GGOA Coach Survey: The Result

Fresh out of the worst result since he took over at NACK5, Zdenko Verdenik has received what amounts to a tentative thumbs up from Omiya supporters. The Squirrels went down 4-1 at Kawasaki Frontale, but a slim majority of readers voting in the most recent GGOA survey here on GGOA have indicated that they're happy that the Slovenian is in charge at Ardija.

60% of participants voted to the effect that Verdenik has done well - even though the Frontale result means that he has picked up only five points from six league games. In contrast, no voters at all said that they wishes that former coach Jun Suzuki was still in charge. Full results are as follows: 

Who should be Omiya coach?

1. Verdenik - he's doing a great job 60%

2. We should have got someone else 40%

3. I wish Suzuki was still there 0%

Thanks to all who voted.

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GGOA Readers' Survey: Vote Now!

We're just over half way through the 2012 season and in many ways up to now it has been a normal Omiya campaign - that curious combination of the tempestuous and tedious that characterises life as a Squirrels fan. Jun Suzuki began his third year as Ardija coach but despite delivering yet another Saitama Derby win over Urawa Reds he was fired within three months, as Omiya sat in their traditional position just outside the relegation zone.

Zdenko Verdenik was Suzuki's shock replacement, a man with decade-old J-League experience but whose most recent employment appears to have been as an academic at a university in Ljubljana. Since his arrival Verdenik has made a major impact off the field, moving quickly to sell both Kim Young Gwon and fan favourite Rafael, but his results don't look all that different to those achieved by his predecessor: five points from five league games so far.

So who would Squirrels fans like to see in charge? Has Verdenik done enough to show that he's the man to take Omiya forward? Did Jun Suzuki deserve more of a chance? Or should Ardija have appointed someone else? It's time for another GGOA Readers' Survey, so you can have your say on the matter by going to the right-hand panel of this page and voting! 

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Vacation, Had To Get Away

There will be either no or minimal updates to the site for a little while. Things will be different by the time we come back, I'm sure of it.

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GGOA Readers' Survey: The Result

Well, first I should say thanks very much to everyone who voted in this GGOA readers' survey, which turned out to be the most successful poll ever conducted in the site's long and, let's face it,  strangely unhappy history. No fewer than 31 people voted to predict where Omiya will finish in J1 this season, a figure which confirms the survey as a statistically valid snapshot of not only Ardija fans but also general random people on the internet, only a proportion of whom will by definition be mad. So, as I say, a heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you.


So what was the result? Frankly the vote was all over the place. There is no clear picture of how Ardija are expected to perform in 2012. I mean it's practically random. 6% of respondents think we will finish in the top three. 6% of respondents think we will be relegated. I know the J-League is tough to predict, but come on, guys. Which the hell is it?


Anyway, the biggest single group of respondents, 38%, thought that Omiya are good enough to make a small improvement on every single bloody season since we reached J1, and finish between 10th and 12th. Bear in mind that 12th is our highest-ever final placing. 25% were yet more optimistic and could see the Keigo Higashi/Cho Young Cheol combination skyrocket us up to between 7th and 9th. Here's hopin'!


So here are the full survey details:


Q. Where will Omiya finish in J1 2012? 


1st-3rd: 6%
4th-6th: 9%
7th-9th: 25%
10th-12th: 38%
13th-15th: 12%
16th-18th: 6%

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Brand New Readers' Survey: Vote Now!

There's less than a week to go now until the start of the J1 season and Omiya are putting the finishing touches to their preparations ahead of Sunday's 2012 opener against FC Tokyo. In some respects it's been a curious winter for the Squirrels - they've bought relatively big to bring in the likes of Carlinhos and Cho Young Cheol, but throughout the whole of pre-season have played a total of only four training games and friendlies. This lack of exposure coupled with the, let's say eccentricity, of coach Jun Suzuki as regards usage of his players makes it especially tricky to predict how the team will perform. 


Even so, it's survey time here at GGOA and the question that readers are being asked to vote on is at least theoretically a simple one: where will Ardija finish in J1 2012? Will the speedy combination of Cho and Keigo Higashi fire Omiya up to the top of the J1 standings? Will Yu Hasegawa turn out to be a top-half-of-J1 striker? Will we yet again plod along between the relegation zone and lower mid-table? Or will Suzuki's evil genius combination of Hayato Hashimoto and Yosuke Kataoka see Omiya fall on their squirrely arses back to J2? 


The glory of J-League pre-season anticipation is that we have absolutely no idea. But we can dream and we can guess. The survey box is open on the right-hand side of this page, so please get voting!

