At the risk of stereotyping young Hirayama, I think the only way he will get into Japan's WC squad is the fact that he is a bit different. A little reminiscent of Peter Crouch, ie tall with a decent touch, he will need to have a stellar season to get into the thinking of Okada and friends. Having said that, Ryoichi Maeda has never really impressed me in the Samurai Blue, Morimoto is still relatively unproven, Koroki looks dangerous in spurts and Tamada has to have a good start with Grampus. With Okazaki as the only definite name on the plane (injury not withstanding) the place for strikers looks set to be an interesting shoot-out.

Urawa's new kit, with prior apologies to Omiya fans, looks quite nice. Nice & plain, nothing too fancy. The number looks a bit weird though.

Okada seems especially keen on Tamada, NBNG, so I cannot imagine that he will miss out no matter how he starts 2010 for Grampus. The fans would probably like to see Morimoto, but for one reason and another he has had so few opportunities to play and that situation might not change sufficiently in the next few months for him to get selected; it's a shame, he looks a decent enough young player. Maeda doesn't seem to be able to handle the change from domestic to international football. My choice would be Sato, but unfortunately my influence over these matters is limited.

Moving on to the undoubtedly more important topic of new kit launches, I'm not offended or dismayed by your approving of the Urawa shirt. The number is perhaps a little bit odd, but it's the back-to-front S on the sponsor's logo that winds me up. The highlight of Monday's press conference at Kawasaki Frontale, however, seems to have been a performance by the club cheerleaders, whose name is a pun based on the fact that the Japanese pronunciation of the vowels in "Frontale" and "girls" is the same, and which is rendered rather distressingly in English as the Frontals.



Closer each day, that's Kawasaki's new Home and Away

A pulsating final of the All-Japan High School Soccer Tournament at the National Stadium on Tuesday was won by Yamanashi Gakuin HS, who overcame Aomori Yamada HS to the tune of 1-0 and thereby took the title for the first time. Played out against the background of a cacophony of competing brass bands, despite the low scoreline it was a rollicking good game in which Yamanashi took the lead early on through an angled shot that rocketed into the top right-hand corner. Aomori pushed and pushed in their attempts to get back onto level terms, but in fact the nearest anyone came to another goal was when Yamanashi hit the bar in the second half.



Yeeeaaahhh

All-Japan High School Soccer Tournament Final

Aomori Yamada HS (Aomori) 0-1 Yamanashi Gakuin HS (Yamanashi)

Woohoo, list time. We're just over a third of the way through the J-League close season, so what, er, better time to take a look at the Top Ten Transfers of the winter so far? Well, I accept that a better time might be considered to be right before then 2010 season starts. Or not thinking about the subject at all is another alternative, obviously. Anyhow, giving me the opportunity to mention teams as varied as Urawa Reds, Zweigen Kanazawa and - yay - FC Tom Tomsk, here are some of the most eyebrow-raising deals of the last month. Five this post, five the next.

10. Ryuji Bando Gamba Osaka to Cerezo Osaka. Players who move between cross-town rivals are always really popular, of course. Cerezo are preparing for their first season back in J1 - they're an attacking side and the signing of a striker like thirty-year-old Bando, who until a year or two ago was a fringe national team member, indicates a determination to continue with the same style. Just that this particular striker is clearly associated with Gamba, having had two spells there that include the scoring of the goal that won the 2008/09 Emperor's Cup. Could go either way, I guess.



Kaboom! It's Ryuji Bando

9. Tatsuhiko Kubo Sanfrecce Hiroshima to Zweigen Kanazawa. Now 33, Kubo is a Sanfrecce legend, in the early stages of his career there being one of the most dangerous Japanese strikers around. After scoring 67 goals in 183 matches, in 2003 he moved on to Yokohama F Marinos where he had a great first season but after that petered out somewhat. The highlight of his year at Yokohama FC was this stunning shot against Urawa Reds but following a 2009 swansong at Sanfrecce, Kubo has now accepted a shock offer from ambitious JFLers Zweigen Kanazawa.

