Monthly Archive for December, 2009

The Season in Blogging: Aishiteru-Tokyo.com in 2009

Published on December 13, 2009 in Site stuff by dokool. 5 Comments

An entire season has come and gone, and for the most part I managed to blog about all of it; or at least the parts that mattered ;-)

I’ve written about 102 posts in 2009, compared to about 30 posts in 2008.  Granted, the bulk of those posts were certainly earlier in the season before I got a bit overwhelmed with work and the like, but I’m certainly happy with how I managed (mostly) to keep up with things.  I’m nowhere close to what Furtho & Agent Orange are up to over in Omiya (300+ posts this year alone!), and sometimes I have trouble consistently getting up reports as regularly as Barry over in Shimizu, but for a two-bit operation I don’t think I (or my guest writers/assistants, Lantis and Andre) have done that badly considering that this was basically the first “full year” of operations for the blog.

The site currently receives a couple thousand visitors a month; plus a fair number of RSS feed reads.  Although to be totally honest I have no idea how many of those hits are actual people since people rarely write comments =P (Seriously, people, comment! Let me know what’s up!)  Additionally, @aishiterutokyo on Twitter has about 50 followers, the vast majority of them Japanese fans.

In 2009 I attended 28 games; 20 league, 7 Nabisco Cup, 1 Emperor’s Cup. 7 of these matches were away, including 3 stadiums I’d never visited previously (Hitachi, Kashima, and Nihondaira) plus my first J1 match at Saitama Stadium.  In addition the Nabisco Cup group stage match against Shimizu brought me to Komazawa Stadium for the first time.  Schedule conflicts prevented me from attending 3 home games (including Ishikawa’s hat trick vs. Omiya, the tie vs. Kyoto, and the Nabisco semifinal vs. Shimizu), and while I may be forced to miss a game or three next Spring due to similar conflicts I intend to make it up in my away matches.  With the help of Andre I managed to complete the tifo I’d been mulling all season; the three 8.5-feet-tall nobori we created ended up in many a photo after the Nabisco Cup.

This was also an important year for me in that I started to establish connections within the supporter community.  I met Yuji, the webmaster behind Tokyo Web Life (pretty much the authoritative FC Tokyo fan site).  For the first time in my three years (!) of supporting the team, I finally made an effort to befriend the members of LA12, the main group of ultras that organize tifos and lead chants.  I’ve criticized LA12 in the past, and I’ve always felt that they were somewhat resistant to the idea of me being behind the goal, but after a few of them saw my blog this year they finally started to understand that I’m not some tourist and there’s now somewhat of a mutual respect.

I’ve also continued to improve my knowledge of ‘the game’ itself; this is part of overcoming a disability known in the soccer world as “being American.”  But I’ve learned enough to be able to tell when a player is diving, when offside is really offside, and when Tokyo will utterly fail against a set play (sadly, the answer to this is ‘nearly every time’).

With that in mind, I’ve already got a laundry list of things I want to do for next season.

  • Add More (Japanese) Writers. While Lantis (hopefully) and Andre (probably) will continue to contribute next season, my grand plan is to assemble two or three Japanese writers with good enough English skills to handle translating articles.
  • Better SNS & Multimedia integration.  Anyone who’s been following @aishiterutokyo on Twitter knows that it’s been really easy for me to post brief notes as well as live updates from matches.  I’ve experimented a little with the Lifestream plugin for WordPress this year, but for next year I’m hoping to find a better method.  The same goes for YouTube videos and photos.
  • Visit More Practices.  This is unfortunately tied to my work schedule, but I would like to make the trip out to Kodaira more often and talk to the players.
  • More Collaboration with Supporter Groups.  I’m not sure what form this will take but hopefully it will go towards getting more foreign fans to stand with us behind the goal; I’m planning on doing romaji versions of the ‘song sheets’ that fans can pick up at The Shack on gameday.  Furthermore, the idea of doing a joint scarf or tee-shirt design has been floating around.  I consider scarves to be quintessential supporter gear and have a couple design ideas percolating.
  • Flesh out the site a bit more.  The long-waiting “How To Buy Tickets At Lawsons” section, maybe a bit more for history and statistics, that sort of thing.
  • Form A Penya.  FC Tokyo recognizes groups of supporters as penya – you don’t get anything from the team except for acknowledgment that you exist, but it’s still Something.  My intention is to submit for an International Supporters Penya under the TOKYO DAMACY 1999 slogan.  Hopefully if we get more foreign supporters behind the goal, we can actually do stuff as a group… we’ll see how it turns out!

Is there anything I’ve overlooked?  Let me know!  The comment section is there for a reason ;-)

In any case it’s already shaping up to be an exciting 2010 for FC Tokyo and Aishiteru-Tokyo.com, so I hope you’ll all continue to stop by this blog!  Thanks to everyone for your support and I hope you have a good offseason.  In the meantime I’ve got photos to choose for my exhibition in 10 days, but early next week I’ll be doing a rundown of Tokyo’s signings and releases.

