Recorded at an izakaya in Shinjuku last Thursday night, Feb. 10, our first episode probably went a bit longer than we'd expected, but hopefully it's good listening for all Tokyo fans. Here's the rundown:
- Part 1: A quick introduction of the three of us, and a brief history of the club;
- Part 2 (from around 6 mins in): We break down where it all went wrong in 2010;
- Part 3 (from around 23 mins in): Arrivals & Departures, a quick look at the first two training matches of the pre-season, how we might set up and how we'll fare in 2011, plus a passionate discussion about the state of the club and what our priorities should be this year.
Listening options? Well, you have three of them! You can listen on the embedded player below, to subscribe to the iTunes RSS feed paste http://www.voiceblog.jp/gas_talk/rss2.0.xml in "Subscribe to Podcast" in the Advanced menu, or if you'd like to download the mp3 you can do so by visiting
http://www.archive.org/details/GasTalk-Episode1 - you'll find it ready for you there.
Enjoy.
thank you nice talking.
ReplyDeleteJust listened to your first blog and I enjoyed it.The depth of knowledge all three of you have of your favourite J League team comes through very clearly. I also felt the passion you have for your team and disgust and anger at what happened last season. For you this season can only be about one thing - promotion out of the wilderness.
ReplyDeleteWill there be further blogs? I hope so, but I just wonder that if this season becomes a procession what will you have to talk about. However i am sure you can come up with some good and interesting ideas.
Good luck at home to Tosa
Cheers, Steve
Hi, Thank you very much for your nice talk. I really enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteI'm always surprised your summary of FCT's information and prompt comments. Especially you mentioned about new comers of this season, I cannot imagine how to get such a minor information in English.
If you get them from JP articles, did you read Mr.Murabayashi's interviews at Tokyo Chunichi site? His viewpoint is of course different from fans, so it was interesting. Especially, he mentioned that the team after 2004's nabisco wins reached a plateau of growth. As a team, even here is Tokyo, the team couldn't have the acceptance of international talent of manager, that's why Garo's team didn't work well and lose the chance of change as a team. 5 years has passed, but the same "Change" theme is still alive...
Anyway, I'm always enjoying your blog. I receive season ticket today, expects to have fun time at opening match with Tosu. Please keep update!
from aikidon
Steve,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment mate. Glad you enjoyed the pod. A new fantasy one coming next weekend hopefully by the way!
The three of us are at slightly different levels of acceptance of our fate I think (!), but it is what it is and we'll all be there hoping to see a big reaction from the players.
As for what will happen "if" we end up walking the league, I'm sure Graham and I will still be able to come up with things to moan about!
Cheers mate.
aikidon,
Thanks very much for your comment, in particular your kind words about the podcast and the blog. Very nice of you to say.
When it came to getting info on Tokyo's new players, I was indebted to my Gas Talk colleague Dan, and to the wonders of the internet to find out about them!
I didn't see the interview with Mr Murabayashi unfortunately, did you feel he was accepting responsibility for our failure to really kick-on and become a true J.League force? Its worth remembering that even though we won the Nabisco in '04, we finished 6th in the 1st stage and 10th in the 2nd. The club have had chances to change the culture around the place, and its a little strange that a "big-name" manager hasn't seen the possibility to turn Tokyo into a big, dominant club, but maybe with Murabayashi out of the way the new managaement will be able to attract someone.
There are a lot of issues facing the club as we go forward, as Dan mentioned in the podcast, but I think Graham and I feel that we have to simply plan for this season, as failure to be promoted would be disastrous.
Once again, thanks for your comment. I'll be there for the Tosu game too, lets hope we get off to a good start!
As the 3rd Man in the podcast, let me thank both Steve and aikidon for your comments!
ReplyDeleteSteve, you know as well as I do that Ben is more than capable of coming up with things to complain about. Personally I hope we'll be able to discuss J.League in general and its issues (as an example, the Okazaki/Stuttgart debacle) and maybe even some talk on the National Team.
Aikidon, I haven't read the interview either but I'm familiar with it and have read some discussion about it.
I think that FC Tokyo suffers from the same problem that the rest of the league faces: a stubborn unwillingness, by the teams and the league, to adapt to the new media realities of the 21st century.
From a total lack of multimedia presence online and a sycophantic press that rarely if ever criticizes officiating decisions to an absence of international outreach, J.League is a victim of Japanese culture and corporate stubbornness. And the league will continue to underperform until that changes.