Friday, July 9, 2010

Japanese Abroad: Season Preview 10/11

The first player that I will be discussing is Shinji Kagawa who will be playing for Borussia Dortmund in the upcoming season.

Pre-Dortmund:
Prior to joining Dortmund Kagawa was leading the scoring charts in J1 with an impressive 7 goals in 11 games from the midfield. Kagawa dominated J2 the previous season with 27 goals in 44 games, securing the scoring title. Kagawa was pretty much carrying Cerezo before his transfer to Dortmund. After the disappointment of not being selected in the World Cup squad, it was announced that Kagawa would be transferring for a measly fee of 350,000 Euros. For Cerezo the loss of Kagawa is huge coupled with Inui's disappointing performances it will be difficult for them to stay up this season.

Present:
Right now it looks like Kagawa will have to earn his place in the starting eleven. With the addition of Lewandowski, Dortmund has a strong line-up of strikers including Barrios, and Valdez. Although Kagawa will not directly compete with these players he will probably have to adjust to not being the single scoring threat on the team. I think that the most difficult part for Kagawa will be learning to pass more and trust his teammates. He will have to buff up physically, but the most important part will be to learn how to adjust mentally.

Conclusion:
This will definitely be an interesting season for Kagawa. If he can establish himself as a legitimate scoring from midfield then he will be able to shine.

No comments:

Post a Comment