Sick Reds & the Mysterious Mr Tahara

Adelaide United are now in Japan for the Club World Cup and, according to this article, getting sick. Apparently Ognenovski, Cassio and now Jamieson have caught a nasty virus (although I dispute the assertion that Oggy would just 'catch' a virus: he probably gave it a sporting headstart before chasing the bastard down).

The most interesting part of this article, though, is the fact that Adelaide are having a long hard look at Kyoto Sanga FC and former Japan U-21 striker Yutaka Tahara.

All that can be gleaned from this guy's profile on Wikipedia is that he is tall, hairy, scores a goal every four games or so, and plays for the world's second-most awesome team. They're my favourites in the J.League because some old guys in an izakaya in Kyoto gave me free whisky and beer and told me they were good; plus they wear a rather fetching purple strip. Needless to say, a striker would be a pretty handy addition to the team, so I hope he's decent and Adelaide can lure him with the sort of incentives that he couldn't get at a Japanese club, like pie floaters and a laissez-faire attitude to work.

According to MTT82 on the AdelaideReds forum,

His coach Hisashi Kato refused to play him in summer because he said that Tahara
was addicted to sugary drinks (like Powerade) and he could only get one half of
football out of him. No joke.

That leaves me feeling quite optimistic. Powerade has certainly been known to give people the Energy Edge TM . And a half of football is still a half of football more than we have really ever managed to get out of Ago this season.

Oh, and Adelaide's CWC matches will be shown live on SBS - how good is that? Waitakere on Thursday night should be awesome... Adelaide have a taste for Kiwi blood. Game on mofos.