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

Wow, quite some big names being shuffled around this time!

Mizuho Sakaguchi's news could mean that her career is not finished and that she can find a new home to get back at playing (probably Beleza is currently too much crowded even for her): maybe her former team of Albirex?

I guess Ikejiri's considerations could be similar to Mina Tanaka's: she probably feels like she needs to show up in Japan to be permanently involved in NT's group, although she doesn't necessarily aims at an Olympic roster spot already.

Curious to see where Kira will end up playing: considering how many Urawa players before her made that particular choice, I am going to guess Spain (but it could be Germany as well, although I am not sure if, at this point of her career, she could attract a 1st Division team in Bundesliga).

 

Nice. she had her last trophy with Nittaidai, as she scored in the recent final of University Championship her team won vs Waseda, and now she deserves playing in a middle-of-the-rankings First Division club!

 

Nice! This could generate interest.

I still fondly remember the manga that was basically telling the story of Nahomi Kawasumi in 2011.

 

International update:

Aussie-W-League:

Not sure why, but Melbourne City didn't play in this week's match-day (could be the usual rest the "9th team" of each week has to take, but apparently there were just 3 games played this week instead of 4 ).


Division 1 Féminine:

- OL-Reims is actually currently underway. Kumagai started and OL scored early in 1st half with Majri. I don't really expect any surprise from the final score.


Liga Femenina:

- Espanyol-Madrid CFF 1-3. Ayaka Noguchi played the whole game.

- Sevilla FC-Sporting Huelva 1-0. Newly-signed US FW Danica Evans was a sub after the hour mark; Yoko Tanaka wasn't even on the bench: did the management decide to completly overhaul the team, thus basically spelling the end of Tanayo's adventure in it? Whatever it is, Sporting Huelva never actually seemed like the most suited destination for our player.

- Granadilla Tenerife-Deportivo Abanca will be played this evening at 18:30.


Serie A Femminile:

As it could have been expected, the "relegation big match" Pink Bari-Tavagnacco ended in a 0-0 draw: both teams had not enough to gain from a win (there are still too many match-days to go to make it crucial) and too much to lose from a loss, so the match was most probably dominated by the fear of losing, as it often happen in this kind of circumstances.

Anyway, both teams gained one point over Hellas Verona, the closest competitor, that, being just 2 points ahead, could now became a reasonable target for both.

Kunisawa and Kato were on the pitch for the whole game.


I apologize for posting this when the scores of two games (OL's and Deportivo's) aren't even finalized, but I wasn't sure if I would have had the time to do that this evening or tomorrow. I'll anyway try to keep you updated later with the final scores of those two games.

 

As expected, the game ended 5-0 for OL. Kumagai played 72'.

Unexpected loss by Deportivo Abanca in Tenerife, with a grand total of 8 goals scored in the match! Grenadilla-Deportivo 5-3.

Maya Yamamoto scored the 1-1 equalizer at 32' and was subbed-out in 2nd Half, at 66', when the score was 5-2.

At the moment, Deportivo manage to anyway retain their 4th place, although Athletic Bilbao and Logroño are now closer, just 3 points behind.

 

I normally post the chart of the seasonal scorers in club games at the beginning of January. This year I do that almost one month later because I was quite busy at the beginning of the year and because I also wanted to change the format around a little to also include goals scored in AFC Women's Club Championship (Beleza's player had a further advantage because of that, but on the other hand I couldn't ignore such an official tournament at club level).

So I am now posting and commenting seasonal scorers from 2019 season. As usual, give me a rep if you like the feature and appreciated the effort.

The format didn't change much from previous years, except for the insertion of AFC Club Championship, so I won't bore you with the general rules that I am going to put in a "spoiler" window, so that you can choose if reading or skipping.

Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler

The chart has no National Teams goals, no overseas leagues goals, only Division 1 club competitions in Japan (including Empress' Cup, that has clubs from all levels, but no Division 2, no Nadeshiko League Division 2 Cup nor any lesser league). So, basically it is: Nadeshiko League Division 1 + Nadeshiko League Cup (Div. 1 only) + Empress' Cup (only counting goals from Div. 1 clubs). This year I also added AFC Women's Club Championship, that I inserted between Nadeshiko League Cup and Empress' Cup.

