was just ironic, forgot the "" ... anyway Kyoto played well imo, they just needed to finish that game off much earlier, missed so many chances, maybe some lack of experience, but some nice youngsters in the team
All they'd need is a player in each position: - A real midfielder, I mean ONE player in the middle of the field who understands football. - A confident central defender who can prevent his team-mates from panicking every time the team is under pressure (somebody like Daniel or Eliseu would be great, but -as said- I would have taken Takagi as well). - One veteran striker who can come in and kill the game in the last 30 minutes. Can't rely only and always on 17-19yo for goals... - A professional goalkeeper. My first pick would be Nakabayashi. Rotting on the bench, but with him Sanfrecce made it to the ACL in 2009.
Elizeu has been a godsend for Vortis. He can score and defend. What more do you need? It's amazing that Sendai let him go.
Well, Sanga picked three guys this year: Kudo, Alair and Akimoto. The first two have been out for the whole season, Akimoto was out for more than a month or so, then picked two red cards. You can only assume that, when it comes to pick players, Sanga's management is packed with geniuses with a natural talent for winning decisions. But again, the fact that over the summer, after what seen so far, the club could not come up with ONE idea, is pathetic -- this is my main point. What has Ubagai done since March?
The ultimate insult: being beaten deservedly at home, in a semi-empty stadium, by the club to which Sanga used to dump players who were "not good enough." While in the other division Paulinho... The point is: this club went in two seasons from having a solid club in J1 (Yanagisawa, Paulinho, Sato, Sidiclei, Lee, Kakuda, etc...) to a bunch of good-willing youngsters and pathetic veterans. Spectators shrunk to about 40% of what they used to be. Who takes responsibility for that?
On a side note, Toyoda as well is a Sanga player, who after one year of loan REFUSED to return to Kyoto, so he was granted another year in Tosu. He is still under contract with Sanga, but scores goals for Sagan. Toyoda-Kubo would have been an ideal duo for Sanga in J2, but of course...
One sad news for fans all over Japan... We won't hear anymore "17-sai no Kubo Yuya" as he turned 18 yesterday... ...and by the way, what is wrong with Mizutani? I mean his reactions after his saves are ***SLIGHTLY*** exaggerated... or what?
How good is Kudo ? I carefully watched Kyoto before and after he came back from injury and what a difference. Incredibly clever player who makes all his teammates better, it's easy to talk now but JEF made a big mistake letting them walk, they didn't have a proper playmaker last year. Props to Yuya Kubo who's probably the best prospect under 20 in the country. And an amazing pitcher.
I think Kyoto Sanga with Kudo is 12-0-1, or something very similar... Hilarious how him and Yazawa de facto decided the semifinals: two JEF United rejects...
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/soccer/news/2012/01/17/kiji/K20120117002446880.html Adidas and Nike fighting to get sponsorship deal with Kubo.
If he keeps scoring consistently for the next two seasons, then MAYBE he might be selected as an X-factor player off the bench. Too far into the future though, let's see if he's in contention for London 2012.
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/soccer/headlines/20120216-00000054-dal-socc.html Kubo scores a hattrick in a test (2 x 35') against Jubilo.