Howdy!

I've had a chance to be a NT coach for Nippon in last two seasons. If Japanese community will accept me for this role, I would like to continue what I started and make small but continuous progress with this NT :)

Upcoming 2 friendly matches under my command (for this seasonal run):
W0 - vs Guatemala (U27 match with one exception)
W1 - not yet decided

(Assuming I'll be chosen for next season) Rest of schedule will be determined near close of election :)

Nippon 3 - 4 Guatemala

U27 rules - with one exception on our side, as agreed with Guatemala coach

Core of the team was known to me, since I used most of them during last two seasons :) But also we had some new faces in adult NT:
- Teruyuki Uchiyama - ATT with goal in debut and 16 U21 matches
- Shunichi Kudo - last minute callup due to form/injuries. MID with an assist in debut and 13 U21 matches
- Ichizo Uchiyama - last minute callup due to form drops. DEF with 18 U21 matches
- Koki Oi - last minute callup due to form drops. DEF with 12 U21 matches

Overall quite fun match. From 0:4 to 3:4 in 35 minutes. I have few observations regarding winger positioning and will have to recheck defenders positions. Opponent for next week is not yet decided ;)

Alright, our next opponent will be al-Jazā’ir. Looking purely on ranking we should expect to win in this match. Our current position/ranking is 77th place/773.78 ranking points comparing to 89th place/264.74 ranking points. However this week this NT won against Misr (80th place), so I cannot underestimate this match :)

Assuming I'll become NT coach once again, I arranged a full schedule for upcoming season

Nippon NT Schedule:

Week 2 (30.09.23)- MWC 1st group match vs Danmark (away match)
Week 3 (07.10.23)- MWC 2nd group match vs Russia (home match)
Week 4 (14.10.23)- MWC 3rd group match vs Indonesia (home match)
Week 5 (21.10.23)- MWC quarterfinals - TBD
Week 6 (28.10.23)- MWC semifinals - TBD
Week 7 (04.11.23)- MWC finals - TBD
Week 8 (11.11.23)- Asia Cup 1st group match - TBD
Week 9 (18.11.23)- Asia Cup 2nd group match - TBD
Week 10 (25.11.23)- Asia Cup 3rd group match - TBD
Week 11 (02.12.23)- Asia Cup Quarters - TBD
Week 12 (09.12.23)- Asia Cup Semis - TBD

---------------- age updated -----------------------------------------

Week 0 (16.12.23)- Asia Cup finals - TBD
Week 1 (23.12.23)- Island (manager Maska)

al-Jazā’ir - Nippon 1:1

Bad match on my side. At the early stage of match we lost our GK and our debutante in NT Ieyoshi Yoshidatook his place. Opponent went really offensive and had more shoot attempts than us. It feels like either I put MID's way too high or DEF's way too low, which allowed al-Jazair players to utilize this gap. Upcoming match will be against Denmark in Mini World Cup tournament.

Also next week U21 WCQ are starting. Nippon was seeded in pot #4. U21NT was drawn into strong Group I:
Deutschland U21
USA U21
Sverige U21
Nippon U21
Severna Makedonija U21
O‘zbekiston U21

Seems like we will have another opponent for next week. Current Danmark coach, arranged friendly with different team :( So we should be starting MWC with 5-0 walkover

So official result are on.
With 1 vote across 7 possible voters I was selected for 3rd season in Nippon NT. Thank You very much for putting faith into me once again. I'm looking forward to continuing hard work with Nippon NT :0

Now there is debate about what should be the best solution for our situation in MWC, since Danmark coach will withdraw from competition if we will be awarded 5-0 walkover. I'll keep You guys informed about our opponent and situation in MWC once all will be set and done :)
(edited)

Alright. Regarding MWC we came to an agreement that match against Danmark will be marked as 0-0 with neither of teams getting any points. This way we can keep both team in tournament play :)

When it comes to our next opponent we will be playing against Malaysia. Based on ranking they are stronger than Nippon, so I feel like it will be a good test of our strength:)

Nippon - Malaysia 3:1

Malaysia coach decided to use 4-3-3 tactics, which allowed us to fully utilize winger in this match:) Amount of offsides and shot attempts is best description for that :)
Overall I'm happy with match and result, but I'll need to make some changes in Def line (goal we lost was due to such error).

