Kuma Power

The other thing I'd factor in is that Callum Smith has turned out to be really rather good since joining us in the summer, which might well have put Ross one place further down the pecking order. As others have noted above, there are a huge number of players in that area of the park who have all made the case to be starting games. Best-case scenario is that we get Ross back in January with a bit of fitness and game time under his belt, ahead of the second half of the season when injuries and fatigue inevitably mount up.

I'm old enough to remember the red colour fading out of the number 2 on Craig Wilson's jersey by the end of one season, because he'd played every single game and the players had only been issued with one shirt!

Yikes - that's our old keeper Graeme Smith in goal for Rangers. A somewhat unwelcome blast from the past there!

Saw on the Tartan Army board that the Scotland 150th anniversary tops were back on sale, which reminded me of this from the other day. If you think £90 for a 150th anniversary Scotland top is expensive, J3 side Kataller Toyama have just launched their 15th anniversary limited edition shirt, with prices starting at 19,800 Yen (about £100) and going all the way up to 26,620 Yen (about £145) for a version with player name and number I suppose it's money going into a local club and not to a big corporation, but prices for Japanese club shirts are crazy even at lower leagues.

I generally don't post during games, because stuff has a habit of coming back to bite you on the bum. But no matter what happens in the rest of the game, and without wanting to single anyone out for criticism, we simply cannot keep conceding two goals nearly every week and expect to kick on.

A lot of Iwaki's backing comes from Under Armour (or at least their Japanese concession), who have invested in the team and supporting infrastructure quite heavily. Their story has been quite similar to Cove in Scotland in that they've shot up the divisions but hit a bit of a wall in J2, which is to an extent understandable as you suddenly start coming up against some very big and well-resourced teams in J2. Like you say, the distances some of these teams travel in J3 and the JFL is wild given that there's no regionalisation until you get to the lower level. Maybe not surprising that some of the more peripheral teams, like Shimane last year and Kochi this year, run into financial trouble given that the costs of just competing must be huge. That's it exactly. Of course, like football everywhere in the world, there are the odd few arseholes in every fanbase (Urawa Reds more than most ) but for the most part the atmosphere at Japanese games is brilliant even at games with 1-2000 people in the crowd thanks to the singing sections.

Was watching 'The Days' on Netflix recently, which was a good reminder of just how scary things were in those few days after the tsunami. Wasn't in Japan myself at the time, but can remember the complete panic and confusion at the press conferences. There was (and still is) clearly a big impact on the coastal region of Fukushima, but it could have been a lot, lot worse. In my 'day job' I spend a lot of time working with marine researchers and fishing communities in Fukushima so am out there for extended periods most years. That's also how I ended up following Iwaki FC, who were founded after the disasters in part to give the local region hope and support the recovery efforts and have shot up the leagues since. This is the first year they've really faced relegation trouble given they're up against much bigger teams with more experienced squads in J2, although like Vegalta Sendai they are hopefully edging away from the drop zone now. You're right about Vegalta being well supported, I mind going to a game in Tokyo - might even have been before the 2011 disasters - when they were in J1, and they brought a huge travelling support down.

Saw Ryotaro Meshino, formerly of Hearts, started for Gamba Osaka at the weekend, which set me thinking about current SPFL players that have played in the J.League and vice-versa. Currently in the J.League, as far as I can see there is: Alex Schalk - Urawa Red Diamonds, formerly Ross County Yosuke Ideguchi - Avispa Fukuoka, on loan from Celtic Ryotaro Meshino - Gamba Osaka, formerly Hearts Koki Mizuno - still going strong for Iwate Grulla Morioka, formerly Celtic Wikipedia also tells me that David Moberg Karlsson of Urawa Reds played 4 games for Kilmarnock in 2014, although I'd be lying if I said I had any recollection of him in Scotland. There may well be others too. Conversely, in the SPFL there is: Kyogo Furuhashi (FC Gifu, Vissel Kobe), Daizen Maeda (Mito Hollyhock, Matsumoto Yamaga, Yokohama F Marinos), Reo Hatate (Kawasaki Frontale), Tomoki Iwata (Oita Trinita, YFM), Yuki Kobayashi (Vissel Kobe, Machida Zelvia, Yokohama FC) - all Celtic Yutaro Oda (Vissel Kobe), Kyosuke Tagawa (Sagan Tosu, FC Tokyo) - both Hearts And, bizarrely, Esmael Goncalves - formerly Matsumoto Yamaga, now Livingston Again, there may well be others! There will be plenty historically too I'm sure. Off the top of my head, Shunsuke Nakamura had a long career back in Japan after leaving Celtic, and Pieter Huistra went to Hiroshima from Rangers. Plus recently Riku Danzaki had a short spell at Motherwell after Consadole Sapporo. Steve Paterson also played for Yomiuri (now Tokyo Verdy) before the J.League was set up, and Austin MacPhee played non-league football in Japan as well.

