| Nagoya Grampalace | |
| |
| Nickname | |
| Kanji | |
| Romanji | |
| Captain | Tani |
| Manager | Fuwa |
| Last Season Finish | 8th[1] |
Nagoya Grampalace is one of East Tokyo United's League rivals. It is led by Manager Fuwa, who led ETU to its relegation to the 2nd division[2].
Overview[]
Nagoya faced ETU for their 4th League Match and lost 2-0. Prior to that, Nagoya was on a five game winning streak, having won all three of their prior league matches and two Japan Cup matches. Indeed Nagoya completely dominated their match against Oita Triplex, whom they played just prior to meeting ETU, with Pepe scoring two goals during that match.[3]
Tsubaki scoring against Nagoya Grampalace
As such, Nagoya had come into the match against ETU the clear favourites. However, by that point, the ETU players had began to get used to Tatsumi and his methods. As a result, Tatsumi unveiled one of his Giant Killing strategies against Nagoya and took them down by exploiting a weakness in their defence. Namely, Tatsumi realised that Nagoya's defence took their entire cue form Carlos and were he to move up field, then the defence would fall apparent. As a result, Tatsumi had Tsubaki and Gino frustrate Carlos's attempts to pass to Zelberto, forcing the former to move closer to Zelberto in order to be able to pass to him. Once Carlos had moved-up, ETU quickly exploited the gap left by him with Tsubaki scoring the opener.[4]
Kuroda vs Domingo
On the defensive side of things, Tatsumi matched-up Kuroda with Itagaki and Sugie with Pepe. As Sugie is ETU's best defender, Itagaki though it an insult to be paired with Kuroda, especially since Itagaki had been forced to play on the left-side by Fuwa since the arrival of Pepe and Sugie usually covers the left-side. However, Tatsumi explained that he had chosen the match-up because Itagaki cannot go past Kuroda. Kuroda revealed that the reason for this is that during his rookie years he had been embarrassed by Domingo, a Nagoya forward of Colombian origin. As a result, Kuroda studied Domingo's playing style while ETU was relegated to the second division but when ETU returned to the first division, Domingo had already left. However, Itagaki copied Domingo's playing style (according to Kuroda it is an inferior copy) and as a result Kuroda doesn't see why Itagaki should be able to get past him.[5]
Gino celebrates his goal
As Nagoya pushed to equalise, Tsubaki beat Carlos with skillful play. Amazed by Tsubaki's skills, Zelberto took his attention off Gino. The unmarked Gino then proceeded to score the second goal and all but sealing the victory. Nagoya had a chance in the dying minutes of the game to score a goal but Pepe's shot hit the crossbar, thus ending the match 0-2 in favour of ETU. Fuwa, however, dismissed the loss claiming that while the victory might mean a great deal to ETU, the loss didn't mean a damn thing to Nagoya. However, Tatsumi warned Fuwa that if he didn't accept that he lost, he would find the rug pulled out from under him over and over. Tatsumi also told Matsubara that he had found even more weak points with Nagoya and was confident of delivering an even bigger defeat next time.[6]
Nagoya's 16th League match was against Tokyo Victory. They won that match 1-0, thanks to a goal from Pepe.[7] During the Primal Cup Japan All Stars vs World All Stars game's pre-game show, Nagayo's mascot was tackled by ETU's Mascot Pakka, which earned Pakka a red card. For the actual All Stars game, Nagayo's Brazilian trio were all part of the World Stars line-up.[8]
League Standing[]
Halfway through the season (after 17 matches), Nagoya entered the League's summer hiatus in 7th place with 26 points[9].
Player Roster[]
Nagoya has a total of five National Players, three Brazilian National Players and two Japanese National Players.[3]
| Jersey # | Name | Position |
| 2 | Koga | Defender |
| 4 | Fujikawa | Defender |
| 7 | Tani (Captain) | Midfielder |
| 8 | Zelberto | Midfielder |
| 10 | Kawase | Midfielder |
| 11 | Itagaki | Forward |
| 13 | Sekine | Defender/Midfielder |
| 17 | Carlos | Midfielder |
| 20 | Pepe | Forward |
| Mitsuru Sakamoto | Goalkeeper | |
| Kanji Nishimura | Defender |
Trivia[]
- Nagoya Grampalace is based on Nagoya Grampus.
- The team's mascot is a fish named Shacchi[10].
References[]
- ↑ Giant Killing Anime; Episode 6
- ↑ Giant Killing Manga; Chapter 151
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Giant Killing Anime; Episode 9
- ↑ Giant Killing Anime; Episodes 10-13
- ↑ Giant Killing Anime; Episodes 10-11
- ↑ Giant Killing Anime; Episode 13
- ↑ Giant Killing Manga; Chapter 106, Page 5
- ↑ Giant Killing Manga; Chapter 124
- ↑ Giant Killing manga; Volume 18
- ↑ Giant Killing manga; Volume 13