Monthly Archive for August, 2009

Announcement: The Rising Sun finds a new home

Published on August 30, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo News by dokool. 0 Comments

Oita report will come after I’ve caught up on sleep, suffice to say there was more good than bad.

Anyway. Anyone with an interest in Japanese soccer has more than likely visited the Rising Sun News, run peerlessly by Matsu for the last several years.

The RSN covers J1, J2, the National Team, and even JFL/prefectural league teams in more detail than anywhere else. Additionally, the site’s forums have served as an intimate gathering place for fans of J.League.

Unfortunately due to the sites’ old server (located on a subsection of the now-defunct wldcup.com) slowly eating itself, Matsu has had to relocate the Rising Sun to a new location. While this is really a good thing in the long run in terms of expanding the reach of Japanese soccer bloggers (the move has already produced an alliance between RSN and JapaneseSoccer.Net and will likely expand to bring J.Bloggers such as myself and others on my blogroll into the fold), there is a small matter of letting fans of the RSN know where the site is.

So, redirect your bookmarks, blogroll links, and suchlike to http://www.the-rising-sun-news.com. And spread the word.

Crisis in Tokyo 2: Transfers and Uncertainty

Published on August 25, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo News, F.C. Tokyo Player News, F.C. Tokyo Reports and F.C. Tokyo Rumors by dokool. 0 Comments

I haven’t had time to write up proper reports for the last couple matches; anyone who’s followed on J’s Goal probably knows what’s happened.  For those who don’t, here are the last three scores:

8/16 FC Tokyo 0 – 0 Yokohama FM

8/19 Montedio Yamagata 1 – 0 FC Tokyo

8/23 Kashima Antlers 3 – 1 FC Tokyo

No, I’m not even going to bother explaining these scores yet.  It’s been a trying summer, to say the least, but given that most of J.League seems to be suffering we are, inexplicably, still not out of the ACL race.  Plus there’s the upcoming Nabisco Cup Semifinal next week.  Hopefully Oita will provide us with an opponent we can beat up, but a lot of that is certain to ride on whether or not Ishikawa makes it back to the lineup.

In other news, Tokyo is making some late-season player moves:

Veteran Jo Kanazawa is heading to Jubilo Iwata with a complete transfer.  Jo has only appeared as a substitute in a few games this season and started once or twice.  Kanazawa started his J.League career with Jubilo where he was a part of their ‘dynasty’ period from 1999 through 2002.

Rookie Kazunori Yoshimoto is off to FC Gifu on a 6-month loan.  He’s appeared a couple times for Tokyo over the last 3 years but hopefully this loan will give him a chance to get more playing time and improve his skills.

In news that could have an impact into next season, longtime shirt sponsor ENOS has decided to withdraw sponsorship after this season ends.  ENOS, which has long been considered the ‘face of Tokyo’ since it took over the front sponsorship from the AM/PM chain of convenience stores, paid 300,000,000 yen (roughly $3 million) for the privilege.

Crisis in Tokyo: 4 starters missing on Sunday

Published on August 16, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo Match Preview and F.C. Tokyo Player News by dokool. 0 Comments

Tomorrow’s match against Yokohama FM will be crucial for FC Tokyo as it begins the next phase of the Summer Counterattack.  Currently 4 points out of an ACL spot and 15 from the top, Tokyo needs to buckle down and put together another long chain of victories after its recent stumbles.

Unfortunately, tomorrow’s game will see a drastically altered lineup due to a variety of circumstances:

-Yuto Nagatomo underwent an appendectomy on August 3rd; although he’s recovering and participating in team practices he does not yet feel ready to start and the team is probably looking to have him return in time for Kashima next Sunday.

-Yohei Kajiyama recived his 4th yellow card of the season in the Kawasaki match and will sit Sunday out.

-Naohiro Ishikawa, in what is certainly the most upsetting news for the team injured his calf during practice earlier in the week and will sit the game out.

-Bruno Quadros flew back from Brazil on Friday, having returned there last week to be with his wife while she underwent surgery.  As a result of jet lag and not having practiced this week he will likely not be a part of the lineup.

How will Jofuku manage with this temporarily dire situation?  His lineup will surely be a test of Tokyo’s roster depth, and fortunately it appears that there are plenty of players to fill the various gaps.

On defense, Nagatomo’s role could be filled by Kenta Mukuhara, while Bruno’s position could be taken by Teriyuki Moniwa or Hideki Sahara, neither of whom have not played in several months.

The second line is somewhat more strained; El Golazo predicts that Ishikawa’s position will be covered by Soutan Tanabe, while Kajiyama will be relieved by veteran Jo Kanazawa.  Yet Jofuku has two more trump cards in the form of Yohei Otake and Hokuto Nakamura, both of whom have returned from injury and are regular participants in team practices.

