Official 2021 Nadeshiko Japan Thread [R] - なでしこジャパン（英語スレッド）

Hi, guys. 2021 sure can do no harm to us, after what we've passed in 2020, does it? But let's keep it at Nadeshiko football.

A legitimate question has been posed about moving this thread to the women's international board. I've expressed myself in the past by saying that I guess, in this difficult times for forums like this one, it's wiser to avoid big revolutions and to follow the steps of who came before us. Anyway, it's in particular after this abnormal year that I believe it's the case to stick as much as possible to the old re-assuring ways and to leave new ideas to be developed in a quieter moment.

By a Nadeshiko point of view, we had a 2020 with basically no National team activity except a pair of big training camps. More or less the same for Youth Teams, since the pandemic basically stop all international football.
It's quite good that, at club level, we had a mostly regular season instead, with all the Divisions playing their leagues and with the Empress' Cup taking place as usual, something a lot of nations around the world couldn't say. Only differences were that the leagues started later than usual and that Nadeshiko League Cup was skipped, but our clubs could be almost as active as in a "normal" year and we also had a quite interesting season, with Beleza's multi-years dominance finally stopped by Urawa and with many intriguing games and beautiful goals. Some of Japanese youth talents look like they're growing to a different level and many players plan to go overseas to furtherly increase their skills.

There are basically two big things going to happen in 2021 for Japanese women's football: the start of the professional league and the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

I can only wish that both this events are as successful as Nadeshiko Football deserves. The Olympics being actually disputed would be a victory in itself, but if it happens we could as well also wish for a Japanese medal!

Anyway, let's populate this thread with our usual insightful discussions, guys. Good 2021 to everyone!

 

I was tempted not to post my traditional "seasonal scorers' chart" that I usually post in the first days of a new year, because, well, it only uses to include club competitions and this year there were just two of them, Nadeshiko League and Empress' Cup; and, to boot, one of them had just a very limited number of games, at least for Division 1 teams, that are the ones that I use to cover...

Well, then I said to myself: "A tradition is a tradition!", so let's have a look at this chart from just two competitions (and, after all, there is a surprise, since the best seasonal scorer is not the top scorer of Nadeshiko League Division 1, nor a traditional winner of this kind of seasonal competitions)

The rules are similar to those from the previous years (although simplified by the low number of competitions) and I show them in the spolier below, as simple as they are. I decided to leave the numbers indicating the difference compared to the last season for each player, just for kicks, although it doesn't make much sense if you take away Nadeshiko League Cup; I could have made a "weighted up" chart by comparing with just the same two competitions from last year, but in the end I decided not to do it, because it anyway looked "artificial" to me.

Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler

The chart has no National Teams goals, no overseas leagues goals, only Division 1 club competitions in Japan (including Empress' Cup, that has clubs from all levels, but no Division 2, no Nadeshiko League Division 2 Cup nor any lesser league). So, basically, for this year 2020, it is just Nadeshiko League Division 1 + Empress' Cup (only counting goals from Div. 1 clubs).

The format works this way (example):
4 – Jun Endo – Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza - 13 (8 / 5)(+7!)
This reads as follows: Jun Endo is 4th in the chart, played in Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza, scored 13 goals, 8 in Nadeshiko League Division 1 and 5 in Empress' Cup; also she scored 7 goals more than previous season. The fact that the comparison is in bold and with an exclamation mark (+7!) means that the difference from previous season is more than 5 goals better or worse than the goals scored that season; otherwise, the number in bracket isn't in bold and has no punctuation. I don't make comparisons with previous season if the player was in a different league, even if I have the data from that league, because I don't think it makes sense to compare the number of goals scored in Nadeshiko League Division 1 with those scored in Division 2 or in Frauen-Bundesliga: in those cases, a note will state: (can't be properly compared). If a player was in Division 1 for only a part of the season, the goals she scored there will be counted, but no goal in other leagues will be counted (for instance, if she was in the chart, Natsuki Kishikawa would only have the goals she scored in Japan in 2020, not also those she scored in Germany; I'd compare anyway her record with previous season, although a note would state that she didn't fully play it). Also: when two players were even on goals, I've written first the one with more goals in Division 1 (arguably, the most important competition); when they were even in Division 1 goals, I just used alphabetical order.