8. Mu Kanazaki Oita Trinita to Nagoya Grampus. At the age of only nineteen, Mu Kanazaki burst onto the J-League scene with Oita in 2008 as a dynamic young playmaker with skill, pace and technique. He made a major contribution to Trinita's surprise fourth-place finish that year and soon after the season finished won his first international cap. Obviously, 2009 went about as wrong for Oita as it could possibly have done and with the club on the verge of bankruptcy, Kanazaki is inevitably one of the first out the door to join Dragan Stojkovic's attempt actually to achieve something at Grampus.

7. Kim Nam Il Vissel Kobe to FC Tom Tomsk. A South Korean international defensive midfielder with a hell of a career path. Kim emerged as a major star during the 2002 World Cup while with K-Leaguers Chunnam Dragons, went to Holland briefly and then back to Korea - before heading off to take the Yen at cash-rich Vissel, backed by wildly popular shopping website Rakuten. Two years and more than fifty games at the heart of the Maroons' team later, and Kim's now off to fourth country. Russia. In fact, to Siberian-based FC Tom Tomsk. Who'd have thought it? Womble-tastic.



Kim Nam Il

6. Maya Yoshida Nagoya Grampus to VVV Venlo. Japanese fans are more cynical about players moving to Europe than used to be the case, but the latest to take the plunge is young defender Maya Yoshida - another new international and someone Nagoya supporters were keen to see play a part in the Red Whales' ambitions for 2010. But instead Yoshida has followed in the footsteps of Keisuke Honda, an ex-Grampus player who became a star at Venlo and has since moved on to CSKA Moscow. Will he build a solid international career, or bomb completely?

5. Shusaku Nishikawa Oita Trinita to Sanfrecce Hiroshima. One of the deals that's attracted the most speculation of the close-season so far. Nishikawa may be only 23, but he has five years of experience with Oita, has already made his international debut and is fully expected to be a regular member of the national team in the future. Trinita's collapse in 2009 meant Nishikawa was always going to leave over the winter and both Kyoto Sanga and Omiya Ardija were sniffing around, but their qualification for the 2010 Asian Champions League means that Hiroshima is his chosen destination.

4. Lee Jung Soo Kyoto Sanga to Kashima Antlers. Having moved to Japan twelve months ago from Suwon Samsung Bluewings, Lee was without doubt the star of a rather underwhelming 2009 Sanga side. A goalscoring central defender, his card was marked when Antlers coach Oswaldo Oliveira in the autumn led the J-League representative XI against its K-League equivalent, selecting Lee as the only squad member not to play for one of Japan's larger clubs. Kashima rarely make a splash in the transfer market but Lee is an exception and looks set to strengthen the back four yet further alongside Daiki Iwamasa.

3. Masashi Nakayama Jubilo Iwata to Consadole Sapporo. Along with Kazu Miura at Yokohama FC, Masashi "Gon" Nakayama can politely be described as one of the elder statesmen of the J-League. Now 42, at the end of 2009 he was finally released by Jubilo after scoring 157 goals for the club, making him the top scorer in the history of J1. But, you know, that was then. He's 42. Anyway, Roasso Kumamoto were thought to be keen and there was vast amounts of press speculation about Nakayama's destination, but eventually it was Consadole who, er, won his signature. Good luck to 'em.



Going going... he's Gon

2. Marcus Tulio Tanaka Urawa Reds to Nagoya Grampus. Tulio is one of the J-League's biggest stars - and also the owner of one of its biggest egos. 2006 was his real breakthrough season as he debuted for Japan, became with Reds a J-League champion and also Player of the Year. A failure to add to that silverware led him in 2009 to slate Urawa's management in the press and it was no surprise to see Tulio leave at the end of the year, Twente Enschede being especially interested. He has chosen Nagoya - but will he really make the difference between Grampus as also-rans and title contenders?

1. Yosuke Kashiwagi Sanfrecce Hiroshima to Urawa Reds. So who's my scientifically-chosen #1 transfer of the winter so far, if it's not Tulio? Reds coach Volker Finke wanted rid of him and clearly wants a younger team to excite Japan's most demanding fans. 2009 showed Urawa up for what they were: off the pace and lacking in quality compared with the top teams, and Finke has acted to bring in Hiroshima's Kashiwagi, a dynamic 22-year-old playmaker who played a major part in Sanfrecce's fourth-placed finish. So will Kashiwagi turn out to be the missing piece in the Reds jigsaw? Could be.

