clear 6 points?

The next 2 games seems very easy for us...before the season. Ok, the next will be against J2's last ones from Tokushima Vortis 
in the Pocarisweat Stadium in Tokushima, but they beated Shonan on
saturday 2:3, but anyway is should be easier than against the new green guys from Gifu. Gifu got 7 points like we and they are on 7th place just behind us. The new member of J2 struggled down Montedio Yamagata 3:5 away and just lost to top-conteders like Cerezo Osaka and Vegalta Sendai with one goal.
I can imagine it will be a hard fight about the points. It would be a first big step if we could get the full 9 points of the 3 games. We already beated Ehime and and i hope we can beat the next two teams too.

Avispa - Ehime 2:0!

VS.

Our second homegame, our second win.
Oranges dont like rain, so we won 2:0 against the orange-kickers from Ehime FC.

New goalkeeper Motohiro Yoshida made his second match and defender Mark Rudan started first time this season for Nuno. Yamagata started again, so Hokuto was on bench.
Foward Joel Griffiths is back from his ankle-injury and started along with Okubo.
Tanaka played for Nakaharai, who was not even in the squad.

The teams started not so fast like in the Kofu-game last week and the fans had to wait long for the first goal. In the 37. minute Okubo scored his second goal of the season and his second in 2 matches. Avispa controlled the game the most of time and they outshoted Ehime with 12:5 shoots.

In the second half, australian forward Joel Griffiths scored his first goal of the season.  In the 65. minute, just after the goal, Litti subed Kurobe in and don't want that the Ehime-defenders going to foul on him harder after he made the goal.

Nuno was subed in for Nagano in the 69. minute and 10 minutes later, Tanaka left the pitch for Hokuto, who played a more attacking part in the last two games.

Great Griffiths scored a goal. Let's hope he stay fine and this guy could be gold for us.
Talay has to be careful, it was his 3rd yellow card in the 5th game.


Location - Level5-Stadium (Fukuoka)
Attendence - 9,096
Weather - rain (10℃)

Scores:
1:0 - Okubo (37')
2:0 - Griffiths (62')

GK: Yoshida
DF: Yamagata, Rudan, Nagano, Nakajima
MF: Tanaka, Talay, Kudo, Hisanaga
FW: Griffiths, Okubo

Bench:
Kamiyama, Nunobe, Hokuto, Jogo, Kurobe

----------Okubo------Griffiths------------
-Hisanaga-Kudo-Talay- Tanaka-
Nakajima-Nagano-Rudan-Yama
--------------------Yoshida------------

Substetutions:
65' - Griffiths > Kurobe
69' - Nagano > Nunobe
79' - Tanaka > Hokuto

Cautions:
15' - Rudan
32' - Nagano
64' - Talay
75' - Tanaka


Rudan & Griffiths celebraiting Joel's first goal

Kofu - Avispa 2:2

VS.
I'm sorry to say that we just stole one point from Takeda-city last sunday.
Litti changed the defence with Yoshida between the posts, who made his first game of the season and Yamagata played on Hokuto's position.

Kofu just scored after a few seconds of playtime by a goal from their new forward Josimar who came from Ehime FC.
But we came back directly with a score from Tatsuya Okubo in the 3rd minute.
Then bouth fans had to wait very long for the next goal. After a hour australian midfielder Ufuk Talay scored his second goal of the season by a penalty and moved the game of us. 10 minutes later the Takeda-kickers scored again by Yohei Onishi, who was subed in 5 minutes earlier.

Kiyokazu Kudo was back and played in the starting 11 after he missed the last match, Tanaka played for Nakaharai and Mark Rudan made his first minutes in 2008 after the subed in for Nuno in the 83. minute.

After 3 games we got 4 points, thats not that great but 2 of the 3 games were away-games and in this case it is not sooo bad. But it's a bit sad that we not won against the weakest team of J2 in the moment.


Location - Kose Stadium (Kofu)
Attendence - 9,185
Weather - Cloudy (18℃)

Scores:
1:0 - Josimar (0')
1:1 - Okubo (3')
2:1 - Talay (61')
2:2 - Onishi (71')

GK: Yoshida
DF: Yamagata, Nunobe, Nagano, Nakajima
MF: Tanaka, Talay, Kudo, Hisanaga
FW: Kurobe, Okubo

Bench:
Kamiyama, Rudan, Hokuto, Jogo, Nakaharai

----------Okubo------Kurobe------------
-Hisanaga-Kudo-Talay- Tanaka-
Nakajima-Nagano-Nunobe-Yama
--------------------Yoshida------------

Substetutions:
75' - Kudo> Hokuto
80' - Kurobe > Jogo
83' - Nunobe > Rudan

Cautions:
14' - Tanaka
81' - Talay
89' - Yamagata


Greetings from Kofu's mascot

A famous guest

Former footballcoach and one of the famous foreigners in Japan Dettmar Cramer visited Avispa Fukuoka yesterday. He visited the trainingground and the Headquater.
In Japan, most of people said that Cramer is the "Father of japanese football".

