Oita Preview

Another quick one this time, for which apologies. Holiday Tuesday is the battle of the J1 out-of-form teams at Omiya Park, with Ardija hosting Oita Trinita having lost their last four games, while the Turtles have in turn been defeated in each of the last six. Pericles Chamusca's side, having arguably over-achieved last year, are stuck at the bottom of the table this time around, their defence no longer the impenetrable line that it proved to be throughout 2008.

The Squirrels, to be fair, have the worst defensive record in J1 and have failed to keep a clean sheet since the opening day of the season and a goalless draw against goal-shy Shimizu S-Pulse. The extraordinary game on Saturday at FC Tokyo underlines the extent to which new coach Jang Wae Ryong is his own man, happy to make the tough decisions from which his predecessors shied away - but in the end, an outstanding performance by Tokyo's Naohiro Ishikawa proved the difference between the teams and Jang's Ardija lost again.

A crunch early-season encounter, then, with both Omiya and Oita seeing the game as an opportunity to turn around their recent poor results. Predicting the Squirrels' line-up is likely to prove tricky in the light of the patchy display on Saturday, but younger members of the squad like Ryohei Arai, Daisuke Watabe and Kohei Tokita continue to stake a string claim for first-team starting slots. Go Ardija!

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