Tuesday's J-League club press conference took place at small J2 outfit Thespa Kusatsu, who introduced their close-season signings to the waiting world. 2010 will be their sixth J2 campaign and in the last two years Kusatsu have been successful in moving away from the bottom sides in the division, becoming more accustomed to life among the professionals. Players such as playmaker Yusuke Shimada and goalscorer Ken Tokura have moved on, though, and this winter club policy has been to bring in mainly reserves from other clubs, like Masafumi Maeda of Gamba Osaka.

Even so, there's no doubt that most of the press attention has been on the arrival from Gyeongnam FC in South Korea of controversial former Japan defender Kazuyuki Toda, who arrived on the international scene in the 2002 World Cup with a preposterous haircut and a reputation as a comedy hard man, and later had spells at ADO Den Haag and Tottenham Hotspur. Kusatsu also have a new coach in Hiroshi Soejima, previously in charge at Cerezo Osaka, Sagan Tosu and Vissel Kobe, but most recently on the staff at Kataller Toyama.



Hot spring bath, anyone?

A very good list indeed Furtho.

I think the signing of Lee Jung Soo will only make it more difficult for the other teams to compete with Kashima this year. Him and Iwamasa, that looks a hell of an obstacle to overcome for opponents.

With regards to Gon Nakayama, I though it was all cut and dried that he was going to take up a coaching position with Roasso? Maybe I misunderstood some of the reports.

"The Frontales". I think the less said about them the better. Although ignoring my previous statement for a minute, up front certainly wasn't where Kawasaki were lacking last season with their magic triangle of Nakamura, Juninho and Chong Tese. I'm surprised they haven't significantly added to the defensive of their side in readiness for next year.

The story with Nakayama as far as I understand it, NBNG, is that Kumamoto offered him more money (and possibly a coaching role too - I don't know), but he chose to go to Sapporo due to Consa's superior infrastructure and especially their medical facilities. Sounds like my parents not wanting to live more than a short bus ride away from a hospital.

Kawasaki have been pretty quiet in the transfer market so far this winter, but have extended the contracts of Juninho and Renatinho. The one major signing that they have made, though, is indeed a defender: 25-year-old wingback Takanobu Komiyama unaccountably turned down Omiya to go Frontale from Marinos (Ardija had to make do with the guy that Kawasaki got shot of, Kazuhiro Murakami. And while we're on the subject, Omiya also lost out in the battle to sign another highly promising young defender, Verdy's Masato Fujita, who went instead to... Marinos, to replace Komiyama. Grrr).

Wow, a footballer choosing a club based on their medical facilities. Surely, if you were a coach or club chairman, that would put a serious doubt into your head about signing someone whose primary concern is the medical side of things? Still, if he passes down his considerable experience to the younger, impressionable Consa players then it could turn out to be a wise move.

Sorry if I'm pre-empting your announcement on this matter Furtho, but the Japanese squad for the upcoming game against Venezuela in Oita was announced yesterday; the main headline being the recall of Kashima Antlers' heartbeat Mitsuo Ogasawara. What do you think of this move Furtho? Do you think it is Okada just paying lip-service to him and to his player of the year award? Or can you see him forcing his way into the Blue Samurai WC squad?

I was kind of assuming that Consa were bearing in mind the fact that Nakayama's fitness might not be the best when they knowingly entered into a contractual arrangement with a player aged 42. Still, given that the local press up Sapporo way is by all accounts stuffed full of all things Gon at the moment, perhaps the club are already regarding the deal as a good piece of business. How much he'll actually end up playing this year, given that according to the Furtho Predict-o-tron (patent pending) the club have a decent chance of promotion, is of course another matter entirely.

