Vacation!

Sorry little late.....post 199. Verdy beat Mito 2-1 on goals from Ze Luis and Tomisawa.

Allright, starting my Vacation............now! Soilent Green will be intermittently updated until August 26th, when I hope to get back into it full throttle. If you can read Spanish or Japanese, I recommend Verdy es la mas grande or Verdy Blog. Otherwise, hang in there until September and I'll be back!

Have a safe and happy August and I'll come with post 200! Adiel can kiss my a$$.

The lineup

Here it is.......a few changes

Takagi
Kaimoto
Ichiyanagi
Aoba
Ishikawa
Ze Luis
Marcus
Tomisawa
Nejime
Saito
Hiroyama

Mizuhara
Maatsura
Iida
Kuba
Kina

No Hagimura......No Basilio....

Mr.5000

Well, I got the right team.......Shonan Bellmare goes down as the team that notched #5000 when Adiel scored in the 7th minute. My prediction, Mr. Ishihara notched goal number 5002 and 5003 in a 5-1 win on the road for 10th place Shonan.

God I don't understand this league.

The Talisman-Verdy vs Consadole Sapporo

Allright, I'm not gonna pretend like everyone doesn't know the score already......it's Friday and I'm sleepy so here it is

VERDY LINEUP

GK Takagi
DF Ishikawa, Aoba, Hagimura, Kaimoto
MF Nejime, Sugawara, Marcus, Ze Luis
FW Saito, Hiroyama

Bench: Mizuhara, Tomisawa, Kuba, Maatsura, Kanazawa

This game was kind of a chippy affair, with Sapporo coming out physical (borderline dirty, actually). Early on, two of the forwards went sliding into the feet of Takagi on balls that they seemed to have no chance on. Verdy in turn were very short on their passes and committed a ton of turnovers. In the 29th minute, Makoto Sunakawa came up with a heady play to force a corner and put a spot on kick to an unmarked Genki Nakayama, who was nearly in the goal.

Verdy would make it even in the closing minute of the first half when Masaki Saito saved an errant pass, kicked it off to a trailing Ishikawa who put a beautiful serve to a charging Koijiro Kaimoto.

The second half would see a beautiful bomb from midway between the box and the half line from MF Shinji Otsuka which ate Takagi up. Sweet shot and that was your ballgame. After that there was alot of muddling from Verdy and alot of stalling from the Consadole keeper.

2-1 was your final

RANKINGS

GK-Takagi had a pretty non descript game tonight. Couple of nice saves but kind of a step down. He looked a little confused on the first goal. Kind of a step back for the big man. 5.5

DF-I've seen em do worse and Ishikawa and Kaimoto were arguably the best players on the field for Verdy. Hagimura was decent except for the marking on the first goal (might have been Kaimoto?) and Aoba was solid. 6

MF- 9 very weak shots from the midfield, (12 if you count Tomisawa in his midfield role) 3 yellow cards for arguing, numerous turnovers, consistent passing up of opportunities to connect with the forwards. They were terrible. Marcus had arguably his worst game in green. The team is built around his distribution offensively and he was lacking . Marcus is the engine......he is the talisman (previously 2-2-0 in his 4 matches) and Wednesday the engine wasn't firing. It was a good thing that Ze Luis was on the field because Ze Luis made you not notice how mediocre Marcus was on the night. ZE LUIS is my goat.......i think you could sum it up with his bypassing a breaking Saito and Hiroyama for a pathetic dribbler to the goalie that probably wouldn't have crossed the line. 4

FW- No chances, they worked hard but didn't so much. 5

RAMOS- I don't understand why you take off a striker for a D Mid when your down 2-1......I know Maatsura isn't much of an option but I still don't get stifling the attack.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I think someone needs to find the number of Tadamichi Machida.....he was released by Kawasaki Frontale in preseason and as far as I know, he hasn't been picked up by anyone. He's still relatively young and he's not awful. He might make a good 3rd or 4th striker.

Goal # 5000 will be scored in the Shonan/Consadole game tomorrow. they are lucky enough to play 5 hours earlier than the rest of J2 and the league is sitting on 4999, so unless there is a shutout, it will be in this game. Shonan-Naoki Ishihara-5000.......I'm calling it now.

Tomorrow is a matchup in Mito. No Hiramoto, who was in a suit signing autographs before the game on Wednesday. Maybe Basilio though, Kazu1968 had a pictur of Basilio at the most recent training so we might see a Hiroyama/Basilio teamup at the start with Saito as the third or Basilio coming in for Saito, who seems to tire at about 65 or 70 minutes each game.

Your views are welcome! Send em in!

Morimoto in Catania

Calcio Catania has pictures of young Morimoto in Italy.

The link is here (in Italian) Video

http://www.calciocatania.net/video/ritiro_video2006-2007/mori/morimoto.rm

Story

http://www.calciocatania.net/index.php

Poor kid is stuck with that sketchy looking translator for the rest of his Italy stay!

It looks like he will be wearing number 15.

El Golazo says a new player is on the way!

Here are my spy camera quality pictures of U-15 and U-17 National team and Luther High school player "Sonoda" who El golazo is reporting that Verdy is signing soon.

Sagan Tosu recently signed somebody from the high School so it looks like it might be a talent factory. More when I can find it!

Where will the goals come from?

