Team Roster for 2008 1 Norihiro Yamagishi 2 Keisuke Tsuboi 3 Hajime Hosogai 4 Marcus Tulio Tanaka 6 Nobuhisa Yamada 7 Naohiro Takahara 8 Alessandro Santos 9 Yuichiro Nagai 10 Robson Ponte 11 Tatsuya Tanaka 12 Shunsuke Tsutsumi 13 Keita Suzuki 14 Tadaaki Hirakawa 15 Sergio Escudero 16 Takahito Soma 17 Edmilson Dos Santos 18 Junki Koike 19 Hideki Uchidate 20 Satoshi Horinuchi 21 Tsukasa Umesaki 22 Yuki Abe 23 Ryota Tsuzuki 24 Kazuya Sakamoto 25 Tetsushi Kondo 26 Hiroyuki Takasaki/a> 27 Yoshiya Nishizawa 28 Nobuhiro Kato 29 Koki Otani 30 Masayuki Okano 31 Masato Hashimoto 32 Yusuke Hayashi 7 Naohiro Takahara Position:Forward Born: 04-Jun-1979 Height/Weight: 181/75 Birthplace: Shizuoka Previous Teams:Tokai Jr.High; Shimizu Higashi HS; Jubilo Iwata; Boca Juniors (Argentina); Jubilo Iwata; Hamburger SV, Urawa Reds Appearances (J1/J2):105/0 Goals:58/0 First Appearance: 21-Mar-1998 Jubilo Iwata -vs- Kyoto Purple Sanga (at Iwata Stadium) First Goal : 21-Mar-1998 Jubilo Iwata -vs- Kyoto Purple Sanga (at Iwata Stadium) J.League Statistics Year Team Matches Goals 1998 Jubilo Iwata 20 5 1999 Jubilo Iwata 21 9 2000 Jubilo Iwata 24 10 2001- Jubilo Iwata 13 8 2002 Jubilo Iwata 27 26 TOTAL 105 58 Argentina 2001/02 Boca Juniors 7 1 Bundesliga 2002/03 Hamburger SV 15 3 2003/04 Hamburger SV 29 2 2004/05 Hamburger SV 31 7 2005/07 Hamburger SV 28 1 2006/07 Eintracht Frankfurt - - TOTAL 103 13 Naohiro Takahara is one of Japan's top forwards, with excellent speed, modestly competent finishing skills with either foot, and especially with his head. He is occasionally criticised for his dribbling skills, but in that department he is certainly not untalented, and his moves seem to be improving with experience. As a scorer, on the other hand, Takahara is one of the best in Japan. He has excellent body control in the air, like his mentor Masashi Nakayama, and scores a great deal of goals off headers. He also has a powerful right boot, and can get off a shot very quickly. Signed by Boca Juniors in August 2001, Takahara spent six months in the Argentine league, but he struggled to find playing time and ended up playing just seven matches and scoring one goal. The economic crisis in Argentina in early 2002 caused a devaluation of the local curency, and Boca felt they no longer could afford to pay the rental fee (demoinated in US dollars) for a player who was making only a marginal contribution to the team. He was released, and returned to Japan at the start of the 2002 season. However, he clearly put his time in Argentina to good use, sharpening his skills and developing an even better finishing touch. He quickly served notice that he was now Japan's premier scoring forward, collecting both the golden boot and Player of the Year honors in 2002. At the close of the season, his performance convinced Hamburger SV to sign him to a three-year contract, and he joined the team in early January 2003. Takahara won a fair amount of publicity shortly after joining HSV, when his header against Oliver Kahn broke the German keeper's record-setting streak of scoreless minutes. However, Takahara displayed his weakness in finishing on several occasions, and soon found himself relegated to the bench. His problems were compounded when two serious bouts of deep vein thrombosis (the so-called "economy classs syndrome" kept him out of action for prolonged periods of time and caused him to miss both the 2002 World Cup and the 2005 Confederations Cup. However, in the latter stages of the 2004-05 season, Takahara got back on a goal-scoring track, and proved conclusively that he was good enough to play in the Bundesliga on a regular basis. However, Hamburg never really found a position in the lineup where he could settle in, and by 2006 they were looking to offload him. Fortunately for Takahara, Eintracht