News - FC International Tokyo

I Know the Score

There is a virtual game on the Premiership website, named I Know the Score. The object of the game is to predict the right score of some matches in Premiership. But, nobody even thought about not knowing the score when the match was over. That's exactly what happened in our Cup game vs Celts 2. The official result ref sent to TML was 16:0 for FC International. But he somehow missed some names and scorers. Our captain Jorge tried to make the scorers right, but when I added all the goals it looked like we scored 18 times. Obviously, after some time during the game, everybody simply stopped to count. Hoping that ref at least kept the number of goals correctly, we are going to be satisfied with official result 16:0.

Akira Misu and others

Yes, if we win 6:0 (Saitama Jets, by the way) it means that everyone had a good night of football, gave one of their best performances etc. But, there was a Guy who made a difference. We are almost unbeatable if He is playing. Wonderful technician, strong in duels, sharp in tackles, fit for much more than regular 80 minutes. We are very proud to have Him in our team and seriously believe that we can win this League if He can play regularly. Again, as it was said, all players had a nice night, played with confidence and much less mistakes then in the previous game. We worked hard at the every inch of the pitch and the victory was well deserved. There were princes in Hachioji park, but there was a king as well. The King Akira.

Soft as a ....

Defeated. I mean, we lost a game, but if we were defeated by BFC's good play or by our linsey woolsey soft performance? Well, final score was 7:5 for BFC (not undeserved, though), but this will tell you that it wasn't great day of football by any of two teams. To concede 7 (or 5) goals, tells you that both teams were soft and unorganized in defense, with no help from midfielders, plus unbelievable mistakes of so many players, including keepers, give you that awful visual (and every other aspect) of 7 (seven) conceded goals by our side. Our opponents simply made a little bit less mistakes than we did (well, at least two less). Defensively, for both teams was, as Alan Hansen likes to say in Match of the Day - Catalog of Errors. On the other side of the pitch both teams had so many great moves (including scissor-kick), nice crosses and shots. All in all, entertaining for spectators. Again, final score at ASIJ was FC International 5 : British FC 7. Football it was. 11-a-side.

Read here how BFC players saw the game.

Lions or Cubs?

Unfortunately, I wasn't there in Hodogaya, so I can not write anything about the game we played versus Lions FC. Except that we won 4:1. But, I'll tell you, as a secret, something else. I was hoping that Hussein or Mo will write something for TML site, as they usually do and I wanted to copy it. They didn't, so no copy-paste this time. But the real question is - why nothing was written!? Does it sound that we are cheering a bit? It suppose to. We are pretty good friends with guys from Lions and we are "up" for the time being and will, probably, nag at them when we meet them in Roppongi. Until the next game.

New kids on the block

Under the nice weather and on the even better pitch in Hachioji Park, we played versus aboriginals in TML Div. 1 - Hibernian FC. I can not say that lads from Hibs underestimated us, but they were, at least, surprised with the quality of our play at the start of the match. We were far better team in the first half, won it 1:0, but it could easily be 3 or more. And, as we all know and, to be honest, as we have experienced so many times up to now, game lasts 80 minutes in TML and there are two times 40 minutes to play. Our opponent regrouped, made some changes in the half-time and we, as per habit we must change, started second half slowly and weaker then we should. They topped us and managed to equalize, leaving about 25 minutes for us to edge in at least one more goal. We tried, but it wasn't enough. Throughout that 25 minutes, they had a couple of clear chances as well as we did, nobody managed to score and game ended up tied 1:1. Fair result - no question about that, but a bit more sorrow and pity must be on our side.

Here is what Hibs had to say about the game.

No changes at the start of the Season 7

New TML Season has just started, but we haven't experienced many changes. We had our first match versus well-known, last year promoted (as well as we are) Zion FC, played nice and fluent, won easily (7:0 - I am not even going to bother to name the scorers). It was difficult to play in the dust of Todoroki, under poor lights. From time to time it was impossible to see more than 20-30 meters, but we managed somehow. There were couple of new guys, good players and it is now on our side to organize ourselves in a good team. We know how good we are and we think that we are candidates for winning TML this year. And now, we must to prove it.