Cramer coached the japanese olympic footballteam at Mexico in 1964 and won the bronze-medal with them. Kunishige Kamamoto scored the important goal for the japanese. 
Today, Kamamoto is the vice-president of the JFA.

Cramer coached Bayern Munich in the glory 70's and won the team-worldcup with them twice.
He also coached the US nationalteam in the 70's.

A few years ago, Cramer became a member of the japanese football "Hall of Fame".
He traveled to Japan very often for lectures.

Now he lives in Germany again and enjoy his retirement.
 
 

Vegalta - Avispa 1:0

VS.

Second game, first lost.
Avispa lost their away-game against Vegalta Sendai on thursday with 1:0.
Both showed a good performance, but the referee gave a penalty to Vegalta 
in the 13. minute after a foul from Takanori Nakajima and so we lost the head-to-head-game in Sendai.
Vegalta's forward Yuki Nakashima scored the penalty.

Joel Griffiths and Mark Rudan were still out because of their injurys and Kiyokazu Kudo missed the game too. youth international Jun Suzuki and defender Tatsunori Yamagata made their first minutes in 2008.



Location - Yurtec Stadium (Sendai)
Attendence - 15,626
Weather - Rain → Cloudy (11℃)

Scores:
1:0 - Nakashima (13')

GK: Kamiyama
DF: Nakamura, Nunobe, Nagano, Nakajima
MF: Nakaharai, Talay, Jogo, Hisanaga
FW: Kurobe, Okubo

Bench:
Yoshida, Miyamoto, Yamagata, Suzuki, Tanaka,

----------Griffiths------Kurobe------------
-Hisanaga-Jgo-Talay-Nakaharai-
Nakajima-Nagano-Nunobe-Hokuto
--------------------Kamiyama------------

Substetutions:
56' - Nakaharai > Tanaka
73' - Nakajima > Suzuki
73' - Jogo > Yamagata

Cautions:
12' - Kurobe
22' - Okubo
42' - Nakamura

Preview - Vegalta Sendai

Tomorrow, we will play against top-contender Vegalta Sendai
so its time for a little preview

After the 2:1-victory against Mito HollyHock last sunday, the team got alot of self-confidence and should be able to win in Sendai too. Vegalta are still waiting for their first season-goal, because they just won against FC Gifu by an own-goal.
After the disappointed lose against Shonan Bellmare at Day 1 Vegalta still need to find themselfs and that's our big chance. We have to play with a good plan, because you never know what Vegalta do in their next games, they can be top or flop.

Avispa - Mito 2:1!

 VS.

We won our season-opener yesterday afternoon against Mito Hollyhock with 2:1!

New forward Teruaki Kurobe scored Avispa's first goal of the season and his first for his new club with a header in the 50. minute after a freekick from defender Takanori Nakajima.
10 minutes later Mito's forward Kohei Nishino scored the 1:1 for the dragons.
In the 74. minute new australian Ufuk Talay scored the winning goal by a penalty after a foul against Hokuto Nakamura.

In the 21. Minute our new signing Joel Griffiths 
was replaced by Tetsuya Okubo because of an ankle-injury.
Okubo scored a goal in the second half but the referee decide that he was in a offside position.
Lets hope Joel can play on thursday against Vegalta Sendai.


Location - Level5-Stadium (Fukuoka)
Attendence - 15,157
Weather - fine (16℃)

Scores:
1:0 - Kurobe (50')
1:1 - Nishino (60')
2:1 - Talay (74')

GK: Kamiyama
DF: Nakamura, Nunobe, Nagano, Nakajima
MF: Nakaharai, Talay, Kudo, Hisanaga
FW: Kurobe, Griffiths

Bench:
Yoshida, Yamagata, Jogo, Tanaka, Okubo

----------Griffiths------Kurobe------------
-Hisanaga-Kudo-Talay-Nakaharai-
Nakajima-Nagano-Nunobe-Hokuto
--------------------Kamiyama------------

Substetutions:
21' - Griffiths > Okubo
58' - Kurobe > Tanaka
67' - Kudo > Jogo

I will check the news about Joel's injury and let you know later.



The Avispa goals and the end of the game recorded by a fan
Thanks for uploading!

Will the dragons burn our ass?

Just about tree days to our season-opener for 2008!
so now its time for a little check about Mito HollyHock!

Mito empressed alot at their season-opener last sunday against top-contender Cerezo Osaka at home. They had many chances to score a goal but the ball didn't want to hit the net. After tryied all ways of atacking, they lost 0:2 by two goals of Cerezo's Shinji Kagawa but they were the the best loser of the first gameday in
2008.