Frankfurt had been following his career with interest, and confirmed their faith by signing him to a contract prior to the 2006 World Cup. When Takahara struck a double against Germany in a pre-WC friendly, he provided notice that he was going to make Hamburg regret their decision to drop him, and indeed, after joining Frankfurt he was far more effective both as a team contributor and in terms of his own scoring statistics. In his first season he established himself as a regular player for Frankfurt. But a change of coaches caused Takahara to fall out of favour, and by the end of 2007 he reacted to the lack of playing time by pressing for a move to a new club. When the Urawa Reds came calling in December, he happily accepted a return to Japan. National Team Data & History NT Caps: 51 NT Goals: 23 Tournaments: World Youth Championships (1999) Sydney Olympics (2000) Asian Cup (2000) Confederations Cup (2003) FIFA World Cup Germany (2006) Asian Cup (2007) Date Vs. Score Location Status Min. G 2-13-2000 Singapore 3-0 Macao Stadium Start 71 0 2-16-2000 Brunei 9-0 Macao Stadium Sub 30 2 2-20-2000 Macao 3-0 Macao Stadium Sub 45 1 4-26-2000 Korea 0-1 Seoul, Korea Sub 12 0 6-18-2000 Bolivia 2-0 Yokohama Int'l Sub 45 0 8-16-2000 UAE 3-0 Hiroshima"BigArch" Sub 45 0 10-14-2000 Saudi Arabia 4-1 Sidon, Lebanon Start 70 1 10-17-2000 Uzbekistan 8-1 Sidon, Lebanon Start 58 3 10-20-2000 Qatar 1-1 Sidon, Lebanon Start 90 0 10-23-2000 Iraq 4-1 Beirut, Lebanon Start 90 1 10-26-2000 China 3-2 Beirut, Lebanon Start 90 0 10-29-2000 Saudi Arabia 1-0 Beirut, Lebanon Start 81 0 3-25-2001 France 0-5 St.Denis,France Sub 45 0 4-25-2001 Spain 0-1 Cordoba, Spain Start 83 0 10-4-2001 Senegal 0-2 Lens, France Start 45 0 11-7-2001 Italy 1-1 Saitama Stadium Start 45 0 3-21-2002 Ukraine 1-0 Nagai Stadium Sub 29 0 3-27-2002 Poland 1-0 Lodz, Poland Start 54 1 10-16-2002 Jamaica 1-1 Nat'l Stadium Start 76 0 11-20-2002 Argentina 0-2 Saitama Stadium Start 90 0 3-28-2003 Uruguay 2-2 Nat'l Stadium Start 90 0 6-11-2003 Paraguay 0-0 Saitama Stadium Start 90 0 6-18-2003 New Zealand 3-0 St.Denis,France Start 90 0 6-20-2003 France 1-2 St.Etienne,France Start 90 0 6-22-2003 Colombia 0-1 St.Etienne,France Start 90 0 8-20-2003 Nigeria 3-0 Nat'l Stadium Start 68 2 10-11-2003 Romania 1-1 Bucharest, Romania Start 77 0 11-19-2003 Cameroon 0-0 Oita Stadium Start 77 0 2-18-2004 Oman 1-0 Shizuoka Stadium Start 82 0 3-31-2004 Singapore 2-0 Jalan Besar Stadium Start 76 1 9-8-2004 India 4-0 Calcutta, India Start 66 0 10-13-2004 Oman 1-0 Oman Start 90 0 12-16-2004 Germany 0-3 Tokyo National Stadium Start 75 0 2-9-2005 North Korea 2-1 Saitama Stadium Sub 27 0 3-25-2005 Iran 1-2 Azadi Stadium, Iran Start 82 0 3-30-2005 Bahrain 1-0 Saitama Stadium Start 90 0 9-07-2005 Honduras 5-4 Miyagi Stadium Start 78 1 10-08-2005 Latvia 2-2 Riga, Latvia Start 86 1 10-12-2005 Ukraine 0-1 Ukraine Start 45 0 11-12-2005 Angola 1-0 Natl Stadium, Tokyo Start 79 0 2-28-2006 Bosnia 2-2 Westfahren Std.(Germany) Start 83 1 6-3-2006 Germany 2-2 Kaiserslautern, Germany Start 78 2 6-11-2006 Australia 1-3 Kaiserslautern, Germany Start 90 0 6-18-2006 Croatia 0-0 Frankfurt, Germany Start 85 0 6-22-2006 Brazil 1-4 Dortmund, Germany Sub 30 0 3-24-2007 Peru 2-0 Yokohama Stadium Start 74 1 6-01-2007 Montenegro 2-0 Shizuoka Stadium Start 69 1 6-05-2007 Colombia 0-0 Saitama Stadium Start 89 0 7-09-2007 Qatar 1-1 Hanoi, Vietnam Start 90 1 7-13-2007 UAE 3-1 Hanoi, Vietnam Start 67 2 7-16-2007 Vietnam 4-1 Hanoi, Vietnam Start 90 0 7-21-2007 Australia 1-1 Hanoi, Vietnam Start 120 1 7-25-2007 Saudi Arabia 2-3 Bangkok, Thailand Start 90 0 7-28-2007 South Korea 0-0 Bangkok, Thailand Start 115 0 1-26-2007 Chile 0-0 Natl Stadium, Tokyo Start 62 0 1-30-2007 Bosnia 3-0 Natl Stadium, Tokyo Start 82 0

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