Missed the live J1 games this morning as was out and about, but seems I picked the most eventful day to miss! The Yokohama derby result was particularly wild. It's not looking great for Omiya Ardija at the bottom of J2, is it? Looked like they'd turned it round for a couple of weeks, but recent results haven't been so good again. Iwaki FC have had a tough run of games against teams at the top of the J2 table over the last few weeks and have done well to make themselves very hard to beat. But we really need a win tomorrow against fellow strugglers Roasso Kumamoto to edge away from the relegation zone. Oh, and if you're into betting, maybe best to avoid Thespakusatsu Gunma on your coupon. For the second week running, their game has been called off at short notice due to a lightning storm!

Ha! Did not know that but it makes sense. Cheers!

That will be a great experience for Ventforet. Looks like a strong group, but they've avoided the Saudi teams so hopefully they have a chance getting out the groups.

Aye, I was surprised to see how well he'd done. Wasn't a great player but clearly a very bright guy who's made a good career in football: https://www.liverpoolfc.com/team/mens/staff/dr-conall-murtagh Also, the irony of a former Raith Rovers player going on to lead peer-reviewed scientific papers on reducing injury risk in training is not lost on me:

That's a good point! To be fair there's probably a bit of recency bias on my part there, there must be loads of loan players we've had down the years who weren't outright terrible, but were just anonymous and quickly faded from memory and/or dropped down the leagues thereafter. You're absolutely right though, it's incredible how well we did in 2020-21 given our lack of depth and the calibre of loan signings we brought in. The fact it was a shortened season due to COVID maybe helped in that regard.

Here's my XI of some of the best loan signings we've had at Raith (based on how they fared when on loan with us): GK: Kieran Wright RB: David Smith CB: Steven Anderson CB: Connor O'Riordan LB: Callum Booth MF: Regan Hendry RW: Johnny Russell LW: Ethan Ross FW: Damian Casalinuovo FW: Ryan Hardie FW: Steven MacLean Jamie Walker, Jason Holt, Kevin Smith and David Templeton were also good for us while on loan. ...and an XI of the worst we've had (again based on how they fared at the time): GK: Ally Brown DF: Jack Perry DF: Sean Mackie (2021-22 season) DF: Nathan Cooney MF: Adam King MF: Jordan Thompson MF: Scott Roberts MF: Connal Murtagh FW: Timmy Abraham FW: Stephen Reynolds FW: Lars Lokotsch It feels a bit harsh to put guys like Cooney in here who hardly played and were essentially there as cover, but was struggling to think of other defenders who have been properly awful (other Rovers fans, please do set me right!) (Dis)honourable mentions also for William Akio and Isma Goncalves up front.

Aye, a lot of draws at the bottom end of J2 this past weekend so things are pretty much as they were. Mind you, if I was a Vegalta Sendai fan I'd be really worried - they lost again and are on a very poor run of form, getting sucked right into the J2 relegation battle. It's one of these situations where you think a club is 'too big to go down' - and we all know how that can turn out...

Nagoya Grampus vs Kashima Antlers live on YouTube just now. Commentator is talking about the Kashima Soccer Stadium curse, where Nagoya Grampus lost 22 games consecutively at Kashima's stadium from 1993 to 2008. As a fan of Raith Rovers, who haven't won in Inverness since the year 2000, I feel very seen...

