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Seats 42,000 (WC 2002 venue)
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Vissel Kobe -- Preseason Summary
Vissel Kobe is a difficult team to evaluate this season. They have not made that many personnel changes, and even fewer involve high-profile players. But Vissel were something of an enigma last season, and the lack of change doesnt make it any easier to decide whether this will be the team that blew out Nagoya Grampus 5-0, or the one that conceded four goals to lowly teams like Ventforet and JEF United.
Vissel Kobe may have been the most inconsistent team in the entire league last year. One look at the list of results is enough to make that apparent. Three draws in a row, then three victories, followed by a loss, a win, and then five straight losses against the likes of Jef and Yokohama FC. They followed up that streak with their 5-0 drubbing of Grampus, and then ran off another three straight wins, before finishing out the season with three consecutive draws. One is tempted to draw parallels to Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, but when Yoshito Okubo is suddenly seized by an attack of his chronic eye-twitch, you wonder if maybe that description is hitting a little bit too close to home.
One interesting bit of trivia this season is that Kobe has finally reunited Okubo with his high school strike partner Shota Matsuhashi. Another Kunimi HS teammate, keeper Kenta Tokushige, is also on the squad. Perhaps if Hiroshi Mikitani would go out and sign legendary coach Tadatoshi Komine to steer the squad, we could get even more entusiastic about the team's prospects for winning a title.
Given the team's extreme inconsistency last season, and the fact that they still seem to be a notch below the J1 median in terms of player quality, we suspect that a mid-table finish is a lot more likely. We certainly do not see any silverware in Vissel's short-term future. Perhaps one day Mr. Mikitani will finally open up his wallet and make the investments he promised when he acquired the team. But it wont happen this year.
2007 Finish: 10th Place
2008 Forecast: 9th-11th Place
Roster Changes
IN |
| Pos. | Name | Former Team | Status |
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| FW | Leandro | Montedio Yamagata | Rental->full transfer |
| FW | Takayuki Yoshida | Yokohama Marinos | Full transfer |
| FW | Daisuke Sudo | Ventforet Kofu | Full transfer |
| FW | Shota Matsuhashi | Oita Trinita | Full transfer |
| MF | Kenji Baba | Kinki U. | New signing |
| MF | Kim Nam-il | Samsung Bluewings | Full transfer |
| MF | Norio Suzuki | FC Tokyo | Full transfer |
| MF | Seiji Koga | Avispa Fukuoka | Rental->full transfer |
| GK | Kenta Tokushige | Urawa Reds | Rental extended |
OUT |
| Pos. | Name | New Team | Status |
|---|
| FW | Emerson Thome | --- | Released |
| FW | Yusuke Kondo | FC Tokyo | Rental ends |
| FW | Tomoyuki Hirase | Vegalta Sendai | Full transfer |
| FW | Kazutaka Murase | FC Mio Biwako | Rental->full transfer |
| FW | Yuji Oe | FC Mio Biwako | Full transfer |
| FW | Ryota Doi | Albirex Singapore | Full transfer |
| FW | Shingo Kinoshita | TDK | Full transfer |
| MF | Akihiro Endo | --- | Retired (again!) |
| MF | Ryuhei Niwa | Cerezo Osaka | One-yr rental |
| MF | Yusuke Nakamura | FC Ryukyu | Full transfer |
| DF | Jun Marcus Davidson | ->Albirex-> Consadole | Rental ends |
| DF | Noriaki Ishizawa | FC Mi-O Biwako | One-yr rental |
| DF | Yusuke Tsubouchi | Consadole Sapporo | One-yr rental |
| DF | Sho Okubo | --- | Released |
| DF | Tomohisa Nakata | --- | Released |
| GK | Kota Ogi | FC Tokyo | One-yr rental |
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