencia, with Maya Yamamoto not starting and never subbed-in.


Serie A Femminile:

- Today, Tavagnacco-Juventus 1-5. Of course, facing Italian Champions and leaders of the rankings of Juventus wasn't the ideal re-start of the league for Tavagnacco; and they even managed to go ahead at 20'! But then Juventus' comeback was ruthless. Kunisawa and Kato played the whole game for Tavagnacco.

 

I remember very well about Deyna Castellanos (the only one to beat recently mentioned Mamiko Matsumoto at that U-17 WWC 2014) and I guess most people do because of this girl's achievements, back then and later.

At the U-17 WWC in 2014, she ended up being the joined Golden Shoe of the whole competition, along with team-mate Gabriela Garcia. As you correctly mentioned, she was just 14 at the time, to the point that (as well as other very young players, as our Fuka Nagano) she had the chance to also play the subsequent U-17 WWC in 2016.

At that event, she scored a goal from the center circle in stoppage-time of a group game that ended up being one of the recipients of the FIFA Puskas award's short-list for that season!

One year after that, Castellanos was short-listed for the Best FIFA Women's Player Award, a fact that stirred much controversy, since at the time she hadn't even ever played in a professional league, but was still in USA college system.

At that level, by the way, in Florida Seminoles (a team that in the past sported FWs as Tiffany McCarty and, if you go really back in time, our Mami Yamaguchi), Castellanos was incredibly successfull and managed to win the very competitive US College Championship!

So I guess she's a player we'll hear about for long, especially now that she landed in a strong European club.

 

Wow, this looks like the biggest transfer in Nadeshiko League since the time when INAC built their dream-team for the first time with the likes of Sawa, Ohno and Kinga, by stealing them from Beleza!

Of course, Beleza has plently of young stars to replace Tanamina (Momiki, Ueki, Kobayashi, Endo, and so on...),but I guess it was years that they weren't trading a so high-profile player to their main rivals!

I wonder if Tanaka feels like she has more chance to make the Olympic roster by playing in INAC than in Beleza.

 

Marginally off-topic here on the Nadeshiko thread, but, through the US boards, I came to know that former Orlando Pride's FW Danica Evans was just signed by Sporting Huelva in Spain:

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Although the move is quite understandable from the Spanish Club point of view (they need goals! And some target striker to score them), I wonder what it can specifically mean for Yoko Tanaka: is the team going to become a little stronger and is she going to have a meaningful target for her assist? Or the choice of investing on a different international means that our Japanese player is going to become more and more marginal, as @pierre bezukhov somehow feared in one of his latest posts, to the point of eventually leaving the club?

 

International update:

Aussie-W-League:

- Yesterday, Melbourne City-Newcastle Jets 2-0. Melbourne City keep riding alone at the top of the rankings, but it's the second consecutive week Yukari Kinga is out. I couldn't find any news about her supposed injury so far: I asked on the Aussie-W-League thread on BigSoccer but I am not sure anyone can help me.
Meanwhile, Kinga-less highlights: https://www.w-league.com.au/match/m...s-women-w-league-18-01-2020/2032891#!/lineups


Division 1 Féminine:

- Mild surprise today as OL is stopped on a 0-0 draw by Bordeaux (I only say "mild", because in the end Bordeaux are the recognized "thrid force" of the league this season and a 0-0 away draw isn't anyway the end of the world); meanwhile PSG had a resounding 11-0 win (!) vs OM, but they remain 3 points behind OL in the rankings and 2 goals behind in goal difference. One can't anyway say that the league didn't become a little more interesting. Saki Kumagai played the whole match. No available highlights yet, as far as I know.


Liga Femenina:

- Sporting Huelva-CD Tacón 1-3. As it's been already said by @frohike and @pierre bezukhov, Yoko Tanaka didn't see the pitch, despite Huelva having just used two changes; on the other end of the field, Tacón scored with most of their international stars (Thaisa, Jakobsson, Asllani). Huelva was sucked back again in relegation zone: currently third-to-last-placed.

- Fourth point of the season for Espanyol, as they draw a game by 1-1 in Valencia. Ayaka Noguchi only played the last 10 minutes of the match.

- Deportivo Abanca-Real Betis 3-1. Maya Yamamoto started and was subbed-out at 62'. Deportivo retain their 4th place.


Serie A Femminile:

- Tavagnacco finally win a match! Let's not get too much excited: it's just an 1-0 home win vs Orobica Bergamo, that was the only team standing behind them in the rankings at just 1 point, so it's not like they achieved a really unexpected or extraordinary result. It's well enough, though, to catch up with Pink Bari, the team that was ahead of them, at 8 point (technically Tavagnacco are still behind by 1 goal on goal difference). Now the battle to avoid relegation can really start: two teams will be relegated in second division and Orobica, being now 7 points behind, will most probably be one of them; now Tavagnacco have to win an head-to-head race with Pink Bari. And guess what's the match waiting for them next week? But of course it's Pink Bari-Tavagnacco (in Bari): it's the match that can decide a whole season (or leave everything unchanged, in the case of a draw).
Yesterday, both Kunisawa and Kato played the full game; Kunisawa even missed a PK in 2nd half: let's hope it doesn't lead to a situation similar to Yoko Tanaka's one in Spain (but so far it looks like Tavagnacco have great faith in their Japanese players, who are lock-in starters since the moment they arrived in Italy). The occasion of a Tavagnacco's win is so special that it's worth posting highlights of the match: