They say the league table doesn't lie, but as we don't have one yet, and no media outlets in Japan seem willing to put any noses out of joint (yet, at least) by ranking J.League teams (especially J2) or predicting the order in which teams will finish, I've decided to publish this, my inaugural J2 Power Rankings. This method of putting teams in order from first to worst is more popular in American sports, where teams are seperated into divisions and often don't play each other at all during the season, but I think it'll be a useful way of keeping track of other teams Tokyo fans aren't that familiar with.
Rather than simply re-hashing the final standings from last season with the three relegated teams from J1 on top of the other 16 (now 17 with the addition of Tottori), I'm taking into account players that have come in or left in the off-season, and where teams have finished in the past two-to-three seasons. Now, as I admitted in Nine Months of ....., I'm not fully up-to-speed yet on all of the J2 clubs and players, but I've used The J1 & J2 Player Directory to help with ins & outs, and the official J.League site for standings from previous years. I'm planning on updating this every week or two during the season (or once a month at worst), and I'll use a completely unscientific method of evaluating results (a 1-0 win over Chiba will carry more weight for a weaker team than a 3-0 win over Toyama, for example) in moving teams up or down.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Gas Talk - Episode 1
After discussions with my On the Gas co-contributor Graham (tokyo bairn) and fellow FC Tokyo blogger Dan at Aishiteru Tokyo, the three of us decided to have a go at making a podcast all about the Gasmen, and here's the result - for your listening pleasure, the first episode of Gas Talk.
Recorded at an izakaya in Shinjuku last Thursday night, Feb. 10, our first episode probably went a bit longer than we'd expected, but hopefully it's good listening for all Tokyo fans. Here's the rundown:
Listening options? Well, you have three of them! You can listen on the embedded player below, to subscribe to the iTunes RSS feed paste http://www.voiceblog.jp/gas_talk/rss2.0.xml in "Subscribe to Podcast" in the Advanced menu, or if you'd like to download the mp3 you can do so by visiting
http://www.archive.org/details/GasTalk-Episode1 - you'll find it ready for you there.
Enjoy.
Recorded at an izakaya in Shinjuku last Thursday night, Feb. 10, our first episode probably went a bit longer than we'd expected, but hopefully it's good listening for all Tokyo fans. Here's the rundown:
- Part 1: A quick introduction of the three of us, and a brief history of the club;
- Part 2 (from around 6 mins in): We break down where it all went wrong in 2010;
- Part 3 (from around 23 mins in): Arrivals & Departures, a quick look at the first two training matches of the pre-season, how we might set up and how we'll fare in 2011, plus a passionate discussion about the state of the club and what our priorities should be this year.
Listening options? Well, you have three of them! You can listen on the embedded player below, to subscribe to the iTunes RSS feed paste http://www.voiceblog.jp/gas_talk/rss2.0.xml in "Subscribe to Podcast" in the Advanced menu, or if you'd like to download the mp3 you can do so by visiting
http://www.archive.org/details/GasTalk-Episode1 - you'll find it ready for you there.
Enjoy.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
New Faces, New Tactics?
Pre-season training has barely started for the Gasmen, and the lads played just the one practice game (beating JFL team Takasaki 12-0 in a 4 x 35 min workout at Kodaira last Saturday) before they took off to Miyazaki and Kagoshima for our nine day training camp. There's almost a month to go until Tosu at home on March the 5th, but, with plenty of time on my hands, I've been thinking about where all our new players will fit in and what sort of an XI we'll see on the field to start the new season. The club has listed 29 players in the first team squad (some brilliant comments on the players there, as well), including eight new faces.
If all are fit and well, and as advertised (the new Brazilians), then I'd suggest only one or two changes from our "Best XI" from last season, but with players in their correct positions (Tokunaga), and more potency in attack (in spite of Hirayama's presence, some would say!). Right now, perfect world, here's my team: (4-4-2)
New Faces
Now, we were all excited about Ricardinho this time last year, but Roberto Cesar (think I'm gunna nickname him 'Robbie C,' though 'Julius' or 'The Salad' are other possibilities) comes with a better CV and scoring record than Rica had, so he'll walk into the team ahead of Takamatsu, who is more likely to be in competition for a spot with Big Sota. Pedro Junior is going to destroy J2 defences with regularity, and will make it hard for Hanyu, Otake and Sotan to get many starts.
If all are fit and well, and as advertised (the new Brazilians), then I'd suggest only one or two changes from our "Best XI" from last season, but with players in their correct positions (Tokunaga), and more potency in attack (in spite of Hirayama's presence, some would say!). Right now, perfect world, here's my team: (4-4-2)
(Yes, I've made that on Paint. Best I could do, as I'm a total numpty with making graphics.)
New Faces
Now, we were all excited about Ricardinho this time last year, but Roberto Cesar (think I'm gunna nickname him 'Robbie C,' though 'Julius' or 'The Salad' are other possibilities) comes with a better CV and scoring record than Rica had, so he'll walk into the team ahead of Takamatsu, who is more likely to be in competition for a spot with Big Sota. Pedro Junior is going to destroy J2 defences with regularity, and will make it hard for Hanyu, Otake and Sotan to get many starts.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Nine Months of .......
