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Oita Trinita vs Gamba Osaka 7 November 2021 Match Preview

Oita Trinita vs Gamba Osaka
2021 J1 Season Round 35
Showa Denko Dome Oita
Sunday 7 November 2021
Kick Off: 14:00 (JST)

Sunday sees the final round of J1 fixtures prior to the upcoming international break and Gamba, fresh from a 1-0 triumph at Yokohama F. Marinos on Culture Day face their second road trip of the week, a journey west to Kyushu to do battle with Oita Trinita. A hot reception surely awaits in a region known for it’s onsen, but buyer beware, Trinita are the league’s lowest goalscorers and Gamba, the joint second lowest. However, it is the J.League, so maybe the recent rumours surrounding Tomohiro Katanosaka will bring both sides out of their respective shells…3-3 anyone?

I was present at the Nissan Stadium on Wednesday to see Gamba take three valuable points thanks to Shu Kurata’s 55th minute winner (I was wearing his uniform that day, coincidence?). I’ll get into some of the key takeaways from that game later on in the ‘Gamba Osaka’ section, but for now let me point out that a win against Oita will make the Nerazzurri mathematically safe and the 10 point gap currently in place between them and the drop zone means that it would take a miracle for either Tokushima or Oita to overhaul their total of 40 points even if they lose this weekend (Sendai and Yokohama FC are already too far back to overtake Gamba).

Oita’s Kyushu neighbours Avispa Fukuoka did them no favours on Wednesday, triumphing 1-0 thanks to a goal from Cameroon international John Mary. Trinita had entered that tussle with 11 points from their previous 6 outings, during which time they only conceded twice. Former Gamba player and assistant coach Tomohiro Katanosaka’s side currently sit 4 points behind Shonan and Shimizu (15th and 16th), but have a significantly worse goal difference. After facing Gamba they still have to go head-to-head with Kashima (a), Yokohama FC (h) and Kashiwa (a) meaning that their need for points is now beyond urgent and they simply must see off the Nerazzurri on Sunday.

I’d just like to take a moment to congratulate 2021 champions Kawasaki Frontale, another phenomenal performance from Toru Oniki’s side who continue to set a pace that others can’t live with. Hopefully your party will continue for the next few weeks and Gamba can take full advantage of some lethargy when we visit Todoroki on November 27th. But, more seriously, well done to all involved!

Tale of the Tape

It’s funny how things have a way of balancing themselves out in football and Gamba’s backs-to-the-wall triumph at Marinos is a case in point. The Nerazzurri recorded season lows for shots on goal, passes completed and possession as well as equalling the 24 shots against that also occurred in their previous away tie at Urawa, yet they ran out 1-0 victors. However, cast your minds back to early August when Gamba put up an xG For number of 3.38 and had 20 shots on goal with 14 on target yet lost 3-2. Throw in the two 50/50 red cards Marinos got away with versus the Wellington Silva nonsense on Wednesday and yadayadayada…I think you can see where I’m going with this…well hopefully!

Oita’s strong suit is most definitely their home form with 23 of their 28 points to date (82%, a league high) coming at the Showa Denko Dome. Gamba, by contrast have picked up 55% of their 40 points outside of Suita, though recent matches with Urawa and Marinos probably give little indication as to what lies in store in this game. Takashi Kiyama has Gamba’s backline better drilled than Matsunami and ever did and even with backup members starting regularly in recent weeks, they’ve been able to hold their shape and clear their lines effectively in the face heavy bombardments. Despite a recent upsurge in attacking numbers, especially in their trio of fixtures with Cerezo, Sendai and Tokushima, Emperor’s Cup semi finalists Trinita lack an out-and-out goal threat and their inability to even create chances, let alone take them has been one of their biggest hinderances all year.





Head to Head

Gamba came from behind to grab a priceless three points against Oita at Panasonic Stadium in July. The home side dominated, but found themselves a goal down courtesy of Henrique Trevisan’s scrappy effort on the hour mark, however, a fine Leandro Pereira shot from the edge of the area restored parity before Takashi Usami won the game with essentially the last kick of the match. Usami broke down in tears in his ‘Hero Interview’ after the match, likely due to a combination of the 2 week quarantine period all the players underwent following their return from the ACL group stage in Uzbekistan as well as reflecting on the magnitude of his goal which took Gamba out of the drop zone. That result was followed by road wins at Sapporo and Sendai, a run which forms the backbone of the Nerazzurri’s points collection to date.

Gamba did the double over Oita in 2020 (they also achieved this against Sapporo, Hiroshima, Kobe and Yokohama FC) thanks to a 2-1 win in Suita and a nervy 1-0 at the Showa Denko Dome. Daiki Watari headed Trinita into a surprise early lead at Panasonic Stadium, but Gamba were level almost immediately thanks to Takashi Usami’s spot kick, Ademilson then produced a fine strike early in the second period to wrap up the points. Tatsuya Tanaka had something to prove against his old club in the return fixture, but somehow didn’t find himself on the scoresheet despite having a couple of glorious opportunities to break the deadlock. A Masaaki Higashiguchi save and a last ditch Ryu Takao clearance off the line after Tanaka had rounded Higashiguchi kept Gamba in it, and they went on to deliver a brutal sucker punch as Patric nodded home Usami’s corner late on to seal the deal.



Gamba Osaka

Wednesday’s win took Gamba to 10 points from their last 5 outings, a run which included 3 fixtures against teams currently in the top 7 as well as that infamous 5-1 whipping at the hands of Sapporo. Should they continue in similar form, say by taking somewhere between 7 and 9 points from their remaining fixtures (Nagoya (h), Frontale (a) and Shonan (h) follow the international break), then a quiet optimism could start to form as we enter an important off season for a side that haven’t lifted a trophy since the 2015 Emperor’s Cup.

Next, I’ve laid out in bullet point form below a few key takeaways (good, bad and ugly) from the Marinos game,

* Stalwart / living legend Masaaki Higashiguchi celebrated his 350th J1 appearance by recording the 100th clean sheet of his career. I’ve ran out of superlatives for him, so won’t attempt any more here, I’ll just leave you to marvel at the stat above (he’s the 6th J.League goalkeeper to achieve the feat).

* Yota Sato has started to show the form that saw him rated as the best centre-back in Japanese varsity football last year. I only caught highlights of the Emperor’s Cup defeat at home to Urawa and he looked a little dicey, but he’s been assured in the last 2 away league outings at Reds and Marinos. It seems that playing centre-back (his natural position) and being given clear and coherent instructions by Kiyama has brought out an improvement in him…who’d have thunk it, right?

* Yosuke Ideguchi, so often a shadow of his former self this season, rolled back the years with a monstrous effort to put the breaks on Marinos on Wednesday. It was great to see and hopefully he can maintain that form through to the end of the year.

* Not something I really wanted to write, but come on Wellington Silva, what you did at the end of the game on Wednesday isn’t what being a Gamba player is about. You clearly have a load of talent which you showed when you were on the ball against Marinos and especially when you ripped through Sapporo in our away game in Hokkaido, you also seem like a pretty fun off the field, like how you warmly applauded the travelling supporters during and after the game at Nissan Stadium. But, please, please, cut the negative stuff out of your game and focus on dribbling past defenders and combining with Usami, Yamami and Patric next year to get us back into the ACL!!

Team News

Hiroki Fujiharu left the field clutching his ribs and back during the first half of the Marinos game, he could just have been badly winded, but I’d bank on him missing out here and possibly Yuya Fukuda, but more likely Keisuke Kurokawa will fill his spot. Fukuda seemed to take a kick to his problematic ankle just prior to being subbed off on Wednesday, but I think he should be ok to play here. Elsewhere, Kim Young-gwon was left out of the South Korea squad for the upcoming internationals after being stretchered off in Gamba’s 1-0 win over Sagan Tosu. No timeframe has been given for his return, but he won’t play here. Fellow centre-backs Genta Miura and Gen Shoji are back in full training and it remains to be seen whether they are fit enough to play against Oita or whether Matsunami/Kiyama will keep faith with the Suganuma/Sato partnership. I believe Leandro Pereira and Yuji Ono should be nearing full fitness and both could conceivably be options for this match, Pereira, in particular, would come in handy with Patric putting in a full 90 minute shift on Wednesday. Other than that, backup goalie Jun Ichimori (hamstring) is the only other confirmed absentee, though I’m also led to believe that Shinya Yajima is unavailable due to an, as of yet, undisclosed problem.

Predicted Lineups and Stats



Oita Trinita

2021 may come to be seen as then end of an era at Oita with longstanding boss Katanosaka set to depart for either Gamba or Hiroshima and Trinita apparently destined to drop down to J2 for the first time since 2018. Katanosaka has been dealt a tough hand this year with club captain and Mr. Oita Yoshinori Suzuki moving to Shimizu and bright young talent Tomoki Iwata heading for Yokohama F. Marinos. Brazilian loanee Henrique Trevisan has done a decent job of filling the enormous gap left behind by Suzuki’s departure, but in Iwata’s place there has basically been a revolving cast of about 4 or 5 different players trying and failing to fill his enormous boots. Throw in Tatsuya Tanaka’s goals and creativity heading to Urawa to compound the losses in previous years of Noriaki Fujimoto and Ado Onaiwu and even the surprising tally of Yamato Machida can’t make up for the lack of goalscoring contributions from Isa, Nagasawa and Goya. Last season, they could cover their weak attack, to an extent, with a solid defence, but this time round there’s been nowhere to hide. Naoki Nomura’s injury troubles haven’t helped either, neither did poor winter recruitment, with wing-backs Kenta Fukumori (Kitakyushu) and Hayato Kurosaki (Tochigi) loaned back to their previous clubs mere months after making the step up from J2. Additionally, Oita may be a beautiful part of Japan, but it’s far from the bright lights of Kanto and Kansai and therefore difficult to attract foreign talent. They’ve struck gold with Henrique, but it seems that his fellow Brazilian, Matheus Sousa Pereira was signed more as a companion for him rather than a genuine starting option. Despite not knowing which division they’ll be playing in next year, Oita have announced a couple of additions already. Two forwards, Shinya Utsemoto from Miyazaki Sangyo Keiei University (alma mater of both Yoshinori Suzuki and Yushi Hasegawa) and youth team product Yusei Yashiki, who has already made 3 J1 appearances in 2021 while on a type-2 amateur contract, will come in with the goal of bolstering their flailing attack.

Team News

Star turn Yamato Machida was missing from the side that went down 1-0 to Fukuoka and I haven’t seen any confirmation why. Long-serving wing-back Rei Matsumoto was taken off injured against Sendai on October 17th and must be a doubt for this clash. Tidy midfielder Yushi Hasegawa and ex-Kyoto centre-back Katsunori Ueebisu haven’t been seen for the last 8 matchdays and summer recruit from Vissel Kobe, Asahi Masuyama has sat out the previous 3 games, I don’t have any further information on that trio.

Predicted Lineups and Stats




Thanks again for reading and enjoy the game whoever you’re supporting.

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J1 Predicted Lineups Post Transfer Window Update

The summer transfer window “slammed shut,” or closed gently as it tends to do here in Japan, last Friday (August 13), so I thought this would be a good time to have a look at the lineups we are likely to see J1 teams field from now until December.

A quick reminder that you can always check out my regularly updated J1 and J2 databases here,

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j6HTKFF38A3cAz7sqw3jfZ4f6y8soAgOjfXqKR3fNCM/

Before I get into it, here is a rough guide to some of the parameters I’ve used.

* Teams are listed in the order they finished the 2020 season, ie the order you’ll find them in all the 2021 yearbooks.
* The lineups below are not necessarily the ones you’ll see next week, more an amalgamation of the players expected to feature most frequently between now and the end of the season.
* Where genuine competition exists for a starting spot, I’ve listed alternatives below the projected starter.
* The injured / unavailable list only includes players who I feel would have a genuine chance of starting if they were fit. Regular readers will know finding information about JLeague injuries can be a thankless task, so I’ve done my best, but can’t promise it’s 100% accurate.

Finally, if you don’t already, please give @Michael_Master a follow on Twitter. The use of the word ‘Master’ in his handle is by no means an overstatement, the man is truly the oracle when it comes to Japanese transfers and this blog post wouldn’t have been possible without his updates. Thanks man!