Well, now will be a perfect test to see where a third striker will come from. Kazuki Hiramoto managed to notch his 8th yellow on the campaign, earning him a 2 game vacation and some quality fun in training matches against Numpty FC.

This gives former Albirex man Koijiro Kaimoto ample time to pass him. Big K has managed to earn 5 yellows and a red in an astounding 7 games, eclipsing the remarkable Dedimar mark of 4 yellows and a red in 8 games.

So.......what are the options?

Hiroyama as number 2 seems to be a given after his game winning goal against Montedio. Maatsura has been less than good in games he's appeared in. Basilio could be brought out of his crypt for one last go. Ryosuke Kijima could get a bit of a look. One of the MF's like Kuba and Ohashi have practiced in the striker position and could see some looks.

Rui mentioned before that they wanted to get the Morimoto deal finished so he could go shopping for another foreign striker. It won't help now but in the future they could use a good third option, especially with Hiramoto's penchant for stupid cautions.

We'll see tomorrow!

Grab bag of stuff

Oh, where to begin?

Let's start with Morimoto ........he's off to Italy tomorrow. So if you saw the Sagan Tosu game, you saw his last game in green(for awhile). Looks like the deal is Verdy gets 21,75o,ooo yen (about 150,000 euros) for the 1 year rental and Morimoto will make about 14,500,000 yen for his troubles (100,000 euros). Not bad for a kid that was having trouble getting a sniff of regular time

link here Sports Hochi: http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/soccer/jleague/news/20060724-OHT1T00077.htm

Nick has some thoughts on Yamagata and a suggestion for the Verdy history department

Nick has left a new comment on your post "Montedio Yamagata and a new feature": Edmundo for Best Ever Player??? Lazy at times and clearly only there for the chunk of cash at the end of the month,but with him leading the way we were still in with a shout of a stage victory back in 2002!! The last time we were anywhere near the top anyway...me and the wife watched Jubilo win the league title at Yamaha that day. It was 0-0 and into Golden Goal extra time,if Verdy could hang on for the draw, the race for the stage title could have gone on for another week.As it was Takahara popped up with the winner at the death (there was a time when he could score!!)and the whole stadium went crazy in a sea of light blue streamers etc. Me and the wife stayed in maybe the sh@@@@@ hotel in Japan that night!! He was a World Cup winner and carried the whole team for the time he was there. And he got his monkey drunk at his kids party. A surefire contender surely!!ps saw the game last night..awful red card decisions,seems not only Italy has dodgy refs. Both sent off for "stamping" judging by the refs actions.Didn`t see a thing myself.Absolute robbery. We were crap,for 60 odd minutes against 9 men and THEY had the best chances to win the match! Right at the end they had one hit the bar and bounce down JUST in front of the goal line and away to safety. 3 points in the bag,only 5 behind the playoffs...Not impossible but if they carry on in last nights vein not a chance in hell.

Agreed on the performance and your Edmundo biography is up!

Verdy Blog tells an interesting story of the Montedio supporters being a bit unhappy with the officials in the game and stopping them and the Verdy bus. Sugawara and Mizuhara were singled out for some reason. Ahhh yes, first a bad call with Vegalta sends their supporters into a tizzy and now two consecutive games in Montedio saw red cards dished to the home squad. Verdy making friends everywhere!

Anyhow here is the Verdy blog link! http://ameblo.jp/verdyblog/entry-10015004619.html

One last thing, 19 goals to the magic 5000 mark for J2. The bad news is that Thespa Kusatsu won't be playing on Wednesday so there is a big chance they won't crack it till the weekend. One has to wonder if old Basilio might be pulled out of the storage chest one last time to try and crack 5000 in J2. You may not know this, but while at Kashiwa Reysol, Basilio scored the 5000 goal in J1 history. Another little nugget, Andre of Kyoto Purple Sanga notched goal 11,000 in J1 history.
Don't ask me who scored the other 10,998 goals.

It's official

Morimoto is headed to Catania

Verdy 1969 website http://www.verdy.co.jp/news/topteam/?cmd=DispNews&news_id=220

Vaya Con Dios little M..............don't let the Greenshirts down!

Montedio Yamagata and a new feature

I'm going to keep this short because I didn't see the game. Verdy won 1-0 on a Nozomi Hiroyama goal. Verdy was up 2 men for over 50 minutes because both Yamagata forwards were given straight red cards. At least they won, I guess.

Any reports........send em in

I kinda got detoured on a project I wanted to do for awhile and finally have the time with school out. I'm trying to cobbble together a history of Tokyo Verdy and I'm looking for ideas or suggestions.

Anyhow here is the site link http://verdyhistory.blogspot.com

I have yet to do a Kazu piece or Hashiritani or Kikuchi.......if you have players from the past you think deserve to be a part of the history, let me know. If there is some other feature you'd like to see, let me know as well.

We should know tomorrow if Morimoto is officially an elephant.

No Morimoto tonight

Nozomi Hiroyama is the third striker for Verdy

The starting lineup is the same as last weeks game against Vortis

The bench has Kuba and Hiroyama instead of Ohashi and Morimoto

The Verdy Blog

If you look at the corner on links to other sites, you'll see a new one at the bottom. I don't know why I didn't do this before but one of my favorite sites for information on Verdy is the Verdy Blog. It's in Japanese but you can get alot of good info that the official sit seems to ignore.

