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.
Tag Archive for 'naohiro ishikawa'
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| J.League Division 1 Week 16 | ||
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First Half 0 – 0Second Half 0 – 2 Final |
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| July 4th 2009, 7PM Kickoff at HOMES Stadium (Kobe, Hyogo) Attendance 14,915 | ||
| GK 1 Tatsuya Enomoto DF 25 Yosuke Ishibitsu DF 4 Kunie Kitamoto DF 14 Tsuneyasu Miyamoto DF 15 Toshihiko Uchiyama MF 22 Kenji Baba MF 10 Botti MF 18 Hideo Tanaka MF 50 Yoshito Okubo FW 13 Kazuki Ganaha FW 21 Hiroto Mogi |
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 |
| 56′ 7 Park Kang-Jo (for Kenji Baba) 64′ 31 Akihito Kusunose (for Kazuki Ganaha) 85′ 8 Alan Bahia (for Botti) |
Substitutes | 73′ 40 Tatsuya Suzuki (for Naotake Hanyu) 78′ 33 Shingo Akamine (for Cabore) 84′ 24 Jo Kanazawa (for Takuji Yonemoto) |
| Goals | 50′ Naohiro Ishikwa 55′ Cabore |
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| 42′ Toshihiko Uchiyama 89′ Kunie Kitamoto |
Cautions | 69′ Takuji Yonemoto |
| Ejections | ||
Report
Y’know those games that are unbalanced not because one team is playing particularly poorly, but because their opponent is in such a groove that they are simply outmatched? Where you almost feel embarassed for the losing squd because they simply have no chance and everyone in the stadium knows it?
That’s pretty much how I felt watching the second half of Saturday night’s fiesta in Kobe (a late afternoon nap caused me to sleep through the first half). In recognition of the 4th of July, the blue and red boys put on some white and added a few fireworks to the evening.
Tokyo outshot Kobe 19 to 4. Let me repeat that because I ‘m not entirely sure I believe it. 19. to 4. There were so many 2-on-1, 3-on-1, even 4-on-1 breakaways that Vissel is very lucky that their goal differential only took a 2-point hit. Kobe resembled a mouse underneath the paw of a giant cat, doing its damndest to put up a fight but ultimately resigned to the fact that it would eventually be crushed and consumed. If you told me that over 2/3rds of the second half were played on Vissel’s side of the field, I would not be surprised in the least. When Kobe did mount a counterattack, it was quickly snuffed by the likes of Yonemoto or Konno, whose performance was so outstanding that El Golazo gave him Man of the Match status.
But of course while defense saves games, offense wins them. There are truly not enough terms in the footballing vernacular to describe Naohiro Ishikawa’s form at the moment. His play is worthy of praise from bombastic ESPN commentators declaring that you cannot stop Ishikawa, you can only hope to contain him. While the entire front line worked together to trap the Vissel defense and open up the top of the box, Nao produced a shot that made his needle-threading against Shimizu seem like childs play. He now sits at the top of the league scoring table along with a couple of foreign players, but sooner or later he will likely stand alone.
Hanyu should also be lauded as well for his beautiful pass to Cabore which managed to shred Kobe’s defense completely and make the second goal a mere formality.
After a fortuitous set of results on Sunday, Tokyo sits alone in 5th place, 6 points out of an ACL slot and something like 13 away from league leaders Kashima. We have a big test coming next week – 3 games in 7 days, two at home against Nagoya and one away at Omiya. While I’d of course like to see Tokyo advance in the Nabisco Cup (since I’ve started following the team they’ve been eliminated in the quarterfinals twice), now that the team has regained its footing all eyes should be on cracking the top 3.
Vamos!
| J.League Division 1 Week # | ||
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First Half 1 – 0Second Half 1 – 1 Final |
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| June 27th 2009, 7PM Kickoff at Kokuritsu Stadium (Shinjuku, Tokyo) Attendance 28,987 | ||
| 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 |
Starting Members |
GK 29 Kaito Yamamoto DF 25 Daisuke Ichikawa DF 3 Naoaki Aoyama DF 2 Arata Kodama DF 4 Kosuke Ota MF 23 Shinji Okazaki MF 8 Takuma Edamura MF 7 Teruyoshi Ito MF 13 Akihiro Hyodo FW 11 Kazuki Hara FW 18 Frode Johnsen |
| 74′ 40 Tatsuya Suzuki (for Naotake Hanyu) 85′ 33 Kenta Mukuhara (for Cabore) 89′ 24 Shingo Akamine (for Naohiro Ishikawa) |
Substitutes | 42′ 6 Marcos Paulo (for Takuma Edamura) 73′ 10 Jungo Fujimoto (for Akihiro Hyodo) 83′ 15 Shinji Tsujio (for Daisuke Ichikawa) |
| 7′ Yohei Kajiyama (PK) 62′ Naohiro Ishikawa |
Goals | 58′ Frode Johnsen |
| 17′ Sota Hirayama 26′ Yohei Kajiyama 42′ Shuichi Gonda 66′ Yasuyuki Konno |
Cautions | 6′ Akihiro Hyodo |
| Ejections | ||
Report
The blue and red express continues to roll up the J.League table as Tokyo played a tough game of soccer against a Shimizu squad that was much improved from that of two weeks ago.