I know what you did last summer

Played football, of course. Whole summer? Of course. Luckily, TML organized a new summer league, 7-side footy in Yokohama. We had enough time to introduce (and revise) some new players, to see how it works in all lines and to improve as much as it was possible. Did we succeed? We shall know very soon, more precise, last weekend of this August when we'll kick-off whole new TML Season 7, this year first time in top flight.

Young guns

Yet another win, just to confirm already taken Champion's place in TML Second Division. With so many new young boys, we were lucky that we scored our third goal in the very last moment to ensure 3:2 victory and three more points versus very good Zion FC side. Unfortunately, there are not so many good things to say about our performance yesterday. It was fairly disorganized. lucked passes and especially team effort. We had so many attackers and midfielders (we actually played with two defenders only) who were easily losing the ball about 40 meters from our goal and left our defenders to cope. We were lucky that we conceded only two goals but this performance and attitude must not be repeated. Again, as I mentioned, they have some credit since they are very young (16, 17, 18 yrs) and quite good players (when they have a ball), but football is a team sport and that is not to be forgotten.

FJ Cup Plate game vs. FC Shane - business as usual

Despite playing without 4 or 5 regular players, we managed to win the game with comfortable score of 2:0 (yet another two Sukui's goals). We dominated for the most of the game, created so many chances (some of them were not easy to miss) but rounded off with only 2 goals in opponents net. It would be wrong not to mention that FC Shane had two or three half-chances to score in first ten minutes of the game and, consequently, make final score more indecisive, but our defense (including Rouven as goalie) allowed only a couple of long distance shots (good ones, though).

Copy - paste from BFC Vagabonds web site

Vagabonds Blown Away

Vagabonds lost 0-4 to FC International in a game that was competitive until the final whistle in spite of an infamous Misato dust storm and the emphatic score line.

A ragged squad of twelve showed up with afflictions ranging from injuries, influenza and hangovers, and had to hang around while the game was delayed for thirty minutes. That was a mixed blessing. One Vagabond had time to “get up” most of his stomach contents before the game – he was down to green bile by the kickoff which he hurled into the drainage ditch. Another dropped off to sleep, never to fully awaken again.

There was nothing between the teams in the first half except a partial wind advantage for FC and it produced their only goal of the half, after ten minutes, as the Vags goalie misjudged a fairly harmless long-range punt that became possessed by a spirit after it took a bounce.

Almost immediately a detailed Vags attacking move from midfield ended with a cool strike from the edge of the box that came squarely off the crossbar to a round of gasps. There were chances at both ends, our flu-ridden striker making the most of his fever to gain that extra yard, while our goalie made up for his early lapse with a handful of solid catches and parries. The half ended 0-1.

Vags showed some tiredness in the second half and the biased wind shifted to a more neutral cross-pitch direction. It also strengthened, and large chunks of the second half were pure chaos – visibility, audibility, breathe-ability, all approaching zero.

Roughly thirty three percent of Vagabonds` energy expenditure went on recovering balls that flew five hundred yards with the wind to the bulrushes at the riverside or went into a ditch. For some reason I can only recall one occasion when an FC player ran after a ball.

“Let it drift as far as the bridge!” went up the cry time and again, but unheeded as players conjured new ways to fish balls out of drainage ditches. I’ve just remembered I stepped into the one exactly where the bile went. But that’s hardly relevant now.

Twenty minutes into the second half the wind got worse and as the Vagabonds gazed in wonder at sunbeams through prismatic swirls of fine clay, FC scored a hat trick that put the game beyond salvage.

FC`s goals were opportunistic, but well taken, and mainly a consequence of Vagabond fatigue from the first half facing the wind. By the end of the game we were deafened, all a-shiver, and clogged up with that fine disgusting dust that will probably cause pneumonia in one or two players (For once I was thankful for the thick sprouts of hair that have emerged in my ears and nostrils over the past few years). Indeed, one of our senior players reported feeling “weird” after the game and, worryingly, still felt that way after a glass of beer.

