You Tube search for....Yui Hasegawa-when football becomes art...8 minutes of compulsive viewing (Sorry cant do the link)
Maika Hamano played 56 minutes for Chelsea against ManU on Sunday. Hinata Miyazawa spent the game on the bench.
Rumours circulating over the past week that the next manager of the WNT is expected to be a foreigner (which would be the first time for the women’s team). This is based on remarks by Sasaki to Sanspo, who said something like ‘it’s a matter of time’ before a foreign coach is named for the role, and that he would personally like to see an overseas coach. In any case he said a new coach will be in place for the She Believes Cup, with the announcement coming before the end of the year. Any favourites?
Tomorrow's games: WE League (all games start at 14:00) Urawa vs Mynavi Ohmiya vs Jef Nojima vs Albi Regina vs Beleza
Yamashita nominated for the Best FIFA Women's Goalkeeper Award Ikeda nominated in best coach category
As mentioned before, it will be interesting to see how much the JFA is willing to pay for this role. I would note that the current England WNT manager Sarina Wiegman is getting £400,000 per annum (about usd $500,000), and USA WNT manager Emma Hayes is reportedly on $1,600,000 annually (same as the mens' team coach). I don't think the JFA is going to run to those levels for the Nadeshiko.
This is part of the reason why I do not want them to take a manager from abroad, because I doubt they have the money to tempt a good manager to take the position. Also, I think being able to speak the language is incredibly important.
Not only the language. In all of these years I followed Nadeshiko football, I've got the impression that Japanese culture is much more different, unique and difficult to grasp than most western cultures (as different from each other that the latter can be by themselves). In my opinion, to work well, a manager should be incredibly well-versed in Japanese culture: learning it along the road wouldn't be enough.
Agreed. There is a shortage of very good manager everywhere, and even clubs and nations struggle with poor managers, despite good finances and attraction. I hope JFA is not looking to get some one from abroad just for the sake of it.
H.T. Regina 0-1 Beleza (Shinjo) I have a mixed feeling about this game. I hope Regina's win, but I'm a little bit pleased with Shinjo's goal and Hiwatari seems to be gradually used to the top league level with starting to show her potential ability.
Saturdays Empress' Cup - 3rd round results Kibi 0-2 Belle (Yokoyama 13, Kakoi 23) Nagoya (Nagata 11, Miura 64) 2-0 NTV Menina ------------------------------------------------------------- Sundays Empress' Cup - 3rd round games 10:30 Bunnys vs Ehime 10:30 Nippatsu vs Ichihara 11:00 Kanagawa Uni vs Setagaya 13:30 Shizuoka vs Nittaidai 13:30 Viama vs JFA 14:00 Iga vs Harima
Today's result: WE League Urawa (Takahashi) 1-0 Mynavi Ohmiya 0-1 Jef (Kobayashi Ririko) Nojima 0-2 Albi (Takikawa 2) Regina 0-2 Beleza (Shinjo, Kitamura)
I try not to rant after every Stella loss, because it is almost every week, but I need a place to vent. The following is not of any interest to anybody who does not follow Nojima Stella. More often than not when I watch Stella I wonder if there is a game plan. Let me rephrase that, there is a game plan, but I wonder why is it so often terrible. They are such an infuriating team to watch because they can on occasions play some very nice football and they have some talented players, but I have come to the conclusion they are just poorly managed. The home ground of Stella is famous for being incredibly windy and when the wind blows it favours one end. Stella kicked towards that goal in the first-half and played quite well, but were unable to score. They moved the ball well, but left so much space for the Niigata forwards to run into. Niigata kicking into the wind started with the 18 year-old Seira Tanaka and Fuka Kono. These two are very fast, tricky players who are very good at dribbling. Niigata moved the ball through midfield and at times fed them the ball when they were one-on-one with a defender, which created all kinds of problems for the Stella defence. In the second-half despite playing very well both Kono and Tanaka were taken off, because the game plan had changed for Niigata and they were no longer required. Tanaka does look like a good player, but Stella makes everybody look good, so it is hard to know how good she really is. Anyway Tanaka's substitution for the second-half was Takikawa who scored both goals. Niigata looked the much better team and were essentially playing with Stella. It is just so depressing. Stella's second-half tactics comprised Juri Itoh and almost all other defenders (exlcuding Ohga) just kicking the ball long to Niigata defenders. There was just no attempt to pass the ball, so what hope do they the forwards have? As soon as they took off Sakakibara I knew how they were going to play and so did Niigata. Ohga was excellent in defence today. Stella's defence is not really the problem, it is their midfield. They just give the ball away too easily, which puts an awful lot of pressure on the defenders. They need a central midfielder, preferably two.
She is one of my favourite players, not just in the WE League, but in the world. I love watching her play. She is hard working, skillful, a team player and a leader. She is just fantastic.
Sundays Empress' Cup - 3rd round results - pt 1 (morning kick off games) Bunnys 0-5 Ehime (Tago 29, Matsumoto 36, Og 56, Osajima 70, Kojima 84) Nippatsu 0-1 Ichihara (Ueda 78) Kanagawa Uni 0-2 Setagaya (Horie 11, Toda 80)
Today's result: WE League Chifure (Tochitani) 1-1 Nagano (Takahashi) Cerezo (Momono, Yakata) 2-1 Inac (Narumiya)
Sundays Empress' Cup - 3rd round results - pt 2 (afternoon kick off games) Shizuoka (Tsuchiya 2/60, Nakajima 88, Shiozawa 90+2) 4-0 Nittaidai Viama (Yamamoto 25/33/59) 3-1 JFA (Itamura 9) Iga (Kamiya 90+2) 1aet1 - 5pk3 Harima (Kawasaki 31)
Just watched the Cerezo - INAC highlights... Halfway through the season and teams still let Yakata get free header in the box (+ another assist for Wakisaka on a Yakata header).