Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Japanese Players in Europe


Borussia Dortmund maintained its two-point lead atop the Bundesliga with a 1-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen. The match was settled by a brilliant individual goal by Shinji Kagawa. After a poor start to the season, he has really hit form and, with Robert Lewandowski, has been Dortmund’s best player in the absence of Mario Gotze. He has now scored four times in 2012, leading Dortmund to top of the table and an undefeated record on the year.

Ryo Miyaichi made his English debut, playing the entire second half of Bolton’s 2-1 home defeat to Wigan. He was brilliant throughout and almost salvaged a point for the Wanderers, forcing a great save from Ali Al-Habsi. Manager Owen Coyle singled Ryo out for praise in his post-match interview.

Mike Havenaar played the entire match, as Vitesse lost 3-1 away to Feyenoord. Red-hot Man City loanee John Guidetti had yet another hattrick for Feyenoord who moved up to fourth with the win. Michihiro Yasuda was an unused substitute.

Shinji Okazaki scored once as Stuttgart smacked Hertha Berlin 5-0. The win lifts Stuttgart to 9th in the table. Makoto Hasebe and Wolfsburg are one spot ahead in the standings, winning 3-2 over Freiburg. Captain Hasebe played the entire second half. Meanwhile, Takashi Usami was an unused substitute as Bayern beat relegation-bound Kaiserslautern 2-0.

Both Maya Yoshida and Robert Cullen played as VVV beat Groningen 2-0, to climb further from automatic relegation. Yoshida played the entire match, while Cullen came on as a late substitute. Meanwhile, Yoshiaki Takagi maintained his place in the first team as Utrecht drew 1-1 Ado Den Haag.

Sorry for the long absence readers, I will be posting more regularly now.

1 comment: