Kamijiro Sports Hub

[Kamijiro]

Hello and welcome to the official hub of all things Kamijiroan sports! After much delegation, it's been decided that individual sports pages should combine into one large site for ease of access for readers and sports writers alike. The articles below will include everything from official announcements from leagues or national sporting organizations to stories from athletes themselves.

Without further ado... the Kamijiro Sports Hub!

[Kamijiro]

[ooc]: due to the fact that Kamijiro wanted to participate in the Champions League, the rest of the KPL season was scorinated. The final table and stats are below.

Team          W  D  L  GF  GA  GD  Pts
Raijin-shi    7  2  5  22  21  +1   23 - Champions League
East Jiro     6  4  4  14  14   0   22 - Challengers Cup
New Volendam  7  1  6  26  28  -2   22 - Challengers Cup
South Central 5  6  3  25  20  +5   21
St. Jerome    5  4  5  26  24  +2   19
Chamonix      4  5  5  18  19  -1   17
Porto         4  3  7   8  10  -2   15
Pwllheli      3  5  6  18  21  -3   14 - Relegation

Scorer             G        Club
Joshua Johnson     9        New Volendam
Dominique Joseph   8        Chamonix
Andre Verhoeven    8        South Central
Saiichi Demizu     6        Raijin-shi
Katsu Fujiwara     6        Raijin-shi
Andy Crook         5        St. Jerome
Kaneto Kanazono    5        Raijin-shi
Hiroya Kioka       5        St. Jerome
Soji Kokubun       5        East Jiro
Darren Williams    5        Pwllheli

Assister           A        Club
Joshua Johnson     8        New Volendam
Kaneto Kanazono    8        Raijin-shi
Kingsley Dunkley   7        St. Jerome
Oliver Freeland    7        Pwllheli
Rick Fisher        6        Chamonix
Soji Kokubun       6        East Jiro
Philippe Seraphin  6        Chamonix
Katsu Fujiwara     5        Raijin-shi
Yuya Kohara        5        South Central
Nicácio Xavier     5        Pwllheli
Kiyomoto Zayasu    5        Raijin-shi

Due to their last-place ranking in the league, Pwllheli have been relegated. Miraisaki City will replace them.

The following players from Pwllheli will be testing the international market for their next club after Pwllheli's relegation from the top-flight.
Jokichi Asumi, Goalkeeper, Age 21. Conceded just 1.29 goals on average, and had an 86.88% save rate. May sign for native Raijin-shi to replace Bunta Nagano.
Oliver Freeland, Attacking Midfielder, Age 29. Gave out seven assists, scored four goals. He's looking for a big pay day.
Darren Williams, Striker, Age 24. Scored five goals last season and also contributed a few assists. Looking for a competitive club.
Nicácio Xavier, Attacking Midfielder, Age 19. Youngest player to end the season on the assist charts, giving out five. Looking for a club with good development team.
All four of these players have at least made the national team shortlist, with Oliver Freeland making the final cut at Cup of Harmony 88.

The following players won awards last season.

Most Valuable Player: Soji Kokubun, East Jiro Athletic. Had 78.6% of East Jiro's goal contributions (11 G/A, East Jiro had 14 total).
Young Player of the Season (U21): Katsu Fujiwara, Raijin-shi. Had 11 G/A at Age 20. Considered the brightest young star in the country.
Goalkeeper of the Season: Jokichi Asumi, Pwllheli. Saved a ridiculous number of shots and was the only reason Pwllheli was close to staying up.
Defensive Player of the Season: Philippe Seraphin, Chamonix. Was the only primary defender to chart on the assists leaderboard and was solid on the right side.
Hustle Player of the Season: Geraldo Coutinho, East Jiro Athletic. His pressing was world class and was the cause for most of Soji Kokubun's goals.

[Kamijiro]

In a gym, somewhere in Miraisaki, nearly 400 hopefuls for the new basketball league line up and wait for their names to be taken by a registrar.

A few players already know they'll have offers from every team. They're the flashy players, the ones who can score fifty points at will. The rest of these guys? Well, they're just hoping their name gets called. The first part of the tryout is even showing up. More than 600 people had signed up, and yet just under two-thirds of that number actually showed. The next part? The waiting game.

