Saturday night was a dark one for Sydney FC, but if there’s one bright spot from their 3-1 defeat to Adelaide United, it’s that Japanese midfielder Hirofumi Moriyasu proved he has what it takes to compete in the A-League.
Moriyasu came on with Sydney 2-0 down at half-time against the Reds, and the tenacious midfielder never stopped running even when the result was a foregone conclusion.
He’s come a long way from his birthplace in Kagawa on the small island of Shikoku, but clearly a player who nine months ago considered giving up his dreams of becoming a professional footballer has plenty to be enthusiastic about.
Last year, Moriyasu’s former club Mitsubishi Mizushima finished bottom of the Japan Football League – the equivalent of the third division – and he soon found himself in search of new employers.
“Yeah, the season ended about early December of last year and I went on a trial for one team, but I didn’t get the spot,” Moriyasu tells me by email.
“So, I decided to finish my soccer career and start my coaching. I went to Shimizu S-Pulse kids school for two weeks to see how things are, but when I was there, I felt it was too early to coach young kids.
“So, I decided to try for one last time. But I didn’t want to play soccer in Japan, so I was looking for a place that speaks English.”
The rest, as they say, is history: although Sydney FC fans can thank NSW Premier League club APIA Leichhardt for taking a punt on Moriyasu after he lobbed up in the city’s inner-west with little more than a change of clothes and an ambition to play at the highest level.
APIA supremo Tony Raciti was quick to tip off Sydney FC officials about Moriyasu’s potential – but only after he’d scored five goals as a defensive midfielder – and Moriyasu eventually found himself on the books of the defending A-League champions.
“To tell the truth, I couldn’t believe it,” Moriyasu says of his dream move, and considering how much effort he put in during a lost cause against the Reds, he’s clearly delighted with his new surroundings.
Sydney FC coach Vitezslav Lavicka will no doubt hope the diminutive midfielder can spark his struggling team over the coming weeks, and former A-League midfielder Naoki Imaya believes Moriyasu can become an integral component of the Sky Blues line-up.
“His technical ability will help him out and if he can learn the mental side of Australian football, he may turn out to be one of the key players for Sydney FC,” says the former New Zealand Knights midfielder.
Moriyasu lists Barcelona and Arsenal as his two favourite teams, but for now he’s clearly content to run out at the Sydney Football Stadium after finally fulfilling his dream of becoming a professional footballer.
Next on the agenda is firing his cellar-dwelling outfit up the standings, and Moriyasu is as hungry as anyone for success in the harbour city.
“I want to contribute to Sydney FC in some way in the future. Hopefully (I’ll) score a winning goal,” Moriyasu says.
Sydney FC fans everywhere are hoping he does exactly that, and it’s hard to imagine how Czech coach Lavicka will keep Moriyasu out of his starting line-up against Wellington Phoenix next weekend.
The hard-running midfielder has already moved all over the globe – including spending ten years in the United States in various spells – but he may have finally found a home in Sydney.
And if he can crack the Sky Blues starting eleven on a long-term basis, he may encourage more Japanese players to take a shot at the A-League, whilst solving some of Sydney FC’s midfield problems at the same time.
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