89th Emperor's Cup - 3rd round

Tomorrow will be the biggest game of the season so far. We will face the current J.League champion Kashima Antlers at their home Kashima Stadium.
Kashima wasn't in a good shape for a long time, but beated Chiba with a good 3:0 at home. They should have alot self confidence now...maybe to much.
They would be not the first team in this years tournament, which underrate a smaller team and lost badly.

We can play with the best team we got so far, instead of the injuries.
Jumbo and Nakajima are fit hopefully and can play the full 90 minutes.

Possible Starting 11

--------------------------Kurobe---------------------------

-----Kudo--------------Okubo--------------Yusuke----

----------------Abe--------------Suzuki--------------------

--Nakajima------Nagira------Niwa-------Yamagata--

-------------------------Rokutan---------------------------

Nagira could go back in to the central defence or Nagano will start and Nagira could play on Nakajima's position if Nakajima is not ready for the full 90 minutes already.
Kurobe will start up front like the last weeks and will replaced by Takahashi in the second half and switch the position with Jumbo. Let's see how Kurobe can handle it against strong defenders like Iwamasa and Inoha. Jumbo vs. Iwamasa will be a good fight. Both are tall and got superb physical conditions. On your left side, It will be a good duell between young and old: Kiyo Kudo will face Atsuto Uchida.
It will also be interessting to see how our central defender can play against Koroki and Marquninhos.

It will be a hard game, but the 2nd round showed:
Nothing is impossible!

[J2-R47] Verdy 1-0 Avispa

A painfull lose in the top 10 race...
Another boring game from us away. Wide shots from out of the box, which wasn't really effective and chances you can't call chances. Yusuke, Jumbo and Nakajima made their comback after the injuries.
In the 78th minute, Miyahara prevented a good chance for Verdy with grapping the green shirt. A an ok red card.
The second one in two games after Suzuki's last week against Gifu.
The best chance from Okamoto hit the crossbar.
In all the worst things we showed this afternoon, Jumbo earned his 4th yellow card and will miss the hard challenge against Kofu, who beated us 6:0 at Kose in Summer.

Starting 11
GK: Rokutan
DF: Yamagata, Niwa, Nagano, Nagira
MF: Yusuke, Miyahara, Takahashi, Abe, Kudo
FW: Kurobe

Bench: Yoshida, Nakajima, Nakaharai, Okamoto, Okubo

Goals
1:0 - 33' - Hiroki Kawano

Subs
45' - Kurobe -> Okubo
45' - Nagira -> Nakajima
67' - Kudo -> Okamoto

Cautions
67' - Abe (2)
71' - Okubo (4) - will miss next match
78' - Miyahara

Highlights

How about Toru?

Toru plays an important role at Tochigi's defence since the first day he came to the yellow ones.
He played in all 12 games the full 90 minutes under his old Avispa-coach Hiroshi Matsuda, who coached Avispa from 2003 to 2006.
Tochigi SC tied with Tokushima Vortis 0:0 today and is on 17th place in the table.

Miyaji will join the team

Our designated defender Yosuke Miyaji from Fukuoka University will join Avispa Fukuoka in 2010. He and his University-mate Kensuke Nagai are our two designated players in 2009.
Miyaji is the second player, who decited to join Avispa Fukuoka in 2010 after Avispa youth-player Masato Yoshihara a few weeks ago.

Jogo is out for 6 months

Today's bad news...
Midfielder Hisashi Jogo suffered a cruciate ligamet rupture in the Emperor's Cup-game against Ehime FC at Matsuyama (0:1) a few days ago and will be out for over 6 months!
Yesterday, Jogo went to Fukuoka Hospital for the operation. The operation went fine.
Now he has to stay in hospital for 3~4 weeks.

Avispa-Roasso - Video

[J2-R46] Avispa 1-0 Gifu

Hey Guys, I'm back

Good and bad news...
The good up first of course.
Avispa won the game on wednesday against FC Gifu at LEVEL5.
A pretty even game, where Gifu dominated the first and Avispa was better in the second.
Gifu outshoted us with 9-12. Jun Suzuki was red-carded in extra-time. The goal came just a few minutes later. The ball came into the box after a long Nagira-ball from the left. Takahashi took it and passed it to Okamoto and then came the big trouble. The Gifu-players tried to clear the ball but lost the view. Okamoto took the chance to score the ball into the net. Not really nice, but a goal is a goal. A lucky win after a long extra-time and good referee-desicions for us... instead of Jun's red card.

Starting 11
GK: Rokutan
DF: Yamagata, Niwa, Nagano, Nagira
MF: Suzuki, Miyahara, Takahashi, Abe, Kudo
FW: Kurobe

Bench: Yoshida, Wellington, Nakaharai, Okamoto, Nagai

Goals
1:0 - 89' - Hideya Okamoto

Subs
54' - Kurobe -> Nagai
66' - Miyahara -> Okamoto
81' - Kudo -> Nakaharai

Cautions
82' - Nagai (1)
89' - Suzuki

Okamoto's goal

Capital Adventure Vol.13

F.C. Tokyo destroyed Kashiwa at Ajinomoto with a stunning 4:0 and is still in the championship race with Kawasaki, Kashima, Shimizu, Gamba, Niigata, Hiroshima and Urawa...not less than 8 teams got the chance to made it to the top this year!
Hokuto (with new red-blond hair) played 14 minutes and was subbed in for captain Naotake Hanyu in the 76th minute.
Now, Hokuto played 7 games with 1 goal.

[J2-R45] Kumamoto 0-1 Avispa

A good game from Avispa with an important victory!
Shinoda had to switch on positions after the injuries from Jogo, Yusuke and Okubo.
Takahashi returned to the starting 11 on Jumbo's position behind Kurobe. Also Jun Suzuki made his first game from the beginning after the youth tournaments in Seoul and Spain. He played for Yusuke on the right wing.
Miyahara replaced Jogo in the central midfield.
The game started with a shock for us. Takanori Nakajima got injured again in the 19th minute.
He came back to the pitch, but had to leave it in the 24th minute. Yamagata replaced him. Nakajima suffered a foot injury.
In the 35th minute, Kudo Kiyo scored a cracker after a 3 man-combination from Rokutans goalkick. Rokutan's ball landed on Kurobe's head, from Kurobe's head to Kudo's, who headed it to Takahashi. Kudo started a run into the empty space behind Takahashi's back. Yutaka played a good pass into this empty space what happend because one Roasso-defender covered Takahashi and the other Suzuki, and Kudo finished it with a left foot cracker!
Roasso played lazy but hard. Just 3 shots on our goal over the whole 90 minutes, but the referee gave us 27 freekicks and 5 yellow cards to Roasso.

Starting 11
GK: Rokutan
DF: Nagira, Niwa, Nagano, Nakajima
MF: Suzuki, Abe, Takahashi, Miyahara, Kudo
FW: Kurobe

Bench: Yoshida, Yamagata, Wellington, Nakaharai, Okamoto

Goals
0:1 - 35' - Kiyokazu Kudo

Subs
24' - Nakajima -> Yamagata
65' - Kudo -> Okamoto
78' - Kurobe -> Nakaharai

Cautions
83' - Rokutan (1)
84' - Suzuki (2)

Kudo's goal

Hall of Fame

Maybe the post about Avispa's past players daze you, but these are posts for the new "Avispa Hall of Fame"at SUPER Avispa!. You can find it at the sidebar! I think every player in the list deserved it to get a place in this hall.

Enjoy it!