Conversations in Japanese and French catch the ear first as the line clumps up and waits nervously. The line is heavily Raijin-shi and Chamonix natives, with some St. Jerome or Porto natives mixed in. The time ticks closer to six in the morning, the designated start for the trials. The line slowly dwindles down as more people are processed through, being given shirts with numbers on them for the sake of coaches and scouts.

Through the steel doors, the rhythm of basketballs being dribbled can be heard as players begin warming up. They don't know it, but they're already being judged from above. Through a one-way mirror, eight coaches watch as players go through their routines. One coach writes down a number after watching a young-looking, wiry forward lace a three. Another shakes his head as he watches an older center brick free throw after free throw. The clock ticks closer and closer. At exactly six, the last trialist, Number 397, is ushered through the doors. And then, with a loud slam, they lock shut. The coaches make their way down to the courts.

The whistle blows, and every basketball in the gym suddenly stops bouncing. The players are told to line up on the baseline in order of shortest to tallest. After a brief moment, the order's been set - on one end stands a skinny guard who had to be no taller than five-foot-nine. On the opposite end stands a looming center who looks like he may clear seven feet. There is a quick order to turn around. The players are then photographed from behind to catch their shirt numbers in their orders of height.

The coaches begin to introduce themselves. Three hail from the Department of Raijin-shi, one from the city itself and two from the surrounding areas. Two more are from Chamonix, and the others are from various cities across the country. They represent the management of each of the new eight organizations in the Kamijiroan Basketball Association. And they're here to watch you perform. Play well, and they'll make you an offer today. Play poorly and the only thing you'll leave with is the shirt you were given for tryouts.

Players separate into position groups. The guards are taken through basic passing and ball-handling skills, as with the forwards. The centers split off entirely and work on rebounding and post-up drills. There are very few centers - just six guys. And of those six, only three of them look any good. Standout players immediately start impressing the coaches, with their numbers being written down and their every move being watched. Once the drills were up, scrimmages were underway. Game sense is the biggest key for the coaches. Could a player make the right play? Every time?

During the scrimmages, a handful of players set themselves apart from their peers. A machine-like scorer from Raijin-shi was lighting up every defense he looked at. Every coach has his number taken down - 44. Taiki Ito. By the time the whistle blows for the end of the first scrimmage, he had effortlessly put up nearly 30 points. He goes to the water cooler and grabs a drink. He's already got offers lined up. He knows it.

The scrimmages go on and players make themselves known to the coaches. Numbers are furiously scribbled down. Each coach has a very specific vision for how basketball should be played - each list is different, mostly. After hours upon hours of drilling and playing and coaches keeping tabs on players in their heads, the trials were done. Several players start packing immediately, the writing was on the wall. One sibling duo, Jan and Theo de Jong, tearfully say goodbye as Theo prepares to leave. Jan was on several shortlists - Theo was not.

Each coach posts the numbers of the players they're interested in on a board in the front of the gym. Several players are on just one of the sheets - they only have one option for teams. Take it or leave it. Taiki Ito has all eight teams interested. For him, the choice is obvious - his native Miraisaki. They have his signature as soon as the bids open. The teams round out their rosters piece by piece. By the end of the day, every roster is finalized - just 96 players had made the overall cut. A few more were told to be on standby. But of the 397 that made it to tryouts, 301 of them had been cut.

The goal of this league is to prepare Kamijiro for it's return to the international spotlight in basketball. Whether or not it works out is another story.

[Kamijiro]

Meanwhile, across the country from the basketball tryouts, a disgruntled Miro Mäkinnen sits in front of an ice skating rink, much too small for hockey.

"Son of a bitch..." he mutters, "How am I supposed to take a bunch of people who have never played hockey before and turn them into winners?"
He'd been hired by King Kaminari himself all the way from his native Finland to help coach the newly-founded Kamijiroan hockey team. He'd been given a ridiculously large payment to come nearly 6,000 miles across the world and teach what he knew best. He'd been personally found by the sporting advisor to the throne. All of this was well and good, and he had been paid in advance. But they didn't really mention that there's one skating rink in the whole country. And that it isn't regulation size. And that nobody in the country really knows how hockey works. Hell, some people don't even know what hockey was. As a matter of fact, in the most recent sport popularity poll, ice hockey placed 23rd. One place below competitive earthworm spotting and identification. The "tryout" was set to begin at one in the afternoon. Miro expected a group of no more than ten to show up, if that. He also expected half of them to not know how to skate.

