J.League Teams Being Ripped Off?

The recent saga of Shinji Okazaki's move from S-pulse to Stuttgart highlights the J.League's naivety in dealing with player transfers. (Don't tell me you were surprised that FIFA and EUFA backed a rich European club? Money talks. Why else would FIFA choose to hold the World Cup in the desert.)

Yahoo News: Okazaki joins Japanese exodus to Germany's Bundesliga

Goal.com: FIFA And UEFA Rule Shinji Okazaki's Transfer To Stuttgart Was Legal

Given the League's, and club's, tendency to respect a player's desire to play overseas, they are at the mercy of unscrupulous agents and clubs out to make a quick profit. Have S-Pulse, or Cerezo in the case of Kagawa, or Gamba in the case of Ienaga, insisted on a "selling-on" clause that assures them of a percentage of any subsequent transfer? (Mallorca have already set an 18 mil euro price on Ienaga, and Kagawa is valued at over 23 mil euros.)

Reference.com: Football TransfersAn article that should be required reading for every General Manager and Owner in Japan.

Goal.com: Japan International Akihiro Ienaga Joins Mallorca

Sport 360: Man Utd keen on Dortmund starlet Kagawa

I certainly hope Grampus show a bit more nous with Kensuke Nagai. Another likely target of Machiavellian poachers, if he proves to be as successful as we hope. Such 'sell-on' clauses are quite common in Europe and help to ensure that a club is genuinely interested in the player's ability, rather than his marketing value. (Hidetoshi Nakata ended up being passed around Europe like a golden egg, after his early success at Perugia.)

Asian Cup 2011: Japan Appeal To AFC About Eiji Kawashima's Red Card Against Syria - Goal.com

The JFA appealing a refs decision. Does this mean the J.League will also allow decisions to be reviewed, if there is a clear error? Probably not. They will just be embarrassed on Sunday Morning again, as usual.

Asian Cup 2011: Japan Appeal To AFC About Eiji Kawashima's Red Card Against Syria - Goal.com

Okada; 10th Best Manager in the World?

Move over Fabio, time to let someone else try their hand at the England job. Japan manager, Takeshi Okada, may soon be available as he has said that he will quit the Japan job now that the World Cup has finished. He at least has been named as one of the more successful at the World Cup.
See ZonalMarking's article here.

Japan Eases into Knockout Stage

Japan eased to a surprisingly comfortable 3-1 win over Denmark to earn a Round of 16 matchup against Paraguay. Denmark, with no defence or midfield to speak of (and both Bendtner and Tomasson clearly not quite 100%), were no match for the Samurai Blue. The South Americans will be a tougher test, but are a team against whom Japan should have a good chance. It should be a fascinating game with both teams in with an equal chance of progressing to the quarter-finals.

Japan could easily have scored another couple of goals on top of the three they did manage. Kyoto native, Daisuke Matsui, was unlucky to see an early effort blocked by Danish keeper Sorensen, in one of his few good plays of the game. He certainly did not distinguish himself on either of the free kicks from which Japan scored the first two goals. Both were well taken, but greatly helped by poorly built wall and bad positioning by the keeper.

Manager Takeshi Okada will feel vindicated by the results so far, and we hope that the players can continue to play this well in the next game. In a tournament that has seen many of the big name teams struggle, his semi-final target may yet be achievable.

The results after the group games, see Japan lie joint sixth in the world rankings, alongside Spain.

