Archive for the 'F.C. Tokyo News' Category

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News Roundup: Cabore’s Departure, Nabisco Tickets, Kyot

Published on September 13, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo Match Reports, F.C. Tokyo News, F.C. Tokyo Player News and J.League Nabisco Cup 2009 by dokool. 1 Comment

I’m a little busy so I’ve fallen behind on postings, here’s the latest from Tokyo:

-Cabore has officially signed with Qatar club Al Arabi, with a reported transfer fee of 500 million yen (roughly $5.5 million at the current exchange rate).  The club has offered a formal apology to fans for not being able to set up a proper farewell from the star forward, and he expressed his heartfelt thanks to the fans and support for the club in a message published on the team website.

-Nabisco Cup tickets went on sale on Saturday morning at 10AM and were completely sold out less than an hour later.  The stage is set for a packed house at Kokuritsu on November 3rd

-Tokyo lost 1-2 to Kyoto.  In addition Hirayama recieved his 4th yellow, meaning he will be out for the Gamba match.  Let’s move on until I have time to compose all of my thoughts.

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NABISCO CUP FINAL – TICKET INFO

Published on September 7, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo News and J.League Nabisco Cup 2009 by dokool. 2 Comments

(this post will be stickied until the Cup Final or tickets sell out, whichever comes first.  Scroll down for the latest news!)

Want to support FC Tokyo in the Nabisco Cup Final?  Here’s how to get a ticket to what is sure to be one of the fiercest Cup finals in recent memory:

First, mark your calendars:

2009 J.League Yamazaki Nabisco Cup Final

FC Tokyo vs. Kawasaki Frontale

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 (it’s a national holiday)

Tokyo National Stadium (Kokuritsu)

2:05PM Kickoff

Want to be there yourself?  Here’s the ticket info:

NOTE FOR ALL TICKET PURCHASES – FC TOKYO WILL BE ON THE ‘HOME‘ SIDE OF THE STADIUM, SO DON’T FORGET TO SELECT ‘HOME‘ FOR ANY TICKETS WHEN GIVEN THE OPTION.

SOCIO Season Ticket Holders

The club is mailing out information to season ticket holders on September 7th, 2009.  Fans can apply for their tickets between September 8th, 2009 at 10AM and September 23rd at 9PM.

-Fans who do not receive this information by September 11th, 2009 are encouraged to call the club at ０３－３６３５－８９８５.

-Due to the difference in seating arrangements between Kokuritsu and Ajinomoto, the club has listed the seating conversions on this page.  I would hazard a guess that they are the same as a regular season match at Kokuritsu would be.

-At this time I have no clue what the pricing will be or if SOCIO members will get the “Original Design Ticket” (see below).

J.League Yamazaki Nabisco Cup Original Design Ticket

Attendees of the semifinal matches on both sides received special ‘Nabisco Cup Calendars’ that include a special URL through which ‘original design tickets’ can be purchased through Ticket Pia.

You can get to that URL here.  The site does not open until tickets go on sale on Wednesday, September 9th 2009 12:00PM.

Notes:

-These tickets will only be available until September 30th or when their allotment has sold out, whichever comes first.  Some sections may sell out quicker than others.

-Payment may be made by credit card, conbini payment, Pay-easy, or internet banking.

-On the first day of sales (Sept 9th), tickets are limited to 4 tickets per person.

General Sales

General ticket sales begin on September 12th at 10AM.

-Tickets will be available through all places tickets are usually sold: conbinis (am/pm, Family Mart, Sunkus, Circle-K, 7-11, Lawsons), Ticket Pia shops, online ticket vendors, phone reservations, yadda yadda.

-Ticket Pia Code (P-CODE): 814-716

-Lawson Ticket Code (L-CODE): 31227

-Prices: Free Seating 2000y, SB Zone (back stand) 3000y, SA Zone (back stand) 4000y, Family Pack (back stand) 4000y, S Zone (main stand) 4500y, SS zone (main stand) 6000y, Celebrate Seat (main stand) 8000y.

