Endo Selected for U-20 National Team

Mito's forward Keisuke Endo has been selected to go to Spain next month for a youth tournament. It's a very early warm up for the 2012 London Olympic tournament, so doing well here and for the next 3 years would mean an Olympic entry for Endo!

Mito 3 - 1 Tosu

Mito beats Tosu by 2 goals yet again with the only downside to the performance being the Tosu consolation goal late in the match. This was the only one allowed by Mito in July's six matches.

Mito started the scoring early as Kikuoka fired a free kick straight at the goal keeper six minutes in. A kind Tosu blocker allowed it to slightly bounce off his hip and head straight in for the opening goal. Goals would then be scored by Tae-Yon Kim and Kota Yoshihara. Kim's goal was controversial to Tosu fans and players as the referree has nudged to the ground by a Tosu player and many on the field were distracted, perhaps thinking it was a foul. But just like in pro wrestling, the referree's condition has no effect on play as long as his health is not in danger, and the match continues. Kim took the ball and fired it from almost half the field length into a goal as no Tosu players made an attempt to even move near the ball to stop it. The official stood up and immediately signalled that the goal was scored. Yoshihara's goal was less controversial, and was just a good header to put Mito up by three.

By beating Tosu who were also on a good run, Mito has tallied the best 10-game record in the division and snuck up on the leading teams. Only 2 wins seperates Mito from promotion territory and 3 wins from1st place. Arata has returned, Sendai and Shonan are both slumping, and Osaka isn't as dominant in matches as before. Saturday's match home vs. Tochigi (the first I'll have been able to attend in a while) probably won't pose much of a problem, but the next match at Shonan may be the match of the year for both teams.

Some Japanese commentators are starting to put Mito as a prediction for 3rd place and promotion this year, and while Osaka, Shonan, Sendai, and Kofu are all possible to be somewhere in the top 3, it's hard to see what other teams are able to beat Mito at this stage. The teams of these 5 with the best 3 records over the last leg of the season will be promoted. This leg Mito has shown that it can be right there despite the loss of a star player that returns full time for the home stretch.

How the poorest pro team in the country will keep the team together after this year, promoted or not, is now a major worry, though. Drawing this much attention means the wolves will be at the door in December, stripping away any players hoping to earn more money from a club with plenty to spare. Promotion could mean the first time a club goes from J2 into J1 with a substantially weaker team.

Mito 1 - 0 Ehime

This match featured the surprise return of forward Arata, coming in during the second half and almost immediately scoring the match's goal. A meeting with his doctor the day before gave the full approval for his return a week and a half earlier than was expected.

Practice vs. Chuo University, Arata's Recovery

Chuo University's top team came to town on Saturday to play against Mito's reserves, B-team, and recovering injured. I could only stay for a half hour so I don't know the result other than that I saw the University side score. I just wanted to see how Arata is doing since he started athletic rehabilitation. He didn't play in the match but was jogging and dribbling on the sideline. He said that he's been going all-out in team practices and he will likely return for the Tochigi SC game on August 1st. If he can shake off the rust in that one he'll be very much needed in the next match at Shonan. Mito lost by 4 goals in their last match after his fresh injury. If Mito can pull that one off and it also happens to be the team's fifth win in a row, you can expect top 3 placement.

Mito 2 - 0 Tokushima

Tokushima joins Fukuoka and Okayama as a team Mito is one win away from sweeping this year. Tokushima held off Mito's attack well in the first half but in the middle of the second, a nice cross from Ozawa was perfectly placed into the far corner of the goal by Yoshihara. A bit later midfielder Kikuoka was brought down in the penalty area, and he converted the penalty kick to secure the win.

Mito has not allowed a goal in the last four matches, and has only lost one out of the last eight matches, all without forward Arata. Mito is still in 7th due to good results from Tokyo and Tosu, but poor results from the top four teams mean Mito is very close to the promotion spots along with those two teams. Tokushima leads the chasing group below which is now getting left behind a bit. If matches on Wednesday fall the right way, we may find a full shift from having four top teams to having seven top teams fighting for promotion.

