Inamoto Who?

I found that Blog-G members would like to get some pieces of information about Ina. (See the Blog-G post on 20 June)
I don't have a large stock of knowledge about JP players, but I'll check Ina's news and will show you them.

Anyway, here we go to Ina's world...! ;)


First of all, I'm going to answer to these questions;

-----
80. onkel moe am Freitag, 20.07.07 um 19:21 Uhr
ina is called something like a Japanese “local hero”… but: nobody in this blog knows about his abilities.

Ya, I can say Ina is one of the popular players in Japan. Ina and a few nice players are called "Golden Generation" or "1979 year's boys"('coz they are 1979-1980 born children).
I would say the '79 boys are Ina, Taka and Shinji Ono. But some people said Koji Nakata from Bersel SWI and other some players could be counted on '79 boys, too.
There are some better players in younger JP team, for example in U-20, but '79 boys are still heros of many JP fans.
I think the most popular Japanese player is Hidetoshi Nakata, you know.
Ina still has a lot of fans even though he had bitter seasons in England, so I can say Ina is a popular player to have many zealous supporters.
There is another example how Ina is also a popular player. A 50's lady in my office, who never watch a football game, even knows Ina. Wow.

I'll mention Ina's skill and potential as the answer to Hubi's question and other parts of below.

-----
81. Hubi_oldie am Freitag, 20.07.07 um 19:21 Uhr
We discuss whether Ina is able to continue here in Frankfort with the power he has shown in Great Britain a couple of years ago.
But we have no idea about Ina’s playing in the intermediate time till now.

Uhhh, I can't say clearly whether Ina would fit SGE or not, but I think (and I hope) Ina will do fine with SGE's strategy.
Ina has a stronger body and offensive style than other Japanese MFs, so I hope Ina will fit for Bundesliga.
I checked Ina's past works and abstracted some of them. Please see below.

-----
83. katten-andy am Freitag, 20.07.07 um 19:24 Uhr
what is the reason, that Ina is not in the japanese team at asia-cup and what is your personal meaning about him?

Mr.Osim, the JP national coach, answered the media why Osim didn't call up Ina like this;
"Ina must attend SGE's training because he has only just moved to a new team.
Ina is a new player there. I know Ina has a lot of things to do in his new team now."
# Osim's interview is here;

I thought it was a sort of mutual concession. Osim said he wanted both Ina and Taka for Asia Cup, but SGE of course needed to have both of them in July. Then, maybe each of teams had one player by compromise.
And, when it comes to my personal idea about Ina, please see "Elly's poor idea about Ina" below.


-----
84. onkel moe am Freitag, 20.07.07 um 19:26 Uhr
i thought ina had not been playing in little britain… didn´t he sat on exchangement bank all the time?

Well, Actually Ina didn't play any Premiere League's game because of some reasons. But he played short times (not fulltime) in some games when he was in Arsenal or other teams in UK, even Ina was a substitute and was replaced later in almost the games. And Ina played well and did a hat trick when Ina was in Fulham FC.
There is the record list which Ina's play time in UK (it's written in Japanese, though). The second cell of this table is the time Ina got into a pitch.
http://home.cilas.net/~sv_ina/data.html

For further info, please see below and check "Ina's History" and "Pick up Ina's Plays".


#############
I'm going to note some topics about Ina. Hope you enjoy them! :)


Ina's Style

• Ina is a MF, and he can play any position of MF. In Japan, we would say Ina is a ofensive Volante (Sechser) player.

• He is also good at dribble. We sometimes saw that Ina got back a ball from an opponent by his non-foul tackle and carried a ball with dribbling straight to the vital area and passed a ball to FW.

• He can shoot a strong long distance shot. His kick is accurate so Ina had worked as a place kicker in Fulham FC.

• Ina is good at defensive play, too. Ina covered defensive line of central area alone when he was in Galatasaray.

• Osim, the coach of JP nationa team, said to the media that he expects to set one-Volante system in near future. Osim gave some advices to Ina during the training sesions of JP national team how Ina should move personally.

• We can say one bad point of Ina. Ina easily gains weight, so please don't give Ina lots of beer and sausages!

• I hadn't met Ina in person, but they say Ina has a friendly character. Ina likes to make someone laugh with his jokes. Everyone around Ina will be fun when Ina becomes a fluent German speaker.

Pick up Ina's Plays
I mentioned the situation why Ina didn't play in UK so much....

• Ina debuted J-League (1st) on 12 Apr 1997. It was the record as the youngest debut. He was just 17 years old and 6 months at that time.

• Ina's first goal in J-League was 20 Apr 1997. He scored with his right foot.

• Ina did a great job at U-20 team to finish 2nd of FIFA World Youth.

• Arsene Wenger, the coach of Arsenal FC, called up Ina, but the great volante(Sechser） 'Patrick Vieira' was there... so it was a bit hard for Ina to be a starting member.

• Ina got a draw-goal during the game between Japan and Belgium (2-2) of WM 2002. Ina also got a winning-goal during the game between Japan and Russia (1-0) of WM 2002. Ina leaded JP team in the last 16.

• Ina is the first Japanese player who did a hat trick in Europe. Ina did it at the game between Fulham against Bologna.

• When Ina played at the International A match between Japan and England, he broke his left leg. Ina had to undergo his rehabilitation programs for a long time. Fulham had aimed to have Ina as their own member(Fulam had rented Ina from Ganba Osaka at that time), but they stopped trying to buy Ina.

• Gary Megson, the coach of WBA, knew Ina's injury but he called up Ina to his team on Aug 2004. WBA head members didn't agree to get Ina, but Megson insisted that WBA must get Ina and they expected Ina got well soon. So they set up the option that Ina had to quit the team if his injury hadn't fixed in 1 Jan 2005.

• Gary Megson quitted (was fired?) WBA on Oct 2004. But Ina's injury hadn't fixed yet at that time... it means, you know...

• At the match between Japan and Republika Hrvatska of WM 2006, Fukunishi was replaced with Ina and Ina did great jobs. At the next game (against Brazil), Ina used as a starting member. Ina's pass to Tamada made a goal from King Brazil.

• Ina played as a regular member in Galatasaray in 2006.

• Ina was supposed to stay Galatasaray in 2007, but Galatasaray replaced their coach with a new coach, and the new coach was going to change the strategy and decided not to use Ina so often.

Trivia about Ina

#When Ina was in Seiei Gakuen FC;
An adult man did running for his health, and little kid Ina ran from his behind with extremely fast speed and left him. He desperately attempted to catch up with Ina.

#When Ina was in a primary school;
During a football match, an opponent boy tried to stop Ina and tackled Ina. Ina didn't dodge it and guarded a ball with his legs. Ina directly received a kick from a boy with Ina's shin, but Ina was totally fine and a boy broke his leg.

#When Ina was in U-**;
Boy Ina had a hearty appetite. When Ina went a U-** training camp, Ina ate up his portion and his teammate's portions. But Ina was still hungry and ate up potions for another football team which stayed in a same hotel.


Elly's poor idea about Ina

Well..., I'm not a strategist-type you know. ^^;
but I'm going to think about how Ina can be used in SGE.

If there are two defensive MF in a pitch, I would like to put Ina a bit forward and would like to use Ina's aggressive-offensive technique. The backward MF passes a ball to Ina and Ina passes a boll to FW directly beyond opponents's expectations.
(click to enlarge)


And, MF of both side aggressively play to run up in both side of a pitch with doing side-change or something, opponents have to care and mark SGE side attackers. And then, the space in front of the penalty area will be opened and will be no opponent, so Ina can burst there and can shoot a long distance shot.
(click to enlarge)




Ina's Play Chart

A Japanese fan of Ina analyzed all of Ina's plays with radar charts. They are written in Japanese, but I put an example and legends in English.
Try to check them and have fun!

