Intro
For the fifth time in as many games Fagiano Okayama scored the first goal of the game between these two teams, and the Satoki Uejo strike was all they needed to take the win. Shintaro Shimizu had an excellent opportunity inside the opening seventeen minutes to put Ryukyu ahead but his low shot was saved by the Okayama keeper and Ryukyu wouldn’t have a better chance to score all night. That is not to say Ryukyu didn’t come close; Uesato had a few free kicks sail just wide and Koya had a chance to level the match in the second half following Takuma Abe’s solo effort, but Ryukyu turnovers killed any momentum – despite the large amount of possession Ryukyu enjoyed on Saturday- which led to two more Okayama goals. The loss for Ryukyu doesn’t shift their position in the table, but it now sees them four points off the leaders, three behind Albirex Niigata, and only four ahead of quickly rising V-Varen Nagasaki.
- Highlights
- Man of the Match
- Review of the Keys to Victory
- Prediction
- Talking Points
- Round 19 in J2
- Conclusion
1. Match Highlights
2. Man of the Match
Fagiano Okayama Central Midfielder Eiji Shirai: Bagged his first goal of the year and then added an assist on Okayama’s third goal.
3. Review of the Keys to Victory for FC Ryukyu
1. Get that first goal. Likelihood 3. Obviously not. Couldn’t even muster a single goal on the day. The game played out as expected when Okayama takes a lead.
2. No excuses this time if Okayama parks the bus. Likelihood 2. It is the same thing every time from Higuchi following a match in which Ryukyu out possesses, out shoots an opponent and either loses or limps to a draw. “We created a lot of chances but couldn’t score and we need to take this loss seriously.” Great, now what? Do we need to dip into the summer transfer market to find a spark for the offense?
4. Prediction
Tipped it to end 2-1 for Ryukyu and it wasn’t even close. Season Record 6-4-9.
5. Talking Points from Round 19
1. Ikeda’s injury leads to a 4-4-2 formation. There has been no word on the extent of Ikeda’s injury stemming from last week’s nasty fall, but Higuchi started Abe and Shintaro up top in a new formation for Ryukyu. Abe and Shintaro meshed well and it was the first time all season we’ve seen Ryukyu be very direct down the middle, but they just couldn’t score. Ryukyu’s best chance, and one which would have set the game on a very different trajectory, came in the 17’ minute from a nice back heel from Abe to Shintaro, but Shimizu’s shot was of the low and hard variety instead of higher where he had the entire net to shoot at. This was definitely the turning point in the game.
2. Lucky bounces and turnovers. Satoki Uejo opened the scoring after an initial shot rang off the post and took a fortuitous bounce through several players and into Uejo’s feet where he stuck a precision shot between four Ryukyu players. Okayama’s second and third goals came directly off of Ryukyu turnovers deep in their end though I am not sure what Inose was doing dropping to his knees on the second goal, which wasn’t struck nearly as hard as the third from close range. I cannot with any certainty say that Inose should’ve got closer to the third Okayama goal as it was so well struck that Inose couldn’t react in time to get his hands up.
3. Abe did the best he could to carry the team. There were a couple of moments this game when Abe put his head down and drove on net leading to good goal scoring chances for Ryukyu. We’ve seen this before, and it was successful last year on the one occasion, but nothing materialized this past weekend. There were some shouts for a PK on one such play, but the highlights don’t lend themselves to determining if Abe was truly fouled or his momentum took him off his feet.
4. What needs to change? There isn’t much we can do while some of our key players recover from injury but the lack of goals, shutout in four of their last ten games and averaging a goal game over their last five, has seen the early season momentum stall. Ryukyu, more so than some of the other teams in the league, may really need the midseason break to get things right. They have four favorable matchups prior to the break and need to quickly rebound from their second heaviest defeat of 2021.
6. Round 19 in J2
All three of the top sides won this round with V-Varen Nagasaki continuing their climb to the top.
7. Conclusion
Heading into this game we all knew that Ryukyu were riddled with injuries to key players but also in their most favorable stretch of games. Dropping points from an unconvincing performance is not the result we needed, but I expect there to be more of this yo-yoing of results until they are back to full health. That doesn’t make this loss any better and certainly isn’t an excuse for more dropped points moving forward. It is just the reality we are dealing with at the moment. Ryukyu are far from out of it with a little more than half the season to go, but they need to turn things around over their next five games or risk falling off the pace altogether.
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