I've been half waiting for this goal celebration.... (well it's possible they are too hot... and instantly melt away )
Over 4k in attendance at new Peace Wing Stadium in Hiroshima (terrible goalkeeping by Sanfrecce goalie)
Today's result: WE League Urawa (Seike) 1-1 Inac (Takeshige) Ohmiya 0-2 Chifure (Karahashi, Sakuma) Nojima 0-2 Beleza (Kamiya 2) Nagano (Suzuki 2) 2-1 Jef (Ohsawa) Regina (Koga) 1-2 Albi (Takikawa, Sugita)
The middle of the rankings is an incredibly tight race: there are 4 "top teams" (INAC, Urawa, unexpected, at least to me, Albirex and Beleza), one team far behind (Nojima at just 1 point), and then seven other teams in the span of just 4 points (from 8 points to 11), that keep exchanging positions: this week Sanfrecce became one-to-last!
Yes great stuff . Though it leads to another question or two. With 14 games still to play and being only 3 goals behind Ueno in the table. Could Kamiya become the top goal scorer of 2 leagues that started in the same year? And then a possible callup to the Nadeshiko Olympic squad?
Some Beleza players were rested today (I assume after the NT games), so it's not clear who will be playing in the starting 11 yet. But at least some depth for Beleza now (finally).
No! Nojima are terrible. I think my mother could score against them. I watched this game and all I can say is that it was not a good advertisement for the WE League. There were long stretches of play where INAC's defence would just pass the ball to each other. Both teams seemed to be very worried about losing the ball in midfield and being caught on the short-counter. The defending and counter-pressing at times was quite impressive, but it was not the most exciting game to watch. Tanaka was excellent for INAC and Miki Itoh was really solid for Urawa. Haruna Aikawa came on in the 71st minute for INAC and then got pulled in the 91st minute for some unknown reason, because she was not injured. Just a very strange substitution given she was actually playing quite well. That is the kind of substittion that could lead to a player leaving a club in my opinion. I have no idea why INAC kept Maya Yamamoto on! She looked out of her depth today, but they do not have a lot of midfielders. It is remarkable they are top of the league and I am pretty sure they are very happy with today's result. I had to watch this game and Nojima are getting worse. Defensively they are just all over the place. It is really worrying how bad they are. The first fifteen minutes was actually good with some very good pressing, but there was no way they could keep that level of pressure up, so once they did not score it was game over. They got tired and then Beleza just played with them. It was really depressing. I know it was a home game for Nojima, but I think I would have preferred them to sit deep and annoy Beleza than do a high press. I would also like to see them play Sakakibara as the number 10, but that is not going to happen, because Minamino plays there and she appears to be untouchable, despite not playing that well at times. She did play alright today. I would also like to see some of the junior team players. Is that too much to ask? Anyway, I am glad Elfen got a win today.
I was there in Peace Wing, but I was unable to follow the game situation well from my seat (straight an extension of the away goal line), especially what was happening on the other end half (and 80% of the game was done around there). In addition, a man sitting next to me was always complaining, sometimes unintentionally blocking my eyesight and somewhat smelled bad (I hope he doesn't read this thread), and also I had to care for my leaving time schedule, so It was not an excellent experience for my first visit there so much. By the way, Albi's scorer Takikawa was cute, but now also looks beautiful on her heroine interview. Her smile is precious.
Ah that’s a shame. I’ve only seen the new stadium in some news outlets and looked like a fantastic stadium. Most of Japanese stadiums are awful and even worse when it comes to football stadium. But this one looked amazing. Hope your next visit is a better experience.
Saori Takarada played whole match while Yuka Momiki 85 minutes for Leicester against Chelsea of Maika Hamano who entered the pitch in 79th minute.
Moeka Minami was on the bench, while Saki Kumagai entered the pitch in 71st minute for Roma at Milan in their Copa Italia semifinal match.
Rika Masuya is injured with an anterior cruciate ligament injury in her left knee. She's out for 8 months. https://inac-kobe.com/news/notice/8309 It is the 2nd time in 2 years...
AfC u20 Korea DPR v China PR K.o.....observation....every single Chinese player is bigger than the biggest Korea DPR player
Looks like China has started working on selection process a bit more. They are searching for their own Takahashi', Minami' and Ueno's N. Korean's are set 4-4-2 but I've already seen them trying 3-5-2/5-3-2 variant... looks like they are closely watching Nadeshiko system that beat them few times.
Kinda unfortunate for Tanikawa and Koga not to participate in the competition. I still think their introduction to the senior squad is rush, and they can benefit a lot from U-20 competitions.