Please check it out!

More on Morimoto

Nikkan Sports has a new article on Morimoto negotiations

http://www.nikkansports.com/soccer/p-sc-tp0-20060719-62688.html

Good eye on this by the Verdy blog.

I guess the main points in the article are Morimoto is negotiating right now with Catania and Verdy. His representation is the same guy who represented Hide Nakata. Ramos is pushing for a 1 year loan deal only so that if Morimoto is hugely successful, Verdy can bring him back or if Catania is ruining his career, Verdy can also bring him back. Ramos wants this done quick so he can go out and find ANOTHER FOREIGN STRIKER............Maybe that's why there was no sign of Basilio at the training match or the game on Saturday. So how many foreign players would that be? 9?

Anybody else get the idea that Rui learned how to coach by playing Yahoo!Japan fantasy J League cause he keeps burning through players.

Also, theVerdy blog spotted a guy eerily similar to RICKHIKI in a Thespa uniform playing in a practice match.

The Ze Luis era has begun-TOO MUCH VERDY! Part 2

So, I went out to Ajinomoto at about 5:15 and went in to the AM/PM and saw a large Brazilian man with his family.........the guy looked like Ze Luis, pretty sure it was either him or a relative but I can't be too sure so I'll just say I might have seen Ze Luis before the game. And the 500 tumblers were already sold out........GOOD JOB VERDY! Nice! Way to understock!

Anyhow, Verdy faced a very poor but dangerous Tokushima Vortis side who was led again by former Verdy MF Jun Tamano. Coming off a big win in Sendai, this had all the makings of an upset.

VERDY LINEUP

GK Takagi
DF Kaimoto, Aoba, Hagimura, Fujita
MF Marcus, Ze Luis, Nejime, Sugawara
FW Saito, Hiramoto

BENCH: Mizuhara, Kina (45), Ohashi (45), Tomisawa (85), Morimoto

THE GAME

It started out well enough, with Verdy attacking and Vortis fouling. 16 minutes in saw Masa Saito take the ball deep into the side box, put on a nice move and pass. Normally, Hiramoto would take an off balance kick over the goal, but he let it go through to a streaking Aoba who put it in with authority. This was the first goal in awhile that looked like it was planned. Beautiful goal, beautiful run, 1-0. Don't forget.....this is Ajinomoto. The Verdy defense gave semi-dangerous striker Jorginho room to get off a beautiful waist-high kick that went past Takagi and in to the far corner of the goal.......................1-1. First half was verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry sloppy for the home green and possibly a warning sign of things to come.

The second half saw near misses on both sides. A breakdown with Hagimura saw An anonymous Vortis player bounce one off the crossbar. It looked like the newly moved Sugawara and Hagimura had some sort of miscommunication issues. Ohashi and Tetsuhiro Kina (one of the least enjoyable players to watch on Verdy's side) were in at halftime. Ohashi was less visible than Kina who was impressive with his motor and his hustle. Marcus missed making the score 2-1 when his bullet free kick went off the crossbar. In the 71st minute, the silent Ohashi dumped off a slow dribbler to Masa Saito, who wrestled away from a Tokushima defender and put in the score. Not impressive, but effective. 5 minutes later, Hiramoto dropped off a pass for Saito, who drilled one under the cross bar and in for a score. Nice pass.......nice shot. Hiramoto would get his chance on pure hustle, getting a header in the box, putting it on the ground and squeezing one just under the keeper for goal number 4. Figuring the game was over, Verdy let Jun Tamano bend a beautiful free kick into the middle of the box to a wide open Akira Oba. Final score 4-2. Eerily reminiscent to the first match of the season. Good offense, bad defense.

ZE LUIS

Impressive player......he had some good touch on the ball, It's nice to see three or four guys who can actually make passes and create. I thought coming in, his role was Defensive midfielder but it looked like he was more of a distributor. He was a bit off on defense from time to time but nobody on this squad is great at d, so why should Ze be any different?

THE RANKINGS

GK- Takagi made some nice saves and did a good job pushing the ball. He got caught a bit flat on the second goal but not a bad outing. He's getting consistent and might be the MVP of this squad. 5.5

DF- Quiet night for Kaimoto, the side with him/Sugawara and Hagimura let up two dangerous shots. The middle was a bit soft on the second as well. Fujita was sloppy all night in his branch role and his defense. Aoba was decent and excellent on the first shot. If not for the goal, it would be lower. 5

MF- Marcus and Ze Luis were excellent with ball distribution. Ze was hesitating a bit in the first half but picked it up. He looks like a red card waiting to happen on some of the tackles. Nejime was good on D but rough on his passing. Sugawara was more effective in the midfield than D. Ohashi and Kina were nice upgrades in the second half......best performance in awhile for the mids. 6.5

FW- Wow. Super night for both strikers. 3 goals and 2 assists between the two of them. It kind of reminded me of the Hiramoto/Basilio chemistry early in the season. I was impressed with Hiramoto's unselfishness tonight more than anything. Saito gave everything he had and was gassed at the end. Hiramoto showed some fire in his game and not his mouth......maybe it was the captains band that helped. 7

RAMOS- I was ready to torch him about sending in Kina but the guy was good tonight. Sloppy first, better second. soft 6

FINAL THOUGHTS

2-2-0 in the Marcus era.......I still don't get why this guy isn't playing J1. With the impending move of Morimoto to Catania, there is a problem with striker depth. After Hiramoto and Saito, there's Basilio (who was not at training or the big game), Maatsura and Hiroyama who can't hit the side of the training ground building (It's true.....saw it for myself), or playing someone like Ohashi or Ono out of position. Not great. It was good to finally meet the legendary Nick! Hope I didn't scare your family too much, coming out of the shadows like a big fat sweaty blogger guy. If you're ever in the 1969 section, look me up and we'll have a beer and make fun of Ramos!