Next opponent will be Russia. We faced each other in previous MWC and later on in season 65. For sure we are not a favourite there, so it will be a tough match for us.

We lost against Russia 0:3
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Overall I'm happy with this result. And while some of You may think I'm crazy, let me explain myself. Our MWC group before match with Indonesia:


We are in way better position in this match than our opponent. If we win or draw, we will be drawn from higher seed in loser bracket, otherwise we will be in lowest seed possible (like we were in previous edition of cup). Based on avg player marks we may be close to what Indonesia team shown last week. So this will be in my opinion most interesting match of our group (since we know Denmark started with 0 points). Also Indonesia may be one of our opponents in Asian Cup, so this will be great material for me (and anybody who would like to help with tactics on NT level). Overall I'm expecting a good match against FREDDY (I know You lurk here ;) ) but with nearly the same injuries we had before Mexico game last season - Taisho Fujita - 15 days injury. Soichiro Kurihara - 9 days injury - it will put use into semidefensive match.

じゃあまたね!

Long time no hearing from me. Quick update regarding Nippon NT results :)

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Nippon - Indonesia 5:1

I was really surprised when I watched this match. I was expecting draw or one goal difference result, but turns out we stomped Indonesia. Turns out winger tactics and slightly pushed back strikers worked well against deep Indonesia defenders line. Also this match was a debut in adult NT for GK Ieyoshi Yoshida

Final stand in our group looked like this:


Our next opponent turned out to be Slovenia in 9th-16th place matches.

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Nippon - Slovenija 0:2

I had a dejavu from last MWC, where we also lost to Slovenia. This time our tactics didn't worked well :( We dropped to lower bracket of 13th-16th place and our opponent was a Belarus

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Nippon - Belarus 4:2

While result may looks like we won with ease, after red card on opponent side and slight injury handicap engine worked really well on opponent side and I was expecting lose. TBH I turned off match around 80 minute, because of that. Turns out last minute equalizer saved us and in extra time we score 2 goals. We will play next match with Cymru :)

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J-League news

Shueisha FC and NaGoYa FC teams were banned :( With previous ban on Okashi AFC we are left with only one team that have Youth School. This may be a huge downswing in nearest seasons for this NT :(

Mini World Cup Results

Ireland

Eesti

Rossiya

4.Bosna and Hercegovina
5.Island
6.Ukraine
7.Australia
8.Danmark
9.Latvija
10.USA
11.Slovenija
12.India
13.Cymru
14.Nippon
15.Indonesia
16.Belarus

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Congratulations for your NT and thanks for participate in Mini World Cup.

Good luck in future :)

Thank You for tournament organization :)

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Cymru - Nippon 8:0

Total obliteration. I'm not sure what went wrong in this match, but we did not deserved such high lose :(

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One more question, because from what I see right now we have only 3 users in Japan. EDO.SK and Jiraiya have English set as their language, and Dyzzkimura have Spanish. Which language You guy want me to use? English and/or Japanese?

もうひとつ質問があります。今見ているところ、日本にはユーザーが3人しかいません。EDO.SKとJiraiyaは英語を言語設定にしており、Dyzzkimuraはスペイン語です。あなたたちは私にどの言語を使ってほしいですか？英語と/または日本語ですか？

Una pregunta más, porque según lo que veo ahora mismo, solo tenemos 3 usuarios en Japón. EDO.SK y Jiraiya tienen el inglés configurado como su idioma, y Dyzzkimura tiene el español. ¿Qué idioma quieren que use? ¿Inglés y/o japonés? (ChatGPT traducir)

Hi mangol, you can use english, it is easier for everyone. Thank you for the job done by you and Adrjan. I hope you will continue on next seasons. I begin to get our some young players this season. I hope they will help NT in the future.
(edited)