It’s a time of international changes for J. League: some great players have just arrived into our championship. Lukas Podolski, Andrés Iniesta, Fernando Torres and Jô are some examples, but many foreign football fans may only focus on them or some big clubs like Kashima Antlers, Gamba Osaka and Urawa Red Diamonds.
But there are 54 professional clubs in the Japanese football pyramid including J1, J2 and J3. Many of them aren’t “big clubs”. J. League-speaking, they fight every year just to survive or to proceed to the next step, trying everything they can to achieve their goals.
Vegalta Sendai, my hometown club, are a typical rural football reality in Japan. They don’t feature big sponsors or some international foreign players, just like any other small club in the world. But they’ve been in J1 League for eight years in a row. And now, Sendai are comfortably mid-table in J1 League. They even had some ACL-related dreams few weeks ago.
Many of these small clubs choose to adopt a defensive style of football, mainly based on counter-attacks. In early 2014, Vegalta Sendai head coach was changed: Susumu Watanabe took over the post from current Socceroos coach Graham Arnold, who was forced to resign due to the lack of supporting from club, despite many credentials and a solid expectation towards him.
Watanabe chose to change direction: instead of counter-attacking football, he developed a high-possession brand of football, taking a long time to bring up the ball through the pitch. Do you know the half spaces-theory? Watanabe and their assistant coach decided to follow the latest trend in European tactics for their club.
However, some of their main players are often poached by bigger club in J1. In order to improe the quality of their style, Vegalta Sendai signed many skillful players on loan from other clubs. Take the latest acquisition from Vissel Kobe, signing on loan Mike Havenaar, former Vitesse and ADO Den Haag, who even played (and scored) with Japan national team. Or Gakuto Notsuda, former prodigy at Sanfrecce Hiroshima, who seemed lost after several loans.
Instead, Vegalta took him back to his best days of his career.
Lately Vegalta tried another hit with Shinya Yajima, who basically didn’t play at Gamba Osaka; unfortunately, he got injured during his first games, but he seems a good acquisition. And what about Ko Itakura? Especially the loanee from Kawasaki Frontale is regularly selected to the U-23 Team. Surely they can support Vegalta and they could have a great future Japan. But they couldn’t play at their club due to the competition, while Sendai make the most of them.
In addition to loan players, Sendai are focusing on train up young players. Our No.1 young-star Takuma Nishimura has just moved to Russian giant PFC CSKA Moscow on August. And their regular player Keiya Shiihashi took part in 2018 Toulon Tournament as Japan U-21 international. This youth effort goes on with “The best player of Sendai U-18”, Takumi Sasaki, who is playing well on loan to Kamatamare Sanuki.
Although he’s 26 years old, goalkeeper Daniel Schmidt was recently selected to Japan National Team for the first time in his career last summer. We’re keeping them in our eye for the future.
Sendai was terrible damaged by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and Vegalta suffered as well. After seven and a half years from that terrible afternoon, we kept struggling, but we stand out in the highest division of Japanese football. To reinforce football clubs, people often think that money are enough.
But money can’t play football. Vegalta Sendai are proving that surviving in J1 League with your steady and solid methods can actually work.
I’d like to take the credit for this good piece about Vegalta Sendai, but we must (and we want) send a huge “Thank You!” to Yota-san. You might also know him as @maimaidenden on Twitter, always updating everyone about J. League. I don’t know why, but I imagine him as a misterious super-hero with a yellow and blue mantle. Full of energy and fearless, just like his favourite club and the city that stands by it.
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