As regards Ogasawara and the national team, you're definitely not treading on any toes by mentioning the announcement of the squad for the Venezuela game. It looks like a pretty decent group of exclusively Japan-based players, although heaven only knows I could do without seeing bloody Tamada or Okubo in a Japanese international squad ever again. It's not surprising to see Hirayama be given another chance - after his debut hat-trick the other day, he's scored only eleven goals fewer than Tamada in 62 fewer matches - plus also Shinji Kagawa's in there. That's good.

Happy New Year Furtho, and everyone.

I hate to mock, Furtho, but can I award Omiya the Aston Villa Trophy for showing an interest in, but failing to sign, decent players? I had many a happy summer watching a Villa mate bounce around in excitement as Teletext announced the forthcoming arrival of a Mr A Goodplayer, only to watch his forlorn expression as the next update had Mr Goodplayer signing for Anywhere Else FC. Yuji Nakazawa last year. Shusaku Nishikawa this year. You'd certainly have a hell of a team.

Omiya seem to be expressing an interest in everyone. When I read "Player X is interesting Grampus and Reds" there's always an "and Omiya" at the end of the sentence. So much so that I find myself involuntarily adding "and Hartley" who of course is the moth-eaten glove puppet from Pipkins.

Anyway, while I'm here I'd better put something useful up.

High School football. Something is changing in high school football. Now that I've got the sound of battling brass bands out of my head after Monday's high school football final (Furtho alluded to this in an earlier post but, just to clarify, two school brass bands playing different tunes simultaneously IS the dictionary definition of "Cacophony") here are some thoughts.

First, some background. When I first came out here I was surprised to find that not only did school teams play J-League youth teams in competitions, but they often beat them. Coming from England, where Arsenal v Grange Hill is not the likeliest of fixtures, and where anybody who can play a bit will be playing for a club team rather than their school, I was a bit confused for a while.

In Japan you cannot play for both a high school team and a club team. You have to choose one or the other. There is a competition for J-League and club youth teams, a competition for high schools (just finished) and then there is a competition for both, called the Prince Takamado Trophy, or Prince League, which has regional leagues of both club and school teams, and then knockout final rounds.

Up until 5 years ago the high school tournament would be won by a high school powerhouse. The powerhouses were Kunimi from Nagasaki who would attract the best players from the whole of the Southern island of Kyushu, then there was Funabashi in Chiba, Teikyo in Tokyo, Higashi-Fukuoka in Fukuoka, and any number of teams from Shizuoka, the heart of Japanese football.

Meanwhile, in the Takamado Trophy, from the first competition in 1990, 13 of the first 14 winners were high school teams, with only Jubilo Iwata claiming a victory for the J-Leaguers, at the tenth attempt. In fact, it was quite common to have an all high school final, as J-League youth teams just weren't good enough.

But the era of high school powerhouses seems to be coming to an end. This year none of the 6 former winners of the high school cup got past the 2nd round, and for 5 years now there has been a first time winner. Meanwhile in the Takamado Trophy, in the last 6 seasons 10 of the 12 finalists have come from the J-League.

It seems to me that the better players are now choosing to go to J-League clubs rather than famous football high schools. Why join Teikyo High School when you can join FC Tokyo? Kunimi is no longer getting the best players in Kyushu. The best player to come out of Kyushu recently is probably keeper Shusaku Nishikawa, and he went through Oita's youth teams, not the high school system.

My friend Daichi, who knows everything about football in Japan, reckons the future strongholds for high school football will be out of the way places far from J1 teams (and he said this long before Aomori got anywhere near the final). He also told me that of the Yamanashi team that won 10 of the starters were not from Yamanashi at all, but from Tokyo, and indeed 7 of their squad previously played for a variety of FC Tokyo under-15 teams.

In the high school games I watched this year I didn't see any player who I thought was outstanding. The Genki Haraguchis and Naoki Yamadas are starting at J-league clubs, not high schools. I think this is a trend, and I think it will continue.

Any thoughts?

