11 Jan 2007(Thu)

Tokyo, January 10, 2007: It will be a strange experience for Toshiya Miura next season when he swaps Omiya Ardija for Consadole Sapporo.

Omiya, of course, live in the vast, red shadow of big brother Urawa, and they go about their business as Saitama’s second club.

At Sapporo, however, Consadole are the pride of Hokkaido, and the focus of attention in the J.League.

Having taken Omiya up to J1 in 2004, and kept them in the top flight in 2005 and 2006, Consadole supporters will be expecting Miura to do the same for their team in 2007. After all, getting a team out of J2 is much different than running an established team in J1, and this is why Consadole have hired Miura.

Last season, Consadole finished sixth in the 13-team second division, 16 points from an automatic promotion place after 48 games. That is a lot of ground to make up for the Hokkaido team, and Miura will be setting his targets in detail, as usual.

Personally, I thought he did a fine job at Omiya, especially in his first season in J1, in 2005.

He always said the second season in the top flight would be more difficult than the first following promotion, and Omiya’s cause was not helped last year by the poor quality of the foreign players.

Although Omiya signed some talented Japanese players this time last year, notably Daigo Kobayashi and Yukio Tsuchiya, the team lacked muscle and physical presence. Also, the lack of a home stadium must not be under-estimated. This was a huge disadvantage for Omiya, and the new-look Omiya Koen will not be ready until October this year.

Omiya’s priority now, under new head coach Robert Verbeek, is to become more solid and stop making careless individual errors in dangerous areas, something the aging Toninho was guilty of on too many occasions.

Omiya will be hoping Verbeek can take Ardija the next step forward, while Consadole will be aiming to use Miura’s coaching craft and experience to take them back to where they belong, J1. After all, the Sapporo fans are among the best in the league for loyalty and passion, and J1 in 2008 will be better with the Hokkaido team in it.

I am already looking forward to Ardija vs Consadole at Omiya Koen on the opening day of the 2008 season -- in J1, not J2!

ends