Coach Littbarski said that Mito got a defensive style....where? i didn't see it last sunday. Mito outshoted Cerezo and also outplayed them sometimes.
So maybe we are the ones who look at our "problem-zone" and stop Mito before they can run into the box and maybe we are the next ones who will outplayed by the dragons from Ibaraki. (more Infos at the Mito-Blog in the Blog-list)

It will be a hard game, but i'm optimistic and i think we will win our first game in 2008 2:1

GO AVISPA!

And the games are on!!!

After a long time of waiting, the J.League starts in new season 2008!

• Gamba Osaka played a disappointed 0:0 against JEF United Chiba at Banpaku. Seems like JEF is not that weak like all said before or Gamba is still tired from Pan-Pacific Championships what normal couldn't be.
  

• Promoter Kyoto stole a 1:1 from Nagoya, after a long fight and alot of pressure from Grampus.
  

• Urawa are still waiting for a win in J.League after alot of draws and losses, today it was a 1-0 lost against the Marinos. Marino's new brazilian Roni get a red card in his first game for Yokohama

• Oita Trinita won suprisely against the orange guys from Shimizu S-Pulse at Nihondaira with 1:2
  

• FC Tokyo tied against Vissel Kobe at home after a header from Yasuyuki Konno and a goal from Vissel's Kurihara.

• Champion Kashima Antlers destroyed J2-Champion Consadole Sapporo with a stunning 4:0 home-victory.
  

• Kashiwa Reysol landed a good 2:0-victory against Jubilo Iwata. Last Season, Kashiwa beated Jubilo with 4:0 on 1st gameday.

• At their old home, Tokyo Verdy saved 1 point against Kawasaki Frontale by a last minute-goal from brazilian Diego. Fronatle's Yusuke Mori made the 1:0.
  

• In orange vs. orange, Omiya Ardija won suprisely against Albirex Niigata with 2:0. Pedro Junior and japanese international Daigo Kobayashi scored for the squirrels.

• 
  

• In J2, Shonan Bellmare landed a suprising victory against potencial promoter Vegalta Sendai. Shonan won 1:0.

• Ehime FC won against J2's new face Roasso Kumamoto 2:1 and is leading the J2 for this day.

• "Neighbour" Sagan Tosu beated Montedio Yamagata with 1:0.

• Thespa Kusatsu met cup-winner and top-contender Sanfrecce Hiroshima at home and lost 0:2. Youth-nationalplayer Aoyama and Hirashige scored for Hiroshima.

• Mito HollyHock showed a good performance, but lost 0:2 to top-contender Cerezo Osaka by 2 goals from youth-nationalplayer and one of the biggest talents in Japan Shinji Kagawa.
  

• The green guys from FC Gifu stole 1 point from regalated Ventforet Kofu. The game ended 1:1. Congrats to Gifu for that great start.
  

• Tokushima Vortis lost 0:2 to Yokohama FC at home.
  

• 
  
  • 
    
  thats all for now, few games are still running.
  I will just posting the all the results from J.League this time, because its season-opening.
  Next week i will just post the results from J2.
  
  thanks
  

Suzuki for Trainingscamp

Avispa's talent and japanese youth international Jun Suzuki got a call up for Japan U-19 trainingscamp in Kumamoto.

The trainingscamp will be held from 9.3. till 12.3.

On 10th, the japanese U-19 will play against new J2-member Roasso Kumamoto.

Joel is in!

A few days ago, our new foward Joel Griffiths from australian champion Newcastle United Jets joined the team.

Griffiths is the third foreigner, so all foreigner-places are full for next season.
He is the third australian after signing Rudan and Talay.

Griffiths became "Player of the Season" in australian A.Leauge and also get the arward for thebest goalgetter with 12 goals in season 07/08.

Joel played one game for Australia and scored a goal.

He can play as a right winger and a central forward.

I think it's a good signing and will help our attack. Let's hope he can integrate very quick and understands the way of J2-playing and will not disapear like other foreigner forwards especially from J.League

New Blog-Slogan

"SUPER Avispa!"got a new slogan for the coming season!

"MISSION PROMOTION"

A simple slogan for a hard season 2008
so support our team in every way you can!
go to stadium, watch them on TV, cross your fingers in front of TV or computer or just stay with them on the pitch in your mind.

We need everyone of you!

Vote-Results

Here is the result of the votes you made

Q: Where will Avispa finish 2008?
Votes: 12

1. 4th - 6th place -  5 votes - 41%
2. 3rd place - win playoff 3 votes - 25%
3. 1st - 2nd place - 2 - votes - 16%
4. 7th - 8th place - 2 votes - 16%
5. 3rd place lose playoff - 0 votes - 0%

According the votes, you are not sure about Avispa will make it to J.League after this season. Most of you think that they will fail the promotion-places and will stay another year at J2 .
But some people think that they can make it and will promote to J.League after two years in J2 again.

thanks for voting :)