Rank	Fed	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	CONMEBOL	Argentina	3	3	0	0	6	9
2	UEFA	Netherlands	3	3	0	0	4	9
3	CONMEBOL	Uruguay	3	2	1	0	4	7
4	CONMEBOL	Brazil	3	2	1	0	3	7
5	UEFA	Germany	3	2	0	1	4	6
6	AFC	Japan	3	2	0	1	2	6
6	UEFA	Spain	3	2	0	1	2	6
8	CONMEBOL	Chile	3	2	0	1	1	6
9	UEFA	Portugal	3	1	2	0	7	5
10	CONMEBOL	Paraguay	3	1	2	0	2	5
11	CONCACAF	USA	3	1	2	0	1	5
11	UEFA	England	3	1	2	0	1	5
13	CONCACAF	Mexico	3	1	1	1	1	4
13	CAF	Ivory Coast	3	1	1	1	1	4
15	UEFA	Slovenia	3	1	1	1	0	4
15	CAF	Ghana	3	1	1	1	0	4
15	UEFA	Switzerland	3	1	1	1	0	4
18	AFC	South Korea	3	1	1	1	-1	4
18	UEFA	Slovakia	3	1	1	1	-1	4
20	CAF	South Africa	3	1	1	1	-2	4
21	AFC	Australia	3	1	1	1	-3	4
22	OFC	New Zealand	3	0	3	0	0	3
23	UEFA	Serbia	3	1	0	2	-1	3
24	UEFA	Greece	3	1	0	2	-3	3
24	UEFA	Denmark	3	1	0	2	-3	3
26	UEFA	Italy	3	0	2	1	-1	2
27	CAF	Nigeria	3	0	1	2	-2	1
27	CAF	Algeria	3	0	1	2	-2	1
29	UEFA	France	3	0	1	2	-3	1
29	CONCACAF	Honduras	3	0	1	2	-3	1
31	CAF	Cameroon	3	0	0	3	-3	0
32	AFC	North Korea	3	0	0	3	-11	0

Bloggers Comment on Oka-chan's Squad

A few bloggers in Kansai were quizzed by the Japan Times about their views on Okada's pick fro the upcoming World Cup. Read all about it here.

Japan Lambs Headed for a Slaughter?

Takeshi Okada has made his predictable choices for Japan's squad for South Africa 2010. Get the mint sauce ready, because this bunch will soon be roast lamb. Where were the bold, if rash, choices of his last World Cup failure at France '98, which saw him drop Kazu and take Shinji Ono instead. OK, he will get full marks from the ladies for adding former heartthrob Kawaguchi, rather than Sanfrecce's Nishikawa, as one of the goalies, but otherwise these are the same uninspired choices we have seen for game after disastrous game recently.

From a Grampus viewpoint, it is equally predictable, with all our key Japanese players making the squad. (Mu Kanazaki might have been a surprise choice, but suffered an unfortunately timed injury last week.) Tulio and Narazaki are among the few choices that fully deserve their selection, alongside Okazaki, Endo and Shunsuke Nakamura. Tamada is a safe choice, even if he has not been setting the J.League alight with his goals. He has proven he can hit the mark on the world stage and has been a vital player for Nagoya as the link between the midfield and Aussie striker Josh Kennedy. However, Japan's best hope of advancing from the group stages lie in the feet of former Grampus midfield maestro Keisuke Honda. The CSKA player needs to prove that he can fit in with the other players, especially Nakamura, but that seems to be the only hope of the manager avoiding another embarrassing World Cup exit.

Japan Squad announced

Alan beats us to the punch and gives us his rundown of Oka-chan's squad for South Africa.

Goalkeepers:
Seigo Narazaki (Nagoya Grampus, 34 years old, 75 caps)
Shusaku Nishikawa (Kawasaki Frontale, 27, 8),
Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (Jubilo Iwata, 33, 116)

Defenders:
Atsuto Uchida (Kashima Antlers, 22 years old, 31 caps, 1 goal)
Yuichi Komano (Jubilo Iwata, 28, 51, 0)
Yuji Nakazawa (Yokohama F Marinos, 32, 102, 17)
Yasuyuki Konno (FC Tokyo, 27, 34, 0)
Daiki Iwamasa (Kashima Antlers 28, 2, 0)
Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo, 23, 23, 3)
Marcus Tulio Tanaka (Nagoya Grampus, 29, 37, 7)

Midfielders:
Yasuhiti Endo (Gamba Osaka, 30, 91, 8)
Shunsuke Nakamura (Yokohama F Marinos, 31, 95, 24)
Kengo Nakamura (Kawasaki Frontale, 29, 45, 5)
Junichi Inamoto (Kawasaki Frontale, 30, 79, 5)
Keisuke Honda (CSKA Moscow, Russia, 23, 12, 4)
Makoto Hasebe (Vfl Wolfsburg, Germany, 26, 28, 1)
Yuki Abe (Urawa Reds, 28, 42, 3)
Daisuke Matsui (Grenoble Foot 38, France, 28, 22, 1)

Forwards:
Yoshito Okubo (Vissel Kobe, 27, 46, 5)
Keiji Tamada (Nagoya Grampus, 30, 68, 16)
Takayuki Morimoto (Catatonia, Italy, 22, 3, 1)
Shinji Okazaki (Shimizu S-Pulse, 24, 25, 16)
Kisho Yano (Albirex Niigata, 26, 17, 2).

