Saturday 10 October 2009

Sony Sendai Preview

The ever-inconsistent Squirrels attempt to put behind them last weekend's 4-1 drubbing at Gamba Osaka when on Sunday they travel to Akita for the Emperor's Cup Second Round tie with Sony Sendai. Ardija had gone into the Gamba game off the back of a comfortable win over Kyoto Sanga and against the Blue and Blacks they did succeed in scrambling home an opening goal through Daisuke Tomita, as the home defence were adjudged to have made a disastrous error with their offside trap. Early in the second half, however, former Omiya striker Pedro Junior tied things up for Gamba, who then simply accelerated out of sight.

The defeat of Kyoto and subsequent loss to Gamba means that Jang Wae Ryong's side lie fourteenth in the J1 standings - as they have done for most of the last few weeks - six points ahead of loaned-out skipper Yoshiyuki Kobayashi and Kashiwa Reysol. 2009 has, after all, turned into a typically exasperating year for Squirrels fans in that despite the club's promises during pre-season, the team has been unable to make any real kind of improvement. J1 survival therefore has to be the main priority, however dispiriting it might be to have to say that kind of thing again, but the Cup game does provide a break from the ups and downs of the league campaign.

Defender Taishi Tsukamoto will be missing on Sunday after picking up an injury in Osaka and there are question marks, too, over Yosuke Kataoka, who has managed to replace Tomita alongside Mato Neretljak in the heart of the back four but who was not even included on the substitutes' bench last weekend. Sony Sendai meanwhile are experiencing just about their best ever season in the third tier JFL and are currently in second behind Sagawa Shiga FC. The basis of their success has been a strong defence - top scorer Goshi Okubo has only netted six times - and the winners of the tie will take on either Vegalta Sendai or Zweigen Kanazawa in the Third Round.

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1 comments:

Agent Orange,  11 October 2009 at 13:33  

Up by 2 by Ichikawa and Dudu!

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