Home Uniform Away Uniform
 
Home StadiumJubilo Soccer Stadium
Seats 17,343
|  |
Jubilo Iwata-- Preseason Summary
Last season, the Rising Sun News adopted what turned out to be an unrealistically optimistic stance on Jubilo Iwata's prospects for the season. Although there are signs that, the "New Jubilo" is finally starting to take shape, coach Adilson Batistuta proved unable to meld the team into an effective unit. There were several off-field interruptions which also distracted the team (such as Naoya Kikuchi's lolita scandal), and Jubilo ended up squarely mid-table.
After years of predicting that Jubilo might be able to rejoin the league leaders once they negotiated a change of generatons, it was rather disappointing to see the team struggle, last year. But that does not mean that our evaluation of the team's players was necessarily misplaced. There were lots of occasions in which the individuals seemed to race about the pitch with a dazzling sharpness that bordered on sheer genius -- except that the ten field players seemed to be running in ten different directions. With the addition of Yuichi Komano and Hiroki Banda, Jubilo will have an even deeper pool of talent. Now the only question is whether or not they can start playing effectively as a team, rather than as eleven individuals.
The simple answer to that question is: "nobody has the slightest idea". Comparing the different pre-season analyses provided by the major weekly soccer magazines, it looks like nobody even has a good guess of who will be in the starting lineup. Organizationally speaking, the initial indications are also a bit pessimistic. Atsuchi Uchiyama remains in the head coach position that he assumed after Adilson was fired in mid-season, but his incoming "assistant" is Masaki Yanagishita, a Jubilo "old boy" who has served as Jubilo head coach in the past. It almost looks like the front office is setting Uchiyama up as a sacrificial lamb, to slaughter when the team fails to perform well over the first few months of the season.
There is no way to be sure what we can expect of Jubilo this year until we have a chance to see them playing as a team. On paper they look like a team that could join the frontrunners at any time. But football is not played on paper; it is played on grass. The competition in the J.League this season will be fierce, and it is entirely possible that Jubilo could even slip below last-year's ninth-place. Nevertheless, they clearly have the talent to do far more, and we do not think the squad will be as fragmented and uncertain as they were in 2007, regardless of who is in the coaching chair. For the time being we predict that they will finish just behind the frontrunners, and we see at least an outside possibility that they could join the title chase, even if a championship appears to be out of their reach this season.
2006 Finish: 9th Place
2007 Forecast: 5th-7th Place
Roster Changes
IN |
| Pos. | Name | Former Team | Status |
|---|
| FW | Hiroki Bandai | Vegalta Sendai | Full transfer |
| FW | Gilsinho | Paulista FC | New signing |
| FW | Takashi Fujii | Ehime FC | Rental ends |
| FW | Yuki Oshitani | Jubilo Youth | New signing |
| MF | Shuto Yamamoto | Waseda U | New signing |
| MF | Kosuke Yamamoto | Jubilo Youth | New signing |
| MF | Takahiro Kawamura | Kawasaki Frontale | Rental ends |
| MF | Enrique | Cruzeiro | One-yr rental |
| MF | Hiroshi Nanami | Tokyo Verdy | Rental ends |
| DF | Kyohei Suzaki | Jubilo Youth | New signing |
| DF | Yuichi Komano | Sanfrecce Hiroshima | Full transfer |
OUT |
| Pos. | Name | New Team | Status |
|---|
| FW | Takenori Hayashi | Kyoto Sanga | 1-yr rental |
| MF | Marquinhos Parana | -- | Released |
| MF | Fabricio | -- | Released |
| GK | Yohei Sato | --- | Retired |
|