At around quarter to one, one person showed up. Miro perked up as the door to the rink opened... and in walked a 5'11" kid who had some home made skates. Miro didn't care. One person was still better than nobody. "Hello, I'm Alain Jean-Charles. Just call me A.J." Miro shook his hand and introduced himself, deeply thankful that somebody had come after all.

"Have you ever played hockey before, AJ?"
"No. But I have skated before."
"So you can skate?"
"Ummm... it's been a long time, but I think so...?"
"Alright, well, you go skate around. Borrow a stick if you need one, and there's a bucket of pucks over there."

So off went AJ. Miro watched on as he stumbled over a few times before finding his footing. A couple more people showed up after AJ - one from Raijin-shi, one from St. Jerome. They introduced themselves as Rika Tsutsumi and Luke Hamilton, respectively. Luke had real hockey skates. Rika had a pair designed for ice skating - she had been a figure skater when she was younger.

Miro was about to call the sports authority to check if women were allowed to play. But he decided against it when he remembered that he needed to take basically everybody who showed up, regardless of their gender. Around one, a few more stragglers showed up, and then it was time to hit the ice. The group tallied just seventeen people. By his math, that was enough to have three lines, a goalkeeper and an extra

"Listen up! For those of you who don't know me, I'm Miro Mäkinnen. I'm going to be your coach for this upcoming Hockey World Cup. I've done a lot of coaching in my time, despite my age. I'm pleased to meet you all. There's not many of you here, but I'm hoping that we'll be able to band together and make some real progress. I want this sport to have a bigger influence in this country. Now, I need to ask, do any of you have actual hockey experience? Even just playing around with friends."

One hand went up. A bigger man, Shaun Johnson. "I've played goalkeeper before with friends. I'm pretty good at it, I think."
Miro nodded and replied: "That's fine by me. Are your friends here?"
"No. I lived abroad for a little while as a teenager. I'm a citizen here, though, so that shouldn't be an issue."
"Ah."

Miro was a little unsure how to begin a "tryout" for a team that didn't really know how to even lace up their skates properly.
"I... um... how about you all line up over by the net and then skate to the other net. Try to go as fast as you can, but stay in control."

The next fifteen minutes consisted of people falling over, lots of laughing and a couple of bruised egos. The only one who made it all the way down and back without issue was Rika, who was able to get there and back like lightning compared to everybody else. Miro decided at this point that it would probably be a good idea to have her teach the other players how to skate effectively. After about an hour of everybody learning how to skate, it became apparent that doing this with pads was going to be a whole different beast. But for now, getting from point A to point B without falling was progress.

"How long does everybody have? I mean, today. How long can you all be here?"
Nobody objected to staying until the rink closed.

The team went through various drills aimed at getting everybody up to speed with how to skate forwards and backwards and how to change directions quickly.

At the end of the day, Miro announced that, against his better judgement, he was going to have them try to scrimmage. He gave out sticks and some old pads he had brought with him. He noted the lines on the ice for them - and that despite the rink being small compared to normal, they'd have to make it work.

He divided everybody into teams, trying to pick even squads. The first two teams on the ice were "captained" by Rika and AJ, who had finally learned how to skate fast without falling over, but seemed to have an incredible ability to control the puck, based on his limited warm-up time prior to everybody else's arrival.

Miro explained that once he dropped the puck, the two of them would try to get control of it for their team by swiping at it. They nodded. The puck dropped. And both of them tried to get the puck out to their teammates. It squirted through the legs of AJ, who then tried to call for the puck back. However, the pass back was awful and went flying past everybody.

Miro blew his whistle. "That's icing."
The defenseman who botched the pass, Ryuta Nomura, was immediately confused.
"Uh... all I did was send the puck to their side of the ice on accident. Why is that wrong...?"
"Ah shit... lemme put this into football terms... okay, so basically, you can't clear the puck all the way from your penalty area to the opponent's goal line. It's not allowed."
"What the f***. Okay, so no clearing the puck like a football. Got it."

And so, another face off ensued.
This one went to Rika's team, who then passed the puck around for a little while before it found it's way back to Rika. She decided to try a shot, but it immediately flew into the groin of an unsuspecting Baku Matsuki, who doubled over in pain.

"Alright, well, this is going about as well as I'd hoped." Miro let out a small laugh. "Gentlemen, tomorrow, bring a cup, okay? Ladies... or I guess just lady, I don't know if there's a lady version of a cup, but get one."