2001-2002
http://gambadataland.web.fc2.com/gamba1/inachart/2001inachart-table.html
2002-2003
http://gambadataland.web.fc2.com/gamba1/inachart/2002inachart-table.html
2003-2005
http://gambadataland.web.fc2.com/gamba1/inachart/2003inachart-table.html
2005-2007
http://gambadataland.web.fc2.com/gamba1/inachart/2005inachart-table.html

Example




Legends in English
Good=3 -> 2 -> 1=Poor
(1) allegiance
(2) accuracy
(3) no hesitation
(4) charenging spirit
(5) unexpected plays
(6) passes
(7) shots
(8) Didn't Ina hold a ball for a long time, or did.
(9) side changes
(10) positioning changes
(11) power and moving
(12) How much did Ina show Ina's special play
(13) How much did Ina contribute to defenders
(14) How much better than a rival's did
(15) Customer Satisfaction
(16) Editor's Own Satinsfaction


***** Appendix 1 *****

Ina's History

Year	Team / Event
18 Sep 1979	Born in Kagoshima Prefecture
Nov 1979	Ina Family moved to Osaka Prefecture
1985	Seiei Gakuen SC Started playing football in Seiei kindergarten
1992	Jr. youth team of Ganba Osaka
1995	Youth team of Ganba Osaka
1997	Ganba Osaka
2001	Arsenal FC
2002	Fulham FC (maybe rentaled from Ganba Osaka)
2004	West Bromwich Albion FC
Dec 2004	Cardiff City (rental)
2005	West Bromwich Albion FC
2006	Galatasaray
2007	SGE

Ina's Personal Record

Season	Team	League Matches		Cup Matches
		Play	Goal	Play	Goal
1997	Ganba OSAKA	27	3
1998	Ganba OSAKA	28	6
1999	Ganba OSAKA	22	1
2000	Ganba OSAKA	28	4
2001	Ganba OSAKA	13	2
2001-02	Arsenal FC	0	0
2002-03	Fulham FC	18	2		4
2003-04	Fulham FC	22	2		1
2004-05	West Bromwich Albion FC	3	0
2004-05	Cardiff City (rental)	12	0
2005-06	West Bromwich Albion FC	22	0
2006-07	West Bromwich Albion FC	3	0
2006-07	Galatasaray	25	0		1
2007-08	SGE

Japan National Teams Ina was called up

Team

U-15

U-16

U-17

U-18

U-19

U-22

U-23

A

Main Games Ina played in International A Matches

Year	Play
1999	FIFA World Youth
2000	Sydney Olympics Game Asia Cup Confederatins Cup
2002	FIFA World Cup
2006	FIFA World Cup

Ina's Personal Record in International A Matches

Year	Play	Goal
2000	14	0
2001	11	1
2002	10	2
2003	10	1
2004	6	0
2005	10	0
2006	4	0
2007

Ina's Personal Title

Year	Title
1999	MVP of J-League all stars
2000	Yearly Best 11 of J-League
2000	Monthly Best Player of AFC (Asian Football Confederation)
2002	Monthly Best Player of AFC (Asian Football Confederation)

***** Appendix 2 *****

Links to refer

Wiki (English) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junichi_Inamoto
Wiki (Japanese) http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A8%B2%E6%9C%AC%E6%BD%A4%E4%B8%80
some JP articles as follows;
http://number.goo.ne.jp/soccer/world/613/20041021-f1-1.html
http://www.spopre.com/soccer/inamoto/01.html
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20070618-00000054-ism-spo
http://www.nikkansports.com/soccer/japan/p-sc-tp2-20070603-207996.html
http://homepage3.nifty.com/aonoheya/ina3.htm
http://home.cilas.net/~sv_ina/data.html

*Special Thanks to Koji Okawa*