Tags: .

[Match Report] End of the Road – Albirex 1:1 FC Tokyo

Published on December 5, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo Match Reports by dokool. 1 Comment

The 2009 J.League Division 1 season came to a close not with a bang, but with a rain-soaked whimper at Big Swan Stadium in Niigata.
Tokyo took an early lead off of a superb goal by Hokuto Nakamura in the 12th minute and proceeded to defend and attack with valor for much of the rest of the game.  Sota Hirayama in particular had several close chances and anyone watching the game could see the anguish in his face as each time he came up just short.

Unfortunately, a gift of 3 points to end the season was not meant to be as Niigata equalized in the closing seconds with a header by retiring (?) player Naoto Matsuo off, you guessed it, a corner kick.  Gonda had no chance and will have to be content with tying the J.League shutout record at 15 matches.

The 2,800 (!) Tokyo fans that made the trip to Niigata were fortunate enough to see both Fujiyama and Asari take the field for the last time; Fujiyama was substituted for Hanyu late in the game and wore the captain’s mark while Asari replaced Suzuki following the equalizer goal.  While it may have been hard to tell at first sight if it was tears or rain streaming down Asari’s face following the game, it would seem that many Tokyo fans could have used an umbrella as well, so to speak.

With the draw (combined with a Shimizu draw and Urawa’s loss), FC Tokyo ends the season in 5th place.  This is the team’s best finish of the one-stage era (2005~) and is an improvement of one place over last year.  For accomplishing this, the team will receive from J.League 40 million yen, or roughly $440,000US.

I was going to do a final “summing up the season” post here but I’m seriously lacking the energy at the moment.  Many thanks are owed and they will all be written out in time, I’m sure.  In the meantime a hearty otsukare to everyone out there in the blogosphere in the stands, and on the field!

Tags: , , , .

Wrapping up…

Published on December 5, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo Match Reports, F.C. Tokyo News, F.C. Tokyo Player News and F.C. Tokyo Rumors by dokool. 1 Comment

As the season winds down to a close, we have stuff to look forward to (or not?) next season…

First, last week’s game against Vissel Kobe.  We won, 1-0.  Hiramatsu scored a fantastic header off of a Suzuki free kick in the 87th minute.  If that was all you saw of the game, congrats: you saw the relevant bit.

Due to several fortunate results, Tokyo is now in sole possession of 5th place heading into the last game of the season vs. Albirex Niigata.  A win, plus a Hiroshima draw or loss, would put Tokyo in 4th place.  Not only would there be a decent bump to the end-of-season prize we would get from being in the top 8 (5th place receives 40 million yen while 4th gets 60 mil.), but we would have a Chance In Hell of going to the ACL next season.

I’m going to repeat that.  Despite everything the team has been through we could still conceivably play in Asia.  IF we get 4th place, and IF Kashima, Kawasaki, or Osaka wins the Emperor’s Cup.  So, to start with, go Kyoto!

The Kobe match was also a day for farewells of various sorts.  For starters, it was the final home game of “The Last Legends of Tokyo Gas” -- Satoru Asari (7) and Ryuji Fujiyama (8).  With a combined 31 years of service for FC Tokyo and Tokyo Gas, the two players were often immortalized in gateflags simply as 社員.  They were celebrated in a pre-game tifo:

Following the game the two players made tearful speeches to the home supporters.  While Asari is officially retiring and may continue on with the team as a coach, Fujiyama had previously expressed his desire to continue playing “until my body falls apart” and, in a stunning announcement in front of the home crowd, announced that he will be playing for J2 side Consadole Sapporo next season.

After the speeches, the two players made their way around the pitch:

Unfortunately, it appears that the game was also the last stand at Ajinomoto for Bruno Quadros, who will not be resigning with the squad.  I’m also seeing rumors that Hideki Sahara will be returning to Kawasaki Frontale.

In even less attractive news, I give you our 2010 uniforms:

The home kits are ugly as sin and I refuse to purchase one… what were they thinking with the ‘bib’ design? To be completely honest the photo of Nagatomo makes it look worse than it actually does due to the immense number of flashes going off at once.  That said it’s still a mediocre design and adidas should be ashamed.

I could grow to like the away kit, though.

In other bulletpoint-worthy news…

-We’re after a bunch of players, and none of it’s worth reporting on until we actually sign someone.

-The team has withdrawn from its annual Guam Camp due to the costs involved (roughly $1 million) and will instead train in Miyazaki Prefecture this winter.

-World Cup draws announced! Japan in the pot with Holland, Denmark, and Cameroon.  I say we have a fair shot.

Now, to get another hour or so of sleep before I go to El Loco for the match…

Tags: , , , , , , , .