So I decided to do a bit more digging and it turns out she has not completely retired. Well she is still playing football in some capacity. She has actually joined a semi-pro (I am assuming amateur for the women) 7-aside team in Yokohama called Sociedad Deportivo Ardora who play in the Football7 Society League. I do not know much about this league, except that they play seven on a pitch. https://www.instagram.com/p/DOkgzxrEzOv/?img_index=4
Today's result: WE League Mynavi (Tsuda, Ohnishi) 2-1 Beleza (Shiokoshi) Jef 0-0 Regina Albi 0-4 Inac (MIzuno, Yoshida, Yamamoto, Sampson) Urawa (Shimada, Hirakawa, Ito, TanNo) 4-0 Cerezo Nojima (Nanri) 1-2 Ohmiya (Ohshima, Makino) Nagano 0-2 Chifure (Higuchi, Tanaka) Nadeshiko League 2 JFA 0-5 Izumo (Ise, Yanase, Ito 2, Aiura) Bunnys 0-6 Ichihara (Sakuraba, Odagawa, Imai, Sato 2, Ueda) Yamato (Ando) 1-2 DR Hiroshima (Hamada, Nakanishi) Shonan 0-1 Nankatsu (Hitomi) Fujizakura 0-1 Mie (Furudera) Kibi (Miura, Nishimura, Kanda) 3-1 Imabari (Suto)
Speaking of Nadeshikos invasion into English WSL - link to the channel with many long fancams of Japanese players warming up, playing and bonding together after matches: Yui&Saki, Yui&Aoba&Fuka, Hinata&Maika, Aoba&Maika, Yuka&Risa etc.. Very heart-warming stuff! https://www.youtube.com/@Nadeshikosapo/videos
My game's result on the way: 1 Mynavi (50) 2 draw (20) 3 Inac (20) 4 Urawa (10) 5 Ohmiya (40) 6 Chifure (80)
I watched the first-half of this game and based on what I saw I thought Beleza would run out comfortable winners. The Shiokoshi goal was allowed to happen far too easily, though it was very nice. Mynavi were playing some nice football but it was mostly in their own half and Tsuda and Yakata got no service from midfield. Mynavi were playing too safe and were moving the ball very slowly in transition or not at all. There was a lot of backwards passing. Having said that Beleza really struggled to defend Mynavi's corners. Anyway, whatever happened in the second-half it obviously worked for Mynavi and they have now beaten Urawa and Beleza this season. This was a pretty ordinary game from both teams, though Ohmiya were a little better. When the wind is up at Stella's home ground it is very hard for either team to get into a rhythm. You would think Stella would be better at playing in these conditions, but you would be wrong. Haruna Oshima is a very fast, skillful player who can genuinely change a game when playing well, so it perplexes me why she does not start more for Ohimya. Yes, she can be very inconsistent, but when she is on she is good. Therefore I think she should always start. Anywy, she started today and she was good. Stella are just really frustrating to watch at times. I do not want to rant about formations and team selection, but I do think that you should put your best attacking players closer to your opposition's goal and not play them at right back. Stella lost two really solid players at the end of last season in Megu Hamada (Ohmiya) and Hina Inoue (Mynavi) who are now having very good seasons at their respective clubs. I have a suspicion Stella probably did not want to lose Hamada, because she played a lot last season and was good for Stella, but she went to the Red Bull money. But watching Inoue at Mynavi over the last month it makes me wonder why Stella did not play her more, because she was seriously under utilised at Stella for 3 seasons. I knew if I did not watch this game they would win.
I guess Beleza, with today's loss, can say bye-bye to the fight for the title, since, despite having played one more game than their rivals (!), they are now 3 points behind Urawa and 6 points behind INAC. I hope they will at least play decently in the AFC Champions' League. Mynavi, instead, unexpectedly (at least to me) even pass Albi. And I wonder if Anon Tsuda could grow into Senior National Team material. Sendai catch up with Regina also (who anyway marginally keep a better goal difference): usual Hiroshima's scoring problem, I suppose. I am surprised Albirex lost so badly at home, but maybe this is really INAC's year, even more than it seemed last season. Meanwhile, the 4 goals they scored could catch the eye today, but Urawa's power is especially represented by ther defense: just 4 goals against in 11 match-days. Omiya catch up with Cerezo and there is now a quite clear separation in the rankings: the upper-half, 6 teams with 16 points or more, and the lower-half, 6 teams with 11 points or less. The 5 points' gap between these two groups looks very difficult to clear. Meanwhile, 1st win in the league, after 11 match-days, for Saitama, who now see today's rivals of Nagano just 2 points ahead of them. I am not sure how I was able to predict this result!
A minor curiosity: I noticed Chifure AS Elfen Saitama recently added a reserve Goalkeeper to their roster whose name is Manaka Onodera. I remember there was a Nadeshiko Japan's GK, once upon a time (she now has about my age ), whose name was Shiho Onodera. Since they share the same family name and the same role, I wondered if they're in any way related.
Really pleased fifa+ are free live streaming U17 WWC games with no complications..just hit the button and watch
I'll leave it to @Elstree to properly analyze the last match-day of Nadeshiko League 2: I'll only notice that the race for the 2nd place, in the end, was won by the "dark horse" Diosa Izuma FC, who waited for the one-to-last match-day to install themselves there, but ended up keeping that crucial position! Bunnys, instead, even finished 4th! I guess JFA had some players away in the U-17 WWC roster, including Noa Fukushima, but their season has been anyway mediocre, independently from today's loss.
At which Central European hour Japan's match will be streamed tomorrow? Is Morocco in the same time zone as England? Meanwhile, I am going to follow Italy's debut vs Costa Rica in less than an hour.
Mynavi 2-1 Beleza Commentator Same-chan (consecutive two weeks) is of bad omen for Beleza. While she praises Beleza, doesn't point out its weak points so much. It gave two goals in two games in a row.
I can rewatch those 2011 highlights 24/7. Legendary performance of legendary team in legendary circumstances.
I see Kelly Nerei, of course, won't be starting! There goes my prediction. Can anyone upload the line-up, so I have it under my eyes all the time? I don't know well enough the names of this u17 Nadeshiko team.