Good news! He coached Japan U-17 before, and lead them to the 2007 WC before being knocked out from the group stage in a tough group which contained Nigeria and France. Kakitani, Yonemoto and Naoki Yamada were among players in 2007 WC campaign. After that he attracted some interest from J-League clubs and was signed by FC Tokyo, where he had a couple of good seasons, before the team surprisingly collapsed and relegated in 2010. I see him as an improvement over the names we had in the last few years in U18-U20 level, and hopefully he'll guide the team to the U-20 WC in two years time and achieve great results.
Makino open the scores for Urawa with a header. Reysol match was postponed due to bad conditions...snow...
Nagoya forward, 2-1! And Kawamata had the chance to score the 3rd! Incredible. They blew this season worst than the Marinos last year!
Gamba also could have destroyed their whole season in 90 minutes in the last game against the weakest team in J1...
Urawa screwed up, Kashima screwed up, Gamba screwed up, but only fatal for 2 of them. Feel most sorry for Urawa.
Urawa and Kashima choked, with Gamba drawing against Tokushima any of them could take the title with a win. While I think Gamba choked also, as they could have lose the game if they played against a stronger opposition than Tokushima. Urawa's fans should get used to see their team choked in the last rounds of the season, 2007 they lost the title after being in the top position for the most part of the season, while last year they were among top 3 until they choked in the last rounds to finish 6th! I think its a trend now for Urawa.
Sagan Tosu will play in ACL for the first time next season unless Montedio Yamagata will defeat Gamba Osaka in EC final.
While at last Omiya is back to J2 after 10 seasons in J1, which they spent fighting in the relegation zone and manage to escape every season, with the sole exception of last season when they topped the league in the first stage before collapsing in the second stage and finish in 14th place. In their previous 9 J-League seasons the best position they achieved was 12th and the worst was 15th.
LOL, I was awre of it, but somehow forget about Kashiwa's postponed match! Kashiwa at least needs to win by a 2-goal deficit away against Niigata to overtake Sagan.
With Gamba's win it is the 3rd season in a row that the J-League won by a Japanese manager. I'm happy for Kenta Hasegawa, he got what he deserve and proved his worth.
100% deserved, congrats Gamba. Feel so sorry for Urawa, they're my favourite J1 side but they threw away so many points they just had it coming. Better luck next season! EDIT: Omiya relegated, about time
Yes, Reysol will be then be ahead with greater number of goals scored. Would much rather see REysol in CL than Sagan!
they definitely look like the better equipped team, but they'll also have a new coach. It hasn't been announced yet, right?