Urawa Reds struggle to recover, Kashiwa Reysol captain remains overseas in Belgian league
Soccer
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On the 20th, Urawa Red Diamonds lost 3-4 at home to bottom-placed Consadole Sapporo in the 24th round of the J-League. The team was behind by four goals at one point. Foreign player Thiago Santana and substitute striker Rio Nida continued to fight, scoring three consecutive goals in the final seconds, but they were unable to maintain their unbeaten record at home due to time constraints. Regarding their recent poor performance, Urawa Red Diamonds manager Hegumo told the media: "In the match against Sapporo, we missed four chances in the first 20 minutes. I don't think we should have ended up like this. We want to make some adjustments during the off-season."
Currently, Urawa Red Diamonds are in 10th place in the J-League standings with 9 wins, 6 draws and 9 losses, and are 11 points behind the championship group. It is highly likely that they will not achieve their goal of winning the championship that they set before the start of this season. Urawa Red Diamonds' home game results this season are 6 wins, 3 draws and 4 losses in 13 games. Furthermore, in their last three home games, Urawa Red Diamonds have lost to Shonan Reika, Sapporo Consadole and Newcastle United, and their defensive performance has been quite poor.
In terms of the starting lineup, injured players Gustafsson, Abe Yuki, Matsuo Yusuke, Hayashi Mamoru and Maeda Naoki are all set to return to the starting line-up in the off-season friendlies, while forward Naganuma Yoichi, acquired from Urawa Reds in the summer transfer market, is likely to start in the match, while veteran striker Koroki Shinzo announced his retirement at the end of this season last week.
Kashiwa Reysol lost 2-3 at home to Kawasaki Frontale in the final match of the league. The team was trailing by two goals, but fought back to tie the score. Kashiwa Reysol's good home form was ruined when the defense was unstable at the last minute and foreign player Matheus Savio missed a penalty in added time. However, slow-motion replays showed that Kawasaki Frontale's third goal was suspected to be offside, but Kashiwa Reysol did not appeal. Regarding the team's recent poor performance, Kashiwa Reysol manager Ihara Masayuki said in a post-match press conference: "It would be better if we could go all out from the start, but the reason we can't score in these games is because we're not good enough."
Currently, Kashiwa Reysol is in 13th place in the J-League standings with 7 wins, 8 draws and 9 losses, and is 5 points away from the relegation zone. It will not be difficult to stay in the league this season. However, in 12 away games this season, Kashiwa Reysol has only 3 wins, 5 draws and 4 losses, a win rate of just 25%, and their defensive ability is relatively low. In 9 away games from April to the present, Kashiwa Reysol has only won 1 game in all competitions, and when they faced strong opponents such as Nagoya and Gamba Osaka away from home, they were completely defeated without being able to find a way to fight back.
In the lineup, Kashiwa Reysol's main center back, Satoshi Inukai, also returned for the final league match. Main right back Daiki Sekine and center Mana Hosoya also returned from the Paris Olympics. In the off-season transfer market, Kashiwa Reysol transferred their main midfielder and captain Tomoki Takamine to Kortrijk in Belgium and added Kohei Tezuka from Tosu Sandstone. Kashiwa Reysol also released two forwards, Sakurada Yamamoto and Yuki Muto, during the off-season, which affected the firepower of the substitutes.
In the past 20 matches, Urawa Reds have won 9, drawn 5 and lost 6. In this match, Urawa Reds will try to bounce back at home. Will Kashiwa Reysol, who have a hard time scoring as guests, have a chance to score?