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

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News from Kobe: ex-FCT star Norio Suzuki to France, Caio resigns

Published on July 1, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo Player News and J.League News by dokool. 1 Comment

Norio Suzuki, who wore blue and red from 2002 through 2007, has been transferred to French Ligue 2 side Angers SCO for a couple of baguettes, as far as anyone can tell.  Suzuki score 13 goals in league play for Tokyo during his tenure and continued to be a fan favorite, recieving hearty cheers whenever Kobe came to town (at least after the game; during the game he would be loudly booed by half the stadium whenever he came within about 15 feet of the ball).  Best of luck, Norio!

In other news from Vissel territory, manager Caio Jr. announced his sudden resignation from the team yesterday.  He will be replaced by interim manager Masahiro Wada for their match against Tokyo on Saturday night.

Will Vissel rally around their new coach or will the disappearance of one of their talented young players and unsteady leadership cause them to collapse like a house of cards?  We’ll find out in three days.

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Jubilo Iwata pursuing Akamine

Published on June 29, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo Player News and F.C. Tokyo Reports by dokool. 2 Comments

Several newspapers are reporting that Jubilo Iwata has made an offer to FC Tokyo forward Shingo Akamine.

Jubilo recently lost its star forward, South Korean national Lee Keun-Ho, when he was acquired by French Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain.  While Akamine scored a team-leading 18 goals for FC Tokyo last season, he has played a reduced role so far this year as Hirayama’s form has improved.

In an earlier game this season, Akamine scored the lone goal of a rain-soaked match to lead Tokyo to a 1-0 victory against Iwata.

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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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Kajiyama out 1-2 weeks, “Fan service” at Kodaira Ground due to flu fears

Published on May 20, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo News, F.C. Tokyo Player News and J.League News by dokool. 1 Comment

To start off today’s news post (because the Chiba-FCT game is on some obscure satellite channel and I can’t watch it), Kajiyama’s out for 1-2 weeks after taking a knock to the shin.  It appears that wunderkind Soutan Tanabe is taking his place in the lineup tonight.  That should be interesting.

Now, for the scarier bit: as the H1N1 flu strain spread across Japan (as of this writing 230-something cases in three prefectures, plus the four travellers stopped at Narita Airport), professional sports teams are struggling to protect fans while not giving up the unique homefield advantage that Japanese cheering squads offer.

FC Tokyo has, for its part, announced that fan service at Kodaira Ground is suspended for the forseeable future as of today (May 20th).  In the past, players stop by the “fan area” following practice to take photos, sign autographs, and shake hands from the loyal supporters who come to watch.  Fans will still be allowed to attend open practices, however players will go straight to the locker room instead of passing by the fan area.

FC Tokyo is far from the only soccer team to take measures to prevent flu transmission.  Before last Saturday’s match, the mayor of Yokohama appeared to promote a triathalon of some sort as well as to encourage people to wear masks and wash their hands and not flood hospitals with phone calls.  J2 squad Roasso Kumamoto is suspending pre-game fan events (including autograph sessions).  Also while these are Kyoto fans the pic is too lulzy to pass up on:

On the baseball side of things, the Hanshin Tigers have stopped selling “jet balloons” (long, thin balloons traditionally launched en masse during the 7th inning stretch) and discouraged fans from releasing them at games.  Similar steps have been taken by the Orix Buffaloes, Yakult Swallows, and Softbank Hawks.

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Injury Report: Cabore injures left knee, Out 1-2 weeks

Published on May 10, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo News and F.C. Tokyo Player News by Lantis. 0 Comments

FCT has announced that starting FW Cabore has injured a ligament in his left knee, and will be out for one to two weeks. He has already missed the last two matches of the Golden Week Sprint dealing with the injury. Hopefully, he will return in time for the last league match before the mid-season break, but he may rest the knee until the break and the Nabisco Cup matches played during the break.

