I seriously think Chelsea would benefit from having Hamano on the field. They constantly seem to be out of ideas under Bompastor.
Empress' Cup - 2nd round day 3 Beleza (Shinjo, Kobayashi, Doko, Shiokoshi, Kitamura, Tan) 6-0 Nippatsu
GK 1 YAMASHITA Ayaka (Manchester City/England) 12 HIRAO Chika (Granada CF/Spain) 23 OKUMA Akane (INAC Kobe Leonessa) DF 4 KUMAGAI Saki (London City Lionesses/England) 21 MORIYA Miyabi (Angel City FC/USA) 13 KITAGAWA Hikaru (Everton/England) 2 ENDO Yu (West Ham United/England) 3 MINAMI Moeka (Brighton & Hove Albion/England) 5 TAKAHASHI Hana (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Urawa Reds Ladies) 22 ISHIKAWA Rion (Everton/England) 18 SHIRAGAKI Uno (Cerezo Osaka Yanmar Ladies) 6 KOGA Toko (Tottenham Hotspur/England) MF 24 NARUMIYA Yui (INAC Kobe Leonessa) 14 HASEGAWA Yui (Manchester City/England) 16 MIURA Narumi (Washington Spirit/USA) 10 NAGANO Fuka (Liverpool FC/England) 25 NAKASHIMA Yoshino (Sanfrecce Hiroshima Regina) 7 MIYAZAWA Hinata (Manchester United/England) 26 YOSHIDA Riko (INAC Kobe Leonessa) 15 FUJINO Aoba (Manchester City/England) 17 HAMANO Maika (Chelsea/England) 20 MATSUKUBO Manaka (North Carolina Courage/USA) 19 TANIKAWA Momoko (Bayern Munich/Germany) FW 11 TANAKA Mina (Utah Royals/USA) 8 SEIKE Kiko (Brighton & Hove Albion/England) 9 UEKI Riko (West Ham United/England)
Yep. Also won't be in the Canada game. Risa Shimizu is not in the Liverpool squad to face Chelsea after sustaining a hamstring injury. ❌— MCWFC Xtra (@MCWFCXtra) November 16, 2025
Although the vast majority of the spots in the rosters are taken by players from leagues overseas (and rightfully so: some of them are indeed among our finest talents), I am happy that some kind of a chance was given to WE League's players: apart from Hana Takahashi and Akane Okuma, who already were more or less fixtures, we have Uno Shiragaki (is ths her first call? ), Yoshino Nakashima, Riko Yoshida (hard to overlook her, right now!) and Yui Narumiya. I am happy for this last one in particular: she's been around like forever, but she actually wasn't lucky with the Senior National Team; I am aware that, when given playing time, she seldom looked strong enough for the international level, but she remains a favourite of mine and I would like that she could find a place in the team, even if it's just as a primary sub option.
Shiragaki has played quite well this season, so I have no real issues with her being selected. She has always been on selectors' radars since her junior years, so I am not holding out much hope for any other Cerezo players being called up. Nakashima's selection is a little perplexing because she is not really having a good season, which makes me wonder if they have watched any Regina games this year. I like her so I am happy she has been selected, but I think she is lucky. I imagine if Aikawa had not gotten injured, Narumiya, Yoshida and Aikawa would have all been selected, because they have been excellent. Those three have helped to paper over a pretty poor INAC midfield. I think Aikawa has been excellent for about a year and half and is the perfect player for Nadeshiko. She is fast, skillful and most importantly a very direct player. Her injury is genuinely a shame for her and Nadeshiko in my opinion. I am now going to go on a bit of a rant about Yoshida and her selection. Yoshida's selection now that she plays for INAC does not look good at all in my opinion. She is a good player, but she was a good player two years ago. She should have been called up a long time ago, but only after moving to INAC do the selectors notice her. It just boggles my mind. I have said on numerous occasions that there is either a conscious or unconscious bias towards 3 teams (you know who they are) and the JFA Academy and if you do not play for those teams or do not come through the JFA then your chances of playing for Nadeshiko are so much more difficult. It is what it is, but it means that any decent player at one of the other clubs has to move to the big 3 to get noticed, which weakens the overall level of play in the WE League. Anyway, I will be curious to see how Yoshida goes, because although I think she is the perfect player for the WE League I am not sure how she will fair in a more open football environment.
I feel the same way. Beside, little over two months to go until the Asian Cup, and Nielsen is calling up more players to ‘test’ them instead of working on tactics and teamwork? It's starting to look like the EAFF experiment with the B team was a waste of time and opportunity. Managing the team without being in the country sometimes gives the impression that Nielsen is trying to drive this car from the passenger seat.
