Toyoda Presses Case for Olympic Slot

Former Nagoya forward Yohei Toyoda, now plying his trade in Yamagata, scored Japan's goal in a 1-1 draw with Angola yesterday. This saw the Japan U-23 team take on the full national team of Angola and put on a lively display, with some neat passing and good movement off the ball. However, a generally impressive performance was marred by a failure to capitalize on their superiority over the Africans and eventually conceding an equalizer near the end. Although the 1-1 draw against a full national side looks a reasonable result on paper, Japan will need to improve its accuracy and show better strategic planning if it is to make a challenge for an Olympic medal.

The game saw several key players for the Olympic squad rested, or missing through injury, including Keisuke Honda (VVV) and Koki Mizuno (Celtic), and Sota Hirayama (FC Tokyo). While Yohei showed enough industry and netted Japan's goal, manager Sorimachi will have a tough choice between choosing between the hard-working Toyoda and the more skillful, but erratic Hirayama. Despite an encouraging and industrious display from Japan's midfield yesterday, it is seems unlikely that either Honda or Mizuno will miss out on the chance of Olympic glory. Neither is quite as consistently accurate as they should be, but both can provide an improvement on the woeful free-kicks and corners displayed last night.

Dutch TV View of Honda's First Goal

Here is a Youtube clip of Keisuke Honda's FK against Feyenoord. His first goal for VVVV. This was followed by a second goal, poking home a loose ball from close range, this week, but neiher were enough to save Venlo from losing both games.

Honda Bags First Goal

Former Grampus, and Japan U-22 star, Keisuke Honda scored his first goal for VVV Venlo on Saturday. Unfortunately, his equalizer from a FK was not enough to save VVV from a 1-3 loss.

Pixie Conjures Up First Win as Manager

At Saitama Stadium no less. :-)
True, Urawa were pretty toothless in the first half and allowed Grampus to control the opening 45 minutes. However, any win against the Reds is a cause for celebration.

Johnsen headed in a cross after 14 minutes to give Nagoya a fully deserved lead after a bright opening. Urawa failed to seriously test Narazaki until just before the interval. However, they made a much stronger showing in the second half, rattling a post and forcing Narazaki into a couple of good saves and looking likely to equalize before the game was finished. Fortunately, Tsuzuki gifted Grampus a second goal after 23 minutes, Ogawa pouncing on his sloppiness, which took the wind of his team's sails and Grampus cruised to victory from then on in.

This was an important win that will give the team and manager confidence from a promising display. There will be sterner tests ahead, but it is looking like Stojkovic may well become a good manager. His calm and business-like demeanor was far from the fiery outbursts we have come to expect from Pixie the player, although I suspect we will get a few of those at some point. :-)

Team Lineups

Pos.	Urawa Reds	Nagoya Grampus	Pos.
GK	Ryota Tsuzuki	Seigo Narazaki	GK
DF	Keisuke Tsuboi	Jun Aoyama (Takashi Miki, 75)	DF
DF	Satoshi Horinouchi	Akira Takeuchi	DF
DF	Hajime Hosogai	Maya Yoshida	DF
DF	Takahito Soma	Shohei Abe	DF
MF	Tadaaki Hirakawa	Yoshizumi Ogawa	MF
MF	Yuki Abe	Naoshi Nakamura	MF
MF	Keita Suzuki (Tsukasa Umesaki, 61)	Keiji Yoshimura	MF
MF	Nobuhisa Yamada	Magnum (Keita Sugimoto, 84)	MF
FW	Nnaohiro Takahara (Yuichiro Nagai, HT)	Keiji Tamada (Kei Yamaguchi, 89)	FW
FW	Edmilson	Frode Johnsen	FW

2008 J1 Kick Off: What Can We Expect?

The 2008 J.League season kick-off under the cloud of allegations of the gambling syndicate influenced fixing of last week's Super Cup. We hope that the league will take firm action to investigate this travesty of a game and its "officiating" that brought the game in Japan into such disrepute, regardless of whether the fixing allegations turn out to be true or not. (See Japan Times, Kyodo.) However, it is the start of a new season and hope springs eternal in football fans in Japan. Let's hope this optimism about the integrity of the league is justified.

