Intro
FC Ryukyu has fifteen (15) matches left to earn at least twenty-three (23) points. Considering that they’ve only earned twenty (20) points from their first twenty-seven (27) games it feels like a herculean task. Ryukyu no longer have the luxury of time as the season is winding down, the fixture schedule is getting tougher, and relegation is looming. This is the first of three (3) matches in the remaining schedule for FC Ryukyu in which they’ve never won, never taken a single point, in enemy territory. And oh yes, Ryukyu have nine (9) road fixtures left to play this season.
Match Day Weather Forecast & Information
Partly cloudy with little chance of rain. Rather pleasant conditions to play under.
Click>>>> Match Day 28 Information from Tokushima Vortis
Team Previews
Tokushima Vortis: It is strange that Vortis have just two (2) more wins than FC Ryukyu this season. But they are far and away the league leaders when it comes to draws. Fifteen (15) to be exact. Vortis have played to a 0-0 score line five (5) times, a 1-1 score line seven (7) times, 2-2 twice (2), and 3-3 in their first meeting with FC Ryukyu this season. Though they have one less goal scored on the season than FC Ryukyu they are thirteen (13) points ahead of them in the standings.
The main reason Vortis has been able to earn all those draws is their water tight defense and goalkeeping. Vortis have surrendered the fewest goals in J2 this season and it is crazy to think that FC Ryukyu, a team who struggles to score multiple goals, is the only team to ever score three (3) goals in a game against Vortis this year. But that game was played in Okinawa with the return fixture taking place in Tokushima where Vortis have surrendered just nine (9) goals in thirteen (13) matches.
Vortis have a good record against teams near the relegation zone by winning twice (2), drawing four (4) times with just a single (1) loss. Whereas the loss and preponderance of draws occur on the road to these teams, Vortis has never lost at home to any of them and has shut them out a total of five (5) times in seven (7) games. A stat that doesn’t bode well for FC Ryukyu heading into this match.
Vortis are currently on a four (4) game winning streak and should be plenty rested with their match called off last week due to a CV-19 outbreak in the Tokyo Verdy squad. They had consecutive 1-0 victories over Gunma and Kanazawa followed by consecutive 1-1 draws against Kumamoto and Yokohama FC with their last loss coming against Iwate on the road. However, Tokushima has only lost five (5) times this season.
Vortis made a brief change at GK for the Kanazawa and Kumamoto matches but since then Jose Aurelio Suarez has returned to anchor this team. One player who may be dealing with an injury is playmaker Kazuki Nishi who has missed four (4) of the last five (5) matches with only a brief appearance during the Kanazawa game. There is no indication that he is injured but his absence could provide a slight boost to FC Ryukyu on Saturday though Ryukyu will still need to keep an close eye on Shunto Kodama.
FC Ryukyu: A great man (@FLManInJapan) said, “If we are going to save our season, it will be on the backs of our foreign players.” That saying is ringing true these days thanks to the play of Dany Carvajal and Kelvin, prior to his injury. Ryukyu also signed two foreigners the past two weeks, Alex Barrera (MF) and Sadam Sulley (FWD), bringing the squad total to eight (8) foreigners from Vietnam, Thailand, Brazil, Costa Rica, Spain and Ghana. To my knowledge Sulley is the first ever African player for FC Ryukyu and this is definitely the most foreign players rostered by Ryukyu in my time as a supporter.
I am not sure if Kelvin will return from his injury this match but both Barrera and Sulley may make their debuts this weekend. Both players stand at 190cm which adds some serious height to the FC Ryukyu squad. They won’t have much time to adjust to the J-league if thrown into the fire in order to rejuvenate a sputtering Ryukyu attack but we have little choice these days with our current injury crisis. I think it would make for an interesting pairing in the mid-field if we started Barrera and Van Luan. Van Luan definitely has the disposition you covet in a central midfielder and Barrera is supposedly a box-to-box midfielder, or so I’m told.
Sulley provides the height that Ryukyu currently lack up top with the possible injuries to Noda and Uehara but all I’ve seen about this player are highlights from his time in the top tier of Kosovo so he is a relative unknown commodity. Since Ryukyu made the switch at GK to Dany Carvajal they’ve remained undefeated in three (3) games. As I said last week, Dany is playing some inspired football and is looks up for it every week. I just hope we can get him some offense to turn low scoring games into wins. Omori and Nakagawa are really starting to gel in our central defense which should see them getting consistently stronger as the season reaches its crescendo.
Though there has been some sightings of Yuki Kusano at training this past week he is still probably a few weeks away from making his return. Abe has done well in his return to the lineup but just like last year he is not getting the service a striker of his quality deserves. That doesn’t stop Abe from putting in the hard yards but that work seems to break Abe and we cannot afford to lose anymore players to injury. Expect to see Tanaka in the attack again as Nacho has preferred Makito Uehara at RB. Need one, probably both, of them to start bombing in some crosses to our forwards. Expect to see Ikeda, Kanai, Nakano, Omoto and Takezawa in the lineup if the foreigners are not included which would be the same lineup we deployed against Omiya.
Vortis own the edge over Ryukyu in this series and have hit the three (3) goal mark on three (3) occasions when facing Ryukyu. Ryukyu’s lone win against Vortis came at the start of the 2019 campaign when they were off to a blistering start. A win or draw here would make this the longest undefeated streak for FC Ryukyu this season that hopefully puts them on a trajectory to achieve more success because as they say, “winning is contagious.”
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. Don’t go to sleep on Vortis. Likelihood 3. Vortis might not create a ton of chances in the attack and we know they will certainly frustrate our struggling attack, but if we somehow inch out in front, or find ourselves tied late in the game, we must maintain focus. Vortis seems to spring to life in the last quarter of the match, which has happened to be Ryukyu’s kryptonite this year, though not so much lately thanks to the switch at manager.
Round 28 in J2
Up top: Some pretty big games this round with (1) Albirex Niigata hosting (5) Fagiano Okayama and (3) Vegalta Sendai playing at home against (4) V-Varen Nagasaki. (2) Yokohama FC makes a short trip to play (11) Tokyo Verdy who are fresh of an impressive win of Jubilo Iwata in the Emperors Cup for the free broadcast on the J-League International YouTube Channel this week. Click>>>> Tokyo Verdy vs Yokohama FC.
Down Below: The most noteworthy match sees (20) Omiya Ardija versus (18) Blaublitz Akita in a significant 6-pointer. (19) Iwate Grulla Morioka travels south to (8) FC Machida Zelvia and then (21) Thespakusatsu Gunma heads to (10) Montedio Yamagata.
Conclusion
Ryukyu are rapidly approaching a situation where draws will no longer help their current situation as they are in need of massive point gains in short order. It may seem difficult to see where we will get the 20-23 points we need in the remaining fixture list but you have to start somewhere with some rather surprising results. Come on Boys!
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