Kawasaki Frontale

Comments
Yes Mitoma and Tanaka are gone, and yes Kashiwa have just become the first team in 40 J1 games to keep them scoreless, but take a look at the lineup below and you’ll surely agree this is still the strongest side in the division. A settled back 6 and plenty of options in attack plus rivals either losing players or being engaged in the process of rebuilding, makes me believe they’ll overcome ACL distractions to lift a fourth title in five years.
Injured/Unavailable: 10 Ryota Oshima


Gamba Osaka

Comments
Long time readers of this blog will know the trouble I’ve had predicting Gamba starting lineups recently, though I should point out in my defence, I’m generally more accurate at it than DAZN! With Miura, Kim and Shoji fit, 3-4-2-1 seems like it’ll be the order of the day for most remaining games this season. From 2022, however, it’d be good to see 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 getting an outing, especially if Hiroto Yamami can replicate anything like the form he did against Shimizu on Friday.
Injured/Unavailable: 14 Yuya Fukuda, 15 Yosuke Ideguchi, 27 Ryu Takao, 28 Wellington Silva


Nagoya Grampus

Comments
The arrival of Polish international Jakub Świerczok is like manna from heaven for the Grampus support who have been starved of a genuine centre-forward since Jô’s acrimonious departure at the start of 2020. Captain Yuichi Maruyama is out for the year and the slight defensive wobble caused by his absence, in addition to an inability to create presentable openings for their attackers has seen Nagoya slip back from the highs of last year and the early part of this campaign. Still very much in the hunt for 3rd place, their new number 40 will have a big say in whether they equal last season’s final ranking or not.
Injured/Unavailable: 3 Yuichi Maruyama, 9 Ryogo Yamasaki, 44 Mu Kanazaki


Cerezo Osaka

Comments
The problem with a having a club legend in charge, as both Osaka clubs have found out this year, is that it’s not easy to sever ties with them when things head south. The further away Cerezo get from the defensive stability of the Lotina-era, the more vulnerable they look at the back, while at the other end of the field, a succession of niggling injuries to key personnel has set-back Culpi’s plans to revitalise their attack. The Cherry Blossoms don’t really do mid-table finishes and have only 1 win and 11 points from their last 15 league outings…they couldn’t….could they?
Injured/Unavailable: 3 Ryosuke Shindo


Kashima Antlers

Comments
Things have generally meandered along under Naoki Soma, just as they did under predecessors Zago and Oiwa and on the back of 3 straight wins, the Ibaraki giants are firmly in the picture for 2022 ACL qualification which is really a bare minimum for a club of this size and prestige. Box-to-box midfielder Pituca seems to be a ready-made long term replacement for Leo Silva, but the Antlers faithful must have concerns over how long they can keep hold of talented youngsters like, Araki, Machida and Tsunemoto. Key forward Everaldo has incredibly only scored once in J1 this season and seems to be dropping deep and into wider areas too often, though with Tomoya Inukai raking in goals as he did against Shonan last week, it doesn’t appear to be hindering the team too much.
Injured/Unavailable: 22 Rikuto Hirose


FC Tokyo

Comments
A very streaky team this year, and I’ll discuss them in greater detail during my preview of their upcoming clash with Gamba, Gasmen supporters have seen their side go on both 5 game winning and losing runs in the first half of the season. Boss Kenta Hasegawa and playmaker Leandro burying the hatchet, for now, has helped make them a much more potent force going forward which has somewhat papered over the widening cracks at the back.
Injured/Unavailable: 9 Diego Oliveira, 14 Takuya Uchida, 33 Akihiro Hayashi, 37 Hotaka Nakamura


Kashiwa Reysol

Comments
I’ve already gone pretty deep on the J Talk Podcast regarding my issues with the Reysol front office’s performance in recent years. That, plus the winter departure of Olunga has really set them back this campaign in my opinion. Their season stats and recent results indicate a push up the table might be on the cards during the second half of the year. A bloated squad, constant tinkering with the team’s shape and a never-ending succession of injuries suggest otherwise.
Injured/Unavailable: 7 Hidekazu Otani, 11 Matheus Savio, 33 Hayato Nakama, 39 Yuta Kamiya


Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Comments
Sanfre have reverted to the tried and trusted 3-4-2-1 after an ill-advised dabble with a back 4 at the beginning of the season. They appear to have a surplus of quality centre-backs, but there’s now a gaping Hayao Kawabe shaped hole in the middle of the park. More cutting edge is required up front, but with the new stadium project sucking in resources, they lack the funds to adequately replace Leandro Pereira and it looks like they’ll be left relying on youth team products, university graduates and promising J2 players in the coming years.


Yokohama F. Marinos

Comments
10 points from 4 games in quick-fire succession marks an excellent introduction to Japanese football for Kevin Muscat. The Australian head coach must have been delighted with Léo Ceará’s efforts in recent weeks, putting his hand up as the man to fill Ado Onaiwu’s big boots up front. They are now breathing right down the necks of Kanagawa rivals Kawasaki and we have a genuine title race on our hands. Their devastating attack is beyond reproach, but the old defensive frailties which held them back in 2018 and 2020 have been on display since returning from their summer break. Gamba and Oita, two of the weaker attacks in the division, let them off the hook, but I have a nagging doubt that they are going to give too many chances, to the wrong team, on the wrong day and that’s what’s ultimately going to cost them top spot.


Urawa Red Diamonds

Comments
The plethora of new talent in the arrivals lounge has made Reds one of the most talked about J1 sides during the summer months. The shape I’ve set out below was not the one used by Ricardo Rodriguez on Saturday night, however, I feel he may lean towards it later in the year. Although Kobe seem to act as a bit of lightning rod for online criticism about big spending, dress it up any way you like, Reds summer spree is a naked attempt at fixing problems using cold, hard cash. The Saitama outfit mean business, they may not reach the summit this year, but, they’ll definitely be a team to keep your eye on in the coming years.
**Please note – on August 15 Reds announced Kasper Junker had undergone surgery on a cheekbone injury, I expect to see him back wearing some Tsuneyasu Miyamoto-style facial protection in the next couple of weeks so kept him in the lineup below.**


Oita Trinita

Comments
After a decent run in the top flight since 2019, it seems like the curtain is coming down on their J1 journey, for now. Trinita possess the weakest attack in the division, scoring an anaemic 0.63 goals per game, see misses in the 15th and 48th minutes of their eventual 5-1 drubbing at Marinos on Sunday for clear evidence of where the issues lie. Former Gamba assistant Tomohiro Katanosaka, now in his 6th year in charge, has recently looked at alternatives to his favoured 3-4-2-1, including starting with a back 4 vs Marinos, but I feel like he will return to type soon as the squad is built to play with 3 centre-backs. Goya and Masuyama have come in to bolster the attack, but they still lack a proven source of goals. Onaiwu, Fujimoto and Tanaka have all previously departed for brighter lights elsewhere and it costs money to replace that kind of talent, money, that sadly, Trinita just don’t have.
Injured/Unavailable: 15 Yuta Koide


Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo

Comments
Petrovic’s 100mph attacking football style is locked and loaded at the Sapporo Dome and at the moment it seems to be bearing fruit. As I write this, Consadole have just seen off FC Tokyo in impressive fashion, having dispatched Urawa with even greater ease the week before. Not the richest, or flashiest of J1 outfits, but their in-depth scouting of Japan’s varsity competitions, allied with solid youth development has proven crucial in steering them in an upwards trajectory over the past few months.


Sagan Tosu

Comments
With severe financial difficulties, a manager who’s just returned from a 3 week suspension while an internal power harassment investigation was conducted and 2 of their brightest talents freshly headed out the door, it’s amazing how settled things still appear at Tosu. Matsuoka and Hayashi are now yesterday’s men, but replacements Shirasaki and Koizumi from Kashima are thoroughbred pros who will help steady the ship. ACL qualification may be just beyond them this year, and that’s a real shame as the vultures will surely be circling the likes of Higuchi, Yamashita, Sento and Eduardo in the winter, making a repeat of this season’s heroics all the tougher.
Injured/Unavailable: 23 Fuchi Honda


Vissel Kobe

Comments
It’s worth remembering that Kobe have never finished higher than 7th in J1, so assuming they can get big-name summer recruits Muto and Osako integrated quickly then they’ll be well on their way to achieving a first ever ACL qualification through league performance. Bojan is a bit of an unknown quantity these days, but J1 coach of the month for July Miura has built a solid foundation and crucially has gotten, the high profile stars, the undercard, and the youngsters all pulling together in the same direction, hats off to him for that.
Injured/Unavailable: 1 Daiya Maekawa, 29 Lincoln


Yokohama FC

Comments
A mass recruitment process over the summer has given them a glimmer of hope, and they are now unbeaten in their last 4 games, but is it all a bit too little, too late? Getting my old EPL 40 points to avoid relegation calculator out, Yokohama FC still require 25 points from their 16 remaining fixtures to reach that mythical milestone. Yusuke Matsuo is in the side once more and a defence that was conceding at a rate of 2.32 goals per match has now kept back-to-back clean sheets thanks to the arrival of Brazilian defender Gabriel. If his compatriots, Felipe Vizeu and Saulo Mineiro, can have a similar impact at the other end of the pitch, then maybe, just maybe they could be on for the greatest of great escapes.
Injured/Unavailable: 8 Kosuke Saito, 23 Yota Maejima, 30 Kohei Tezuka


Shimizu S-Pulse

Comments
Their summer transfer business looks good, but I said that about their winter recruitment and it’s not really moved them very far up the standings. Similar to post-Ferguson/pre-Solskjær Manchester United, a hard-hitting critique might say that constantly flip-flopping between managers, players and playing styles is hindering the club as it seeks to move forward. Relying on goals from set-pieces and the physicality of Thiago Santana might bring some degree of success, but it feels like had they given Cklamovski this group of players, then he could have achieved much more.
Injured/Unavailable: 10 Carlinhos Junior, 18 Elsinho, 20 Keita Nakamura, 22 Renato Augusto, 50 Yoshinori Suzuki


Vegalta Sendai

Comments
Sendai are currently competing in their 12th consecutive J1 campaign, for context that’s a better run than, Gamba, Cerezo, Kobe, Nagoya, FC Tokyo or Kashiwa have had, but it appears likely that this era of relative success is drawing to a close and they may have to regroup and rebuild in J2 next year. 18 goals in 24 games while conceding double that figure tells its own story and though there have been bright sparks in the shape of university rookies Mase and Kato down the right, Foguinho in the middle and some recent substitute cameos from Oti and Felippe Cardoso, in the cold light of day, is it really inaccurate to suggest that the lineup I’ve set out below looks more like a team sitting 5th or 6th in J2 rather than one built to survive in the rarefied air of J1?
Injured/Unavailable: 8 Yoshiki Matsushita


Shonan Bellmare

Comments
After finishing bottom in 2020 with no relegation in place, Bin Ukishima deserves a bit of credit for improving things this year, making his side much more resolute and hard to beat. That said, despite gaining credible draws with the likes of Kawasaki, Marinos and Kobe as well as upsetting Reds in Saitama, they are currently on an ominous slide and it looks as though it’s between them and Tokushima, who they faced in the 2019 promotion/relegation playoff, to see who fills the uppermost spot in the drop zone. They experimented with a double-volante system against Nagoya, and that’s something we may see more of going forward, although I have them lined up in their tried and tested shape below. Sugioka looks to be a good addition, while keeping wide-man Taiga Hata fit so he can supply the bombs for Wellington may be the difference between J1 and J2 football for Bellmare next year.
Injured/Unavailable: 30 Sosuke Shibata


Tokushima Vortis

Comments
Tokushima’s victory at home to Gamba gave them the blueprint for how to attack the second half of the year. No messing around with the ball at the back, no possession for possession’s sake, quick counters culminating in dynamic running and interchanges between then front 4 topped off with more shots on goal and hopefully more points on the board. Kawasaki-loanee Taisei Miyashiro has certainly enhanced his reputation with a series of strong performances in a variety of positions along the front line, while right-back Takeru Kishimoto and number 10 Masaki Watai will draw many an admiring glance from rival teams’ scouting departments should they keep up their recent form. Keep your eyes peeled for young forward Taiyo Nishino also, he’s just starting to break into the team in his first year out of Kyoto Tachibana High School.
Injured/Unavailable: Kohei Uchida


Avispa Fukuoka

Comments
An excellent start to the season has them sitting in a place of relative comfort few predicted at the beginning of the year. Goalkeeper Masaaki Murakami has won over early doubters (myself included) with a string of good performances, the abrasive Douglas Grolli has been an excellent defensive lynchpin while the quality of deliveries from Jordy Croux and, in particular, irrepressible Swede Emil Salomonsson, have been second to none. In contrast to Kyushu cousins Oita, who came into J1 with a bang and were then looted of their best talent, the average age and playing style of most of Avispa’s squad suggests that they may not have to fend off too many suitors in upcoming transfer windows. One exception is team captain Hiroyuki Mae, and it will be interesting to see how his partnership with new recruit Shun Nakamura develops.
Injured/Unavailable: Bruno Mendes

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Gamba Osaka vs Oita Trinita 27 July 2021 Mini Preview

Gamba Osaka vs Oita Trinita
2021 J1 Season Round 3
Panasonic Stadium Suita
Tuesday 27 July 2021
Kick Off: 19:00 (JST)

It may be just before the halfway stage of the season, but I’m calling this a relegation 6-pointer as statistically the worst away side in J1, Oita Trinita, visit Gamba Osaka, owners of the second weakest home record in the division.

Gamba came out comfortably second best to a fresh Kashima outfit on Saturday and will need to step things up considerably for this vital clash after looking visibly out on their feet for much of the second half of yesterday’s match which was played out in sweltering conditions. For this, the third of their home triple-header, they will look to Brazilian left-winger Wellington Silva, perhaps the only bright spark from the Antlers defeat, to provide the guile and deception to unlock one of J1’s leakier rearguards. Oita, in turn, will be boosted by the recent arrivals of, former Gamba forward Hiroto Goya from Kashiwa Reysol and veteran attacker Tsukasa Umesaki (Shonan Bellmare), who are both now available for selection.

Thanks again for all your support, I will be returning to work on Tuesday so this will be the last mini preview for a while. I’ll continue to put out Gamba predicted lineups and stats on Twitter ahead of upcoming games, please keep an eye out for that. I may be back with something a bit bigger in the Obon break. If you’d like me to do another Q and A session, let me know in the comments here or on Twitter.

