Goal of the Year

Surprise, surprise. There were no other nominees for this award. Tadanari Lee’s 109th minute, Asian Cup winning volley is the 2011 Japan Footblog Goal of the Year.

Feel free to suggest other notable goals, but I doubt they’ll be better or more important than this one. Look forward to the award winners, which will be announced at the end of the week!

Nominees for Player of the Year Awards

Here are the nominees for the inaugural end-of-year Japan Footblog Player of the Year Awards. Please let me know if there are any glaring misses or players that are more deserving.

Japanese Player in Europe: This award is for the player who was the most important for his club team. Bonus points if they were really good for the national team.

• Shinji Kagawa: After a first half of the 2010-11 season in which he took the Bundesliga by storm, Kagawa broke his foot in the Asian Cup and didn’t play for Dortmund again until this fall. His second season hasn’t been as magical, marked by some poor performances early in both the Bundesliga and the Champions League. However he was picked it up and has displayed the skill that made him the subject of many transfer rumors over the summer. He has six goals overall this season. Also, he was incredible for the national team–the single-handed rescue against Qatar in the Asian Cup and the dismantling of South Korea in the 3-0 victory over the summer are two performances that quickly come to mind.
• Keisuke Honda: Like Kagawa, Honda has struggled with injuries this year. Nonetheless he still managed to score nine goals, leading CSKA Moscow to second place and a place in the RPL’s ridiculous ‘Championship Group’. He was also pretty good for the national team, winning (probably undeservedly) the MVP award for the Asian Cup.
• Yuto Nagatomo: Again, injured for a bit, but when he played he was excellent. Now one of the first names on the team sheet for Inter, Nagatomo has become one of the most exciting players in Serie A. He has scored three league goals and has shredded countless defenses. Recently, he has been vital to Inter’s resurgence as they have managed to overcome a terrible start. Finally, he was at the center of two of the iconic moments in Japanese football in 2o11: the cross that set up Tadanari Lee’s Asian Cup winning goal, and waving a Japanese flag after Inter beat Bayern in the Champions League in support of the earthquake and tsunami victims in March.
• Shinji Okazaki: He had a good season for Stuttgart last season, and has been decent this season so far as has his team. Didn’t stand out on the club level like the other three, but he was incredible for the national team. He scored three times in the Asian Cup and has scored five goals in World Cup qualifying so far.

Japanese Player in J. League: This blog has focused on players in Europe but I promise that next season the J. League will be covered. The primary purpose of this award is to identify some of the players that could potentially make the jump to Europe, and to show some love to the J. League greats.

• Mike Havenaar: In his first season with Kofu, Havenaar led the club to promotion with 2o goals. In his second season, Havenaar took no time to acclimatize to J. League 1, scoring 17 goals (40 percent of Kofu’s total). He was unable to prevent Kofu from being relegated but his performances were so outstanding that he was called up by Zaccheroni to the national team. Naturally, he scored twice in three matches. Starting in the new year, Havenaar will be playing along Michihiro Yasuda at Vitesse.
• Junya Tanaka: Kashiwa Reysol had an incredible season. After winning promotion, they wasted no time and promptly won the J. League title in their first attempt. A lot of the plaudits were deservedly given to J. League player of the year Leandro, but equally as important to the team’s amazing success was Tanaka, who scored 13 times for the champions. He was also called up for the national team for the first time.
• Marcus Tulio Tanaka: The best defender in the J. League. He was the anchor for Nagoya as they posted the league’s second-best defensive record. He also chipped in with six goals and wasn’t booked a single time. Yes, not a single yellow card all season. Wow.
• Yasuhito Endo: Maybe the best J. League player of all time, and he was at it again this season. He was the heartbeat of a free-scoring Gamba side that found the net eleven more times than any other team in the league.

Young Player of the Year: We should get used to hearing these names, both on the club and national team level.

