Tsunami-hit club Sendai fights for J-League title

What a remarkable start to the season for Vegalta, and for Ryang-Yong Gi. He is a class act as the creative fulcrum in that side. Not sure how long it will last for, but long may the Kashiwa/Vegalta battle at the top continue.

"Sendai, the J-League team hardest hit by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the tsunami that followed, defeated Ventforet Kofu 4-0 on Wednesday to move within one point of leader Kashiwa Reysol."

Was the team literally hit by the tsunami? Come on... this is emotional writing at its worst. Their area devastated? sure, but unless they were personally injured I'm not sure why it should matter. They are doing well, and that's awesome -- putting a 'victim' status on their performance only undermines how well they are doing, regardless of the good intentions people might be trying to pass on.

No, it wasn't hit by the tsunami, but many of Vegalta's supporters were. I know lots of people from eastern Miyagi, as in Ishinomaki, Nattori and Ichinoseki in southern Iwate, that are staunch Vegalta Sendai supporters, and they lost plenty, if not everything in the disaster. As the article states, Marquinhos - a marquee signing was too traumatized to play. Their stadium, Yurtec Stadium, was "literally hit" by the earthquake, and badly damaged by the earthquake. It took teams of volunteer Vegalta supporters lots of effort to get the stadium ready in time for the resumption of the J-League. They have to play games in the afternoon to align themselves with requests to save power in Tohoku.

So yeah, I think you can safely say they were the team most affected by the tsunami. They weren't the only ones of course, but definitely the most affected.

I read elsewhere that the afternoon starts are due to problems with the lighting towers. They should be fixed soon, and games will resume at night in mid-July.

Vegalta's practice field and clubhouse was also pretty hard hit. They finally moved back into their clubhouse two weeks ago.