Naka to Reunite with Celtic?

Gordon Strachan will try to bring Naka back to his services, not for Celtic, but for Celtic 2.0

The title here is purposely misleading. No, there are no rumors that Shunsuke Nakamura has expressed any interest in returning to Celtic or that Celtic has expressed any interest in reacquiring Shunsuke Nakamura. However, Gordon Strachan, the former coach of Celtic during Naka's glory years, and now the coach of Middlesbrough FC, a Division 2 Premier League team, has begun rebuilding his former Celtic team in England with Naka in his sights.

Following relegation from the Division 1 Premier League last season, Gordon Strachan was appointed manager after leaving Celtic, and has slowly been putting the pieces together to replicate his success at the Scottish club that won him 3 Scottish titles in 4 seasons. The replication process has been so similar in fact, that I would venture to refer to the Boro as Celtic 2. Already Strachan has pulled Willo Flood, Barry Robson, Chris Killen, and Stephen McManus (all former Celtic players) to his cause, and now it is reported that he is trying to draw Naka to him as well.

Shunsuke Nakamura has been an absolute pot hole since he joined Spanish side Espanyol last season, and coming in with "Galactico" size expectations, has disappointed to the scale that the Maginot line failed to keep the Germans out of France (obscure reference but wikipedia it for a good history lesson). For Espanyol, Naka has only started only a handful of games, did not impress in any, and now fights for spot on the bench every match. Shunsuke Nakamura: Galactico Fail.

If Strachan does suceed in attaining the services of Nakamura, it is expected that Naka will once again retain the playmaker role for Strachan's first team. In the time that the manager and player spent together at Celtic, Gordon Strachan considered Naka to be a "genius," and one could only expect Gordon to retain the same feelings that he felt only 2 seasons ago.

Nakamura leaving Spain to join the Coca-Cola league in England may be a downsize from his career goal of having success in La Liga. Still, if he can find a first-team spot for Strachan and regain his form and confidence, these can only be good things for the Japanese National team heading into the World Cup.

Away Jerseys and Some International News

You would look great in this jersey!

The white World Cup jerseys are in and they are sweeeeet. If you are in Japan, please rob an Adidas store and mail me about 50 of these jerseys. I will then mail them out to the first 49 readers who say they want one and keep one for myself, of course. Oh, and while you're at it, can you also mail me some takoyaki and umeboshi please. In return, I will ask everyone on this blog to direct 1 minute of positive energy your way with specific instruction to focus on having Kate Beckinsale come make babies with you. If you're caught by the Japanese police in the process, I will erase this blog post ASAP, and deny any involvement in the matter, but still ask my readers to direct 1 minute of positive energy asking for Kate Beckinsale to pay you a conjugal visit. Its a win-win really.

In international news, Japanese national and former Nagoya Grampus defender signed with Keisuke Honda's old team, VVV-Venlo in the Eredvisie, only to injure his thigh in one of his first practices with the new team. Expect him to be excluded from the World Cup team.

Honda, on the other hand, has transferred to CSKA Moscow, and looks to have made an early impact. In a friendly against Xamax, Honda scored one of two goals in a 2:2 draw. He will make his official debut in a Champions League match against Sevilla on 24 February.

Will it be Kawashima or Narazaki who dons the keeper shirt?

Takayuki Morimoto may have regained some of his goal scoring ability as he came on as a late substitute and put away a 3-0 win for Catania over Parma. The latest goal puts him at 5 goals in 21 appearances this season. Last season, which was considered to be his breakout, gave him 9 in 24, so we'd like and expect Taka to pick up the pace here.

Daisuke Matsui came out and put on a show for Grenoble in a 3-2 overtime win against Montpellier. He scored one and set up one.

Shinji Ono has returned to the J League and signed with Shimizu S-Pulse. He leaves behind one year at Bochum, his second European stint, with hope that his presence in the domestic league will catch the attention of coach, Takeshi Okada, and win him a role in the WC team. As I am always against Japanese players returning home from Europe, I still wish Ono the best of luck to receive a call up as I consider him a very quality player.

Junichi Inamoto has also returned to Japan and has signed with Kawasaki Frontale. Inamoto's European stint lasted for 10 years with 7 teams in 4 different leagues. Inamoto, like Ono, hopes to secure a position on the WC squad. He has earned call-ups in several recent matches and has performed well.

Finally, the Samurai Blue have a friendly coming up against Venezuela on 2 February. Okada has named a squad of entirely domestic players, and all familiar faces. One name that has drawn a lot of media attention is 30 year old midfielder Mitsuo Ogasawara. Ogasawara has recorded 53 caps for the national team and claimed 7 goals in the process. He has dominated the J League and earned the player of the year award in 2009. However, Okada has been reluctant to call him up the national squad, as he has expressed the belief that the midfield depth is too deep to call up another midfield general who may clout the leadership responsibilities that have already been assigned. His point is that, with players like Shunsuke Nakamura, Endo, Kengo Nakamura, and Hasebe, there is little room for another vocal midfield leader to try and stake his place. His recent call-up has drawn criticism from the media, who have suggested that calling up Ogasawara is a tell for a lack of confidence of the team that Okada has coached in the past year. Personally, I feel that if Ogasawara is as good or better of a player than the current midfield selection, he should at least be given a chance to make the team, especially at a time when perennial Japan icon, Shunsuke Nakamura has shown poor form for his Spanish club, Espanyol.

