Trequartista talk | Tasuku Sekiya Pt. 1 - Traditional black is me

With the Mizuno Victory Gold pack having just launched and Optus Sport announcing it will be showing J-League live in Australia starting this weekend, we thought it was time to catch up with Avondale star Tasuku Sekiya in Melbourne. Any excuse for a ramen, right?

Ever since Tasuku burst onto the Australian scene during his time at APIA we thought he had that special something and we’ve kept a close eye on him ever since.

Our relationship has allowed us to put Mizuno products through the gruelling testing that football in Australia offers – from preseason in hot conditions, tough, dry and hard surfaces along with the everpresent artificial grass surfaces now used by many clubs. But how do the boots stack up given all the elements at play to deal with?

“I have about 4 MIJ (made in Japan) models now and all of them are still in basically perfect condition,” said Tasuku.

“I wore the silver and gold Neo II Betas for the whole season last year and will probably use them a fair bit this season as well.”

Sitting down with Tasuku and hearing him sing the praises of Mizuno doesn’t surprise us, but it’s so refreshing to hear. The price tag can worry some that don’t fully understand or appreciate the brand that has been pursuing perfection since 1906.

“I grew up playing in Mizuno when I was a junior at J-League club Shonan Bellmare. When I was around twelve, I switched over to ASICS, not for any particular reason, but having since gone back to Mizuno I think they are much better now – the build quality is the best I’ve experienced.”

With Mizuno there’s no bullshit when it comes to quality. There’s no corner cutting, no robots with AI – just a bunch of highly skilled Japanese staff in a remote warehouse who use their hands, tools and sewing machines to piece together arguably the best uppers on the market and create a truly special boot every single time. The key point being their pride in the whole process. You simply don’t get that with any other brand.

“After around two weeks of wear the mould around your foot is perfect. That’s not to say out of the box isn’t comfortable, but you’ll notice in a short time that they really are the perfect fit.” 

With Tasuku being such a speedy winger/number 10 that uses agility and speed to get his team playing, we were also interested to hear what he had to say from a weight point of view. 

“Lightweight is the best for me and the Beta is amazing,” Tasuku says. If you’ve missed us talking about them before, the Morelia Neo II Beta weighs just 170 grams which is incredible. Match that together with the build quality, materials used and Mizuno pride in production we really can’t fault them.

As we get to the end of our catch up (my god... the ramen) we quizzed Tasuku on his boot of choice for the start of this season from the recent drops we’ve seen at Ultra Football.

“When I saw the black Betas come in I knew they were the ones, I had to use them. I’m a massive fan of the white/gold Morelia too but traditional black is me.”

The choice is kind of reflective of Japanese culture isn’t it? Here we have a super skilled player, in our opinion better than anyone else floating around the NPL leagues in Australia, yet he’s desperate for the blackout model. Humble, respectful, but highly motivated with above average skills to win games for his team.

What about the Rebula? “The Victory Gold model with the navy is very nice, they remind me of Keisuke Honda, I’m eager to try them sometime but the Morelia is perfect for me.”

We’re looking forward to another good season from Tasuku in Mizuno Morelia, and our next catch up.

Keen to hear more about Tasuku’s story from how he got to Australian shores and whether the A-League is still a possibility? Part 2 of our sit down is dropping soon on The Hub.