Taking Japanese Football to the very top! [Kataller Toyama]

[Robbles Quin ®™]

OVERVIEW:

Japan was one of the most popular leagues in the 90's and early 2000's in the lead up to the Japan/Korea world cup. and because of this the J.League was established in 1992 and took the best teams in the nation, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Toyota, Mitsubishi and other massive Industrial companies and remodeled them into the professional J league clubs you see today such as Gamba Osaka, Urawa Red Diamond, Kawasaki Frontale and Vissel Kobe.

The Idea was simple, Whilst Big Japanese Companies invested into these Teams though New Stadiums, Training and Youth Facilities to famous overseas players such as Dragon Stojkovic, Michael Laudrup, Zico and Gary Lineker to boost support for Football (soccer for some) in Japan. This had immediate success as since the 2002 world cup, Japan had experienced a golden age of new players such as Dortmunds/Manchester United Shinji Kagawa, AC Milans Keisuke Honda, Inters Yuto Nagatomo and to an extent the Premier League winning side Leicester City's Okazaki. These would be overtaken by a new generation such as the promising Takefusa Kuba from both Real Madrid and Barcelonas Youth teams, Hyogo Furuhashi with Celtic, Takumi Minamino with Liverpool and the new addition to Arsenal Takehiro Tomiyasu.

However since 2010 support has been waning and investment into the Leagues started to stagnate and decline until the UK online broadcasting DAZN offerred a 2.1 Billion USD deal over 10 years to have exclusive rights over the J league (J2 and 3 included to those in Japan) in which this money would be used to revitalize the league, invest in specific countries in Asia as part of a partnership to increase global coverage of the J league and to invest and develop players in these countries. (Thailand / Vietnam / Myanmar / Cambodia / Singapore / Indonesia / Malaysia) in turn, these players were not counted as foreign and a team could if they wanted to field as many of these players as they wanted.

And that brings us to the Team I have chosen to become the best team in Asia and to also win the World Cup with Japan as they intend to by 2050.

KATALLER TOYAMA (J.League Division 3)

Founded in 2008 through a merger one of the largest electrical companies in the Nation, They were third placed in their first seaon in the JFL (Japan Football League) Tier 4 or the highest national level of Amateur/Semi Profesisonal Football in Japan. This third placed finnish allowed them to Join the J2 League as the J3 league wasnt formed until 2010 and remained until they were finally relegated in 2014 to the J3 League and have spent ever since top half and even top 4 but never managing to be Promoted back into the J2. 

On the other hand Kataller Toyama's neibough and fierce rivals Zweigen Kanazawa in the next major city joined the j3 in 2010 in its Anaugral season and joined the J2 where they have remained bottom half since 2015 basically switching places with us. This also meant that we have yet to play a competitive match with our biggest rivals.  Our One other Rival who lives in the same city is Toyama Shinjo Club (also our afiiliate, plays in the Regional First division or Division 5 in Japan). They have slowly been aiming for promotion to the JFL and are inching closer every year.

The start of the Season saw us playing 3 friendly matches with Nagoya Grampus in the J1, Chukyo University and Honda FC the most famous company to have not joined the J league and reside in the JFL. despite that they regularly have outperfomed many professional Teams in the Emperor's Cup (FA Cup).

 

Following preseason and our Season Expectations of 4th we started of with a unbeaten run to Kagoshima United, Fujieda MYFC, Nagano Parceiro (our less competitive neibough), Girazanz Kitakyushu who were relegated last season and Y.S.C.C Yokohama who in real life are -27 after 14 games. Shunta Takahashi being the 33 Year old veteran and captain for the year and mainly substitute player. on loan was Arthur from FC Tokyo and Brought in from denmark was the young 22YO Brazillian Luis Henrique who led us up top.

Tactically I have gone what is closest to the Japan's National Teams playing philosophy and play style which is to use pace, and technicality to out play opponents whilst keeping on pressure on the back line and relying on fast wing play who can whip in crosses, and the main point of attack being the CAM which plays expressively and creates chances for the others to score. This in return rely's on fit and experiences defenders who are playing a high defensive line and a sweeper keeper to ensure that counter attacks are precise and fast.

our unbeaten run continues with wins against Gainare Tottori, Matsumoto Yamaga who were in the J1 just 2 seasons ago but face financial dificulties due to covid, Azul Claro Numazu and SC Sagamihara. we then lost 1-2 to FC Imabari who were promoted to the J.League 2 seasons ago which was disapointing. 

