| Gamba Preview |
|
|
After last Saturday's win over a conveniently weakened Consadole Sapporo side - a 2-1 scoreline that could and should have been greater - Omiya Ardija tomorrow return to a task that has confounded them since early April. For it was then that the Squirrels last won a league match at Omiya Park, a 2-0 defeat of Oita Trinita that was lit up by two superb pieces of shooting from Masato Saito.
Since then, Ardija have singularly failed to put together any kind of home form and while they have to a great extent been rescued by some terrific results achieved away from home, Yasuhiro Higuchi has throughout 2008 been unable to inject into his charges a level of consistency. A hard-fought 3-2 win at tomorrow's opponents Gamba Osaka, for example, was immediately followed by a crushing defeat in Saitama by FC Tokyo.
But the signs are there that Higuchi is beginning to put in place a team with some backbone. Slovenian Klemen Lavric continues to settle into life in the J-League and netted a deserved goal in Sapporo; he has also in the main avoided any of the disciplinary problems that dogged Salles, the last big foreign forward brought to Japan by Omiya. After an impressive display against Consadole, it's to be hoped that Lavric will retain his place up front alongside Denis Marques, at the expense of goalshy Kota Yoshihara.
In the centre, Naoya Saeki would appear to have made his own the key role of holding midfielder and is now enjoying his longest run in the first team since moving to Ardija from Vissel Kobe. Daigo Kobayashi, too, showed some glimpses in Hokkaido that he may be returning to form and was unlucky on a couple of occasions not to find the net.
It's to be hoped that these positives will pay off for Higuchi in terms of more consistent results - but Gamba's season, complicated by their Asian Champions League obligations, has also been particularly up and down. Following the sale of top scorer and ex-Squirrels legend Bare, the Blue-and-Blacks find themselves on a run of one win in seven matches, with even that modest triumph coming at lowly JEF United.
The weekend saw Gamba slip to a 2-1 defeat at Yokohama F Marinos, their goal a rare effort from midfielder Takahiro Futagawa - whereas what the 2005 champions need as a priority is to be reassured that Lucas can fill the void left by Bare's departure. Now is probably as good a time as any for Omiya to be hosting Gamba and a dominant performance from the key players mentioned above would go some way towards securing three more vital J1 points.
|
|
【2008/08/15 17:15】
2008 Match Previews
| TRACKBACK(0) | COMMENT(11) |
 |
|
| Sapporo Preview |
|
|
After a curiously-timed break of one weekend, J1 recommences tomorrow, with Omiya Ardija travelling north to Hokkaido for a potentially crucial clash with Consadole Sapporo. The teams met as recently as mid-May, when ex-Squirrels boss Toshiya Miura returned to Saitama to inflict a 2-1 defeat on his former charges, who put in a particularly poor performance on a rainy afternoon at Omiya Park.
Since that time, Yasuhiro Higuchi's team have picked up just seven points from seven games and are currently on a run of having scored just once in five outings - relegation form, by any other name. Ardija seem to have fallen into the habit of starting matches badly, going behind and therefore leaving themselves chasing the game. Too many players are now too badly out of form to enable any kind of fight-back to occur.
That said, some of Higuchi's substitutions lately have had a reasonably positive effect on the team, the likes of wide midfielder Hayato Hashimoto showing some sign of being able to link up with fellow bench resident Klemen Lavric. Even fans' favourite Hiroshi Morita deserves some credit for almost nicking three points in the last fixture against Shimizu S-Pulse.
No doubt Squirrels fans would be pleased to see Slovenian international Lavric begin a match for the first time as an Omiya player against Consadole. And a partnership with top scorer Denis Marques would appear to be the option most likely to pay dividends, given how consistently Kota Yoshihara has failed to deliver the goods this season. But the giant former Duisburg player needs good service to make the most of his talents - and right now, it's hard to see who's going to provide that service.
|
|
【2008/08/08 21:01】
2008 Match Previews
| TRACKBACK(0) | COMMENT(18) |
|
|
| S-Pulse Preview |
|
|
Shimizu S-Pulse visit Omiya Park on Sunday evening for the last in a series of six J1 matches that have been little short of disastrous for Omiya Ardija. Coming out of the long break at the end of June, Yasuhiro Higuchi's men were riding high in seventh place in the standings, just a handful of points off the top spot and having picked up a number of surprising - if occasionally somewhat undeserved - wins along the way.
But now, such is the close nature of the J-League's top division that four consecutive defeats have left the Squirrels in a far more familiar position: on the edge of the relegation zone and glancing nervously over their shoulders. If Ardija fans had a dream that, following the arrival from Yamagata of Higuchi, their team had suddenly been transformed into a truly competitive J1 outfit, that dream must surely by now have been shattered.
