This volume really got into the comparison of what differs between Europe and Japan with regards to Fukuda’s mention of the bad parts from the European model. The term soccer is a business in Europe and sounds worse than what it is. More so these countries truly invest in the sport as part of their culture. We already know that for Japan in terms of culture they don’t invite their kids to love the sport.
Naturally because how much the countries embrace the sport they want to invest in. There is competition for the players. In Europe various kids get invested in by the adults at a much younger age than middle school age. You have middle or high schoolers that seem to get treated almost like adults. The term agents is odd because at one point they are there to guide them. But on the flipside with more freedom means more responsibility. Meaning they can ignore the agents and could ruin their own lives since they are given so much at a young age. This is more likely what Fukuda doesn’t like about the European system. He wants to invest in the kids for the sport, but he knows giving the kids too much can get over in their heads.
We see the main difference between Ashito and Kuribayashi. As Ashito learns how the world looks at Japan’s soccer and in so many ways mocks it. He aims to prove that his home’s soccer and the environment which is more pure than the European method is not wrong. Of course we have Demian not even looking at Ashito. It raises the point that in Japan everyone would acknowledge your type of soccer. In the outside world they don’t even consider you a threat. Hell even for Demian he barely remembers Fukuda and Kuribayashi.
Fukuda and Saejima get into an argument about whether Fukuda getting an S-Class License is worthless or not. It is rather interesting as Saejima points out that the connection between Europe isn’t for the coaches too. As you can rise through the ranks just off connections. Fukuda’s main point of it not being useless is spot on since Japan’s system doesn’t invest in its youth. For both players and coaches they have the standard approaches of joining a youth team or getting a license for coaching. In Japan’s current system it is not useless. Obviously something like it wouldn’t work in Europe. Raise the point that each region has their own way of doing things and it is silly to compare.
Esperion really went all out to prepare for Barcelona, as having a match against their Senior team really raises the importance of this match. Interesting approach for Fukuda to match their possession game with their own. With Kuribayashi being a notable part of it. It seems most of Barcelona’s opponents end up backing down and end up intimidated. Curious how this has an effect on the match and interesting the response from Esperion has Barcelona even more excited.
