More Rumors

Here's a couple of reinforcements......maybe.........for Ganggreen FC.

Arguably, the weakest position for Verdy this year was at keeper. Verdy is trying to steal away the backup to Nishibe at Shimizu. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Takaya Kurokawa. Kurokawa is a 24 year old keeper who has been in the Shimizu organization for 5 years. He played in 24 games in 2003 but was replaced by Nishibe, a former Urawa and Kashima product.

Kurokawa played in 5 league matches and 1 Nabisco Cup match, posting a record of 1 win 2 ties and 3 losses. He had a GAA of 1.50 . Considering his losses were against National team keepers Sogahata of Kashima, Doi of FC Tokyo and Narazaki of Nagoya Grampus 8 (along with a tie), I'd say his record isn't too bad. The other tie was a 3-3 affair against Gamba Osaka where he had to face 27 shots. Here is the article www.yomiuri.co.jp/hochi/soccer/jan/o20060104_70.htm (Sports Hochi via Masa-Net...........the king of posting news on J-League!)

A move that I'm less excited about is the possible pick up of Harutaka Ono, a 27 year old MF who has spent most of his career with fellow relegation victim Kashiwa Reysol. Ono played in 18 games this year, picking up a goal, 3 assists and a 5.87 rating in Weekly Soccer Digest. Maybe there was a connection with Ramos during the few months El Jefe was coaching at Kashiwa. It seems like Ono has dropped off in the past couple of years, floating around Kyoto, Nagoya, and Kashiwa. Maybe J2 would be the perfect place for him to regain some form and give a little boost to his career. Or maybe, this is a case of getting bodies on the field after the great exodus.

With the possible defections of the Kobayashis, Toda, and Yamada, Verdy's current lineup in the midfield would be career Verdian Kentaro Hayashi, journeyman Takashi Hirano, rarely used Masatomo Kuba, and youngster Jun Tamano, plus Verdy Youth reinforcements and others who didn't see action while on the senior team. Ono makes sense in this case. I'm just not real optomistic about him improving on last year's performance.

Here is the story www.sponichi.co.jp/soccer/news/2006/01/05/01.html (Sponichi Annex via Masa-net........both articles are in Japanese)

Seems like there's a new rumor everyday about TV69!