The format works this way (example):
3 – Rikako Kobayashi – Nippon TV Beleza - 17 (11 / 0 / 1 / 5)(+12!)
This reads as follows: Rikako Kobayashi is 3rd in the chart, played in Nippon TV Beleza, scored 17 goals, 11 in Nadeshiko League Division 1, 0 in Nadeshiko League Cup (Div. 1), 1 in AFC Women's Club Championship and 5 in Empress' Cup; also she scored 12 goals more than previous season. The fact that the comparison is in bold and with an exclamation mark (+12!) means that the difference from previous season is more than 5 goals better or worse than the goals scored that season; otherwise, the number in bracket isn't in bold and has no punctuation. I don't make comparisons with previous season if the player was in a different league, even if I have the data from that league, because I don't think it makes sense to compare the number of goals scored in Nadeshiko League Division 1 with those scored in Division 2 or in Frauen-Bundesliga: in those cases, a note will state: (can't be properly compared). If a player was in Division 1 for only a part of the season, the goals she scored there will be counted, but no goal in other leagues will be counted (for instance, if she was in the chart, Yoko Tanaka would only have the goals she scored in Japan in 2019, not also those she scored in Spain; I'd compare anyway her record with previous season, although a note would state that she didn't fully play it). Also: when two players were even on goals, I've written first the one with more goals in Division 1 (arguably, the most important competition); when they were even in Division 1 goals, I just used alphabetical order.

These are the first 20 positions of the chart (actually the first 22 position: 5 players were tied at 18th place, so I added 2 positions to accomodate them all):

Nadeshiko League Seasonal scorers

1 - Mina Tanaka - Nippon TV Beleza - 39 (20 / 11 / 4 / 4)(+12!)
2 - Yuika Sugasawa - Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies - 19 (15 / 0 / 0 / 4)(+6!)
3 - Rikako Kobayashi - Nippon TV Beleza - 17 (11 / 0 / 1 / 5)(+12!)
4 - Megumi Kamionobe - Albirex Niigata Ladies - 15 (7 / 5 / 0 / 3)(+11!)
5 - Ami Sugita - Iga FC Kunoichi - 11 (6 / 1 / 0 / 4) (can't be properly compared: in Nadehiko League Div. 2 last season)*
- Ayaka Michigami - Iga FC Kunoichi - 11 (3 / 8 / 0 / 0)(+7!)
7 - Mai Kyokawa - INAC Kobe Leonessa - 10 (7 / 3 / 0 / 0)(-3)
- Arisa Minamino - Nojima Stella Kanagawa Sagamihara - 10 (5 / 4 / 0 / 1)(-6!)
9 - Riko Ueki - Nippon TV Beleza - 9 (8 / 0 / 1 / 0)(-6!)
- Rika Masuya - INAC Kobe Leonessa - 9 (6 / 1 / 0 / 2)(+3)
- Kumi Yokoyama - AC Nagano Parceiro Ladies - 9 (5 / 3 / 0 / 1)(+3)
12 - Manami Nakano - Nojima Stella Kanagawa Sagamihara - 8 (6 / 2 / 0 / 0)(+7!)
- Mana Iwabuchi - INAC Kobe Leonessa - 8 (5 / 1 / 0 / 2)(+5!)
- Kiko Seike - Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies - 8 (4 / 1 / 0 /3)(+5!)
- Mizuki Sonoda - Albirex Niigata Ladies - 8 (2 / 5 / 0 / 1)(-2)
- Oto Kanno - Nippon TV Beleza - 8 (0 / 4 / 0 / 4)(+7!)
17 - Haruhi Suzuki - AC Nagano Parceiro Ladies - 7 (4 / 1 / 0 /2)(+2)
18 - Fuka Kono - Nittaidai Fields Yokohama - 6 (6 / 0 / 0 / 0)(=)
- Jun Endo – Nippon TV Beleza - 6 (5 / 0 / 0 / 1) (can't be properly compared: in Challenge League last season)°
- Yuka Momiki - Nippon TV Beleza - 6 (4 / 2 / 0 / 0)(-6!)
- Hitomi Mori – Iga FC Kunoichi - 6 (3 / 2 / 0 /1) (can't be properly compared: in Challenge League last season)^
- Hana Takahshi – Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies - 6 (3 / 3 / 0 / 0)(+4)

* Anyway, Ami Sugita has scored five goals less than in season 2018, when she had scored 8 goals in Division 2 + 8 goals in Nadeshiko League Cup Div. 2, for a total of 16.
° Anyway, Jun Endo has scored one less goal than in season 2018, when she had scored 7 goals in Challenge League for JFA Academy Fukushima.
^ Anyway, Hitomi Mori has scored seven goals less than in season 2018, when she had scored 6 goals in Division 2 + 6 goals in Nadeshiko League Cup Div. 2 + 1 goal in Empress' Cup, for a total of 13.

