Tsuyoshi Kitazawa

Tsuyoshi Kitazawa

Personal information
Full name	Tsuyoshi Kitazawa
Date of birth	(1968-08-10) August 10, 1968
Place of birth	Machida, Tokyo, Japan
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1987–1991	Honda	51	(14)
1991–2002	Tokyo Verdy	265	(41)
Total		316	(55)
National team
1991–1999	Japan	58	(3)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Tsuyoshi Kitazawa (北澤 豪, Kitazawa Tsuyoshi, born August 10, 1968) is a former Japanese football player. He played for Japan national team. He was a midfielder known for his tireless work load and was capped 58 times for Japan national team. He is currently working on television as a football commentator.

Playing career

Club

When he was a junior high student, he played for Yomiuri Junior Youth. After being rejected by the club to advance to club's Youth team, he entered Shutoku High School and played for the school club. After graduating, he joined Japan Soccer League side Honda in 1987. He was the top scorer of the league in the 1990–1991 season.

He moved to Yomiuri (later Verdy Kawasaki, now Tokyo Verdy) in 1991. Kitazawa, together with his teammates Kazuyoshi Miura, Ruy Ramos, Nobuhiro Takeda, Tetsuji Hashiratani and Bismarck made the early 90's the golden era of Verdy who won the J1 League Championship (1993 and 1994) and J.League Cup (1992, 1993, and 1994). He finished his playing career as a Verdy player in 2002.

National team

Kitazawa represented Japan in the 1989 FIFA Futsal World Championship finals hosted by the Netherlands.

He was capped 58 times and scored 3 goals for the Japanese national team between 1991 and 1999.^[1] He made his international debut on 2 June 1991 in a friendly against Thailand in Tendō, Yamagata under national coach Kenzo Yokoyama. He was a member of the Japan team for the 1992 AFC Asian Cup that Japan won. He scored his first international goal on 6 November 1992 in the semifinal against China at Hiroshima Stadium.

He took part in Japan's unsuccessful campaign to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He was a member of the Asian final qualification stage that was held centrally in Qatar and played two games. He was on the bench when the Iraqi's injury-time equaliser dashed Japan's qualification hope in the last qualifier, the match that the Japanese fans now remember as the Agony of Doha.

Kitazawa was short-listed for the 1998 World Cup finals, but national coach Takeshi Okada dropped him along with Kazuyoshi Miura and Daisuke Ichikawa at the final training camp in Nyon, Switzerland.

Club statistics

National team statistics

Honors and awards

Team honors

• 1992 Asian Cup (Champions)

References

External links

• Tsuyoshi Kitazawa at National-Football-Teams.com
• Japan National Football Team Database
• Player statistics at J.League Data Site (Japanese)

Japan squad – 1992 AFC Asian Cup Winners (1st Title)
1 Matsunaga 2 Otake 3 Katsuya 4 Horiike 5 Hashiratani 6 Tsunami 7 Ihara 8 Fukuda 9 Takeda 10 Ramos 11 Miura 12 Yamada 13 Sakakura 14 Kitazawa 15 Yoshida 16 Nakayama 17 Moriyasu 18 Jinno 19 Maekawa 20 Takagi Coach: Ooft

Japan squad – 1995 FIFA Confederations Cup
1 Matsunaga 2 Natsuka 3 Tsunami 4 Ihara 5 Hashiratani 6 Moriyasu 7 Horiike 8 Kitazawa 9 T. Yamaguchi 10 Ramos 11 Miura 12 Kikuchi 13 Hasegawa 14 Isogai 15 M. Yamaguchi 16 Fukuda 17 Soma 18 Yanagimoto 19 Okano 20 Kojima Coach: Kamo