27 Nov 2006(Mon)

November 25, 2006: The end-of-year awards season is upon us, so let's think of the J.League MVP.

Chatting with a few media colleagues the other afternoon at Saitama Stadium 2002, three names cropped up, all of them Reds.

A popular choice was Washington, but he would not be mine.

Of course Washington is a valuable player. Anyone who scores the amount of goals he does must be valuable. He proved this with Verdy before moving to Urawa, and looks set to win the "Golden Boot" award as the leading scorer in J1. There is no argument about that, because the statistics are there for all to see and do not lie.

The next name that came up was that of Nobuhisa Yamada -- or should I call him Nobuhisa Del Piero after his wonderful goal against Kofu, who I thought were extremely hard done by with the two penalty decisions and a red card which left them with no hope of getting anything from the game.

I have written earlier this season about Yamada's ability to score goals. Unlike some players who snatch at chances and panic when they see the goal, Yamada remains remarkably cool and relaxed. This quality enables him to score goals like he did against Kofu, cutting in from the left wing, beating three players and curling a lovely shot inside the far post. I saw Paul Gascoigne score many goals like that for Newcastle United and for Tottenham, so there can be no finer compliment to Nobuhisa Del Piero.

During the title run-in Yamada has been in inspirational form, and it is no wonder that Tatsuya and Shinji were on the bench against Kofu when Yamada is linking so well with Ponte and Washinton, supported by Hasebe and Keita from central midfield and the two wing-backs, Hirakawa and Alex.

Also, Yamada's cross early in the second half with his left foot was perfect for Washington to loop a header over the Kofu keeper and open the scoring.

And then, of course, we have Tulio. He is the heart and soul of any team he plays for, committed to the cause and never giving anything less than maximum effort. He regards any goal conceded by Reds as a personal insult and simply hates to see the other team celebrating. But his head does not go down and his response is to try and score at the other end.

All things considered, then, Tulio would get my vote as J.League MVP, with Keita in second place. Too many of these awards are given to players who grab the headlines and the glory for scoring goals, but other less glamorous roles are equally important, if not more so, and deserve recognition. I remember Emerson winning it the other year when Marinos had swept both stages and Nakazawa was clearly the MVP, or Kubo or Oku.

All will be revealed at the awards night on December 18.

ends.