Happy New Year, Oitim - you cheeky fellow, you. I tried to encapsulate briefly in the above post the kind of experience that Omiya have had in the transfer market this winter, but you're quite right: it's been more than a little embarrassing to follow stories like Inamoto (will he go to Kawasaki or Omiya?) and Nishikawa (will he go to Hiroshima, Kyoto or Omiya?) knowing that there is practically no chance of those players coming to a club like ours, with the management that we have at present. After all, if you were Inamoto, what would you do?

Ardija's front office clearly cannot sell the club to potential signings and given that they missed by a country mile last year's target of an ACL spot (!!!), presumably most people can see that they're full of shit. So we have a series of second choices (Ahn Young Hak and not Inamoto, Kitano from Niigata and not Nishikawa, on top of the players previously mentioned), although to be fair I cannot see Inamoto even at Frontale being a success and in defence - if Fukaya stays fit - we arguably have a slightly better choice of players than was the case last year.

Thanks for a fascinating post on the high school football scene and the relationship between it and the J-League youth set-up. We are skating right round the perimeter of my knowledge of the subject, but I can make a few what I hope will be useful observations. First, I too had noticed that there is a clear shift in who the competitive high school teams now are - and certainly in the case of the Nagasaki-based Kunimi HS, I think there is a strong possibility that this is happening due to the fact that a club with reasonable J-League ambitions is on their doorstep.

That is to say, my suspicion is that Kunimi's loss is V Varen's gain. They are both based not in Nagasaki city but towards Kumamoto, right over on the eastern coast of the prefecture and I know that there is a close relationship between the two that dates back to V Varen's predecessor club, SC Ariake. It would not surprise me if the better players, whether they are locals or are coming from elsewhere in Kyushu, are being filtered off to develop within the infrastructure at V Varen, effectively leaving Kunimi itself as a reserve side. Hence the downturn in their results.

In contrast, for boys playing football at the other end of the country in Aomori prefecture, there is pretty much literally nowhere else to go except for Aomori Yamada HS. There are a couple of lower level Regional League teams based there, but certainly nothing that could be described as serious: certainly if I were involved in somewhere like Reinmeer Aomori and that club decided to change its policy in order to work towards being the local J-League franchise, I would be trying to cuddle up to Yamada as a matter of urgency.

I am not sure how Daichi's interesting point about the Yamanashi players hailing from Tokyo fits in to all this, but also relevant here is the situation in Gunma at Maebashi Ikuei HS, where it is notable that the local club is a rapidly improving outfit that used to be known as Tonan SC - but which is now actually called Tonan Maebashi. They have just gained promotion to Division 1 of the Kanto League, so it could be that the more serious development of localised semi-pro (or J-League targeted) teams will also have an effect on the high school game. Again it would be good to know your (and indeed Daichi's) thoughts on this.

Happy new year to you Oitim, and what a belting post to start off with!!

From the outset I'll admit that I know absolutely nothing about the HS football set up in Japan. Given that I know nothing, please forgive me if these questions seem awfully obvious but maybe Oitim and Furtho you can help me out.

1. Can I take it from your posts that there is no relationship between high schools and J-League clubs (or for that matter JFL clubs)? I am thinking along the lines of High Schools becoming a kind of feeder for a J-League team. Just a complete hypothetical example from Oitim's post: could Teikyo HS be the "official" feeder school for FC Tokyo? Is this kind of situation feasible? Is it permitted for professional clubs to put money into the HS system?

2. Is the change from staying in high school to joining a J-League club coming from a cultural standpoint, where, for example, education is now being considered not as important as having the chance to make it as a professional athlete; or are there economic reasons behind it? I'm sure we are all aware of the stories that the big clubs in England pay to get the best youngsters from across the UK to move to their club. One example that springs to mind is Manchester Utd beating Rangers and Celtic to the signature of a 14 year old Darren Fletcher through what were officially called "relocation payments" to the parents - ie: If your son chooses us, we will pay for you to move to a nice big house in Manchester, set you up with jobs etc etc. Is there any chance stuff like this happens in Japan?

3. If this trend continues, will we see the All Japan HS cup losing it's relevance?

Again, apologies if these questions seem a bit tedious, but it is a genuinely interesting subject.