Hopefully we will have a healthy, rested and large squad for the next game.

Milk of Amnesia

Like a PES 2009

Last Saturday evening was a bit chilly, but nevertheless perfect for some football. We played versus Maritizio (enhanced with Kanto Celt's Henry) at that new artificial pitch at YC&AC. It really looked like a PES 2009 game, with so many smooth passes, nice actions, bunch of chances, keeper's mistakes, fouls and goals. Even the score was like in PS3 game, 7:2 for FC International. I must mention that we had two new players, Walter (scored het-trick in his first game for us) and goal keeper Pablo. I was flabbergusted when they said how old they were. If you sum up their age and add it to the age of Vladimir's older child, you will know exactly how Vladimir is old. I know you will wonder if Vladimir is too old, or those two guys are very young, or, maybe, both. I'll leave it to you.

The last word about football in 2008

OK, since nobody want to send me a short report from the Saturday's game (I was justifiably absent, but I'll just say that we won again, this time vs. YC&AC 2nds, comfortable 3:0 with Hide's 2 and Chris' 1 goal), I will not write about the game at all. As a website administrator, I just want to wish all of you guys all the best for the Xmas and New Year. I also want to tell you that I hope that we'll be better in 2009 then in 2008. At this point I must emphasize what we did during 2008 (we won 15 and lost 1 game in the TML League, played and lost both TML Cup games and played 7 friendlies - 5 wins, 2 loses). I will leave to you to put everything together if you think it's necessary.
And of course, in the name of FC International Tokyo, I want to extend our best wishes for the forthcoming Xmas and New Year to all our friends, players, coaches, referees in TML, IFFL and other organizations we played football for, and last, but not least, to Tokyo Sports Cafe, our main sponsor.

English game

Except for the number of spectators that wasn't probably very close to the games in Premiership, everything else was there. Two very good teams fighting for literally every ball, beautiful pitch in Hachioji Park, cold weather and almighty rain and last, but definitely not least, the score. We were 3:2 down two minutes before the end, but somehow managed to score two goals in those two minutes and to win the game by 4:3.
Sukui, again (and again and again) played an awesome game, but this time, it is necessary to mention the first of his three goals, since it was a real beauty. Kato made a perfect through ball and Sukui shot a perfect chip from full sprint while ball was on the ground, from about 20 meters. He was, also need to be said, prized by all the players at the pitch. It was very unfortunate that only about 30 people saw that piece of skill.
Apart from that, we played a very good game, created about 25 chances and half-chances, had about 15 shots on target, hit the post and the bar, and, yes, we were down. Dutch Embassy FC were well organized, but do not ask me how opponents managed to score 3 goals out of one proper chance. We were lucky that we won the game at the end, but we thoroughly deserved it, in each and every element of that football game.
You can also read the article The Bitter Chalice, written by a member of the opponents, at http://www.footyjapan.com/tml/index.html. It's a nice one, especially if you were the winner, as we were.

Kept the perfect score

One more decent game and one more comfortable win last Saturday (Nov. 1), this time versus Jetro FC. In the first 30 minutes we did not play as good as usually, though. Well organized opponent’s defense gave us lot of trouble at that time. We created only one "must score" opportunity, but Sukui's shot went straight to the keeper. It was another missed chance from Sukui that marked the time since Jetro's defenders couldn't keep their game level. Eventually, Hide scored the first and Chris the second goal very late in the first half, which gave us the edge we needed. In the second half we were well organized in the middle, although we gave a little bit more space to our opponents, especially in the midfield. However, our opponents couldn't create even one serious action, which Sukui (twice) and Seba punished for the final score of 5:0.

Good game vs. excellent Albion OB

In a sexy new kit that would have drawn admiring gasps from their female fans if such creatures existed, the Albion Old Boys were doing a very good impersonation of classy footballers both before and during Saturday's encounter with Division Two's other newly-promoted team. But the Old Boys came away from Misato with no points for either style or execution as FC International converted a late, late penalty to nick a 2-1 win with the very last kick of the game.