Baku subbed off for a few minutes as play resumed. It took nearly fifteen minutes for either team to get a shot on net. Shaun Johnson smothered it, but it was improvement.

The players rotated through, but no goals were found for a long while. Eventually the puck managed to slip through the legs of the designated back-up keeper, Aaron Kelleher, (who had never been a keeper before, but had surprisingly done well so far).

The funniest part of this whole thing for Miro was watching the players occasionally falling over for no apparent reason or trying to kick the puck like a football (whether or not this was instinct from playing football was another question). And he only needed to explain the offside rule about a dozen times before people understood it. "The line, not the defender! The line! Not the defender!" This was the hard part of explaining hockey to a footballing nation.

The rag-tag Ice Lightning were finally understanding things. Whether or not they'd be able to do anything against actual opponents was another story entirely. But for now? This would do for Miro. A real challenge in coaching. What he'd been looking for.

[Kamijiro]

Season I: Power Rankings, Rookie Ages and the Promotion and Relegation Debate

To start off, the basketball scene in Kamijiro was already massive. It was always up there with football for the most popular in the nation, especially after the King (Crown Prince at the time) himself became a player in the league (before the St. Jerome incident. He's now too busy as King to return). The phoenix league has already got thousands of Kamijiroans dusting off their old jerseys - although all the old players have since moved to other professional leagues or retired. Each team will play 66 games in the season, giving every fan the chance to see their favorite team 33 times during the season.

Eight teams. Nearly a hundred players dying to prove themselves for the sake of the national team. Who will come out on top? The basketball experts at Kamijiro Sports Hub have gotten together and dribbled through the numbers. (See what I did there?) The overall list consists of placements based on average rankings given by our panel of five experts, based on the pre-season scrimmages and our expectations for the future.

1. St. Jerome. Average list placement: 1.4
2. Porto de Kamijiro. Average list placement: 1.8
3. Miraisaki City. Average list placement: 3.2
4. Raijin-shi. Average list placement: 4.0
5. Chamonix. Average list placement: 4.6
6. East Jiro. Average list placement: 6.2
7. New Volendam. Average list placement: 7.2
8. South Central. Average list placement: 7.6

The question has become: what of promotion and relegation? Should this new basketball league mirror the Premier League, with it's promotion and relegation system? The vote came down to the wire: but it ended as a 5-3 vote to no. This league will not involve relegation, but instead will feature a system in which the top teams are allowed to offer higher contracts based on team winnings, therefore giving incentive to not tank. There will be a single-round draft, but other than that, rookies will be free to sign with whichever team they choose, assuming mutual interest.

Our way-too-early predictions for awards:
MVP: Taiki Ito. Has a natural scoring ability that few players can emulate. An ideal combo guard. Miraisaki City will rest their hopes on him.
DPOY: Daniel Idris or Kevin Pierre. Both are towering forwards that have a high defensive instinct. Idris is a better shot-blocker, though, so there is that.
YPOY: René Fontes. 19-year-old speedy guard from Porto who already has one of the best passing visions in the game.
6MOY: Dominique Marquis. Forward that's stuck on the bench on a log-jammed roster, but easily one of the more talented players in the league.

We'll be back around the All-Star break to announce the rosters and give a mid-season review and preview for the playoffs.

Thanks for reading.
- Baku Nanami

[Kamijiro]

Official Announcement

Effective immediately, Kamijiro is no longer a member of the Republic of Europeia. The country has re-aligned with Esportiva. This positions Kamijiro to play in Esportiva-based tournaments in the near future.

King Kaminari signed the resolution last night at around midnight local time. There are no further changes other than the allegiance of the country.

[Kamijiro]

Transfer News

Welcome all! The transfer window opened up - and for the first time ever, Kamijiroans are leaving and foreigners are coming in to play football. There was immense debate on whether this would be allowed, but the Kamijiroan Football Association voted 11-2 in favor of opening the market to foreign clubs.

The largest mover in this transfer window (thus far) in terms of volume has been newly-promoted Miraisaki City, who have made four signings, while the largest signing has been made by Raijin-shi, splashing a $12,500,000 fee on Soji Kokubun from East Jiro.

The (still-updating) breakdown for each team is listed below.

Chamonix:

In:
- Roque Sosa, from Norteño (TER). Age 18, plays center-back. Free transfer.
- Marquis Wiltort, from Noechatel (AUP). Age 18, plays center-back. Free transfer.