Another Crucial Lesson

Although Ken, over at the Rising Sun News, likes to diss the AFC Champions League, it is slowly becoming a useful tournament for Japanese clubs. Yes, the standard of the teams is very varied, but the Korean teams in particular provide J-League teams with some serious competition. Last week's game between Gamba and Suwon Bluewings, and Tuesday night's game between the Antlers and Jeonbuk were fast, entertaining games with some good football. They were also the sort of tough physical encounters that Japanese players need to get used to if they are to succeed at the world level.

The J-League is the best league in Asia, but too many of the games lack the sort of intensity that we see regularly in the top leagues, such as the English Premier League, the Spanish Primera League, or when a Japan faces fierce rivals Korea. For teams, such as the Antlers or Gamba, who make a regular appearance in the ACL, exposure to this sort of game will make their players much more able to compete on the world stage. The experience and confidence Atsuto Uchida and Mitsuo Ogasawara will have gained form last night's game will prove invaluable to Japan in the World Cup. As long as the J-League continues to allow its unworldly referees to mollycoddle players who stand there like a lemon waiting for the ball to arrive, rather than moving to meet it ahead of an opponent, then they are always going to find it tough when they go overseas or play competitive international games. They need to toughen up or learn to ride/evade challenges, just to make it into the first team at most clubs in Europe. Nagoya's Maya Yoshida found this out to his cost in Holland, breaking a foot in his first practice game.

Reports on ACL games:
Japan Times (3/10): Endo propels Antlers to triumph
Australian FourFourTwo (2/25): ACL Stalemate for Suwon and Gamba
Japan Times (3/11): Henan Jianye earn draw against Gamba

The Countdown Begins...

In what maybe bad news for Gamba Osaka fans, Japan duly crashed to a 3-1 defeat to South Korea to finish third in the 4-team East Asian Championship. An entirely predictable result given the uninspired starting lineup Takeshi Okada sent out.



Will the pleasant but ineffective manager be allowed to lead Japan to another ignominious World Cup disaster? Not if the JFA has any sense. After all, this is a manager who quit football management for a career giving lectures on his sport. Something better suited to the affable and well-educated Okada. His return after Osim was struck down by a stroke should have been temporary until the JFA found a permanent and more experienced replacement. Now they are stuck with inept manager out of his depth again. Unfortunately, common sense is not the JFA's forte, so Oka-chan is probably safe until the inevitable disgrace. A loss to Asian minnows Bahrain in March, however, could see even the bumpkins at JFA House realise the futility of the current situation.

Other Views
Japan Times: Okada escapes sack
Asahi Shimbun: East Asian Championship: S. Korea gives Okada's team reality check

VVV Shopping in Nagoya (Again?)

Numerous reports have been circulating about the player VVV Venlo hope to sign, presumably in place of Keisuke Honda, who is expected to move up to a bigger club in the January transfer window. In addition to Cerezo's Shinji Kagawa, who is expected to train with VVV in December, they have made a formal offer for Grampus defender Maya Yoshida, whose contract expires at the end of the season.

Needless to say, Nagoya are not taking this lightly since Maya is one of our key players for the future. They will be negotiating a new contract with Yoshida over the next few days. See this Sponichi article (in Japanese) for more details.

Okazaki Bags 2nd Hat-trick in Romp Over Togo

Shinji Okazaki nets his second national team hat-trick in a week as Japan waltz past a hopelessly outclassed opponent. Quite what the JFA hoped to achieve by this series of three games against such weak opposition is hard to tell, but at least the team has had plenty of target practice.  Just to remind you, these games (supposedly to 'strengthen' the team) ended: Japan 6-0 Hong Kong, Japan 2-0 Scotland and Japan 5-0 Togo. Indeed, such was the predictability of these games that the Asahi Shimbun did not bother to cover the Togo game.

