Official 2023 Nadeshiko Japan Thread [R] - なでしこジャパン（英語スレッド）

Ah the charms of living in a country where football attracts government and societal attention. Nothing of the sorts has or will happen in Japan. My concerns grow.

 

From what I read public television in Germany is not willing to pay the fees FIFA is asking. Also, the broader public does not appear to be interested in women's football; it seems to be a niche sport despite efforts to promote it more. The difference between the clubs is too big. Potsdam, once leading, are irrelevant. Munich is now associated with the men's club and dominating, but there is no serious competition, besides Wolfsburg, also associated with the men's team. Not sure what Frankfurt is doing, but they don't seem to be good anymore.
Yes, the National Team is doing well, but there is a lack of interest.

 

Wikipedia has the story on the "Big Five controversy". This covers UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. blisset already mentioned the state in Italy. In Germany it's still unresolved even now. UK appears to be resolved, with ITV and BBC sharing the matches between each other. No idea about France and Spain.

If it ends in an actual black out in any of these countries plus Japan it's all due to FIFA's greed. For ages it sold the broadcasting rights for men and women WC combined. Only for the last men WC the rights for the women WC weren't included. Did the cost reduce due to that? Of course not. Cue channels not being interested to pay what's effectively yet another massive price rise (the additional malus being the match times of mostly in the morning in Europe just not being that interesting).

 

I assumed that somebody in Japan would show the Nadeshiko games, but if no broadcaster wants to televise the games then FIFA must be asking for a ridiculous amount of money. I am still hoping that DAZN will come to the rescue, but it looks unlikely.

Let's be honest here, FIFA are evil and would sell their families to make a buck.

 

Nadeshiko League 1

H.T...Ehime 0-3 Nagoya (Kamiya Ueda 2)

A step backwards from their recent performances for Ehime...they are being outplayed all over the pitch by third placed Nagoya...new goalkeeper Hamada gets her first outing and gifts Ueda her second goal... Matsumoto gets her presentation for 100 appearences...hey ho... perhaps young Tago will come on in the second half and score a hat trick or the returning clown goalkeeper will let three soft goals in for old time sake

 

Nadeshiko League 1

F.T.....Ehime 0 - 3 Nagoya (Kamiya Ueda 2 )

The teenage terror did come on for the second half and ran her legs off but unfortuneately did not score a hat trick in contrast to Sakurai who went back to her old ways of going missing for vast swathes of the game....it could have been worse Nagoya could have bagged more goals....defineately one to forget in a hurry for followers of Ehime F.C. Ladies...I have to wonder how long the Nadeshiko League will let Ehime continue play on a pitch more suitable for agriculture than football

 

Today’s result:

WE League
Ohmiya (Ohshima) 1-1 Mynavi (Matsukubo)
Nojima 0-2 Regina (Nakashima, Takizawa)
Nagano (Kikuchi, Sakakibara) 2-2 Inac (Moriya, Sakaguchi)
Albi (Ishibuchi, Kamionobe) 2-3 Beleza (Yamamoto, Sakabe, Kobayashi)
Chifure 0-5 Urawa (Ando, Sugasawa 2, Naomoto, Seike)

Nadeshiko League
Bunnys (Shioya, Ito 2, Kawasaki 2) 5-0 Harima
Speranza (Nakano, OG) 2-1 Yamato (Matsuura)
Ehime 0-3 Nagoya (Kamiya, Ueda 2)

Nadeshiko League 2
Fujizakura 0-5 JFA (Itamura 2,Higuchi, Hanashiro, OG)
Belle (Kisu, Yokoyama) 2-0 Kibi

 

Tomorrow's games:

Nadeshiko League (All games start at 13:00)
Orca vs Setagaya
Nippatsu vs Iga
Shizuoka vs Nittaidai

Nadeshiko League 2 (All games start at 13:00)
V Mie vs DR Hiroshima
Viama vs Anclas
NORD vs Tsukuba

 

All the last big sporting events that happened in that part of the world in the last 15 years (Olympics 18-2021-22, RWC 2011 & 2019), channels that broadcasted here (France) lost money, mainly because of the time zone difference. Moreover, in July and August, it's the time of the year when the TV ads are the cheaper (holiday season).
I kind of see how it will end here in France. Like other sports (handball, basketball), a channel will buy the rights only if the national team reach the semi final.

