S-Pulse Scoop Double Award!

The recent unveiling of our new kit reminded me of two polls I saw online last November. The voting took place over at the English language World Soccer News Japanese football forum, with the goal simple enough; to find the best ever J. League shirt, and the the worst ever J. League shirt.

So who should walk off with both honours? None other than our very own S-Pulse! Yep, we won both the best and the worst shirt award. So let's have a look at the competition we beat off to claim these crowns.

All images are from the excellent Rising Sun website which put the time and effort in to find them, upload them, and to run the polls.

The Best Ever J. League Shirt

There have been some classic shirts over the J. League's short history. The full poll for best ever kit, and competing shirts can be found here. Here I present my pick of the candidates:

Nagoya Grampus Eight (2002) - Complete with go-faster stripes

Cerezo Osaka (1995) - Respect is due simply for having a bright pink kit

Urawa Red Diamonds (1993) - Shiny!

Kawasaki Frontale (2008) - This came in second, but lost out to the below

The Best Ever J. League Shirt Award Goes to...

S-Pulse (2002-03) - How I'd love to see a return to the days of world maps!

Lovely effort from S-Pulse, and it took 22.5% of the total vote. If only I'd been in the country a year earlier I could have had one of these for my own!

The Worst Ever J. League Shirt

Well, now let's have a look at the J. League shirt hall of shame. There are some real works of art in the full poll which you can look at here. Again, here's my pick of the action!

Jubilo Iwata (1995) - Vile
Bellmare Hiratsuka (1994-96) - My eyes! My eyes!
Sanfrecce Hiroshima (1997) - Hiroshima go all Scottish to honour the arrival of Eddie Thomson as manager
Verdy Kawasaki (1993-94) - This actually makes me feel a little bit sick

The Worst Ever J. League Shirt Award Goes to...

S-Pulse (1993) - Words actually fail me :-D

Gloriously terrible! With a whopping 40.7% of the total vote, our 1993 away shirt trounced all opposition. What the designers were thinking (or what they were on) when they dreamt up this little beauty, I'd dearly love to know. If anyone has one they want to sell, do get in touch - I want one!

There have been complaints from some of our fanbase that 2009's kit is too simple, too basic, lacking individualism. Well, for a group of supporters who have grown up with the above shirts, I can, to a certain degree, see their point.

The trend towards simplism is fine, but here's hoping that five or six years down the line we see a return to the garish and outlandish shirts of the mid nineties.

In the meantime, hold your heads up high S-Pulse fans, and wear your 90's shirts with even greater pride than usual - they're award winning!

Thoughts on 2008 - Fuz's perspective.

Fuz writes:

I should really apologize to Shizza for being left to run all the updates and whatnot here on his own. It isn't that I don't want to, but more that I don't have a job which allows lots of personal internet usage during the day. Basically, I am actually busy.

Anyway. Enough of the excuses and on to the important stuff - the football. Ultimately, I was more than pleased with where we finished in the league last year given our horrendous start to the season and as more of our younger players got a chance and Marcos Paulo showed what he can really do, I started to really enjoy some of the football. Paulo without a doubt was our single most improved player last year, and as long as he isn't expected to do anything with the ball inside the box is a strong capable player - and lets face it, I love anyone who can take the piss out of the opposition single-handedly. I'm just that kind of girl.

Anyone who sits within a 5km radius of me at Nihondaira surely picked up on some rather colourful aspects of the English language over the last season (and possibly some of the Scots) as frustration occasionally took over every pulse of my being. S-Pulse? Now and again it should have been F-Pulse. So many times the story was the same: we played better. We had more chances. We should have won easily... but we would throw it away and grant the opposition a point, or worse, when the teams were equally matched and we gave away the full match points towards the end. 2008 was a year when S-Pulse nearly broke my heart, so many times, only to pull it all together towards the end and give us a respectable finish.

I spent weeks whining about Oka-chan being on the bench and was very happy when Kenta finally saw sense and started giving the lad a place from the start. And look what happened? He scored lots and made it into the national team. I'm really looking forward to seeing what he can do in 2009. I'm sure he and our newly acquired Mr Johnsen will be the cause for more than one ロコロコ next season!

Can't say I'm surprised nor sorry to see the back of Aurelio - it would have taken a lot for me to forgive him for missing that penalty, and frankly, he didn't even try.

As I am a vindictive person, I am quite happy that Fernandhino ended up clubless briefly after Kyoto decided they didn't need him, and we certainly don't want or need players who don't love the jersey.

Still not sure about Nishibe...

Highs of the 2008 season? Consistently thumping Kashima Antlers (who really must dislike us by now) and giving Gamba another couple of doings. LocoLoco. The Nabisco Cup gave us a great run and a cup final must be the best BDO there is. Oh, and Jubilo having to fight off relegation. That gave us all a right good laugh.

Lows? Losing to Jubilo, the Nabisco Cup Final and the start of the season. The Nabisco Cup final was a terrible game with a terrible result. To add insult to injury, their fans didn't even move or open their mouths until after their goal.