The next match being against out local Rivals Toyama Shinjo Club playing in the Toyama (1 of 47 prefectures/regions) Football Championship to determine the 47 regional teams who will qualify for the Emperor's Cup for that year. the Emperor's Cup or EC for short is the FA cup for Japan and consists of 88 Teams (All 40 J1 and J2 teams, the 47 Regional winners and the best non professional Team which recently has been Honda FC which we lost to in friendlies and who last year got into the best 8 of the EC beating some really top teams). We have only lost this competition twice to Toyama Shinjo club, and obviously our aim is to qualify and get as far as we can in the cup.

Well we won 2-1 after goin 0-1 done in the first minute. and so we were making our 7th consecutive appearance in the Emperor's Cup which is probably more attended too than the J1 League matches. 

Following this win we got 3 straight wins against Tegevajaro Miyazaki who were promoted 3 years ago, Kamatamare Sanuki and Vanraure Hachinohe. Things are looking great and we are now in 1st. But now we have the Emperor's Cup, against a team who somehow qualified depsite being in division 8 a stagering  division difference the next lowest being division 6 and 5 for most clubs. We won this fairly comfortably and would move on to play Osaka Giants Cerezo Osaka founded by giants Yanmar and have one of the longest histories in Japanese football. this was going to be a tough match. to finnish off the month we defeated FC gifu who were also relegated last year. 

Another 2 months and another great set of results with Luis Henrique becoming top goalscorer. we did start with a defeat against another relegated team in Ehime FC. Followed by a draw with Fukushima united and wins against Azul Claro Numazu, SC Sagamihara, Iwaki FC, Kagoshima United and Kamatamare Sanuki. it would seem the tactics were working well. But now it was time to play against Cerezo Osaka.

By half time they were up 2-0 and so i swapped out my 2 CB's and substituted Luis Henrique in for the second half. 90 minutes, it was now 2-2 heading into extra time where due to out lack of fitness became unravled and lost 5-3, but what a performance that was. we finnished off the month with wins against Vanraure Hachinohe, FC Gifu and Gainare Tottori.

12 points separated us and Matsumoto who were in 2nd. and by the 14th of September we won the league against tegevajaro Miyazaki that would realize our dream of playing in the J2!!!. however at this stage Luis Henrique was having none of it and was already a J1 league striker in terms of Ability and refused to renew his contract, leaving a big challenge that needed to be filled. thankfully youth intake answed my prayers. 

Meet Yusuke Ninomiya,

not great, but definately not bad for 17 and with a bunch of games to end off the year and friendlies next year, maybe just maybe I could turn him into our little striker. now onto the new season. (we set a new league record for the amount of points)! wooo!

[Robbles Quin ®™]

2023 PART 1

3 Loans out of players who probably won't play at this level in their lifetime, but quite a few foreign players in to bolster defence. the first being a new goalkeeper Leo who replaces our first team gk who retired at the end of last season.

And the Second player being poached from a high school team playing in the top youth level in Japan. At just 16 he could be a real gem!

 

PRESEASON:

It went very well with wins across the board with a final Draw against J1 team Vissel Kobe and Iniesta. all teams were a mixture of Div 2-4 teams.

because we have a full 30 man squad no extra additions were made except for a few exchanges (transfering experianced players with other veterans).

2023 PART 1:

1-0 win against J1 yoyo team Albirex Niigata, what a good start, I am also playing ninomiya as our main striker despite being 17 as even if i sold him later his transfer value would go way up. we are however expected to be relegated this season. let's just see how it goes.

Following the win, we got further wins against Montedio Yamagata, FC Machida Zelvia and Roasso Kumamoto the J3 champions of now 2 seasons ago. we then had 2 defeats in V-Varen Nagasaki and FC Ryukyu the Okinawan team. this leaves us in a playoff spot after 6 games.