Here is a link to what she wrote on Nojima's webpage. http://stellakanagawa.nojima.co.jp/news/pg1245760.html I will let you do the google translate. But basically she had nothing else left to give soccer. She mentioned that even when she graduated from university she thought about giving the game away. She does not mention anything about playing for Nadeshiko, which could mean anything. Her fondest achievement was gaining promotion to League 1. Also the manager of Nojima Masaki Kanno announced his retirement in November, which may also be linked to her deciding to retire. She went to quite an elite university in Japan, so she should be able to find a pretty good job.
Oh, these are also quite huge news: Kanno has been an highly charismatic guy, who did really a good job along these years, bringing Nojima from obscure Challenge League side to actually challenging Beleza and INAC for the title. I wonder what exactly will become of Stella Kanagawa after he leaves (especially if other players, following Takagi's example, should decide that it's not worth playing for the club anymore, now that he's gone: his vision was a a strong one, whoever will take his place will have big shoes to fill).
Yes, probably his opinion is that when a good young player goes to INAC, her destiny will mostly consist in sitting on the bench and possibly ruining her own career (it's happened in the past, although honestly in other cases INAC was a good place for some good talents to flourish instead). @Sirtel probably would have preferred these young players to be signed by a team who was going to give them actual playing time and who wa going to make them grow on the pitch, not on the bench and in training only.
Akemi Noda has taken over. I believe she managed Beleza for two and a bit seasons. Other than that I do not know much about her.
Oh, she was very good during those seasons at Beleza: INAC was dominant back them, but Noda had managed to put up a challenge and had won a Nadeshiko League Cup final in an era when INAC looked as unbeatable as Beleza looks right now. Also, she had a formidable attacking duo in Asano Nagasato and Mana Iwabuchi and she had shown good managing skills for what concerns the "human" side also, since she had been close to Iwabuchi when Mana had been hit hard by back-to-back serious injuries. I am happy to see Akemi Noda back on a Division 1 bench: she had been given Iga FC Kunoichi a pair seasons ago, but it was basically mission impossible for her: now, with Nojima, she should have the players to do good. I guess if there is someone who could keep this team growing after Kanno's retirement, it's her: good choice from Stella's management!
Pretty much what unepomme said. Well, "not a fan of Inac" isn't exactly accurate, but the point is that this move is probably bad for Nagi and definitely bad for the league.
While Tanayo was a bad example how to handle players, Nakada and Miyabi have found their way into the team. There is a lot of evaluation going on, I am sure, to determine playtime..
Not only that, this makes the 2 biggest teams even bigger, it can not be an interesting league if always the 2 same teams are fighting for the title every year. This could become like male spanish league...
Today's result: Albi (Sayama) 1-2 Inac (Kyokawa, Takase) Nojima 0-1 Jef (Kamogawa) Beleza (Hasegawa, Tanaka 2, Miyagawa, Ueki, Kobayashi) 6-0 Mynavi Nagano 0-1 Urawa (Sugasawa)
So the semifinalists are almost the same as last year. It couldn't be exactly the same, since two of them were Nojima and JEF, that were clashing against each other in these quarter finals. In 2017, we had Beleza, Urawa, JEF and Nojima. This year we have INAC instead of Nojima (that, after all, had quite literally taken INAC's place in 2017, when Kobe's side had been unexpectedly eliminated at penalty shootout by Waseda University in the round of 16; Nojima Stella Kanagawa had subsequently beaten Waseda University in the quarter-finals). For two consecutive years, 2016 and 2017, we had seen an Empress' Cup final on the Christmas day. These time, instead, we won't even have the semifinals until 29th of December (the parings are: Nippon TV Beleza vs Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies and JEF United Ichihara Chiba Ladies vs INAC Kobe Leonessa). The final will happen in the early afternoon of the first day of 2019. I remembered that this tradition had already happen, but I had to check when: I follow Nadeshiko League since 2011 and, in that time-span, Empress' Cup's final was played on the first day of the year in 2011 and in 2014 (I mean the years of the whole edition: actually 2011's final happened on the first day of 2012 and 2014's final on the first day of 2015). In 2011(1st of January of 2012) INAC won by 3-0 over Albirex. In 2014 (1st of January of 2015) Beleza won over Urawa (a final that can't happen again, since they will clash in the semis) by 1-0 with a goal by Mina Tanaka (she can still hope that this date is a lucky charm for her). I wonder if we're going to see Beleza's dominance in this season extend to the beginning of 2019 or if some of the other three teams will manage to claim the title. Meanwhile, two of yesterday's scorers, Yuika Sugasawa and Mina Tanaka, lead this edition of Empress' Cup's top-scorers-rankings with 5 goals each; Mai Kyokawa and Yuka Momiki follow at 4.
