Hope It`s Chips, It`s Chips!! We Ho-ope It`s Chips, It`s Chips! Will It Be Mushrooms?? Fried Onion Rings?? You`ll `ave to wait and see.......Verdy 0 - 1 Oita

So the new owners got their first look at the club at home and what did they get to see? 4,500 fans which isn`t massively encouraging, no goals either but on the bright side a team with lots of promise for next season. I think we can finally say thats it for 2010. Verdy will more than likely spend at least a third season in J2. Though JEF lost, unfortunately Avispa clocked up another 3 points to extend their lead over Verdy to 9 points with a game in hand. Too much of a gap at this stage of the season and even moreso with the goals seemingly drying up for the Greens.
The game kicked off with the Verdy support in fine voice (probably due to the micrphones being turned up to 11) attacking the away goal, Verdy started brightly with Hiramoto breaking through and Kawano flashing an effort wide. Verdy were to dominate the opening half an hour but as the game went on the more Oita came alive. Oita are the only other team to beat Kashiwa so they can`t be COMPLETE mugs. Their Korean playmaker Kim was a livewire throughout causing plenty of trouble for Tsuchiya and Tomisawa at the back though he should have done better with a skied effort from inside the box with a clear view of the target. Just after halftime, Oita were to take the lead when Kawahara spotted Doi out of position and chipped him with a shot Tiger Woods would have been proud to make assumingly when he makes time between drilling prozzies, cougars, and cougars who are also prozzies.....
Verdy huffed and puffed for all they were worth, Kawakatsu brought on Yoshiaki Takagi who had surprisingly been dropped in favour of Takuma Abe, he came on and almost immediately tested the keeper with a superb shot from a corner. The ball came over he controled it, dummied to shoot giving him time to take a real blast which the keeper did very well to bat away for another corner. Kikuoka came on and finally as a last resort he dragged Taira Inoue out of kindergarton and threw him on for the last 15 minutes. He had a decent headed chance and of course fluffed it wide from about 10 yards out....Anyway, doesn`t matter now, we are done for the year and can wind down safe in the knowledge that we`ll still have something to talk about next season. Onwards and (not really) Upwards The Boys March On!!

Shohei Takahashi Ladies and Gentlemen!! Verdy 1-0 Sagan

Now I want Verdy to get to J1 and beat all comers on the way, probably more than the next man as it turns out. But, there is a way and a style to do it. That way and style does not include conning the referee with a DIABOLICAL dive for a penalty in the 87th minute of the match. Shohei Takahashi hang your head in absolute shame you TWAT!! Firstly for your pathetic, premeditated, flop to the ground and secondly for your fist pumping celebration at being awarded a penalty. Any decent player would be annoyed for being fouled when in a good position unless you had planned to go down... Cocksuckers like you ruin the game for all concerned.
So, 3 points in the bag, JEF lost but I`m too annoyed to care!! From last weeks "easy" win over Fagiano,Verdy beat Sagan with an absolute joke of a penalty.......sometimes things don`t add up. If I had to bet if the game was fixed or not, I`d have to say  a resounding YES! YES! and thrice YES! Not in the sense that Sagan didn`t try, as it turned out they battered Verdy from start to finish and but for Doi having his game of the season and being absolutely unbeatable they would have ran up a cricket score. However, it seemed like the referee couldn`t wait to give the penalty. Maybe he had a few quid on Toto for an away win?? Something stinks in the J League sometimes and I for one don`t like it......

Takahshi`s hilarious Riding a Broomstick routine is always a winner......

Fukuda sent off for two yellows, Goal Machine back but did NOTHING, Shibasaki slammed the penalty away in the top left corner. The Sagan goalie got booked after the final whistle for continuing to backchat the referee about the penalty. Sometimes managers moan about players getting silly yellows but if I was the manager of Sagan Tosu tonight I`d be asking my goalkeeper why the referee didn`t give him a straight red for violent conduct..... Onwards and Criminally Upwards The Boys March On!!

HAPPY AS A DOG WITH TWO....

So, tomorrow The Boys are off down to Kyushu for a bash up with Sagan Tosu. Down to Kyushu, the island of rain, floods, typhoons and football. Sanfrecce got the ball rolling in the beginning, Avispa and Sagan were added to the mix, followed by Trinita, Kumamoto and finally this season Kitakyushu. Six teams, derbies aplenty but no team that`s ever managed to do much....and hopefully our Boys can batter Sagan Tosu into oblivion. That`s the hope, the reality however could be something quite different. We do not care in the slightest however, if we win; GREAT!! If we lose 7-0 it will be shite but at least there is next season to think about, which there wasn`t last week. Onwards and Still Breathing The Boys March On!!

Happy Days



Eeeeeeeeh!! Sit on it Cunningham!!