Tale of the Tape

Dress it up anyway you like, but goals may be at a premium here and 1-0 either way might be your safest best. Oita are coming off a pretty impressive counter attacking display in their home win over Urawa on July 10, though a quick scroll through their season stats reveals they’ve actually outperformed their usual levels in both outings against the Saitama giants this year. Can they replicate those heights once again in this game?

For Gamba, although the 22 shots against in the loss to Kashima equalled their season high, it should be noted that Antlers are to shots on goal what Tokushima are to possession, lots of high numbers, but not much to show for it. In that respect Diego Pituca, probably my MVP on Saturday (so hold on Kashima fans, I’m not having too much of a dig), has fitted in well, firing high and wide on a number of occasions from the 25-30 yard range while under pressure.




Head to Head

It’s usually very difficult to use one year’s set of results to accurately forecast what’ll happen the following season in JLeague, but Gamba vs Oita may be the exception. The Nerazzurri ran out 2-1 winners in the corresponding fixture in Suita twelve months ago. A strong start from the hosts was disrupted by Daiki Watari’s powerful header from Tatsuya Tanaka’s cross. Trinita’s lead didn’t last long though, as Takashi Usami’s penalty levelled things up a couple of minutes later before a fine Ademilson shot won the game early in the second half. The return match in Kyushu was a similarly tight affair with Gamba surviving some nervy moments before Patric headed home from Usami’s corner to seal the win. The Nerazzurri faithful will be hoping for more of the same on Tuesday night.


Gamba Osaka

A quick piece of transfer news before looking at injury updates and my predicted starters for Tuesday. Today (25 July) Gamba announced the signing of former Juntendo University and FC Gifu full-back Ko Yanagisawa (Transfermarkt Value €300,000) from Mito HollyHock on a permanent deal. The 25 year-old Chiba native has played 11 times for Mito in J2 this year and is able to operate on either flank which will significantly reduce the burden on Onose and Kurokawa. His acquisition also puts the option of 4-4-2 back on the table.

According to FC Gifu supporter @sushi_football here is a rundown of Yanagisawa’s pros and cons,

Pros
* He looks the part – tall with decent pace
* Stable – he’s not going to go eccentric on you
* Both footed – but primarily his right

Cons
* lack of one defining quality – he does a lot of stuff ok – but nothing that stands out. In J2 & J3 he looked ok – sometimes quite good – but never like he was miles ahead of the opposition.
* He’s not a game influencer or someone opponents talk about in tactics meetings

Thanks to Stuart for that, and don’t forget to check out the excellent J Talk Extra Time Podcast he hosts…whisper it gently, supporters of both Gamba and Oita may have to pay attention to events in J2 a bit more closely in the near future.

As stated above, Gamba looked exhausted at times against Kashima on Saturday and there will again be plenty of rotation here. Constantly switching between Patric, who prefers long, aerial balls and Leandro Pereira, a player who deals better with the ball on the ground, is proving to be a challenge for the Nerazzurri’s attack, but I’m really excited to see what Wellington Silva can do in tandem with Patric following his cameo against Antlers.

Team News:
As far as I know, none of the players who missed Saturday’s game have returned to full fitness meaning the injury list currently reads, goalkeeper Jun Ichimori, full-back/wing-backs Ryu Takao, Hiroki Fujiharu, Yuya Fukuda, Shin Won-ho and Haruto Shirai, central midfielder Yosuke Ideguchi and attacking midfielders Yuji Ono and Dai Tsukamoto. I believe Ideguchi was one of the players to test positive for Covid on his return from the ACL in Uzbekistan, however, it was also reported he was asymptomatic, so in theory he could return very soon, though most likely not in this game. Centre-back Yota Sato has also been out of the matchday squad since the resumption of league fixtures, it’s possible he was the other player to test positive for Covid, if not, then he may partner Shoji and Kim in the back three. Likewise, if any of Takao, Fujiharu or Fukuda are fit then they could play in this match with Kurokawa currently running on fumes. Even Shuhei Kawasaki at left wing-back, where he started against Chaingrai United, is an option.

Milestones: Shinya Yajima will make his 100th J1 appearance should he appear in this game. The first ever JLeague game I watched was a 2-2 draw between Cerezo Osaka and Urawa (I went on to become a Gamba fan, I know, I know!) and playing for Reds that day was a 19 year-old Yajima. It’s interesting to note that his slightly meandering career has seen him take 8 years to reach 100 J1 matches. Anyway, here’s to 100 more Shinya!

Predicted Lineup and Stats



Oita Trinita

I went deep on Oita and their style of play in this article earlier in the year, please check it out if you’d like a refresher course. Brazilian centre-back Henrique Trevisan has come in since then and seems to have added a calmness at the heart of the defence that had been missing since club legend Yoshinori Suzuki’s departure for Shimizu last winter. ‘Adult baby’ (thanks to Scott McIntyre on the J Talk Podcast for that nickname) Yamato Machida has been a vital source of goals for Trinita this year, look for him and central midfielder Hokuto Shimoda (an off-season capture from Kawasaki) to probe dangerously throughout the 90 minutes.

Team News: Shadow forward Naoki Nomura has been injured for almost the entire campaign, which really sums up his time in Oita. Centre-back Keisuke Saka and experienced holding midfielder Yuki Kobayashi have both been absent from the matchday squad in recent weeks with no injury being officially reported.

Predicted Lineup and Stats




Thanks again for reading and please enjoy the game whoever you are supporting!

Categories
sport

J1 2021 Appearance Data and Statistics

Thanks again everyone for supporting my recent articles. As I posted on Twitter a few weeks back, currently other areas in my life have to take priority over my blog writing, and for 2021, at least, my Gamba match previews will need to stay on the backburner. In some ways I feel like I took them as far as I could last season and at the beginning of this year, I felt like I was rehashing old material, please let me know if you agree or disagree.

With all that out of the way, my latest post provides a rundown of all 20 J1 teams’ matchday selections for every league match so far in 2021, presented in an (hopefully) easy to understand, at a glance style. I’ve also tagged on some additional comments and basic team stats correct to 18 April 2021.

A big shout out to everyone who has gotten in touch with me recently across various mediums. Actually I never envisaged my blog would get so many comments and my Twitter notifications are not really built to handle the traffic I’ve been getting. I recently noticed some people had left me comments weeks ago and I’d missed them, I genuinely try to reply to everyone who asks clean questions, so if I haven’t responded to your question / comment, I’m truly sorry.

Finally, some people have asked where I get my data, so here are a few of the resources I use…
https://www.football-lab.jp/
https://sporteria.jp/
https://us.soccerway.com/national/japan/j1-league/2021/regular-season/r61498/
https://www.flashscore.com/
https://www.transfermarkt.com/j1-league/startseite/wettbewerb/JAP1
https://www.jleague.jp/sp/en/
And of course my trusty Soccer Digest Yearbook…
https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/NEOBK-2586671



Kawasaki Frontale

Comment: The juggernaut has continued steamrollering opponents just as it did last season. Surely the best side in the history of the JLeague.



Gamba Osaka

Comment: How to fix a problem like Gamba? A Nagoya-esque defence, but can’t buy a goal at the other end. What’s to blame, the Covid cluster, overperforming xG last year, an overly defensive mindset they can’t shake off? Answers on a postcard to Tsuneyasu Miyamoto please.



Nagoya Grampus

Comment: You thought they couldn’t defend any better than last season, you thought wrong. If I were a gambler I’d have plenty on Mitch Langerak and co. to beat their clean sheet record set last year. How much will missing out on Kasper Junker to Urawa haunt them with their current paucity of centre-forward options seemingly denying us a genuine tussle for the title between Grampus and Frontale.



Cerezo Osaka

Comments: They’ve surprised many by performing at a similar level to 2020. With Taggart and Tiago almost ready to play and Sakamoto and Harakawa due back soon, a push for the top 4 isn’t out of the question.



Kashima Antlers

Comments: Although an Antlers legend, the way Naoki Soma’s spell in charge of Machida ended up poses some serious questions about how adept he’ll be at replacing Zago in the Kashima hotseat. Goals from Everaldo and instant impacts from Pituca and Caike are badly needed.



FC Tokyo

Comments: Injuries, rumoured dressing room discontent and a series of patchy results don’t make for happy start to the campaign for the capital side. Bruno Uvini is the great hope to steady things at the back, but it should be remembered he hasn’t kicked a ball in anger in over 6 months.



Kashiwa Reysol

Comments: They seem to have course corrected slightly with hard fought 1-0s in their past 2 games and the Brazilian cavalry is due to arrive soon. Quite how they keep their 9 overseas players happy, and what effect their second Covid cluster in under a year will have on them is yet to be seen.



Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Comments: Look set to hover around upper mid-table just as they did last time round. Morishima and Kawabe have started the season well, but they lack top quality support in attack. Defensively, Yuta Imazu has been a decent find, though they still need to find themselves a pair of genuine full-backs.



Yokohama F.Marinos

Comments: Haven’t lost since the opening day, but a rather kind run of fixtures since round 3 means question marks remain over whether they are genuine ACL contenders of not.


Urawa Red Diamonds

Comments: Two poundings in the space of three games at the hands of Kanagawa heavyweights Frontale and Marinos threatened to scuttle the Rodriguez project before it had the chance to take off, but they’ve bounced back well. We may come to look on Reds’ 2021 the same way Marinos supporters think of Ange Postecoglou’s debut campaign in 2018.



Oita Trinita

Comments: Six defeats in a row with just a single goal scored in the process, I’m sure there’s a joke about a famous Tom Petty song here somewhere. They need to hope they’ve hit the jackpot with their two soon-to-arrive Brazilians.



Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo

Comments: Houston, we may have a problem. Dropping points like confetti and with 4 teams going down this year they’re rapidly finding themselves being drawn into a relegation dogfight.


Sagan Tosu

Comments: Prior to Sunday’s win at Grampus, some of the gloss was starting to come off their excellent start to the year with 4 failures to score in 5 outings. Kim Myung-hwi’s side are made of sterner stuff though, and while it’s likely they’ll regress a touch over the course of the season, a top ten finish remains a distinct possibility.



Vissel Kobe

Comments: A genuine ACL contender based on early season form. How they mesh the returning Iniesta and newly arrived duo of Lincoln and Masika with their current high performing starters will be key.



Yokohama FC

Comments: They tick all the boxes for a side about to take the drop, poor attack, woeful defence, no idea of best lineup, symbolic change of head-coach. I’m not usually so blunt, but take this to the bank, they’ll be in J2 next season.



Shimizu S-Pulse

Comments: Some had tipped them to finish in the top half this year, but as things stand it looks like the 3-1 win at Kashima on the opening day was something of a mirage. Thiago Santana has disappointed and Lotina has run into the same problem as a number of his predecessors, a complete lack of consistency amongst the players at his disposal.



Vegalta Sendai

Comments: Still haven’t won a home game since 2019 and that’s a stat they’ll have to alter fast if they want to avoid a return to J2 for the first time in 12 years.



Shonan Bellmare

Comments: Going under the radar a touch, but considering they finished bottom last year, their performances to date in 2021 have shown marked improvement. No defeats and 4 clean sheets in a tough looking run of 5 fixtures up to last weekend suggest they mean business and could defy the odds to remain in J1 next term.



Tokushima Vortis

Comments: The project looks to be running under budget and ahead of schedule. New head-coach Poyatos is now in the country and working with the players face-to-face and at present they appear set for a decent year. Having, The Alan Parsons Project’s Sirius and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy on their pre-match playlist makes me enjoy their games that little bit more.



Avispa Fukuoka

Comments: The support inside the Best Denki Stadium is the thing that’s caught my eye most about Fukuoka this year. Their seems to be a genuine feel-good factor around the place which is helping to bring out performances that many, including myself, doubted they were capable of.




Categories
sport

J1 Lineups Updated Version end of round 6

Thanks again to everyone who read, liked, shared and commented on my J1 and J2 Predicted Lineups posts that I put out about a month before the 2021 season started. The response to them was truly phenomenal and frankly blew me away, so much in fact, that I’ve been re-thinking how I should structure my blog (I’m always open to new ideas, so please tell me what you want!)

The J1 Predicted Lineups post is still getting a fair bit of traffic even though it is a bit out of date, so I thought I’d do some more research and update things a little. Included in this post is a short comment on teams’ performances in the opening month of the season, a list of currently unavailable players (as of 28 March 2021) and a full rundown of the lineups and formations used by each J1 side over their past 5 league fixtures.

A few qualifiers, the team comments don’t take into consideration this weekend’s Levain Cup games as personally I don’t think a whole lot can be read into them, for example if Tosu and Sapporo start to show the form they displayed yesterday in J1 matches, then I’ll revise my opinion of both sides. Secondly, regarding injuries, some of the players I’ve named as unavailable haven’t been officially confirmed as being injured. In certain instances I’ve assumed they are out due to being absent from the matchday squad for a prolonged period of time or being subbed off early in a game and missing subsequent fixtures.

Thanks again for your support and please enjoy!