 

Well, sorry to ask about a topic of the middle of the week, but I have 2 questions to ask you all:

1-Why do Japan have a professional league if everyone prefers a player from overseas over a player in WE League?

2-How many players of the squad who won in 2011 were playing overseas at that time?

Please, don't start to make all the mistakes that people do about men's squad, where most of the players are chosen only for play in Europe, when in the J-League there are better players (in some positions). A national coach must choose a player because of his/her performance, not because of the country he/she plays.

 

Not everyone.

WE League seen through wyscout data is pretty much on the level with top 5 European leagues. (while for example A-League or WK-League are not). Outside of the cold stas the hard evidence for it mostly come from overseas players themselves. Not only they are starters for their new clubs from the get go after the transfer but also quickly count among team best.

2011 WWC

Ando (Duisburg)
Utsugi (Montpellier)
Sameshima (Boston Brakers)
Y.Nagasato (Turbine Potsdam)

2015 WWC

Kumagai (Lyon)
Ando (Frankfurt)
Utsugi (Montpellier)
Iwabuchi (Bayern Munich)
Y.Nagasato (Wolfsburg)

2019 WWC

Utsugi (Reign FC)
Kumagai (Lyon)

2023 WWC (provisional)

Minami (Roma)
Kumagai (Roma)
Shimizu (West Ham)
Hayashi (West Ham)
Takarada (Linkoping)
Nagano (Liverpool)
Endo (Angel City FC)
Sugita (Portland Thorns)
Hamano (Hammarby/Chelsea)
Iwabuchi (???)

 

I had seen a Twitter post from Ehime in the week. The pictures made it look like they had put a lot or work into improving the pitch, very misleading. I had thought the pitch was in bad shape because of the leaf fall from the nearby trees but, at the Bunnys pitch today there was also leaf fall from trees on the far side banking but their pitch looks immaculate.

／
⛺️前日準備🛻
＼

元愛媛FCレディースの #三田一紗代 選手、#山田仁衣奈 選手が所属する #朝日インテック・ラブリッジ名古屋 との対戦🔥⚽️‼️
明日球技場でお待ちしてます😆

👇🎫コチラ👇https://t.co/CTtv5sRl1J

🆚 愛媛Lvs名古屋
🗓6/10（土）
⏰13:00KO#愛媛FCレディース#愛媛L pic.twitter.com/K4wUkKaCaw

— 愛媛FCレディース【公式】 (@ehime_fcl) June 9, 2023

Sakurai, said it before and I'll say it again...A lazy player. So why keep her on and take Kubota Haruka off?
I do wonder if the rest of the squad like her, Kubota. You often see her in space, in a game, on the right, calling for the ball but the defence decide to go to the congested left.
Young Tago was pretty much covered in the second half by Tachibana. Tago got the better of her only once.

 

If you compare Nojima or Parceiro to Arsenal and Wolfsburg then you're right. However on average, teams like Real Betis, Werder Bremen, West Ham, Bordeaux or Fiorentina play pretty much the same football as JEF, Omiya or Sanfrecce - at least according to wyscout (number of high intensity runs per match, distance run, passing accuracy and it's range, speed of play, shooting distance, tackles, take ons, ball carries, shoot creating actions etc.).
I don't have an account on Wyscout (subscription cost 311 to 745 euro / per year) but my friend, former player who is TV pundit has one. According to her WE League is among top 7 leagues in the world - purely on players skills level.

By the way Nadeshiko League 1 is also on Wyscout now. (perhaps some kind of merger with WE League is closer than we think? )



here's how does this tool look (don't have any pics with WE League players on hand)

 

Pre season, I had Bunnys down as as the team that would find themselves at the bottom, similar to D2s Nord and Diavorosso with the mass exodus of players. They seemed to have signed a bunch of mismatched players for this season. Wrong I was . Watching todays game. When Bunnys got their first I thought 'ah that makes things interesting, Harima will start now' then there was the second, then a third before half time. At half time I thought 'it's Harima, 3 isn't enough, Harima could get 4 in the second' Then Kawasakis 2 made it 5. But as surprising as the score is, Bunnys, with better precision, could have had 8 or 10.

