Japanese Players In Europe

Shinji Kagawa celebrates his first goal for Manchester United with his teammates.

As the European leagues got underway this weekend, more and more Japanese players took to pitches for teams across the continent. Several players made debuts for their new teams, and notably, we had the third Japanese player to score in the English Premier League.

A week after impressing on his competitive debut for Manchester United, Shinji Kagawa became the third Japanese player to score in the English Premier League. In the 35th minute, Kagawa gave United a 2-1 lead in an eventual 3-2 win over Fulham. Playing as the No 10 behind Robin van Persie, Kagawa was again electric, at the heart of a mesmerizing 20 minute display in the first half from United that had Fulham on the ropes. His short passes and quick movement inspired the rest of the United attacking six to play at a dazzling pace that Fulham could hardly defend. There was a Dortmund-esque verve to their play. After a poor showing against Everton, Wayne Rooney was dropped, allowing Kagawa to play in his favored central position. He came on for Kagawa in the 68th but then suffered a terrible thigh gash and had to be carried off. He will be out for at least a month, which means Kagawa will likely continue playing as the No 10.

The goal itself was a tap-in, and that it wasn’t called off for offsides surprised everyone, including Kagawa. He follows Junichi Inamoto and Hidetoshi Nakata as Japanese goalscorers in the Premier League. Hopefully several others will follow him this season.

Hiroshi Kiyotake made his debut for FC Nurnberg, playing the entire 90 minutes in a 1-0 win over Hamburg.

Takashi Inui also made his debut for Eintracht Frankfurt, starting in a 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen. He was involved in Frankfurt’s equalizer, as his shot was only parried by Bernd Leno into the path of Stefan Aigner who finished well. Hajime Hosogai was an unused substitute for Leverkusen.

Takashi Usami came off the bench to make his debut for Hoffenheim in a 2-1 loss to Borussia Monchengladbach. He will look to break into the staring XI as the season progresses. Yuki Otsu was not included for Gladbach–more on a potential move away later.

Yuto Nagatomo played the entire 90 minutes as Inter beat newly-promoted Pescara 3-0. He also played the entire 90 minutes in a 2-2 draw with Romanian side FC Vaslui, which was enough for Inter to advance on. Similarly in Russia, Keisuke Honda played the entire 90 minutes in CSKA Moscow’s 3-0 win over Kryliya Sovetov. However, CSKA suffered major disappointment during the week, getting knocked out of the Europa League by Swedish side AIK.

In Holland, Maya Yoshida played the entire 90 minutes in a 4-2 loss to Ado Den Haag. More on him later. Robert Cullen came on in the 67th minute. For Vitesse, Michihiro Yasuda played the entire 90 minutes in a 2-0 win over Willem II. Mike Havenaar came on in the 54th minute.

In Europa League action, VFB Suttgart knocked out Dinamo Moscow 3-1 on aggregate after a 1-1 draw in Moscow. Gotoku Sakai and Shinji Okazaki both played the entire 90 minutes. Hannover 96 completed a 10-4 aggregate thumping of Slask Wroclaw with a 5-1 home win. Hiroki Sakai came on off the bench and set up the final goal with a delightful cross to Szabolcs Huszti.

Last but not least, English League Cup action. Tadanari Lee scored and played the entire 90 minutes in Southampton’s 4-1 win over Stevenage. It was a great way for him to mark his return from injury. Ryo Miyaichi came on for the last 10 minutes of Wigan’s 4-1 win over Nottingham Forest, which feature a couple great goals. Miyaichi got an assist for Wigan’s fourth, though Callum McManaman still had to beat a couple of players to score. An interesting stat from WhoScored.com: Miyaichi created a chance on average once every 32 minutes last season, 11th best in the Premier League.

Some transfer news: Maya Yoshida has completed a move to Southampton. He leaves one Japanese teammate (Robert Cullen) to join another (Tadanari Lee). The transfer fee was £2 million. Yoshida says that to play in the Premier League has been “one of my biggest dreams since I was a child.” Congrats to him on the move; that makes four Japanese players in the Premier League–let’s hope for more goals scored. Meanwhile, Yuki Otsu has been linked with a loan move to Celtic. It would be a good more for him; he’d play regularly and in the Champions League. Hiroshi Ibusuki has joined Belgian second division side KAS Eupen on loan from Sevilla.