Kawasaki Frontale

Comments: Have started the season in ominous form, only dropping points at much-improved Kobe. What’s more, Oshima and Noborizato are still to return and strengthen them while João Schmidt almost doesn’t feel like a new signing, he’s bedded in so quickly.
Unavailable: Kyohei Noborizato, Ryota Oshima (injured)


Gamba Osaka

Comments: Only one league match played so not much to discuss. Re-scheduling six fixtures later in the year may see the return of the more defensive 4-4-2 set-up used last season and hopefully the end of the Onose at right-back experiment with Takao returning to take his rightful place.
Unavailable: Jun Ichimori, Haruto Shirai, Yuji Ono (injured), Wellington Silva (Visa/quarantine)


Nagoya Grampus

Comments: Their defensive strength means they are Kawasaki’s closest challengers despite having no real goal-scorer. Yamasaki has done alright, but shouldn’t be starting for a title contender and Kakitani has shown nothing so far. Inagaki looks like an early MVP contender, Soma has improved, however Morishita seems to be 3rd choice right back at the moment, perhaps he’s too attack-minded for Ficcadenti, imagine how good Tosu would be if he was still there!
Unavilable: Mu Kanazaki (injured)


Cerezo Osaka

Comments: Higher up the league than many would have expected, but the fixture list has been pretty kind to them so far. Okubo’s goals have been a Godsend in the absence of Taggart while Nishio has slotted in well alongside Seko at the back. Recent injuries to Harakawa, Sakamoto and Takagi will really test their squad depth.
Unavailable: Riki Harakawa, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Ryuji Sawakami, Toshiyuki Takagi, Hirotaka Tameda, Koji Toriumi (injured), Adam Taggart (Visa/quarantine), Đặng Văn Lâm, Tiago (Visa/contract status unclear)


Kashima Antlers

Comments: The Ibaraki side have made their traditional slow start and will be desperate to get Brazilian midfield duo, Diego Pituca and Arthur Caike on the field as soon as possible. It’s at the back where most of the problems seem to lie, the full-back berths are still up for grabs and none of the centre-backs have covered themselves in glory.
Unavailable: Shoma Doi, Ryuji Izumi (injured), Arthur Caike, Diego Pituca (Visa/quarantine)


FC Tokyo

Comments: A roller-coaster start to the season from the capital club with, injuries, rotation and Covid-protocol violations preventing them from getting into any sort of groove. They’ve got points on the board early, but a chunk of them came in unimpressive home wins over last season’s bottom 2, Sendai and Shonan. They’ll need to hope Bruno Uvini is the man to shore up a rather leaky rearguard.
Unavailable: Akihiro Hayashi, Kazuya Konno, Manato Shinada (injured), Bruno Uvini (Visa/quarantine)


Kashiwa Reysol

Comments: Olunga, Olunga, where art thou Olunga? A very poor start to the season from Kashiwa and they desperately need the soon-to-arrive Brazilian quartet of, Emerson Santos, Dodi, Angelotti and Pedro Raúl to hit the ground running or the nightmares of 2018 could be lurking just around the corner.
Unavailable: Yuji Takahashi, Sachiro Toshima (injured), Angelotti, Dodi, Pedro Raúl, Emerson Santos (Visa/quarantine)

Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Comments: A solid start, made all the more impressive by the fact they are still figuring out their new back four system and how best to set-up their attack. Junior Santos continues to cause intrigue as it appears he’s fighting young Shun Ayukawa to be Douglas Vieira’s backup rather than being the main man himself. Hayao Kawabe could partner former team-mate Sho Inagaki in the J1 Best Eleven if he keeps up his current form.
Unavailable: Akira Ibayashi, Rhayner (injured)


Yokohama F.Marinos

Comments: A rather harsh take on them might say that they’ve swatted aside bottom half teams while failing to take the three points against stiffer opposition, exactly as they did in 2020. That said, from what I’ve seen there is a bit more steel about them this time round. I’m re-evaluating Daizen Maeda now that he’s finally added goals to his game and though Élber seems to lack the attacking x-factor of Erik, having more solid, hard-workers than mercurial artists may suit them better in 2021.
Unavailable: Theerathon Bunmathan, Daizen Maeda (injured), Léo Ceará (Visa/quarantine)


Urawa Red Diamonds

Comments: Ricardo Rodriguez seems like a lovely bloke, so I’ll spare him any blame for now, but real questions must be getting asked about the financial situation at the club. I started to wonder when Brazilians, Mauricio and Fabricio weren’t replaced last season and now with Leonardo gone, Deng injured and Yuki Abe making a Lazarus like return from the retirement home, a sojourn to J2 next year isn’t entirely out of the reckoning.
Unavailable: Thomas Deng, Yudai Fujiwara (injured)


Oita Trinita

Comments: I picked them to fill the final relegation spot in pre-season and I haven’t seen anything yet to make me completely alter my opinion. The number of changes at the back made in the off-season has definitely unsettled them and Katanosaka is still searching for the right combinations in a number of places.
Unavailable: Naoki Nomura (injured), Matheus Pereira, Henrique Trevisan (Visa/quarantine)


Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo

Comments: I’m considering starting my own Patreon account so Sapporo fans can pay me to not watch them live. Last week’s horror show at home to Kobe was their 8th defeat on the spin with me tuning in on DAZN. Second year pros Kaneko and Tanaka have been solid (Tanaka’s assist for Furuhashi last week aside) and young Ogashiwa and Nakashima have looked bright in flashes. Failure to change their slightly archaic game-plan could result in an unwelcome flirtation with the relegation trapdoor.
Unavailable: Takuma Arano, Tsuyoshi Ogashiwa, Douglas Oliveira (injured), Jay Bothroyd, Gabriel Okechukwu (Visa/quarantine)


Sagan Tosu

Comments: An outstanding youth system and kantoku have their fans dreaming of ACL football next year. Didn’t score in their opening 4 J1 fixtures in 2020, haven’t conceded in their first 6 games this time round, it’s been quite the reversal of fortunes. How long can they sustain it? Will their new foreign strikers propel them to even greater heights? Will the vultures descend to brutally devour this team in a similar manner to what happened to fellow Kyushu-ites Giravanz last winter?
Unavailable: Ismael Dunga, Chico Ofoedu (Visa/quarantine)


Vissel Kobe

Comments: I saw them referred to as ‘Galacticos’ the other day, but that’s not really what they are anymore. They have a healthy crop of youngsters, many of whom have been raised in their academy, developing alongside a few seasoned heads, most notably Hotaru Yamaguchi, who’s been in sparkling form so far this season. There seems to be a real determination to make amends for 2020’s pitiful league performance and 3rd place doesn’t look impossible judging by their early showings.
Unavailable: Andrés Iniesta, Junya Tanaka (injured), Lincoln, Ayub Masika (Visa/quarantine)


Yokohama FC

Comments: Things seem to have completely fallen apart over the winter at Mitsuzawa. In my season preview I predicted goals at both ends, unfortunately that has only proven to be half correct and their veteran forwards haven’t hit it off as of yet. Talented midfielders Matsuo, Seko and Tezuka are struggling against the tide, but receiving little support and, although it’s early days, I think many already see them lining up in J2 next year.
Unavailable: Calvin Jong-a-Pin, Haruki Saruta, Hideto Takahashi, Eijiro Takeda (injured)


Shimizu S-Pulse

Comments: They’ve had just the kind of solid, unspectacular start many would have expected under Lotina. After conceding an avalanche of goals over the past 2 years, letting in just 7 in 6 games must have come as welcome relief to long suffering supporters in their picturesque stadium. Lotina’s reluctance to use assist kingpin Kenta Nishizawa may have rivals sending out the feelers regarding his future availability.
Unavailable: Hideki Ishige, Eiichi Katayama, Ibrahim Junior Kuribara (injured), William Matheus (Visa/quarantine)


Vegalta Sendai

Comments: Collectively this is one of the 4 weakest squads in the division. That doesn’t necessarily need to condemn them to relegation, but to stave off the drop, they will need to find a way to play to more than the sum of their parts. Passing the ball from their centre-backs to wing-backs, pushing the midfield forward to join the attack, then losing the ball and getting countered constantly, isn’t the way to achieve that.
Unavailable: Isaac Cuenca, Kunimitsu Sekiguchi (injured), Foguinho, Emmanuel Oti, Nedeljko Stojišić (Visa/quarantine)


Shonan Bellmare

Comments: I was sure they’d used up their nine lives last year, but they look a bit better than 2020, at least if the early rounds are anything to go by. Impressive youngster Taiga Hata still hasn’t featured, but playing on the left-wing for Shonan seems to bring out the best in players and Ryo Takahashi has been in fantastic form down that flank. They really need Wellington and Welinton Júnior to bring their shooting boots over from Brazil as a lack of firepower would be the most likely cause of a relegation this year.
Unavailable: Tarik Elyounoussi, Taiga Hata, Shun Nakamura, Tsukasa Umesaki (injured), Wellington, Welinton Júnior (Visa/quarantine)


Tokushima Vortis

Comments: They’ve probably done as well as could have been expected given that the squad haven’t met their new Spanish kantoku face-to-face yet and most of the players lack top tier experience. Poyatos (I assume he is choosing the team) has made a number of interesting selections with Abe, Fuke, Fujiwara and Kawakami all featuring regularly despite being out in the cold during the Rodriguez era.
Unavailable: Dušan Cvetinović, Kazuki Nishiya, Koki Sugimori, Kohei Uchida (injured), Cristian Battocchio, Cacá (Visa/quarantine)


Avispa Fukuoka

Comments: A decent start has them sitting comfortably in mid-table. Word of warning though, other newly promoted sides, namely Matsumoto and Nagasaki, have also begun top-flight campaigns reasonably well before fading away badly. Avispa need new foreign talents, Jordy Croux and, particularly, Biblically-named forward John Mary to deliver in order to maintain their top-flight status.
Unavailable: Juanma Delgado, Bruno Mendes, Taro Sugimoto (injured), Douglas Grolli (1 match suspension vs Sapporo 3 April), Jordy Croux, John Mary (Visa/quarantine)

Categories
sport

J1 League: Spotlight On Oita Trinita

As you are no doubt aware, Gamba are currently in the midst of a Covid cluster with a number of players and staff testing positive for the virus. With the status of upcoming fixtures in doubt I decided to change the style of this blog post somewhat. I’ve already talked about Gamba ad nauseum in the previews of the postponed matches against Nagoya and Kashima, so I thought I’d dedicate this entire post to a team who don’t enjoy a great deal of English language coverage….Wednesday’s potential opponents Oita Trinita.

If you like what I’ve done here, please send me a comment and tell me you want more of it. Conversely, if you can’t wait for normal previews to resume and want me to revert to that style as quickly as possible, get in touch and let me know. Thanks again for reading, I really appreciate everyone’s support, enjoy the article, stay safe and take care.

Last Time Out

Two goals inside the opening 11 minutes sent Oita on their way to a first win of 2021 at Yokohama’s Mitsuzawa Stadium last Saturday. Showing no ill-effects from making 5 changes to their lineup from the previous week’s 1-1 draw with Tokushima, Trinita raced out of the blocks and put themselves in the driving seat, albeit aided by some amateurish Yokohama FC defending. First left centre-back Yuto Misao ghosted into the opposition box to place Hokuto Shimoda’s centre past a rather limp-wristed Yuji Rokutan before Kento Inoue crossed from the opposite flank and his ball evaded a wayward swipe by the embarrassed Yutaro Hakamata which allowed Seigo Kobayashi, hoping to put long-term injury problems behind him, to bag his first goal in 2 years from near the penalty spot.

After that early charge, Oita sat back / were forced back (delete as appropriate) and the home side were soon granted a lifeline. Not long after Brazilian forward Kleber’s header had bounced onto Shun Takagi’s crossbar, Kosuke Saito hit the deck on the edge of the area and earned a free-kick. Though, to say the contact between he and Kohei Isa was minimal would be being very kind. Dead ball specialist Kohei Tezuka stepped up and curled home to set up an intriguing second half.

Although they spent most of the second period on the back foot, Oita were rarely under sustained pressure and only endured a few scares. Takagi made a neat double stop from Kleber early in the half before tricky left winger Yusuke Matsuo’s shot was cleared off the line at the end of a mazy run after he’d intercepted a pass from another one of my Gamba scouting targets, Yushi Hasegawa. The real drama came right at the end when Sho Ito thought he’d earned his new side a point only for the linesmen to correctly flag him for offside. 2-1 Oita at full-time, 4 points in 2 games, granted not against the strongest opposition, represents a decent start for Tomohiro Katanosaka and his men.


Tactical Notes

Now in his 6th year in charge at the Showa Denko Dome, Takahiro Katanosaka has settled on a 3-4-2-1 system which reverts to a 5-4-1 when defending. He likes the wide centre-backs to also be able to play full-back / wing-back, though he’s had to alter this slightly following the winter departure of the jewel in the Trinita crown, Tomoki Iwata, who moved to Yokohama F.Marinos. Speedster Hatyato Kurosaki, a man I tipped as a potential Gamba signing, has joined from Tochigi SC, but may require some fine-tuning before he’s ready to step into Iwata’s boots.

In 2019 and 2020 Oita’s centre-back line up generally consisted of, Mr. Trinita Yoshinori Suzuki in the middle flanked by Iwata (right) and Yuto Misao (left), however, with Misao then only one of the trio still on the books, I noticed a few chinks in their defensive armour in the match against Yokohama FC. On several occasions the gap between the wing-backs and centre-backs was too wide leaving space for a good side to work overlaps and fire crosses into the box. Additionally, both defensive and midfield lines weren’t as straight as they were in the previous campaigns offering up opportunities for quick balls cutting out the central midfielders and exposing the backline. Finally, Katanosaka likes his wide central defenders to push up if the ball enters their zone. In theory the middle defender, Keisuke Saka for most of Saturday’s match, should essentially play a sweeper role in that situation. However once again a good side will be able to engineer space and quickly play the ball over the advancing centre-back to leave an attacker one-on-one with the sweeper. At the other end of the field, Oita generally press very well. They seem adept at winning the ball back in the opponent’s half against all teams. However, they have been known to target certain sides who are prone to overplaying in their own defensive third. Their 1-1 draw at home to Vissel Kobe last season was a great example of this, Yokohama F.Marinos should also be aware.