Tonight's Match

I just found out from the club staff that the team is leaving right about... now. The bus trip to the airport, then flight, then travel from the airport to Tokushima's stadium will mean potential arrival between 5-6 PM even with delays.

It's common for teams to arrive in a city the day before a match and return afterward, but Tokushima's airport will not be able to offer a return flight tonight. The team will take an early flight tomorrow.

I don't know if same day air travel is any more or less stressful than same day bus travel, but this might not be a good development. Combined with forward Takasaki's missing of this match due to accumulated yellow cards, tonight might be more difficult than what was hoped.

Forward Takasaki won't be making the trip to Tokushima, but will be on Mito's Radio Parurun in about two hours and may appear at tonight's public viewing at Hitachinaka city's Fashion Cruise.

Mito 0 - 0 Yokohama

After a good run of results, with 4 wins, a loss, and a draw in 6 games, Mito gets another draw but an incredibly disappointing one. Yokohama was the bottom team in the standings (now ahead of Okayama with the draw point) and had a player sent off in the last play of the first half. Mito's charges never resulted in goals despite great chances as Yokohama truly put all efforts into defense and their keeper had a great game. Contrarily Mito's defense went largely unused aside from Yokohama's greater-than-average number of corner kicks. Goalkeeper Honma had no difficult shots to save.

The score is a testament to Yokohama's incredible defense on Sunday, not to any weakness on Mito's side. There is nobody to blame for Mito's lack of a win; Yokohama put 10 players into pure protection mode at all times and played for the scoreless draw.

I couldn't make it to Yokohama so I decided to try out a public viewing at a nearby outlet shopping center fairly famous in the Kanto area. Even with a good crowd going to Yokohama there were easily over a hundred in the food court eating cheap ramen and drinking expensive mixed juices. Incidentally there were many JEF United Chiba and Kashima Antlers fans in attendance as those teams had a Satellite League match the same afternoon in the stadium a few minutes away. They all seemed to cheer for Mito as well. It was a good environment with cheering and applause that seemed to freak out the part time food court staff. A good experience even if the two TVs were smaller than my own... That combined with the ability to be in bed in pajamas and to scream obscenities when needed helped me decided that I enjoy being in a solitary environment if not all out at the stadium. :)

The next match is away in Tokushima on Friday night for some reason. Realistically no chance to be in 5th with a win there as Tokyo's goal difference is pretty strong, but being back in the top third is still a good possibility.

This Year's Emperor's Cup

Full details and schedule will be released later, but the number of teams for the Emperor's Cup and round entrance have been announced. There are more teams now than ever and small teams will face big competition very early.

J. League teams and JFL seeded teams enter in the 2nd round of a 7 round tournament. The first round reduces 48 prefectural and college teams to 24, and adding the other 40 makes 64 for an additional 6 rounds.

The following is pure speculation. Round 2 should have the following, with home advantage on the left:

-18 J1 vs. 18 pref./college

-Top 6 J2 vs. 6 pref./college

-7-10 J2 vs. 4 top JFL

-11-14 J2 vs. 15-18 J2

If Oita loses their first match against someone like Hitachi Tochigi UVA, you'll know where their focus was. That is one one positive point; teams should put a little bit of effort to at least not lose their first match to Wakayama #4 High School & Vocational Academy and then perhaps take the tournament more seriously. It also really encourages local teams to win that first match to have a game that matters against an honest-to-goodness big name pro team. The format also makes it much more likely for J2 teams to make it far into the tournament. All the better chance for Mito to win, enter the ACL, and end up as world champions in 2010! If seedings took place in J2 at the same time or after JFL's seeding, it means Mito would play a JFL seeded team. Could be worse, but could be better. Right about now Mito would rather like last year face Fukuoka in the first match.

Assuming the above is true, Mito's match would be against one of the following teams depending on if the team was seeded while 7th or 8th place in the J2 standings:

Yokogawa Musashino FC (with former Mito top team and youth squad players)

JEF United Reserves (which theoretically could take on JEF United top squad players at will, although the reverse is not true and so quick swaps to win against J. League teams is unlikely)

Mito 5 - 0 Fukuoka (Team Record for Margin of Victory)

Mito completely outclassed an unmotivated Fukuoka side on Wednesday, and the team now has its first season with two hat tricks in the books.