University Championship started today. Winners of the first round (and the opponent of the second round): Keio (Teikyo) Ottemon (Shizuoka) Kibi (Toyo) Osaka Sports (Nittaidai) Sendai (Himeji Dokkyo) Shikoku (Kanagawa) Aichi Toho (Tokuyama) Daito Bunka (Waseda)
The strength of Beleza and their dominance over the domestic league, the last few years, is just amazing to watch. They surely must be the strongest club team in the history of the Nadeshiko league. I really hope, that AFC will set up a sort of Champions League for women in Asia, to figure out the strongest team in this region, because Beleza would deserve so much more recognition than they actually get. But that's just wishful thinking, i guess
In 2012 only extra time goal was a diffrerence between Lyon and INAC Keep your hopes up! I read somewhere that it's seriously planned to start in 2020. Merry X-mas everyone!
Today's result: University Chamionship second round: Teikyo Heisei 2-1 Keio Ottemon (1-1, PK 5-4) Shizuoka Snagyo Toyo 3-0 Kibi Osaka Sports 0-2 Nittaidai Himeji Dokkyo 4-1 Sendai Shikoku 0-6 Kanagawa Tokuyama 3-1 Aichi Toho Daito Bunka 1-5 Waseda
Goal of the year 2018 Standings so far...(#4444) blissett, KAPIJXM, Lechus7, Manchester Nadreshiko, frohike, unepommekun, Grampus, And G, #nadeshikofan*, pierre bezukhov, Sirtel** *nominated 7 goals - last two went into honorable mentions **nominated 3 goals 48 points Kumi Yokoyama vs Australia (AFC Cup) 1-0 37 points Yui Hasegawa vs Korea DPR (Asian Games) 2-0 24 points Mizuho Sakaguchi vs Australia (AFC Cup) 1-0 21 points Mana Iwabuchi vs Netherlands (Algarve Cup) 2-6 19 points Moeno Sakaguchi vs USA (ToN) 4-2 8 points Yuika Sugasawa vs China (Asian Games) 1-0 7 points Mana Iwabuchi vs China (AFC Cup) 0-1 6 points Rika Masuya vs Brazil (ToN) 1-2 6 points Aya Sameshima vs Ghana (Friendly) 7-1 5 points Mina Tanaka vs USA (ToN) 1-1 5 points Yuka Momiki vs Norway (Friendly) 4-0 3 points Rika Masuya vs Vietnam (Asian Games) 5-0 1 point Kumi Yokoyama vs Norway (Friendly) 1-0 honorable mentions Emi Nakajima vs. China Mina Tanaka vs. Ghana last week open for votes...
Sorry about the inconvenience with the extra two goals. I forgot how many we were supposed to select and there were too many...
I had made some honorable mentions at the end of my voting too: you can check my original post, but I guess all of the goals that I had mentioned ended up being actually voted by someone else and making the regular chart. Ok, people, this is an official plea! I checked the last 4 months worth of posts on this thread (couldn't actually do that for the whole 2018 thread: we're at 178 pages right now, you know? But it seemed to me that September to December was a meaningful interval anyway) and I traced all of the people who posted here but didn't vote for Nadeshiko Goal of the Year yet. I am going to call them by name. Mind, the list includes plain regulars of the thread, semi-regulars or even people who just stopped by here to post some news but aren't in any way tightly tied to our group, so it's very possible that they don't care much about our voting. Anyway, without further ado, the missing names (in no particular order) are: @frideswide, @HS10Legend, @Titus Sol, @datschge, @zaku_II, @Dernhelm, @ManiacMunkie, @TowerofBabel, @Bop N Cool, @sbahnhof and @shlj. If any of you, guys, have some spare time in these Chritamas holydays and want to contribute to our little selection of Nadeshiko Japan Senior NT's Goal of the Year, feel free to post here before the deadline of midnight of 31st of December. (Or you carriage will turn into a pumpkin ).
Hello Good People, I have been called out to vote and I am lurking in the tall grass checking every so often. Not sure the procedure to this voting. Excuse my uninformed grasp of knowledge as I am not a regular but do we essentially watch the full video and post on this thread our vote for one of the goals as the top one for the year or are we to rank all the goals. To All my fellow posters here and All the Best in the New Year for health and happiness.
rules reminder Nadeshiko Japan Goal of the Year voting is open till end of the month Nominate five goals in order. example: 1st Kumi Yokoyama vs. Vietnam (AFC Cup) 1-0 2nd Aya Sameshima vs. Ghana (Friendly) 7-1 3rd Yuka Momiki vs. Vietnam (Asian Games) 2-0 4th Mina Tanaka vs. USA (ToN) 1-1 5th Yuika Sugasawa vs. Iceland (Algarve Cup) 1-0 ...or you can use time stamp from video. Points: 1st - 7 points 2nd - 4 points 3rd - 3 points 4th - 2 points 5th - 1 point Tie-brakers: higher number of goals scored in match of importance: AFC Cup->AsianGames->ToN->AlgarveCup->Friendly Post it here or PM me.
Difficult but .... for me .... 1st Moeno Sakaguchi vs USA TON 2nd Mana Iwabuchi vs Netherlands Algarve Cup 3rd Yuka Momiki vs Norway Friendly 4th Yui Hasegawa vs DPR Korea Asian Games 5th Kumi Yokohama vs Norway Friendly