Takayuki Morimoto put in another impressive display, scoring a good goal on the turn after 11 minutes. This was Japan's third of night and the team understandably lost its edge and did not reallt regain it until the second half when substitutes Keisuke Honda and Yoshito Okubo added some life to the game.



Other Views:
Gomiuri: Dazzling duo: Morimoto nets 1st goal for Japan, Okazaki bags second straight hat-trick in rout of Togo
Japan Times: Okazaki, Japan overwhelm Togo

NT: Japan 2-0 Scotland

A fairly poor performance by Japan's second-stringers was still good enough to (eventually) emerge victorious from their friendly against Scotland. However, it seems to have been good enough to impress the Beeb.



The match will not have taught manager Okada much, except that few of the starting members need serious consideration for a starting position in a serious game. Kesiuke Honda had another indifferent performance for the national team, despite his late goal. He was far too slow in getting Japan moving forward, and far too willing to settle for a backwards pass. Only Frontale 'keeper Kawasahima (already established as Japan's number two) and debutant Morimoto can feel satisfied with their night's work. It was not until Morimoto was introduced that Japan looked like turning their possession into serious threats.

Thoughts on Yomiuri and Mikitani

A former Vissel fan muses on what might be behind Rakuten's apparent lack of focus on its sports teams.

It has always struck me that there was a a potential conflict of interest between the Yomiuri media group and the group's ownership of Kawasaki/Tokyo Verdy football club.  I now doubt the sincerity of Mikitani's commitment to make Vissel successful.

There is a symbiotic relationship between the Yomiuri media group and the Yomiuri Giants baseball club.  The Yomiuri media group works as a medium of propagandistic hype for the Giants, and the success of the Giants increases sales of the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Sports Houchi and other companies in the Yomiuri media group.

So long as football was a minor sport, Yomiuri was happy to sponsor a football team, as it did in the amateur days and as it sponsors teams in many other sports.  However, once pro football started to pose a major challenge to Nippon Pro Baseball, the Yomiuri group was certain to be in a position where it wanted football to lose to baseball.  Any declining popularity of pro baseball would have an immediate negative effect on the sales of the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Sports Houchi, etc.

It is, therefore, easily understandable that the Yomiuri group has been unwilling to invest large sums in Tokyo Verdy to try and make it hugely successful.  Such success would undermine the basis for Yomiuri's dominant position in the Japanese newspaper world.  I spent four years in Nagoya from 1973-77.  Even at that time the rivalry between the Yomiuri Shimbun group and the Chuunichi Shimbun group, which owns the Chuunichi Dragons pro baseball club, was intense.  It was known that a successful Giants team boosted sales of the Yomiuri and Houchi in the Chuubu area, while, when the Dragons were successful, the sales of the Yomiuri group declined and those of the Chuunichi group blossomed.

It is a cutthroat world out there in the baseball Central League.  And Japanese pro baseball is virtually run by the Yomiuri Giants.

What has that got to do with Mikitani?  Well, Mikitani, as the founder and owner of Rakuten, is widely known as one of the wealthiest of the nouveau riche in Japan.  He was born in Kobe and he started to sponsor the Vissel Kobe pro football club.  As soon as this happened, the NPB started to bring pressure on Mikitani to save the twelve-club system of the NPB (the Kintetsu Buffaloes were in the process of going bust) and you can be sure that enormous rewards and threats were made to him by the baseball establishment in general and the Yomiuri Group in particular to invest in the proposed new Touhoku club.  After prolonged pressure he agreed to do so.

This, of course, has disturbed Mikitani's concentration on Vissel and the J-League, which was what the NPB and Yomiuri intended.

Orix were also involved in bailing out Kintetsu and in the compromise that followed, the Buffaloes were merged with the Orix BlueWave.  Orix were allowed to  protect (I think) eighteen of the former Buffaloes players. [Kintetsu and Orix were allowed to protect a total of 28 players from the two clubs.] The best having been creamed off, the reserves then formed the nucleus of the new Touhoku team, to be called the Golden Eagles, to be based in Sendai.  The numbers for the Touhoku team were then supplemented by a draft of pro players by the Eagles from the other eleven clubs.  Again, each club could protect (I think) eighteen players, and the Eagles could pick up what scraps they could. [For details about the 'Allocation Draft' in Japanese, see this Wikipedia article.]

