Soccer became popular in Japan following the creation of the professional J-League and then the hosting of the Soccer World Cup in 2002.
I was invited to a match between Tokyo Verdy and Tokushima Vortis on the weekend at Yoyogi National Stadium, and was able to stand on the touch line to take photos as an accredited press member. It was a really good experience to see the game up close and take some photos of the action.
Thank you to Tokyo 2016 Olympic / Paralympic Games Bid for organizing this for me. Here is their report on the Tokyo 2016 Bid Events that took place at the game.
Being part of the Press contingent we were able to get the half-time report from the 2 teams. Looks like Verdy is trying to get its defense to take more care of the long ball and counter attacks from Vortis, while the Vortis team say they must run harder than the opposition team or they cannot win.
There were some great Tokyo 2016 Olympic / Paralympic Bid events held before the match and at half-time, including ladies in Tokyo 2016 Yukatas, large scale Shodo display, Olympic banner parade, medal presentations and more.
You can see the full report I wrote about the Soccer and Tokyo 2016 Olympic events here.
Verdy went on to win 4-0 and advance up the league table. They were ranked 5 in the J2 league coming into this game and will want to finish strong to try and elevate themselves to the main J-league division for next year.
I really enjoyed going to this match and taking photos from the side-line. I look forward to another similar event in the future.
More Information
- J-League Official Site (English)
- Tokyo Verdy Homepage (Japanese)
- Tokushima Vortis Homepage (Japanese)
- Tokyo 2016 Bid Blog (English)
- Tokyo2016Today Blog (English)
I wonder how the Tokyo Verdy team got their name, as their jerseys are green and "verdy" is the phonetic transcription of the Brazilian pronounciation of the word for green in Portuguese. Brazil, football, Brazilian-origin Japanese…
They have renamed themselves a few times including the '1969' in their team name and previously having Yomiuri in the name etc. not sure about the Verdy part. sounds like it could be for the green uniform. anyone else know for sure?
I originally saw some of this article on friendfeed. And you were in one of their pictures, the one with you and two of the young ladies wi the 2016 yakatas. Don't really follow soccer that much. More of a football fan, being raised in Green Bay Wi, Go pack. We do have a MLS team in the area FC Dallas.
As usual looks like fun. That #20 from the other team probably had some type of facial injury so he needed the mask for protection. Actually it makes him look like Bruce Lees character Kato from the show " The Green Hornet" what do you think?
excellent that you saw the other articles on http://tokyo2016today.com/2009/07/13/tokyo-2016-s…
not sure about that masked player and The Green Hornet. maybe he wants an audition?
It's funny that you mentioned in that picture about the guy w/mask on and I said he looks like Kato from Green Hornet. Then i came upon this article: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/15364.html Coincedience?…lol:)
It must be fun isn’t it, & seem to enjoy it.
Yes, it was a lot of fun. 🙂