Official 2017 Nadeshiko Japan Thread [R] - なでしこジャパン（英語スレッド）

Although I see that the most important feature of the day has been already covered , here we have NSWL complete update:

At first, the teams with Japanese players who didn't play:
- Chicago Red Stars drew a game by 1-1, with a late PK from Christen Press. Currently Nagasato is still recovering from the injury she picked up in Frankfurt; highlights:
https://www.nwslsoccer.com/videos/19015844
- North Carolina Courage (who recently signed another DF to replace Kawamura, out until the end of the season) won an home game vs Boston Breakers by 3-1 and keep the lead of the league; highlights:
https://www.nwslsoccer.com/videos/19021859

And, for the only match with an actual Japanese player in it, as you saw from the previous post, Naho scored her second goal of the season. An interesting tidbit is that she also picked another assist in this game: although her wide pass for Rapinoe was nowhere close to an actual assist, since Megan's cross ended going in goal untouched, Naho can claim this point, and keeps leading NWSL's assists-rankings, with 6 assists and 2 goals (one more assists already than her seasonal record in USA of 5 in 2014; she had scored 9 goals back then, though). It's a shame that her beautiful dribbling-goal (how smart she was not to try the volley!) wasn't enough for her team to win, because of Kansas City's late equalizer: now Seattle keeps sitting at 5th place, just out of play-offs.
Full highlights:
https://www.nwslsoccer.com/videos/19022693

 

Accoding to Full Bloom Guidebook, both 2nd Yokoyama's goal and Iwashimizu's one were scored at 45'+1': does anyone know which one was scored first? Did Beleza climbed back from 0-2, or had they equalized only for Yokoyama to put them behind again in the same minute?

 

I would see quite well "wire-walker" Yoko Tanaka in that role, if only she could get back in NT consideration somehow!

Or Narumiya, although we know that she's not enough reliable.

Edit: apparently, Tanaka was even back to goal today; I hope it will be shown later on Nojima's website.
Also, it was a lot I wasn't seing Michelle Pao on a scoreboard: had she been injured? Her late goal for the win could be a signal that Stella wants more!

 

Some sparse observations about this week-end's results in Japan:

Beleza won in the last 5 minutes of play, after having been behind quite all game. Yes, they put the "big guns" in quite late (Haseagawa, Tanaka, Sakaguchi), but anyway they seem athletically better than the rest of the bunch, and they keep being the team to beat both in Nadeshiko League and Nadeshiko League Cup.

It's a shame we didn't manage to see Yokoyama's goal yet: does anyone know when exactly she's going to leave to Frankfurt?

Group B

Good old Kaoruko Suzuki scores more than many younger FWs. And she does it vs her former team of Iga.
Are there signals that maybe Saitama is waking up, after a quite lethargic beginning of the season? A win vs direct rivals of Iga isn't really completely unexpected, but anyway they look like they want to be back in contention.

Meanwhile, talking about "good old players" Kaede Sato scored too : I didn't even remember that she had ended up at Iga.

Fuka Kono scores!

Okayama Yunogo Belle's collection of old glories collects some other points. Not sure why Nanase Kiryu wasn't even on the bench: injured?

Belle's win, anyway, is a little downsized by the fact that, according to Full Bloom Guidebook, AS Harima Albion was playing with a sort of B-team: No traces of most of the usual starters, Sonoko Chiba, Fumina Katsurama, Haruka Imai... Does anyone know what happened? A boatload of injuries or something different was going on?

Ok, Kibi, these days, aren't surely the most resilient team on earth, but what they had to face today was basically a hybrid of U-20 NT and U-17 NT from 2016's World Cups: Shiho Matsubara and Honoka Hayashi were part of the U-20 team in Papua New Guinea, while Saori Takarada, Nanami Kitamura and Reina Wakisaka (the funny DF that was always smiling, even when she was making some blunders! ) were part of U-17 team in Jordan.
What Kibi players were supposed to do about that?

Ok, NGU Loveledge Nagoya only scored at 90'+3', but it's anyway only the second time this season that Bunnys lose any points (the other circustance being a 0-0 draw vs Anclas) and only the second time they take any goals (the other circumstance being a 2-1 win vs JFA). It's some weeks that Nagoya seem to have changed their gear and have some quite impressing results.

