Saturday: Urawa - Nojima www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVTQnHSRH6U JEF - Cerezo www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHAXFaX07gk Beleza - Ehime www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1S6ZpNoy6Y Iga - Mynavi www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH2o61CQao8 INAC - Albi www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa6ZNUpwflU So, is today the last game in the top division for Cerezo, Iga and Ehime?
INAC have been a bit "meh" this season, but Miki Ito has been very good. She does not make a lot of mistakes when passing and on the ball she is very good. However, she usually plays as a deep lying midfielder in a three woman midfield, which doesn't require her to get forward as much. In a 4-4-2 she will have to get forward more and perhaps make more penetrative passes, which is something Miura does well. I am not sure how serious Takakura is about Ito, but given Utsugi and Sakaguchi are not likely to play for Nadeshiko again, Takakura does need to find two more central midfielders to take their places to back up Miura and Sugita. Though I think with Naomoto back and playing well Miura may become the back up. I think Ito is class, but she may be a bit of a defensive and physical liability. We have to see her play and see how she does. Although she has been around a while, she is only 25! I think Takakura has been a bit over zealous with her use of the young starlets. Giving young players opportunities is great, but neglecting older players, just because they have been around a while is narrow minded. I think there are some very good players in Japan in their mid-twenties. Some players do improve as they get older.
Update after 10': It's still 0-0 in every game, and all the commentators are shouting over each other like it's the WK-League final.
H.T......Beleza 0 Ehime 0 Really happy for the 50+ travelling Ehime fans who are probably watching their teams last game in the big time (all I had to do was get up at 4am and turn the laptop on.....they've had a long long trip)
I don't know whether Urawa have gotten bigger, or Nojima have shrunk, but Nojima look like children alongside some of the Urawa players. But the kids are hanging in there, though the a goal from Urawa looks inevitable.
Anyway, Urawa scored through Sugasawa. It was a pretty clear penatly. Having said that though, in other passages of play despite being so big and strong Urawa really do fall over easily.
60 mins Oya....Beleza 0 Ehime 1.....beautiful free kick 63 mins Ueno should have made it 2-0 Edit 83 mins.....Endo....Beleza 1 Ehime 1 edit...86 mins Endo....Beleza 2 Ehime 1
90 mins+1.....Ueno....Beleza 2 Ehime2 THE goalkeeping error of the season F.T,....Beleza 2 Ehime 2 Another underwhelming unimaginitive offering from what used to be the 'green machine' Ehime bowed out of top flight footie with what was imo a very creditable performance although I suspect we may see Yamaguchi and Ueno somewhere in the WE League next year edit....The late goal went down as an own goal...Thanks Unepomme
Today's result: Nadeshiko League Urawa (Sugasawa) 1-1 Nojima (Minamino) Jef (Ichinose, Ohsawa, Yamazaki) 3-3 Cerezo (Takarada, Hayashi, OG) Beleza (Endo 2) 2-2 Ehime (Ohya, OG) Iga 0-2 Mynavi (Hamada 2) Inac (Kyokawa, Tanaka) 2-0 Albi Challenge League Anclas (Ukita) 1-0 Ange Violet Cerezo Girls (Kihara) 1-4 Speranza (Morisako, Takahashi, Sakanaka, Kitaura)
Nojima played quite well today, but they tend to play well against teams that take most of the possession. Nojima still have a lot of work to do for next season, but they might be alright. Some players started in different positions and did quite well. Sae Kitakata who usually plays in midfield started at left back and was actually very good. Miwa Sasaki and Chihiro Ishida also did some nice things in midfield along with Hikari Hirata. Hikari Hirata has actually been very good this season and has gotten better with each game. She is not amazing but she is consistant and tends to do the right thing. Who knows what will happen next season regarding new players, but Nojima need to hang onto Matsubara and try and get Yoko back. I can't imagine she will stay at Huelva for another season. But Nojima in an ideal world Nojima need another - maybe two - midfielders (Nagano, Yamaguchi) and two more strikers (Michigami, Hana Takahashi). I will be very surprised if the four players will move to Nojima, but it would be nice. I know there is more news about transfers coming up, but I just hope they can keep the pay structure quite even in the league thereby attracting better players to smaller clubs in the hope that they will get more playing time. Oh yeah Seike was very good for Urawa today.
Yes, it is a good idea, but how do teams attract good players and will the players want to come? I just don't want them getting random foreign players without a plan, because that will not help the league nor the clubs for that matter. If Nojima can find a good foreign player or players to improve the team then great, but if there are better players in Japan for what they need then I hope they take the Japanese players. Watching Yoko's club Huelva has been really eye-opening at just how shambolic recruitment can be at a club. Lots of foreign players, but very disorganised play. As bad as Nojima can be at times usually there is a plan. I just hope the league builds itself slowly and can see a way to be sustainable. I don't need to see big names playing in the WE League next year.
