Episode 8 (An Hour-Long Special!): The Tournament Arc Begins!
After two draws, and poor goalscoring, the team seemed restless. I had to calm them down and reassure them that things are going great. "We've had tough times of it recently, but we have a great chance to reassure our dominance against Meli and show why we are the best in the league!" The players showed their approval with a hearty cheer.
July 21, 2013
Meli 2 - 4 Sendai Sasuke FC
At one point, Meli were up 2-1, and had proficiency in corner kicks. However, when Shohei Nagata was injured and had to be subbed off, Nagamoto picked up the slack. He scored two goals, one of which is on video below, and the other when Oda played a ball into the corridor of uncertainty that only Nagatomo could get to.
Player of the Match: Mitsugu Oda (Sendai Sasuke FC)
Thankfully, Shohei Nagata's injury is not as bad as it could have been, a bruised rib, he'll be out 11-14 days.
Here's a video of the Nagatamo goal that got uploaded to Sasuke FC's Youtube account:
The next game is against Parafrente, and even though they're hosting, we're still heavily favored. Still, I remind my players to keep things up and not get complacent.
July 28, 2013
Parafrente 0 - 6 Sendai Sasuke FC
Parafrente were doomed when their goalkeeper was sent off, forcing them to make an early sub for their second goalkeeper and play with only 10 men. Mitsugu Oda dominated as usual with another hat trick.
Player of the Match: Mitsugu Oda (Sendai Sasuke FC)
Here's the rest of the matchday's scores:
Scheinen faced a tough Iwaki Furukawa team, but managed to outscore them 6-4 and thus Sasuke are still only ahead by two points. Meanwhile, Meli lost again and are all but out of the chase.
The season takes a weird turn, as there are almost two matches between season fixtures. However, the Emperor's Cup is starting, and for our first match we have to travel to Chino in Nagano Prefecture to face FC Abies, who are on the same league tier as us but in a different league. They are next to last in their league so this should be simple!
Kyohei Ikeda told me that he had gotten us a new main kit sponsor. The sponsorship is for 2 years, and the company will pay us $14,000 a year. Every source of income helps, so I'm happy.
In addition, Shohei Nagata scored the goal of the month!
August 18, 2013 - Emperor's Cup First Qualifying Round
FC Abies 1 - 6 Sendai Sasuke FC
FC Abies took the early lead with the first goal of the match, but Sasuke stormed over them, with FM not being able to praise Mitsugu Oda's play and his hat trick nearly enough. Shohei Nagata came back from injury to score a brace, and the goalscoring was topped off with help from FC Abies as they scored an own goal.
Player of the Match: Mitsugu Oda (Sendai Sasuke FC)
The draw for our next tournament match was the day after. Our next matchup sees us hosting Vanraure Hachinohe, who is in the same regional system as us, but in the first level. We'll have to do our best to knock them off!
August 25, 2013 - Emperor's Cup Second Qualifying Round
Sendai Sasuke FC 2 - 1 Vanraure Hachinohe after extra time
Would an early penalty and lack of attack consign Sasuke FC to defeat? No! Mitsugu Oda scored a magical direct free kick goal in the 89th minute to send the game to extra time. A tired Sasuke team were still able to bring it, and Oda scored in the first half of extra time to send Sasuke FC on to the next round! 53 people were lucky enough to watch Sasuke's amazing comeback!
Player of the Match: Mitsugu Oda (Sendai Sasuke FC)
The matches keep getting tougher as in the next round, we play against Honda FC, who plays in the Japan Football League (3rd tier league). Yes, they are backed by Honda Motor Company. An interesting tidbit, is that even though they constantly do well in the Japan Football League, being promoted to the J-League would require loss of their corporate backing. Therefore, Honda FC refuse to be promoted, and they usually fill up one of the JFL's promotion slots, therefore this team is nicknamed J's Gatekeeper. (The Gatekeeper of J-League)
That is, they are no pushover. And things will be even more difficult with Mitsugu Oda's status for this game being in doubt to a minor injury he sustained in the Vanraure match. The good news is, the match is supposed to sell out. A whole 100 people are going to attend the game!
August 31, 2013 - Emperor's Cup First Round
Sendai Sasuke FC 1 - 3 Honda FC
Unfortunately, dreams do die, even though we tried to keep them alive for as long as possible. The game was close for much of it, but Honda's 3-5-2 allowed them to retain possession of the ball and we couldn't catch them on the break. The second goal off that corner kick dashed the dreams, and the third put them far out of reach. We scored a goal, but it was too little, too late.
Player of the Match: Tatsuya Saito (Honda FC)
We have two weeks before the next match, so the players will have another opportunity to rest up and become healthy before the home stretch.
September 15, 2013
Sendai Sasuke FC 4 - 0 Takuyu Club
Mitsugu Oda had to leave the game in the 3rd minute with a gashed leg. Big problem, right? No problem at all! Kazuhiro Sakurai took his place and scored a hat trick of his own. The towering Deiji Nishida scored his first goal off a corner kick and Takuyu Club really had no chance here.
Player of the Match: Kazuhiro Sakurai (Sendai Sasuke FC)
Unfortunately, Oda will miss 3-4 weeks with the gashed leg, and that hurts us as we make our final push for the championship, but if Sakurai can keep up, we'll be fine.
And with that, here's the table after Round 15 of 18:
League Table
We have a pretty good cushion of 5 points heading into the final three games, and look at that goalscoring record!
That's it for this week's episode of Sakka Densetsu! Stay tuned for the season finale!