Big match against Montedio Yamagata........the last time Verdy went north they stole a 3-2 decision from the home side. July 26th is another crack at Consadole Sapporo and my last match until September. The site will be updated only once a week because I will be in California with my family watching MLS!

Looks like he's going......maybe?

Young Morimoto gone? Looks like it's getting more serious......from what I babelfished, it sounds like either the team came up with a deal, are close to a deal, or are haggling over length of the contract, or are just waiting to make it official.

Morimoto was on the first team squad but didn't enter the game. If it happens, I imagine he will start the 26th and play his farewell game in front of the Ajinomoto crowd.

Article here http://www.nikkansports.com/soccer/p-sc-tp0-20060717-61662.html

TOO MUCH VERDY! Part 1

I always wanted to try and get out to the Verdy training grounds and I figured, hell, I'm close enough to get there and go to Ajinomoto at night so I'll catch both games. Whoa........what a long friggin day. Left Saitama at 1:30 got back at 11:30. All Verdy in between.

Anyhow, if you don't know about the Verdy ground, here is a little information. It's three stops from Chofu and about 6 stops from Ajinomoto on the Keio line. It is part of a huge amusement complex which includes a golf range, swimming pool, giant Amusement park with the longest friggin roller coaster I've ever seen, and the Yomiuri Giants training ground. Tucked in the corner is Verdy's training ground, which consists of two fields and a building which I'm guessing contains training, rehab, and tech for the players. You can stand very close to the field and see everything.

I think the best part of going is the gondala. In order to get to the ground you can either take a bus or the gondola. I took the gondola and paid 400 yen for a round trip ticket. I made the right choice. Yomiuriland is tucked into a hilly forest so it's trees all around. When you're in the gondola you can see everything in the area. The ride is about 5 minutes and the height was kinda freaky but it was still a good ride.

Anyhow, the training math took place between Verdy's B squad and a bunch of thugs from Korea University. While I was there, the only score was by thug 55 from Korea University on a nice breakaway.

Some thoughts:
Kanazawa- nice distribution and midfield skills in the game.....best player for Verdy.
Kuba-What a mess, he was all over the place.
Iida-Big boy.......huge, he was towering over the Ichiyanagi and I believe Shigemitsu
Hiroyama and Maatsura- Wow were they bad......not even close on the shots

It's interesting that they were running a 3-5-2 formation, I'm not sure why you run a different formation from what you do in games. Maybe that is causing some of the problems when guys get called up to first team duty.

They weren't wearing their normal numbers too so I'm not sure about who was in.

Game report tomorrow!

OFF TOPIC:ALL STARS AND OLD FRIENDS

Two former Verdy warriors took the field today for J-East in the JOMO All Star game. Perennial attendee, Yuji Nakazawa took home MVP honors for the victorious eastern squad after sending a scorching free kick past a stunned Kawaguchi to open the scoring. The second half saw substitute and first time all star Daigo Kobayashi send a beautiful cross to JEF Chiba striker Seichiro Maki who headed home goal number two. Daigo also forced a free kick right outside the box and should have taken it, but hometown guy and national teamer Ogasawara waived him off and wasted the opportunity.

Inexplicably, leading scorer and last years representative for Verdy, Washington, was left off the squad this year because I guess Japan enjoys watching the decrepit Yanagisawa of Kashima and Yokohama's equally useless striker Kubo not score. Another former Verdy representative, Takahito Soma finds himself languishing in the netherworlds of Guido Buchwalds depth chart and rightfully was left off this years squad.

Very impressive performance by the two former Verdy players..........Osim was watching, so will we see Daigo in Samurai Blue?

Nick's report and a link to the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G04XccBce9o

Above is a link to the goal by BIG T.......I was actually hoping that it would be some incredible kick taken out of anger that knocked the opposing keeper through the net like some bad manga but it was kind of entertaining......I also enjoyed Takagi telling everyone to settle down.

All I gotta say is, something spectacular needs to happen at the Tokushima game or I'm gonna start a 1 man riot in the 1969 seats.......and by riot I mean sitting there pouting like a LITTLE GIRL.