Going forward Oita are known as a passing side who like to build things from the back. Last year they ranked 4th in J1 both in total number of passes attempted and also in completion %. They also made the least amount of dribbles of all teams in the top division. They prefer using the pace of their wing-backs allied with the intricate skills of their two shadow players to manufacture scoring opportunities. This works well in theory, but in practice things didn’t really go according to plan last season. Trinita had the 3rd weakest attack in J1 in 2020, netting just 35 times in 34 games, they also registered the 2nd lowest number of shots. Much-maligned former Gamba beanpole Shun Nagasawa has been brought in, but as the J-Talk Podcast guys broke down on their season preview, there are genuine questions about how he will fit in with the Kyushu side’s attacking game-plan. Last year the centre-forward role was usually occupied by either Kei Chinen, a link up player, or Kohei Isa, a workhorse, Nagasawa is clearly a target man and Oita are not a side who excel at crossing. Again referencing the 2020 data we can see that although they were 6th in total crosses delivered last year, Trinita completed a mere 21.9% meaning that much work will need to be done on the training field if Sam Robson’s favourite is to become a success down in Kyushu.

Just to round this section off, I thought I’d uncover some interesting stats that I haven’t really seen discussed much elsewhere. As mentioned earlier, Oita are currently unbeaten in J1 with 4 points from 2 games against teams likely to be battling against the drop. I actually have Trinita going down in my #jpred2021, so their start to the campaign will be crucial. They have proven to be an extremely streaky side since returning to Japan’s top flight 2 years ago. Of course, they shocked everyone back in 2019 when they took 24 points from their opening 12 games despite being a popular pick to return to J2 at the first time of asking. Predictably, they couldn’t match those early highs and earned only 23 more points across their remaining 22 matches. That malaise carried over into 2020 when after a disappointing haul of 12 points from 14 fixtures was accrued, they improved markedly after that and finished the year with 31 points from their final 20 contests. Taking full advantage of their good spells of form will clearly be very important for Oita as they bid to retain their status in the rarefied atmosphere of J1.

The Squad

As always it was a busy winter down in the hot spring mecca of Oita. Eight important squad members headed for fresh pastures while a number of replacements of varying degrees of ability arrived. The main loss was top scorer (despite being a wing-back / shadow player) Tatsuya Tanaka (to Urawa), while yeoman central midfielder Toshio Shimakawa made the short journey west to link up with Tosu after 30 J1 appearances in 2020. I already talked about the massive blow dealt to the club’s defensive stability by Yoshinori Suzuki’s move to Shimizu and Japan international Tomoki Iwata linking up with Ange Postecoglou at Marinos. Kei Chinen’s loan ended and he went back to Kawasaki, where he was re-united with 2019’s leading assist maker Kazuki Kozuka. On top of that, veteran shadow / centre-forward Kazushi Mitsuhira is now in J2 with Kofu and Daiki Watari is another off-season departure who’s still plying his trade in Kyushu, in his case, Avispa Fukuoka.

Brazilian duo, centre back Henrique Trevisan (Estoril Praia, Portugal) and holding midfielder Matheus Sousa Pereira are the two most exotic winter arrivals. Neither have yet been able to enter the country due to COVID era visa restrictions and it will be interesting to see how they bed in when they eventually do make it to Japan. I wouldn’t say Oita would be as easy as say somewhere in Kanto or Kansai for Brazilians to quickly settle in, but only time will tell. Other new arrivals I haven’t mentioned above include, Arata Watanabe, an attacking player whose signing would have been heralded more had he not missed the end of the last campaign with a broken foot, Hokuto Shimoda, the team’s new set piece taker, a title winner in 2020 with Kawasaki, varsity duo Kenta Inoue, a wing-back from Fukuoka University and Kazuki Fujimoto, a shadow player who showed some nice touches against Gamba in Suita last summer, from Kanoya National Institute for Sport in Kagoshima. At the back Keisuke Saka has come in from Shonan, Bellmare supporters seemed saddened by his loss, though in truth I’ve never really seen anything to write home from him. Giravanz Kitakyushu wing-back Kenta Fukumori, yet another player I urged Gamba to look at, has already found himself a spot in the side, and young holding midfielder Masaki Yumiba has been promoted from the club’s decent youth academy.


Injury Report

No major injury dramas to report from the Showa Denko Dome so far. Shadow player Naoki Nomura, who missed the first half of 2020 following his move from Tokushima sat out last Saturday’s win at his former side Yokohama FC for, as far as I know, unspecified reasons. Right wing-back Kenta Inoue left the field with a leg muscle problem in the second half of that game and must be considered a doubt while Arata Watanabe was repeatedly going down with cramp in the final 10 minutes, but should now be good to go. Centre-back / wing-back Yuta Koide, like Nomura, also played the round 1 contest against Tokushima before sitting out the Yokohama FC clash with no reason given for his absence while Yamato Machida was an unused sub in the opening match of the season, but was nowhere to be seen in the Levain Cup defeat to Kobe or the aforementioned win in Kanagawa.

Current Starting XI

The formation is set, but due to the high turnover between rounds 1 and 2 it is as yet unclear who the preferred starters are in several areas. If fit, Nomura and Inoue would certainly feature, while Yuki Kobayashi is an alternative to Shimoda in the middle of the park, Ueebisu and Koide could potentially unseat Haneda at the back and Nagasawa or Takazawa will provide competition for Isa in attack.



Season Prediction

In my #jpred2021 I had them in 16th, the final relegation spot, largely due to their lack of firepower up front. However, I can’t really see them going any lower and realistically they could end up as high as 10th/11th if things click.

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J1 2021 Predicted Lineups

**Important Update**Important Update**Important Update**

If you’re still coming here in 2020, please click this link for the 2022 version…

https://gambaosakaenglish.blog/2022/01/23/j1-2022-predicted-lineups/

Please check out the link above to see who has been playing and who hasn’t in J1 2021. I’ll update it regularly.
Data keys are below…




Also for those of you using the https://sporteria.jp/ website, here is a simple English translation of the data displayed there…




I’m sure everyone would join me in thanking @Michael_Master and @bmtps_k for their wonderful coverage of all the off-season transfer activity in Japan. The purpose of this article is to see how those winter moves affect the matchday lineups of J1 sides one month out from the start of the new campaign. I hope you enjoy!

First up, some housekeeping notices;
* The lineups below are not necessarily intended to be the ones on the opening day, but more the players most likely to fill those positions on a regular basis throughout the year.
* Players currently recovering from serious and long-term injuries haven’t been included. Some examples are Andres Iniesta (Kobe), Takuma Arano (Sapporo), Mu Kanazaki (Nagoya), Yuji Ono (Gamba), Akihiro Hayashi (FC Tokyo) and Sachiro Toshima and Yuji Takahashi (both Kashiwa).
* As this is a Gamba blog, lineups and formations for other teams are based on a mixture of evidence and guesswork. For instance, teams who performed well in 2020, kept the same manager and the bulk of their playing staff (Kawasaki) are easier to read than those who played poorly last year, changed coaches and brought in a host of new players (Shimizu).
* Ages given are correct to 27 February 2021, the opening Saturday of the J1 season, (Y) donates youth team product and teams are listed in order of 2020 league position.

Here we go…

Kawasaki Frontale

Brief Notes: Way better than everyone else last season and with just Morita departing they’ll be the team to beat once more. Only Mitoma and Tanaka leaving in the summer and the ACL schedule getting moved around again can really threaten their dynasty.


Gamba Osaka

Brief Notes: Leandro Pereira and Ju Se-jong both address areas of need and although it will be difficult to get 2nd again, this group of players shouldn’t finish lower than 5th / 6th even with ACL distractions taken into account.


Nagoya Grampus

Brief Notes: Morishita and Kimoto look like great buys, and I was surprised to see Manabu Saito is only 30! Will be strong defensively again, but look a genuine centre-forward short of really challenging at the top.


Cerezo Osaka

Brief Notes: Have made some puzzling moves over the winter, but they still have the nucleus of a very good team. How quickly they adjust to Culpi’s brand of football and whether or not Taggart has brought his shooting boots with him from Korea will go a long way to determining their fate this year.


Kashima Antlers

Brief Notes: Assuming their two new Brazilian midfielders settle in well, they should be Kawasaki’s closest rivals. This may not please Gamba supporters like me, but should lead to some tasty @frontalerabbit blog posts.


FC Tokyo

Brief Notes: They will probably improve merely by not being involved in the ACL this year. That said, the squad looks very unbalanced, with loads of options in central midfield and attack, but significantly less depth further back.


Kashiwa Reysol

Brief Notes: Shiihashi, Dodi and Kamijima will help to fix their soft underbelly, but there is still a huge Olunga shaped hole in attack. Will Angelotti or rumoured new signing from Botafogo, Pedro Raúl, be able to fill it.


Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Brief Notes: Junior Santos appears to be an excellent capture, but money is tight and there’s a real lack of depth. Any injury down the central spine of the team could be painful and prevent them from kicking on from last year.


Yokohama F.Marinos

Brief Notes: This year’s squad looks leaner and more settled than last time. A lot will depend on how their new Brazilian attackers do and also how much of 2020’s poor display was down to their overcrowded schedule and how much of it was teams working out how to play against them.


Urawa Red Diamonds

Brief Notes: Given time, I’ve no doubt the Rodriguez project will bear fruit in Saitama, but it may not be as quick a turnaround as the Reds faithful would like. Defence and central midfield could be issues and they appear to be overloaded with attacking midfielders. Having worked with a similar style of player in Yuki Kakita, can Rodriguez turn around Kenyu Sugimoto’s career?


Oita Trinita

Brief Notes: Should have enough to escape the relegation dog-fight and have made some intriguing signings from J2 down the flanks. Goalkeeper and central defence look like weak areas at the moment. If Shun Nagasawa’s inevitable winner against Gamba could be confined to the Levain Cup I’d greatly appreciate it.


Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo

Brief Notes: A lot riding on the shoulders of last year’s three university rookies, Tanaka, Takamine and Kaneko. If newbies Nakano and Ogashiwa can have a similar impact they could do ok, but they are my tip to be a dark horse relegation candidate.


Sagan Tosu

Brief Notes: Look better placed than at this point last year and I have no difficulty seeing them survive. Being able to keep hold of Matsuoka was a big surprise for me and I’m really interested to see how new African forwards, Chico (Nigeria) and Dunga (Kenya), get on. I know I’m in the minority here, but I genuinely dig their new kit.


Vissel Kobe

Brief Notes: I think they could surprise a few people this year, not by finishing top 4 or anything, but outside of Hyogo there is almost zero expectation and their exciting youngsters may start to come to the fore a little more.


Yokohama FC

Brief Notes: Should be exciting to watch as it appears there will be plenty of goals at both ends. I don’t see them going down and if Matsuo and Seko continue to play well neither will be at the Mitsuzawa in 2022.


Shimizu S-Pulse

Brief Notes: As a fan of the league, I’d have preferred Cklamovski’s style to succeed, but more realistically Lotina’s defensive brand of football is more likely to guide them to less troubled waters. How high they go is dependent on how quickly the new parts fit together and how fast Lotina can mend their dreadful defence (139 J1 goals conceded 2019-2020).


Vegalta Sendai

Brief Notes: If they’re going to avoid the drop the improvement will need to come from the coaching department, with Teguramori replacing Kiyama. The squad on paper looks weaker than last season with the exception of the wide midfield areas.


Shonan Bellmare

Brief Notes: Ditto what I said about Sendai, they finished in the relegation slots last year and look likely to do so again. The heart has been ripped out of the team with Kaneko, Saito and Matsuda all going and their most exciting players, Tani, Tanaka and Hata are too young to carry this side on their back.


Tokushima Vortis

Brief Notes: Perhaps benefiting from Coronavirus, they managed to keep all of last season’s title winners and even added rising star Joel Chima Fujita. There’s a glaring lack of J1 experience and I can see things like, having 80% possession at home to Shimizu and still losing 1-0, happening a bit too often.


Avispa Fukuoka

Brief Notes: My main concern is that a chunk of last season’s starting eleven were on loan and have now returned to their parent clubs. They have more players with top flight experience than Tokushima and have made some decent buys, but they are short on depth and haven’t replaced Serantes in goal yet.

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sport

Oita Trinita 0-1 Gamba Osaka Plus 2020 Squad Rundown

It wasn’t pretty, but Gamba scrapped their way to a 1-0 win at Oita yesterday which extended their unbeaten run to 8 games. Gen Shoji sat this one out as we wait for news on his ankle injury, while Hiroki Fujiharu was still not back from a concussion suffered in the first half of the match against Tosu 2 weeks ago. Tsuneyasu Miyamoto made 3 changes to the starting eleven for this, the 5th of 5 games inside a hectic 15 day period. Shunya Suganuma came in for the injured Shoji, while the forward pair was once again rotated, Ademilson and Kazuma Watanabe, the duo who tormented Tosu on the Nerazzurri’s previous trip to Kyushu started with Patric and Takashi Usami on the bench.

