If Inac won the title, it would go to Narumiya. But it could be hard to guess who would get it in the case of Beleza.
Highlights from a few games last weekend. Nittaidai Satellite vs Tsukuba Bunnys vs Nankatsu Izumo vs OSA
Tomorrow's games: WE League (all games start at 14:00) Mynavi vs Nagano Chifure vs Urawa Beleza vs Jef Nojima vs Inac Albi vs Regina Cerezo vs Ohmiya Nadeshiko League Nagoya vs Harima 13:00 Ehime vs Iga 13:00 Nadeshiko League 2 Ichihara vs Mie 13:00 Yamato vs Izumo 13:00 Shonan vs Kibi 13:00 Nankatsu vs JFA 14:00
Fujino and Oyama called to Man City's 15 players roster for World 7's tourney (21-23 May) Hasegawa was given some very much needed rest.
Thanks guys. I've registered on DAZN, connected through VPN set on Japan, but their www page still doesn't load (displays 'security breach' error).
Nadeshiko League 1 H.T...Ehime 1-1 Iga Ehime F.C Ladies have raised their game for this one after the 4-0 drubbing of last week....Anzai and Kubota on from the start and Kubota scores after 3 mins when some very casual defending from Iga resulted in a 'pinball' goal...there is noticeably more effort to get the ball back from Ehime which has meant Iga have not had it all their own way (as they must have expected)...at 45mins +2 Watanabe was judged to have got the ball over the goal line after a scramble in the box but it wasn't that obvious ( at least not to this viewer) so there you have it ...level at H T
Nadeshiko League 1 F.T....Ehime 1-1 Iga There was only one team who looked like scoring in the second half and it wasn't Ehime...Iga were a lot more organised in the second half but some scrappy hard working defending kept them from scoring...I suspect a lot of Ehime followers would have settled for one point before a ball was kicked ( including this viewer)..Kono was subbed off again this week at 61 mins and again I wonder why (fitness..injury?) Ehime are a bit of an enigma this season... they have demonstrated they are capable of some really good play but they could equally turn up and play complete rubbish (Kapi...Elstree....were you expecting 3pts today)
Unless INAC beat Stella by 8 goals the WE League will be going to Tokyo. I suspect Beleza will probably score more against JEF, because JEF have been very poor since the start of this year. I think this is Beleza's year. I mean the goal from Yamamoto was miss hit cross. INAC will probably beat Stella, but Stella are defending really well at the moment and it is 0-0 in Kanagawa. Stella have defended well, but have also created a few good chances. In the second-half Stella will be kicking with the very strong breeze, so maybe with they will spring a surprise on the tiring INAC and get a goal. Probably not, but you neve know.
Congratulations to Tokyo Verdy Beleza and Miharu Shinjo, Champion of Japan! She's a rookie and younger than her idol Yui Hasegawa winning her first domestic championship.
Today's result: WE League Mynavi (Sumida, Nakajima) 2-2 Nagano (Mitani, Kawafune) Chifure (Sakuma, Yoshida, Katsura) 3-3 Urawa (Takahashi Yuna, Takahashi Hana, Fujisaki) Beleza (Yamamoto 2, Matsuda) 3-0 Jef Nojima (Hamada) 1-3 Inac (Morera 2, Narumiya) Albi (Michigami, Yokoyama) 2-2 Regina (Goya, Kinga) Cerezo (Tago) 1-2 Ohmiya (Inoue 2) Nadeshiko League Nagoya (Fuchigami) 1-0 Harima Ehime (Kojima) 1-1 Iga (Watanabe) Nadeshiko League 2 Ichihara (Kawai, Sakuraba) 2-1 Mie (Yano) Yamato 0-1 Izumo (Tomochika) Shonan (Matsuzaki 2) 2-2 Kibi (Nishimura 2)
This game was still at 0-2 going into the last 10 minutes, then 1-3 as we entered additional time. Urawa completely lost the plot. I'm not sure the change in manager did them any good in the end.
Well Stella got a goal in the second-half, but they conceded three. Stella at times have the ability to play some very nice football and look more than a match for any team in the competition, but then they let in 3 goals in ten minutes. They played a lot better than INAC for long passages of play, but they lose 3-1. Stella have to do better at defending crosses. Having said that both crosses from Aikawa for the second and third goals were excellent. However, both scorers had no idea where the ball was, yet they score two goals. You create your own luck, but I wonder when Stella will create some luck for themselves. I have not watched all of INAC's games but the ones I have watched Aikawa has been the standout this season. She has really matured and has played some very good football this season. I am curious to see if she stays in the WE League, because she has the skills to be a good player in any league in my opinion. Of course I am still pretty sure no teams actually look at the stats for the WE League so until she gets a game for the national team nobody will come for her. I am not sure what INAC are going to do next season, if they lose all their Spanish players, because they have been pretty good this season. Well done to Beleza for winning the league. I long for the day when a team other than Beleza, INAC or Urawa win the league.