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.

If the season started today......

What does the depth chart look like?

4-4-2

(Starters in bold)
FW -Franca - Sawa- Kitajima- Tanaka- Hayashi- Suganuma-Kudo

MF -Otsu- Kurisawa-Otani-Leandro Domiguez- Sugiyama-Murakami-Suganuma-Yoshiyuki Kobayashi-Higa-Barada-Yamazaki-Sengoku-Watanabe

DF -Yuzo Kobayashi-Park-Kondo-Murakami- Hashimoto-Koga- Kurakawa- Sakai- Adebayo

GK- Sugeno- Kirihata-Kawanami


Allright, so that's 31 members so far. If you believe rumors Sugiyama will be off the list and back to Shimizu. Yoshiyuki Kobayashi is not going back to Omiya, but might not stay in Kashiwa. Alceu, last year's big signing that got hurt badly in training camp and never played a minute is a potential reinforcement. I am more convinced now that Suganuma is on his way out with the signing of Leandro Dominguez. There also is the possibility of surprise. However, the team in it's current consistency is hands down the team to beat in J2.

Don't believe me?

JEF Chiba- Lost Shimomura, Arai, Saito, and Bosnar

Gained-nobody

Oita- Lost Kanazaki, Fukaya, Morishige, Edmilson, and Suzuki. Uemoto, Takahashi, and Nishikawa are rumored to leave.

Gained-nobody

Tokyo Verdy- Lost Hayashi, and half of their squad was cut. Oguro, Fujita, and Nagareyama are rumored to be leaving.

Gained-nobody

Ventforet Kofu- 13 players out including MF Hayashi and Sugiyama.

Gained-nobody, but lost nobody huge either. The main rival for J2 crown.

Sagan Tosu- Lost Shimada, Takeuchi, and might lose Haavenar. Also lost Kishino to Yokohama FC.

Gained- Hiroki Bandai

Consadole Sapporo- Daigo Nishi is out on loan and Danilson is being pursued by Nagoya

Gained-Not much


There are places that Kashiwa needs upgrades at.......central midfield is the first that comes to mind as well as backup keeper. A familiar face and old rival, Tomi Shimomura would be a good guy to pursue. Takahiro Takagi is probably the best option of a poor group of GKs. Takagi showed that he is more than capable of playing J2 in stints for Thespa and Consadole.

5 in for Kashiwa

Ryohei Hayashi formerly of Tokyo Verdy is officially a Reysolista.

What you didn't know is that 4 others were signed only two days ago.

Let's start with those close to home. GK Goro Kawanami, a 192 cm 82 kg mass of growing boy signed from Kashiwa youth after putting in a solid performance in the 2nd round of the J Youth Sunstar Tonic Cup. His teammate Akimi Harada will also be suiting up for the big boys on a full time basis after 2 cameos in this year's Nabisco Cup.

FW Junya Tanaka steps in full time after being a college player/pro last year. He becomes a full pro after appearing in 9 games for Kashiwa near the end of last season.

Finally, the big news is the signing of Brazilian MF/FW Leandro Dominguez from EC Vitoria. Leandro Dominguez is 26, 173cm and 70kg. He notched 16 goals in 52 games over the past three seasons and is potentially the playmaker that Popo failed to be.

Not a very painful offseason so far.

A New Yellow Friend?

Sponichi Annex is reporting that a deal has been made between Kashiwa and Verdy rookie Ryohei Hayashi for next year's campaign. Hayashi is a strapping 186cm and growing. While in college, he notched 5 goals in 3 Emperors Cup games and had 6 in spotty duty for the Vultures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGsljgKmRMU&feature=related

Into the future

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCaOBeOa1OI

Kashiwa moves on with their lives after being dropped from the heights of J1 by bringing in a new member to Nelsinho's staff. Introducing Takanori Nunobe, a midfielder who left the stage last year after appearing in over 300 games for Verdy Kawasaki, Jubilo Iwata, Vissel Kobe, Cerezo Osaka, and Avsipa Fukuoka. Nunobe actually made his debut under the tutelage of Nelsinho. Nunobe retired in 2008 and filled the role of Ambassador Coach for Fukuoka this year.

NODA LINE REDUX

Just like in pro wrestling, the mini versions of Omiya and Kashiwa took part in a rematch of sorts in Hitachi Stadium for the second round of the J Youth Sunstar Tonic Cup. Kashiwa was victorious with a 2-1 win. Goals were scored by MF Akimi Harada and 2nd year FW Shun Yamazaki. Kashiwa now goes on to the third round to take on the winner of the Jubilo Youth vs Baby Sangas game in Osaka.

6 get cut as Kashiwa drops the finale

We'll talk about these guys in a moment, but first the game. Kashiwa lost 3-2 in a slugfest. Franca continued his hot streak by adding a brace after Kashiwa went down 3-0 in the first half but like the season in general it was not meant to be. I didn't see the game.......I usually don't so talking about it won't do any good. I did see that Kobayashi and Sugawara both picked up reds giving the pair 23 yellows and 5 reds between the two.

Anyhow let's get to the dirt. Kashiwa cut 6 players on Thursday in the first what possibly will be a steady stream of departures.

Included in the cuts were

21. Yuta Minami- The 12 year veteran was one of only 2 players with a link to the 1999 squad that won the Nabisco Cup. Minami started in 1998 and promptly took over the starting spot after appearing against Verdy Kawasaki. He retained the job up to 2007 when Takanori Sugeno was brought in to freshen up the position. Minami is only 30 so he has the chance to continue as a keeper in the top flight for one of the 3 new promotion candidates or for an an ambitious J2 squad looking to advance. I don't think he's done yet.

11.POPO- Popo came into the squad with much fanfare after leading the K league in goals and being named a best 11 member in 2006. While showing flashes of brilliance, Popo never really panned out as a point scorer and fell out of favor with Nelsinho as the season wore on. 2 years, 8 goals, thousands of shots.

2. Jiro Kamata- 24 years old and last years starter at center back. He started the year injured and never quite got back on track, making appearances in only 11 games. Bit of a shock.

24. Jun Yanagisawa- The 22 year old product of the youth system appeared in 2 games during his 4 year tenure.

18. Iwao Yamane- Mostly a career J2 player, Yamane found a niche with Reysol and made spot starts. This year he was starting in the midfield during their disatrous stretch early in the season to doom them to J2. Yamane is 33 so his options are slightly limited.

16. Anselmo Hamon- The 21 year old striker appeared in 5 games after being brought in for the injured Alceu. Disappointment to say the least.

IN OTHER NEWS

The cute nurse at my elementary school guarantees me that Franca will be brought back next year. Take that to the bank!