Official 2019 Nadeshiko Japan Thread [R] - なでしこジャパン（英語スレッド）

And so Urawa unexpectedly crashed out of the competition for the title one week earlier! Winning the title for Beleza is by now just a formality, they could as well celebrate today: for Beleza to miss the title it should happen that Beleza lose their game next week to Vegalta and at the same time that Urawa win vs JEF in Chiba and, since Beleza has now double the goal difference of Urawa (+38 vs +19), these results should have a combined goal difference of +20 in favour of Urawa (e.g. Vegalta-Beleza 1-0 and JEF-Urawa 0-19, or anything else in between moving goals from Urawa to Vegalta: a Vegalta-Beleza 19-0 and JEF-Urawa 0-1 could do as well, as much as Vegalta-Beleza 10-0 and JEF-Urawa 0-10 and so on... ).

Urawa remain (as well as Nojima) the team that never draws: this was their fifth loss in the league, with 12 wins; Beleza has the same number of wins, but their three draws are giving them the title.

With today's JEF's loss to INAC, Iga FC Kunoichi, who had started the season very well and then had quite a difficult middle of the season, grab 4th place over JEF on goal difference (+4 to +1): it would be a great achievement for them if they'd manage to keep it, surely their best finish in the last years and probably one of the best finishes in their history (although, if I remember well, Iga won one or two Nadeshiko titles in some remote years). Next week, JEF host Urawa (who, as seen above, will need to score at least 19 goals ), while Iga host INAC (currently 4 points ahead of them, so Iga as no shot at 3rd place).

Mina Tanaka keeps being firmly ahead in top-scorers' rankings with 20 goals (6 more that Yuika Sugasawa). Riko Ueki, meanwhile, scored 6 goals in the last 4 games Beleza played in October: absolutely devastating. Despite having played just an handful of matches this season, Ueki now reached third place in the scorers' rankings along with team-mate Rikako Kobayashi, who also scored today, and I guess it speaks volumes about her worth. I hope she will star next Olympic tournament, as she did at U-20 WWC in 2018.

as expected, AC Nagano Parceiro didn't get any points from their clash vs Beleza: on the contrary, their 4-1 loss mean that now they have the same goal difference as Vegalta (who are anyway one point ahead of them). The direct clash that will be played this Wednesday is becoming more and more important for both teams, but Vegalta at the moment are the only team that could settle with a draw (although it would be very dangerous, because they'll have to play Beleza next week-end, while Nagano will get Nojima, who could be already safe by then if they make points on Wednesday vs Albirex). Nagano need to cling to their captain Yokoyama and to hope that she wakes up from her slump by scoring some precious goals!

Interesting (?) tidbit: in the last years, Google traslator's ability in translating Japanese names has become much better compared to the comic relief they were giving in the past; anyway, Momiki's family name is apparently quite impossible to get right for it, since everytime it's spelled differently; Nojima's GK Fubuki Kuno has become "Kuno Snowstorm" instead.

 

In fact, I remember having seen some videos of Ehime's home matches in the past seasons, and their field looked like it was located on a plateau by the sea, with high wooded cliffs behind them and another cliff overhanging on the sea in front of them. It looked completely different from any other venue I was used to see in Nadeshiko League. Do they keep playing there?

 

It now looks like JFA's choice for AFC Women's Club Championship was a good one regardless.

I hope Beleza will win the tournament.

 

International update:

NWSL:

- the Championship match didn't go well for our player: North Carolina Courage-Chicago Red Stars 4-0. As you can see from highlights, Yuki Nagasato tried an assist for Kerr in 1st half, but the Australian striker wasn't very brilliant and anyway Chicago was dominated by North Carolina.
From this season, Yuki can retain the 2nd place with her team, the 1st place in the assists' chart and 8 goals scored.
Highlights: http://www.nwslsoccer.com/videos/AFA563C1-DD2C-AD37-3758-1015295EE8EF


Division 1 Féminine:

- Lyon comfortably win by 4-0 vs Bordeaux, but they remain two points behind PSG. Kumagai didn't play and remained on the bench for all of the game.
Highlights:




Frauen-Bundesliga:

- Good news: 1 FC Köln-SC Freiburg 2-4; bad news: Hikaru Naomoto was subbed-in at 90' only.

- Bad news: BV Cloppenburg only managed to draw by 1-1 an away game vs a direct competitor for relegation, Arminia Bielefeld, so they remain in one-to-last position instead of catching up with the teams ahead of them; good news: Cloppenburg's goal was scored by Natsuki Kishikawa, who played the whole game along with Shiho Tomari.


OFB Frauen-Bundesliga:

- FC Wacker Innsbruck finally managed to make their second point of the season, by drawing by 2-2 an away game vs SKV Altenmarkt/Triesting. One of the goals was scored by Kanako Fuse. She and Saya Kawasaki played the whole match.


Liga Femenina:

- Good news first: Deportivo Abanca won by 3-1 vs CD Tacón (i.e. Real Madrid) and keep the lead of the league along with Barcelona; Maya Yamamoto was subbed-in at 75', when her team had already scored all of their goals.

- The good news end here, because the other Spanish teams with Japanese players in their roster are last and one-to-last in the league . Sporting Huelva lost by 3-0 to EDF Logroño (Yoko Tanaka in at 71', on the 2-0 score) and Espanyol lost by 1-2 an home game vs Athletic Bilbao (Ayaka Noguchi on the pitch the whole game).


Serie A Femminile was on break because of the Super-Cup match between Juventus and Fiorentina. It will resume next week-end, on November the 2nd.

@sbahnhof, by reading your post on the WK-League Thread, I noticed that Mayu Ikejiri has recently scored again in the league. Can you tell us how many goals she scored in this season?

 

...and finally the team that was never drawing had a 0-0 score! And this single point means Nojima are officially safe from relegation (although Nagano's loss in this same catch-up match-day was already enough for that anyway).

Meanwhile, veteran Saori Arimachi scores her first goal of the season in Nadeshiko League (she had scored another in Nadeshiko League Cup this summer) and it's a quite heavy one, since it spells salvation for them, one match-day ahead of the end of the league: Lady Vega are now 4 points ahead of Nagano and 5 points ahead of Nittaidai, so it will be these last two teams only that will be involved in relegation.

It only remains to decide who's going to be directly relegated and who'll have to play-off vs Cerezo (not an easy task anyway). Both teams will play home in the last match-day: Nittaidai vs Albirex Niigata (who could reach 4th place with a win only if both Iga and JEF lose, or if they draw but Albirex considerably shore up their goal difference), Nagano vs Nojima (who's by now already safe).
Nagano are 1 point ahead of Nittaidai and have a vastly better goal difference (-12 to -37), but of course, even if Nagano have the easier match on paper, they're trending way worse than Nittaidai are doing in the last weeks.

Even if Nagano manage to avoid direct relegation (it's in their hands, after all), I predict they won't beat Cerezo Osaka Sakai Ladies. They would need Yokoyama to wake up, but these days Takarada is looking way better than Yokoyama.