Takayuki Suzuki

Takayuki Suzuki (鈴木 隆行, Suzuki Takayuki, born June 5, 1976) is a former Japanese football player. He played for Japan national team.

Career

Club

Suzuki has spent the majority of his playing career with Kashima Antlers, playing six stints for the team over the course of ten years, in between short periods playing in Brazil and Belgium. Suzuki played 87 games in the J1 League for Kashima, scoring 17 goals, and helping the team win the J1 League Championship in 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2001.

On January 28, 2006, Suzuki signed with Red Star Belgrade during the 2005/06 season winter break at the period Toyota was the main sponsor of the club.^[1] Takayuki Suzuki had not scored for 1790 minutes/46 games consecutive, until he scored a couple of goals in an 11/4/06 Serbian Cup game against Radnički Niš as Red Star rolled to an easy 5-0 road victory. However, Suzuki's time in Serbia was a disappointment and his move back to J1 League to join Yokohama F. Marinos was announced on January 19, 2007.^[2]

On 28 March 2008 it was revealed that he signed a one-year contract with Portland Timbers of the USL First Division, joining on a free transfer.^[3]

On 8 June 2011 Suzuki agreed to join J2 League side Mito Hollyhock. With the club and city in financial difficult following a massive earthquake, he promised to play for free in the 2011 season.^[4]

After only one season with JEF United Chiba, he announces his retire from football at the age of 39.^[5]

National team

Suzuki made his international debut for Japan national team in 2001, and scored his first international goal on June 2, 2001, in a 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup game against Cameroon.^[6]

He played all four of Japan's games at the 2002 World Cup, starting the first three and scoring in the 2-2 tie against Belgium.^[6]

He was also part of the Japanese team which won the 2004 AFC Asian Cup.

Playing style

Suzuki is a no-nonsense physical player whose playing style is different compared to other forwards and strikers. He is well known for his defensive pressure on other defenders to force them to make mistakes. Suzuki was nicknamed the 'Japanese Blond Bomber' after his blond-dyed hair (the original blond bomber was legendary German striker Jürgen Klinsmann). As the result of world record about consecutive no goals, Japanese call Suzuki as 'Master No Goal'.

Club statistics

National team statistics

^[6]

Appearances in major competitions

Team	Competition	Category	Appearances		Goals	Team Record
			Start	Sub
Japan	2001 FIFA Confederations Cup	Senior	3	0	2	Runners-up
Japan	2002 FIFA World Cup	Senior	3	1	1	Round of 16
Japan	2004 AFC Asian Cup	Senior	6	0	1	Champions
Japan	2005 FIFA Confederations Cup	Senior	0	1	0	Round 1
Japan	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification	Senior	5	4	3	Qualified

Goals for Senior National Team

^[6]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	June 2, 2001	Niigata, Japan	Cameroon	2-0	Won	2001 FIFA Confederations Cup Group stage
2.	June 2, 2001	Niigata, Japan	Cameroon	2-0	Won	2001 FIFA Confederations Cup Group stage
3.	October 7, 2001	Southampton, UK	Nigeria	2-2	Draw	Friendly
4.	June 4, 2002	Saitama, Japan	Belgium	2-2	Draw	2002 FIFA World Cup Group stage
5.	June 9, 2004	Saitama, Japan	India	7-0	Won	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
6.	July 9, 2004	Hiroshima, Japan	Slovakia	3-1	Won	Friendly
7.	July 31, 2004	Chongqing, China	Jordan	1-1	Draw*	2004 AFC Asian Cup Quarter-finals
8.	August 18, 2004	Shizuoka, Japan	Argentina	1-2	Lost	Friendly
9.	September 8, 2004	Kolkata, India	India	4-0	Won	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
10.	October 13, 2004	Muscat, Oman	Oman	1-0	Won	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
11.	February 2, 2005	Saitama, Japan	Syria	3-0	Won	Friendly

• Japan advanced to semi-final by penalty shootout

Honors

Club

Kashima Antlers

• J1 League Champions: 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001

K.R.C. Genk

• Belgian Supercup Runner-up: 2002

Red Star Belgrade

• Serbian Superliga Champions: 2005-06, 2006–07
• Serbian Cup Champions: 2006–07

Portland Timbers

• USL First Division Commissioner's Cup: 2009

Country

Japan

• FIFA Confederations Cup Runner-up: 2001
• FIFA Confederations Cup Silver Shoe: 2001
• Asian Cup Champions: 2004

Trivia

• Takayuki Suzuki is featured on the 2001 PlayStation 2 game cover "Jikkyou J-League Perfect Striker 4" together with Shunsuke Nakamura and Atsuhiro Miura

References

External links

• Takayuki Suzuki at National-Football-Teams.com
• Japan National Football Team Database
• Player statistics at J.League Data Site (Japanese)
• Portland Timbers bio
• Suzuki's USL Goal of the Week from 4/26/08 at YouTube.

Japan squads
Japan squad – 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup Runners-Up 1 Kawaguchi 2 Uemura 3 Matsuda 4 Morioka (c) 5 Inamoto 6 Hattori 7 H. Nakata 8 Morishima 9 Nishizawa 10 Miura 11 Nakayama 12 Narazaki 13 Yamashita 14 Ito 15 Fujita 16 K. Nakata 17 Myojin 18 Toda 19 Kubo 20 Hato 21 Ono 22 Suzuki 23 Tsuzuki Coach: Troussier Japan squad – 2002 FIFA World Cup 1 Kawaguchi 2 Akita 3 Matsuda 4 Morioka 5 Inamoto 6 Hattori 7 H. Nakata 8 Morishima 9 Nishizawa 10 Nakayama 11 Suzuki 12 Narazaki 13 Yanagisawa 14 Alex 15 Fukunishi 16 K. Nakata 17 Miyamoto (c) 18 Ono 19 Ogasawara 20 Myojin 21 Toda 22 Ichikawa 23 Sogahata Coach: Troussier Japan squad – 2004 AFC Asian Cup Winners (3rd Title) 1 Narazaki 3 Tanaka 4 Endō 5 Miyamoto (c) 6 Nakata 8 Ogasawara 10 Nakamura 11 Suzuki 12 Doi 14 Alex 15 Fukunishi 16 Fujita 17 Miura 18 Matsuda 19 Motoyama 20 Tamada 21 Kaji 22 Nakazawa 23 Kawaguchi 24 Nishi 25 Chano 26 Yamada Coach: Zico Japan squad – 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup 1 Narazaki 2 Tanaka 3 Chano 4 Endō 5 Miyamoto (c) 6 K. Nakata 7 H. Nakata 8 Ogasawara 9 Tamada 10 Nakamura 11 Suzuki 12 Doi 13 Yanagisawa 14 Alex 15 Fukunishi 16 Oguro 17 Miura 18 Inamoto 19 Motoyama 20 Tsuboi 21 Kaji 22 Moniwa 23 Kawaguchi Coach: Zico