I admire your dedication, guys. Although 5 am in England was 6 am for me in Italy, I was anyone snoring at that time of a Sunday morning... Looks like I anyway missed an entertaining match.
I caught only last 15 but very entertaing minutes by Ehime and Nojima. I'm waiting for her to score since the start of the season. Today she had an assist - she's getting closer I guess not so soft penalty in the end....
Someone should make a Penalty Softness Rating Machine... er, does that exist? This was the early game link... Ehime v Nojima Stella www.youtube.com/watch?v=hauYhcTSHBc Kicking off soon: JEF United v Albirex Niigata - (07:00 GMT, 16:00 JST) www.youtube.com/watch?v=53uJQ3vsKME
In view of recent events in my life I'm overwhelmingly happy just to be able to get up at 5am....Jeff Albi next
Meanwhile, update from USA: as we all know, since Nagasato came back to Japan for her new adventure with a men's team, only one Japanese player remained in USA to play NWSL Fall Series minitournament. And yesterday this player, Kumi Yokayama, won a match by 2-1 with her Washington Spirit vs Chicago Red Stars. Kumi wasn't on the pitch when the winner was scored at 90'+3', since she had been subbed out at 80', but you can see her (wearing #17) in the action of her team's first goal in these YouTube highlights:
Yeah it looked like a penalty from that angle, so I will admit that I was wrong. But still it was more just light contact at a time when Kobayashi did not have her balance. But fair enough, I can't blame the ref giving that.
I didn't watch last week. Apparently Ootaki is just absent. He didn't say why she is absent. Takigawa has been good for Niigata so far this season.
If I remember well, Kawamura started playing at Albi, trasferred to JEF after many doubts about leaving her hometown, and then got back to her former club after the short and injury-plagued stint in USA with NCC Courage.
Niigata were too good for JEF tonight, though JEF did have one very good chance in the second half that probably should have been converted. I would say at the moment Niigata are probably the fourth best team in the competition. They are a very well disciplined team. JEF need could do with a better central midfielder or maybe drop Narumiya deeper, because at times they do have trouble moving the ball through central midfield.
I really feel for Yuri Kawamura...Got selected by Takakura and to enhance her chances even more went to the USA and almost immediately got a season long injury and has been forgotten.Saw her live in Algarve Cup action and was impressed by her play
Actually, if I remember well, it was two back-to-back injuries, thus basically hampering two whole seasons and not just one.
My take of J League's trend about basic concepts of referees' judgements. Apart from serious injury situation, you should not cut the game due to impacts occurred by natural body contacts whenever possible, regardless of their strength, But you should punish players about fouls from using their hands or legs. I don't know if Nadeshiko League has the same tendency, but it's probable.
Today's result: Nadeshiko League Ehime (Matsumoto, Ueno) 2-2 Nojima (Ishida Chihiro, Minamino) Jef (Ohsawa) -2 Albi (Sonoda Mizuki, Kawamura) Nadeshiko League 2 Bunnys (Ogawa) 1-2 Setagaya (Ohtake, Seno) Jumonji 0-2 Yamato (Hori, Nishiyama) Nippatsu (Uchida, Takahasi, Ohshima, Nagashima) 4-1 Harima (Chiba)
Remind me of the reason why you're particularly happy about Ogawa's goal. Division 2 keeps being crazy! AS Harima Albion, despite Sonoko Chiba's goal, loses badly to Seagulls, and now the teams that had lead the chart in the last two weeks (Harima and Chifure) are 3rd and 4th, replaced at the top by Sfida Setagaya and the incredible Yamato Sylphid! I expect many other changes and upsets along the way through this league!