Intro
The final home game of the 2019 J2 season for FC Ryukyu ended in a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Kyoto Sanga. Not the type of ending that the club, nor its fans, were hoping for. Nonetheless, the boys from Okinawa achieved some marvelous results during their 21 home games this season that included wins over Mito and Tokushima with dramatic draws against Kashiwa and Yamagata. The only thing that was regrettable on Sunday was that FC Ryukyu failed to score a goal and give the home crowd something to celebrate.
Match Recap
FC Ryukyu looked up for the match for must of the first half despite some of the poor passing and cheap giveaways they execute din the first 10 minutes. In fact, FC Ryukyu had most of the possession, 64%, and three of the best opportunities from Tokumoto, Uehara and Koya. Kyoto hit the post in the 25th minute but other than that, it was al FC Ryukyu early on. The fact that FC Ryukyu didn’t score from a golden opportunity when Yamada had s shot blocked, really hurt this sides chances of achieving a favorable result on Sunday.
FC Ryukyu came out fast to start the second half and had Uejo made a better decision with his pass in the 58th minute, FC Ryukyu could’ve been up 1-0. Instead, Uejo’s pass was slightly behind Tokumoto and the subsequent shot off target. From this point forward, Kyoto took over the match.
Kyoto had several misses before Fukui committed a foul in the box resulting in a PK for Kyoto. Kyoto converted for the deciding goal and the spirits of FC Ryukyu were broken. FC Ryukyu quickly surrendered another goal off a CK when they were caught ball watching and then Son Sun was over powered in the 85th minute by Koyamatsu. Despite the 55% possession that FC Ryukyu enjoyed all night, they could never get past the Kyoto goal keeper.
Man of the Match
Kyoto Sanga FC Koyamatsu MF: First, I truly love this player’s pace, tenacity and strength. I dream of day when FC Ryukyu could sign a player with all these tools, and I guess, you never know what could happen. His ability to hold off a pacey player in Song Sun and then basically shrug him off to open up a shooting lane was simply amazing.
Review of the Keys to Victory for FC Ryukyu
1. Pester the Kyoto Defense with Speed: NO GRADE. FC Ryukyu did at times and had plenty of opportunities but converted none of them.
2. Be Mindful of the Kyoto Counter Attack: PASS, but only because Kyoto failed to score. There were plenty of near misses and opportunities for Kyoto to bang one in on the counter and FC Ryukyu only escaped with some favorable post strikes, near misses and off sides calls.
Match Day 40 Prediction
I said 3-1 in favor of Kyoto and it was nearly achieved.
Match DAY 40 TAKEAWAYS
1. The Uejo, Ramon, Kawai combination looked really good and if Higuchi wasn’t so dogmatic in his approach to the lineup selection with nothing on the line, it be really exciting to see this combo the last 2 weeks.
2. There is nothing left to play for except pride, maybe player and coaching bonuses, but nothing more. It is high time we saw the younger players in the squad start in order to see what we have for the 2020 season. Higuchi needs to make some serious changes to the lineup considering results no longer matter.
3. There were very nice scenes at the end of the match at the “Tapista” with Higuchi, Mr. Mikami and Uesato all offering words of gratitude. The fact that FC Ryukyu had their 4/5th largest crowd all season was touching and I hope they average around 5-6,000 next year. To be honest, if they want J1, they need the ticket sales for revenue and salaries and we are miles away from there for now.
4. Also, very nice to see banner, and support from the club, to restore a very iconic and important symbol of Okinawa on Sunday.
Conclusion
Thus, ends the 2019 campaign at home for FC Ryukyu. Overall, they finished with 8 wins, 5 draws and 8 losses at home. It is a mixed bag of results in my opinion. There were dramatic come from behind games to earn wins as well as games that simply got away from this side. Everyone enjoyed the goals and it was a shame that Shinji Ono could never orchestrate one prior to his season ending injury.
The home slate had all the ups and downs one would expect in the J2 and I hope the 2020 season is as memorable as the 2019. But fret not, the season still has 2 fixtures remaining and I’d love to see this side end on high note. Particularly against the Kofu side that ended the home undefeated streak so long ago.
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