Brazil don't seem much more inspired to me, though. They are sending random long balls forward hoping for who knows what, lately, aren't they? Also, some kind of a shot from Japan right now. Earlier, our #22 (it's Tanikawa, I guess? ) had replaced Kumagai, who gave the captain armband to Minami, if I am not wrong (my streaming feed is very bad, so I have many doubts about what I see ).
tbh October and November were the warmest months in recent years here in Central Europe. Many trees - now covered under half meter of snow - still have green leafs left on them.
This is an absolutely dreadful game… Can’t keep the ball, can’t control the game, can’t create chances, comical defending. Despite winning, I’m more depressed than the first match.
This has been a very ugly game of football but I do find it enjoyable. Of course all our players are gassed by now after playing 2 games a week for their clubs right before this window. Not much point to giving 100% atm.
Well, I missed the first 20 minutes of the game, so I missed the only 2 goals that were scored, and probably almost the only interesting moments of this match. I briefly rewatched them a HT, in a bad replay (with an oblique view for me to boot ), but I suppose I'll rewatch them better in highlights later. Oh, well, we have won the game, so we're one apiece with Brazil in this particular set of friendlies: I gues that's the best that can be said of this match, but the impression is that our team lost its way.
I was surprised she didn’t start today, and even more surprised when Miyazawa got injured and she still didn’t come in. He put Nagano in and shifted Hasegawa to left. He could have easily put Nakashima like-for-like. That was wired.
Yes, that’s why it makes Hayashi look good and even Shimizu looks like a seasoned central midfielder in that team as apart from a few, they don’t even look like a professional athlete.
Took this photo after leaving the stadium It was great to watch the Nadeshiko in loco for the first time.
Now I'm curious about where Tanikawa and Koga will go to. I think JFA academy finished this season, so they can be selected as special designated players for any clubs.
How was the general atmosphere on the standing? Many Japanese supporters (or anyway rooting for Japan) or you were a very small number? Anyway there was the usual kindness that I have always seen in women's football between supporters of different teams?
I am just guessing here, but Koga is from Osaka, so I can see her going to Osaka. I suspect Tanikawa will go to Beleza, but I really have no idea.
Congratulations to Nadeshiko for the away win! Am I the only one to recognize how poor the pitch was? Grass looked like burned, ball could not roll for 3 metres before it was bumped into air by uneven turf. You can't expect Nadeshiko to showcase their technical and tactical brilliance in such conditions. Also, I didn't mind no whistle when Japanese players were being outmuscled, but it made me furious when any physical contact against Brazilians was a foul. If you let girls play, let all of them play! Saying that, Saki Kumagai in Nadeshiko's midfield seems to be a misconcept and some defending was very, very poor.
Starting this season the WE League will nominate 4 goals each month for a goal of the month award. Fans can vote from WE League’s official instagram story: https://instagram.com/we_league?