Anyhow, here's Nicks post

Nick has left a new comment on your post "THE SENDAI BLOOD FEUD": Great game,on the back of this result the 2 draws dont look so bad... To start with we were not looking like anything worthwhile was gonna happen for the umpteenth game on the row, we were slow on the uptake and having to absorb wave after wave of yellow attacks...Takagi was forced into a number of quality saves in the first 20 minutes and we were offering nothing at the other end. However as the half wore on Vegalta were becoming visibly shaken by their inability to complete their multitude of chances.The longer the game went on the stronger the Verdy boys seemed to believe and the more desperate Vegalta seemed to become. Our first goal was a real corker!! Marques broke like lightning from his own half to feed Hiramoto in the left channel he in turn beat his man with ease and thumped a cracking shot against the inside of the near post, Saito took the rebound very well as it was coming at some pace,to toe poke it home. An undeserved lead to say the least after what had gone before. Fujita also had a good chance to make it two just before the break but seemed to scuff his shot after doing the hard work of getting clear in the box. 1-0 at half time and we werent looking good. Second half started much the same as the first until about 15 minutes in....You suggested it might have been a Takagi free kick that went in...NOPE it was a goal kick!! The ball came back to him from open play and he proceeded to hoof it up to the forwards,however it bounced just outside the box and looped over the Sendai keepers head, the keeper was caught in no mans land and Takagi was left to take the applause from the 20 or so Verdy fans who bothered to show up.FANTASTIC!!! I don`t care what Takagi does from now till he retires hes a scoring goalie....and thats not all he did. We had a ridiculous 3 times taken penalty awhile back,cant remember against who.....Well numpty defender number 1 gave away the penalty and got sent off for his troubles (second yellow) Takagi dived to his left to make the save but on the rebound numpty defender number 2 gave away ANOTHER penalty!! Anyway Takagi guessed wrong on this penalty and the ball went in. Now Ive no idea why but the ref re-spotted the ball again,much to the displeasure of the Sendai players/fans/evryone in the stadium (bar about 20). The taker scored and it was now 2-1. Despite some concerted pressure,we managed to hang on and even allow the penalty taker for Sendai to miss a SITTER from the six yard box with only Takagi to beat. If they played the same game ten times,Sendai would win every time. They are a better team,however today is what matters and we have the three points not them. We have needed a bit of luck recently and we certainly got it tonight. Great first goal,crap/brilliant second goal and Sendai off night all contributed to the win. Looking forward to Sunday lets hope we can keep the points up.Nothing less than a win will do. A scrappy 1-0 will do us.Points make prizes after all!!(Saying that I`d prefer a 7-0 Blitzkrieg anyday....)Onwards and slightly Upwards it seems, The Boys March On!!

THE SENDAI BLOOD FEUD

14000 plus showed up to see the rematch of a controversial 2-0 decision that took place last month in the National. Of course, it was bound to be interesting because A. There is now recent history between the two squads, and B. My big butt wasn't there. Anyhow, from the ticker, this game did not fail to entertain.

VERDY LINEUP

GK Takagi
DF Kaimoto, Aoba, Ichiyanagi, Fujita
MF Kuba, Marcus, Sugawara, Nejime
FW Saito, Hiramoto

Bench Tomisawa (79), Morimoto (60), Ohashi (89), Kina(That old chestnut?), Mizuhara

THE REPORT

What do 6 yellows, 1 red, a PK, and a 20 to 10 shot disadvantage equal? If you said a stunning 2-1 victory for Gang Green, you'd be inexplicably correct. But that's not the shocking part. The scoring began in the 37th minute when Masaki "Big Marty" Saito put one in the net off a pass from Hiramoto. That's not the shocker...........the shocker came in the 64th minute when......I think......Vegalta was called on an offsides. Big Takagi took the free kick and........wait for it.....SCORED THE WINNING GOAL! I'm hoping that Ultranippon can contact his friend and get this game up on the web so I can see what happened. Ichiyanagi did his best Hagimura impression by getting a red card.

Vegalta was awarded a PK in the 80th minute and Borges put it in.....I think it was Nejime's fault but I'm not sure.

Anyhow.....an enthralling game against Jun Tamano awaits at Ajinomoto on the 16th.....I'll be in the 1969 seats. TV 1969 is winless at the Aji but Vortis really stinks......somethings gotta give.

One more signing.....just for fun

Well............Verdy went out and signed this guy to shore up the defense. I will say this for him, He's big.

His name: Masaki Iida

His position: DF

His size: 185 cm 80Kg

His former team: Ryutsu Keizai U

Better Luck Next Time

Bonjiorno Morimoto?

Numerous Japanese publications are reporting that newly promoted Serie A squad Catania have come to Tokyo shopping for young talent.

Article http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/soccer/jleague/news/20060708-OHT1T00098.htm

FC Tokyo's Yusuke Konno and Verdys own Morimoto have received offers from the Italian team. Not sure if this is good for a kid who has 6 goals in 2 and a half years in the J league.

Dedimar to Marilia

Probably the last time we will mention his name, but the Diabolical Dedimar has landed in Brazil.......Marilia to be exact

Article here http://www.mariliaac.com.br/detalhe_artigo.asp?codigo=1443&tipo=2&nome_artigo=Dedimar%20chega%20e%20elogia%20Marília.

Well good luck to Dedimar and his ever expanding collection of pictures of himself

http://www.dedimar.com.br/

10 to the top

I decided to put together a little guide of guys I think might be on their way out even with their team still in J2......These are my 10 to the top of J league..........1 player for every team not promoted (as of now Kashiwa, Yokohama, and Vegalta will not be added because these squads could all make the trip)

1. VISSEL KOBE- Kunie Kitamoto DF- Good young middle defenders are hard to come by and Kitamoto falls in this category. He will be 26 next year and just coming into the prime of his career so look for a southern squad like Oita or Gamba to swallow him up. At the very least, he'd be a good guy off the bench.