The first half was a rather forgettable affair, Gamba were understandably a little sluggish following their recent exertions while Trinita pressed and harassed the men from Suita well, forcing a series of turnovers, however, they were never able to put a series of good passages of play together. There were too many instances of poor control, aimless crossfield balls and inaccurate crosses to really build any sustained pressure on Masaaki Higashiguchi’s goal. Just after the water break Gamba sparked into life and nice play down the right involving Kosuke Onose and Ryu Takao saw the ball cut back, via several deflections, to Watanabe who in turn fed strike partner Ademilson. The Brazilian’s shot looked to be goalbound, but unfortunately struck the arm of his skipper Shu Kurata and hence was rightly disallowed. Although the correct decision was reached, this incident did seem to bring about a more cautious approach in Oita’s play as if they now recognised how dangerous Gamba could be. Ademilson stung the palms of home ‘keeper Kim Myung-gun, whose distribution was at times quite ropey in this game, with a shot on the turn from the edge of the area after a powerful Takao run, however, the referee was the star attraction of the second half of the first period. First, surely to Alan Gibson’s delight, he gave a foul throw against Oita on the half hour mark, he did balance things up though by bizarrely allowing a Trinita player to slide in and block a quickly taken Gamba free-kick from what surely must have been 3 yards away at most.

Patric came on for Watanabe at half-time and Oita seemed to go into full deer in the headlights mode at the thought of squaring off against a powerful foreigner, something Gamba are prone to do [Exhibit A: Olunga, Michael]. The big Brazilian’s introduction brought about a much more positive start to the half from the visitors, however, between the 55th and 65th minutes Trinita had their best spell of the game and really should have taken the lead from at least one of the three excellent chances they created. First, former Gamba-man Tatsuya Tanaka rounded Higashiguchi and had his effort cleared off the line after the referee’s assistant had initially caused confusion by incorrectly waving for offside. I didn’t really feel any sense of relief as I thought it wouldn’t have counted anyway, but when the referee awarded Oita a corner I saw how fortunate Gamba had been. Four minutes later, nice combination play between Kohei Isa and Kazushi Mitsuhira set up Tanaka but Higashiguchi came out well to smother his shot from 10 yards. Finally, four minutes after that, Trinita won three corners in a row with the third one headed wide by an unmarked Kento Haneda (surprisingly this was the only one of the 3 chances that made the DAZN highlights).

To use some J-Talk Podcast terminology, Oita were made to pay for their profligacy shortly after. Takashi Usami played a delicious through ball to the onrushing Takao, the EPL’s VAR would probably have flagged the full-back offside, but as it was he was free to put in a cross which was turned out for a corner by the home side’s captain Yoshinori Suzuki. Usami stepped up and put it on a plate for Patric, who outjumped Ryosuke Tone and Kento Haneda to power a header low into Mun’s bottom right corner, 1-0 Gamba and we know what happens when they take the lead in 2020, right?

Oita made a quadruple switch on 82 minutes with forwards, Kei Chinen, Yuya Takazawa, shadow player Naoki Nomura and holding midfielder Toshio Shimakawa entering the fray. In a similar vein to the match at home to Kashima a few weeks back, making a lot of changes in a short space of time hindered rather than helped our opponents. Chinen headed wide and Shimakawa volleyed into the side netting, but that was as close as Trinita came. Young Dai Tsukamoto made his J1 debut very late in proceedings and defeats for both Nagoya and FC Tokyo made this a very happy Sunday for all those connected with Gamba who are now up to 4th in the standings.

Gamba MVP

I know I bigged up Ryu Takao in the preview, but I was initially a bit disappointed with his display. Having watched the highlights and heard the views of others on Twitter I have changed my mind slightly. However, I’m going to choose Kim Young-gwon as I felt he was an absolute rock yesterday. Minus Genta Miura and Gen Shoji, the experienced Kim really stepped up and marshalled the defence brilliantly, his distribution, which has been shaky at times this year, was excellent, so I have no qualms about giving him this award.

Some inclement weather in Osaka today put the dampeners on my hiking trip, so I thought I’d take a look at how every member of Gamba’s squad has performed so far this season.

#1 Masaaki Higashiguchi – Shot-stopping has been superb all year, must be the form ‘keeper in J1 along with Mitch Langerak. His distribution is his weak point a times, but I’ve been more than happy with his performances.

#3 Gen Shoji – Has grown better and better since returning from injury, I rate him as our best centre-back. Hopefully his latest ankle problem won’t keep him out for too long.

#4 Hiroki Fujiharu – A little bit up and down from him this year and he now faces a real fight for his spot from Yuya Fukuda, 11 years his junior. Mistakes against Yokohama FC and FC Tokyo have been balanced out by a lot of good energetic performances down the left-flank in the draining summer heat.

#5 Genta Miura – Honestly he’s never been my favourite player to pull on a Gamba shirt, but he was generally quite competent before getting injured. I had him at 2 goals scored and 2.5 directly responsible for us conceding before he got injured during one of his best games, against Sapporo. Will be interesting to see where he fits into a 4-4-2 when everyone is fit.

#8 Kosuke Onose – After a wonderful year and half since joining from Yamaguchi, it’s gone a bit flat for him this term. He’s not been poor, rather he’s not really contributed in a way Gamba fans would have hoped, whether this is down to fatigue, a niggling injury, or something else, I don’t know.

#9 Ademilson – His goal and assist numbers are there, but he’s looked less sharp than last season. A couple of minor injuries in pre-season and just after the league’s re-start have perhaps hindered him and at the moment Patric and Usami seems to be our best strike partnership.

#10 Shu Kurata – A strange campaign from him, he’d actually lost his place to Yuji Ono before he got injured, but he’s now captaining the side in Miura’s absence. Beautiful goals away to Sendai and Hiroshima plus a couple of nice assists have been his highlights, but it looks like this year’s tough schedule has taken a toll on him.

#11 Yuji Ono – I didn’t expect much when we signed him, but he was a revelation in his midfield role before damaging knee ligaments. I hope he can come back strong again next year.

#13 Shunya Suganuma – Has only really played recently due to Miura and Shoji’s injuries plus the heavy schedule. Realistically shouldn’t be playing regularly for a top half J1 side, but he seems content to be a squad member and serves as useful backup.

#14 Yuya Fukuda – Finally getting a run in the team thanks to injuries elsewhere. He’s almost a victim of his own versatility as Miyamoto keeps switching his position. It was tough for him earlier in the campaign when he was only playing every 3rd/4th game, but now he’s getting more regular game time we can see his improvement.

#15 Yosuke Ideguchi – Has to be a strong contender for Gamba’s MVP this year. His work-rate, closing down and range of passing are immense. He’s started all but one J1 game in 2020 and of course banged in that memorable volley at home to Urawa.

#16 Jun Ichimori – Former Okayama number 1, signed to be our backup before dislocating his shoulder and finding himself in J3 as an overage player with the U23s. All this while our backup from last season Mizuki Hayashi is third choice at 19th in J2 Yamaguchi. The JLeague goalkeeping merry-go-round, eh?

#17 Ryo Shinzato – Signed on loan from Iwata to be back up to the back up centre-halves. I believe Scottish comedian Kevin Bridges put it better by saying, “you’re the guy who makes the tea for the guy who makes the coffee.” That said, I think he’s done alright the 2 times I’ve seen him play for the top team and once in J3.

#18 Patric – Has really come onto a game as the season has developed and offers something that none of our other forwards can provide. A pleasant surprise this campaign as I feared he may have been over-the-hill based on last year’s displays.

#19 Kim Young-gwon – A very consistent performer whose ability to defend is not in question. A big fan of the physical side of the game and some of the dark arts of defending which may make him unpopular with opponents (perhaps a Brazilian forward who has been vocal on Twitter lately lol). His distribution can be his greatest strength and also his biggest weakness, but overall I’m a fan.

#20 Daisuke Takagi – I think I can just lift my comments from last year’s player rundown about him… what was the purpose of his signing? He’s always had at least 2 better players ahead of him in any position he can play, he isn’t that young in footballing terms and aside from a lovely assist the other week, he hasn’t really stood out playing in J3.

#21 Shinya Yajima – A pretty decent season until his sprained ankle saw him lose his place to Yuki Yamamoto. Has gone a bit missing in some of the tougher games and will surely face more competition once Leo Takae returns from Machida, but a very useful player to have in the squad.

#24 Keisuke Kurokawa – Hasn’t featured much for the first team, but has definitely grown with the U23’s in J3. More of a left-back than Fukuda and I’d love to see him get a run in the J1 side at some point.

#25 Kei Ishikawa – Seems to have overtaken Ichimori to be Higashiguchi’s backup. Based on the couple of times I saw him play for the U23s, he looks like a good shot-stopper, but the thought of seeing his distribution in the J1 side gives me nightmares.

#26 Kohei Okuno – Central midfielder who sometimes gets punted to right-back or centre-back by the U23s when no-one else is available. Probably seen as a younger, better version of Takahiro Ko by the Gamba hierarchy.

#27 Ryu Takao – Surely the most improved player in the squad this year, either when played as a right-sided centre-back or in his favoured right-back role. Has outshone two similar players in Ryosuke Shindo and Tomoki Iwata already this season, are international honours in the near future totally out of the question?

#28 Jefferson Tabinas – Basically a Hail Mary loan signing from Kawasaki as we had no-one else to play centre-back in J3. He’s done better than expected, but I always judge him based on the fact he’s on loan from Frontale, as in reality he often looks more like a JFL player.

#29 Yuki Yamamoto – Takao’s former team-mate at Kwansei Gakuin who has come on in spades since breaking into the team due to Yajima’s injury. Now seems to be first choice alongside Ideguchi and has bagged a couple of nice goals too, which always helps.

#30 Dai Tsukamoto – The least famous of Gamba’s trident of prodigious youngsters along with Kawasaki and Toyama (is there also a city called Tsukamoto in Japan? – that would probably help with giving them a collective nickname). He’s really developed physically this year, though he will need to work on his end product if he wants to have a long J1 career, a bit like Fukuda he gets moved around too much due to his versatility.

#31 Haruki Saruta – Signed on loan from Kashiwa so we could loan our young goalies out. Got injured pre-lockdown, came back not fully fit and dropped a clanger against Sanuki on the opening day, disappeared for a bit after that, then came back and conceded five at YSCC and hasn’t been seen since.

#32 Ren Shibamoto – His next game in J3 will be his 100th, the first Gamba U23 player to reach that milestone. Was injured at the start of the year, but he’s improved the team so much since his return. I don’t know why he can’t get into the top team, he might be someone that @kanzawadreamin would like to have on loan at Zweigen next year.

#33 Takashi Usami – Excellent all round play, but did look exhausted at times prior to being given a rest. Often tasked with both scoring and setting up chances, the re-emergence of Patric has definitely helped him.

#34 Shuhei Kawasaki – I’m really happy with his development in his first year as a pro. He’s already too good to be playing in J3 and I liked what I saw the one time he was given extended playing time in J1, away to Tosu.

#35 Tatsuya Yamaguchi – A real work-horse for the U23s who despite his diminutive size spent the first half of the season as a left-sided centre-back. A really good player who will probably find himself crowded out by the traffic ahead of him at left-back, so could be an option for Renofa etc to look at for a loan next year (Yamaguchi sign Yamaguchi has a nice ring to it).

#36 Riku Matsuda – Broke his foot during the league’s layoff and came back not looking fully fit for the U23s. Got briefly promoted to the J1 side and was booked within a minute for clattering into the back of Iniesta, that’s certainly one to tell the grandkids about. Hasn’t looked as sharp as he did last year and the switch from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2 doesn’t really help him, may go out on loan next season.

#37 Haruto Shirai – Extremely pacey player who has now had about 3 niggling injuries this season. Lacks the consistency to crack the J1 squad, but his speed, control and distribution should see him forge a decent lower league career.

#38 Shoji Toyama – Has kept banging them in for the U23s and also netted a brace against Shonan in the Levain Cup. Hopefully we can keep hold of him for a bit to allow him to develop before the inevitable move to Europe.

#39 Kazuma Watanabe – Another pleasant surprise this season and is actually the team’s top scorer. Now that he’s got his 100 J1 goals, I wonder if there’s a chance he might return to his native Nagasaki and join V-Varen next year, as despite being an excellent squad member, the emergence of Toyama and potential return of Ichimi could mean the writing is on the wall for him at Gamba.

#40 Shin Won-ho – Joined after graduating high school in Korea, but unable to get in the U23 side ahead of several Japanese high schoolers on type 2 contracts which can’t be a great sign.

#50 Lee Yunoh – Signed on loan to replace our injured on loan U23 ‘keeper Saruta, he himself got injured soon after (what are we doing in training? that’s 3 goalkeeping injuries this year!). Has played once so far where he basically dropped the ball in the net against Kataller Toyama and looked very shaky in everything else he did.

I hope you all enjoyed that, please remember to check out my match preview for the game with Kashiwa Reysol which should be live on Thursday.