Some observations:
- In general, there were more goals scored than in 2018, when the Best Seasonal Scorer had been Mina Tanaka with 27 goals. For the third consecutive year, Mina Tanaka is Best Seasonal Scorer, and for the third consecutive season she's the only player scoring more then 20 seasonal goals (this year she even scored more than 30, and AFC Women's Club Championship only added 4 goals to her total! ). Yuika Sugasawa was anyway close to the 20 goals mark, this time, with 19. I am very curious to see if Mina Tanaka will manage to keep her winning streak next year in INAC!
- Once again, Nippon TV Beleza is the team placing more players than any other club in the top 20, with 6 players (#1 Mina Tanaka, #3 Rikako Kobayashi, #9 Riko Ueki, #12 Oto Kanno, #18 Jun Endo and Yuka Momiki); while Tanaka and Kobayashi scored way more than previous season, Ueki and Momiki scored way less (it has to be noted, though that they were both injured for part of the season, especially Ueki). Oto Kanno has a record: I guess it's the first time that a player breaks top 10 in Seasonal Scorers without scoring any goals at all in the league : but 4 goals in Nadeshiko League Cup and 4 goals in Empress' Cup did the trick and gave 12th place to her.
- The closest teams to place more players in the top 20 were INAC Kobe Leonessa, Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies and surprising Iga FC Kunoichi with 3 players each; I remind everyone that Iga FC Kunoichi was in Division 2 in 2018 (the club added Ayaka Michigami to their top scorers from Division 2, Ami Sugita and Hitomi Mori, who did well in 1st Division also; Michigami sure needed this change, since she finally found a starting spot after so many years of INAC's bench).
- Megumi Kamionobe had an impressive performance, posting a 4th-place-worthy 15 goals record at age 33! 2011 WWC's veteran was looking on the verge of decline in 2018 season with just 4 goals, but now she scores more than her much younger rising-star team-mate Mizuki Sonoda. 2011 Veterans still rule around the world: Kamionobe, Kinga, Nagasato... you would be tempted to invite them again in NT...
- Bad season for Kumi Yokoyama: she scored three more than in 2018, but back then she had lost more than half of that Japanese season while she was playing in Germany. Please, read Kumi's trend from last seasons: 2015 (Div. 2): 35 goals; 2016: 27 goals; 2017: 10 goals (+ a pair in Germany at the end of the season); 2018: 6 goals (+ a pair in Germany at the beginning of the season); 2019: 9 goals.
- Notable names from last year who are now out of top 20 Seasonal Scorers:
Megumi Takase (-7!)
Moeno Sakaguchi (-7!)
Mebae Tanaka (-6!)
Yoko Tanaka (-5)
Chinatsu Kira (-4)
Emi Nakajima (-3)
Yui Hasegawa (-3)
Hina Sugita (-3)
Haruka Hamada (-3)
Naoko Sakuramoto (-2)
Hinata Miyazawa (-1)
Risa Fukasawa is now in Division 2, where she didn't score

Takase has fully turned into a Full-Back, so no real surprise (she was a DF last season already, but she had retained the habit of scoring a little more); Moeno Sakaguchi had a plain bad season. It's impressive to see that so many fixtures of our NT's midfield (Nakajima, Hina Sugita, Hasegawa) score so few goals. Of course, Yoko Tanaka missed half of the season, being now in Spain, where she anyway scored some goals.

 

In fact I even see a different crest from usual...



Why should they change the name, though? Leonessa is cool and very recognizable.

Choosing Stella, that's been already taken by Nojima Stella Kanagawa wouldn't make much sense!

Edit: by the way, who exactly these new INAC players are, apart from obvious Mina Tanaka at the center of the picture? @unepommekun can you help me giving me a name for each?

 

Oh, how I didn't recognize Moeno Sakaguchi! (Although it seems to me that her face got a little slimmer compared to the past).

Her 2019 season wasn't at the same level that had previously brought her in NT; I hope she's going to do better in INAC in 2020.

 

Well, they're not actually FWs, so scoring goals shouldn't be their main target (especially for Hina Sugita, who uses to play as a Defensive Midfielder in NT); it has to be said. though, that both Nakajima and Hasegawa, despite playing on the wings, are definitely offensive midfielders, so you could expect some more goals from them (especially from Hasegawa, who doesn't always shot with the power & accuracy you would expect from such a player).

It's a fact that our NT suffers from the scarce goal-contribution from the midfielders.