Official 2020 J1\J2 Thread

Tokyo Verdy's youth CB Maaya Sako may be in the first team for next season. Will be interesting to see how he will perform, feel that he has a bit of potential imo.

 

do you hear about jiro nakamura and shoji toyama ? I heard they were very young talent just like kubo when he played in Japan

 

does anyone know how long a player from a different country needs to play in Japan for him to be able to qualify to play for the national team?

 

You need to live in Japan continuously for 5+ years to be eligible to apply for naturalization, and also the same length of time to be eligible from FIFA’s perspective.

 

+ you have to pass a Japanese language test.

 

Imagine if everyone country had this.

 

Mitoma should get called up next time.

Right now he is better than Nakajima.

I think he will go to Germany next summer.

 

Disaro really looks interesting, his positioning and finishing are good. I hope he gets picked up by any J1 Team soon. It's just weird he hasn't been called so far to any of the youth JNT.

 

Shuto Machino/Naoki Tsubaki also looks good. Sota Sato and Jin Ikoma, etc. also look like they have some potential even though it still might take some time for them.

 

Looking at statistics alone, there are other players who stand out:
Daihachi Okamura, Nagi Matsumoto, Shintaro Kokubu and Hiroki Akino.

But of course, looking at statistics alone is not always reliable.

 

Other players with really impressive statistics (statistics from Football Lab JP):

Yoshio Koizumi (central midfielder)
Ryota Oshima (central midfielder)
Shota Aizawa (central midfielder)
Yudai Konishi (central midfielder)
Toshihiro Aoyama (defensive midfielder)
Shuto Inaba (defensive midfielder)
Koji Hachizuka (side back)
Yota Shimokawa (side back)

 

watched Gamba Osaka vs Shonan Bellemare today, what a nasty elbow on Oiwa :

 

Patric is a dirty player.

 

On a side note, just realised that Shinya Nakano(born in Aug 2003 iirc) started in Sagan Tosu's 2-1 win against Kashiwa Reysol. He is pretty similar to Nagatomo in terms of his position and his build, they are both left-back.

Will be interesting to see how he develops. Hopefully he can surpass Nagatomo's potential in the future.

 

I don’t think Japan’s language test is that stringent tbh. Of naturalized athletes, some speak the language quite eloquently like Alex Santos, while others like basketball NT player Nick Fazekas hardly can hold a conversation.

 

What about a player like Ataru Esaka , something for the NT? Too old? Really good season. With both goals and assists.

 

U may be right, Moriyasu may be slightly reluctant to call him up due to his age. OTOH, Taiyo Koga is in good form recently for Kashiwa and he is not that old, I think maybe he can be given a try.

Btw, there seems to be a player by the name of Soya Takada doing decently in J2 now. Reminds me of a younger Kakitani a little the way he dribbles and take on defenders. Hopefully he can reach or even surpass his level soon.

 

There are enough players to play in the middle of the park, ultimately it comes down to the shape and tactics you want to play as well as individual form. Endo has been on fire, Hashimoto is doing well, and you can always bring in Oshima if Gaku is out of form.

 

Sigh, hope that Takada don't become injury-prone in the future. As for CM, maybe Hashimoto/Endo can cover for now. Nakayama/Itakura can both play DM/CB imo, they are pretty versalite.

By the way, Seiya Baba is a prospect in Tokyo Verdy that I think maybe have potential imo, he seems to have the physicality but needs to improve on his situational awareness and speed.

 

Another great performance by Kosei Tani.

7 - 谷晃生は第27節神戸戦で7本のセーブを記録して無失点。今季のJ1でクリーンシートを記録したGKの中では、1試合でリーグ最多タイのセーブ数となった。

7 - キム・スンギュ（09/09 v G大阪）
7 - 東口 順昭（10/03 v 鹿島）
7 - 菅野 孝憲（11/03 v 川崎）
7 - 谷 晃生（11/15 v 神戸）🆕

門番。 pic.twitter.com/N0eE2CGi8a

— OptaJiro (@OptaJiro) November 15, 2020

 

Bin Ukishika is building a robust and fluid system out of Shonan Bellmare's youth academy products (apart from Kosei Tani, who is on-loan from Gamba Osaka).

Satoshi Tanaka is such a gem, and I wonder how long he will stay at Shonan Bellmare? From my point of view, he is the most gifted player from the 2024 Olympic generation (even more gifted than Takefusa Kubo).

Taigi Hata is another player who might be Japan's next big thing in the left wing-back (left-back position), alongside Sagan Tosu's Ayumu Ohata.

While Mitsuki Saito and Daiki Kaneko are really maturing in a great way. Not to mention Hirokazu Ishihara and Koki Tachi.

The team just need to retain the players they have for next season and add some attacking players, and a top-half of the table finish will not be a far-fetched target for 2021.