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA== Voting ends December 5th 19:00 (local time). November nominees are Maya Yamamoto (Kobe Leonessa) vs Sendai Ladies /11月度ノミネートゴール✅#山本摩也 🔴スーパーミドルでWE初ゴール💥\#WEリーグ 月間ベストゴールをみなさんの投票によって決定します!WEリーグ公式Instagramアカウントのストーリーズにて明日19:00まで投票受付中🗳️投票お待ちしています!https://t.co/8mSMpmEmvT pic.twitter.com/MclYGZtIXg— WEリーグ|日本女子プロサッカーリーグ (@WE_League_JP) December 4, 2023 Shinomi Koyama (Cerezo Osaka) vs Elfen Saitama /11月度ノミネートゴール✅#小山史乃観 🌸勝利に導くカットイン弾丸ゴラッソ☄️\#WEリーグ 月間ベストゴールをみなさんの投票によって決定します!WEリーグ公式Instagramアカウントのストーリーズにて明日19:00まで投票受付中🗳️投票お待ちしています!https://t.co/8mSMpmEmvT pic.twitter.com/vFHmqXRX7i— WEリーグ|日本女子プロサッカーリーグ (@WE_League_JP) December 4, 2023 Haruna Oshima (Omiya Ardija Ventus) vs Cerezo Osaka /11月度ノミネートゴール✅#大島暖菜 🐿️後半AT劇的決勝スーパーボレー弾🔥\#WEリーグ 月間ベストゴールをみなさんの投票によって決定します!WEリーグ公式Instagramアカウントのストーリーズにて明日19:00まで投票受付中🗳️投票お待ちしています!https://t.co/8mSMpmDOGl pic.twitter.com/hNxDWuaAEk— WEリーグ|日本女子プロサッカーリーグ (@WE_League_JP) December 4, 2023 Yuika Sugasawa (Urawa Red Diamonds) vs Jef United Chiba /11月度ノミネートゴール✅#菅澤優衣香 ♦️“THE STRIKER” スーパーボレー弾❤️🔥\#WEリーグ 月間ベストゴールをみなさんの投票によって決定します!WEリーグ公式Instagramアカウントのストーリーズにて明日19:00まで投票受付中🗳️投票お待ちしています!https://t.co/8mSMpmDOGl pic.twitter.com/cfRjnrvETn— WEリーグ|日本女子プロサッカーリーグ (@WE_League_JP) December 4, 2023 Apparently there will be semi-finals and a final every month. The semis this time are: Maya Miyamoto vs Shinomi Koyama Haruna Oshima vs Yuika Sugasawa
Some stat leaders after match day 4 The WE League stats page has added 14 more categories this year. Unfortunately they only show on the Japanese version of the site. JPN: https://weleague.jp/stats/ ENG: https://weleague.jp/en/stats/ Also, All goals scored in November I’m sorry if someone’s posted all this already. I was a bit too busy to check this thread frequently in the past few weeks.
I can't help remembering with some pride that we, on this very BigSoccer Nadeshiko thread, were most probably the first to have a goal of the month competition for Japan's women's top-league (at the time it was Nadeshiko League) starting in the years 2012-2013. There was even a time when our late friend Mumf had managed to let Yumi Uetsuji know that she had won "Goal of the Season" in our little competition (back then she was playing for Vegalta Sendai Ladies and Mumf had managed to contact her, most probably through one of her social networks' accounts). Anyway, I suppose one needs an Instagram account to vote? Because I haven't one. For records, Maya Yamamoto's goal is my favourite of the bunch: Koyama's curved shot was a beauty, but it needed the help of the GK to go in; Oshima's one was a superb volley, but Cerezo's defending of that FK was sub-optimal; Sugasawa's effort, finally, would be awesome if we were sure that she slid on the ground intentionally and she didn't just slip and manage to catch the ball anyway. So, for me, Yamamoto beats Koyama, Sugasawa beats Oshima and finally Yamamoto beats Sugasawa. No-one had posted anything of the kind and it was some very interesting stuff.
I would say there were at least around 200 people in the away sector, most of them Japanese expatriates living in São Paulo (the total attendance was 13,020). Couldn't see anyone from Ultra Nippon or any other supporter group, so they were all families and friends who just went to watch Japan play. Especially the children were very excited and shouting "Nippon! Nippon! Nippon!" while rhythmically clapping hands. Probably most of the people in there doesn't know much about the Japanese clubs, but I did see one person wearing a Beleza jersey in there.
There are players that are around from so long, as Shinomi Koyama, that I can hardly believe they're still U-19!
I am happy as a Nojima fan that Chinari Sasai is in this squad, but Oshima plays a similar position to her and has been a lot better this season. Oshima is a really interesting player to watch. She seems to think a bit differently. If we are going off past players like Kinoshita then they probably will not play for Young Nadeshiko again, though I would like to be wrong about that. I think making them key players for the under-20 world cup would be a fantastic experience for them.