Anticipations for 2009? Sitting in the sunny 'Daira drinking beer watching my heroes guide us to victory. Seriously though, watch this space, Kenta is forming a solid team and I think we are going to be a force to be reckoned with next season.

2009 Fixtures Released Friday February 6th

Although rumours are already widely circulating, a date was announced today for the official release of fixtures, kick off times etc for the 2009 J. League and J. League Cup.

That date is Friday, February 6th.

Fixtures for the Satellite League are due to be released Feb 19th.

So now you know. :)

Supporters Thanks Day 2009

In how many other countries do fans get the opportunity to, once a year, head to a huge event hall and watch their heroes dressed up as women performing song and dance routines? In the past I always gave the annual Thanks Day a miss, but I'm glad I was encouraged by Takumi to get off my backside and go this year.

Think a small-scale festival of all things S-Pulse, where everyone is there to have a bit of fun and you can get your photo taken surrounded by the short-skirted beauties of the Orange Wave cheer leader troop. According to Nikkan Sports, around 5800 fans turned out to make it our most popular Thanks Day yet. After getting to see Nagahata in a red dress singing the theme to Ponyo, I doubt anyone went home disappointed!

With food and beer on sale, I could have stayed there all day. Along with the forthcoming SDT Cup, it's another nice little way to spend a Saturday afternoon while we wait for the new season.

Time for a few pics!

Yours truly and Hyodo. We had a short chat, and a thoroughly nice bloke he was too.
The chiselled good looks of new signing Nagai. A massive hit with the ladies, and he'll bring a few extra through the gate this year, I don't doubt!
Johnsen was also a hit with the womenfolk, getting a rousing reception during the opening ceremony.
Omae Genki looking relaxed. A little later he was in a sparkly dress singing up on stage. :)
Someone we're all looking forward to seeing back in action this season; Jungo Fujimoto.
It had to be done. :)
That new shirt collar design up close. I'm a fan.
A small section of the huge numbers who turned out for a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon. I'll be there next year for sure, and with beer available from 10am, probably a lot earlier than this year!

Right, enough from me, I'm off up Fuz's place for a Burns Supper. Have a good weekend!

Squad Numbers and New Player's Comments

On a busy day of news, not only was our new kit revealed and updated club slogan announced, squad numbers for 2009 were also made public. The full list can be found here, but for the sake of brevity, here are our new signings:

Ota 4
Nagai 9
Yamamoto 17
Johnsen 18
Kijima 19

Wonderboy Hara moves to number 11. Of the comments made by our newcomers today, here is what I can pick out from the two big names with my not especially good translating skills:

Johnsen

"I'm delighted to be be joining such a friendly club as S-Pulse. Even as an opponent, I could tell S-Pulse were a great club, so I'm grateful to join that. I will endeavour to play to my full potential at S-Pulse."

Nagai

"I'm truly happy to be joining S-Pulse. I'm getting accustomed to life here already, and creating such a good relationship with my team mates so quickly will only help us when it comes to getting results. I can't wait to get on the pitch!"

And if I got anything wrong, which I probably did, players say pretty much the same thing whenever they join a club, so I doubt I've strayed too far from the general gist. :)

Roll on pre-season friendly with Jubilo!

2009 New Kit Revealed

The new kit for 2009 was revealed today. Not a dramatic departure from last year, and while I'm not 100% with that funky collar thing just yet, it's still a big thumbs up from me!
The design of all three kits (away, home, keeper's) from the posterior:
Every time I see a new kit, I always ask myself if I can picture our heroes lifting a trophy while clad in their snazzy new threads. The answer this year, as always, is yes, yes I can.

No dates yet as to when the new shirts will be available.

In other news, this season's club slogan was announced. It's doesn't wildly differ from last year's We Believe. In fact, it's much the same with the year added to the end:
Well, why fix what ain't broke? :)

Jubilo decided against Hungrrrrrry (another r added to reflect yet another trophy-less season), instead opting for the predictably lame Speedy Action. This may be meant to reflect the rate at which they change managers. With Ooft off, they now have Masaaki Yanagishita at the helm; their seventh manager in five years, no less. They even went so far as to anounce their 2010 and 2011 catchphrases, with 2011 what would seem at face value a rather ambitious Road to Champion. I can only assume they're referring to their first J2 title.

Opening Weekend: Omiya v S-Pulse?

While the 2009 fixtures are not officially released until next week, various Japanese message boards and online communities have been going into overdrive with rumours over the dates of key fixtures this year. Well, the one constant that I can see appears to the opening weekend:

Saturday March 7th: Omiya v S-Pulse

If this does prove to be the case, we can be happy with an opener against what is arguably one of the weaker sides in J1, and so three points to kick off 2009, unlike last year, is not too far out of the question.

If the rumour mill proves to have caught me out, then I'll apologies profusely, delete this post, and hereafter always wait for official announcements. :)