FC Ryukyu wrapped up their final preseason match this Sunday and will now transition into the 2021 regular season. This was the first time that fans were not allowed to attend any of the preseason matches or practices, and considering there were no match sheets produced for the team’s games, there are still plenty of unanswered questions for this squad.
I am not sure how many of you interpret results from the preseason, but I usually like to see the team win at least 1 game, and have some solid performances against tougher sides who traveled to Okinawa for their preseason camps. I also hate seeing any news pertaining to injuries to the squad and fortunately enough, there were no injury news releases this preseason. There are 6 days before the home opener so there is a chance that some press releases may trickle down, but it looks as if the side escaped any major injuries heading into the season.
Overall Preseason Record: 2W1D3L GF: 33 GA: 19
Training Match 1: 1/30/2021 FC Ryukyu (8) v (0) FC Ryukyu U-18s. Nothing needs to be said about this one.
Training Match 2: 2/04/2021 FC Ryukyu (0) v (3) Shonan Bellmare. In their first real test of the preseason, Ryukyu were blanked by the last placed team in J1 from 2020.
Training Match 3: 2/06/2021 FC Ryukyu (1) v (8) Nagoya Grampus. This game was broken up in to 3, 45 minute, periods. The opening period ended 1 all, before the wheels really fell off. There was also some chatter on Twitter that a majority of our U-18s played the final third period where they surrendered 5 of the 8 goals on the day.
Training Match 4: 02/10/2021 FC Ryukyu (3) v (3) Thespakusatsu Gunma. This one was broken up into 4 quarters of 45-35-45-35 minutes each. Ryukyu won the opening round 1-0; drew 0-0 in the second; lost the 3rd 0-2, and won the 4th 2-1. No idea when, or how long, many of our projected starters featured in this game, but not the greatest of results against a team who finished just 1 point behind us in 2020. At least Abe found the net for his second preseason goal, the first occurring against Nagoya, which means he is back to full health after last season’s mysterious ailment.
Training Match 5: 02/14/2021 FC Ryukyu (4) v (5) Vanraure Hachinohe. Three 45 minute periods where Ryukyu won the first period 1-0; lost the second 0-2; and drew 3 all in the third. Not a great result here either, but again, no way of knowing how the squad was set up.
Training Match 6: 2/21/2021 FC Ryukyu (17) v (0) Kaiho Bank SC. Sure, a total demolition of a Kyushu Soccer League side. Cannot, and should not, read anything into this game.
| Goals Scored | Players |
| 5 | Ramon |
| 3 | Koya, Motegi, Ikeda, Hitomi, Akamine |
| 2 | Abe, Shintaro, Shinya Uehara |
| 1 | Koki, Nakagawa, Yu, Ichimaru, Yamashita, Torikai, Makito Uehara |
Summary
Removing both the U-18 and Kaiho Bank SC games, this wasn’t a great set of results in a preseason for FC Ryukyu. They were basically outscored 8-19 in the 4 games that meant something. Maybe we didn’t want to show to much against a division rival in Gunma; maybe we rotated players regularly while they built up their match fitness; maybe Higuchi experimented with several sets of players in order to find the right combination heading into 2021; maybe none of this matters.
In spite of these results, we are still left wondering about some of the key position battles heading into the regular season. Did Dany Carvajal beat out Junto Taguchi to retain the #1 GK slot? Who has taken over for Koizumi at CAM? Is it Nakagawa, Kiyotake, or Ikeda? Has Motegi returned to full fitness and reclaimed the starting LM position? Will we see Ichimaru starting along side Koki each week, thus relegating the Captain Uesato to a reserve role? It is also hard to to tell, who among the squad, had really strong, or really weak, preseasons.
Other News from the Club
FC Ryukyu signed Sittichok Paso from the Thai League’s Chonburi football club. Paso has played in the J-League before when he was a teenager with Kagoshima United FC. In 14 games last season, he scored 2 goals and provided 1 assist out of the central attacking mid field role. He won’t be with the club for at least a few more weeks while he secures his work Visa as well as clears the country’s, and J-League CV-19 protocols. Even then, he has a long road ahead of him to playing time as FC Ryukyu have a wealth of talent in the CMF role and up top at FWD.
The club also announced a partnership with Saigon FC from the Vietnamese first division. They have a similar agreement in place with the Taiwan Premier league as laid out by the JLeague’s Asian strategy. I am not sure if we’ll see any player movement to FC Ryukyu this year, but at the very least, an increased exposure of the club in this country.
Finally, the team released their official LINE account that will provide updates, match day information, programs, free giveaways and stuff pertaining to COVID-19. If you wish to add them to your LINE contacts, click the link below to acquire the QR code. Keep in mind, it is in Japanese so you’ll need a translation tool if you wish to read the announcements in your native language.
http://fcryukyu.com/news/26680/
Well that about does it for the 2021 preseason for FC Ryukyu. I mentioned in the previous entry that Higuchi has laid down the challenge of achieving 80 points this season. While the league may seem wide open, I would rather see this side achieve slightly better results than last year that prevents them from becoming one of the four relegated teams. See you all later this week with the first match day preview of 2021.
ryukyuarmy.com 