Japanese Players in Europe

Despite Shinji Kagawa’s injury, this was a very good weekend for Japanese footballers in Europe. The star was Ryo Miyaichi who scored his first goal in English football in a 2-0 Bolton win away at Millwall. Ryo ran past the Millwall defense and curled into the back of the net to give Bolton a 1-0 lead in three minutes in. After the match, he said that the finish was inspired by Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie: “When I was at Arsenal, I saw many times Henry score same way during training. [Robin] Van Persie also did it, from the right flank. They showed very good example for me. That’s why I could score today.” (Guardian) This was Ryo’s second appearance for Bolton, and they have both been good performances.

Mike Havenaar scored his second Eredivisie in a 4-1 defeat to Twente. Mike came on as a substitute in the 73rd minute, and scored in the 88th, with the score at 4-0. The loss leaves Vitesse in 7th place, but on the bright side Mike continues to play well! Michihiro Yasuda also played in this game

Shinji Okazaki scored an outrageous overhead kick in Stuttgart’s 4-2 defeat at the hands of Hannover. Stuttgart slipped to ninth with the loss. Still, a great goal, and the proper celebration given the score.

Maya Yoshida scored as Venlo smacked fellow strugglers De Graafschap 4-1. Robert Cullen came on for the second half. The win brings Venlo to within two points of safety.

Tadanari Lee scored his first goal for Southampton in a 4-0 win over Derby County. Lee came on in the second half and scored in the 75th. It was a great goal.

Nagatomo played well again, however Inter lost again 3-0 to Bologna. It was Inter’s third straight loss, and third straight game in which they failed to score. They are now in seventh place.

Finally, Kagawa will miss Dortmund’s next few games as he injured his ankle during midweek training. He had been in great form, which makes the injury all the more disappointing.

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!

Uzbekistan 1-1 Japan

Not a great performance, but a decent result. This was probably Japan’s most difficult fixture of the round, and they were able to get out of Tashkent with a point.

Uzbekistan were the better side in the first half, rushing forward at every opportunity. Their attacking intent got them a goal in the eighth minute with a tidy finish from captain Server Djeparov. They had hit the post earlier, so the goal didn’t exactly come against the run of play.

As Football Japan points out, the poor quality of the pitch didn’t help Japan’s usually crisp short passing. Nonetheless, Japan’s first half performance wasn’t great, and though they enjoyed more possession, Uzbekistan looked the more threatening. Again, Kagawa was tightly marked and the midfield clearly missed the creativity of Honda and the width of Nagatomo. Tadanari Lee had little to work with but was unlucky not to score when he slammed a shot off the post.

The second half performance was massively improved and Japan got a deserved equalizer in the 65th minute. Okazaki scored with a diving header off a good cross from Uchida. Uzbekistan continued to look dangerous on counterattacks but Japan pinned back their opponents for most of the half. In the end, both teams got a deserved point.

Some points: Uzbekistan is a fit side. They pressed Japan from the start and were able to quickly turn defense into attack. They left massive spaces in the middle of the park with some poor marking but were able to make up for it with their speed. I thought that this wouldn’t last and that Japan would be able to pick them apart in the second half as they tired. I was wrong. Japan did outplay Uzbekistan in the second half but it was because they played better, not because their opponents tired. Uzbekistan looked dangerous on the counterattack throughout the entire match.

Tadanari Lee was visibly frustrated when he was taken off for Mike Havenaar right after the equalizer. He hit the post twice in the match and played pretty well and so he was naturally frustrated he didn’t get the goal he wanted. He still bowed to the fans after he was taken off and shook hands with Zaccheroni. He was just upset with his own performance. This is good to see and is indicative of Lee’s great desire and commitment.

Though Japan didn’t play well and struggled in an uncomfortable environment, they still could’ve won the match. Perseverance and the ability to not get frustrated as a team even when not playing well are important qualities for good teams.

Man of the Match: Kawashima was excellent for Japan. He made several great saves, including a breakaway late in the match. For Uzbekistan, talisman Djeparov got the goal but young midfielder Odil Ahmedov was the standout performer. He was excellent breaking up Japan’s midfield play and then sprinting into attack. He was praised for his displays in the Asian Cup earlier this year and Japan witnessed his quality firsthand.

Next up is a home match against Tajikistan, who currently sit last after losing their first two matches.