Oh, and as regards to Tamada and especially Okubo in the national squad, I wish Okada would show some balls and jettison the pair of them. On the plus side he has kept faith with Hirayama, Mu Kanazaki and, maybe most surprising of all, Shonan Bellmare defender Taisuke Muramatsu.

Gosh! Lots to comment on.

First, Omiya signings, I've seen a fair bit of Murakami at Frontale, and he's a pretty solid player with a decent shot, so you could have done worse (you could have got the unhinged Yusuke Mori...). And I suppose if you ever did land one of these big name players bankruptcy would be sure to follow.

As for Yamagashi Gakuin winning the HS cup with a bunch of players bussed in from Tokyo, I think the interesting thing is not that they were out-of-towners but what teams they came from. A lot of them had learned their football in FC Tokyo U15 sides rather than at Junior High School. As far as I can tell FC Tokyo runs 2 U15 sides, FC Tokyo Musashino and FC Tokyo Can't-be-bothered-to-check-that-Kanji, and FC Tokyo U18 are made up of successful graduates from these two teams plus a few new recruits from elsewhere including someone from, (drum roll)

FCK MARRY GOLD KUMAMOTO

There seem to be a lot of J-League satellite U15 teams. I know there is a Verdy one up in Oyama in Tochigi, and there are Sanfrecce ones and Grampus ones. So I think a lot of these younger players are getting better coaching than they would be getting at school, so the pool of talented players is actually increasing, and covering a wider area. So HS football is becoming more competitive.

Meanwhile the old HS powerhouses are stagnating. When I first saw Higashi Fukuoka in 1997, they played a system with two fast wingers (one of whom was Antlers' Motoyama). I saw them this tournament and they are still using the exact same system. As for Kunimi, they were the same shaven-headed thugs as before, but this time without the one player with a bit of skill, and they were 3 down v a Fujieda Meisei side who weren't afraid to mix it in 15 minutes.

Daichi reckons Aomori and Miyazaki are the places to watch for strong HS teams in the future, as there is nowhere to go in Miyazaki, either.


Gunma, that's an interesting one. Takasaki and Maebashi are almost twin cities, really. It's only about a 15 minute local train ride from the centre of one to the centre of the other. Yet they've got Thespa playing in Maebashi, and they are from a completely different town, Kusatsu. Takasaki doesn't have a stadium of any note, so Arte Takasaki in the JFL are going nowhere. Is there room for Tonan? Are they going to elbow Thespa out the way? I don't know. Are Thespa ever going to go back to Kusatsu? I know Tonan are ambitious - they borrowed Matsumoto Yamaga's captain a few years ago in a failed attempt to get through the play-offs to join the Kanto league. I think there might be a few twists and turns up in Gunma before football sorts itself out.


NBNG, your questions are not obvious at all! In answer to question 1, J-League clubs are already running U18 and U15 teams, and I think that is part of the rules and conditions to become a J-League club. There may be connections between HS teams and J-League clubs, but I think most of that will be in the form of recommendations. Antlers didn't discover Yuya Osako just because he got a hatload of goals in the HS Cup last year. They would have known about him for a long time.

Point number 2 I don't think there is the money in the J-League for a Darren Fletcher type situation. It possibly happens in baseball, where there have been a few strange inducements flying around, but not football.

As to whether there has been a change, with more players joining teams at 18 rather than after university, I don't know. Again, being English, the idea of a footballer going to university is pretty bizarre. I can think of Steve Heighway at Liverpool, Steve Coppell at Man Utd, Gerry Peyton who was a Burnley keeper and then I believe Laurie Madden at Wednesday didn't spend his afternoons down the bookies or on the golf course but at the Poly getting a Master's. And that's it for 40 years, although Le Saux can read a paper that doesn't have words in BIG letters so you know to read them LOUDER.

But here loads of players go to university, and some come out and walk straight into J1 (Fukaya, for instance) and even into the national team (Nagatomo at Tokyo).