I'm always bad mouthing on JFA and Nielsen and am very cynical, so don't pay to much attention to what I say if you don't want to, but I think these players aren't here for testing but to be a "WE League caution" because the game is in Japan. Just like there was Shinjo, as an example, earlier this year. These are popular players currently in the domestic league. There is obviously an overlap between who is popular and who is good at the moment, but as it has been pointing out, Nakashima isn't really an in-form player at the moment. She is a crowd favorite, however. So I don't think there is much more thinking than that. After all, it is an extended group. They don't really replace anyone. I haven't followed the news regarding this international break, but I presume it's gonna be like usual, with an official friendly + some training match that may or may not be behind close door, and may or may not be 2*45 min? In that case, I don't even think we'd see much of them in the "official" friendly, like it was the case against Colombia. As for the EAFF E-1, it was always gonna be a waste. I can't think of a single other federation doing what JFA did for the EAFF E-1 (and previously the Asian Games). At most, they have a kind of "U-23" side for some minor tournaments, like Australia did recently at a recent competition. Otherwise, if you want to experiment, you do a mix bag of core group players and the ones you want to try. That's what everyone does. That's what Hayes did at the SBC. You'd never get any sort of definitive conclusion with 3 games with a completely new group. Especially when the manager isn't familiar with the vast majority of these players, and do (sorry for the language) some weird shit with them. I don't rate Kano that much (tho I rate him more than Shirai, which isn't hard), but he did what everyone would expect someone does with the players he had at the Asian Games. No non-sense. He puts them where he could logically get the best out of them, while still playing like a Japanese team is supposed to play. I doubt he had any sort of input in Nielsen's choices, other than suggesting some players from the domestic league to compose the squad for the competition. Other than that, I agree with @pierre bezukhov and his rant. There is clearly a pecking order, and there always is, managers having their biases. But it doesn't mean it makes sense, and I don't think squad buildings for the Nadeshiko always made a lot of sense in recent years, with Ikeda or Nielsen. Too many players never having a chance, too many having way too many chances.
Wow, this is big. Especially considering her age, overall level and competitiveness of the league. Year ago she didn't have even a single match in Nadeshiko Japan under her belt, what a progress! Most sincere congratulations!
I've never liked it as well. Not saying he has to live there for the whole year 24/7, but I would expect him to spend significant time watching local games, tournaments, visiting clubs and shaking football grassroot people's hands, not only sponsors'. I mean, 3-4 months would probably be enough to at least create caring, respectful atmosphere and half of that time he would be travelling and sightseeing Japan anyway. Dream job.
Shiokoshi should have been called over Nakashima even though they don’t play at the same position, I guess there would have been too many players with the same profile. On 2nd of december, there is indeed a training match at the same ground.
My game of this weekend: You select one from three options (two winning teams or draw), the number is your possible point, extratime and PK shootout winner gets half points. 1 Harima (30) draw (20) JFA (50) 2 Nittaidai (30) draw (20) Izumo (50) 3 Cerezo (30) draw (20) Nojima (50) 4 Nagano (40) draw (20) Nagoya (40) 5 Mynavi (40) draw (20) Albi (40) 6 Beleza (40)draw (10) Regina (50) 7 Inac (10) draw (10) Shizuoka (80) 8 Urawa (10) draw (10) Iga (80) 9 Japanese scorers playing abroad (top league players of England, Germany, USA, Holland)(3, 20pts, perfect 3, 200pts, nobody, 100pts) 10 Scorers in Empress's Cup (5, 20pts, hit 4, 200pts, perfect 5, 300pts, nobody,1000pts) 11 at least two goals scorer in 9 and 10 (1, 200pts, nobody, 20pts) 12 at least three goals scorer in 9 and 10 (1, 300pts, nobody, 1pts)
1. AS Harima Albion 2. Diosa Izumo FC 3. Nojima Stella Kanagawa Sagamihara 4. Asahi Intecc Loveledge Nagoya 5. Mynavi Sendai Ladies 6. Sanfrecce Hiroshima Regina 7. INAC Kobe Leonessa 8. Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies 9. Narumi Miura (Washington Spirit), Aoba Fujino (Manchester City), Fuka Nagano (Liverpool) 10. Sonoko Chiba (Albion), Anon Tsuda (Albion), Mami Ueno (Regina), Riko Yoshida (INAC), Mei Shimada (Urawa) 11. Riko Yoshida (INAC) 12 Mei Shimada (Urawa)
My answer: 1 JFA 2 Nittaidai 3 Cerezo 4 Nagano 5 draw 6 Beleza 7 Inac 8 Urawa 9 Tanikawa, Itamura, Momiki 10 Kikuchi Maria, Yoshida Riko, TanNo Ririka, Kitazawa Ami, Shinoda Honoka 11 Nakashima Yoshino 12 Shimada Mei
1 JFA 2 Nittaidai 3 Cerezo 4 Nagano 5 Mynavi 6 Beleza 7 Inac 8 Urawa 9 Tanikawa, Hasegawa, Fujino 10 Riko Yoshida, Miki Ito, Mei Shimada, Yui Narumiya, Fukina Mizuno 11 Tanikawa 12 Riko Yoshida
Empress' Cup - 3rd round Saturday Harima vs JFA (10:30) Nittaidai vs Izumo (11:00) Cerezo vs Nojima (11:30) Nagano vs Nagoya (13:00) Mynavi vs Albi (13:30) Beleza vs Regina (14:00) Inac vs Shizuoka (14:30) Sunday Urawa vs Iga (13:00)