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Match Report: J1 Round 19: Kawasaki Frontale vs. FC Tokyo

Published on August 8, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo Match Reports by Lantis. 0 Comments
J.League Division 1 Week 19
First Half
0 – 1

Second Half
2 – 0

Final
2 – 1
August 1st 2009, 7PM Kickoff at Todoroki Soccer Stadium (Nakahara, Kawasaki) Attendance ##,###
GK 1 Eiji Kawashima
DF 19 Yusuke Mori
DF 13 Shuhei Terada
DF 2 Hiroki Ito
DF 26 Kazuhiro Murakami
MF 18 Tomonobu Yokoyama
MF 29 Hiroyuki Taniguchi
MF 14 Kengo Nakamura
FW 15 Takuro Yajima
FW 10 Juninho
FW 8 Satoru Yamagishi		 Starting Members
 GK 20 Shuichi Gonda
DF 25 Yuhei Tokunaga
DF 4 Bruno Quadros
DF 6 Yasuyuki Konno
DF 5 Yuto Nagatomo
MF 10 Yohei Kajiyama
MF 28 Takuji Yonemoto
MF 18 Naohiro Ishikawa
MF 22 Naotake Hanyu
FW 9 Cabore
FW 13 Sota Hirayama
53′ 34 Renatinho (for Satoru Yamagishi)
65′ 4 Yusuke Igawa (for Kazuhiro Murakami)
71′ 20 Yuji Yabu (for Tomonobu Yokoyama)		 Substitutes 70′ 27 Sotan Tanabe (for Takuji Yonemoto)
77′ 40 Tatsuya Suzuki (for Cabore)
82′ 24 Shingo Akamine (for Naohiro Ishikawa)
55′ Juninho
89′ Hiroyuki Taniguchi		 Goals 37′ Naohiro Ishikawa
44′ Shuhei Terada
87′ Renatinho		 Cautions 3′ Bruno Quadros
73′ Yohei Kajiyama
Ejections

Report

Sorry this came late but I was at Rock In Japan Festival all weekend and spent the rest of the week recovering.  From the looks of it, doesn’t seem like a match I would have enjoyed attending much anyway.  Jofuku returned to the lineup that had given the team so much success in the last couple months, but a failure to keep the lead resulted in a heartbreaking injury time loss.  Tokyo now sits at 6th place in the standings (edged out by Shimizu on points) and Kashima’s loss means that the top half of the table draws ever closer.

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Match Report: Nabisco Cup Quarterfinals Second Leg: Nagoya Grampus vs. FC Tokyo

Published on August 8, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo Match Reports and J.League Nabisco Cup 2009 by Lantis. 0 Comments
Nabisco Cup Quarterfinals Second Leg: Nagoya Grampus vs. FC Tokyo
First Half
1 – 0

Second Half
1 – 1

Final
2 – 1
July 29th 2009, 8PM Kickoff at Mizuho Athletic Stadium (Mizuho, Nagoya) Attendance 6,463
GK 30 Koichi Hirono
DF 32 Hayuma Tanaka
DF 3 Milos Bajalica
DF 4 Maya Yoshida
DF 6 Shohei Abe
MF 10 Yoshizumi Ogawa
MF 14 Keiji Yoshimura
MF 13 Kei Yamaguchi
MF 19 Keita Sugimoto
FW 17 Yuki Maki
FW 16 Joshua Kennedy		 Starting Members
 GK 1 Hitoshi Shiota
DF 33 Kenta Mukuhara
DF 4 Bruno Quadros
DF 6 Yasuyuki Konno
DF 5 Yuto Nagatomo
MF 10 Yohei Kajiyama
MF 22 Naotake Hanyu
MF 40 Tatsuya Suzuki
MF 27 Sotan Tanabe
FW 9 Cabore
FW 24 Shingo Akamine
55′ 18 Tomohiro Tsuda (for Keiji Yoshimura)
62′ 28 Taishi Taguchi (for Keita Sugimoto)
83′ 26 Masaya Sato (for Kei Yamaguchi)		 Substitutes 55′ 25 Yuhei Tokunaga (for Cabore)
58′ 18 Naohiro Ishikawa (for Naotake Hanyu)
77′ 13 Sota Hirayama (for Sotan Tanabe)
33′ Yuki Maki
65′ Maya Yoshida		 Goals 85′ Sota Hirayma
15′ Keiji Yoshimura Cautions
Ejections

Report

We came with an adjusted lineup from the previous 8 games, they scored 2 goals, but Hirayama put one in the net late to seal Tokyo’s victory.  Sadly the game wasn’t broadcast so I had no way of seeing it, but the 1-2 loss was enough to get Tokyo to the semifinals 6-3 on aggregate.  Our next opponent will be Shimizu S-Pulse (again), with the away leg on 9/2 and the home leg on 9/6.  Winner plays the winner of Yokohama vs. Kawasaki in the final.