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Injury Update: Shiota out of the hospital, beginning rehab

Published on March 20, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo News and F.C. Tokyo Player News by Lantis. 0 Comments

FCT has announced that last year’s starting GK Hitoshi Shiota finally left the hospital yesterday, after being hospitalized since Feb. 5, first for an emergency appendectomy, then for post-surgical complications related to that incident. He’s scheduled to begin rehabilitation today, but no timeframe for his return to practice or the lineup has been determined yet. He thanked the fans, his fellow players and the team staff for their encouragement during his stay in the hospital, and stated that he hopes to return to the pitch soon.

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News Roundup (3/19)

Published on March 19, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo News and F.C. Tokyo Player News by dokool. 0 Comments

With a troublingly decisive Week 3 match swiftly approaching, here’s the latest courtesy of Chunichi Sports:

-Following an intra-squad match on the 18th, Hideki Sahara called an abrupt “blue sky meeting” (apparently this just means a meeting held outside) with his fellow defenders to discuss the state of a defense that has given up 7 goals in two matches.  Said team regular Teriyuki Moniwa, “…certainly everyone knows what’s going on but nobody was quite willing to step up and say something about it.  But Hideki’s been watching from the sidelines and so he was able to make a good case as to what we need to do.”  Manager Hiroshi Jofuku joined the meeting partway through and contributed to the discussion.

-Naohiro Ishikawa started in today’s practice match versus Kokuchikan University.  Early in the match he took a cross from Hanyu and headed it in for a goal, making a case for starting time in Saturday’s match.

-In the same practice match, 5th forward Sota Hirayama also continued to make a convincing case for seeing time on the J1 field.  Continuing the impressive form he displayed in Sunday’s satellite match, Hirayama intercepted a midfielder’s pass, avoided getting tripped up by a defender, and curved a shot from 20 meters out to get the score.  Saturday is the predicted start of the Tokyo cherry blossom season, and Chunichi’s writers predict that Hirayama could bring FCT’s offense to full bloom.  While one can usually expect such… flowery prose from Japanese sports writers, Hirayama is one of a growing list of players (including Sahara and Ishikawa) who have sat through the team’s two losses mostly on the sidelines and believe they can make an impact.  We’ll see if they get their chances on Saturday.

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Ishikawa returns to practice, could be in Urawa lineup

Published on March 11, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo Player News by dokool. 2 Comments

Nao Ishikawa returns to practice

Chuunichi Sports reported in today’s issue that MF Naohiro Ishikawa, who missed the first game of the season w/ inflammation in his left knee, has jumped back into full practice and could make it into the lineup against Urawa Reds this Saturday.  Nao took passes at top speed, shook off defenders, and scored a goal off his right foot in an unsual 9-on-9 practice game, and was repeatedly praised by manager Hiroshi Jofuku for his efforts.  Jofuku is quoted as saying “Nao’s return is the medicine that the team needs.  As soon as he can play at 100% for 90 minutes, our options at midfield look a lot better.”

This is, it goes without saying, a very good thing for the team.  Nao’s presence was missed on Saturday and against Urawa the team will need all the weapons it can get a hold of.  Obviously putting him back on the field before he’s at full strength is a risk that Jofuku doesn’t – and shouldn’t – want to take, but if Nao feels up to the task then he would certainly be a welcome addition to the starting eleven.

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Injury Report: Satoru Asari out 2-3 weeks

Published on March 10, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo News and F.C. Tokyo Player News by Lantis. 0 Comments

FCT announced today that MF Satoru Asari would be out for two to three weeks due to an inflamed right Achilles tendon.

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Injury Report: Hokuto Nakamura out 2-3 weeks with knee injury

Published on March 6, 2009 in F.C. Tokyo News and F.C. Tokyo Player News by Lantis. 0 Comments

FCT reported today that MF Hokuto Nakamura, one of this season’s biggest new acquisitions, suffered a injury to the cartilage in his left knee in Wednesday’s practice match against Chuo University. He’s expected to be out of the lineup for two to three weeks, so he should be back on the field in mid-March, about the time of the first Nabisco Cup matches.

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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.