Intro
Never has the saying, “the beatings will continue until morale improves,” ever been more poignant than right now. FC Ryukyu are lacking goals, lacking results and likely lacking confidence these days. Last season may have seemed like a bad dream for us as fans while this year is slowly turning into a full blown nightmare from which we may never wake up. And now comes Nara club. A team that is trying to stave of relegation back to the JFL while grinding out results early on and making a name for themselves. Probably no better circumstances for Nara Club to take advantage of a team once considered (maybe just me in that regards) as a favorite to push for promotion.
Team Previews
FC Ryukyu: A man much wiser than me on the nuances of the J-League – a friend and someone you’ve listened to over the years dolling out knowledge and insight into the lower tiers of the J-league on the JTET Pod – told me something powerful the other day. “Why waste a 1,000 words, that few may read, complaining about your current managers shortcomings and failures when you can simply shout them from the rafters during the match?” Great advice, an one which I will adhere to this week.
With that in mind, the only things I’ll add are that Ryukyu need to start taking better shots and converting more chances. We will go with just the two keys to victory this week as it is going to take small, single, steps at a time to improve this club and their fortunes.
Nara Club: Haven’t lost in four (4) games and coming to Okinawa with potential points in the offing. I should also add that any perceived ‘name brand recognition’ for FC Ryukyu on the part of Nara Club need not apply in this case. Nara would love to leave this round with a point but I wouldn’t blame them if they felt disappointed in doing so since all three points seem justifiable considering the recent form of each team in this fixture.
Nara have conceded four (4) goals while scoring seven (7) in their last four fixtures compared to that of FC Ryukyu who have conceded seven (7) and scored five (5). But we know we almost witnessed FC Ryukyu making it five (5) consecutive halves without scoring a goal until Nakano hit one in stoppage time and with the game out of reach.
Round 6 in J3
A lot of the teams at the top of the table will be facing teams near the bottom. Some of the matches where teams are close to one another in the standings include: (6) Gainare Tottori at (8) Vanraure Hachinoe, and (7) FC Gifu at (10) Ehime FC.
(1) Iwate Grulla Morioka haven’t lost since their game with Ryukyu but let’s see if their streak of playing good every other match continues this week at home to (17) SC Sagamihara. There are also two teams, (4) Matsumoto Yamaga and (5) FC Imabari, who have not lost this season.
Conclusion
The countdown timer on Kuranuki’s tenure as manager for FC Ryukyu has begun. One that will not stop with a singular victory, or even a mixed set of results that leaves Ryukyu fledgling in the middle of the table. A third consecutive defeat will be damming to Kuranuki’s case for remaining as Ryukyu manager and I can rest assured that the calls for his removal will come quicker than that of Kina’s last season, who as we know is from Okinawa, unlike Kuranuki. I’ll see you out there gaffer!
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