The Japanese football thread

I think this is the best goal of today's J1 games. I think it is a Messi esque goal.







He is Ryonosuke Kabayama, 20 year old forward playing for Sagan Tosu. Sagan Tosu is famous for their young talents and they have some of my favorite young footballers.

 

I noticed two other Scottish football clubs bought Japanese footballers last month (January 2023). So, Scottish league has 7 Japanese footballers now. If I remember correctly, it was 0 or 1 before Kyogo Furuhashi joined Celtic. I wonder how many Japanese will play in Scottish league in 2025. Actually, a similar thing happened in Germany. Nearly 20 Japanese footballers are playing in Germany this season (most of them are for the Bundesliga 1st division teams) and the trend happened after a Japanese attacking midfielder helped Dortmund win Bundesliga, beating Bayern about 10+ years ago.

 

If the goal above is the best goal of last weekend, this is the worst goal (own goal) of last weekend. Actually, it might be one of the worst own goals I've ever seen.

 

That's a good one! これ好きです！

 

@Far East Footballer Is it much coverage on Celtic games on the Japanese news channels?

 

Yes, but not as much as when Nakamura was playing for Celtic. It's because only a few Japanese footballers were playing in Europe at that time while there are nearly 100 Japanese players in Europe now. Japanese media tend to cover the very top leagues such as EPL, La Liga and Bundesliga. Especially, they tend to cover Japanese attacking players in the European top leagues. For example, Mitoma = left winger in Brighton (= EPL), Kubo = attacking midfielder in Real Sociedad (= La Liga) and many attacking players in Bundesliga too. Celtic is surely a very famous big club in the world and popular in Japan too, so Japanese media cover Celtic too.

Mitoma after FA Cup game v Liverpool on a Japanese tv



DAZN Japan cover European football games where Japanese footballers are playing. This is Kubo's one (Real Sociedad).



Now, thanks to Japanese footballers playing for Celtic, we can watch Celtic games in Japan as well (before that, we couldn't except Celtic games in Champions League or Europa League).　SPOTVNOW broadcast Celtic games in Japan. They upload highlights of each game onto Youtube too.

 

This month, Japan have a lot of international matches.

The top national team:
Friendly match against Columbia
Friendly match against Uruguay

U20 national team:
AFC U20 Asian Cup (=FIFA U20 World Cup qualification)

U22 national team:
Friendly match against U22 Germany held in Germany
Friendly match against U22 Belgium held in Germany


When it comes to seeing which Japanese footballers are good enough to play in Europe next, I'm most interested in U22 games of this month. It's because almost all members of top national team are already playing in Europe and most U20 members are teenagers and most of them are not physically ready to play in Europe. U22 teams of Japan, Germany and Belgium are the teams for Paris Olympic football games (as you may know, Olympic football = U23. Paris Olympics is held next year, so U22 now). Most U22 German national team members are given enough playing time in Bundesliga (the first division). So, if U22 Japanese member are playing good enough against U22 Germany, it means the Japanese footballers are good enough to play in Scotland, IMO.

 

Yokohama FM play some nice stuff.

 

Can we not postpone games if 3 or more of our players are picked for the NT? Would wind the huns up big time.

 

Today's U20 Japan v U20 China in AFC U20 Asian Cup was a typical Japan v Asian national team.

Japan's possession = about 80% : China's possession = about only 20%
Japan's shots = 25 : China's shots = 4

As the stats above show, Japan kept attacking during the whole game. However, Japan gave an own goal to China soon after the game started. Then, China kept defending hard with all of 10 field players and Japan struggled to score but scored 2 goals, defeating China in the end. Japan was given a pen, but failed to score AGAIN(somehow, Japan is bad at penalty kick). The final score was 2-1 (Japan won), but Japan should have made it 4-0. Some Japanese players who are currently playing in Europe were not selected for the U20 team to make them focus on playing for their European clubs or another reason. Some J-League players are not selected for injury.

Some media were reporting that some European football clubs including Celtic are interested in Kuryu Matsuki, 19 year old Japanese defensive midfielder. He was good but he failed a pen!. MOTM is Naoki Kumata, who scored 2 goals today. Here is the game of U20 Japan v U20 China. https://www.the-afc.com/en/matches/afc-u20-asian-cup/2023/2334786

 

Looks an interesting talent...

 

He was impressive. Actually, he didn't start the game. Soon after he was sent to the game, he scored 2 goals and he won a pen (Matsuki failed the penalty kick, though).







Takatora Einaga, 19 year old forward was good too. He was also sent to the game in the second half. He is short (168cm), however, agile skillful Japanese dribblers like him are beating defenders in European leagues in recent years. Many foreign footballers say "Japanese footballers are agile". He is a typical agile skillful dribbler. Btw, his first name Takatora is written 鷹虎. 鷹 (Taka)= eagle. 虎 (Tora) = tiger. So, his first name means "eagle tiger". I think it's a cool name for forward / winger like him.



