WSL tonight: Seike starts for Brighton against Arsenal (they are already down 3:0 after 24 minutes...), Yui & Fujino start for Man City against Spurs, Yamashita on the bench.
Today's result (1): Nadeshiko League 2 league changing match Tsukuba (Miura) 1-5 Nankatsu (Ishikura 2, Hitomi, KanNo, Sato) Anclas 0-1 Vonds Ichihara (Ueda)
Today's result (2): WE League Mynavi 0-2 Cerezo (Yakata 2) Urawa (Shiokoshi, Shimada) 2-1 Regina (Ueno) Ohmiya 0-1 Albi (Sonoda)
Final score at full time was Mynavi 1-3 Cerezo, with Yakata's second hat trick of the season (9 goals this season so far). I wish I could see the full games, because I'm curious to see how Elfen managed to lose to this Mynavi side.
Oh, sorry I made a mistake. Mynavi (Endo) 1-3 Cerezo (Yakata 3) I was chagrined about Regina's defeat a little then, an invalid excuse though.
Urawa Red fans displayed banners complaining about WE League scheduling, mostly the semi-finals of the WE League Cup happening on the same day as J League final matchday. WEリーグに対する抗議の弾幕。#三菱重工浦和レッズレディース#WEリーグ pic.twitter.com/Y9LGT01sVX— C.E.F. (@tobarijun_com) November 9, 2024
Elfen were the better side but did not take their chances while Mynavi scored two pretty lucky goals. Having said that Mynavi played quite well against Elfen, but it probably should have been a draw. If Regina had only defended better for the second Urawa goal they would have got a draw. It was a pretty even game, which was also very entertaining. Urawa played much better in this game and really took the game to Regina from the start. The thing is, Regina were able to withstand the pressure early on and gradually came into the game. It looks like Urawa have decided that Takahashi is going to play as a forward now. She did a lot of hard work and managed to run into every Regina defender at least once. I am not sure she knows her own strength. Shiokoshi was excellent in this match and scored a great goal. The Regina goal was beautifully worked team goal with some great passing from Mai Watanabe. Regina have a pretty solid team and seem to be in with a shout for the title. I know INAC have started well, but I can not imagine they will keep it up for the entire season. I just think that teams in the second-half of the season will know how to handle their new recruits and make it much harder for them to score. Of course I may be wrong about this.
So, we're going to have two new competitors in next year's Nadeshiko League 2? Nice addition. Although we lose two quite historical clubs, and Fukuoka J Anclas in particular sounds sad, if you think that a dozen years ago they were in the first division of women's football in Japan and a very young Hikaru Naomoto was in their roster.
I wonder what this could mean in a National Team perspective, since there Hana Takahashi was literally played as one of our few actual Defenders...
It is hard to say, because it will depend on the incoming manager. I like her as a forward, but I am not sure she is good enough to be called up. Of course if she starts knocking in a lot of goals for Urawa I may change my mind.
They could have added Sanfrecce's goal against Urawa if they waited a couple more days for the video. ◤2024-25 SOMPO WEリーグ 第8節🆚浦和◢後半34分 #上野真実 選手のゴールシーンを𝑷𝑳𝑨𝒀 𝑩𝑨𝑪𝑲⚽#サンフレッチェ広島レジーナ pic.twitter.com/4rSjEaKIgt— サンフレッチェ広島レジーナ【公式】 (@sanfrecceREGINA) November 9, 2024 I wonder how her and Saori Takarada would have perform if they kept playing as forward.
I definitely agree. On the other hand, where are we supposed to find the DFs we need to fill up our NT roster?
Momoko Tanikawa's 16th goal in her 20th game in Damallsvenskan. 谷川萌々子 pic.twitter.com/0nYacae437— women's football🇯🇵 (@Kogel18) November 9, 2024 She (and Kadowaki) won championship with Rosengard and became league top scorer... not bad for 19 year old.
Manaka Matsukubo played whole match, while Narumi Miura 88 minutes for NC at KC in their QF playoff match.
Today's result: WE League Jef (Kobayashi Ririko) 1-0 Beleza Chifure (Sakuma, Kimoto) 2-2 (Ide, Takase) Nagano (Sakai, Ohuchi) 2-3 Nojima (Katayama, Sakakibara, Ohtake) Inac' scramble operation in front of the opponent's goal is not beautiful but effective while Beleza lacks such tactics.
They were incredibly lucky to get away with a draw today. I only watched the second-half and from what I could see Elfen were playing the much better football and thoroughly derserved to be in front. The second goal for INAC should not have been allowed because the forward backed into the keeper and did not even touch the ball. If the forward had headed the ball then it could have been a penalty. Just a poor decision from the usually good referee Koizumi. INAC were really uninspired in the second-half. Their game plan just appeared to be lob balls into the penalty box and hope for the best. The problem is Elfen actually have two pretty tall defenders in Kishi and Onuma (my personal favourite) though Onuma was playing at left-back today, who organise the defence quite well. Kishi is a really underrated defender in my opinion. She seldom makes mistakes and plays really solid football. Elfen should be gutted after this result. Almost as much as Nagano. I was also impressed with Miu Tochitani who came off the bench for Elfen and made some very good passes. She seems to have very good vision. I am happy Stella got the win today, but they did not deserve it. Poor old Nagano should have put this game away in the first-half, because they were excellent. I did think that they might get tired in the second-half and they did which allowed Stella back into the game. Stella got two really soft penalties. The first one in particular just involved Katayama falling over in the penalty box; it was so soft. The second penalty which led to the third goal was a bit more reasonable, but Otake went down easily. The defender has to do better and realise that Otake will fall over at the slightest contact. Of course the goal from Sakakibara was very nice, though the defending could have been a bit better. I have not watched a lot of Nagano this season, but I was really impressed with the right-back Nonoha Abe who apparently can play as a centre-half too. It is really the first time I have seen her play, but she is tall, quite fast and strong. Of course it is only one game and it was against Stella, but I am curious to see more of her.
is it me or there's not much talk about Yakata here? I mean she is setting the charts on fire... was this something expected? I didn't even know her... or do you think she's on a streak that will end?
Hamano starts for Chelsea at Liverpool this afternoon, and is looking sharp. Fuka is injured (hopefully not seriously) and not in the squad for the Reds.