Naturally, the Eagles were very weak.  Their first manager was a man called Tao.  After the first year, he was sacked and a crusty old genius, Nomura, was appointed.  Here are the Eagles' yearly records in the six-team Pacific League:
2005:  136g:  w38, l97, d1; 6th (Tao)
2006:  136         47      85     4; 6th (Nomura)
2007:  144        67   75     2; 4th (  "       )
2008:  144        65   76     3; 5th (  "       )
2009:  143        77   65     1; 2nd (  "       )

We are right now (the Eagles' last game of the regular season is today) at the very important point when the clubs are about to begin preparing for the play-offs.
You can see that Nomura has been almost miraculously successful.  Taking a team of has-beens and discards, supplemented by the yearly draft intake, transfers, etc., he has turned them into a team that has finished 2nd and is in a position where it is possible to win the Pacific League play-offs and participate in the Japan Series.

At this very point, it has become clear that Nomura will be sacked at the end of this season.  Last week's edition of the photo scandal magazine Friday reported that owner Mikitani had had a 4-hour discussion with Hoshino Senior Director of the Hanshin Tigers.  It is widely speculated that Mikitani asked Hoshino to be the next manager and Hoshino turned him down.  Actually, nobody knows what they talked about, but it's a fact that they had a four-hour discussion.  The Eagles' CEO has said that they did not discuss baseball, which has been met by the equivalent of raucous laughter in the Japanese sports press.  Nomura has responded by saying that while he loves the Eagles team, he hates the Rakuten club.  Bridges have been burned.

Now:  what is going on here?  What is Mikitani's agenda?  Why is he replacing Nomura after this successful year?  Especially, why has he allowed the speculation to become public at this important time immediately before the play-offs?

When you think of Vissel's managerial cock-ups, it makes you doubt whether Adachi was solely responsible for what has happened, and casts doubt on Mikitani's ability to run pro sports clubs, and even on his integrity.

Is it possible that Nomura is being sacked because he insists on continuing to make the Eagles more successful?  If so, could it be that Matsuda was sacked at Vissel because he was determined to continue making them more successful?  Doubts abound.  At best, Mikitani looks out of his depth in the goldfish-bowl world of pro baseball.

Yomiuri lacks commitment to make Verdy successful.  It is doing the right thing by getting out of pro football.  It's time Mikitani sorted himself out and decides what he wants to do.  I'm sure the Eagles fans don't want a team that is going to be kept permanently in the shadow of the Giants.  If Mikitani can't afford to commit himself to making the Eagles and Vissel both highly successful, he should make a choice and commit himself to one or the other.  We Vissel fans don't want an owner who just wants to keep the club ticking over so he can get kudos for his community spirit.  Sort yourself, and get your finger out, Mikitani!

Japan Taught Tough Lesson

Japan sank to a 3-0 loss to Holland, after making a bright start and looking the better team over the opening 45 minutes. Unfortunately, they did not manage to convert this into any goals. Holland responded with some rough tackles, before settling into their rhythm in the second half and running out as comfortable winners.

Although Grampus forward Keiji Tamada worked tirelessly and kept the Dutch defenders at full stretch, he had only one speculative shot to his name. Shinji Okazaki also looked lively, and had Japan's best chance of the half, but failed to control a lofted pass from Nakamura that should have seen Japan take the lead early on. This inability to make control of a passage of play count, does not bode well for the team's chances of progressing far in next year's World Cup. In particular, manager Okada must be frustrated that Japan looked far better in the first half, with Tamada dropping back to link up with the midfield, than in the second when he was replaced by Keisuke Honda. After several inspiring performances for VVV this season, a lot was expected from Honda, but he reverted to the curiously ineffective displays we saw for the Japan U-22's a couple of years ago.