2. CONSADOLE SAPPORO -Shinya Aikawa FW- Working next to Hulk and youngster Kengo Ishii. Could be added to a top flight squad for depth. Keep an eye on him, he's only 23 and if he gets hot he's probably on the move up.

3. MONTEDIO YAMAGATA- Leandro FW- The young Brazilian striker decided to fight through the drop from Omiya and keep working. It's paying off. He's 3rd in the league in goals and high up in assists and Montedio is a credible side right now.

4. SAGAN TOSU- Tatsunori Arai FW- J2 leader in goals is pretty much doing it with a weak midfield. He had a good rate last year as well. The only question is whether or not he wants to leave home. Oita is a place that could be appealing. He's built in the mode of Hisato Sato, small and fast.

5. TOKYO VERDY 1969- Shingo Nejime MF-The way Verdy players have been performing, it could be somebody different in three weeks, but right now Nejime has put in some credible performances in the midfield for team green. I imagine Marcus, Kaimoto and maybe Kanazawa go back to their clubs or find new ones next year, but of the guys on Verdy right now......Nejime is the one I'm tagging to make the jump.

6. MITO HOLLYHOCK-Yusuke Gondo MF- Young anchor of Mito midfield. Have pushed them to respectability. Anderson is the engine of this squad, but Gondo is the one I'm tabbing for the jump.

7. SHONAN BELLMARE-Hide Nakata MF- Maybe you've heard of him, spent some time in Italy and England, had a cup of coffee with the National team. No seriously. Not much quality on this squad......maybe midfielder Yusuke Sato but don't hold me to it.

8. EHIME FC- Tomoya Kanamori DF- credible performance for a beleaguered team. No midfiled to speak of and no depth. Probably nobody goes up but Kanamori is my pick to fly.

9. THESPA KUSATSU- Yusuke Shimada MF- The difference between last year and this year with the spaboys is Shimada. Creative force that sets the table for the squad. Probably could be a good sub off the bench in J1.

10. TOKUSHIMA VORTIS- Koji Kataoka MF- young guy, just turning 20. Solid for a flailing squad. My guess is nobody goes from Vortis unless it's for sattelite action but Kataoka is the prospect to nab.

Sagan Tosu vs Verdy: The tale of the lean,mean one man Verdy wrecking machine

Number 9, You're a Donkey!- Steve (Paul the Arsenal fan's best friend...FEVER PITCH)

If you were wondering why Shigenori Hagimura is in green right now and not orange, you should look no further than the last string of games that he appeared in. Start with the foul that led to the third goal for Kashiwa in a 4-1 drubbing. Then check out the own goal that helped Vissel Kobe steal one on the road. Follow it up with a yellow card and a pitiful performance in the 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Consadole Sapporo. Take a breather as you see a Verdy team hold 2nd place Yokohama FC without the services of our protaganist in this little tragedy. Finally,check out the stupid, stupid takedown of Sagan's attacker just outside the box that led to a straight red . NUMBER 2...........YOU'RE A DONKEY!

VERDY LINEUP

GK Takagi
DF Kaimoto, Aoba, DONKEY, Ishikawa
MF Marcus, Nejime, Kanazawa, Sugawara
FW Saito, Hiramoto

THE DIRT

Verdy came in hovering at 7th place.....I believe this is the lowest position they've been in all year.........facing a suddenly resurgent Sagan tosu squad led by Tatsunori Arai, J2's leading scorer. At the outset Verdy dominated the possesion.........there were alot of lovely passes that connected with nobody. It seems as though Verdy practiced cutting off their runs and giving the ball away because they were doing it to perfection in the first 30 minutes. At about the 10 minute mark, Marcus put in a nice set up to Nejime, who gets stoned in a one-on-one with Tosu keeper Junnusuke Schneider. The rebound went to Kanazawa, who fails to put in a shot right at the goal. The second dangerous chance came from Saito saving an errant pass, and putting it on a platter for the recently lethargic Hiramoto. He puts in a lame attempt which goes for naught.

As stated above, THE DONKEY drags down an attacking Tosu player just outside the box, stupid play, stupid,stupid,STUPID. Maybe he should have gotten yellow, but the ref was not gonna take any guff and showed THE DONKEY red. 11-10.

Tosu got their chance on a bad angled pass to Arai, who contorted his way into a rocket shot that put a dent in the post. Minutes later, Takagi got taken out by a battering ram in white. This would prove to assist the Saganites. In the 82nd minute , Yoon Jong Hwan would send a Hail-Mary from midfield over the head of a gimpy Takagi. Takagi managed to get a hand on the initial shot but sub Takaaki Suzuki would clean up the mess. 1-0 Tosu. A young and active Morimoto, who was getting butchered and pawed by the Tosu defense, used guile and determination to force a penalty kick two minutes later. Marcus steps up and buries the shot. 1-1. At this time both teams wake up and attack for the last 10 minutes. No scores, but Hiramoto finally shows some life on the attack and in the air. Verdy dodges a bullet.

