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.
Best Regards.