The reality is that Omiya struggled desperately throughout 2007 and with an almost identical team this year look set to be involved once more in a fight to avoid the drop. As has been documented on this site over recent weeks, there are simply too many under-performers in the side for this not to be the case. And to add to the concerns of an already nervy Squirrel Nation, midfielder Chikara Fujimoto confessed in midweek that team spirit had taken a major blow in the crushing 4-0 loss to Nagoya Grampus, with players arguing amongst themselves and blaming each other for mistakes instead of adopting a supportive approach to a difficult situation.
So with this less-than-encouraging backdrop to arguably the most important fixture of the season against an S-Pulse side immediately below Ardija in the table, the suggestion in the footballing press is that Higuchi would appear to have reverted to bringing toothless forward Kota Yoshihara back into the starting line-up alongside the Squirrels' key performer Denis Marques. Defender Daisuke Tomita is unavailable through suspension - remarkably, Omiya's first of the year - with Yosuke Kataoka likely to step in and partner Leandro in the middle of the back four.
Neither of these are a pieces of news that will put a spring in the step of Omiya supporters in the countdown to kick-off. But right now, praying for an S-Pulse off-day and for a piece of Denis Marques magic looks to be about the Squirrels' most realistic chance of success.
|
|
【2008/07/26 13:41】
2008 Match Previews
| TRACKBACK(0) | COMMENT(6) |
|
|
| Nagoya Preview |
|
|
There can be few worse fixtures for Omiya Ardija to be playing than Nagoya Grampus this holiday Monday evening. Since the re-start of the J1 season at the end of June, the Squirrels have - after a Denis Marques-inspired defeat of Tokyo Verdy - lost three consecutive matches to drop six places down the standings, being to a great extent outplayed by Vissel Kobe and Jubilo Iwata. Thursday saw a gutsier display at high-flying Kashiwa, but the Squirrels' lily-livered attack could not make up for one defensive slip-up that allowed Franca in to notch the only score of the game for Reysol.
With just one goal in 270 minutes of football, then, this is hardly the time for question marks to be hanging over the future at the club of Omiya's star performer this year. Denis Marques has made by far the most significant individual contribution to the team in 2008 - certainly of the out-field players, at any rate - but mysteriously did not figure at all against the Sun Kings.
Whatever the reality of the circumstances surrounding his absence, it is definitely true to say that the 27-year-old brings to the Squirrels' play a much-needed sense of imagination, flair and unpredictability. Given the extent to which Daigo Kobayashi and, arguably to a lesser extent, Chikara Fujimoto have underperformed, these are characteristics that Omiya can ill do without.
Last year, then-coach Satoru Sakuma's Ardija were fighting for their J1 survival when they travelled to Nagoya to take on the Red Whales - and were crushed 5-0, in one of the most disastrous performances by an Omiya side since the club gained promotion in 2004. Now, new Grampus boss Dragan Stojkovic has been successful in leading his team to the fringes of the title race and it must be that Yasuhiro Higuchi is up against it, if the Squirrels are to break their losing streak.
|
|
【2008/07/19 05:21】
2008 Match Previews
| TRACKBACK(0) | COMMENT(7) |
|
|
| Kashiwa Preview |
|
|
Ardija make the short journey to Chiba on Thursday for a night game with the Sun Kings of Kashiwa Reysol. And the two teams will be approaching the fixture in contrasting form, for although Reysol went down 1-0 to Nagoya Grampus at the weekend, their recent results have been excellent: they were previously undefeated for nine matches, their last loss coming at home to Shimizu S-Pulse at the end of April.
The Squirrels, on the other hand, have been beaten in their two most recent games - against Vissel Kobe and Jubilo Iwata - a common denominator of both being a woeful first-half display. Earlier in the season Ardija proved themselves good at coming from behind to take the points, as at Gamba Osaka and Kawasaki Frontale, but constantly having to chase the game is a dangerous situation to be in for a team such as Omiya with relatively limited attacking options and a midfield that seems always to find it hard to create chances and support the strikers.
That said, new signing Klemen Lavric is the kind of figure who potentially can have a major impact upon the Squirrels' fortunes. The Slovenian international came within an ace of grabbing a somewhat undeserved point against Jubilo Iwata, as his towering header in the dying seconds was checked off for a questionable offside. Ardija have to learn how to support such a player and make the most of his characteristics, but a superbly accurate free kick delivery from Hayato Hashimoto was a step in the right direction - especially when one remembers how few chances Omiya have created this year from set pieces.
Who might step aside to make room for Lavric in the starting line-up as an interesting question. It is difficult to imagine star performer Denis Marques being dropped at present and coach Yasuhiro Higuchi persists with Kota Yoshihara up front - although many fans are now arguing that his pacy running style would better serve the team on the wing rather than occupying one of the main striker roles.