RANKINGS

GK- Takagi got caught a bit flat footed on the goal. Not a great game for him and a yellow pushes him closer to a forced vacation . Actually it was one of his worst performances in awhile. He gets a 5

DF-Hard to say, they didn't let too many chances in but there was nobody in on the rebound that led to the Sagan goal. THE DONKEY also left the team a man short. Kaimoto was good on offense, Ishikawa.....not so much. Ichiyanagi and Aoba weren't bad. I did hate seeing all the corners from unforced errors. 5.5 squad 3.5 DONKEY

MF- Kind of the same deal as D. Kanazawa was good while he was in and Marcus was just brilliant tonight. Everyone else was fairly pedestrian.......they did control for most of the night but unforced errors and bad marking on the moon shot led to a goal. 5.5 squad 7 Marcus

FW- The weak link for awhile. Saito was good with the passes and played strong tonight. Hiramoto looked like he didn't care until after the 80th minute when he picked up. Morimoto really was good tonight..........he was in attacking mode and should have gotten a free kick on the shirt pull. Saito 6 ,Hiramoto 5, Morimoto 6.5

RAMOS- Good use of subs. The team is sloppy right now though. 5.5

QUICK HITS

As I was sitting through what could have possibly been the second consecutive shutout, I realized that this 2006 team is not very likeable. There aren't too many redeeming qualities to this squad as of late. I tried to think of what was good about the squad this year but it was getting tough. I like Saito and his story of Mexico, Brazil, and the JFL. I like the bounce back year Takagi is having. I like seeing the new additions play well. I like seeing Kanazawa and Nejime grow into dependable mids. Other than that, it's been a chore lately watching them muddle through 90 minutes. Boring football. Sloppy football. The days of a streaking Basilio juking a couple of defenders and putting a lightning shot in the back of the net seem like an eternity ago. Now it's one-on-two or three rams into the defense for the inevitable turnover. It's stupid mistakes which lead to red or yellow cards and long suspensions. It's constant shuffling of the deck chairs on green titanic with Rui holding his arms out yelling "I'm the king of the world!!!!!".

Verdy now sits in a dismal 8th. 10 points and a -29 gd behind Vegalta Sendai.

I will say that the officiating was rather poor tonight and Tosu was less than impressive. The ballboys were rather poor tonight too.

I'm finshed writing for today. MEH!

Lineup

First off, watch out for leading J2 scorer Tatsunori Arai

Second........GK Takagi, DF Ishikawa, Hagimura, Aoba, Kaimoto.....MF Sugawara, Nejime, Marcus, Kanazawa.....FW Saito,Hiramoto

Bench Mizuhara, Ichiyanagi, Kuba, Morimoto, Ohashi (the king of National stadium)

Off to Sendagaya for another unpleasant customer experience!

Ramos makes an offer?

There's no chance in hell Hide Nakata is coming to Verdy anytime soon but Rui Ramos in probably a tongue in cheek moment said that (according to Babelfish) there's a spot open for Nakata on Verdy's squad.

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/soccer/jleague/news/20060705-OHT1T00084.htm

Just a hunch, but I really don't think we've seen the end of Nakata, no matter what he says. There were other articles saying that Del Piero and Kazu were trying to get him to reconsider and there's something about this whole "I wish the press would leave me alone" thing that rings a bit disengenuos.

Kazu friendship+former roots in Kanagawa+possible J1 promotion= Hide in Yokohama baby blue? I wouldn't be surprised.

The Captain is hurting

TV 1969 official site reports that Ono is out with a herniated disc. Looks like he did it in the Vissel game. It didn't say how long he would be out. Judging by his lackluster play in the Kashiwa game, I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out he did it earlier.

Hope Ze Luis finds his game shape soon.

Nakata takes his ball and goes home and another response from Nick

We have another e-mail from Nick but first breaking news! Hide Nakata, the arguable face of Zico Japan is quitting......................everything. No more national team, no more Bolton Wanderers, no more anything. He's done.finished, outta here.
Maybe, I'm in the minority on this one..........but, no tears are being shed here. In my humble opinion the guy was more hype than hero. And maybe that wasn't completely his fault but he reaped the benifits, so he has to suffer. I wish the guy well and he was a nice break once in awhile from the constant stream of Urawa covers on the soccer rags but Hide was all about Hide.And now Hide can be one of those guys who appears on shows where people eat or dress up like women and play softball. Thanks for 2002, no thanks for 2006.

It might not be awful if he pops up in a management position in Shonan for his former Bellmare squad. I think we'll see him pop up in Japan in a couple of years for a superclub like Yokohama or Urawa.

NICK CHIMES IN ON VERDY AND VICTORIAN VITRIOL (nice turn of phrase there,huh!)

Nick has left a new comment on your post "Soilent Green-Behind Enemy Lines 2......A Family Affair": I went to Yokohama too,crappy game but didn`t mind as I was thinking more about England v Portugal to come later on....standard England defeat as usual. I`m personally hoping Ronaldo gets kicked to pieces next season and ends up in hospital where the nurses can kick him a bit more. I`m hoping for a France v Germany final and speaking as an Englishman surprises me greatly to say!! I love the World Cup but am sick to death of the diving,cheating,sniper in the crowd,theatrics on display.There was a time when football was game played with respect and a bit of muscle. FIFA should take a note from the egg chasers of Rugby (either union or league) whereby if a player is injured play continues and the physios go straight on the pitch rendering feigning injury pointless.If a player is injured and needs attention (as Im pretty sure the Portugal guy did after having his family jewels crushed by Rooney,accidentally or not)jus let the physios on and let the game carry on,reckon it would stop a lot of faking.The game is turning into a game for jessies mincing round the pitch,their girly haircuts cascading in the wind in 200 quid carpet slippers,all trying to outcool everybody else. What happened to the days of shoulder to shoulder,sticking your foot in etc Back to the 70`s I reckon where in the first 20 mins everyone was allowed to kick the crap out of each other!! Ok the stakes are high (players might get paid 2 zillion quid instead of only a zillion if they win) but whenever Ive played football albeit at amateur level I dont think Ive ever seen anyone faking.They would be laughed off the pitch and probably be given a good beating by their own teamates for being such a girl.There was a saying that said "Rugby is a thugs game played by gentlemen and footy is a gentlemans game played by thugs" not so any more...Fair Play my arse!!!