• Ryo Miyaichi: He lit up the Eredivisie with Feyenoord in the first half of the year, then shined for Arsenal in Carling Cup and reserve matches. Recently he’s been hurt, but everyone is eager for Ryo to return in 2012.
• Takashi Usami: On loan at Bayern Munich from Gamba, Usami has looked ridiculously out of place with the reserves, and will likely feature more prominently in the first team in 2012. So far, he has scored six times in 14 reserve appearances and has even scored for the senior team in a cup win.
• Hiroshi Ibusuki: Now playing for Sevilla, Ibusuki has scored eleven goals in 18 matches for the reserves and has recently been on the bench for some Liga matches. Don’t be surprised to see him in some cup matches in the new year.
• Hiroshi Kiyotake: Osaka’s ‘second team’ had a disappointing 2011, however Kiyotake continued to impress. He scored seven league goals from the midfield, adding four more in the Champions League. He also made his debut for the national team, playing in three matches.

Japanese Players Update

The blog is back! Sorry for the lack of posts over the past three weeks, I’ve been busy with finals and the holiday season. To make up for it I’ll be posting regularly for the next week and a half. First off, an update on how Japanese players have been doing over in the European leagues.

The star of the last month has undoubtedly been Yuto Nagatomo. The fullback scored in back-to-back games against Fiorentina and Genoa, both Inter wins. His goal against Genoa was a header, and at 5 foot 7 he was the shortest player on the pitch. Then, in the next game Nagatomo provided two assists in a 4-1 win over Lecce, giving Inter the trickery that they have missed as Wesley Sneijder has struggled this year. The win catapulted Inter into fifth place going into the winter break, incredible considering their terrible start to the season. Here are the highlights of Nagatomo terrorizing last place Lecce.

Shinji Kagawa is currently struggling with gastroenteritis and was forced to pull out of a charity match in Sendai to support earthquake relief efforts. However he did play well in the two matches leading up to the winter break in Germany. He scored in Dortmund’s 1-1 draw at home to Kaiserslautern. Then in Dortmund’s 4-1 away win against Freiburg, he set up three goals and was a constant threat throughout the match. For Dortmund’s first goal, Kagawa played an excellent one-two with Ilkay Gundogan before putting it on a plate for Robert Lewandowski. In the 59th minute, Kagawa played a ball between two Freiburg defenders to put Lewandowski through. The Pole opted to wait for support and then served it up for Grosskreutz who curled it off the far post for Dortmund’s third. Finally in the 70th minute, Kagawa put Grosskreutz through who then provided Lewandowski with a tap-in to finish the scoring. The win put Dortmund into second place on goal difference ahead of Schalke, and only three points behind Bayern. It was a good finish to the first half of the season for Kagawa, who at times was outshone by the likes of Mario Gotze and Lewandowski, but these performances will encourage him to improve further in the second half. Highlights for the Freiburg match are here.

December has been decent to Japan’s other Bundesliga star. Makoto Hasebe was sent off after receiving two yellow cards in Wolfsburg’s 2-2 draw with Mainz. The Japanese captain was carded twice in less than ten minutes to earn an early trip home. However, he was crucial in front of the defense in his next match, a 1-0 win over Stuttgart. Compatriot Shinji Okazaki watched the match from the Stuttgart bench as an unused substitute. He had a quiet month, with no goals in four matches.

Takashi Usami has had a good month in Bayern’s reserves, as he continues to destroy lower league defenses. He scored a goal in Bayern II’s 4-1 away win at Karlsruher II. Then he came on as a substitute in the first team’s 2-0 away loss against Manchester City.

Michihiro Yasuda had an excellent December with Vitesse. The Arnhem side went undefeated in four December matches, with three wins and a draw, conceding only once–in a 2-1 cup win over FC Eindhoven. Yasuda has been a vital part of a defense that has not conceded a goal in the Eredivisie for over 400 minutes. Vitesse has risen to 6th place during this stretch.

On the other hand, VVV Venlo continued to struggle in December and have entered the winter break second to last and firmly on course for relegation. Venlo won once and lost twice in the month, including a 7-0 loss away at Heracles. Maya Yoshida and Robert Cullen will hope for vast improvement in the second half of the season.

FC Utrecht had an equally torrid month, with one draw and two losses. However, Yoshiaki Takagi started all three of the matches.

Finally, Hiroshi Ibusuki scored three times in as many December games for Sevilla II. He now has eleven goals in 18 matches for the reserves, already one more than he had all of last season.

Look forward to more posts all of this week, including a year review of the national team and the first annual Japan Footblog Player of the Year Award!