Once again, Tokyo started the game off with an early goal to take the lead and momentum. This time it came off of a PK that Cabore earned when he was egregiously tackled on the far left side of the Shimizu penalty box. Kajiyama took the kick and sent it rocketing to the left post past the keeper for an easy 1-0 lead.
After that, as if he felt that he had given FCT an unfair advantage, the referee seemed to favor Shimizu for the rest of the match; S-Pulse took 20 free kicks in the match compared to Tokyo’s 11. Furthermore, Tokyo recieved no less than 4 yellow cards during the match. Despite this, Tokyo’s defense did a terrific job of stopping any Shimizu attacks; in partciular Bruno made a terrific tackle late in the first half to stop what appeared to be a dangerous drive.
Tokyo continued to dominate in the second half as well, but Shimizu brought the game back to a deadlock when their goalkeeper fell over while walking the ball out (I’m actually pretty sure that an FCT player bumped into him but I could have been mistaken, causing play to stop and the referee to come over and check on him. This break in the action allowed Shimizu extra time to move its men down the field, and Johnsen was able to sneak an easy one past Gonda.
Five minutes later, Naohiro Ishikawa took a deflection off Kajiyama of a pass from Hirayama and proceeded to thread the goddamned needle, rocketing a shot that slipped just above the goalkeeper’s outstretched hand and slamed in and under the crossbar for the score. Nao is now the second-highest scorer in J.League with 8 goals, first among Japanese players.
From then on it was simply taking control of the field and depriving Shimizu of any opportunities to even the score. While Tokyo missed several opportunities over the course of the game that could have easily made it a 3-1 or even 4-1 game, this was a well-earned victory and if Nagatomo’s postgame speech was any indication, team spirits couldn’t be higher.
Quotes
“I feel like I’m seeing more shooting opportunities than I used to. In the first half there were some chances, but in the second half the play just opened up and I felt like there were a lot more options. My game is definitely becoming more interesting lately.” ~ Naohiro Ishikawa
“In the first half we moved the ball around a lot but we weren’t able to move the ball forward as much as I would have liked. On defense we fell into some dangerous spots a few times but we successfully forced Shimizu to give up the ball. Overall we were able to get thigns done so all we can do is look at what we need to correct from today’s match.” ~ Naotake Hanyu
“One of the important points we looked at heading into this season was whether we could break the kind of zone defense that Shimizu used against us so effectively last year. Because we scored three points against them in the Nabisco match, the players came into this game with confidence. I’m happy that 28,000 fans came to help us start our summer counter-attack.” ~ Hiroshi Jofuku
| J.League Division 1 Week # | ||
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First Half 2 – 1 Second Half Final |
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| May 2nd 2009, 7PM Kickoff at Ajinomoto Stadium (Chofu, Tokyo) Attendance 18,886 | ||
| 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 24 Shingo Akamine FW 9 Cabore |
Starting Members |
GK 21 Koji Ezumi DF 25 Kohei Tokita DF 6 Yosuke Kataoka DF 3 Mato DF 19 Yusuke Murayama MF 33 Ryohei Arai MF 23 Shin Kanazawa MF 30 Daisuke Watabe MF 7 Tomoya Uchida FW 13 Yoshihito Fujita FW 9 Naoki Ishihara |
| 80′ 40 Tatsuya Suzuki (for Naohiro Ishikawa) 81′ 13 Sota Hirayama (for Cabore) 87′ 7 Satoru Asari (for Naotake Hanyu) |
Substitutes | Half 14 Park Won-Jae (for Daisuke Watabe) 67′ 11 Chikara Fujimoto (for Ryohei Arai) 78′ 28 Shunsuke Fukuda (for Tomoya Uchida) |
| 4′ Naohiro Ishikawa 25′ Naohiro Ishikawa 57′ Naohiro Ishikawa |
Goals | 36′ Tomoya Uchida 67′ Mato |
| 59′ Takuji Yonemoto 60′ Yuhei Tokunaga 87′ Satoru Asari |
Cautions | 13′ Yosuke Kataoka |
| Ejections | ||
Report
Sadly I wasn’t able to watch the match so I didn’t get to see Ishikawa’s hat trick… this is a trend, as almost any time I miss a home game we take home points.
