It’s been another long season in J3 League, with 2019 that proposed two returns to J2 – Giravanz Kitakyushu won the championship, Thespakusatsu Gunma bounced back from hell, Roasso Kumamoto registered the best attendance in history and Vanraure Hachinohe played their first season in the third tier.
In such a long year, where young and unknown players came forward, we did what we liked the most in this period of the year: it’s time to take a breath and make our calls in terms of awards. To do that, we established a small panel to pick the possible options, then voted through polls by our readers and followers:
Now… we ride.
Best team | Giravanz Kitakyushu (80%)
It was a no-brainer. It’s strange the bottom-two from last season found themselves closing in the Top 3, with the worst team in 2018 winning the league in 2019. But it was deserved, since Giravanz emerged as the best of the pack on the long run. After a long four squads-run, the club coached by Shinji Kobayashi won it all with a game to play.
In a year where Oita thrived and stayed in J1, Sagan somehow survived, Kagoshima got relegated to J3, Roasso weren’t able to go back to J2… Giravanz actually changed the scenario. Next year, the derby against Avispa Fukuoka will be back after five years of absence (last time, in 2015, Avispa won both games). We can’t wait and surely Giravanz fans are on the same side.
Flop Team | Kamatamare Sanuki (60%)
No doubts even about the flop of this season. We personally didn’t expect Kamatamare to be a sure pick for Top 4, but finishing in 14th place and losing several unexpected games – like the debacles in Hachinohe (5-1) and Akita (5-0) – wasn’t on the cards. Only 39 points collected and the vague sensation that coming back to J2 will be way harder than anyone imagined.
Losing Makoto Kitano was definitely a hard hit for the club, since they were able to reach J2 and maintain themselves in that tier thanks to him, but it’s not just a matter of manager. The club lost some valuable resources – like Hara, Watanabe and Alex – and it wasn’t easy to replace them. Ryosuke Kijima is going to retire and who knows what’s going to happen to Kamatamare.
MVP | Yuya Takazawa, Thespakusatsu Gunma (50%)
We thought he would have deserved a single article, since he has played like a God in his rookie year in professional football.
Best keeper | Takuya Sugimoto, Fujieda MYFC and Takuya Takahashi, Giravanz Kitakyushu (39% each)
We had a tie for the goalkeeper, since both Sugimoto and Takahashi had the same percentage. Their careers seem though different: Takahashi played for YSCC Yokohama, then jumped to Marinos only to end up back in J3 with Giravanz. He was instrumental to establish a better defense than last year.
For Sugimoto it’s another matter: at Gainare he looked shaky, but he seems improved from those times. He looks way more solid, he’s the vice-captain of Fujieda MYFC and he played 156 games in J3, looking as a solid candidate to represent the tier in history books. Who knows if he’s going to stay in J3…
MIP | Hayato Asakawa, YSCC Yokohama (47%)
That’s an award not only to Asakawa himself, but to YSCC Yokohama. They worked pretty well this year, closing in 13th place and giving him and Kohei Shin a wonderful season to live. The work of Yuki Stalph – the German-Japanese manager of the club – developed a nice brand of football.
It’s gonna be hard replace Asakawa, who has already announced he’s going to join Roasso Kumamoto for 2020. Anyway, he scored a hat-trick against Azul Claro Numazu and had a good partnership with Shin. If he’s going to replicate that with Kitamura, this might mean promotion chances for Kumamoto next season.
Best rookie | Daigo Takahashi, Giravanz Kitakyushu (44%)
For some reasons, Yuya Takazawa won MVP, but he wasn’t able to grab the award for the best rookie, who instead took the route of Kyushu. Daigo Takahashi wasn’t playing that much at Shimizu S-Pulse, where the forwards department was pretty full anyway. Despite losing Koya Kitagawa last Summer, Takahashi wasn’t going to play that much.
Maybe he’ll have better cards to play after this second part of 2019. Giravanz took him on loan and Takahashi debuted with one goal and two assists in a 3-0 away win in Hachinohe. He scored the decisive goal to win in Gunma and the only goal which granted one point in Kumamoto. Either Giravanz retain him for 2020 or S-Pulse find him some pitch-time.
Best signing | Yasuhito Morishima, Fujieda MYFC (64%)
A pretty easy choice. Morishima looked out of contention after being dropped until the fifth division. He came back to pro-football and proved he wasn’t aged at all. He looked way better than other forwards tipped in pre-season to be decisive – Kazuki Hara, Tomohiro Tanaka, Masao Tsuji – and he could be on a roll if he opts to stay at Fujieda.
Best goal | Nanasei Iino (GAMU23-THE | 24 November) & Yuko Takase (YSCC-ROA | 7 July) (40% each)
You fancy more a goal born from teamwork or a casual cross become lightning?
Best manager | Shinji Kobayashi (Giravanz Kitakyushu (50%)
Another miracle, another rise. We were ahead of Giravanz, giving his career of success in getting teams promoted.