But I wonder if this college education then J-League route will continue. 4 years spent at university playing in front of a couple of hundred people is all well and good, and indeed competitive, but that's four years of your professional life gone. In the 12 Js of Christmas when Furtho was explaining to Delicatemoth, the new Mito fan, that all Mito's good players have buggered off (and I don't know if you are still reading, DM, but to put your decision in English terms you've had a good look at all the London teams, and gone for Brentford) departing striker Hiroyuki Takasaki was described as a "youngster". Well, he's had four years at Komazawa University, a year at Reds, in which he got on the pitch twice, a year at the Hollyhock and now he's back at Reds. He'll be 24 as the seaason kicks off, still not a regular in J1, and strikers have a shelf life til about 30. So he doesn't have a lot of time left. Your two strikers down there at Gifu are in a similar situation. I don't think a J1 team will come in for them. They don't want a striker getting into their mid-twenties with no J1 experience. I think you've got to be more worried about Kofu, and other J2 teams.

I don't know if time spent at university is time well spent in terms of a footballing career. At Oita, they've never had any money, and if you joined them at 18 you had a pretty good chance of getting in the first team. Nishikawa came from the Trinita youth set-up, Morishige straight from HS, Mu Kanazaki from HS, Kiyotake is combining university with J1, and is off to Cerezo. These players have made it. But then again a whole load fail. I don't know if more players are prepared to take that risk. With jobs for life disappearing, maybe they are.

Point 3, no, the HS cup will not lose relevance. There were over 43,000 there for the final. The standard of football is going up, with more teams becoming competitive. Maybe some of the better players will be in J-youth teams, and not available, but the glory is still in the HS Cup, with its final in the national stadium, and its marching opening ceremony. No, it's a good laugh.


National team: I don't actually care what happens to them really, as long as they qualify for the finals so we get to see all the rest on telly. But get rid of Okubo, please. And Tamada - how I laughed when he took a dive in the Emperor's Cup Final rather than shooting, what an idiot. Go with Okazaki - I like players who seem prepared to head the ball when it's on the ground, a la Andy Gray, and he does make scoring look easy. And of course Hisato Sato, because why not have a goalscorer up front?

Another superb post, Oitim. I would add that it's important to remember that the history of Japanese football lies within corporate organisations and educational institutions, and that there are a number of sides with roots in teachers' teams - Tochigi SC, for example, began as a club for people working in schools throughout Tochigi prefecture. So recommendations will often not be hard to come by, even if there cannot be formal connections (i.e. we give you money and you give us players) between any J-League club and a specified high school.

The example that I mention above, that of V Varen Nagasaki, would perhaps be the closest relationship that I know of without checking things out further. V Varen were formed through an amalgamation of a local Prefectural League team - SC Ariake - and Kunimi FC, a side formed by and for Kunimi HS Old Boys. This merger occurred at what with hindsight was a very interesting time: literally a matter of days after Kunimi HS won the High School Tournament for the last time in January 2004 (they also won it in 2001 and 2002, and were losing finalists in 2003).



Yasuharu Kurata with a cosy scarf

On to other matters. A few of the smaller J2 clubs (sorry, NBNG...) have been having their season press launches over the last few days and it has to be said that they are looking pretty tame affairs in comparison with the equivalents in previous years. FC Gifu merely said howdy to incoming coach Yasuharu Kurata, a former international defender whose playing career was in the latter stages of the pre-J-League corporate era. Subsequently, Kurata has had various positions on the coaching staff of Avispa Fukuoka and Vissel Kobe, Gifu being his first top job.

Meanwhile, down in Kyushu this season's J-League new boys Giravanz Kitakyushu bade a cheery hullo to J2, their new signings suggesting that they are actually looking at a pretty meagre first professional campaign. Kitakyushu have taken several cast-offs from nearby clubs, such as 29-year-old Wellington from prefectural neighbours Avispa and Kazuya Kawabata from Roasso Kumamoto. Midfielder Jun Muramatsu is perhaps their biggest star, with a small amount of J1 experience at Shimizu S-Pulse the highlight of his CV.



