This afternoon, Beijing time, it is time for many big battles on the weekend. Among them, the K League officially began to compete for the championship + relegation in two categories, while the Japanese occupation continued its own express schedule of "double races in one week". Weicai Watch selects the two most focused battles of Japanese and Korean jobs, bringing you the preview and strategy of the game.
【Suwon Samsung VS Seoul FC】
Nature of the competition: Korean Pro League
Competition time: 13:00 Beijing time on September 26
Venue: Suwon World Cup Stadium
The matchup between Suwon Samsung and Seoul FC was a national derby for South Korea, and the two teams belonging to Gyeonggi Province were once brilliant, setting a K-League record of 55,397 spectators in a single game. However, with the decline of the two teams, today's South Korea's "national derby" has become a relegation battle.
Suwon Samsung, who won the FA Cup last season, has a rather bad season, and they only won their fifth victory of the season after the difficult 2-1 reversal of Gangwon FC in the last round, and once again opened up the gap with the bottom of the Incheon United by 3 points, but the team's relegation situation is still quite grim. Suwon Samsung has rebounded recently, winning 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses in the last 5 games.
Suwon Samsung's defensive ability this season is still very good, conceding only 26 goals in the 22 rounds of the regular season, and conceding only more goals than the "modern double male". Moreover, left-back Lee Ji-di, who has played well in Japan, Australia, and South Korea, returned on loan after ending his loan, he played 34 games for Suwon Samsung in the 2018 season, scoring 4 goals and sending 4 assists, if Lee Ji-di can get back to the state of the year, it will greatly enhance the strength of Suwon Samsung's offensive and defensive ends.
Suwon's biggest problem is still in the offensive side, the Golden Boot Tagatt, who scored 20 goals last season, has only scored 5 league goals this season, and has recently been put on the bench by the manager, and even the big list has not been entered. With the exception of Taggart, the remaining 6 strikers combined only scored a pitiful four goals. The team also had to rely on the 37-year-old veteran Lian Ki-hoon, who came off the bench last game to help the team successfully reverse with two free-kick assists. He has made 22 appearances for the team this season, scoring 3 goals and giving away 5 assists. However, Lian Jixun's physical strength is limited, and now he is used by the manager as a substitute change,
Kim Young-ho
Seoul FC heard big news before the start of the relegation play-off, and Kim Young-ho, the acting coach who replaced Choi Yong-so this season, chose to resign because of the "regularization" problem and did not negotiate with the team. After a series of farces such as the silicone doll incident and the failure of the negotiation between Ji Chengyong and Li Qinglong this season, Seoul FC once again exposed the immaturity of its operational capabilities, especially when there was only one day left in the match with its biggest rival Suwon Samsung, the club had to spend time and energy to find the spare tire of the spare tire, and the team's hard-to-stabilize military spirit was once again facing shocks.
In fact, Kim Young-ho's results after taking over are good, with 4 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats once giving Seoul hopes of advancing to the championship group. Unfortunately, the last round of 0-0 with Daegu FC was suffocating, so they missed the opportunity to win and qualify, and could only continue to work in the relegation group. From the data point of view, the data of Seoul FC's 19 goals + 37 goals conceded this season is unbearable, but in fact, in the 9 games taken over by Kim Young-ho, Seoul has scored 9 goals and conceded 8 goals, and there has been a significant improvement in both offensive and defensive ends.
Seoul, like Suwon, is facing a lack of attacking power, with former South Korean international Park Joo-yong scoring just two goals in 18 league games and foreign aid Adriano scoring 0 goals in 9 games. In the last game, Spanish foreign aid Osmar, who had been absent for a long time, returned to the starting lineup, and after Kim Hao-young left the team, Uzbekistan's foreign aid Alibayev, who had previously been abandoned, is also expected to return to the starting. However, it seems that Ji Chengyong, who has returned in the summer window, has not yet found his game status, and has been of limited help to the team since joining.
Despite being dubbed the "National Derby," the recent showdown between Suwon Samsung and Seoul FC has shown a one-sided trend. Suwon Samsung has played against Seoul FC in the last 20 times, winning only once in the 2016 FA Cup, and the remaining 19 games have not been won in 9 draws and 10 defeats. The last time Suwon Samsung beat their opponents in the league had to go back to their 5-1 win five years ago. It is no exaggeration to say that Seoul FC is Suwon Samsung's biggest bitter home team in recent years. This time, can they take advantage of the other side's shock period to change the disadvantage of past records? Worth looking forward to.
