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Vegalta Sendai-- Preseason Summary
The last time that Vegalta Sendai was action in the top-flight division was five years ago, in 2003. Every year since then, the fans throughout Tohoku and even a good many sports pundits have predicted the team's impending return to the J1, and each time their hopes and dreams have been dashed as the Golden Eagles of the North Country noosedived right at the end of the season and finished just short of their goal.
For the first few years, the Rising Sun News was unwilling to get on the bandwagon. The team had very serious internal problems, poor coaching, and a somewhat basckward approach to the development of a competitive team. For a club that is as well supported as Sendai, and one which has no local competition whatsoever for talented youth players, this team ought to be building from the ground up, relying on youngsters from the local area and only poaching veterans from other teams on the rare occasions when they could get a good quality player who was going to be around for a number of years. Instead, the team stumbled along, hiring whatever modest talent popped up in the transfer market each year, and hoping it would be enough to take them back to the J1..
But last season we changed out stance, and tipped Vegalta to join the promotion express, alongside Verdy and Consadole. It looked like the team was finally starting to get the message, and begin building a team with care and consideration. In recent years, Vegalta has developed a strong relationship with the Antlers, acquiring several squad players on loan. Those young and relatively talented Kashima kids who couldnt quite crack the lineup but seemed good enough to deserve regular playing time were farmed out to Vegalta on loan, and after a year or two at the club, some of them were convinced to stick around on a full transfer. This is how the team acquired Yuki Nakashima, Kohei Tanaka and Kunimitsu Sekiguchi. Other J1 teams also provided some youngsters who promise to be around a while, such as Yugo Ichiyanagi, Takuto Hayashi and Shinya Tanoue.
However, for some reason Vegalta seem to have developed the habit of flaming out at the end of the year, and once again they fell just a bit short, failing to make it into the top-flight division. To make matters worse, the team had a relapse into its old ways over the winter break, signing a gaggle of the same old wayward veterans that earned Vegalta its long-lamented reputation as "The Island of Lost Boys". It is hard to see what sort of contributions players like Masashi Miyazawa, Tomoyuki Hirase or Kazunari Okayama can make to the team's promotion hopes. And all are far too "mature" to last more than a year or so on the Vegalta roster.
Nevertheless, we think that after five years of disappointment, the team may just have enough talent to finally make it back to the top flight. Borrowing a tactic that they seem to have learned from Kashima, Vegalta have left all of their roster spots for foreigners open, along with the shirt numbers 1, 3 and 9. The race for the J2 title is going to be a very tight one, but Vegalta are sure to be in it, and if we are reading their strategy correctly, they are going to wait until April or May to decide exactly which positions on the squad most need to be filled, then snap up some overseas players who are unhappy at their clubs but unable to move during the transfer windows that other leagues impose on teams. If they play their cards right, we not only expect the team to win promotion next season, but with just a bit of luck, we think they may also be able to pip Sanfrecce for the J2 trophy.
2007 Finish: 4th Place
2008 Forecast: 1st-3rd Place
Roster Changes
IN |
| Pos. | Name | Former Team | Status |
|---|
| MF | Junichi Mitsuzawa | Tsukuba U. | New signing |
| GK | Kentaro Seki | Meiji U. | New signing |
| FW | Tomoyuki Hirase | Vissel Kobe | Full transfer |
| FW | Kohei Tanaka | Kashima Antlers | Full transfer |
| FW | Yuki Nakajima | KashimaAntlers | Rental->full transfer |
| MF | Yukihiko Sato | Kashiwa Reysol | Full transfer |
| MF | Masashi Miyazawa | Oita Trinita | Full transfer |
| MF | Satoshi Hida | Kawasaki Frontale | Full transfer |
| MF | Takahisa Nishiyama | Kawasaki Frontale | One-yr rental |
| DF | Kazunari Okayama | Kashiwa Reysol | Rental->full transfer |
| DF | Yugo Ichiyanagi | Tokyo Verdy | One-yr rental |
| GK | Takuto Hayashi | Consadole Sapporo | Rental extended |
OUT |
| Pos. | Name | New Team | Status |
|---|
| FW | Jonilson | Cruzeiro | Rental ends |
| FW | Lopes | ->Cruzeiro ->Marinos | Rental ends |
| FW | Fabinho | --- | Released |
| FW | Leandro | --- | Released |
| FW | Takeshi Okubo | Sony Sendai | One-yr rental |
| FW | Hiroki Bandai | Jubilo Iwata | Full transfer |
| FW | Yoshitaka Ohashi | NEC Tokin | Rental->full transfer |
| MF | Shingo Kumabayashi | Thespa Kusatsu | Full transfer |
| DF | Hiroyuki Shirai | FC Ryukyu | Full transfer |
| DF | Yosuke Nakata | Yokohama FC | Full transfer |
| DF | Yoshiaki Maruyama | Nagano Parceiro | Full transfer |
| DF | Shimpei Sayama | Tokushima Amateur | Full transfer |
| GK | Kiyomitsu Kobari | Tochigi SC | Full transfer |
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