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sport

Oita Trinita vs Gamba Osaka 18 October 2020 Match Preview

Oita Trinita vs Gamba Osaka
J1 2020 Round 23
Showa Denko Dome Oita
Sunday 18 October 14:00 (JST)

Last Time Out

Gamba were held to a 1-1 draw by Yokohama F.Marinos on Wednesday night, their first home tie of the year. It marked the end of a run of 6 straight wins, but does now mean they are currently 7 matches unbeaten. Results elsewhere saw the Nerazzurri drop down to 5th in the standings, behind Nagoya on goal difference, however, there were certainly plenty of positives to take from a strong display against last year’s champions.

Gamba kantoku Tsuneyasu Miyamoto opted for just a solitary change to the starting eleven from the match with FC Tokyo on Saturday. Kosuke Onose came in for Ademilson, a move that saw Takashi Usami return to his more familiar role as a centre-forward. The continuity in selection allowed Gamba to start well and their high press put Marinos under pressure early on, as it had done in the away fixture back in February. Despite this, around the 20 minute mark Yokohama started to look more and more dangerous. First, Masaaki Higashiguchi had to get down well to his right to divert a Marcos Junior header to safety before both Junior Santos and Erik saw goalbound shots blocked by desperate Gamba lunges. Up the other end Patric knocked down a Higashiguchi long-ball for strike-partner Usami who easily went past Makito Ito before Yuji Kajikawa in the away goal tipped his shot wide for a corner. A mere minute later, however, and the home side trailed after a rather unfortunate own goal. Erik dispossessed Yuki Yamamoto in midfield and the ball broke for his compatriot Marcos Junior, the duo exchanged passes before Marcos shot at Higashiguchi from close range. Gamba’s number one got a leg to it but couldn’t prevent the ball from flying up and onto the face of the back-tracking Kim Young-gwon and from there it landed in the back of the net. Gamba left with an uphill battle ahead against tough opposition.

The following quarter of an hour saw something of a lull in proceedings with decent play from both sides, but little in the way of chances. Gamba broke the drought in the 41st minute when Onose played in the onrushing Takao and his shot into the side-netting was somewhat surprisingly given as a corner. Usami’s set piece was powerfully met by Patric, but Kajikawa again produced an excellent stop to keep the home team at bay. Unfortunately for Kajikawa, his side wouldn’t hold onto their lead for long as in the final minute of the first half a long ball from Ideguchi found Usami who knocked the ball past the Marinos ‘keeper, I’m not sure how strong the contact was, but Usami was flying and Kajikawa threw an arm out that caught Gamba’s number 33 in the stomach, he fell and the referee pointed to the spot. The former Bayern man dusted himself off and sent Kajikawa the wrong way for his 5th goal of the year. This decision and a subsequent one to award Gamba a throw in on half way clearly angered Ange Postecoglou and he was a lucky man that the 4th official was not a native English speaker as the DAZN highlights caught him giving out a verbal volley that would surely have seen him sent to the stands in say the A League or the EPL.

No further goals followed in the second half, but a pretty decent football game broke out. I’d go as far to call this Gamba’s best second half display of 2020, they spent most of it on the front foot, though they did fail to create that one killer chance to win the game. A clearly exhausted Marinos stuck to their task gamefully and probably had the best chance of the half when Shinnosuke Hatanaka shot wide from 6 yards out after good build up play involving Marcos Junior, Ryuta Koike and Erik. Positives for Gamba would be the second half displays of full-backs Takao and Fukuda, plus Yamamoto in midfield, while there were concerns when Gen Shoji appeared to aggravate his long standing ankle problem on the hour mark, but he did manage to soldier on to the end. All in all 1-1 probably doesn’t really suit either side, but for Gamba, 4 points from 2 games this year against Marinos and only 2 goals conceded represents a serious improvement from last season.

Oita played out a 1-1 draw away to an under-strength Vissel Kobe on Wednesday night. This is the second time this year that the sides have been tied at one apiece and both matches have immediately preceded Trinita’s fixtures with Gamba. Former Oita hitman Noriaki Fujimoto beat Mun Kyung-gun with a looping header from Keijiro Ogawa’s chipped through ball in the 6th minute to give Vissel the lead, but Trinita earned a share of the spoils when Gotoku Sakai turned Tomoki Iwata’s cross into his own goal under pressure from Yuya Takazawa 4 minutes from the end of normal time.

The Lowdown

5th placed Gamba travel to Kyushu this weekend to face off against an Oita Trinita outfit who currently find themselves sitting in 12th place in the standings, 13 points behind their visitors with a game more played. The blue and black half of Osaka have enjoyed an outstanding run of away form this year with 26 points from 11 games giving them the 2nd best road record in J1 after champions-elect Kawasaki. This represents quite a turnaround for Gamba who collected 26 points in total from all 17 away games in 2017 and mustered a mere 34 points outside of Suita across the 2018 and 2019 seasons, they could conceivably beat that combined tally this year.

As noted in the Yokohama F.Marinos preview last week, a major factor in Gamba’s improvement has been their tighter defence. The Nerazzurri have only conceded a maximum of one goal per game across the last 8 matches while they’ve only let in more than one away from home twice in J1 this season (Nagoya 2-2 and Kashiwa 0-3). By way of contrast, Oita’s defence has lost some of it’s stability this year and that has been a key factor in them slipping from 9th in 2019 (behind Gamba only on goal difference) to 12th this campaign. Their attack has actually marginally improved year on year, averaging 1.13 goals per game this term versus 1.01 a year ago, but at the back their 34 goals against this campaign is only 1 shy of 2019’s total despite playing 11 fewer matches to date. Additionally, they only conceded more than twice on two occasions in 2019, both away from home (FC Tokyo and Kawasaki – both 1-3), however, this time round they’ve shipped over 2 goals in a game 4 times, including twice in their own Showa Denko Dome.

At home Trinita have taken 15 points from their 11 matches so far, a total that is only one short of Gamba with an identical number of games played. Their results have been something of a mixed bag with 4 wins, Tosu (2-0), Shimizu (2-1) Marinos and Yokohama FC (1-0), 3 draws Shonan (2-2), Kobe (1-1), Kashiwa (0-0), and 4 defeats Kashima (4-1), Nagoya (3-0), Hiroshima (2-0), FC Tokyo (1-0). The Kyushu-based side could technically catch Vissel Kobe ahead of them if they win their games in hand and they are in a better run of form now (17 points from the past 9 matches) than at the beginning of the year when they opened up by taking only 12 points from their first 14 games.

Oita have used 31 players so far this term as opposed to Gamba’s 24 and I have my doubts as to how much depth they really possess outside their first choice starting eleven, however, I have identified a few talents to look out for on Sunday night. Naturally first is Mr Trinita himself, captain and centre-back Yoshinori Suzuki, who was last missing from an Oita league starting lineup way back on 31st May 2015, a 2-1 away defeat to Giravanz Kitakyushu in J2 (thanks Transfermarkt!) To Suzuki’s right is Tomoki Iwata, a player similar in style to Ryu Takao, regular readers may remember I bigged him up ahead of the match at Panasonic Stadium, only for him to concede a penalty with a rash tackle. Further forward, versatile former Gamba man Tatsuya Tanaka is Trinita’s top scorer this year with 7 goals, he can play in either wing-back position or what I believe the Japanese commentators call the ‘shadow’ position just off the main striker.

For Gamba, Takashi Usami will be looking to score against Oita for the third match running and his good friend in midfield Yosuke Ideguchi has been in sparkling form this year, his closing down against Marinos on Wednesday was a joy to watch. Finally, it will be interesting to contrast the aforementioned Ryu Takao with his opposite number Tomoki Iwata. Takao, for me, has been the most improved player in Gamba’s squad this year and has already outshone Ryosuke Shindo of Sapporo, another player who could be considered similar in style, so I’m keenly anticipating comparing the performances of Takao and Iwata in this encounter.

Head to Head

Between 2010-2018 these two were in different divisions so we don’t have a whole lot to cover in this section. Gamba defeated Trinita 2-1 at Panasonic Stadium in round 5 back in July, a penalty from Takashi Usami and a fine finish by Ademilson overturned Daiki Watari’s powerful header against the run of play for the visitors. In the corresponding match last year a flowing Gamba move was finished expertly by Usami to give the Nerazzurri an early lead, but efforts from Kazushi Mitsuhira and Tomoki Iwata reversed things in the home side’s favour. That would turn out to be Gamba’s final league defeat of 2019 as they went on to see off Sendai (2-0), Matsumoto (4-1) and Urawa (3-2) in their remaining fixtures.

Team News

Gamba Osaka

Gamba have a few concerns at the back with captain Genta Miura out with a thigh muscle injury and Gen Shoji looking to have aggravated his long-standing ankle problem against Marinos on Wednesday. Shoji received treatment on the hour mark and played on, but it remains to see if he will be selected for this clash, Shunya Suganuma and Ryo Shinzato stand ready to deputise if required. Left-back Hiroki Fujiharu has been out of the matchday squad for the past 2 games, though no injury has yet been reported, while Yuji Ono will miss the rest of 2020 after undergoing knee surgery.

Oita Trinita

Trinita have a number of players currently unavailable for selection, holding midfielder Ryosuke Maeda sprained his ankle against Hiroshima on September 23rd while wing-back Yuki Kagawa damaged his hamstring a week earlier. Experienced midfielder Yuki Kobayashi hasn’t featured since being subbed early in the second half of Oita’s 2-1 defeat by Gamba at Panasonic Stadium on July 18th and his namesake Seigo, more of a squad player, broke his foot at the end of September. Utility man Kaoru Takayama hasn’t been seen since the 2-0 defeat at home to Hiroshima last month with no injury yet reported and last year’s key assist maker Kazuki Kozuka has been in and out of the side in 2020, I’m assuming this is down to fitness concerns.

Predicted Line Ups

This is the last in a tough stretch of 5 games in 15 days before the schedule becomes noticeably more gentle in the coming weeks, so it’ll be interesting to see if Miyamoto tries to shake one last big performance out of the main starters or re-jigs things a little. I’ve assumed that Fujiharu will sit this one out and that Yamamoto is now above Yajima in the pecking order. As usual we’re most likely to see rotation in the forward line with any combination of Usami, Patric, Ademilson or Watanabe possible.


I have no doubts that Trinita will line up in their usual 3-4-2-1 formation and the back three of Iwata, Suzuki and Misao will be key for them as they lack sufficient depth in that position. Similar to Gamba, it is in the attacking areas where we may see some changes. Centre-forward Kei Chinen and ‘shadow’ players Daiki Watari, Kazuki Kozuka or Kazushi Mitsuhira could start and at wing-back it’s possible we’ll see either or both Rei Matsumoto or Yuji Hoshi come in to give someone a breather.


Match Prediction

Kyushu is not usually a happy hunting ground for Gamba, but their away form has been brilliant this year. The Nerazzurri have the clear goal of qualifying for both this year’s Emperor’s Cup and next campaign’s Asian Champions League to motivate them while Trinita merely have pride and contracts for next year to occupy their thoughts. As such, I’m going to continue with my positive predicting and say Gamba will run out 2-1 winners in a tightly fought contest.

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Oita Trinita Match Preview 18 July 2020

Gamba Osaka vs Oita Trinita
J1 2020 Round 5
Panasonic Stadium Suita
Saturday 18 July 19:00 (JST)

Round 5 of J1 2020 sees Gamba back in Osaka for the first of two home games in the space of five days. Oita Trinita are the visitors for the first J1 game in front of paying spectators in Suita this year. Hopefully this preview gives you all the information you’re looking for ahead of this intriguing clash.

Last Time Out

Super-sub Kazuma Watanabe was again the hero for Gamba away to Shimizu S-Pulse last Sunday as his beautiful 89th minute shot proved the difference between the two sides in a highly competitive encounter.

Head Coach Tsuneyasu Miyamoto kept personnel changes to a minimum with only the rested Hiroki Fujiharu and Shu Kurata coming back into the side for Yuya Fukuda and Yuji Ono, both of whom took up spots on the bench. However, the big alteration came tactically with Gamba reverting to a 4-4-2 system last used in April 2019 at home to Urawa.

S-Pulse put in what must be their strongest performance of the season with Carlinhos down the left, 18 year-old Yuito Suzuki through the middle and Shota Kaneko on the right caused Gamba’s defence real problems all night with their pace and movement. Shimizu got in behind a few times early doors and put fizzing crosses across Gamba’s six-yard box to no avail, they also had a few long range efforts, but nothing too damaging from a blue and black perspective.

At the other end of the field, it was Gamba who opened the scoring through a lovely team goal which was started by Kim Young-gwon inside his own half, the South Korean defender found Usami who played a lovely ball to the onrushing Fujiharu. Gamba’s left-back then attacked the box and centred for Ademilson who produced a lovely first touch pass into the path of Kosuke Onose who netted his first of the season low to Togo Umeda’s right. 1-0 Gamba at half time.

Gamba started the second half brightly, however, owing to some sloppiness in possession and strong S-Pulse forward play the Shizuoka side dominated from around the 50th-85th minutes. Their best chance came just before the hour mark when Kim Young-gwon was dispossessed following an ill-advised run out of defence, in the aftermath Carlinhos was denied by a great save from Higashiguchi, the ball then spun up for Shota Kaneko who was faced with placing his header past Ideguchi and Yajima on the line, a tough task, but somehow he managed to head the ball wide of the target.