Out:
- None thus far

East Jiro:

In:
- Flavio Gisbert, from Len Miners (CRN). Age 19, plays center-back. Free transfer.
- Minato Kaysen, from Olympica Astoria F.C. Academy (CRN). Age 18, plays right wing. Free transfer.
- Tatsushi Nakamori, from Porto de Kamijiro (KMJ). Age 20, plays striker and right wing. Fee of $100,000.

Out:
- Soji Kokubun, to Raijin-shi (KMJ). Age 24, plays striker and left wing. Fee of $12,500,000.

Miraisaki City:

In:
- Mikiko Kikawada, from Seireikakkin (KOR). Age 22, plays center-back. Free transfer.
- João Lerner, from Porto de Kamijiro (KMJ). Age 22, plays defensive midfield. Fee of $250,000.
- Raquel Lopez, from Benopia Juniors (EFL). Age 18, plays center-back, right back and left back. Free transfer.
- Raphaëlle Soucy, from Couen Arsenal (PTR). Age 22, plays striker. Fee of $500,000.

Out:
- None thus far

New Volendam:

In:
- Folkert Nieuwboom, from Staudum VV (KOR). Age 21, plays right back. Fee of $7,000,000.
- Masakatsu Nishizaki, from Raijin-shi (KMJ). Age 35, plays attacking midfield. Fee of $750,000.
- Andre Verhoeven, from South Central (KMJ). Age 21, plays striker and attacking midfield. Fee of $8,000,000.

Out:
- None thus far

Porto de Kamijiro:

In:
- Crna Gora, from Akadimia (VDR). Age 16, plays defensive midfield. Free transfer.
- Jamarion Perez, from Toclofania JFC (EFL). Age 18, plays striker. Free transfer.

Out:
- João Lerner, to Miraisaki City (KMJ). Age 22, plays defensive midfield. Fee of $250,000.
- Tatsushi Nakamori, to East Jiro (KMJ). Age 20, plays striker and right wing. Fee of $100,000.

Raijin-shi:

In:
- Jokichi Asumi, from Pwllheli (KMJ). Age 21, plays goalkeeper. Fee of $1,000,000.
- Keyon Bryson, from Copper City Juniors (EFL). Age 18, plays right back and defensive midfield. Free transfer.
- Soji Kokubun, from East Jiro (KMJ). Age 24, plays striker and left wing. Fee of $12,500,000.

Out:
- Masakatsu Nishizaki, to New Volendam (KMJ). Age 35, plays center midfield. Fee of $750,000.

South Central:

In:
- Merwyn Rogelio, from Revisionism Academy (EFL). Age 18, plays defensive midfield. Free transfer.

Out:
- Andre Verhoeven, to New Volendam (KMJ). Age 21, plays striker and attacking midfield. Fee of $8,000,000.

St. Jerome:

In:
- Marquise Cameron, from Brook Academy (EFL). Age 18, plays center midfield. Free transfer.
- Charlotte van Adel, from Meridiem Septentrionis (KOR). Age 19, plays defensive midfield. Free transfer.

Out:
- None thus far

Pwllheli, the side relegated to the second tier, have announced the following transfers.

In:
- None thus far

Out:
- Jokichi Asumi, to Raijin-shi (KMJ). Age 21, plays goalkeeper. Fee of $1,000,000.
- Oliver Freeland, to Wanda Island Wanderers (AFT). Age 29, plays attacking midfield. Fee of $1,000,000.
- Nicácio Xavier, to Arsenal de Releinthi (AFT). Age 19, plays attacking midfield. Fee of $1,500,000.

[Kamijiro]

The First Foray Into International Club Football Went... Poorly

Raijin-shi, the freshly-crowned Kamijiroan Premier League champions, faced off against Tero Al Disco's Moncloa in the first qualifying round of the Champions League. They lost 1-2 on aggregate, with Soji Kokubun being the only one to find net. No biggie - they'd still have the opportunity to qualify for the Challengers Cup. Except they then got obliterated 2-6 on aggregate by Auprussia's Birivistice.

New Volendam also fell early, losing their matchup in the first qualifying round of the Challengers Cup to Ezriquay United FC, 1-3 on aggregate.

And the last hope for Kamijiroan Club Football, East Jiro, fell 2-3 on aggregate to FC Nuholm.

With that, I believe that the Kamijiroan clubs have all failed to qualify for any competition, so that's all she wrote from the IFCF.