Naohiro Takahara was named MVP at the J.League awards ceremony, and Keisuke Tsuboi was rookie of the year. The full story is at the RSN. I guess the html tags are not working , so here is the table (unformatted) J.League Awards, 2002 MVP . Naohiro Takahara . Jubilo Iwata Rookie of the Year . Keisuke Tsuboi . Urawa Reds Golden Boot . Naohiro Takahara . Jubilo Iwata Coach of the Year . Masakazu Suzuki . Jubilo Iwata Fair Play Award . Keisuke Tsuboi . Urawa Reds Referee of the Yea . Masayoshi Okada Best Eleven GK . Hitoshi Sogahata . Kashima Antlers DF . Naoki Matsuda . Yokohama Marinos DF . Hideto Suzuki . Jubilo Iwata DF . Makoto Tanaka . Jubilo Iwata MF . Mitsuo Ogasawara . Kashima Antlers MF . Takashi Fukunishi . Jubilo Iwata MF . Hiroshi Nanami . Jubilo Iwata MF . Tomoya Fujita . Jubilo Iwata FW . Emerson . Urawa Reds FW . Masashi Nakayama . Jubilo Iwata FW . Naohiro Takahara . Jubilo Iwata
I'm mildly surprised that Park Ji Sung isn't there. Didn't he get the most number of assists this season?
Its not really that surprising. Park was only the third-highest scorer on his team. Assists are nice, but they wont win you many MVP votes.
I think assists are pretty important too. Pires (Arsenal) scored 9 goals in season 2001/2002, but I think it was his 15 assists that got him the player of the year award.
lord of the j-league - fellowship of iwata. gamba will destroy such a stinky fellowship into zillions of dust next year.
J.League assists ranking(OPTA) 1.Fujita 12 2.MARCELINHO/SILVIO/UESLEI 10 5.ShunsukeNakamura/Ogasawara/TUTO 8 8.NaoshiNkamura/Iwamoto/VASTIC 8 11.PARK Ji Sung/Motoyama/EDMUNDO 7 Although PARK Ji Sung is a good player, in J.League, he is not a special player.
The players most famous for Kyoto are Park Ji Sung and Matsui. However, the most important player is not Park Ji Sung but Kurobe. his results of this season are the 13 goals and 5assists.
I would tend to agree. He is one of the top three players on Purple Sanga (Kurobe, Park and Matsui are all very close in ability and performance so its anyone's personal option which of them is best). However, Purple Sanga are just a mediocre club. It is only natural that players from Jubilo, Antlers, Marinos, Gamba, etc are ranked ahead of him.
Thanks for the information. I read in a site that Park finished the season with 7 goals and 7 assists and ended up jointly with the most assists. Where did you get the statistics above?
Opta stats is available on several sites, but all of the ones I know are in Japanese. Ever since I-size discontinued its OPTA page, I usually get the stats here: http://www2.odn.ne.jp/~aau86800/ibs-opta.htm If anyone else knows of a place that publishes the stats in English, maybe they can give you the address
Hey Super Hamatachi, try and destroy my Jubilo next year, we are unstopable, except that Takahara will be gone................ doh
I never knew Park is regarded as a mediocre player in J-league. Quite different view was expressed on the Korean newspapers. Talk about Korean sports writers! With the move to Eindhoven, hope he becomes the "special" player in the Dutch league. Best wishes.
Yup, Takahara will be playing with Mahdavikia in Hamburg next season. Cant wait to see how they go together...
no no no those guys aren't as good as park ji-sung. world cup showed how good park was. the stats are misleading because park missed lots of games for training for world cup and he was also tired from plaing 7 extra games in a monnth. he doesnt deserve an best 11 award because he didnt perform that good in jleague. however, there is something wrong when you say "kurobe, Park and Matsui are very close in ability and performace". those guys arent even in the japanese NT right?? If they were, why don't they land a 6 million dollar contract with someother team?
Junjun, would you please calm down. Its better to discuss things calmly instead of getting upset, because when you get upset you can say things that make you look silly. First of all, "those guys arent even in the japanese NT right??" Wrong! Matsui *IS* in the Japanese national team. The U-21 team. Second, one reason why he hasnt got a contract with a European club is that he is still a year younger than Park. One year ago, Park didnt have a contract with a European team, now did he? And third, I think everyone here is aware that an offer from a European club isnt necessarily an accurate measure of your abilities. I think Hong Myung-Bo was a much better player than Song, but he never got to play in Holland. Why? Naturally, because there are other factors involved -- who you know. what matches you played in. against what teams. lots of other things. -- Takauyuki Suzuki scored a goal against Belgium in the world cup, and as a result he ended up with an offer from a club in Belgium. I can think of a dozen Japanese players who are better than Suzuki, but they arent in Europe. Why? Because these things involve a lot of factors, including simple luck. If another player was the one who scored that goal, the situation might be different. It isnt ONLY a matter of your pure ability. Park Ji-Sung impressed Guus Hiddink. Hiddink is now a coach in Holland, and he wants Park to play for him. That definitely proves that Park is a good player. I never suggested that I think Park is no good. I think he is a very good player. But on the other hand, it doesnt say anything about whether he is *better* than, or *worse* than, or *the same* ability as Player X, who has never met Guus Hiddink before and therefore -- naturally -- would not have the same amount of opportunity to be invited to play for PSV.
i wasnt upset or anything. just clashing view points. anyway, being in an U-21 team doesnt really mean he is in the NT. Technically he is in the NT. But he isnt in the Furudaihyou yet because he isnt good enough. If he was good enough, he would be in the furudaihyou even if he was under 21. and when i say he is in the NT, it naturally means furudaihyou. You cant really compare a U21-only Japanese NT player with starting furudaihyou of Korea, given that both teams are about equal. and it requires more than a luck to strike a 6 million dollar contract. It requires skills and proven potential. Saying Matui is as good as Park can maybe likened as saying Jung Jo-Guk is as good as Nakata. Is he? no. but you can say "well jung is still young, and he didnt have a chance to play in italy nor world cup. they are both in their respective NT, Nakatas multi million deal was way bubbled up and blah blah blah." The truth is, Nakata PROVED himself in the world stage including the world cup and Jung never got to, therefore Nakata is better than Jung. Its kinda like same reasoning that i used to say Song was better than Sun with that old trolling thread. Song proved himself but SUn didnt. Until Matui proves himself in World cup by playing 90% of the game for Japanese NT that at least makes it to the quarter finals, or does something of that sort in a club level, Park wil be "better" than all other players in Kyoto. this is off the topic, but Hong actually did have a chance to play in one of the top 3 clubs in Italy (i dont know exact details so I'm very sorry i cant support it with evidence but im sure someone here can second me). He turned it down because bellmare offered him a better deal.