Banri Kanaizumi: Wollongong Wolves’ goalscoring defender

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Banri Kanaizumi has been in exceptional form for Wollongong Wolves in the first half of the National Premier Leagues Men’s NSW campaign. 

The Japanese born star defender has been a solid, dependable presence at the back, and has aided Wollongong in their strong defensive efforts thus far in the season, with the Wolves having only conceded 21 goals across their opening 14 matches.

However, beyond this, Kanaizumi has found himself in tremendous goalscoring form; he’s scored five goals in just 14 league matches this season.

“I didn’t expect that,” said Kanaizumi on his abundance of goals in 2024.

“I’m a defender and there’s not many opportunities to score.

“But I’m always looking for chances to score, especially from our set pieces.

“It’s not just me, every single one of our defenders is hungry to score and that’s one of our strengths.”

Kanaizumi’s goalscoring went to another level two weeks ago, when the defender netted twice in a 5-1 demolition of the Central Coast Mariners.

His first goal – which restored Wollogong’s lead – came in the form of an impressive, clean volley in the 40th minute, which is something that Kanaizumi’s been doing since his school days.

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“Of course we practice to score with set pieces at our training, but the volley when we played against the Mariners was an absolutely natural strike,” he said.

“A few of my high school mates saw that goal and said to me: ‘wow are you still scoring like that?’”

However, Wollongong hasn’t been able to match Kanaizumi’s strong, consistent form this season.

The Wolves got off to an exceptional start to the campaign losing just once in their opening six matches, with four wins and one draw to see them lead the ladder at the conclusion of round six.

Since then, they’ve picked up just two league wins, suffering from five defeats and a draw to drop out of the top six.

“We thought we had a good start this season,” said Kanaizumi.

“But unfortunately our inconsistency is costing us points.”

Currently, Wollongong are seven points off the top six and will be looking to find a run of positive results once more to propel them up the table and into a finals position.

With Kanaizumi’s strong defender and remarkable goalscoring on their side, a top six finish remains a very real possibility.

“We might be too far from the top of the table for this season, but there is still half of the season left,” he said.

“Our hope is to finish as high as we can and make the finals.”

-By Jack George