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.
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.
FCT announced today that due to inflammation in his left knee, MF Naohiro Ishikawa (石川直宏) will be out for the next two weeks, meaning he’s likely to miss the J-League season opener.
Me? Burned out? Just a little. Sorry for the late report but quite frankly besides having to get back into the groove of school again (at least I passed my Friday midterm, woohoo!) the game was such a downer that I wanted to space myself a bit before I came and wrote this up.
This was the third loss FC Tokyo has received this season, but the first in which I felt that the team did put through the best effort it could muster in going for the win. This was not the second-half collapse of the Yokohama F. Marinos game, or the error-prone Shimizu campaign, but a losing effort by a team that held its ground or better with a Nagoya squad that, quite frankly, got off a little bit lucky.
One of the first things I noticed early on in the match was the size difference – Grampus’ players, including
lead striker Johnsen, are for lack of a better term goddamned huge. Lots of players who were around 185cm and even a couple who were over 190cm. FC Tokyo’s squad, on the other hand, has a bunch of players in the 175-180 range and a few in the 160s. Early on in the game it seemed that Tokyo’s strategy of speed and agility got steamrolled by Nagoya’s strength and size, but as time passed Tokyo adjusted accordingly and began to dominate the midfield, with long stretches of time spent attacking the Nagoya goal. Nagoya certainly did try to throw its weight around over the course of the match and got called on it – Tokyo took over twice as many free kicks, 26 to Nagoya’s 10.
The lone point in the game… was pretty brutal. The ball bounced off Shiota’s outstretched fingers as he dove and slowly rolled into the net. A rare misplay by the goalkeeper, and these things certainly happen, but it didn’t hurt any less.
On a positive note, the game saw the return of two players that have missed long stretches of time due to injury. MF Naotake Hanyu returned to the starting lineup, putting in a solid effort before being replaced by Otake after halftime. In the 76th minute, fan favorite MF Naohiro Ishikawa came onto the field after recovery from injury and quickly demonstrated that his speed and agility have not been lost.
Also in the second half, Yusuke Kondo came in as a replacement for Akamine about an hour in and repeatedly proved that his rental time spent in Kobe was wisely spent, driving to the goal several times and creating bold attacks. Late in the game, Yusuke took a penalty kick after a hard foul on Cabore that unfortunately hit the top crossbar. In injury time, he also provided Tokyo’s last attack, with two close-range shots that were batted away by the Nagoya keeper as time expired. With his aggression, decision-making abilities, and decisive ability, Yusuke has proven himself in some ways to be the anti-Hirayama, and if my kit had #13 on the back I would be very concerned with my place in the Tokyo lineup.
Overall, the attack was strong, way stronger than Nagoya’s, but the goal just didn’t come through. The fans seemed to recognize this and gave the players their due applause and saved a few extra cheers for a visibly dejected Yusuke who was consoled by Shiota as they walked into the locker rooms.
Yet, as I left the stadium, I was reminded of last year’s home loss to Nagoya, also 1-0. That day, much like Tuesday, FC Tokyo was bullied around by a bigger and meaner Grampus squad. This time, however, not only did the referees not let Grampus get away with it, but FC Tokyo adopted and fought back and overall was the clearly stronger squad. It was a moral victory that bodes well for our hopes as the season goes on… but of course moral victories don’t translate to points in the standings, do they. Oh well.
With Urawa and Kawasaki also winning their Tuesday matches, FC Tokyo fell into 4th place based on goal differential (or Goals For or something like that). The next match is against Kashiwa Reysol, which has started the fifth month of the year with two victories in a row against JEF United Chiba and Vissel Kobe. In order to wash out the bad taste of the Nagoya result Tokyo absolutely needs a win. The fans have certainly taken notice – Tuesday’s attendance, at 30,000 and change (the most since October 28th of last year, and even that was only greater by about 200 people or so), was the highest gate count all season, although that it was a holiday certainly didn’t hurt. FC Tokyo’s 5 hours at the top of the standings inspired more people to come to Ajinomoto, now the team has to deliver.