Goodbye my youngsters, goodbye my friends

DISCLAIMER – UPDATE of December 10th, 2019

Yesterday we published a nice piece about the state of U-23 teams in J3 League and how their departure would influence the future of the third tier. Except their demisal is set for 2021, not from 2020. So we guessed it was right to clear the air.

In an era of false statement and misinformation, it’s essential to admit a mistake. We did it and there’s no excuse for that. We’ve heard first rumours about the departure of U-23 teams in July, but they were not confirmed in the end. It seems U-23 teams will be off from 2020.

There’s a time to joke, another to create dystopian scenarios (we did it here on JLR) and one to apologize if a mistake has been made. This is the case, so we want to apologize to our beloved readers, who found an interesting article, but based on a false conception.

We think that leaving both the tweet and the news is anyway right for two reasons: a) the topic represents an interesting matter to analyze; b) it’ll served as a lesson for JLR to avoid such mistakes again in the future.

Of course, this would solve the problem half-way. That’s why this correction will be posted under the original tweet and, once you’ll open the article, you’ll find a disclaimer about the piece. Mistake are humans, but no one should go unpunished.

Last but not least, mistakes can happen, but they shouldn’t. That’s why we promised to not disappoint our beloved readers. We want to make them falling in love with Japanese football. And we don’t think there’s any need to resort to false news to do so.

頑張ります!

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Daihatsu Stadium, Hachinohe. December 8, 2019. It’s almost 15:00 JST, with just four degrees on the pitch. A wonderful free-kick by Motohiko Nakajima isn’t just the goal who sealed the deal for Cerezo Osaka-B against Vanraure (they’ve closed their season with an away 3-2 win), but it was also the last goal by a U-23 team in J3 League. The goal-show in Tokyo – with hosts destroying Gamba Osaka’s youngsters – was already done.

Four years have gone by and J. League has already let us know that U-23 teams won’t come back in J3 2020. This opens the way for a 16 teams-league, this time fully independent and for the first time free from any youth team: before the arrival of U-23 teams by pro-clubs, we had already two years of that mess called “J. League U-22 Selection” (and you saw how well it worked in Rio 2016, with Japan not even progressing through the group stage).

And there’s a paradox, because this season – on average – has been probably the best one for U-23 teams in this arc of four years. Especially at the beginning, both Osaka-based clubs were thriving in J3, even putting on danger the possibility of seeing two squads promoted. Then rotation and several departures in Gamba’s roster saw both teams dropping, especially the black and blue side of Osaka.

But it’s strange, because Taichi Hara has indeed closed the season as the top scorer. Akito Takagi was on his way to do that before getting loaned to Montedio Yamagata mid-season, where he wasn’t able to keep the same stats. And Cerezo Osaka U-23 closed in sixth place, the best result for a U-23 side in these four years (Cerezo also got seventh in 2018, so there’s consistency).

So why dropping this feat? Probably it’s for the best, since U-23 have proved to be a confusion in the rising Japanese football pyramid, other than a tool not fit for the current vision of football in Japan. But let’s start from the beginning.

Problems on the horizon

Why there were U-23 in the first place in J3? The move happened in November 2015, when J. League announced the drop of J. League U-22 Selection – probably losing 40 of the 69 gams ever played in J3 was a sufficient proof – and instead opted to pick three clubs who could have featured in the new structure. FC Tokyo, Gamba Osaka and Cerezo Osaka were picked for this task.

The results are there and they do not speak in favor of this move: just look and the positions and points picked by any of these U-23 side. Their goal was never to get promoted, but still it doesn’t look good.

FC Tokyo got tenth, eleventh, fourteenth and sixteenth in four years, averaging 1,18 points per game and being in general the worst of the three, often using the U-23 teams just to unload weight from the first squad. Manato Shinada – a class ’99 – is the player with most games in J3 with this team (82) and Taichi Hara is the man with the most goals not only for FC Tokyo U-23, but also in general for a U-23 team (27).

Gamba Osaka (1,14 points per game) got ninth, sixteenth, sixth and seventeenth. Waves have been made by several players – Meshino, Nakamura, Doan, Takagi and many others –, but there was never consistency, because often Gamba sold players in the first team and youngsters had to move to the first team. Ren Shibamoto is the player with the most games (82) and Kazunari Ichimi was the best goal-scorer (19 goals).