Giravanz Kitakyushu. New Wave no more (sob)

Under pressure following the 2009 success of local rivals Tokushima Vortis, the Shikoku Oranges of Ehime FC held their launch on Thursday. The main purpose of the session was to introduce the club's close-season signings, including most notably Brazilian midfielder Douglas Rinaldi - briefly on Watford's books - and one of Japan's most successful if low-level exports, striker Kenji Fukuda, who signs from Ionikos in Greece. Staying on in charge is Croatian Ivica Barbaric, whose last job was on the staff of the Bosnia Herzogovina national team. Crikey.



Ehime FC in a right old mood

Oitim - an alternative point of view on the issue of the relationship between university (not high school) and J-League club football. I wonder the extent to which the abandonment for 2010 of the Satellite League is going to impact on the situation for players in the 18-22 age bracket. If they have signed for a J-League club, unless they are in the first team those guys are now going to get pretty much no opportunity to play. Combine that with football being such a high-risk profession and the option of a university education is looking much more attractive.

And even if guys are sticking with their Plan A of trying to become a pro, if you compare as a source of J-League players universities on the one hand and the non-league set-up on the other, there is no competition: hardly anybody is making the step up to J-League from the JFL or Regional Leagues, and those that are are mostly from company teams. Off the top of my head, I think that there has been one exception to this rule over the close season so far - one Kenta Hiraishi, who has moved to Avispa Fukuoka from Yamaguchi-based Chugoku Leaguers FC Ube Yahhh-man.

Saturday has been launch day for a load of J-League clubs, so we'll have several posts that together provide an overview of them all. First is Vissel Kobe, who finished just above the J1 relegation positions last year but have retained coach Toshiya Miura and international lummox, er, striker Yoshito Okubo, and in what is already looking like a disturbing trend are also recycling their 2009 slogan. Not exactly rich pickings among their new players, either - rocket shot Popo comes from Kashiwa Reysol and bulky midfielder Edmilson from Oita Trinita, while goalscorer Ken Tokura makes the step up from J2 and Thespa Kusatsu.



A whole rack o' Kobe beef



We walk together forever, again

J2ers Tochigi SC used their launch bash to introduce a raft of new players, although someone who may be a key signing - excellently-named Ricardo Lobo, a 25-year-old striker - is one assumes still back in his native Brazil. Since finishing next-to-bottom in 2009, the club have released no fewer than seventeen players but despite struggling to compete have kept faith with their previous policy of bringing in J-League discards rather than new products of the university system. Most experienced of these is probably Koji Hirose, an attacking midfielder from Sagan Tosu.



All for one and one for Tochigi

If any team can be said to have had a gut-wrenchingly disappointing 2009, it was arguably Yokohama FC. To be fair they never got a pasting - but they never managed to get out of the bottom three either, seemingly too strapped for cash to sack coach Yasuhiro Higuchi in spite of his poor results. This coming season is looking somewhat brighter, however, and the Kanagawa Sky Blues have expressed their optimism via - thank God - an all-new slogan, which translates as something like Get Promoted: Let's Go Back Together To The Higher Stage. Luckily they don't have to chant it or anything like that.

Yokohama FC also used Saturday's press launch to show off their new players and coach Yasuyuki Kishino, who comes to the club after three years in charge at Sagan Tosu and seems to have brought with him a fair proportion of the Sagan squad, including pretty much all their first-choice defence. Another defender, Korean Kim Yoo Jin, comes from K-League outfit Busan I'Park - but even he used to play for Tosu. With increasingly decrepit Kazu Miura still on the books - and 43 next month - Kishino is currently being reported as having put in a cheeky bid to Tokyo Verdy for top scorer Masashi Oguro.



The name of the team is Sagan T... er, Yokohama FC



Get Promoted, or else

Avispa Fukuoka seem to have had the most boring press launch so far. I mean what's the point - no new kit, no new slogan, no nothing. Just a bunch of self-conscious young men in their best suits, although looking on the bright side that did result in this terrific photograph, which makes the Kyushu Wasps' new players look like a Japanese boy band from the 60s. Anyway, the club seem stuck in a cycle of underachievement but Yoshiyuki Shinoda, whose connections with the club date back to 1995, is still coach and Avispa's close-season signings are as underwhelming as an outtake from a late-period session by the Dave Clark Five.



Ohhh woah baybuh baybuhhhh