The Japanese View


The Dutch View


Other Views
Goal.com: Netherlands 3-0 Japan: Orange Dominate
AFP: Dutch coach apologises to Japanese

Grampus Ready for Trip the Sand Pit

Nagoya are already for their away match at Oita's Kyushu Oil Dome Stadium. Manager Stojkovic has already told his players to take the state of "pitch" into consideration and avoid getting injured. Unlike Urawa's Marcus Tulio, who had to find out the hard way, despite the notoriety of the Trinita's shoddy sod.

Normally, I would be looking forward to us improving out goal difference against the bottom team, but will happy if our players simply emerge unscathed from the encounter.

Davi Headed to Qatar for 500 Mil.

Grampus have announced that Brazilian forward Davi is indeed headed out the door, lured away by the petrodollars of Umm Salal. The transfer is subject Davi passing a medical, so he may be less than totally committed in any challenges he makes against FC Tokyo on Saturday, or in the Nabisco Cup game against them on Wednesday. :-)

Local sources say that it has cost Umm Salal 500 million yen to buy out the remainder of Davi's three year contract. They also say that he will be getting a big pay rise, jumping from the 40 million yen he was reportedly getting from Grampus to 140 million at Umm Salal. Let's hope that the club use some of that 500 million that are getting on a creative midfielder.

Official Club Press Release (Japanese)
Chunichi Shimbun Article

Own Goals Sink Vissel

Despite the league very generously crediting Hiroshima's first and last goals to Hattori and Sato, they were in fact deflected past the hapless Enomoto by Kitamoto. Not that Sanfrecce were not worth the victory, they were much the more effective attacking team throughout the contest.

The return of Okubo had little effect in the first half for Kobe, as Marcel continued to occupy an unjustified slot in the starting line-up. Things improved after half-time, when the static Brazilian was replaced by rookie Kusunose, as Vissel raced to an improbable 3-2 lead. However, they were unable to hold back the purple tide and were eventually washed away in the last five minutes of the game.

Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Hirotsugu Nakabayashi
Tomoaki Makino, Stoyanov, Kohei Morita
Mikic, Toshihiro Aoyama, Koji Nakajima, Kota Hattori, Yojiro Takahagi
Yosuke Kashiwagi, Hisato Sato
Scorers: Hattori? 1, Makino 44, Kashiwagi 84, Sato? 85

Vissel
Tatsuya Enomoto
Toshihiko Uchiyama, Kunie Kitamoto, Tsuneysu Miyamoto, Yosuke Ishibitsu
Hideo Tanaka (Park Kang Jo), Ryosuke Matsuoka, Ryuhei Niwa, Yoshito Okubo (Takayuki Yoshida 71)
Marcel (Akihito Kusunose HT), Hiroto Mogi
Scorers: Okubo 46 (PK), Ishibitsu 50, Mogi 66

Where Next for Keisuke?

The European transfer window looks likely to see former Grampus midfielder, Keisuke Honda move on from VVV Venlo. From a football viewpoint, another year or two at VVV, where he is an established key player, playing in the Dutch top division is probably his best option. Helping them establish themselves in the top division, something he failed to do in his first season, would be impressive. However, it also runs the risk of seeing his value diminish, if VVV prove to be not quite good enough.

However, staying with VVV would probably mean extending his contract, and other clubs are likely to offer more lucrative offers. He and his agent will have to weight the balance of these offers carefully. A Japanese club may be fooled by his MVP performance in a weak league (even some of the teams in the top division are weaker then many J1 teams), but a move to a European club means he would likely have to prove himself all over again. Certainly if he were to move to one of the more famous clubs, such as PSV or Ajax, he would not be guaranteed regular playing time until he has established himself in the team. If he wants to be sure of place in Japan's World Cup squad for next year, he will have to choose carefully.

Clueless League Officials Exonerate "Drop Dead" Ref

As expected, the J League applied liberal coatings of whitewash when it came to "investigating" Yuichi Nishimura's verbal abuse of players. Nishimura, who was roundly jeered when announced as the match official at Toyota Stadium on Saturday, was accused of telling a player to "drop dead" during last week's game between FC Tokyo and Oita Trinita.

Despite reports that other players confirmed the referee's verbal abuse, in the absence of undeniable evidence the bureaucrats have sided with one of their own. Maybe fans should just chant "Die, Die, Die" each time Nishimura takes charge of a game from now on, since Gaptain Gormless seems nervous about all the fuss.