From the start Fukuoka were slow, sluggish, and challenged very little, and Mito took advantage of an opponent seemingly uninterested in the match result. The first goal came in the 12th minute from Keisuke Endo, playing energetically as he did in the last match to seal the win. He sprinted ahead of the defensive line to take a pass, created a full second of unchallengable time to set up a shot, and fired it through the goalkeeper's open glove to take the lead. Soon afterward he'd have another shot when firing in a dangerously close loose ball. It was deflected, but right into defender Hosaki who popped it in to double the lead. Just before the half ended leading team scorer Takasaki would take a pass and get his 11th goal of the year.

After the break, it wouldn't be very long before Takasaki would have another chance, but chose to send a hard low pass in front of the goal that Endo completed to make it 4-0. A few minutes later defender Ozawa would take the ball in on a fast break and almost certain goal. The keeper ran out and intercepted in the penalty area, and Ozawa's fall brought about a foul and a penalty kick. It was a tough call that could have gone either way. Contact to Ozawa was minimal, but the sliding block clearly was made not at the ball but as an attempt to stop the forward momentum. The crowd started yelling Endo's name to give him the chance to have a hat trick, and although he had never taken a kick like this before the team gave him the chance. He converted, and the 5-0 score would hold until the final whistle.

Endo has shown remarkable improvement this year, and especially recently. After two years of regular league play as a forward (although rarely as a starter), participation in satellite league matches, and even perticipating for the U-19 national team, he finally scored his first goal this yearin league play. Previously he'd made many glaring mistakes in passing or having the ball stripped away, but his incredible speed and effort kept him in the squad. Now skills are catching up with desire and he's becoming a strong talent. It remains to be seen if he will become a starting forward, as he only started against Fukuoka as Yoshihara had a slight leg strain and sat on the bench. And honestly against Wednesday's Fukuoka team, Yoshihara or anyone else may have been able to score 3 goals. Still, it's good to see him mature and he seems to still have a lot of possibility for improvement.

The next game is against Yokohama FC, then Tokushima, then Ehime, Tosu, and Tochigi. It isn't reasonable to expect the winning streak to continue and to take at least 12 points from these matches. Only 9 points seperates Mito from the promotion spots and the match against current leaders Shonan on August 5 may be the most important one to both teams during that part of the season.

Mito 1 - 0 Sapporo

It was a match that would have definitely resulted in a loss of position should Mito have lost but with all other nearby teams winning or drawing, a win still keeps 8th place and only one point separates 5th- 8th. The top 4 had trouble as well with draws for all but Shonan, and those positions seem a bit more reachable. Should teams below or teams in the top 4 falter on Wednesday, the second half of the season could start with the top 8 breaking away for promotion spots and the bottom 10 struggling to catch up. The opposite would bring all the teams right back to where they were on Friday.

The game itself was heavily defensive on Mito's side. Early in the game a foul in the Sapporo penalty box on forward Takasaki also brought that defender's second yellow card for the send off. Takasaki himself converted for his tenth of the year and he now leads the team's scoring list, exactly on pace to reach his predicted 20 goals for the year. While not quite on a healthy Arata's goal scoring level, he's made enough of an impact to be surely recalled by Urawa at the end of the year as Akahoshi was in 2008. Other great effort was shown by Yoshihara, who used a few great techniques to keep possession when pressed hard, and especially attacking midfielder/forward Endo. The second half went an astonishing eight and a half minutes of penalty time and Endo sprinted after balls to the very end, clearing them out and keeping Sapporo from easily linking anything. The defense did their job well, but it was the efforts of these three especially that sent more than 22,000 Sapporo fans home very dissatisfied.

Tomorow Mito hosts Fukuoka and looking at the schedule from now, there are a string of matches that Mito should be able to win. Just as the 4 game win streak that brought Mito to the top 3 early in the season, these matches could do the same depending on other team results. Even doing that, though, the problem would be to then beat Shonan and hope that Arata comes back healthy and as strong as he was in the match that injured him. If that's the case, and Mito is within striking position of the promotion zone, Mito fans will again dare to dream that the poorest kids on the block can be allowed a taste of the big time.