The Bundesliga opened an extra round of express trains on December 14 local time, and Bielefeld, who had not tasted victory in four games, beat Bochum 2-0, opening the record for the team with 25-year-old Japanese attacker Masaya Ogawa. The famous Red Bull Salzburg player has been in good shape this season, scoring 4 goals and 1 assist in 15 Bundesliga games, of which 3 goals and 1 assist have been contributed in the last 6 games. But it is interesting that such a very characteristic offensive player has never been selected for the Japanese adult national team.
Until now, many Chinese fans are still relishing the story of Wei Shihao vs. Takumi Minamino at the 2014 U19 Asian Cup. Indeed, in that year's competition, the future stars of China and Japan performed very brightly. However, there was another figure in the Japanese U19 team that had not made waves in the years since, and he was Masaya Okukawa. He made only 2 appearances in that tournament and was given 72 minutes to play, as he ended his trip to the tournament early due to injury. And that was the only time he had represented a Japanese national team in a tournament so far.
At that time, Okukawa Masa was also famous for the undead birds in Kyoto, and the age of 18 became the hope of this veteran team. At that time, others gave him the nickname "Ancient Capital Neymar", which shows his technical characteristics and ability in the front court, which is very strong, and the most important thing is that he has not yet completed his first team debut in Kyoto Undead Bird. Injuries pushed his debut back until May 2015, shortly after his 19th birthday, when Mr. Okukawa finally played his first professional league game.
He's the kind of player who has a very good technique on his feet and loves dribbling. Interestingly, although he is a left-footed player, Okukawa has consciously cultivated his ability to open the bow left and right since his debut, which allows him to play multiple positions in the frontcourt. Such characteristics are not worthy of his name of "ancient capital Neymar". Similar to Neymar, they all carried a lot of expectations at a young age, and the line between this expectation and huge pressure was blurred, but fortunately, Okukawa Ya also survived, scoring his first professional league goal against Oita Sanshin just one month after making his debut. Everything went so smoothly. What is even more surprising is that after playing only 5 J2 league games for kyoto undead birds, he chose to stay in the ocean and join Red Bull Salzburg. The wealthy Oliga giants also deliberately described the star of hope on the official website as "a player who has not played in J1", and the team loaned him to the satellite team Liverlin.
All of Okukawa Masaya's career, there is one person who has to mention, that is, Takumi Minamino. Although the two are the same team members and teammates of the 2014 U19 Asian Cup, their career trajectories are completely different. Their intersection was at Red Bull Salzburg, but Takumi Minamino had been groomed by staying in the first team as a key star, and Okukawa could only accept the fate of loan everywhere. After leaving Liverin, he was loaned to Mattsburg in the Austrian League and Kyle in the Bundesliga, and his performance was very good, but because the Red Bull team at that time had Huang Xican, Takushi Minamno, Haland and other attackers, Ogawa Ya had no chance to stay in the team.
2020 is a very important time node for Okukawa, in January of that year, Haland and Takumi Minamino left the team, Ogawa Ya finally "daughter-in-law to become a wife", and Huang Xican teamed up to persevere in the second half of that difficult season. He made 23 appearances throughout the season and scored nine goals, a career high. Time to enter the 2020-2021 season, Okukawa Ya also in the Olympic League performance slightly ups and downs, only 7 appearances in half a season, but there is no lack of some highlights. As a result, he received an invitation from Bielefeld in the winter window, so he decided to move to the Bundesliga.
It is worth mentioning that during that time, he had the opportunity to make his national team debut. In November 2020, the Japanese team decided to play Panama and Mexico in Graz, Austria, two Central and North American teams, considering the impact of the epidemic and only recruiting players in Europe. However, due to some personal reasons, after consultation between his club Bielefeld and the Japanese Football Association, he decided to withdraw from the warm-up training. Because of the inconvenience of travel during the epidemic, coach MoriHoichi recruited Masaya Okukawa. Just before this Japanese training camp, Okukawa had just come off the bench in the 2-6 Loss to Bayern in the Champions League and scored a goal that greatly increased his voice. However, just a few days after the Japanese team decided to recruit Okukawa, an outbreak broke out within Red Bull Salzburg, and Okukawa's first adult national team trip had already come to an end before it could begin its journey. It has to be said that it is a pity.
Joining the Bundesliga in the middle of last season, Okukawa went through an adaptation period, and this season is a complete usher in his first small climax in the Bundesliga. Although Bielefeld's results are not ideal, in such a configuration of the team, Okukawa Ya also played his own level, the current team after 16 rounds of the whole team only 12 goals scored, of which Okukawa alone contributed 4 goals, showing its importance.
25 years old is not young for a professional player, and Okukawaya also hopes to achieve a "zero breakthrough" for his national team, perhaps in January next year, against China's World Cup.