...... who knows? But I think all Tokyo fans are confident we can achieve our goal of bouncing straight back up. So, with that in mind, today was a special day......
With just over a month until the new season begins, the powers-that-be at the J.League have finally released the full J2 fixture list for 2011, which promptly caused the meltdown of the club website. Anyways its 20 teams, 38 Matchdays, 16 home games at Ajinomoto Stadium for FC Tokyo, two at Kokuritsu and one at Komazawa, plus three group stage games at home in the Nabisc....oh, yeah, no Nabisco Cup for us this season. Apparently they've also released the J1 fixtures, but we don't care about that this year, do we?
A while ago League HQ teased us by announcing the fixtures for the first two matchdays, so we already knew that FC Tokyo will begin the season at home against Tosu on Saturday, March 5, before travelling to Okayama for Matchday 2 the following Saturday.
Now, the full fixtures are out, and, probably like you, the first thing I looked for were the derbies. The first of them comes in early May, on a national holiday, in the 10th game of the season, and it ends a group of three games that should give us an early-ish test of our mettle against other genuine promotion-chasers: away to Chiba and home to Sapporo, before we are the "visiting" team against The Spews (our fans will fill two-thirds of Aji Sta anyway).
With just over a month until the new season begins, the powers-that-be at the J.League have finally released the full J2 fixture list for 2011, which promptly caused the meltdown of the club website. Anyways its 20 teams, 38 Matchdays, 16 home games at Ajinomoto Stadium for FC Tokyo, two at Kokuritsu and one at Komazawa, plus three group stage games at home in the Nabisc....oh, yeah, no Nabisco Cup for us this season. Apparently they've also released the J1 fixtures, but we don't care about that this year, do we?
A while ago League HQ teased us by announcing the fixtures for the first two matchdays, so we already knew that FC Tokyo will begin the season at home against Tosu on Saturday, March 5, before travelling to Okayama for Matchday 2 the following Saturday.
Now, the full fixtures are out, and, probably like you, the first thing I looked for were the derbies. The first of them comes in early May, on a national holiday, in the 10th game of the season, and it ends a group of three games that should give us an early-ish test of our mettle against other genuine promotion-chasers: away to Chiba and home to Sapporo, before we are the "visiting" team against The Spews (our fans will fill two-thirds of Aji Sta anyway).
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Naga joins Inter (Yes, really!)
Just two days after his cross led to the decisive goal in Japan's Asian Cup win over Australia #sniff#, ex-FC Tokyo full back Yuto Nagatomo has made a hugely significant move in his career, joining reigning Serie A, Champions League, Coppa Italia and Club World Cup champions Inter Milan on loan from Cesena.
The above nicely-photo-shopped image was taken from Inter's Official English Website, where Naga was quoted as saying "I'm very happy to have joined Inter, the world champions. Now I have to prove to everyone that I can play." On becoming the first Japanese player to don the Nerazzurri's famous black and blue strip, Naga said "That fills me with great pride. I really want to succeed wearing the Nerazzurri colours."
Inter's move came right before the end of the January transfer window, and saw their young left back Davide Santon go in the opposite direction, also on loan. Nagatomo will provide cover for regular left back Cristian Chivu, and as all fans of the Gasmen know, could easily do the same on the right behind Maicon, having come through the Tokyo youth system as a right back.
Naga's meteoric rise to international prominence, which started after he played so impressively at the 2010 World Cup - earning him his initial move to Italy - continued in Qatar, where he was one of Japan's outstanding performers in their record fourth continental triumph. Having assisted on Japan's equaliser in the semi final against South Korea (we'll forget his miss in the penalty shootout, shall we?!), he crossed for Tadanari Lee to volley home in the second half of extra time in the final against the Socceroos, cementing his place in the tournament's Best XI. In fact, if left back were not such an unfashionable position, I believe Naga would've/should've at least been a finalist for player of the tournament, so influential were his performances.
The above nicely-photo-shopped image was taken from Inter's Official English Website, where Naga was quoted as saying "I'm very happy to have joined Inter, the world champions. Now I have to prove to everyone that I can play." On becoming the first Japanese player to don the Nerazzurri's famous black and blue strip, Naga said "That fills me with great pride. I really want to succeed wearing the Nerazzurri colours."
Inter's move came right before the end of the January transfer window, and saw their young left back Davide Santon go in the opposite direction, also on loan. Nagatomo will provide cover for regular left back Cristian Chivu, and as all fans of the Gasmen know, could easily do the same on the right behind Maicon, having come through the Tokyo youth system as a right back.
Naga's meteoric rise to international prominence, which started after he played so impressively at the 2010 World Cup - earning him his initial move to Italy - continued in Qatar, where he was one of Japan's outstanding performers in their record fourth continental triumph. Having assisted on Japan's equaliser in the semi final against South Korea (we'll forget his miss in the penalty shootout, shall we?!), he crossed for Tadanari Lee to volley home in the second half of extra time in the final against the Socceroos, cementing his place in the tournament's Best XI. In fact, if left back were not such an unfashionable position, I believe Naga would've/should've at least been a finalist for player of the tournament, so influential were his performances.
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