Intro
It was a real shame that FC Ryukyu couldn’t even salvage a draw against Kofu this past Wednesday as the loss snapped their four game unbeaten run and denied FC Ryukyu their first home win of the season. Gunma are in a similar predicament as they have failed to win, or draw, at home in 2020 and this is one of their best chances to end that streak. While it is easy to assume that FC Ryukyu will head to Gunma and come back with all 3 points, as we’ve see before, it is anything but easy when it comes to FC Ryukyu.
- Weather Forecast
- Match Day 11 Recap: Gunma
- Match Day 11 Recap: FC Ryukyu
- Team Previews & Injury Reports
- Keys to Victory for FC Ryukyu
- Match Prediction
- Round 12 in J2
- Conclusion
1. Weather Forecast
This does not look good and there could very well be some delays due to lightening. Maybe we see the orange ball come out as well?
2. Match Day 11 Recap: Thespakusatsu Gunma
3. Match Day 11 Recap: FC Ryukyu
4. Team Previews & Injury Reports
Thepakusatsu Gunma: It is not going according to plan for Gunma this season as they have the worst goal scoring tally in the league and have conceded 3 or more goals in a match 4 times. While Ryukyu have their own struggles with goals, Gunma has been shut out 6 times compared to that of 2 for Ryukyu.
Over their last five games Gunma have 1 win and 4 losses with some heavy defeats. Gunma were decimated by Zweigen and Nagasaki; lost to Kitakyushu and Tochigi at home; and were gifted a PK against JEF to level the game before a 94th minute goal gave them the win. In the Tochigi match, they were unable to level the game despite being up a man after Tochigi received a straight red card in the second half.
Like Ryukyu, Gunma have failed to win at home this season and in spite of the fact that they only have 3 less goals scored (8) when compared to Ryukyu’s (11) tally, more than half of those goals occurred in 2 games. This game is nothing more than a race to 2 goals scored for either side as neither has proven to capable of overcoming that deficit.
Gunma Injuries & Suspensions: Defender Hirao is out for another few weeks from a broken arm and FW Okada is out with what I believe is a pulled hamstring. (Google Translate between English and Japanese?)
FC Ryukyu: It was extremely difficult to watch FC Ryukyu waste a very good chance at clipping a weakened Kofu side last round. Kofu opted to leave many of their star players at home and the gamble paid off as Ryukyu were absolutely anemic in the attack.
At half time Ryukyu had only mustered three shots with none of them making it on net. By the time the game ended, Ryukyu had just 7 total shots, with only 1 – the Penalty Kick- on net. As bad as bad can get from the offensive side of the house.
Higuchi admitted that FC Ryukyu are struggling to break down the oppositions defense and it is evident when you see the MFs pass the ball back to our CBs when they cannot find an opening. Obviously we need some more creativity to unlock these defenses but there also needs to be a bit of aggressiveness on the part of the players.
I’ve said the past few weeks that Ryukyu need to try and set the edge by getting around the flanks of the other team’s defenders. Some of our best goal scoring chances came when Kawai, Ikeda and Abe would try and push past the defenders with speed thus drawing a foul, free kick, corner kick, or shot on net. That tenacity needs to return and the only way it can be done is to abandon self doubt and just go for it.
Ryukyu are now in the middle of a very crammed fixture list and squad rotation will be key. You could see last week that the guys are breaking down a bit and Higuchi needs to find some fresh legs in the squad. It was strange to see Higuchi dress both a special designated player and U-16 player against Kofu as I for one did not believe they would feature at all. This means that Higuchi really only had 4 subs to draw from which severely limited our options. Are you telling me that those two are better options than Koizumi or Tavares, or are you signaling they are hurt? We also left Tanaka in at RB when Torikai came on. I think we should’ve pushed Tanaka up and let Torikai deal with running the channels.
It is frustrating that news releases for this team, and the league in general, lack the information we crave as fans that provide some insights into the club. Especially those concerning minor injuries to players or reasons they are left off the squad. While I doubt this will change any time soon, we need to know what is going on with Koizumi and Tavares. The latter hasn’t been seen or heard from since the opening fixture in February where he performed quite well in the RB role.
If FC Ryukyu wish to make it to the end of the season in one piece, then they will need Tavares and Torikai to play so as to allow some rest to Tanaka who will probably need to play in place of some of the other weary Mid Fielders.
FC Ryukyu Injury & Suspensions: No change from last week and no update on the 2 CV-19 players for Ryukyu. There are some minor concerns for Koizumi – who we haven’t seen in a few weeks – and Ikeda who came off rather early last week after suffering what looked to be a knock to his foot. Guess we’ll find out soon enough.
5. Key to Victory Not Losing for FC Ryukyu
The Scale: 5- An almost certainty it will occur 4-Fairly-Certain it will happen 3-Somewhat Certain it could happen 2-Very Unlikely it happens 1- Requires a Miracle to happen
1. Put some crooked numbers on the scoreboard. Likelihood 4: I am not super confident for this one but the past results of Gunma provide a glimmer of hope. Both teams probably have some tired legs but Ryukyu is just far better in the attack than Gunma. Once one goal goes in for Ryukyu, the Gunma heads will drop. The second will see a complete collapse of confidence.
6. Match Day Prediction
The statistics don’t lie is the famous saying. Gunma are not as strong as some of the sides Ryukyu have faced this year but Ryukyu need to finish of drives. 2-1 for FC Ryukyu is a respectable guess based on these teams past performances and goal scoring records.
7. Round 12 in J2
There are not that many fixtures that jump off the page this week. I’d expect some workman like performances by the higher seeded teams which means there probably won’t be much turnover in the table come Sunday night.
8. Conclusion
There can be no excuse for not coming away with all three points against Gunma tomorrow. They are bottom of the table for a reason and FC Ryukyu need to break out of their goal scoring funk in a big way. Will we see the first 3, or more, goal performance by Ryukyu tomorrow? Or will we see yet another limp performance from this side?
Take it easy boys. Real easy. Easy like…………………
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