Intro
Well here we fuc**** go. Ryukyu get their crack at the top dog in table this week when they travel to Yokohama FC on Sunday. A place of infamy for those Dany Carvajal fans out there as it was there in 2019 that Ibba collided with him, to which he landed awkwardly on his ankle, and pushed him out of the lineup for a lengthy (1.5 year) recovery. It resulted in Dany losing his starting job but that should – but probably won’t – change this week with Taguchi suffering from a serious case of shell shock, and Ryukyu searching for answers to so many problems in the early stages of the 2022 season.
Weather Forecast & Match Day Info
Looks like it will be a comfortable day to enjoy football. I cannot provide you the match day info at the moment as there seems to be a problem with official YFC site. No matter.
Team Previews
Yokohama FC: Undefeated, League leaders, what else do you need to know? Below is the video of their recent win over Montedio Yamagata this past Wednesday.
FC Ryukyu: Imagine being the worst defensive team in the league, desperate for goals, and being without your top three goal scorers this week? Oh wait, do not wonder, that is FC Ryukyu on MD 08. Both Abe and Noda suffered hamstring pulls, and though there has been zero indication from Ryukyu as to the extent of their injuries, rest assured that neither will feature on Sunday. And then there is our best player, Yuki Kusano, on loan from YFC, that is prohibited from playing against his parent club. A recipe for disaster.
So, I stated in earlier blogs that Ryukyu need to focus on small areas to improve during training, and no area is more pertinent this week than finishing games strong. Ryukyu have the uncanny ability of simply not showing up in the second half of games which has led us down this current path. But why? Do teams easily adjust to our game plan at half? Do we lose focus? Or better yet, do we fall victim to the old adage of Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance? I am inclined to believe the latter. It is absolutely shocking to watch a side start strong only to limp off after the final whistle. Look no further than our goals scored by each half this season as evidence.
One thing that must be sorted before Sunday, actually starting on Friday, is who will fill in at striker in the midst of our injury crisis. We could easily slot Kiyotake or Ikeda up top but then what? Ryukyu roster 10 defenders and dress about 7 each week yet are the worst defensive team in the league. That seems odd so we need a serious injection of offense sooner rather than later. That maybe hard to come by considering Paso is out on international duty and we have very few options to turn to. Hitomi is the likely candidate to dress with Vinicius right behind him. And I seriously doubt the attacking MF from Vietnam, Vu Hong Quan, who isn’t even registered on the official site (shameful) despite joining the club last week, or Vinicius, will make an appearance.
So many questions with so few answers. The reality of our situation is we now face a daunting, lengthy, ugly, relegation battle so brace yourselves for that roller coaster ride. We are just two points shy of a slew of teams above the drop zone, and while it is still too early to think about promotion for some teams, it is never too early to fear relegation. And trust me, we face that sobering idea right freaking now.
Keys to Victory 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 that it happens 1- Requires a Miracle for it to happen
It doesn’t make a bit of difference under current circumstances. Simply find a way to win. By. hook or by crook, I really do not care.
The Hot Seat
I am introducing this section, not as a joke, as I certainly don’t champion the notion of another person losing their job, but as a sanity check along the way. Football (soccer), like all sports, is a performance based industry but with football, more than any other sport I know of, teams are keen on changing managers quickly to reverse some of the catastrophes that have befallen a club. With that in mind, let us take a quick look at what Kina has done in charge compared to his predecessor, Yasuhiro Higuchi.
Though Higuchi was relived in 2021 following a run of 7 games without a win (1 draw and 6 losses), 2019 stands out as the worst season in general for the former manager. Between June and September of that year, Ryukyu managed only 2 wins and 2 draws from 15 games. That was the first of the midseason slump we’ve now become accustomed to down here. Higuchi’s longest winless run came at the start of the 2020 season when Ryukyu didn’t notch their first win of that year until match day 9.
This will be Kina’s 16th game in charge of FC Ryukyu beginning in late 2021 when he took over for Higuchi. That year, with relegation pretty much off the table, Kina closed out the season with 3W4D1L record. So far his record this season stands at 1W1D5L. Perhaps we maybe a bit premature in thinking Ryukyu will move on from Kina if the losses continue as they gave Higuchi plenty of leash throughout his time as manager. But Higuchi had two things going for him that Kina does not at the moment. First, Ryukyu started fast and built a nice cushion of points in two of Higuchi’s seasons which buffered Ryukyu from relegation when they began to struggle. Second, despite the 8-game winless streak to open the 2020 campaign, there was no relegation that year so a lot of emphasis was placed on getting through a jammed fixture schedule while dealing with the challenges of playing and traveling during CV-19. Kina does not have either of those luxuries this season and is probably why many of us are greatly concerned as to where this team is heading.
J2 Round 08
(2) FC Machida Zelvia vs (7) JEF United Chiba, and (3) Tokyo Verdy vs (9) Oita Trinita seem like the tasty matchups this week with the free J-League International Broadcast featuring (5) Tochigi SC at home to (12) Zweigen Kanazawa.
Conclusion
Sunday is my son’s birthday, who by the way, is a huge FC Ryukyu fan that has the luxury of not realizing what is playing out in front of him this year. He simply loves to watch the team. Therefore I will follow his lead and simply love the club, like I’ve done since 2014, and just pour my heart and soul into them with no expectations.
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