 Breathe easy my Verdy friends!! The club has been saved!!! The new owners as reported in the Sponnichi dirtsheet and Official Verdy website are Xebio Sports Ltd a national chain of sports shops. They have agreed a 5 year sponsorship deal including stumping up the cash to be the main sponsor. The whys and wherefores? Probably a ton of brown envelopes stuffed with cash, Xebio company executives pictured in embarrassing clinches with hookers, blackmail and sordidness.Who cares!! WE`RE ALIVE!!!! Now let`s get a win this weekend against Tosu to go with the Kensuke Fukuda super strike inspired 1-0 victory over Fagaiano last weekend and get something for the fans to cheer about!!
To be honest I love the club but the head honcho (One Yuu Morohashi) of Xebio must be clinically insane. Company is doing well, billions of Yen in the black....hmmm let`s buy Tokyo Verdy!! The crowd for the Fagiano game even when all supporters knew the club was at deaths door?? 4,000!! Seriously, I have to wonder at the mans brain.....or does his company get a SWEET deal on J-League merchandising to be sold through his national chain of sports shops?? Very high chance of a a bit of "you scratch my back, I`ll tickle your balls....." in that one.

10,000 T-shirts for a Quid!!




5 Lighters for a Pound, 5 Lighters for a Pound??

 

The Save Our Verdy campaign has come up with a discount scheme and T-shirt offer for the JEF United match. Tickets bought before matchday will be down to 1,000円　for behind the home goal and ticket holders will also be able to claim a T-shirt as pictured above to hopefully entice some fat company executives to throw their money away. 10,000 shirts will be printed and hopefully they`ll sell every single goddamn one. It was only three seasons ago that 14,000 turned up to watch Verdy clinch promotion back to J1 with a 5-0 (5-1??) victory over Consadole. They even opened the top teir behind the goal!!! Probably the last time it was ever opened at a Greens game....Surely they can do 10,000?? Which begs the question, where did 10,000 people go in under 3 years?? They can`t have ALL been killed by natural disasters and thrown themselves under trains surely!!
Speaking of fan numbers (it seems shocking now) I once went to a summer Saturday night league game at Ajinomoto vs Jubilo and 30,000 were in....I was shocked, flabbergasted you might even say. Turned out it was Chofu Festival that week and both FC Tokyo and Verdy had given out rucks of FREE tickets. I recall FC Tokyo tickets being made from the usual shiny colour printed paper....Verdys however were simply a black and white piece of cut up A4 with a Verdy seal handstamped on..... Verdy Eco-Warriors!!  Green to The End!!

Last Orders....Verdy 0 - 1 Thespa

So  JEF stumbled out of 3rd, to be overtaken by Avispa, who have now lost two in a row.....the last spot is definately up for grabs and whoever can keep their nerve and put a run together will be in J1 next season or the dole office with their heads held high in the case of Verdy!! Still no word on a new buyer or hint of anything in the pipeline....
So that leaves 8 games for The Boys to do the most damage they can and finish the season being the first team in Japan to get promoted and go out of business at the same time. It would be fantastic to repeat the Yokohama Flugels triumph of winning the Emperors Cup before biting the dust.  And what a time to do it!! Verdy currently have FIVE Under-19 National Teamers on board, the best young crop of homegrown talent the team has probably ever produced. The future of the club is right there playing week in week out putting the club within shouting distance of promotion. OK, so chances are that Verdy won`t finish 3rd, Avispa are still 6 points ahead with a game in hand. But if Verdy were given the chance to have another go next year, the current young guns the Takagi brothers, Hiroki Kawano (when he`s not suspended...), Shohei Takahashi, Shuto Minami, Takuma Abe have ALL contributed when called upon this term and could do even more with another years experience.  Yuki Kobayashi is another waiting in the wings, with many expecting great things.Another recent call up to the Under 19 squad.

This season has been remarkable if only for the number of young players that have been blooded. Kawakatsu has had his hand forced by some woeful performances earlier on in the season but also the quality of these youngsters has shone through in their initial cameo appearances through to them taking their places in Kawakatsu`s first choice line up. I absolutely tip my hat to Verdy`s manger this season, he has gone about his business in a quiet, unruffled manner when those around him have been constantly harbouring visions of doom and gloom all season.
On to the game, we lost at Kusatsu and this time it was the oppositions turn to hammer a free kick from miles out that the goalie should have saved. Matsushita, the baldy Kusatsu dwarf hoofed it goalward the flight of the ball seemed to confuse Doi and somehow it managed to squeeze in between his arms and the crossbar. The Boys up top, struggled to get anything going first half, Kawano was introduced to try to speed things up which he managed to a degree. Iio flashed an effrot against the bar, Yoshiaki Takagi had a turn and shot well saved before being taken out. Abe had the chance of the game with only 3 minutes left on the clock, slicing his shot agonisingly past the post from the edge of the 6 yard box. After scoring for fun in the last few games, it was tough watch this one. Verdy looked tired and though they pressured Thespa for the whole of the second half, you can`t say that Verdy did enough to take 3 points.
 However, given what is probably coming at the end of the season we at Tokyo Nerdy 1969 are going to sit back and thoroughly enjoy the remainder of the 2010 season whatever results come our way. If Verdy are to be finishing this winter, then that`s that but I for one will remember an absolute roller coaster ride supporting one of the most fabled teams in all of Japan. Up! Down! Up! Down! Down! Down! and maybe finally out....fear not though readers, one fact that we can all take comfort from is that always and forever Even in death Tokyo Verdy piss on FC Tokyo`s chips:)!!