Yep, I was one of those who thought he'd need a spell out to get fitness and confidence back. More than happy to have been proven very wrong so far. Looking back, the fact that Connor McBride was starting ahead of Ross, and that we were only using Ross very, very sparingly as a sub in games we really needed to get something from, should have been a pretty clear sign he was nowhere near fit at the end of last season. I think someone posted something a few weeks back about how much discomfort Ethan was in when he was playing before the summer, and hopefully that's him well on the road to recovery and match fitness now. Now, I hear from Murray's post-match interview that Jamie Gullan isn't far off coming back. Let's hope he is the next to prove me wrong

No matter what happens with formations in subsequent games, the last 5-10 mins today showed for me why Sam Stanton has to play further forwards if he can. McGinn-esque stuff from him at times to help us see the game out. Hopefully Byrne coming in and Brown coming back (plus McGill being available if needed) means we can play Stanton to his strengths.

Bottom of J2 is looking pretty tense after 29 of 42 fixtures, with just 4 points separating 14th from 21st and a resurgent Omiya Ardija coming steaming up from behind, having looked dead and buried just a few weeks ago. Elsewhere, Vissel Kobe hang onto top spot in J1, ahead of Yokohama F.Marinos on goal difference, with Nagoya Grampus in third two points behind. Machida Zelvia are continuing their march towards the J2 title and promotion, with Jublio Iwata and Shimizu S.Pulse in pursuit. Most wholesome story of the last week award goes to Fukushima United, who had to issue an official apology after selling too many peaches that had been grown by the players (Fukushima Prefecture is famous for peaches), which meant they weren't able to deliver to everyone that had ordered. The club also took the opportunity to remind fans that the club also grows and sells asparagus and grapes.

For what it's worth, I noticed Ross Millen was out warming up with the squad before the game today, knocking some balls around and doing a couple of sprints. Hopefully bodes well for him being back reasonably soon.

Was it Ally Brown, the on-loan goalie from Hibs, who dropped a clanger into his own net and then pretended to be injured in an attempt to spare himself the embarrassment?

Ono is still registered as a player for Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo in Japan's top league, but hardly plays these days as far as I'm aware. He gets a few minutes at the end of a cup game now and again, but is defintiely there more in a talisman and mentoring capacity (which is fair enough given he's 43!). Inamoto still plays reasonably regularly in Japan's equivalent of non-league. On Buffon, it's the end of an era but, sadly, probably the right decision for Parma as far as football goes. Was great to see him back and I'm sure it sold a lot of shirts and tickets, but whilst he had some good moments last season he was also a liability at times. Constantly chopping and changing the goalkeeper to start Buffon when he was fit certainly didn't help Parma's promotion push either.

Aye, thanks for that! You did Iwaki a big favour by stopping Zweigen Kanazawa closing the gap to us in the second relegation spot. Omiya's form could be turning at just the right time...

It's the time of year where J.League teams start bringing out their 'summer uniforms' - shirts that they wear for a few games during the height of summer and into autumn. Summer is traditionally a time of fireworks and festivals (and drinking) in Japan, so lots of teams take the opportunity to release special edition shirts that reflect the local identity and geography. If like me you’re a bit cynical, then you could argue it’s also a good chance to raise some extra cash from fans...(worth noting that Japanese teams, even in the second and third tiers, usually charge upwards of £80-100 for shirts). Here's a couple from this year: FC Gifu have printed a historic painting of the Battle of Sekigahara - which was fought in Gifu - onto the front of their limited edition jerseys: Iwaki FC have released this brown number, which is supposed to represent the rock strata in which the remains of a plesiosaur - which forms the basis of the team's mascot - was discovered in the 1960s near to where the team play: And Shonan Bellmare are going for a tribute to the kit they wore 30 years ago:

Especially when you take into account that we still have a few guys that were signed/given new contracts by the previous manager and may well have add-ons built in. Once you factor in 'McGlynnflation*' some of our longer-serving players may well be on £1k+ a week basic. (*credit goes to whoever came up with this term first on the thread!)