I can hear you: many years ago, here in Italy the football pool game was very popular and my father lost the chance of winning a big amount of money because of a similar awkward blunder from a GK at the last minute: several years later it turned out that the match had been rigged and that the GK and took the goal expressly.
Well, it was not really a "bet": aren't you familiar with the football pool (I guess that's the name in English: in Italian in was Totocalcio)? At the price of a lottery ticket you were playing a guess game about the results of each match-day of Serie A + some games of serie B: 13 correct guesses out of 13 gave you most of the jackpot, 12 out of the 13 were ok for the consolation prizes. Ok, technically it was a "betting game", but my father didn't use to spend more on it than he would have on some weekly instant-lottery.
Nagasato siblings workin on their trademark action so close... 入らなかったけどね、飛んでる姿はスローモーション見えて、それを間近で見れてとてもかっこよかったよ。昇格戦はさらにリラックスできる身体に仕上げて挑もう🤘🏽お兄のゴールが次は必要だぁ〜!あと1試合、外からしっかりエネルギー送る🔥#はやぶさイレブン https://t.co/EW4LwHMGBn— 永里 優季 | Yuki Nagasato (@yuki_ngst) November 22, 2020
I wasn't overly impressed by the goals from this last match-day of the league: lot of blunders and unforced mistakes from GKs or defenses leading to a lot of them ; anyway, my selection is: 1) Chisato Ichinose in JEF United Ichihara Chiba Ladies vs Cerezo Osaka Sakai Ladies (as many other goals this week, it comes from a mistake, in particular from a DF "sweeping" the ball to the center of the box thus making it actually an assist, but Ichisato's reflex was very good: it wasn't easy to keep the shot so low and accurate despite unexpectedly receiving a ball so close to one's feet); 2) Mina Tanaka in INAC Kobe Leonessa vs Albirex Niigata Ladies (the goal of stubborness! Really, she had to dribble half defense and to make multiple attempts, but in the end she made it!); 3) Ayumi Oya in Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza vs Ehime FC Ladies (it wasn't as perfect as Ami Sugita's FK from 8th match-day, in particular because the GK wasn't well-placed and the ball dove low a little too much early, thus giving a potential chance to a better positioned GK; it was anyway a fine FK).
Goal of the week contest. Choose three best goals from each round and award it with points: the best - 3pts 2nd best - 2pts 3rd best - 1pts 18th round highlights My pick: Tanaka vs. Albirex.....3 pts Ichinose vs. Cerezo...2 pts Takarada vs. JEF.......1 pt Current standings: Oya............10 pts Ichinose......9 pts Tanaka........8 pts Endo (1).....2 pts Takarada....1 pt voted by: unepommekun, blissett, KAPIJXM, Manchester Nadeshiko, Lechus7
National high school tournament is coming in January, so I introduce the finalists in recent ten years. 19: Hinomoto (Takenaka) Tokiwagi (Pomme Michigami) 20 Tokiwagi (Kyokawa, Pomme, Michigami) Ohsaka Toin 21 Tokiwagi (Shiraki,Nishikawa Ayaka, Ito, Michigami) Kamimura (Yamaguchi Chihiro, Ueno) 22 Hinomoto (Manya, Kunitake, Ikejiri Mayu) Fujieda (Sugita Hina, Kawano, Kono, Okugawa) 23 Hinomoto (Kunitake, Ikejiri sisters, Yoshida Nagisa, Yasaka) Tokiwagi (Nishikawa Ayaka, Ichise, Kobayashi Rikako, Shiraki) 24 Fujieda (Kono, Kimotsuki, Fukuta sisters, Chiba) Kamimura (Sonoda Yuna) 25 Jumonji Daisho 26 Fujieda Sakuyo 27 Seisa Tokiwagi 28 Fujieda Kamimura
Nishi Tatsuhiko selected this season's best goal of each club. Ehime Saihara Iga Noichi (vs Inac) Nojima Kawashima (vs Beleza) Mynavi Hamada (vs Ehime ) Jef Narumiya (vs Beleza) Albi Kono (vs Inac) Cerezo Koyama (vs Inac) Beleza Hasegawa (vs Mynavi, vs Iga) Inac Tanaka (vs Mynavi) Urawa Shiokoshi (vs Albi)
I know Kawashima's isn't. I am not sure about the rest. Either way Saihara's goal is a thing of beauty.
I'm waiting till Monday for votes on 18th round. Goal of the season Anyone may chose one bonus goal (beside weekly winners) to include it for voting for goal of the season. I'm waiting till Monday. So far we got: Lechus7' bouns goal 14th round Mina Tanaka (INAC Kobe) blissett's bonus goal 12th round Yui Narumiya (JEF Utd.) Rules on voting to follow when list will be complete.
Tomorrow's games: Empress's Cup first round Ryutsu Keizai University vs NORD 10:30 Daisho Gakuen High School vs Ryukyu Deigos 10:30 Nagoya vs Hinomoto Gakuen High School 13:30 (JAF TV) Nagano vs JFA 13:30 Menina vs Veertien Mie 13:30 Waseda University vs Belle 10:30 Gunma White Star vs Bunnys 13:30 Tsukuba University vs Shizuoka 10:30 (JFA TV) JFA TV is here: https://www.jfa.jp/match/empressscup_2020/tv.html players to watch: Takeshige Akari (Hinomoto) Miura Momo, Kato Momo (Nagoya) Chiba Remina (Tsukuba) Sayama Momoko (Shizuoka)
Today's result (1): Empress's Cup first round Ryutsu Keizai University (Nomoto) 1 -3 NORD (Osanai 2, Fukasawa) Daisho Gakuen High School (Ito, Miyamoto, Takagi, Mori) 4-1 Ryukyu Deigos (Kinjo) Waseda University (Mitani, Sakamoto, Murakami, Matsumoto, Hirosawa) 5-0 Belle Tsukuba University 0-3 Shizuoka (Hirano, Sayama, Fujita)
Shizuoka showed an attractive passing game, mostly outrunning the opponent. Their next opponent is Nadeshiko League 2's champion Sfida Setagaya.
Today's result (2): Empress's Cup first round Nagano (Nakagai, Okamoto) 2-0 JFA Menina (Hijikata 3, Hiwatashi, Matsunaga, Ohyama, Yamamoto, Kumagai) 8-1 Veertien Mie (Kato) Gunma White Star (Aizawa 2) 2-1 Bunnys (Matsuda) Nagoya (Kitagawa, Miura, Tajima, Takebayashi) 2-2 (extra time 2-0) Hinomoto (Kurita, Shinoda) By the way, Menina's next opponent is Beleza.