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GGOA In Print

Some time ago I wrote a series of three longer articles for the US-based football blog Pitch Invasion, my topic being the Squirrels' traumatic and dramatic 2007 J1 season (think Robert Verbeek, Satoru Sakuma and the catharsis of Leandro's late, late winning goal at FC Tokyo). I'm very pleased to say that those articles have been included in a recently-published book, which brings together the, ahem, best bits of the site's content.

The Very Best Of Pitch Invasion is an anthology of 39 essays by writers from around the world and indeed as well as my own piece, also featured is an article on Shimizu S-Pulse by friend of GGOA Mike Tuckerman. The book is available in print and a full range of digital formats (Kindle, epub and pdf). Full details, including links via which all the various versions can be ordered, are on the Pitch Invasion site, here.

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GGOA Player Of The Year: The Result!

Squirrels fans have over the last few days been having their say on the 2011 season, but the voting is now over and the results of the GGOA Omiya Player of the Year can be announced. Shortly after the survey went live, it was Ardija's top scorer Rafael who went into an early lead, but by the middle of the week he was level with Omiya's young star Keigo Higashi. And as the closing date approached it was the Japan U22 international who picked up the majority of the votes... all of which means that Keigo Higashi is confirmed as the Player of the Year for 2011. Many congratulations to Keigo - Squirrels supporters are looking forward to another great season from you in 2012.

Here are the results in full of the Player of the Year vote:

1. Keigo Higashi 52%
2. Rafael 23%
3. Takuya Aoki 14%
4. Kota Ueda 9%

Thanks to all Ardija fans who participated.

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GGOA Omiya Player Of The Year: Vote Now!

The 2011 J-League season is now over, Omiya finished with a win over Ventforet Kofu that has been described as Ardija's best performance of the campaign - and now it's time for the fans to have their say. The polling booth is now open and it's time for Squirrels supporters to vote for the GGOA Omiya Player of the Year 2011. There are five candidates:

Takuya Aoki - for his battling midfield performances and for breaking his goalscoring duck
Keigo Higashi - for his bursts of skill and genuine star potential
Takashi Kitano - for his reliability and self-assurance between the posts
Rafael - for his goals and all-round teamwork
Kota Ueda - for leading the Ardija midfield with such unhurried style

All you have to do to make your choice for the GGOA Player of the Year 2011 is head over to the box on the right-hand side of this page and VOTE VOTE VOTE.

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There Will Now Be A Brief Intermission

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GGOA Readers' Survey: 2011 Top Scorer

Over the last few days GGOA has been running a readers' survey to find out which player the fans think will be Omiya's top scorer in the league this season. The background to this was the arrival at Ardija on loan of Rodrigo Pimpao, coupled with uncertainty over the role of Lee Chun Soo and the inconsistent performances in front of goal of Rafael. The vote has now closed and the supporters have made their choice: there is cause for optimism over the Rafael/Pimpao combination which came up with goals in the draw with Vegalta Sendai on Sunday - and which also arguably pointed the way ahead for the most useful deployment of Chun Soo. Full details of the survey question and results are as follows:

Q. Who will be Omiya's top J1 scorer in 2011?

1. Rafael 45%
2. Rodrigo Pimpao 20%
3. Naoki Ishihara 16%
4. Lee Chun Soo 12%
5. Keigo Higashi 4%

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Readers' Survey: Vote Now!

The arrival at Omiya of Rodrigo Pimpao raises questions about how the Squirrels are going to get the goals throughout the second half of the J1 2011 season. Up to now Rafael has scored a few but missed a lot, Lee Chun Soo has shown flashes of brilliance but streaks of something else, young Keigo Higashi has contributed a handful from midfield and last year's main marksman Naoki Ishihara has found it hard to make an impact from the bench.

So how will things go between now and the start of December? Will Rodrigo make a big impact, or will Rafael or one of the other struggling strikers hit a run of form? Yes, it all seems to point towards another GGOA Readers' Survey - and this time the questions is, Who will be Omiya's top J1 scorer in 2011? This one will be open for only a few days, so head on over to the box on the right-hand side of this page and vote now!

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Rodrigo Pimpao Signs!

The Squirrels have confirmed the rumours that have been circulating in both Japan and Brazil over the last couple of days with the announcement that Rodrigo Pimpao has joined the club. The 23-year-old forward played the first half of the season at Cerezo Osaka, scoring four goals in fourteen J1 appearances, but the Cherries turned down the option to extend the loan deal from Vasco da Gama. Rodrigo Pimpao played his last game in a blue and pink shirt on 16th July, a 4-1 loss to Vissel Kobe. He has now signed for Omiya on loan until the end of this year.

