Friday, December 15, 2006

Things are getting interesting in J2 hot stove league

While Verdy sits fiddling, J2 is burning with transactions and moves all around....

Recently dropped squad Cerezo Osaka brought on a familiar face to lead the flaming pink next year. Recently dropped Verdy Head Coach Satoshi Tsunami is set to take over the reins and try to move the squad up to J1. My prediction is this one is gonna bite Verdy in the posterior. Tsunami was a capable coach who nearly had an underacheiving Vegalta side steal the final playoff spot just two years ago. this reeks of a situation one year ago where a competent coach was allowed to go to rival Kashiwa and lead them back to J1 while Verdy went with a move that was more inspired by PR and less inspired by actual coaching and personnel acumen.

Consadole Sapporo added an old pro from the J2 wars of the past when they signed up former Omiya man Toshiya Miura to take the helm at the Northern Kingdom. Miura is known as a defensive specialist and a man who gets the most out of players who might be lacking in talent. While his team underacheived in the 2006 campaign, no one can say that Miura is not a credible force against other J2 coaches. The Hokkaido verion of Nikkan sports also insinuated that recently released Omiya defender Kazuyoshi Mikami might join the J2 squad in order to tighten up the squad.

Avispa Fukuoka is rumored to be interested in former Yokohama FC coach and World Cup midfielder Pierre Littbarski. Littbarski was rumored to be at the top of the list for the Omiya job but it fell through. Littbarski has popped up at the Emperors cup match between Albirex and Consadole as well as the World Club Championships going on this week.

Shonan Bellmare has come out of the gate as one the busiest players in the transaction market by signing long-time FC Tokyo defender Jean Carlo Witte. Kinda wondering why Verdy let this guy slip hrough their fingers when he was right in their backyard and a definite upgrade on the backline.

Ehime FC added little used Urawa mid Shota Arai and equally underused Jubilo Defender Kohei Matsushita.

Finally

Verdy 6-0 Kokushikan University

Hiramoto had a brace, Saito pulled the Hat, and Hayama knocked in the final shot for a big win.

More to come!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of the pick ups I`d say Bellmare have bought and have bought well!! Witte may be getting on a bit but he has been a great presence for FC Tokyo over the last few years,well done them and as you said,a guy we could have done with.We could do with someone to command the back line.I wouldn`t mind seeing Yamada back but I guess he would still be trying for a J1 spot as opposed to dropping down.We have to remember that when he signed for Cerezo they had just finsihed a gnats chuff away from the league title and were expecting to challenge again.I don`t THINK he`ll be back,but you never know with the old boy network that exists in this country!! The kit sponsorship question is an interesting one,I personally don`t really like Nike as they do their kits the same for every team across the planet and simply change the colours.The material is not so great on the newer ones either.I also have an old Konami sponsored top (Nike too)and you can wear it in winter in Hokkaido the material so thick!! Summer in Tokyo is impossible conversly!!How the players ever played a game in it in summer without keeling over is beyond me.The first Rakuten top was also the same material until they switched to the new (at the time) style material which they have kept ever since.I think Kappa make a decent top but Im hoping to god we arent going to get one of the figure hugging,paint on jobs that Italy and Spurs have!!Ok on your average player but not the best on your average pie eating,beer troughing spectator!!Something easy on the eye please!!

Anonymous said...

How did Bellmare sign Jean? I think he's good enough for J1, not some underachieving cloggers from Kanagawa!

SMB said...

Yeah it baffles me that Bellmare has suddenly become a player in the market this year. I'm wondering if Nakata is going to have a bigger say in day to day stuff in the future.

I'm not really a fan of form fitting stuff considering my less than adonis like physique.

I kinda have a feeling that Takuya Yamada will be coming back just because his roots are deep with the club and he failed so miserably this year. Considering his salary was rumored to be about 35+ it seems that the only team that it would be worthwhile to pay that would be Verdy. His coming back is something that Verdy typically does, bringing back a guy who was once successful with squad or on the national stage. Ultranippon posted about Verdy going after two older mids from the Jubilo glory days (Hattori and Nanami) and this seems to be a common MO. I also could see them picking the old dudes after seeing Yokohama FC use the same model (JO, KAZU, and a few others)

Anonymous said...

I prefer to buy Nanami than Yamada. You know I hate him since he went to Cerezo when we went to J2... I understand that Soma, the two Kobayashi and Washington went to some team of J1 but Yamada was our veteran captain, he would stay with us if he was been a true captain.

I think new Verdy's kit won't be as the Spurs or Real Betis, I think it will be as the Consadole kit, more confortable! I prefer a confortable kit to be able to drink some beer... than a very very fitted :D.

SMB said...

The one thing with Yamada was the way he left......he didn't bolt right away, it took a long time for him to go, I believe he was the last one to jump. Rui had some parting shots for the evacuues when they left saying that none of them were worthy enough to wear the green so I don't know if there was some sort of falling out that caused Yamada to leave or if he was just being ambitious.....possibly a combination of the two. Him coming back would give the fan base a bit of a lift that Nanami or Hattori wouldn't do. I'm sure there are many others that are bitter about the captain departing but I think many more would welcome him back.

I would love to buy a jersey in a bigger size.....I would even throw in an extra 3000 to acquire one tht actually fits. I believe by looking at some of the other fans in attendance, they would as well.