These are the first 20 positions of the chart

Nadeshiko League Seasonal scorers

1 - Haruka Hamada - Mynavi Vegalta Sendai Ladies - 19 (15 / 4)(+14!)
- Rikako Kobayashi - Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza - 19 (13 / 6)(+2)
3 - Yuika Sugasawa - Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies - 18 (17 / 1)(-1)
4 - Mina Tanaka - INAC Kobe Leonessa - 13 (12 / 1)(-26!)
- Jun Endo - Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza - 13 (8 / 5)(+7!)
6 - Ami Otaki - JEF United Ichihara Chiba Ladies - 10 (9 / 1)(+6!)
- Miyu Yakata - Cerezo Osaka Sakai Ladies- 10 (8 / 2) (can't be properly compared: in Division 2 last season)*
8 - Arisa Minamino - Nojima Stella Kanagawa Sagamihara - 9 (7 / 2)(-1)
- Fuka Kono - Albirex Niigata Ladies - 9 (6 / 3)(+3)
- Hinata Miyazawa - Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza - 9 (6 / 3)(+4)
11 - Honoka Hayashi - Cerezo Osaka Sakai Ladies - 8 (7 / 1) (can't be properly compared: in Division 2 last season)°
- Maika Hamano - Cerezo Osaka Sakai Ladies - 8 (6 / 2) (can't be properly compared: in Division 2 last season)^
- Kozue Ando - Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies - 8 (4 / 4)(+4)
14 - Yui Hasegawa - Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza - 7 (7 / 0)(+3)
- Ayaka Michigami - Iga FC Kunoichi Mie - 7 (5 / 2)(-4)
16 - Yui Narumiya - JEF United Ichihara Chiba Ladies - 6 (6 / 0)(+2)
- Hikaru Naomoto - Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies - 6 (5 / 1) (can't be properly compared: in Frauen-Bundesliga last season)
- Haruka Osawa - JEF United Ichihara Chiba Ladies - 6 (5 / 1)(+6!)
- Ami Sugita - Iga FC Kunoichi Mie - 6 (4 / 2)(-5!)

* Anyway, Miyu Yakata has scored one more goal than in season 2019, when she had scored 5 goals in Division 2 + 4 goals in Nadeshiko League Cup Div. 2, for a total of 9.
° Anyway, Honoka Hayashi has scored one goal less than in season 2019, when she had scored 5 goals in Division 2 + 4 goals in Nadeshiko League Cup Div. 2, for a total of 9.
^ Anyway, Maika Hamano has scored two more goals than in season 2019, when she had scored a total of 6 goals in Challenge League.

Some observations:
- Haruka Hamada is the top seasonal scorers (along with Rikako Kobayashi, but with more goals then her in the main competition Nadeshiko League Division 1): who would have expected that? She also increased her record from last season by a massive 14 goals! A veritable golden season for her (and it's not a case that she has been recently called to a NT training camp).
- Mina Tanaka, when she was playing in Beleza, had been seasonal top scorer for three consecutive years. Now, I guess we can safely say that the experiment of transferring to INAC showed that she's not the same player without "the Green Machine" behind her (something we had anyway figured from her NT performances). She posts a respectable 4th place, but she scored 26 goals less than last season ( !!! ); ok, take away the 11 she had scored in Nadeshiko League Cup and the 4 from AFC Club Championship: we're anyway talking 11 goals less considering the two competitions that she played in both seasons. Conclusion: she's a good player, but not extraordinary.
- A vast generational change, with many young players in the chart, including some Cerezo girls (most notably 16yo Maika Hamano: I am quite sure we didn't have a so young player in top 20 seasonal scorers in the last years).
- Apart from Hamada, I guess the most impressing improvements were those from Jun Endo and Ami Otaki; it's anyway worth noting that Kozue Ando is back in this kind of chart at age 38.
- Notable names from last year who are now out of top 20 Seasonal Scorers:
Megumi Kamionobe (-12!)
Rika Masuya (-9!)
Manami Nakano (-8!)
Mai Kyokawa (-7!)
Kiko Seike (-6!)
Riko Ueki (-5!)
Mana Iwabuchi (-4)
Mizuki Sonoda (-4)
Hitomi Mori (-3)
Hana Takahashi (-2)
Kumi Yokohama and Yuka Momiki, that had scored 9 and 6 goals respectively, went overseas to NWSL; I actually lost track of Haruhi Suzuki, who had scored 7 goals for Nagano last year: where did she end playing?

 

Wow, I remember that, until a few years ago, Hinomoto used to go far in this competition!

 

Ah, Sanfrecce marketing campaign looks more and more interesting. I wonder if Fukumoto will find a starting place at her age: how old is she, by the way?