Ze Luis has left the building

The team announced today that defensive Midfielder Ze Luis has left the team and is joining San Paulo FC. Ze notched 4 goals in 36 games over the 2006 and 2007 campaign. The move theoretically opens up a space for what I assume will be a more offensive import to team up top with Hulk. Good luck to Ze.....not quite the impact player that I thought he would be but not bad either.

The Rise and Fall of the Baby Blue Buzzards

Asahi Shimbun is reporting that last year's miracle maker, Takuya Takagi is being shown the door after a disaster of a J1 Campaign.

While some of the blame lies on the head mans shoulders, it must be said that the main failing lies in a team made up of retreads and castoffs from teams as lowly as J2 bottomfeeders Tokushima Vortis.

Leading the parade of misfit soccer players is a veritable collection of Who's Who in Verdy lore, starting with Takuya Yamada.......the Angel of Death
Verdy preseason hero Kazuki Hiramoto has failed to impress, only notching 3 goals in a role that wildly fluctuates from starter to bench to trainee
The patron saint of FC, Kazu Miura has hardly been seen this year.....the last time he was seen in a game was in June.

Shingo Nejime has been a bright spot in a dismal season. Jun Tamano has barely been seen. Atsuhiro Miura has yet to don pale blue. Gimar was released.

Dismal............

LOST IN AMERICA-Soilent Green #2

Ohhhhhh, I'm enjoying watching the Beckham non-show parade around the US of A. I'm starting to wonder if he will actually play or if they will just wheel him out for personal appearances. I also got a chance to watch some second division sides play to varying degrees of success. Pretty sure even Kaz Iio could score on the California Victory but I digress.

Anyhow Verdy played a couple of games down south when they went head to head with Avispa Fukuoka (loss) and Ehime FC (tie). Both games took place without the services of Hulk who is still serving a suspension for card accumulation. One notable player was Verdy youth MF Hiroki Kawano, who slipped in for 5 minutes. Ryutsu Keisai DF Masaki Iida was also on the bench for the club, but saw no time in the game.

J1 Shenanigans

Last post, I mentioned the disaster that is JEF Chiba and how I wished for their demise. Well, it seems the geniuses at Omiya misunderstood and decided that THEY would be the team to make the drop. After scathing criticism by Robert Verbeek in the press.....wait a minute...after Robert Verbeek stated the obvious and the girlish and thin skinned mouth breather Satoru Sakuma got his feelings hurt after reading that the team needed help at the forward position and in the back, Messrs Verbeek was summarily dismissed from his position as head man and replaced by......wait for it.......Satoru Sakuma.

If you are not familiar with Satoru Sakuma, he was the man who took Daigo Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki Kobayashi, and Yukio Tsuchiya from relegated teams and made them into a 12th place squad......THAT WAS HIS HIGH POINT

Sakuma was the genius who released Bare and Leandro from Omiya for a head case named Christian and a flop by the name of Saul "Speedy" Martinez. Sakuma was the mastermind who brought in Naoya Saeki and rented him to Avispa during a relegation fight WITH AVISPA. Sakuma was the man who decided that the pairing of Takuro Nishimura and Yasuhiro Hato were even remotely adequate enough to play first division soccer. Sakuma was the man that brought you the two headed forward ghidra known as Morita-Salles. One word....ENILTON.
Sakuma allowed former coach Toshiya Miura to take GK Takahiro Takagi and let him become the best goalkeeper in J2.......leaving the squad with a frail Aratani and an inept Ezumi.

Satoru Sakuma....you sir make Ramos Rui look like a coaching genius.