GUAM-God's gift to Japanese tourists

The boys in yellow are off to lovely Guam for two fun filled weeks of sunshine, sand, and oodles of soccer. Tommorow marks the arrival of the yellow half of Chiba (As opposed to JEF Chiba, who would be known as the......other....yellow half of Chiba?).

Festivities start with a few days of training, followed by the much anticipated rematch between Kashiwa and the team that beat them (Well, tied them) into J2, the Omiya Ardija (or the Orange half of the Noda line, as opposed to Kashiwa who are the yellow half of the Noda line.....BOOYEAHKASHA!)

Other games on tap will be a matchup against former head man Ishizaki and his Consadole Sapporo, followed by the much anticipated rematch between Kashiwa and the team that....y'know.....didn't lose to them and forced them into J2 , the Omiya Ardija....again, and two games against Gamba Osaka, a team that stole the 2008 emperors cup away from them. Wow, that does sound exciting! Also on the 21st is the much heralded Chibagin Cup, which features the yellow half of Chiba against the other half of Chiba to see who is the best yellow half of Chiba, I guess.

Our friend F2FF at the fabulous F2FF2 blog has a brief write up here (more geared towards JEF Chiba )

http://f2ff.dreamlog.jp/archives/51757496.html#trackbacks


IN'S AND OUTS

Franca will be back for another year (or half a year as usually is the case). Lost in the shuffle of good news were two additions to the bench

Shinya Yoshihara comes in from Kawasaki Frontale via Jubilo Iwata. The 31 year old keeper saw most of his playing time in 2004, not really being a factor the past two years.

Efrain Rintaro joins the team from Adaichi Gakuin H.S. in Gifu. Rintaro was born in Brazil and looks to fill the C contract practice spot that was left open when Adebayo joined Tokyo Verdy on a one year loan.

Montedio finally bought the contract of Yu Hasegawa after numerous loans and Ryo Kobayashi extended his stay in Yamagata for one more year. Another Kobayashi brother, Yoshiyuki will also toil out west when he dons the orange of Albirex Niigata next season. After Kashiwa decined to extend the rental agreement with Omiya, the MF was released and quickly signed with Niigata.

Finally Kashiwa and FC Tokyo swapped the contracts of longtime rentals Ryoichi Kurisawa (from Tokyo to Kashiwa) and Tatsuyo Suzuki (The other way around).

Matchmaker, matchmaker.......

Make me two matches.

Match one-RED BIBS (starters) 2 WHITE BIBS (scrubs)4 (20 minutesX 2)

4-4-2

GK (Kirihata, Sugeno, and Yoshihara rotated in and out for both teams)

RED

DF Hashimoto-Kondo-Park-Murakami

MF Otsu-Otani-Kurisawa-Leandro

FW Sawa-Kitajima

WHITE

DF Kobayashi-Sakai-Koga-Kurakawa

MF Suganuma-Alceu-Barada-Taketomi

FW Tanaka-Hayashi

Goals Kitajima, Otsu (red)
Suganuma, Kobayashi, Hayashi, Tanaka (white)

Match 2 Kashiwa 3 (1-1, 2-0) 1 Kokushikan University

GK Yoshihara (Kirihata 45)
DF Kurakawa-Koga-Sakai-U-18 player (U-18 player)
MF Barada-Taketomi-Sengoku-Higa (Yamazaki)
FW Hayashi (Efrain Rintaro)-Tanaka (Kudo)

Goals-Kokushikan 8, Taketomi 20,48, Kudo 70

I Leave you with this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaCCG7QkM_c

Earwigs from the 70's!!!!!

Happy New Year

If the season were to begin today, this would be your Kashiwa Reysol squad

大谷　秀和　MF Hidekazu Otani
大津　祐樹　MF Yuki Otsu
川浪　吾郎　GK Goro Kawanami
北嶋　秀朗　FW Hideaki Kitajima
桐畑　和繁　GK Kazuhiga Kirihata
工藤　壮人　FW Masato Kudo
古賀　正紘　DF Masahiro Koga
酒井　宏樹　DF Hiroki Sakai
菅野　孝憲　GK Takenori Sugeno
仙石　廉　　MF Ren Sengoku
田中　順也　FW Junya Tanaka
武富　孝介　MF Masuka Taketomi
パク・ドンヒョク DF Park Don Hyuk
茨田　陽生　MF Akimi Harada
林　陵平　FW Ryohei Hayashi
橋本　和　　DF Wataru Hashimoto
比嘉　厚平　MF Kohei Higa
山崎　正登　MF Masato Yamazaki
レアンドロ・ドミンゲス　FW/MF Leandro Dominguez
渡部　博文 DF Hirofumi Watanabe
アルセウ　MF Alceu
小林　祐三　DF Yuzo Kobayashi
藏川　洋平　DF Yohei Kurokawa
栗澤　僚一　MF Ryoichi Kurisawa
澤　昌克　FW Masakatsu Sawa
菅沼　実　MF Minoru Suganuma
村上　佑介　DF Yusuke Murakami

So 27 players are official......Kurisawa comes in on a full transfer from FC Tokyo and Alceu is renewed for 1 more year after a tragic 2009 and a disastrous 2008. Most of the core is back from the 2009 team with Franca being the only major holdout.

As expected, Kota Sugiyama went back to Shimizu S Pulse to probably sit on the bench.

Popo meanwhile is a new member of the increasingly old Vissel Kobe.