BECAUSE THIS MATCH WILL FEATURE TWO KANTO TEAMS WITH STRONG SUPPORT, TICKETS WILL LIKELY SELL OUT QUICKLY.  WANT TO GO? DO NOT HESITATE!

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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.

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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. 1 Comment

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.

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Match Report: J1 Round 19: FC Tokyo vs. Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Published on July 30, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo News by Lantis. 0 Comments
J.League Division 1 Round 19
First Half
0 – 0Second Half
0 – 0

Final
0 – 0
July 25th 2009, 6PM Kickoff at Ajinomoto Stadium (Chofu, Tokyo) Attendance 27,846
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		 Starting Members
 GK 34 Hirotsugu Nakabayashi
DF 24 Ryota Moriwaki
DF 2 Ilian Stoyanov
DF 19 Kohei Morita
MF 16 Ri Han-Jae
MF 35 Koji Nakajima
MF 6 Toshihiro Aoyama
MF 17 Kota Hattori
MF 25 Issei Takayanagi
MF 10 Yosuke Kashiwagi
FW 11 Hisato Sato
78′ 27 Sotan Tanabe (for Naotake Hanyu)
84′ 24 Shingo Akamine (for Sota Hirayama)
88′ 40 Tetsuya Suzuki (for Naohiro Ishikawa)		 Substitutes Half 15 Yojiro Takahagi (for Issei Takayanagi)
73′ 33 Takashi Rakuyama (for Ri Han-Jae)
88′ 22 Tsubasa Yokotake (for Yosuke Kasiwagi)
Goals
34′ Yohei Kajiyama
50′ Cabore
80′ Sota Hirayama		 Cautions
Ejections

Report
Comments to be posted later.

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Emperor’s Cup Bracket Announced

Published on July 18, 2009 in Emperor's Cup 2009 and F.C. Tokyo News by dokool. 0 Comments

It’s that time of year again!  The bracket for the 2009 Emperor’s Cup has been published here, for the convenience of anyone reading this blog here’s the matches that matter.  This year J1 teams will enter from the 2nd round along with J2 teams; the road to the Cup will take 6 games.

October 10th, 11th, or 12th – FC Tokyo vs. the winner of either the Kagawa or Tottori prefectural tournaments at Ajinomoto Stadium

October 30th or 31st – vs. Thespa Kusatsu or Sagawa Shiga FC, venue TBA

November 14th or 15th – probably vs. either Omiya Ardija or Vegalta Sendai, Kyushu Oil Dome

December 12th – likely Gamba Osaka or Kawasaki Frontale

December 29th – Semifinal

January 1st – Final

They made it to the semifinals last year, can Tokyo go all the way?  We’ll find out starting in October.

In other news, we play Omiya tomorrow and Dudu (2008 K.League leading scorer) will be starting for Omiya.  Much like his namesake I’m sure that our defenders will be wiping him off their cleats by the time the game ends.  Vamos!

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Naohiro Ishikawa’s Flaming Foot

Published on July 9, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo News by Lantis. 0 Comments

ishikawa's flaming foot

The man with the hot foot has surged to the top of the goals scored table, and the team has surged up the league table at the same time. So here’s a quick look at Ishikawa’s collection of onion bags.

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Several South American players line up for auditions w/ FCT

Published on June 24, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo News, F.C. Tokyo Player News and F.C. Tokyo Rumors by dokool. 4 Comments

Now that most of the domestic leagues across the world have wrapped up for the season, many J.League teams are taking advantage of expiring contracts to snap up foreign players who might provide a needed advantage.

FC Tokyo, which has gone nearly half a season without filling the 3rd “foreign player” spot in its roster, has invited several players to participate in team practices and may be close to signing one.