Last but not least, Cerezo Osaka (1,29 points per game), who were certainly the most stable team: twelfth, fourteenth, seventh and sixth, basically rising their profile steadily, but strongly. And it’s strange how the pink side of Osaka hasn’t still seen the same movements we’ve witnessed with Gamba in the first squad. The most present player was Toshiki Onozawa (only U-23 player with 100+ games in J3, 118), the top-scorer was Rei Yonezawa (25 goals).

The strangest events

As said before, the settlement of U-23 teams created strange situations. Of course, every club has the right to run their rosters as they want, but one week you’re going to Toyama with only 18-19 years-old and the next week you’re playing at home with Muriqui or Ryoichi Maeda (yes, that happened).

This problem was already visible with the U-22 Selection, but it repeated itself with U-23 teams: squads and rosters seemed to be too flexible, with too many changes on the paper and opening the scenario to certain incredible appearances. We’ve listed the best 10 you’ve probably forgotten:

• 10 – David Concha (what was the point of having him on the squad at all?)
• 9 – Kiwara Miyazaki (25 games, but seeing in general a good J2 players being demoted to J3 and U-23 teams isn’t nice)
• 8 – Yasuyuki Konno v YSCC Yokohama w/ goal (June 2018)
• 7 – Daiki Niwa (he was a pillar under Hasegawa in Osaka and he didn’t play a single J1 match in 2019, but featured in 17 J3 games)
• 6 – Jael (the man who challenged Kubo for a spot in the starting eleven ended up playing six games and scoring three goals in J3)
• 5 – The trio Izumisawa-Ide-Yajima (perfectly solid players for J1 League who suddenly featured in the third tier of Japanese football)
• 4 – Kota Mizunuma (in Tokyo they thought he wasn’t even able to play in the first team, so he scored a brace in Okinawa against Ryukyu. 12 months later, he decided the J. League Cup final and today he has a stable place at Cerezo)
• 3 – Kotaro Omori (I don’t know if that’s a record, but he might be the only player to have featured for two different U-23 teams)
• 2 – Muriqui v Tochigi SC (May 2016)
• 1 – Yoichiro Kakitani v Roasso Kumamoto (September 2019)

We’ve also been critic to the lack of rotation for U-23 teams. Seeing the same four clubs having this chance has been a wasted chance: Kashiwa Reysol, Kawasaki Frontale and Kashima Antlers would have been certainly interesting to witness at this level. Maybe we would have remembered Hiroki Abe’s first goal against Grulla Morioka, who knows.

You have also to remember how attendance have been hit by these squads. If you exclude Kubo debuting against Nagano Parceiro in November 2016 and the Osaka derbies between the U-23 teams, rarely stadiums are full to watch the youngsters play. A crowd in Imabari, Iwaki or Miyazaki would be more interested in a J3 match (on October 2019, there were 267 spectators for FC Tokyo U-23 v SC Sagamihara. That’s embarrassing if you want a league to rise).

The future

Certain players have anyway benefit from these four years. Gamba Osaka come immediately to mind: Kazunari Ichimi had a massive year in Kyoto; Doan, Meshino and Nakamura made all the leap to Europe; Akito Takagi and Takahiro Ko have chances to redeem themselves after a firing start, while Shoji Toyama and Jiro Nakamura will certainly be closely watched by every Japanese football fan in 2020, whether they’re staying in Osaka or going on loan.

Cerezo as well have reasons to smile: all the youngsters might refill the roster of the first team, who suffered major injuries and despite those stops still reached a miraculous fifth place in 2019. Just think what Lotina could do knowing that Nakajima, Ando, Yamane, Nishimoto and Yamada are available (after Seko, Funaki and Kimoto still made a major leap in this last season, given also how well they fit in Lotina’s system).

FC Tokyo… well, that won’t go well from here. Hasegawa isn’t exactly known to value their youngsters and the capital side never promoted many players from J3. Ryoya Ogawa, Takefusa Kubo and Sei Muroya were exception – truly deserved ones –, not the general rules. I don’t see Taichi Hara or Kiwara Miyazaki making it through the first squad; it’s more probable they’ll end up playing on loan or somewhere else.

And what can J3 League do from now on? Certainly FC Imabari joining the pack will help – chairman Takashi Okada even thinks of J2 and a possible promotion –, just like many other realities are in line to join the pro-football. J3 League’s attendances have been stable despite U-23 teams hindering these figures; maybe they will get even better now this long waited-goodbye has come.