J3 will exclude U-23 teams from the next season. Reports say J-League has a plan to create an U-21 league for youth development.
I think it's good, i'm just worried about the age being a little too high. I think 20 would have been perfect. At 21 the risk is clubs playing the waiting game and not loaning the youngsters out in decent leagues
In order to that new U21 league works, they must allow the university teams to participate alongside the professional clubs, just like high schools participate in the U18 Prince Takamado Cup Premier League alongside the U18 professional teams. By the way, many high schools fare better than the professional teams, right now, Aomori Yamada High School from Aomori prefecture and Ozu High School from Kumamoto prefecture are leading the league in the east and west respectively. (these are the teams currently participating in the league: http://www.jfa.jp/match/takamado_jfa_u18_premier2019/team.html) What worries me is that this new U21 league will weaken the level of the university leagues that have been very important for discovering and developing many great japanese players. Maybe they can solve this if they make a system like the U18 Prince Takamado Cup Premier League: It has a points league format instead of a cup format, and is divided in 2 groups: All Western and all Eastern Japan, and the U18 leagues of each region of Japan (Kanto, Kansai, Kyushu, Shikoku Hokaido, Tohoku, Chubu and Chugoku) make the lower level of this U18 Prince Takamado Cup Premier League with promotion & relegation system. Meanwhile, in the university leagues, only the regions of japan have the points league format, there is not an all Japan or all East/West Japan university competition with a points league format.
hmm, I don't think it will happen as University teams have decent rosters but not to the point to sustain two different competitions. Don't forget that Uni players still play at 22 - so they wouldn't be able to play in this league.
In addition to creating an U20 league, other measures the JFA could take to improve the japanese football level are: - To increase the number of J1 league teams to 20; - To increase the number of JFL league teams to 20; - To allow the minimum seating capacity required for J1 stadiums to be 10K; - To make at least one more club from Aichi, Hyogo and Osaka prefectures enter the J league; - To guarantee a J league club for each prefecture that still do not have one (Miyazaki, Kochi, Shimane, Fukui, Wakayama, Aomori, Nara, Mie and Shiga)
And add a second club from Hokkaido. Consadole is of course not only Sapporo's club as they represent the entire Hokkaido, but with a 5 million population on the island there should be enough to support 2 clubs imho.
The club in Hokkaido closest to J league ascension today is Hokkaido Tokachi Sky Earth, which has among its directors Shoji Jo, who played in La Liga.
Since Rakuten sports started to stream it's very difficult to find streams for J League with Japanese comentary. wiz1.net had before, but now nothing and other streaming sites have, but in poor quality and with not sound. Do you know some sites who at least have sound including Japanese comentary?
www.cool-365.com usually have it with Japanese commentators. You need to navigate the site in Korean though and also register before you can choose channels but it's fairly easy.
i might be in the minority but i’m disappointed u23 will be excluded from the league. it’s done a fantastic job of introducing some of the best prospects in japanese football to competitive football. it’s bridged the large gap between youth football and j league. guys like ayumu seko, ryotaro meshino, keito nakamura, kazunari ichimi have benefited from a few seasons in j3.
I agree, I think it's been better for them to play against J3 teams than other U23s. However, I do understand that in a sense many other teams might want to set up a structure where their 19,20,21yr players can play each week if they are not used (currently it's mostly random reserve matches). And naturally you can't keep slotting U23 teams in J3. So this is probably why a change was needed. I just wish it was ceiled at 20 years old.
I can't wait for U-23 teams to be excluded. They were a farce. Last year FC Tokyo played with Ryoichi Maeda... I think only Gamba took it seriously for the whole four years. I would have liked squads to rotate (it would have been nice to have Kashima Antlers, Kawasaki Frontale or Kashiwa Reysol with their youngest team). Plus, pro-football can only go ahead in Japan with new clubs. I hope FC Imabari will get promoted and then we'll have a 16 teams-J3 w/o reserve squads.
how were they a farce. gamba u23 have given us ritsu doan, keito nakamura, takahiro ko, leo takae who are all comfortable playing in j1 as 20-21 year olds as minimum. kazunari ichimi is now kyoto sanga’s ace striker. cerezo u23 have been pretty solid as well. if lotina wasn’t such a stupid sh!t then guys like mizuki ando, motohiko nakajima, hiroto yamada would be playing j1 this season. ayumu seko is the obvious success story. towa yamane has made an instant impact at kanazawa as well. admittedly, fc tokyo has been the most disappointing. at one stage they did play more veterans than expected last season. fc tokyo have never produced outstanding young talent though, compared to the two osaka clubs. but they are one of the most influential clubs in the league... these three clubs traditionally snap up the best young talent so it’s not the worst idea to give them the u23 spots than rotting on the bench.
J1's attendance has been rising steadily. At this rate, they can break the record for average attendance in a season (19,598 in 1994)
Jiro Nakamura is really interesting, but physically he has to grow and so I hope Gamba will let him time to develop his game w/o any rush. Shoji Toyama... well, I'm less impressed by him.
7 goals in 7 games for a Japanese striker who only turned 17 three weeks ago is an absolutely joke. He will be playing in JFL in a few seasons at this rate.
There were at least 4-5 good streams on YouTube. Unfortunately I did not check the forum during the game time or I would post the links here.