Urawa Preview

Oh God, I hate writing previews of games against Reds. I especially hate it when I feel compelled, as I especially do at the moment, to try to be compelling in my writing. So I'll lower my sights and concentrate instead on hitting the target of being Not Actively Tedious. Let's see how I get on. The default approach to the reviewing task would be to observe that this is a weak-looking, goal-shy Squirrels team even by the Squirrels' puny standards and that the mighty and above all popular Urawa, coming off the back of their 4-0 spanking of Kyoto Sanga in midweek, really ought to dump us in the garbage as their fans' infamous banner always suggests.

But that would be a bit on the tedious side - and it would also ignore the fact that Saitama derby games have a tendency to be utterly, thrillingly unpredictable. Few Ardija supporters will not get goosebumps at the thought of Leandro shrugging off the challenge of Marcus Tulio Tanaka to provide the assist for Hiroshi Morita's season-changing winning goal against the Reds in September 2007, for example. And last year featured not only the 6-2 massacre by Urawa to round off Omiya's sensationally awful Nabisco Cup campaign, but also the 3-0 drubbing the Squirrels dished out in the October league fixture.

Rafael put on a superb performance that day, scoring twice as he clicked with Chikara Fujimoto in a manner that they haven't come close to repeating since, in spite of the efforts of the Brazilian player. Surprisingly, it was not Rafa but substitute Dudu who fed Kazuhiro Murakami for the goal that so nearly gave Ardija a win against Yokohama F Marinos on Wednesday. But the reality is that it doesn't seem to matter which names are on the teamsheet for Omiya these days because there's a malaise surrounding the club that Jun Suzuki isn't shifting. So in summary, then, when it comes to Saturday's game, the Squirrels will probably lose. But they might not. Oooh, tension. And for a writer, that's good, right?

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