-Brazillian Rafael Bastos, believed to be playing for Vitoria in Brazil, has spent the last couople weeks with the team and participated in practice matches, but as of last Friday team officials had said they were “postponing judgement” as they did not feel that Rafael had been able to properly display his abilities.

-Argentinian Carlos Escudero, 19, has just finished a 2-year contract with Argentinian side Club Athletico Huracan and came to Japan after talking with cousin Sergio Escudero, a forward with Urawa.  According to Carlos, “I’ve heard that while Japanese players have speed and ability, the number of players who can dribble effectively and move the ball up the field are relatively small.  I’d like to see that sort of play.

-Brazillian David dos Santos, of the Brazillian club Juventus (which as far as I can tell is something like 5th or 6th division if that), will also be participating in team practices.

Escudero and dos Santos are supposed to have participated in a practice match this morning; however it’s raining quite heavily in Kanto at the moment so unless they’ve got an indoor stadium I’m not sure what’s going to happen.  If Escudero wants to demonstrate his ball control, a wet pitch may be the best place to do it.

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Match Report: J1 Round 14: Kashiwa Reysol vs. FC Tokyo

Published on June 24, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo News by Lantis. 0 Comments
J.League Division 1 Week 14
First Half
0 -- 2Second Half
0 -- 1

Final
0 -- 3
June 7th 2009, 1PM Kickoff at Hitachi Kashiwa Soccer Stadium (Kashiwa, Chiba) Attendance 10,266
GK 33 Takanori Sugeno
DF 25 Yusuke Murakami
DF 5 Mashiro Koga
DF 13 Yuzo Kobayashi
DF 7 Hidekazu Otani
MF 14 Keisuke Ota
MF 28 Ryoichi Kurisawa
MF 19 Shu Abe
FW 15 Minoru Suganuma
FW 20 Tadanari Lee
FW 9 Hideaki Kitajima		 Starting Members
 GK 20 Shuichi Gonda
DF 25 Yuhei Tokunaga
DF 4 Bruno Quadros
DF 6 Yasuyuki Konno
DF 5 Yuto Nagatomo
MF 28 Takuji Yonemoto
MF 10 Yohei Kajiyama
MF 18 Naohiro Ishikawa
MF 22 Naotake Hanyu
FW 9 Cabore
FW 13 Sota Hirayama
51′ 10 França (for Hideaki Kitajima)
51′ 11 Popo (for Keisuke Ota)
60′ 27 Yuki Otsu (for Tadanari Lee)		 Substitutes 68′ 27 Sotan Tanabe (for Naotake Hanyu)
71′ 24 Shingo Akamine (for Cabore)
79′ 40 Tatsuya Suzuki (for Sota Hirayama)
  Goals 9′ Naohiro Ishikawa
20′ Cabore
46′ Sota Hirayama
  Cautions  
  Ejections  

Report

Unfortunately due to photography commitments I wasn’t able to make the trek out to Hitachi this time, but I would have apparently had a much better time than I did the first time I went there bck in March.

Cabore breaks his slump in league games, Ishikawa moves into a tie for 3rd among goal-scorers (tied for 1st among Japanese players), and the battlin’ monk Hirayama gets his first goal of the season.   Now let’s see them keep it up.

Here’s the video:

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Nabisco Cup Group B Round 6: FC Tokyo vs. Shimizu S-Pulse

Published on June 14, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo Match Reports, F.C. Tokyo News and J.League Nabisco Cup 2009 by Lantis. 0 Comments
Nabisco Cup Group B Round 6
First Half
1 - 0Second Half
2 - 1

