Manaka Matsukubo played whole match, while Narumi Miura 89 minutes for NC Courage against Angel City.
Beleza are surely happy to have back their U-20 NT members: not only Maya Hijikata, but also Miyu Matsunaga, for instance. We all know that, these days, they are a club that mostly relies on youngsters. Why are they in this situation, in your opinion? There are still some good players in the roster, but probably they're too much old, by now (Kana Osafune, Emi Nakajima)? Even Rin Sumida, by now, is no more a youngster, she's 28 by now! Miyu Takahira is a good DF and she's young (24 yo), but maybe the very good players are too much few and anyway there is no cohesion in the team? What about Maho Hirosawa,who had seemed so good in the 2023-2024 season? What about raw but exciting U-17 players as Hana Kikuchi or Anon Tsuda? Yume Saito indeed scored, but "just" one goal doesn't seem to be enough to give her a lifeline. Yuzuki Tsuchiya remains 2 goals ahead of her and in the last macth-day both Shizuoka and Viama have away matches: it seems unlikely that Saito can score vs Sfida two more goals than Tsuchiya vs Orca. Kumi Yokoyama scored "just" one goal too, but it was an important one both for her (who touches 30 goals in 20 match-days: basically 1 goal and a half per match-day) and for her team, since it was the late winner (82') vs Diosa Izumo. Nadeshiko League 2's scoresheets just record the PKs that were taken in the game, but not if they were converted and who scored, so I am not sure if Yokoyama's goal was a PK or not. Tsukuba managed to win their 5th game in the league, despite being by far the team with less goal in Division 2: just 11 in 20 games! Heck, Kumi Yokoyama alone almost tripled that number! I am sad for Fujizakura's loss, since they were passed by JFA. They had managed to reach 2nd-place but their two consecutive losses didn't help them and one of their two remaining matches will be vs Belle.
A second manager to underestimated Bunnys after Harimas did two weeks ago. I knew as soon as I see the starting lineup it was going to be a difficult game. They did get the ball in the back of the net before Masanos penalty, but the linesman gave offside, couldn't see it myself. I watch most of Tsukubas home games. I also watch most of the home games of Anclass. After watching 60 minutes or so of Anclas vs Imabari yesterday, which was a waste of an hour, I really hope Tsukuba get themselves well clear of the relegation playoffs. ------------------------------------------------- I'm with you there. Really hope Fujizakura get the chance for promotion. More worried about Kibi, just 3 pts behind than JFA though. I see JFA as an anomaly really. It's more like their games are training matches. They can't get promoted, I believe due to age, even if they top the division and I don't think they could be relegated if they finished 12th (the Tohoku League already has a 'JFA Fukushima' squad playing). ------------------------------------------------- Viama take the top spot for attendance for this season. 3,479 - Viama vs Orca - 13/10 3,316 - Setagaya vs Iga - 22/6 3,225 - Fujizakura vs Imabari - 28/4 Beleza attendance for today was 2,036 ------------------------------------------------- 2024 KYFA 42nd Kyushu Women's Football Championship (Empress' Cup qualification) The first round was yesterday Round 2 results. Ryukyu Deigos 0-0 (pk 4-5) Migocarisa Kagoshima Shugakukan HS 5-0 Tokai University Fukuoka HS Kunimi FC Ladies 3-0 Verspah Oita Ladies Kwassui Uni 0-5 Kamimura Gakuen HS Round 3 14/10 (2 winners join Anclas as the 3 teams from Kyushu for the Empress' Cup) Migocarisa Kagoshima vs Shugakukan HS Kunimi FC Ladies vs Kamimura Gakuen HS Migocarisa Kagoshima. The age range of this squad is 19 - 44 years old https://migocarisa.jp/team/ ------------------------------------------------- @unepommekun A question. You refer to Setagaya as Sfida. Is Sfida a sponsor or business owner? I ask since there's also Sfida Bingo Fuchu FC. Most of us foreigners call them Setagaya. --------------Edit--------------- Look forward to the Nadeshiko League Highlights. 2 very good freekicks. Orca and Shizuoka.
Fuka Nagano played whole match for Liverpool against ManCity of Ayaka Yamashita, Yui Hasegawa who played whole match and Aoba Fujino who was subbed in at 77th minute.
By the way, it's an Italian name, like many other names of Japanese teams (Leonessa, Speranza...). Sfida means "challenge" in Italian.
Isn't there a team, maybe in Chiba, AC Milan Rosa? Something like that. Not sure if its ladies or mens. Read somewhere but could also be way off, was a good while back.
I do not know what is wrong with Takahira, but she has not played any football so far this season. Kikuchi and Tsuda are also away, which does not help, but if you are depending on seventeen year-olds to win you games then you have problems as a squad. I thought Sendai would struggle this season, but they have been worse than I thought. They will still probably beat Stella. When they get Hirosawa back - probably start of next year - they will be a lot better just because she and Tsuda together will give them better opportunities to score. I think Sendai are going to focus on developing young talent from here and not worry about winning the league. They will develop young players and then try and sell them on to clubs overseas. It is early days in the women's game but as it becomes more professional it does seem like a good idea, especially in a league with no relegation. Again what I wrote in the above paragraph is just my opinion not based on facts, which means I will probably be wrong. You obviously have not watched Stella over the last year and a half. Teams go through ups and downs and if they lose key players and confidence it can be tough to turn things around. You follow Beleza, which is a club that has a fantastic model for success and has developed amazing players. However, let us not forget that they are based in the world's most populous city and often attract players from outside of Tokyo, which makes things a little bit easier to always be competitive.
In this, in my opinion, is one of the many reasons why a league with no relegation is a bad idea to begin with. If a club can basically plan by design not to be competitive, it somehow warps the whole league. Teams need to have something to compete for: not being relegated, for instance. If, at the 5th or 6th match-day, you have nothing to battle for except your pride, it's very difficult for a team (and for their supporters) to find the motivation to go on and to do well.
Today's result: WE League Chifure (Sonoda, Setoguchi) 2-0 Jef Ohmiya 0-0 Nagano Regina (Lee) 1-0 Albi Inac (Suarez, Morera, Aikawa, Narumiya) 4-0 Nojima Kuwahara 3 assists
Everybody looks good against Stella. Stella look good too, except where it matters, which is in front of their own goal, or in front of their opposition's goal. All teams against Stella play like a million bucks because they know Stella are no threat. The defending for the first goal was terrible. I will cut Ohga some slack, because I think she thought, Nagashima would clear the ball, but she was wrong. Second goal was Ikejiri being caught off her line for the second time in a week. Third goal! Just give Aikawa metres of space for 20 seconds to line up the goal. And for the fourth goal just let a player who is no taller than a ten year-old have a free header. They had been defending quite well up until this game, but today was a joke. I am glad my default second team Elfen got a win.
In fact, Regina lead the rankings along with INAC (they're just slightly behind by goal difference), but of their 4 wins, three were by just 1-0, and two of them with a goal scored in the additional time! And in their remaining game, a 1-1 vs INAC, they also scored the equalizer in the additional time! How much longer can they keep on with this minimal-margin's lead? Meanwhile, it's funny how INAC's Spanish players keep scoring the exact half of their goals!