For the Speranza vs Yamato game, it would be more fair to say Yamato lost it than Speranza won it. The Yamato GK caught with the ball for Speranzas first, the own goal and the missed penalty by Yamato. That's the way it goes sometimes.

Let's hope for some good games tomorrow too

 

WE League 2022/23 - Fun stuff.

Attendance

For comparison.
Setagaya - 842 from 6 home games
Belle - 824 from 5 home games

Team - section/attendance - average(blue)


Cards and Penalties

 

I'll ask her when oppotunity arise.

On another topic

Yurina Enjo's UKS SMS Łódź side just won now 5:0 with AP Orlen Gdansk in Polish Cup final
(btw. commented by aforementioned person )
2 years ago Enjo and her team had to settle for only a silver medal in Polish Cup.

But not today. Today the life is good for the Blues.
(they finished 3rd in Polish league)

Piękne obrazki w Radomiu! 🤝🏻#OrlenPucharPolskiKobiet 🏆 pic.twitter.com/8Tyfd7WT8i

— Łączy nas piłka kobieca (@laczynaskobieca) June 10, 2023

NAJWAŻNIEJSZA CHWILA! 🔝🥰#OrlenPucharPolskiKobiet 🏆 pic.twitter.com/miQHN5yULG

— Łączy nas piłka kobieca (@laczynaskobieca) June 10, 2023

 

Did you watch this game or just the goals? If you watched the game I am just curious to know how the Yamato player Sae Kitakata (No. 38) is going. She is an excellent player, though a little slow. I thought her moving to Yamato would help them a lot, but it appears not as much as I thought given their league position.

 

I usually watch all the Nadeshiko League games. It's only really the games involving Setagaya and their on pitch antics that I find the need to skip through.

Yamato are a team growing on me, quite enjoyable to watch. Kitakata Sae caught my eye earlier in the season and is probably their stand out player of the season so far, so yes she's playing well.
Their position in the league. I think they're doing reasonably well considering they were third place in Division 2 last year. Level on points with last years D2 champions Shizuoka at the moment, though Shizuoka have todays game in hand.

On the subject of Yamato. With Kannou Natsumi coming to the end of her 1 year study abroad in England. Do you think she'll return to Japan/Yamato or go to Terleede in the Netherlands for a year?

 

The attendance numbers I saw on Twitter are a bit different to this table but some interesting comparisons to last season:

-Average attendance of the whole league fell by 159 compared to last season.

-8 clubs recorded a decrease in average attendance this season while Chifure’s average attendance increased by 172, Urawa’s by 248 and Sendai’s by 624 (impressive considering that’s more than a 50% increase in one season).

-Urawa and INAC were the only two clubs that had over 1000 fans for all their games.

-Chifure AS Elfen Saitama’s best season in terms of attendance was back in 2012 when they recorded an average crowd of 1212. So their attendance this season is not bad at all.

ちふれＡＳエルフェン埼玉はなでしこリーグ1部だった2012年度の平均2012人に次ぐ平均2011人を記録。熊谷に1歩根付いた感じに。来季はクラブ記録更新を！#ちふれＡＳエルフェン埼玉 pic.twitter.com/CZRZlnXdoX

— tomox (@tomox18) June 10, 2023

Interesting to note that Urawa was 4th in the league in terms of numbers of fouls and committed 50 more fouls this season than Beleza did. Actually, Beleza committed the least number fouls out of all teams this season.

 

Today's result:

Nadeshiko League
Orca (Suzuki) 1-1 Setagaya (Shinbori)
Nippatsu 0-1 Iga (Tsuneta Mayu)
Shizuoka 0-0 Nittaidai

Nadeshiko League 2
NORD (Marugata) 1-0 Tsukuba
V Mie (Yamaguchi) 1-1 DR Hiroshima (Naito)
Viama (Kakazu) 1-0 Anclas

 

That is good to hear. Technically she is so good on the ball. I thought she would do alright in the Nadeshiko League. Also, in her days playing for Nojima she scored some pretty amazing long range goals, so I am surprised she has not done that yet for Yamato.

I have a suspicion a few more of my favorite WE League players will be heading to the Nadeshiko League come September.

She appears to be enjoying herself overseas so who knows where she will end up.

I suggest watching the WK League in Korea if you want to watch no nonsense football. Admittedly it is a small sample size, but the players are really getting on with it this season from what I have seen.