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Shonan Bellmare -- Preseason Summary
Sometimes it is hard to believe that this was once considered one of the most competitive clubs in the J.League. Back in the mid-90s, when it boasted such players as Hidetoshi Nakata, Akira Narahashi, Makoto Kakegawa, Teruo Iwamoto, Wagner Lopes, Kazuaki Tasaka, Hong Myung-Bo and Pavel Badea, Bellmare Hiratsuka"s prospects of becoming one of the league's "big clubs" were considered at least as good as those of the Marinos or Flugels, and surely better than those of Kawasaki Frontale. Since its reorganization under the name Shonan Bellmare, however, the club from the "surfers' paradise" southwest of Tokyo and Yokohama has acquired a laid-back, if not downright lazy attitude towards participation in the J.League. Although Bellmare has a decent fan base, and usually manages to look at least respectable, the club is no longer even a shadow of the team it was back in the League's early years. Bellmare seems to be content with its lot, which is somewhere around the middle of the J2 league table. This is a shame, given the much more competitive history that this part of the country once claimed.
In recent years, Bellmare have fallen back on the usual strategy adopted by weaker clubs, of scavanging useful veterans from the low end of the J1 rosters. This year, the team has not done much to change that pattern, and its youth programme is -- if anything -- growing even weaker as time goes on. Perhaps the only move with any real promise was the signing of Abraham Lincoln Martins, who had a reasonably solid debut at Avispa last season, with 16 goals in 39 appearances. Sandwiched between Yokohama and the Shizuoka soccer heartland, the Shonan region should be prime territory for a competitive club, but Shonan doesnt seem to have developed the sort of local "identity" that sustains far smaller clubs in Yamagata, Kofu, Oita, Ehime and Tokushima. Last year, there was some hope that the addition of a number of J.League veterans like Toshihide Saito, Jean Carlo Witte and Hiratsuka-era returnee Akira Narahashi could turn the team's fortunes around. But Bellmare faded as the season went along and finished in its usual mediocre spot, just above mid-table.
Nothing has changed this year to suggest that things are getting any better. If the team was unable to sustain the necessary results over a 48-match season, last year, there is no reason to suspect any better results this year, with numerous core players one year older and one step closer to retirement. Although the expansion of the league this season may add a few teams that Shonan will be able to defeat, the way things are going, many of these teams will probably pass Bellmare by eventually. Without a major change of attitude and direction, fans in the area are probably better off spending their summer afternoons at the beach.
2007 Finish: 6th Place
2008 Forecast: 6th-8th Place
Roster Changes
IN |
| FW | Tsuyoshi Shimamura | Waseda U. | New signing |
| FW | Kai Harada | Jubilo Youth | New signing |
| FW | Abe Lincoln Martins | Avispa Fukuoka | Full transfer |
| FW | Yoshiro Abe | FC Tokyo | Full transfer |
| MF | Ryota Nagata | Ritsumeikan U. | New signing |
| DF | Shoma Kamata | Bellmare Youth | New signing |
| MF | Yuya Nakamura | Urawa Reds | Full transfer |
| MF | Shunsuke Oyama | Urawa Reds | One-yr rental |
| DF | Kohei Usui | Montedio Yamagata | Full transfer |
| DF | Hikaru Mita | Albirex Niigata | Full transfer |
OUT |
| Pos. | Name | New Team | Status |
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| FW | Edward Marques | Pegias | Full transfer |
| FW | Daisuke Tonoike | --- | Retired |
| FW | Shunichiro Zaitsu | --- | Released |
| FW | Keisuke Moriya | --- | Released |
| FW | Michiaki Kakimoto | --- | Released |
| MF | Koji Nakazato | --- | Retired |
| MF | Toshiotaka Tsurumi | Gainare Tottori | One-yr rental |
| MF | Tatsuyuki Tomiyama | Gainare Tottori | Fulltransfer |
| MF | Yuki Igari | Sagawa Printing | One-year rental |
| DF | Akira Narahashi | --- | Retired |
| DF | Yusuke Murayama | Omiya Ardija | Rental->full transfer |
| DF | Hiroyuki Omata | Cerezo Osaka | Full transfer |
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