Saturday 28 November 2009

Countdown To Kashiwa, pt 3

OK. OK OK OK. Here's the deal. And it's a big deal. GGOA commenter and Oita Trinita fan Mischa is absolutely right. The Kyushu Turtles' form at the moment is so good that Omiya can't rely on getting so much as a point in the last game of the season - even if it is against the bottom team in the J1 standings. If the Squirrels want to stay up, the time and the place to confirm their place in the J-League's top division is 5pm on Saturday at Omiya Park. A draw in the Greatest Noda Line Derby Ever Seen On Planet Earth will keep Ardija four points ahead of Kashiwa Reysol and therefore in J1 for another year.

Kashiwa, though, have somehow managed to pull themselves back into contention. Three straight defeats against Jubilo Iwata, FC Tokyo and Montedio Yamagata seemed to have totally undermined the improvements which the team had made over the previous six weeks. But then coach Nelsinho somehow managed to coax from his players their biggest win of the season, sweeping aside a lacklustre Shimizu S-Pulse as controversial star man Franca chipped in with two second half goals. The same player also netted as Reysol followed up the defeat of S-Pulse by winning at an Albirex NIigata who are still fighting to finish in the top four.

You can only guess at how Yoshiyuki Kobayashi is feeling about this, but Nelsinho and the rejuvenated Kashiwa squad must be desperate for kick off. Ardija have to meet them head on, with intensity and energy and self-belief. Shin Kanazawa will be missing through suspension from the centre of Omiya's midfield again, although at Yamagata the defensive part of the Squirrels team functioned effectively enough in his absence. Jang Wae Ryong made changes to the attack, surprisingly relegating Rafael to the bench, but wherever the goals come from against the Sun Kings they have to come from somewhere. They have to.

*

6 comments:

Furtho 28 November 2009 at 05:45  

The Yahoo predicted XI is:

GK Ezumi
DF Hato
DF Kataoka
DF Neretljak
DF Tomita
MF Fujimoto
MF Aoki
MF Hashimoto
MF Uchida
FW Ishihara
FW Rafael

richy 28 November 2009 at 11:41  

Beat Kashiwa please!!!

Omiya Fan,  28 November 2009 at 18:36  

Hayato 1-0. Not long to go now.

Omiya Fan,  28 November 2009 at 18:37  

Bugger. 1-1. That didn't last long.

Omiya Fan,  28 November 2009 at 18:57  

Another near escape. How long can we do it until our luck runs out? If we were a cat I think we'd be on our 8th life!

Furtho 28 November 2009 at 18:58  

A very scrappy game between two tense teams, but a draw was a fair result. No-one did enough to win it, although Rafael missed an extraordinary chance.

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