The pre-game bad news for the Old Boys was that none of the replacement body parts ordered from the UK had made it through Japanese customs. The good news was that the new uniforms arrived safely. So with dentures nicely polished and some liberal application of botox linament the seasoned warriors posed for a commemorative daguerrotype (they call them photographs these days Tel - Ed), then lined up vainly hoping that they could nick a quick couple of goals while their opponents eyes were still dazzled by the glare.

But FC International themselves are no mugs in the snazzy kit game, though a River Plate-style sash and bright yellow numbers, while safe enough in Tokyo, would not be an advisable look for a Sunday League game on Hackney Marshes. Anyway, competitive preening soon gave way to some very competitive football, with Inter pressing hard early on and having most of the possession. The Old Boys survived a couple of minor scares, and managed to give Inter a fright or two on the counter-attack, with centre-forward George Pele Clarkson winning most of the aerial battles and striking partner Hitoshi Ono giving the opposition defenders all kinds of problems every time he ran at, past, round, into, or through them.

So having pretty well held their own for most of the first half against a good footballing team, it was a real sickener for Albion to concede the lead to an avoidable goal, as a defender who shall remain nameless until the end of this report allowed a clearable cross to sail over his head right onto the curly locks of the Inter number nine, whose header gave keeper Kouka no chance. And it could have got worse a few minutes later as the same player again banged in a close range header at the far post. But this time Kouka made a tremendous reflex save to beat out the header from point-blank range and keep his team in with a shout. 1-0 at half-time.

With the second-half advantage of a following wind which was occasionally gusting strong enough to be a factor, the Old Boys reckoned the game was still there for the taking. FC International reckoned they were due a second goal. With neither side willing to yield an inch it became a hard-fought midfield war of attrition, a scenario which probably suited the grizzled veterans more than the younger team, one or two of whom looked a bit ill-equipped for a more competitive tussle. Inter's diminutive center-forward took particular umbrage at having his personal space violated in any way, and was extremely vocal in registering his discomfort. So much so that even Old Boys Grey Eminence Karl Twohig – librarian, poodle-owner, model railway enthusiast, and generally as gentle a fellow as you are likely to meet anywhere other than a Mohatma Gandhi impersonators' convention – even Karl was wound up beyond forbearance and forced to administer some stern discipline, which did nothing beyond earning the Albion midfielder a yellow card. However a measure of justice was restored towards the end of the game when the ref finally decided that the noisy number nine should join Karl in the notebook for, if I heard it right, "getting on my nerves the whole game". A better reason than most for getting a card out, and I hope the TML's referees' report form has a check box for it.

Somewhere in the middle of all this melodrama came the Old Boys equalizer. As Hitoshi latched onto a neat through ball, he saw Inter keeper Jorge so far off his line that the referee's assistant in the Albion half of the pitch was eyeing him suspiciously. The lob was placed to perfection and the Old Boys were level. Inter pressed hard to regain the lead, and the last ten minutes were played almost exclusively in the Albion half, but the Old Boys seemed to be holding on for a well-earned point until, in what turned out to be the very last move of the game, a mis-timed tackle in the Old Boys box gave Inter a penalty kick. Jorge's shot wasn't hit very hard, but it was placed right in the corner, and though Kouka did really well to get fingertips on it, he couldn't keep it out.

So for the Old Boys a rotten way to lose for the first time this season, but a lot of consolation in the quality of the performance against good opposition. FC International have their sights firmly set on the top division, and though they could do with strengthening one or two positions, they may well have enough quality players to achieve that ambition. The Old Boys have their sights firmly set on a 2011 return to the St Mary's Green Acres Playpen For Gracefully Aging Masters Of The Beautiful Game, but they'll keep on wandering the suburban wastelands of Greater Tokyo giving these open age teams a hard time until it's ready.

Match report by Terry Cooney