Tsuyoshi Kitazawa

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Personal information
Tsuyoshi Kitazawa
Full name	Tsuyoshi Kitazawa
Date of birth	August 10, 1968 (1968-08-10) (age 39)
Place of birth	Machida, Tokyo, Japan
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Retired
Youth clubs
1981-1983 1984-1987	Yomiuri SC Junior Youth Shutoku High School
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1987-1991 1991-2002	Honda F.C. Yomiuri SC / Verdy Kawasaki / Tokyo Verdy 1969	051 0(14) 265 0(41)
National team
1991-1999	Japan	058 00(3)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Tsuyoshi Kitazawa (北沢豪, Kitazawa Tsuyoshi^?, born 10 August 1968 in Machida, Tokyo, Japan) is a retired Japanese football (soccer) player. He was a midfielder known for his tireless work load and was capped 58 times for Japan. He is currently working on television as a football commentator.

1 Playing career
- 1.1 Club
- 1.2 International
2 Clubs
3 Honors and awards
- 3.1 Team Honors

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Club

When he was a junior high student, he played for Yomiuri Club 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 F.C. in 1987. He was the top scorer of the league in the 1990-1991 season.

He moved to Yomiuri Club (later Verdy Kawasaki, now Tokyo Verdy 1969) 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 J. League Championship (1993 and 1994) and J. League Cup (1992, 1993, and 1994). He finished his playing career as a Verdy player in 2002.

[edit] International

He was capped 58 times and scored 3 goals for the Japanese national team between 1991 and 1999. He made his international debut on June 2, 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 November 6, 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.