Here is the video of Takatora Einaga.

 

It might be a bit off topic, but I want to write about a Brazilian footballer who used to play in Japan.

Rony (Ronielson da Silva Barbosa) used to play for a J-League club till he was 22. Japanese football clubs are financially a lot smaller compared to European clubs, so Brazilian footballers that Japanese clubs get are internationally unknown. His J-League club got relegated, so he decided to go back to Brazil. Since then, he kept playing for Brazilian clubs. Last year, he scored 23 goals for Palmeiras and he was selected for the Brazilian national team for the first time. He is turning 28 years old soon. Actually, he was not impressive when he was playing in Japan at the age of 22. So, he is surely a late developer. I feel like supporting late developers. I think Kyogo Furuhashi is also a sort of late developer. Jamie Vardy is a famous late developer, winning Premier League Golden Boot at the age of 33. I hope Kyogo keeps scoring a lot till he is 33 like Vardy did. When next World Cup is held (= 2026), Kyogo is 31 years old, young enough to help Japan win more games in World Cup!


He is Rony (Ronielson da Silva Barbosa). He is 167cm, shorter than Kyogo.

 

‘Project DNA’: How Japan’s J1 League became a ‘flair factory’ for Europe’s top clubs
https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/project-dna-japan-league-flair-factory-europe-top-clubs-2184690

 

As far as I know, there are two "Nakamura" playing in Europe this season. Keito Nakamura scored yesterday as well, but the Nakamura I'm writing this time is Kosuke Nakamura, a Japanese goal keepper playing for a Portuguese club. His club lost but he was selected as Man of The Match because he showed his impressive quality during the game. In recent years, many Japanese forwards, midfielders and defenders are playing in Europe, but goal keepers are not. I hope his success will bring more Japanese goal keepers to Europe (That said, only one keeper per club is given enough playing time basically, so moving to Europe is a bit risky for Japanese goal keepers)

Here is the highlands of Kosuke Nakamura's last match.




Kosuke Nakamura when he was in Japan


And now in Portugal. Looks like a different person. He turned 28 years old last week, so he is still young as goal keeper.

 

Today, Japan won by 3-0 and Kumata scored a goal again. Here is the video of his goal.

 

Youtube video is unavailable. Found it on Twitter though. Good finish...

 

Ah, DAZN Japan videos on Youtube are basically NOT available outside Japan?

 

So, AFC U20 Asian Cup is being held now.

I noticed one thing. Some "new" countries are showing quality recently. About 50 football associations belong to AFC and 12 national teams are in AFC U20 Asian Cup right now, so the 12 national teams are the best national teams in Asia. For long, only a few far east Asian teams (= Japan, South Korea and Australia) and some oil rich middle east teams (such as Saudi Arabia and Iran) were competitive and they have been still dominant. China is a lot behind those top Asian teams. National teams of ASEAN (Southeast Asia) were even behind China. However, in recent years, some ASEAN national teams have started showing their quality. Especially, Vietnam. Vietnam defeated Australia in the group stage of ongoing AFC U20 Asian Cup (As you may know, Australia reached the knockout stage of FIFA World Cup 2022, defeating Denmark, etc)

Now, a footballer from Thailand is playing in Japan. He is called "Thailand's Messi" in Thailand and because of him, a lot of Thai people are watching J-League. I don't think they can produce footballers good enough for Scottish top teams (Celtic and Rangers) soon. However, they might be able to produce footballers good enough for lower Scottish clubs in the near future. Quite many football fans in those countries will be veeeeery excited if their national team footballers are playing for European football clubs.

I'm not for sure if Scottish football fans are happy to see more foreign footballers in their own football league, but having top players from ASEAN (600 million population) is likely to help Scottish league become financially stronger in my opinion. Being financially stronger can help Scottish clubs become more competitive in Champions League and Europa League.

 

Some people in this forum asked me about Japanese goal keepers. I like Zion Suzuki. He is 20 years old, 190cm, playing for Urawa Reds and U23 national team now. Urawa Reds has Nishikawa, who used to play for Japanese national team, and the manager of Urawa Reds usually selects Nishikawa for most games, but tonight, Zion Suzuki played and he was very good. Actually, whenever I see him play, he is very good. Nishikawa is turning 37 years old this year, so Zion Suzuki will soon become the first choice goal keeper, IMO. He is currently playing for U23 national team and I assume he will play for the top national team in the near future. Edit: His mother is Japanese and father is originally from Africa.

Zion Suzuki : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zion_Suzuki