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

Was actually at page 19 from 2018. At page 15 you were with Nakajima and Mina Tanaka! Too many pics with Japanese players to be accurate!

https://www.bigsoccer.com/attachments/yui-hasegawa-2-3-2018-jpg.121665/

 

@Manchester Nadeshiko, I predict that we're going to meet again at a stadium (in flesh, not just in spirit) to watch a Nadeshiko Japan game as we did in Parchal in 2017, when all this will have ended! It's a promise.

 

Funny pic with Arakawa.

So, already at 10 Hasegawa was wearing a Milan AC jersey?

 

Tomorrow, Milan AC will play a Coppa Italia (national cup) match vs Sassuolo, but this article on the very reliable local website "calcio femminile italiano" says that newly signed Hasegawa won't be part of the roster yet (not sure why, but probably she's not cleared yet to debut: maybe she's still quarantining after coming from Japan? ).

 

I am sorry that I don't think I can give as much insight as one could expect, given the fact that I am Italian and I live in the North of Italy. The fact is that, as I repeatedly said in the past, I actually don't follow much Italian women's league (of course this will change now that Milan AC signed Hasegawa ): not only I follow Nadeshiko League much more than Serie A Femminile, but there are other leagues from overseas (or Women's Champions' League matches) that I follow more closely than my country's league.

Anyway, what I can tell you is that Sassuolo is one of the most "modern" and "progressive" football clubs here in Italy, both in men's and women's football (the women's coach mentions that there is a lot of sinergy with the men's team) and I guess it's an ideal environment for a Japanese player (also because the region where the team is located, Emilia-Romagna, is known for its friendly people and its delicious food... oh well, true for a lot of other parts of Italy, actually ).

I can't really say that I know much about Mana Mihashi career in Japan (maybe @unepommekun can help here), but, as you rightfully noticed, since she joined Sassuolo she's a regular starter and she mostly play the whole 90', a sign that the coach has to consider her fully dependable. Although she's listed as a DF, both in the roster and in the weekly line-ups, she often happens to show in offense (not sure if mainly with header from set pieces: I didn't actually follow Sassuolo's matches this season) and I have read that she sometimes takes set pieces also (this is often one of Japanese players' features when they play overseas: they're normally so technical that they're easy given, occasionally or permanently, the set pieces duty).

I found a funny interview to Mana Mihashi after a match from October 17th of 2020, when Sassuolo beat Florentia by 3-0 and Mihashi won a PK for her team leading to 1st goal and scored the 2nd goal with an header.
You can listen to her in the first minute of the video below; her Italian is very slow and funny, but mostly correct: she gives herself a grade of just 3,5 out of 10 in Italian, but 10 out of 10 in Sicilian (the local vernacular from Sicily, a region in the South of Italy), because her team-mate Maria Luisa Filangeri, who took the duty of teaching Italian to her, is from Sicily and tends to teach her Siciliano instead of actual Italian.

Apart from this, she says the usual things that you would expect from a Japanese player: that she dedicates the goal to the team, that she hopes to get better... usual things indeed, just said in Italian instead of in Japanese.

https://www.sassuolocalcio.it/sassuolochannel/?video_id=0_44ocp2m5

 

Do you remember about Yuuka Kurosaki, the Japanese player I had mentioned here two years ago, who was playing for the Kentucky University team in USA? According to the Women's College thread, she's headed back to Japan, after having played for Oklahoma University also:

Here are her stats from her stint in USA.

 

Told you so, @Twistal: apparently INAC are dismantling too.

 

...and let's hope Olympics actually take place!

But I agree: with Nadeshiko Japan withdrawing from SheBelieves Cup, you can feel a sense of urgency from top NT players who need to confront with international competition at least at club level, if they can't do it at NT level at the moment.

 

Not just a "small summary", but an excellent recap: thumbs up!

Some observations or questions:

Does anyone know what's her situation, after the injury she had picked up in her first match in Sweden? Did she completely recover from it? (Could be important in an Olympic perspective also, of course).

There are rumours that OL-Reign could get some players from the OL mothership, if the Covid situation gets at least a little better in the spring: on the US and French boards the names of Bouhaddi, Maroszan or Renard have been made by people with some insight of the situation.
Of course if would be good for Momiki to play alongside such top-level players of the women's game.

Yes, in past years someone (probably @KAPIJXM) had pointed out at quite a lot of Japanese names in other Divisions.

Probably there are still other Japanese players in Frauen-Bundesliga Second Division also? (Don't remember who was better up to date with the situation: maybe @datschge).

Talking about leagues that are different from "First Division" ones, it could be worth mentioning that there are sometimes Japanese players scattered through the US college system; occasionally, some of them are relevant names that were part of Youth National Teams in recent years: Ran Iwai comes to mind, who's currently in Florida State University's roster.

Random note: another "Japanese derby" is scheduled for this Sunday, when Milan AC vs San Marino (Hasegawa vs Kunisawa) will be played. Of course, I am not sure if Hasegawa will actually make her debut; the odds for this match are anyway vastly in Milan's favour.