Intro
FC Ryukyu have reached the halfway point of the 2022 season and will continue on without their manager, Tetsuhiro Kina, who was relieved of his duties on Monday June 6th. Head Coach, Kazuki Kuranuki, who briefly oversaw a slight bump in performance for the club when Kina was sidelined with CV-19, will take over as interim manager until a replacement can be found. The move away from Kina was a long time coming for some Ryukyu fans and now we have to ask the question, is there enough matches remaining this season for Ryukyu to turn things around?
Weather Forecast & Match Day Info
Rainy season will not die off so easily. Goodness me this looks awful.
Click>>>>Match Day 21 Information from FC Ryukyu
Team Previews
FC Ryukyu: Relieving the manager, which was necessary, is one thing. Accumulating points during a tough stretch of matches while being severely depleted due to key injuries is another. Ryukyu look primed to have another stretch of four (4), or more, games where they concede at least three (3) goals in consecutive matches. The last time that happened was between match days 6-9 and there are some familiar opponents over the next four (4) fixtures that caused that severe damage to FC Ryukyu.
Perhaps the best tactic Ryukyu can deploy during these times is to park the bus and hope to hit teams on the counter attack. Owning loads of possession has gotten us nowhere, and nowhere fast, and when turnovers/counter attacks occur – which they always will – our defending has been porous. You’ve all seen the stats on how effective teams have been against Ryukyu on limited opportunities.
So why subject a back line, one that is reeling at the moment, to more of the same? Simply offer more coverage, clog the attacking area, and block/clear the shots from danger. And we need to stop the hemorrhaging of goals on set pieces. There is no shame in this tactic if it can net us any positive results especially when we are missing our top scorer while struggling mightily to break down other teams.
Every team playing Ryukyu in the near term will size up their matchup with Ryukyu as a must win or get right fixture. Nagasaki have failed to defeat Ryukyu in any of the three (3) games they’ve played in Okinawa. In fact, in four (4) out of the six (6) total matches played between these sides a team has reached the three (3) goal mark. Funny that each side has scored three goals at home against the other (2019 & 2021) with the 2020 fixtures standing out as the outliers in which those games were low scoring affairs.
V-Varen Nagasaki: Like Ryukyu, Nagasaki started the season slowly, but unlike Ryukyu, they had a bit of a revival by going undefeated in five (5) games. V-Varen Nagasaki are always loaded with talent but haven’t quite finished the job to get promoted to J1. They came oh so close a few seasons ago and a lot of J-League analysts tipped them for promotion in 2021 but it seems the emotional toll of just missing out on promotion really weighed heavily upon the club last season.
Nagasaki now find themselves in a similar pattern that took Ryukyu down last year where they win one, draw one, lose one. Granted, a preponderance of Nagasaki losses come at the hands of teams currently at the top of the table but the dropped points to Omiya, Chiba, Vortis and Verdy have set Nagasaki back a bit this season. Still, Nagasaki sit just one point off the promotion playoff bracket and they need to start taking maximum points from the sides below them, as well as around them, in the standings if they wish to get up, and stay up, near the top of the table.
Despite having a nearly identical goals scored to goals conceded tally, Nagasaki has plenty of attacking talent to overpower teams who struggle to score. Cristiano continues to display a high work rate resulting in five (5) goals scored with four (4) assists that has made him a fan favorite among the J-League. Not far behind Cristiano is Edgar Junio who sits on three (3) goals and two (2) assists. Nagasaki also do much better on the road compared to playing at home with five (5) wins, three (3) of which are in a row heading into this game with Ryukyu.
I didn’t have a chance this week to reach out to @Daniel_VVN for his thoughts on this match but he did mention that Nagasaki are a bit vulnerable when it comes to defending set pieces. Luckily for him, and Nagasaki, Ryukyu are not the greatest at creating or scoring on these types of chances. For more on Nagasaki check out Daniel’s Twitter feed and blog over at @NagaSapo_EN.
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
1. Defend as if your life depended on it. Likelihood 2. Ryukyu cannot afford another repeat performance like last week at Montedio Yamagata and that starts with preventing teams from scoring in such quick succession. There has been way too many games this season where Ryukyu’s opponents score in bunches, usually to the tune of three (3) goals in under fifteen (15) total minutes of play. We can only hope the defensive woes were addressed during training this week.
Kinain’ Ya Around
The release of Kina officially brings this section to a close but that doesn’t mean I won’t incorporate some of the intent contained throughout this section in future FC Ryukyu team previews. To state the obvious, this is the worst start to any season for FC Ryukyu since joining the J2. Regardless of the outcome on Saturday Ryukyu will finish with the least amount points, wins, goals scored, while conceding the most ever goals and losses at the halfway point of any season. The writing really has been on the wall for sometime if we look at Kina’s career stats while in charge of FC Ryukyu. Kina amassed five (5) wins, nine (9) draws, and eleven (11) losses in twenty five (25) games as manager for Ryukyu in J2 league matches. That was good for a 20% win rate in all games while earning 32% of the total points available.
A further breakdown of the scoring in those matches tell us that: Ryukyu have been shutout six (6) times, scored a single goal ten (10) times, scored twice six (6) times, and only reached the three-goal plateau, though never exceeding more than three goals, just three (3) times. Conversely, Ryukyu have only shutout their opponents three (3) times, conceded a single goal just eight (8) times, conceded twice in games eight (8) times, allowed three goals three (3) times and have been hit for four (4), or more, goals three (3) times. Was the problem the system, the players or the management? I guess we’ll find out shortly.
Round 21 in J2
No fixture jumps out to me so you’d be better off listening to the @JTalkET podcast to find out which games look tasty this week.
We are treated to two free broadcasts this week on the J.League International YouTube channel. First, it will be our boys taking on Nagasaki at home on Saturday, followed by (15) Tokyo Verdy at home versus (21) Iwate Grulla Morioka on Sunday.
Click>>>> JLeague Int’l YouTube broadcast of FC Ryukyu vs V-Varen Nagasaki
Click>>>> J.League Int’l YouTube broadcast of Tokyo Verdy vs Iwate Grulla Morioka
Conclusion
It was a very active week for FC Ryukyu, one that has seemed to breathe some much needed life back into the supporters, and more importantly, the club. It started with the release of Kina on Monday, followed by the release of a the new 3rd kit in the midweek and ending with the signing of Brazilian forward Kelvin on Thursday. All good signs moving forward but how quickly will the first and last bit of that news pay dividends? The clock is ticking.
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