Overall, Challenge League West seems the most thrilling tournament in Japan, at the moment. Ok, not for the first place, since Bunnys are sailing out-of-reach for anyone at 26 points. But all the other position are up for grabs: the remaining 5 teams are all in 4 points, between 13 and 10! And in a pair of weeks, a team that was last one could be second or viceversa. I am very curious to see how it will end.

Already commented above about Yoko Tanaka's and Michelle Pao's goals but I want to reiterate that I quite like this team!

 

Did you know that Frauen-Bundesliga website has a beautiful data-center with complete stats of all of the players? Let's check Kozue Ando or Yuki Nagasato.

Kumi Yokoyama already has an entry: I can't wait to see her profile fill up!

 

If anyone is interested, in less of an hour you can follow Ryoko Takara live in the top clash of Norway's league: 1st placed Avaldsnes hosts Takara's 2nd placed (and reigning champion) LSK-Kvinner. Should be a quite exciting game.

 

Previous link doesn't work for some reason: you can anyway follow the match here: https://resultater.nrk.no/?srwid=minuttForMinutt/501/4511/72650/103712/1020619

The result is already 0-1 for Takara's team at about 15' , but I missed the goal and I don't know who scored or if Takara was involved.

 

Avaldsnes-LSK Kvinner 0-1 at half-time. The goal originated from a nice Takara's cross from the Left-Side, that found a tower in the box and then a tap-in in front of the goal-line.

Commentators seem to praise Takara very much. I start wondering if, with this international experience under her belt, she couldn't be worth considering for NT.

 

Avaldsnes-LSK Kvinner 0-1, Final Time.

Thus, Ryoko Takara's team now takes the lead of Toppserien.

 

Highlights of the game for those who missed it. Ryoko Takara played almost the whole of it (was subbed out at 82').

 

Wow, Nojima's defense had some difficult moments, to put it mildly, and not only due to the heavy rain: they were quite lucky to end up the wonners with that late goal!

Who was that tenacious #11 from Nojima who made the assist for Yoko Tanaka's goal?

 

I agree that Saki Kumagai is the cream of the crop already (and the fact that OL wanted to renew her contract for 3 additional years is there to prove it), but what worries me is that DFs of defensive MFs seldom get international awards; offensive players are more easily recognizable to juries.

 

Would you believe, guys? I didn't find a moment to rewatch Belgium-Japan's highlights until today!

I do agree with @HS10Legend that it looks like we played quite well in 1st half (less well in 2nd half, despite the goal): for instance, all of the action leading to Yokoyama's crossbar was a beauty.

Apart from off-side calls, it seems to me that what the referee was lacking in this game was a clear understanding of the advantage rule: sometimes she could have let Japan play and, if needed, she could have turn back to give FK; by the way, how I miss the times when, with Miyama on the pitch, every FK just outside the box could be counted for barely a little less than a PK! We would really need a player getting at least a little close to that accuracy: Yokoyama or Nakajima don't make the cut. And I dare to say that opponent teams are more prone to making this kind of fouls than in the past, when a Miyama's FK could have been a real danger!

What I didn't like in 2nd half was our back-line: markings were weak and sloppy (see the whole action of Belgium's goal in particular! But not only) and in general the defensive set up was all over the place.
And then finishing keeps being our problem: it shouldn't be left to Nakasato or Takagi, we need real strikers doing their own job!

I didn't get why exactly Momiki got a Yellow Card: for wasting time before an offensive FK? Really? When later we would have seen that the team having an interest in wasting time and getting the draw result was the other one?

I find funny that Sugasawa always has a chewing gum in her mouth when on the pitch; if I remember well, Nagasato often used to do the same. I guess I couldn't do that: I know there are players who somehow seem to need it, but I wouldn't be able to run and do sport while chewing a gum!

 

Well, good news for INAC fans like me! And good news for Mana too: if there is an high professional place in Japan where she can hope recovering for good and training in good conditions, this is INAC's training canter.

I guess her recovering time should be too long for her to have an impact on current season, but you can never say...