Most important issue about WE League is how they attract audiences. If the current audience size stays as it is, WE League couldn't last long. So public attention is a key for its success. And also the existence of physically strong foreign players in Japan would have some merits for Nadeshiko NT, thinking there are few players playing abroad.
Yeah I agree they want to make money and they need to make money. But I doubt they actually believe that the league will make money for a very long time. Obviously it is a goal to make money, but first of all they just have to get everything running smoothly. The Nadeshiko League already runs pretty well, so the WE League should run smoothly. Show people that it is a well-run, professional league with relatively good money, played at good facilities and the players will start coming. If Nadeshiko do well at the Olympics it could help with crowds, but really they need to build crowds at the grass roots level. The anime might help, but we will see. I hope it goes well, but I think they should start slowly. The bigger physical players are great if they are good, but if they are technically deficient then they won't be used or won't really fit into any team's style of play, so again it comes back to clubs choosing wisely. I think the WE League should be encouraging clubs to look for players from countries that are pro women's sports and don't have strong domestic leagues. Countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands would be where I'd look for players. As an Australia I can tell you that if there were a number of Australians playing in Japan the Australian media would cover them, maybe not much, but they would at least cover the players and what they are doing. That means that some people in Australia might watch the games, so they need to make the coverage of games is good and easy to access. I want to stress here that everything I have written is probably wrong and is merely my uninformed opinion. I think it is a huge risk starting this WE League, but I really want it to succeed. I guess I am quite conservative and I just want them to spend money conservatively and slowly build the League.
And in an incredible turn of events... all positions remained unchanged after today's results!!! It seems to me that the own goal was by Miho Kamogawa. Can anyone confirm? There was indeed a goodbye ceremony for Yamane, at the end of JEF's match, with a video about her career projected on the scoreboard of the stadium and Yui Narumiya giving her flowers and a big Japan's flag with writings on it. You can't really say that she didn't have to play until the very last minute of her career, including a collision in the box from a CK at 90'+2' and an own-goal taken at 90'+4'! Yamashita's OG was indeed atrocious . When will we get a reliable GK for our NT? And with this brace, recently called NT's training camp member Haruka Hamada lifted herself at 2nd place of top-scorers' rankings, just behind Sugasawa. At the end of this experiment we can say: Mina Tanaka doesn't score quite as much as in previous seasons without Beleza (-8 goals compared to last season, from 20 to 12). On the other hand, Beleza doesn't score quite as much as in previous seasons without Mina Tanaka (-14 goals compared to last season, from 59 to 45, and all this despite having scored 10 in a single game vs Cerezo). a lose-lose situation, I'd say. This was the first loss for Ange Violet this season. But they could afford it, because, despite the win, Speranza remained just 1 single point behind.
So I guess next year I will stick to League 2 or whatever they will going to call it. I think I can't watch Iga's game like this year, but in spite of the ranking or the numbers, I am proud of them, they gave always 100% but miracles in football are hard to get, specially if the motivation is low because the ranking didn't mind to stay or not in first league.
Goal of the week (17th round) Winner: Hana Takahashi (Urawa Red Diamonds) 8pts Hamano.................6 pts Koyama.................4 pts Osawa...................3 pts Kishikawa..............2 pts Arimachi................1 pt voted by: KAPIJXM, unepommekun, blissett, Lechus7 Previous round winners: 1st round Mayo Doko (NTV Beleza) / Saori Takarada (Cerezo Osaka Sakai) 6 pts 2nd round Yuzuho Shiokoshi (Urawa Red Diamonds) 11 pts 3rd round Mana Iwabuchi (INAC Kobe Leonessa) 13 pts 4th round Mina Tanaka (INAC Kobe Leonessa) 13 pts 5th round Yuki Mizutani (Urawa Red Diamonds) 11 pts 6th round Yui Hasegawa (NTV Tokyo Verdy Beleza) 15 pts 7th round Yui Hasegawa (NTV Beleza) / Yuika Sugasawa (Urawa Reds) 13 pts 8th round Ami Sugita (Iga FC Kunoichi) 13pts 10th round Mami Ueno (Ehime FC) 12 pts 11th round Hikaru Naomoto (Urawa Reds) 12 pts 12th round Yui Hasegawa (NTV Beleza) 17 pts 13th round Miyu Yakata (Cerezo Osaka Sakai) 13 pts 14th round Mizuki Saihara (Ehime FC Ladies) 13 pts 15th round Chihiro Yamaguchi (Ehime FC Ladies) 11pts 9th round Ami Otaki (JEF Utd. Ichihara Chiba) 12 pts 16th round Yuzuho Shiokoshi (Urawa Red Diamonds) 12 pts Lechus7' bouns goal 14th round Mina Tanaka (INAC Kobe) blissett's bonus goal 12th round Yui Narumiya (JEF Utd.)
Can somebody tell me why she would not catch the ball? As far as I know in Japan there is no gambling on women's football, but that kind of blunder makes me wonder if anybody is gambling on these games in Southeast Asia. I am not being serious, but it does make me wonder.