【Kobe Victory Ship VS Sapporo Gonzale】
Nature of the competition: Japanese Professional League
Competition time: 18:00 Beijing time on September 26
Venue: Misaki Park Stadium
Meritorious manager Fink chose to resign before the match with Tosu, and the German manager who brought two championships to the team and brought the team to the AFC Champions League resigned first for family reasons and for reasons of achievement. Before beating Sand Rock Tosu in the last round of the league, Kobe suffered an embarrassment of not winning 8 games (4 draws and 4 defeats) in all competitions.
Kobe's results have been quite up and down this season, and they continued their strength at the end of last season at the beginning of the season, winning the AFC Champions League twice in a row and beating the Mariners in the Super Cup final to win the title. But the sudden outbreak of the epidemic led to the suspension of the league, and the season that was forced to compress after the restart caught Kobe a little off guard. After the return of the epidemic, Kobe Victory Ship was able to make a good start with 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, but after that, the team went to a slump. This is not unrelated to the team's core age, lack of squad depth, and intensive schedule. So we'll see kobe draw 2-2 at home with the unstoppable Kawasaki striker in just one week, but just seven days later, they're again at home again to face Kawasaki and are swept 6-0 by their opponents, and there's a 3-3 tie between the two games against the Yokohama Mariners.
In the last round of the league, Iniesta played quite well, scoring his first goal of the season and assisting Furuhashi Twice to seal the victory. I have to say that the bloody old white is still one notch higher than other players in the J League. The team's defense is still a big problem, even Tosu Sand Rock can penetrate Kobe's gate three times, and 35 goals conceded this season is the fourth most in the J League.
Junkuo Miura
After assistant coach Beavez led the team to play Tosu, Kobe Victory Ship announced the new coach - former Japan international and current club technical director Junhiro Miura officially took over as head coach. The 46-year-old Junkuo Miura was mentored by former Barcelona manager Rexach, who was also deeply influenced by Barça football, and since he became technical director in 2018, he has clearly put forward the concept of following Barca's passing and controlling football. However, Junhiro Miura did not have any coaching experience before, not even as a teaching assistant, and was a complete coaching rookie. Although there is no relegation pressure in the league this season, Kobe Victory Ship still has the task of the AFC Champions League in the future, and Kobe's choice can be said to be a big gamble.
Gonzado Sapporo has gone high and low this season, getting off to a good start with 3 wins and 3 draws after the league restart, but since losing to Victory Ship Kobe in the 8th round, Sapporo has not won nine consecutive league rounds and lost 7 of them. After beating Shayan Tosu to end the embarrassment of a nine-round winless victory, they lost at home to Gamba Osaka and Kashiwa Helios, and both matches were kept clean sheets.
The reason for such a large decline in Sapporo is not unrelated to the loss of players. The departure of main scorer Musashi Suzuki and starter Seirun had a lot of repercussions, with the former scoring six goals in his first five games and replacing his foreign assistant Douglas Oliveira scoring just one goal in 17 games, while the other attacking core, Sok Krasin, was injured this season and far worse than last season. In addition, Takahito Kanno, who replaced Seonjun as the starting goalkeeper, often made bizarre mistakes that led to conceded goals, and this season the Sapporo backline has conceded 36 goals, and Takahito Sugano's poor performance is also a major inducement.
However, it is worth mentioning that this season's Sapporo home and away performance contrast is huge, they only got 6 points in 10 home games, 1 win, 3 draws and 6 losses, but in the away game, they achieved a record of 3 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses, and got 11 points. The two sides have met in the last 5 times, Sapporo has the upper hand with 3 wins and 2 losses, and the two sides have played against each other in the last 7 encounters, and the total number of goals scored in 6 games has exceeded 3 goals (including 3 goals), which is not to mention the excitement.
Considering the physical weakness of Kobe Victory Ship facing the intensive schedule, and the debut of the coaching career of the rookie coach, Sapporo, who has a good performance, is not without a chance to visit the Misaki Park Stadium. Will Kobe continue the winning streak, or will Sapporo end the losing streak?