More to come about the Venezuela friendly later.

Hatoyama Hat Trick Seals Asian Cup Birth

Sota Hirayama. Ever heard of him? He made a big impact at a young age by playing for the 04 Olympic team as a high schooler, and representing the youth Japanese team on several occasions. His professional debut was made in the Eredivisie with Heracles Almelo.

On Wednesday, the 24 year old striker made his senior squad debut and played a dream match. Being down 2-0, the young and unaccomplished Japanese squad looked sunk. Then the huge 1.93m Hirayama, Japanese Colossus, to bring back Japan in Disney Sports Movie fashion.

While his impressive performance has certainly put him on the World Cup team map, at best his prospects would be a spot on our bench. Still, his huge target frame could be an intriguing addition up front to the quicker strikers and attacking midfielders that we usually employ.

One casualty that Japan suffered was the loss of Naoki Yamada, the 19 year old midfielder from Urawa Red Diamonds and a sure future Japanese star. During the match, he suffered a fractured calf bone and will surely be out for the extent of the 2010 World Cup.

The win over Yemen qualified Japan for the 2011 Asian Cup finals.

Akemashite Omedetou!

Akemashite Omedetou (Happy New Year), readers! Well, I haven't blogged in waaay too long, but I want to let you know that the blog, and its author, are still alive. My life outside the blogosphere has been scrambled eggs lately and I've been neglecting my writing duties. Fear not, the blog will be back in full force soon.

As most of you probably know by now, the World Cup draw took place in December. Japan was drawn into a group with the Netherlands, Denmark, and Cameroon. A tough group, but not an impossible one. Most football pundits are calling Japan the wooden spoon of the group, and are "sure" that the Oranje will advance to the Round of 16 with either Denmark or Cameroon in tow. Let us hope to prove them wrong.

The first match for Japan will be against Cameroon, and will also be the most important. 3 points won't come easy, as Samuel Eto'o will be difficult for our backline to contain. The Cameroon match takes place on the 14th of June. The Netherlands are up next five days later and will be the biggest uphill climb of Japan's World Cup. When we played them in the friendly last year, we gave up 3 goals in the final 1/3 of the match and lost 3-0. In order to win, we must almost certainly score first, and will most likely need more than one goal to secure the W. The last match of the group stage, and hopefully not the last match of the WC for us, will be played against Denmark. Denmark only lost one game in their qualifying run, against the Hungarians in their last match. By then, they had already secured a spot in the World Cup and the result should not be looked at as a weakness on their part. The emergence of Nicklas Bendtner, the Arsenal striker, as a World Class goal scoring threat sharpens the attacking edge that the Danish bring, and Denmark will not fall easily.

In terms of what has been happening with transfers of Japanese nationals, there has been a lot of speculation, but not much happening. Tulio was rumored to be heading to Europe with Dutch top club FC Twente, coached by former England manager Steve McClaren, but ultimately stayed in the J. League and only transferred from the Reds over to Nagoya. In my opinion, a weak and "too safe" move by Tulio.

There was also speculation that Keisuke Honda would be transferred out of lowly Dutch club VVV-Venlo and join a top flight Premier League team like Liverpool or Everton. In the end, Honda did move out of the Eredivisie but ended up in Russia, not England, for CSKA Moscow. While I am not particularly fond of the decision, as I have been dying for a Japanese player to make it in England for years, there are some benefits to his move. First, one would question whether the Russian league is actually a step back from the Eredivisie. While this I will leave for the Dutch and Russians to debate, at best, I think the Russian league is at par with the Dutch but not miles ahead like the Premier League or La Liga. CSKA Moscow, however, is a much better team than Venlo, and Honda will gain experience playing against the best European clubs in the Champions League. Also, while Honda probably would have warmed the bench at Liverpool, he should be able to secure a first team spot with Moscow quite easily, keeping him fit for the World Cup. On a final note, it is believed that CSKA Moscow dished out a whopping 9 million euro to acquire him. Which, as far as I know, makes Honda the most expensive Japanese player in the world.

VVV-Venlo hinted that they had contacted and were luring in a Japanese replacement for Honda's anticipated departure. The name was Shinji Kagawa, a 20-year very gifted midfielder for J League 2 side Cerezo Osaka. Kagawa has already played 10 matches for the senior side, and is touted as one of Japan's brightest players for the future. Ultimately, Kagawa decided to stay with Cerezo, at least for now, but its good to hear that another one of Japan's young guns are already thinking about making the Euro trip.

Finally, we'll touch upon the future of Takayuki "the Shining" Morimoto. Taka has been linked to Manchester United for the past couple years now, and it seems that they have not given up on swallowing him up. There is speculation that Taka is not ready to make the "big jump" yet, and understandably as I can't really see Taka supplanting Rooney, Michael Owen, or even Berbatov any time soon, and would probably play mostly for the ManU reserves. Still, what a thrill it would be to see Taka in the red jersey. Fiorentina has openly suggested their interest and as the season progresses I am sure many more teams will announce their intentions as well.

Again, apologies for not posting sooner, I had a good blogging vacation but am back with rested typing fingers. Leave a comment or send me an e-mail and let me know how you felt about the World Cup draw, Honda's move to Russia, or if you want to share some ridiculous New Years party story.

Cheers.