Along with the anticipated signing of Toshihiro Hattori comes the addition of two defenders, both familiar to longtime Verdy fans. Taisei Fujita is back for a second season. It's unknown at the moment if it's a straight transfer or a loan from FC Tokyo like last year. Fujita appeared in 26 games for the club, having some highs and some lows but came on at the end.
The other signing was longtime J League veteran Yukio Tsuchiya. Tsuchiya, after coming over from a stint in Brazil started his J League career at Verdy Kawasaki at the same time Rui Ramos was coming back for his farewell tour in green. Both left Kawasaki at the same time, Rui to broadcasting and Tsuchiya to Vissel Kobe. Kobe was the place where Tsuchiya enjoyed the most personal success of his career. After 6 years, Tsuchiya moved onto Kashiwa Reysol where the bottom dropped out. The penultimate moment of his time at Reysol was a hard tackle on Urawa forward Tatsuya Tanaka which broke the national teamers leg and affected Tsuchiya mentally.
During this time, he crossed paths with Rui, who joined the team as an assistant coach. After the drubbing that Venforet gave Kashiwa in the 2005 promotion/relegation playoff, Rui headed to Tokyo and Tsuchiya went to Omiya.
While at Omiya, Tsuchiya displayed more poise and discipline than when he was a CB for Kashiwa. Teaming with longtime Ardija man Toninho saw the team display moments of strong defense in the middle. Now he heads back to where he began.......sort of. While the franchise is the same, the place they're in now is not only physically miles away and ions away in terms of prestige, standing, and leagues.
Tsuchiya has appeared in 233 J1 matches and numerous cup competitions. This will be his first foray into J2.
Official Team releases
1 comment:
Don't call him baldy or anything or he might go crying to his mother. I've lost all respect for him but he's a good player (although one with a chicken's heart).
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