Gamba couldn’t hold out forever and the equaliser inevitably came. A quickly taken free kick down the right by Yusuke Goto sent Keita Nakamura away and his pinpoint cross was met at the back post by the 191cm frame of Yugo Tatsuta. The centre-back bagged only the 2nd goal of his pro career with a powerful header.

At this point the momentum was all with S-Pulse and you would have banked on them going onto win the game. That’s not how things turned out as a mere four minutes later a Gamba attack down the left saw Ademilson put Fujiharu in behind the Shimizu defence, he cut the ball back for Watanabe who still had plenty to do, but the veteran ran past several defenders on the edge of the area before firing a delicious shot across Umeda and into the bottom corner. Full Time 2-1 Gamba, King Kazu the saviour once more.

Shimizu S-Pulse 1-2 Gamba Osaka
12 July 2020


My half time notes for Oita’s 1-1 home draw with Vissel Kobe read, “Kobe have the swagger of an Asian Champions League team, but they’d do well to remember they got there by winning a cup. They have no right to turn up at places like Oita against a team who got the same number of points as them last year, and just expect to win.”

This game was a real clash of styles as Vissel after getting what in boxing would be termed a flash knockdown through Kyogo Furuhashi’s superb volley inside the first twenty seconds then spent most of the remaining first 45 minutes being harassed by Oita’s high pressing system. It was therefore little surprise when the men from Kyushu drew level through Tomoki Iwata on 29 minutes. Iwata, the closest thing Trinita have to a star player, started the move by winning a duel just inside the Kobe half, deflecting the ball towards Tatsuya Tanaka whose brave header found centre-forward Kei Chinen who, with a beautifully weighted pass released Iwata past the despairing Leo Osaki, Oita’s number 29 then coolly finished low to Hiroki Iikura’s left.

In the second half Oita were largely content to soak up Kobe pressure and on the whole it worked as the men from Hyogo were unable to unlock the well organised Trinita backline, frequently being forced into hitting low percentage shots from outside the box. The final ten minutes and injury time, however, saw Vissel take advantage of a tiring Oita rearguard and youngsters, Yutaro Oda and Daiju Sasaki both had decent changes to win the game, but in the end this tactical chess match finished up a probably fair 1-1.

Oita Trinita 1-1 Vissel Kobe
11 July 2020


Recent History

Prior to last season, Gamba and Oita hadn’t met in J1 since 2009, as a result I’ll just focus this week’s history section on the two games from the 2019 campaign.

In April, Gamba earned their first home point of the year, at the fifth time of asking in a physical and somewhat scrappy game. Ado Onaiwu got a controversial opener for Trinita in the 25th minute, attacking Rei Matsumoto’s right wing cross with a high boot, his connection went straight at Gamba ‘keeper Masaaki Higashiguchi from point blank range, the ball then rebounded onto the forward’s arm and into the net. Despite Gamba protests, the goal stood and Oita took a one goal advantage into the break. After laying siege to the Trinita box for parts of the second period Gamba were finally rewarded in somewhat fortunate circumstances. 19 minutes from time some uncharacteristically poor Oita defending ended up with the ball falling to Yasuhito Endo on the edge of the box and his scuffed effort deflected off Trinita captain Yoshinori Suzuki past Shun Takagi and into the back of the net. Noriaki Fujimoto wasted a couple of injury time chances for Oita and ultimately both sides would have been reasonably happy to take a point.

The second clash of the season in round 31 last November saw Gamba come into the match in much better form than their hosts, so Oita’s 2-1 triumph may have come as a little bit of a surprise to some. The Nerrazzuri raced into an early lead through a beautifully crafted team goal started, like the opener against Shimizu last week, by Kim Young-gwon in his own half. Kim’s pass found Shinya Yajima who turned and played a lovely ball for Ademilson to run onto, the Brazilian then fed Usami who shot past Shun Takagi at his near post. Usami later hit the bar with a thunderous shot and Ademilson headed against the post when it seemed easier to score. Gamba were made to pay for their wastefulness as Trinita drew level six minutes before half time. A quickly taken free kick (there’s a theme here with comparisons to the S-Pulse game) was played to Ado Onaiwu who passed the ball wide to Tomoki Iwata storming down the right flank, his inch perfect cross was met by the toe of Kazushi Mitsuhira and the former Shonan and Kyoto man prodded the ball beyond Higashiguchi. Iwata was not finished with Gamba and 19 minutes into the second half he won the game, turning up unmarked at the back post to fire home Onaiwu’s flick on and earn three points for his side.

Tactical Notes

Due to the win against Shimizu last week I feel we’ll see Gamba once again use 4-4-2 against the more defensively minded Oita. My only concerns about the system are how well Fujiharu and Kurata (both 31) can cope with sustained opposition pressure. The duo were dynamite in days gone by, but Kurata in particular seems to have lost a yard of pace and may be better utilised in a more central, advanced role.

Yajima and Ideguchi were solid if unspectacular against S-Pulse and Miyamoto has a decision to make on whether or not to use Yasuhito Endo for this game. With the Sanfrecce encounter following so closely after it seems reasonable he’ll start one of these two to give either Yajima or Ideguchi a rest, and to me this match seems more likely. His range of passing will be needed to to thread the eye of the needle and unpick Oita’s defence, though how effective he will be against their dangerous counter attack remains to be seen.

Under the guidance of former Gamba player and assistant head-coach Tomohiro Katanosaka, now in his 5th season in charge, Oita are a well oiled machine who punch well above their weight in terms of resources. Katanosaka’s preferred formation is 3-4-2-1, though this quickly becomes 5-4-1 when the opposition are in possession. You could clearly see the benefits of continuity in management philosophy and player selection in Trinita’s game against Vissel Kobe. Each Oita player has a specific role and knows how to do it, the backline of five can be found in a straight line across the field making it hard to spring the offside trap, this contrasted with their opponents who constantly formed a staggered line across the back. Players only leave their defensive position to attack the ball in their zone and you can almost see the training drills these guys must do in order to perfect their actions on the field. Further up the park, the front three show that defence really does start from attack as they constantly harry their opposite numbers in a tactic I believe rugby aficionados call the rush defence.

I mentioned him above briefly, but Tomoki Iwata is Oita’s jewel in the crown, although officially a centre-back he can often be seen charging down the right like a wing-back while one of his central midfielders covers for him. This can bring great rewards as in the games against Kobe last week and Gamba in 2019, but it also presents a rare opportunity to get in behind Trinita’s defensive live.

In summary, this will be a tactical chess match, Gamba will probably look to win free kicks in dangerous positions and try to probe for weaknesses while Endo’s tactical passing and quick interchanges between the attackers will be crucial if they want to get shots on goal from decent areas. Oita, on the other hand, will be content to sit back and soak up pressure with the intent of countering Gamba swiftly. They will use their wide players to generate the majority of their attacks from deep while also aiming to win the ball back high up the field through applying pressure to Gamba’s defence.

Team News

Gamba Osaka

Gen Shoji is once again a doubt and reserve goalkeeper Jun Ichimori will be back in a couple of months. Elsewhere there are no new injury concerns and if 4-4-2 is the formation of choice then the starting XI should look very similar to the one that lined up against S-Pulse. Kim Young-gwon will play his 100th J1 game if selected for this encounter (23 FC Tokyo, 40 Omiya Ardija and 36 games for Gamba to date).

Oita Trinita

Veteran wide-man Kaoru Takayama is out after foot surgery while Yuki Kagawa should be fit despite suffering a nasty cut to his head following a collision with So Fujitani’s boot in the game against Kobe. Elsewhere the picture is less clear, assist maker Kazuki Kozuka was one of Oita’s best players in 2019 so I’m assuming his continued absence is injury related. Off-season signing from Tokushima Vortis, Naoki Nomura as well as wide player Yuji Hoshi and central midfielder Kazuhiro Sato haven’t been seen in recent games and I’m not sure whether this is due to injury or non-selection.

Know Your Opponent – Oita Trinita

Katanosaka’s Oita side has a definite formation and clear patterns in playing selection. They have two games in quick succession after this one, Nagoya at home and Shimizu away so we could see some rotation, but I’m banking on them putting out their strongest XI

GK – #1 Shun Takagi – After starting his professional career with Kawasaki Frontale, Takagi made the move to Kyushu in 2017 and has been first choice in each of the previous two campaigns, playing in every league game. He’s a solid option between the sticks and fancies himself as a bit of a sweeper keeper.

CB – #29 Tomoki Iwata – I’m a big fan of his as you can probably tell from above. The 23 year-old Oita native is a one club man so far, though how long he’ll remain at Trinita is up for debate. He made 2 appearances for an inexperienced Japan side in last year’s Copa America and if his career continues its current trajectory, he’s sure to add more caps in the coming years.

CB – #5 Yoshinori Suzuki © – Mr Oita, at 27 Suzuki is actually a bit younger than I thought he was. Incredibly he hasn’t missed a league game since 2015, although that run will surely end due to the crowded schedule this year. Trinita’s captain stayed with them through the dark days of J3 and is now reaping his rewards. Like Iwata, I’d be quite happy to see him in the blue and black of Gamba one day.

CB – #3 Yuto Misao – The older brother of Kashima’s Kento, he’s slowly re-established himself as a solid J1 player after a disappointing two-year spell with Antlers. He replaced Naoya Fukumori in the starting lineup early last year and built a strong partnership with Suzuki and Iwata. Similar to Iwata he likes to move forward a bit at times and have his central midfielders cover for him.

RWB – #7 Rei Matsumoto – Another long-term servant of the club, former Yokohama F.Marinos wide-man Matsumoto joined Oita in 2013 while they were still in J1 and has been on their roller coaster ride down the divisions and back up again. I expect him to start in the right-wing back position, but he’s equally adept on the opposite flank.

CM – #40 Yushi Hasegawa – A calm and composed figure in the middle of the park, Hasegawa is now in his second season as a professional after his move from Miyazaki Sangyo Keiei University (the same alma mater as his captain Suzuki). He impressed last year, making 19 appearances despite facing tough competition for a starting slot from Ryosuke Maeda, Thitipan and Toshio Shimakawa. This time around it seems the 23 year-old from Kagoshima has established himself as first-choice.

CM – #6 Yuki Kobayashi – Brought in midway through 2019 from Nagoya Grampus, the immensely experienced Kobayashi, who has 222 J1 appearances to his name adds solidity to the Trinita midfield. Not known for his goalscoring exploits, Kanagawa native Kobayashi who also counts Jubilo Iwata and Albirex Niigata among his former teams will be content to sit back and protect his backline.

LWB – #2 Yuki Kagawa – An off-season signing from fellow Kyushu outfit V-Varen Nagasaki, Kagawa has quickly nailed down a starting slot on the left-wing and already has two assists to his name in four J1 games. Assuming he overcomes a nasty looking cut to his head sustained against Kobe he’ll give Ryu Takao and Kosuke Onose a lot of problems on Saturday night.

AM – #16 Daiki Watari – After two goal ladden seasons with Tokushima in J2 where he netted 35 times in 83 games, Watari earned himself a move to Sanfrecce Hiroshima in 2018. The goals didn’t quite flow there and he was never able to string a run of performances together. He’s looked lively since joining Oita, but is yet to contribute any goals or assists this year, that will need to change if he wants to keep his place ahead of Kazushi Mitsuhira.

AM – #11 Tatsuya Tanaka – Persona non grata in Panasonic Stadium after leaving Gamba for Oita just a few months after joining from Roasso Kumamoto last year. Life is short and a footballer’s career is even shorter so I have no grudge against him, in terms of playing minutes his move made a lot of sense. He’s currently operating just off the main striker but can also do a job on either wing, making him an ideal fit for Oita. He’s already netted twice in J1 in 2020 including a header against Tosu, not bad for a 172cm winger.

CF – #9 Kei Chinen – An exciting loan signing from Kawasaki Frontale last winter, Okinawan Chinen has a big chance to shine this season in a relatively low pressure environment. His assist for Iwata’s goal against Kobe was his first goalscoring contribution of the year, but his hold up play and lay offs are vital to the way Trinita play and Gamba’s defence will need to be on their toes to deal with the threat he poses.

Other Options – Oita have a pretty settled line-up, but as we know 2020 is unlike any other season so rotation is always likely. The three centre-backs above are clearly the first choice, but Ryosuke Tone, who played against Vissel, plus two close-season additions, Yuta Koide (Ventforet Kofu) and rookie Kento Haneda (Kansai University) can fill in where necessary. Further forward in central midfield, Toshio Shimakawa and Ryosuke Maeda are holding players who both got minutes last weekend. Kenta Inoue, currently on a designated special player contract ahead of a 2021 move from Fukuoka University, can play as a right wing-back or attacking midfielder. One player I almost picked in the starting XI but who’s definitely in contention is long-term Oita servant Kazushi Mitsuhira, he could play just off the central striker, as could ex-JEF United Chiba man, Yamato Machida, a diminutive and mercurial talent. Finally if Katanosaka opts to rest Chinen, Kohei Isa, another player who experienced the J3 campaign and recent addition Yuya Takazawa, second top scorer in J3 last year with 17 strikes for Gainare Tottori and scorer of a crucial goal against Hiroshima, could come in.

Predicted Lineups

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Match Prediction

This will be a bit of a tactical tussle and it will be interesting to see what difference, if any, the introduction of supporters has on Gamba’s home performance. Oita may not be flashy but they do the small things well, Gamba will need to be patient in attack while being vigilant defensively. I’ll say that a tight match will end in a 1-1 draw.