In midfield, Daigo Kobayashi has already been omitted by Higuchi as he seeks to recover the form that two years ago got him onto the fringes of the international set-up - but now, sadly for the player and for the team, seems long gone. There are currently questions being asked of the attitude of ex-skipper Chikara Fujimoto, who was booked against Vissel Kobe and has drawn the wrath of Ardija supporters as a consequence of what is perceived as an unsatisfactory explanation; Kobe fans, too, expressed their disappointment that a former Vissel hero can have behaved so poorly.
But given that the replacement of any of these players with Lavric would mean a serious modification of the Squirrels' tactical approach, Higuchi has a serious decision ahead of him. Central defender Masahiro Koga will be missing for Kashiwa, after being sent off against his former team Nagoya; will the physical threat presented by Omiya's new star be given the opportunity to exploit any uncertainty in Koga's absence?
|
|
【2008/07/16 17:40】
2008 Match Previews
| TRACKBACK(0) | COMMENT(0) |
|
|
| Jubilo Preview |
|
|
10 May was the date of the last league match to be played at Omiya Park - a gloomy 2-1 defeat at the hands of lowly Consadole Sapporo - and Saturday evening's game against Jubilo Iwata provides an opportunity for the Mighty Squirrels to turn around the poor results that they have generally achieved at their revamped home stadium. The last win was at the beginning of April when Oita Trinita were sent back to Kyushu having been beaten 2-0 and, since moving back home, Ardija have broadly speaking struggled to turn the place into the kind of venue where opposing teams fear to play.
One possible source of optimism for Omiya supporters is the arrival in Saitama of giant Slovenian forward Klemen Lavric, who participated in an experimental training match on Friday, being paired with both Denis Marques and Kota Yoshihara at different times. Fans will be hoping that the newcomer plays a part against a Jubilo side whose poor recent results have seen them slip into the relegation play-off spot.
Ardija were at their most infuriatingly inconsistent last Saturday, Chikara Fujimoto pronouncing himself "ashamed" at their level of performance in the 1-0 loss at Vissel Kobe, while substitute Hayato Hashimoto confessed that the team's improved second half performance that day was to a great extent a result of coach Jun Nakamura venting his anger during the interval.
It is the midfield that seemingly is the main problem area at present for Omiya, as Daigo Kobayashi's form continues to implode - it is difficult to remember the last time that the former Tokyo Verdy man made a telling contribution, or delivered a good quality set piece - while the likes of Shin Kanazawa and rookie Kohei Tokita have in all honesty displayed the quality required to make an impact at J1 level only in fits and starts. Jubilo at home is surely the opportunity to turn over a new leaf.
|
|
【2008/07/11 18:04】
2008 Match Previews
| TRACKBACK(0) | COMMENT(0) |
|
|
| Kobe Preview |
|
|
Omiya Ardija's summer schedule of six J1 matches continues on Saturday evening with an away fixture at Vissel Kobe, which must surely be regarded as a further opportunity for the Squirrels to climb yet higher up the rankings. Last weekend's 2-0 defeat of a lacklustre Tokyo Verdy saw Ardija reach seventh place - a mere four points off the leaders, in what is proving to be a particularly close-fought championship.
In contrast, Kobe have tumbled to sixteenth and are without a win in six league games, although it should be acknowledged that even so they are still only six points behind Yasuhiro Higuchi's team. Former Squirrel Leandro has returned to the Vissel starting line-up after missing eight matches through injury and will no doubt be eager to add to his tally of three goals this year against the club that at the end of 2005 adjudged him to be not good enough for J1 football.
But while the Leandro / Yoshito Okubo partnership will doubtless cause some problems for the Omiya defence, orange fans will be hoping for a first glimpse of their shock new signing Klemen Lavric, the giant striker snapped up from Bundesliga side MSV Duisburg to replace departed youngster Pedro Junior. The league season in Germany finished in mid-May and so it is possible that Lavric's match fitness may be lacking, but given that the club have seemingly made attempts stretching back over the past year to buy a big, aggressive European-style centre forward, it will be fascinating to see the impact that the Slovenian international has on Ardija's front line.
Certainly he gives further options to coach Higuchi, who has had to rely to a great extent on the trickery of Pedro and Denis Marques and the speed of Kota Yoshihara when it comes to goal-getting. That said, the quality of ball into the box will have to improve if Omiya are to get the best out of Lavric, as the delivery of set pieces from the likes of Daigo Kobayashi and Chikara Fujimoto (not to mention overlapping right back Yosuke Murayama) has been one of the least impressive aspects of the Squirrels' play during 2008.
|
|
【2008/07/04 17:23】
2008 Match Previews
| TRACKBACK(0) | COMMENT(1) |
|
|
|
| BLOG TOP | 次のページ>> |
|
|
