2006 Season 14 wins 11 ties 23 losses 52 goals 63 goals against -11
Recreating the "magic" of regional rival Tokushima Vortis, Ehime FC played hard-nosed, grind it out football all year, finishing a respectable 9th place in their inagural campaign. Starting from their opening game against Yokohama FC, Ehime showed that they would not give an inch to anyone all year and fought with nothing to lose. The good news is Ehime brings back a solid young core with no team member being over 30 years of age. The bad news is Ehime can no longer sneak up on anyone, the league knows that Ehime will come to play.
One big loss for the squad is playmaker Minoru Suganuma. The 21 year old FW/MF was second on the team in scoring with 11 goals. Suganuma is making a homecoming to the team of his in youth in lovely Kashiwa. Another blow to the squad also happens in the middle where mainstay Yojiro Takahagi returns to Sanfrecce Hiroshima after playing 45 games for big orange.
The good news is that striker Toshiya Tanaka returns to lead the attack. Tanaka led the team with 14 goals and was widely praised for his play last year. Ehime released a good of its JFL quality talent and brought in young players from Jubilo, Urawa, and Sanfrecce in what is beginning to resemble a Major League Baseball farm team. It's very hard to predict what will happen with this squad in 2007 so your guess is as good as mine!
Projected Lineup 4-4-2
GK Akihiro Sato
DF Kohei Matsushita
DF Yuzo Minami
DF Tomoya Kanamori
DF Ryota Moriwaki
MF Shuichi Akai
MF Toru Chishima
MF Hideto Inoue
MF Kenichi Ego
FW Toshiya Tanaka
FW Ryota Miki
Prediction 10th place
1 comment:
I think Ehime FC is a good team instead of to be a new team in J-League. They haven't a lot of money but they bought some young talents of powerful J1 teams and, as you said, they still have a striker as Tanaka.
I think Ehime FC won't stay in the lower places.
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