Half Finished

The season hit the halfway mark yesterday with Verdy finding themselves in 5th place, 6 points behind 2nd place Kyoto Purple Sanga.

Here is Verdy half wrap

BIGGEST WIN: At Kyoto 4-1.......Verdy found themselves in a 7 game morass before taking it to the purple gang of Kyoto. A loss here would have ended all chances of recovering and Verdy behind the two Brazilians came through big.

WORST LOSS: Ehime 1-0......some will say the 5-1 drubbing at the hands of Mito was the worst loss and it's hard to argue against them. I will contend however that outshooting and out powering little Ehime while not finding the net was a killer. Ehime robbed points from Verdy. It was the game that caused me to stop writng for a month.

MVP: Hulk 13 goals 8 assists, constant threats, powerful runs in the box.

Surprise of the year: Shigenori Hagimura, the guy has done the most with his chances after a dreadful season in 2006.

No surprise: Kaz Iio, THE STRIKER THAT DOESN'T SHOOT

What about Rui? I still say he is overmatched as a coach and he does things that I disagree with. I would have fired him......that being said, he did institute the switch to 3-5-2 that jumpstarted the 2007 campaign and put the squad back in contention for promotion...that he deserves credit for.

Changes? Tsuchiya will be back so Togawa probably loses his spot. Funakoshi is back as a starter, although I'm not quite sure why. Possibly the adddition of another big name from the past and maybe a replacement for Ze Luis, who has disappeared completely.

Mystery?????? What happened to Masaki Saito? Did he die? Where is the guy?

Forecast for the second half- If everything breaks right, 3rd place and a chance to play against JEF Chiba for the last spot in J1.