Saturday sees Grampus take on newly promoted Kyoto Sanga in a game that both teams will be keen to win as it may represent their best chance to build some confidence in what is likely to prove to be a long season for both clubs. For Grampus, it will see the dawn of the Dragan Stojkovic era, as the legendary Pixie attempts to lead the team as manager. Having lost Honda to VVV during the off-season, and missing experienced defender Masayuki Omori through injury, Nagoya could struggle defensively in the opening games of the season until new signings settle into the team. Signings such as Milos Bajalica and midfielder Magnum should impress this year, but will they do so from the opening game? Stojkovic and hordes of Grampus fans will be hoping that they can. Fortunately, two other experienced hands Keiji Yoshimura and Toshiya Fujita look as though they will be back from injury lay-offs in time for the opening game.

Sanga on the other hand, have two vastly experienced additions to the team this year with Sidiclei, previously one of the best defenders in the league, arriving from Gamba Osaka and striker Atsushi Yanagisawa arriving from Kashima Antlers. They will join former Japan captain Ryuzo Morioka in a team that also includes Makoto Kakuda and Yusuke Nakatani who both used to play for Grampus. This gives them some much needed experience and players who will be motivated to do well in Nagoya. Kyoto have always struggled to stay in J1 and are likely to find it tough again this year, but their combination of youth and experience should see them manage to survive this year.

As for the result, I would expect a narrow win for Grampus, but would not be surprised by a 1-1 draw.

Grampus Prognosis for 2008

This year (2008) sees former Grampus idol Dragan "Pixie" Stojkovic take over as manager. While this is the Serbian play-maker's first experience as a club manager, he spent seven years in Nagoya as a player and will have a commitment to, and knowledge of the players that should stand him in good stead. Whether this personal commitment will prove the downfall of the notoriously temperamental Stojkovic remains to be seen. Fortunately, his choice of coaching staff augers well. In addition to former Red Star Belgrade youth coach Bosko Djurovski, he also has the services of former Grampus goalie Dido Havenaar to call upon. Havenaar has Japanese nationality and coaching experience with the national team, so along with the manager's own smattering of Japanese, there should not be any of the communication problems that can trip up other foreign management teams. While it is likely to take a few months for the new regime to impose its own style on the team, it will have an unprecedented determination and fierce will to succeed.

Now, how will the playing staff fare this year? This is much harder to predict. Having lost the team's most talented player, Keisuke Honda, to VVV Venlo of the Dutch Eredivisie during the January transfer window, the team may struggle to create goal-scoring chances. New signings such as Magnum from Kawasaki Frontale and Grampus U-18 graduate Sho Hanai could prove vital in providing some creativity, certainly if the team is to do better than a mid-table position this year. Magnun is a talented player with experience in Japan, but is likely to need a few months to fully settle into the team. Hanai is young and inexperienced, and although undoubtedly a talented youngster, he is unlikely to make the instant impact that Honda did in 2005. Elsewhere in midfield, Keiji Yoshimura and Naoshi Nakamura will need to raise their game and prove that they can be influential on a consistent basis, rather than just once in a blue moon. I will also be hoping to see other promising youngsters, such as Keiji Watanabe and Jun Aoyama get a good run in the first team.

Defensively, the situation looks more promising. Maya Yoshida, an 18-year old rookie last year, showed great promise and should grow in confidence and stature as the season progresses. Provided new recruit from Red Star Belgrade, Milos Bajalica, adapts to life in Japan quickly, he along with Masayuki Omori, Takashi Miki and Atsushi Yoneyama should be able to protect goalies Narazaki and stand-ins Hirono or Hasegawa. Although Hyogo-native Takahiro Masukawa is one of my favourite players, and his height and strength should be great assets in the defence, he seems to lack the composure required to be a reliable presence.

Up front, Norwegian international Frode Johnsen looks set to lead the attack again this year. He has already established a good combination with speedsters Keiji Tamada and Keita Sugimoto, and a lot will depend on these players further developing their understanding this year. Unless they improve dramatically this season, it is hard to see sophomore forwards Maki and Niikawa challenging for a place in the starting line-up this year. Even the sparky Masaki Fukai, signed from the Kashima Antlers, may find it difficult to break into the team at first. He is an exciting player, but one who has never quite managed to live up to expectations.

So, all-in-all. it should be fascinating to see how the Stojkovic -led Grampus develop in 2008, but is hard to see them challenging for a title unless he really does prove to be a new Arsene Wenger.