The last few weeks have exposed a major area of weakness in the Ardija squad, which the arrival of Rodrigo Pimpao is presumably an attempt to address. Following the injury against Gamba Osaka of Naoki Ishihara, Omiya have been left with a grand total of no attacking options: coach Jun Suzuki evidently feels that teenager Shintaro Shimizu is not ready even for a place on the bench, meaning that Rafael and Lee Chun Soo are the only two forwards left. Both of them have good points but both have been disappointing in front of goal this season - predictably enough, given that neither of them can be considered out-and-out scorers in the way that Ishihara is.

Naoki fans will be concerned that his first team opportunities will be reduced yet further by the new arrival. But given coach Jun Suzuki's tendency to use players out of position (and how Ardija have suffered as consequence of winger Lee being played as a striker, not least in Saturday's loss to Yokohama F Marinos) it is impossible to imagine how Rodrigo Pimpao will be deployed. Regular starter or substitute? One of the two main forwards or an offensive midfielder? With Suzuki in charge, who knows - and this is on top of the things that fans always wonder about incoming players, such as whether they will settle at a new club.

But Rodrigo Pimpao does at least provide a choice. If Shintaro Shimizu isn't up to the job, maybe the Brazilian can contribute, improving the squad and doing a better job at taking chances than Lee and Rafael. He might not be a target man but he's fast and has scored a few times for an erratic Cerezo team struggling to keep its league form going while progressing in the ACL. That might be enough to push Omiya in the right direction by enabling us to win close games like Marinos - which we'd likely have won if Chun Soo and an actual scorer, Masashi Oguro, had swapped sides. But from hereon in it's down to the coach to make the right decisions.

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Student Friendly, Sob

Friendly, Mon 04 Jul 11

Omiya Ardija 0-1 Toyo University

0-1 scorer unknown, first half

GK Ezumi (K Shimizu HT')
DF Watanabe
DF Fukaya (Toyo University trialist 51')
DF Suzuki
DF Miyazaki
MF Kanazawa
MF Hashimoto
MF Kihara
MF Kanakubo
FW Fujimoto
FW S Shimizu

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Ex-Sticky: Help Japan

Help Japan image taken from here.

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Ex-Sticky: Ardija News In Brief

During the period after the tsunami on Friday 11 March, this post will be updated with Ardija-related News in Brief items. Please follow the GGOA Twitter account for more information.

• The club have confirmed that all Ardija players and staff are unhurt following the tsunami and earthquakes
• The quakes caused minor damage only to the infrastructure of NACK5 Stadium
• The J-League have said that all J1, J2 and Nabisco Cup matches scheduled up to and including 20 April have been postponed. For Omiya, this means league fixtures with Hiroshima (13 March), Gamba (20 March), Fukuoka (02 Apr), Marinos (09 Apr) and Sendai (16 Apr); and Nabisco Cup games with Marinos (16 Mar), Yamagata (26 Mar), Niigata (06 Apr) and Kawasaki 20 (Apr)
• Omiya's season will restart on 23 April with a J1 home match against Kashiwa Reysol
• The Group Stage of the Nabisco Cup has been cancelled and replaced with a straight knock-out format. Omiya have received a First Round bye and in the Second Round in September will play the winner of Yamagata against Urawa
• Ardija defender Kim Yong Gwon played for South Korea in their 4-0 win over Honduras on 25 Mar; Keigo Higashi started for Japan U22 in their 1-0 defeat in Uzbekistan on 26 Mar and scored in the repeat fixture three days later, a 2-1 win. Takuya Aoki came on as a substitute in the second match
• Higashi and Aoki have also been called up for a further U22 training camp between 11 Apr and 13 Apr
• The Ardija first team squad went on a training camp at Gotemba, Shizuoka prefecture, between 29 Mar and 01 Apr
• On 03 Apr, Omiya lost a 4x45 mins training match against Tochigi SC 4-2, the goals coming from Shintaro Shimizu, Keigo Higashi and Rafael
• On 09 Apr, Omiya won a 4x45 mins training match against Albirex Niigata 3-2, the goals coming from Rafael and Shintaro Shimizu
• The Ardija club shop Orange Square is accepting donations to tsunami disaster relief funds
• Ardija have set up a charity auction in which fans can bid to win items signed by Omiya players. Details of the auction are here
• Youth team goalkeeper Shuhei Kawata has been promoted to the first-team squad. The youngster will wear shirt #35

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GGOA Readers' Survey: Omiya In J1 2011

There are now just hours to go to Omiya Ardija's 2011 kick off at Kashima Antlers and as such, it's the perfect time to report on the results of the last pre-season GGOA Readers' Survey. Over the last few days, visitors to the site have been voting on the simplest of questions: Where will Omiya finish in J1 2011? The Squirrels have been almost embarrassingly consistent in their six previous top division campaigns, ending up between twelfth and fifteenth every year; for this season, the club have targeted fifty points, which amounts to six more than the current best in 2006. Last year, for the record, fifty points would have meant a ninth-placed finish.