Agreed and Agreed.........I am definetely no Cristian Ronaldo fan.....the guy always looks like he's trying to get on an Eric Cantona commercial when he plays. Although Rooney's nutcracker was a bit much.

Thanks again, Nick!

Soilent Green-Behind Enemy Lines 2......A Family Affair

Ahhh, my second Verdy roadtrip......this time it was an almost 2 hour jaunt to the monstrosity that is Nissan Stadium.


















Actually, it's a beautiful stadium and quite a place to hold a reunion between former teammates Rui Ramos, Satoshi Tsunami, Takuya Takagi, and King Kazu as well as former Verdy youth Takanori Sugeno. Yokohama FC welcomed the addition of Kyoto refugee Alemao while Verdy brought in former Kawasaki bomber Marcus. Verdy came in playing some of the worst soccer of the season dropping 3 straight to Kashiwa, Vissel, and Consadole. Yokohama FC went to battle for the first time since the departure of Steven Tweed.

VERDY LINEUP

GK Takagi
DF Ishikawa, Ichiyanagi, Aoba, Fujita
MF Kuba (Hiroyama), Nejime, Marcus (Kanazawa), Sugawara
FW Basilio (Saito), Hiramoto

GAME REPORT/RANKINGS

The first signs of disenchantment have reared their heads as Brigata Verde and Verdista flew their flags upside down (the International symbol of distress). There also was a gentleman who wore a "RUY RAMOS FAREWELL MATCH" t-shirt and displayed a banner that read SARABA RAMOS.......loosely translated, GO AWAY RAMOS. The game took place in a constant drizzle, so play was ragged and sloppy.

For about 65 to 70 minutes, Verdy's defense was rock solid. Kind of amazing when you think that 3 of last weeks starters were out for poor play or suspension. The offense was hideous. Basilio was a non-factor and Hiramoto was an offense killer. Arguably this was the worst performance by the offense all season. No dangerous chances and the passing was porous. It got even worse when Hiroyama came in for Kuba. Yokohama got alot of chances but couldn't capitalize.

YES, it was my first 0-0 tie. I hope never to see another one again. BORING, piss poor soccer. The highlight was Fujita hustling to break up a cross in the box and the dancing prowess of the King.

My rankings are as followed

GK- Not many dangerous chances, Takagi had a couple of nice saves so I'll give him a 6. He handled the back line well and was vocal as always.

DF- I would have given them a 7 except they started breaking down and making sloppy clears. Fujita was truly the bright spot in the back 4. Ichiyanagi and Aoba filled in nicely, Ishikawa was ok on defense but not great on offense..........6.25

MF- Ahhhhh, not great. Marcus had a few flashes but really offered nothing better than what Anailson was giving. Hopefully it just will take time to connect with teammates and it's not the reason he left Frontale. Sugawara and Nejime were solid defensively, Kuba was ineffective. Shin had a good little run when he came in. Hiroyama was poor..........5.3

FW- WOW.........they were really bad tonight. I don't think Basilio is quite right. He's not flashing the speed that he had before the side injury. Hiramoto was constantly out of position and didn't look like he was too interested in being in Yokohama. I'm starting to believe he is less than sophisticated when it comes to the beautiful game. He managed to pick up another yellow at the end of the game. Which means he is well on the way to picking up yet another suspension. Good thinking! Way to go! Maybe you can join Tamano in Tokushima. Saito came in well tonight but kinda got bogged down when he partnered with Hiramoto................4.25

RUI..............He didn't have the magic touch tonight. I think the pressure is starting to come. It probably doesn't help that former teammate Takagi and last year's interim skipper Nobuhiro Ishizaki have Yokohama and Kashiwa in promotion position halfway through the season. He stole a point on the road after having his team get dominated so.........5.5

QUICK HITS

If Mito beats Vegalta today.......Verdy drops to 8th with Montedio right behind them. No Ze Luis yet. God that was a boring game. Yokohama FC does know how to treat their customers right, though. The taiko drums were pretty cool, there was no pet bottle gestapo, the cheerleaders were hardly wearing any clothes, and the staff was very polite. Contrast that to the garbage that goes on at National and you can see why Verdy gets 4000 a game and not 11,000 like last night. I also was able to find a Nakazawa F Marinos figure to go with my Vissel Patrick Mboma and my Verdy Rui Ramos figures. I'm looking for collectible figures that have connections to Verdy. If anyone has any idea how to get the Atsuhiro Miura Verdy figure, a Bismarck Kashima Antler, or Vissel Kazu, please let me know. Time for sleep! As always, if you have any eyewitness accounts of the game, send in a report.

5th place Sagan Tosu visits the National on the 8th. It will be my first trip to a home game since the Vegalta red card rodeo in June.

Good night!