Final
3 - 1
June 13th 2009, 2PM Kickoff at Komazawa Stadium (Setagawa, Tokyo) Attendance 12,538
GK 20 Shuichi Gonda
DF 33 Kenta Mukuhara
DF 4 Bruno Quadros
DF 15 Daishi Hiramatsu
DF 25 Yuhei Tokunaga
MF 28 Takuji Yonemoto
MF 10 Yohei Kajiyama
MF 18 Naohiro Ishikawa
MF 27 Sotan Tanabe
FW 9 Cabore
FW 32 Yusuke Kondo		 Starting Members
 GK 21 Yohei Nishibe
DF 25 Daisuke Ichikawa
DF 3 Naoaki Aoyama
DF 5 Keisuke Iwashita
DF 2 Arata Kodama
MF 10 Jungo Fujimoto
MF 7 Teruyoshi Ito
MF 16 Takuya Honda
MF 13 Akihiro Hyodo
FW 8 Takuma Edamura
FW 11 Kazuki Hara
57′ 40Tatsuya Suzuki (for Yusuke Kondo)
66′ 24 Shingo Akamine (for Cabore)
75′ 19 Yohei Otake (for Sotan Tanabe)		 Substitutes Half 20 Shun Nagasawa (for Teruyoshi Ito)
68′ 22 Genki Omae (for Jungo Fujimoto)
68′ 4 Kosuke Ota (for Arata Kodama)
6′ Cabore
61′ Naohiro Ishikawa
73′ Shingo Akamine (PK)		 Goals 83′ Genko Omae
34′ Kenta Mukuhara
58′ Yuhei Tokunaga		 Cautions 70′ Naoaki Aoyama
71′ Naoaki Aoyama
73′ Keisuke Iwashita
  Ejections 71′ Naoaki Aoyama

Report

For what may be the first time this season, Tokyo played 90 minutes of exciting, fast-pced, attack-oriented football and managed to absolutely decimate Shimizu S-Pulse in what was essentially a dead-rubber game for the orange legion.  Shimizu had locked up a berth in the quarterfinals already; a win would guarantee first place and a matchup with Nagoya Grampus, while a loss or draw could possibly knock the team down to 2nd and result in a tieup with Group A’s first place squad (which turned out to be Urawa.  Tokyo, on the other hand, controlled its own destiny and could make it to the second round (and win Group B) with a win.

The match ws a wild back -and-forth affair from the start; topped with an early goal by Cabore that gave Tokyo a rare first-half lead.  Though Tokyo (particularly Kajiyama) made many silly passing mistakes, the lead held and the boys in blue and red went into the locker room feeling pretty good about themselves.

The second half featured drama, intrigue, and a rare officiating decision that favored Tokyo.  16 minutes into the second half, Naohiro Ishikwa let off a ripping shot that would prove to be the game winner.  10 minutes later, Akamine was pulled down inside the box by Shimizu defender Naoki Aoyama, who began protesting practically before the referee pointed to the penalty spot.  With the Tokyo fans egging him on, Aoyama continued to protest and was eventually showed a red card for his trouble.  Akamine’s first attempt was blocked, but the referee gave another Shimizu player a yellow for encroaching on the penalty area and called a redo.  Akamine didn’t miss the second time and Tokyo steamed on to a 3-1 victory despite getting a bit lazy on defense with a 3-goal lead and a 1-man advantage (hence the ’1′ in the equation.  Gonda proved his skills by stopping a penalty shot late in the second half that would have made it 3-2 and caused heart rates to go up behind the Tokyo goal, and from then on it was merely a question of which songs to sing until the final whistle.

Having captured Group B, Tokyo will now take on Nagoya Grampus in the quarterfinals of the Cup.  The home leg will be July 15th at Ajinomoto Stadium (4 days after the teams meet in J1 play at the same stadium), while the away leg will be on July 29th.  The winner will play the winner of the Urawa-Shimizu series in the semifinals.

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About This Site

Aishiteru-Tokyo.com was launched in April of 2008 when dokool decided to troll the Rising Sun Forums and was instead invited by other English-language J.League bloggers to start his own.

About the Writer

dokool lives in Tokyo, Japan, where he spends his nights at punk shows and his weekends at FCT matches (and more punk shows. He can be found at most home games (and reasonably accessible away games) in the LA12 cheering section, often snapping away with his DSLR.