So how do Ardija fans think that the year will go? Well, survey results show that very nearly 75% of respondents expect the Squirrels either to equal or improve upon 2010's twelfth place; 4% anticipate a top-three spot and, miracle of miracles, no-one thinks we'll get relegated. Go Ardija! Here are the full survey results:

Q. Where will Omiya finish in J1 2011?

1. 10th-12th place 43%
2. 7th-9th 30%
3. 13th-15th 17%
4.= 1st-3rd 4%
4.= 4th-6th 4%
6. 16th-18th 0%

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GGOA Readers' Survey: Omiya In J1 2011

With the J1 2011 season now just a few days away, fans of all eighteen clubs will generally be at their most optimistic: not a ball has been kicked, not a whistle blown or card issued, not a last-minute goal conceded*. In short, nothing has yet gone wrong, even for the Squirrels. We have a nice new shirt design, a new slogan, some good new young players and a coach who seems to have a reasonable idea what he's doing. How many times in the past have we been able to say all of those things?

So now it's time to predict where Ardija will finish in J1 this season. Are Omiya going to stun the whole of the J-League and get a top three spot? Will we spend the whole of the year stuck to the bottom of the table? Or will we be pretty bad for most of the time, look in the autumn as if we're going to get properly dragged into the relegation places and then finally emerge as being a bit better than three other teams? Or some other scenario, maybe? Anyhow, the box is over there on the right-hand side of this page. Get voting!

* The scoring of last-minute goals is, I understand, also possible.

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GGOA Readers' Survey: The Best New Player

Over the last few days we have been running the first GGOA Readers' Survey of the year. Simply enough, we asked which of Ardija's half-dozen new signings was likely to be the best - and the result of the vote is clear indeed. Squirrels supporters expect that former Jubilo Iwata midfielder Kota Ueda will be a new star in 2011, with more than sixty per cent of voters picking Ueda as their anticipated favourite, just a few days after his dominant performance in the 3-0 Saitama City Cup defeat of Urawa Reds. In second and third place were two of the goalscorers from that match, ex-Oita Trinita youngster Keigo Higashi finishing in the runners up spot and South Korean defender Kim Yong Gwon in third. All in all there is reason for optimism off the back of this trio of players, all of whom have the potential to play a significant part in the development of Omiya as a top division club. The full results of the vote are as follows:

Q. Who will be the best new player in 2011?

1. Kota Ueda 63%
2. Keigo Higashi 21%
3. Kim Yong Gwon 15%
4. = Yosuke Kataoka 0%
4. = Shintaro Shimizu 0%
4. = Daigo Watanabe 0%

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Readers' Vote: Best New Player For 2011

OK, we're heading into prediction time before the new season starts, so here is the first GGOA Readers' Survey of 2011. Ardija have signed a few new players over the winter: highly-rated midfielder Kota Ueda from Jubilo Iwata, Daigo Watanabe and returning Yosuke Kataoka from Kyoto Sanga and a trio of promising youngsters, in the shape of Kim Yong Gwon, Keigo Higashi and high schoolboy Shintaro Shimizu.

The question is, which one of them is going to be the best for Ardija in 2011? Will Ueda be the midfield leader that Omiya have been missing, or will, um, Kataoka suddenly emerge as a major defensive star? How about Higashi making the step up from J2 in fine style, terrorising top-division defences? What do you think is going to happen? Head over to the box on the right-hand side of this page and vote for your most likely new Squirrels star.

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Sapporo Friendly

Friendly, Tue 02 Feb 11

Omiya Ardija 4-1 Consadole Sapporo

0-1 Uehara 3'
1-1 Murakami 64'
2-1 Fujimoto 78'
3-1 Fujimoto 80'
4-1 Lee 82'

First half

GK Ezumi
DF Watanabe
DF Fukaya
DF Kim
DF Suzuki
MF Kataoka
MF Aoki
MF Kihara
MF Hashimoto
FW Rafael
FW Higashi

Second half

GK Kitano
DF Sugiyama
DF Fukuda
DF Tsubouchi
DF Murakami
MF Kanazawa
MF Ueda
MF Watabe
MF Kanakubo
FW Fujimoto
FW Lee

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