It was raining before the game. That weather expressed both NAGOYA’s and URAWA’s feelings. URAWA’s consecutive winning stopped 3 games, but their new striker JUNKER scored goals for 4 games in a row.
Last game, NAGOYA lost the game against SENDAI(0-1). In last two games, NAGOYA didn’t score any goals. It was said that JUNKER would join NAGOYA. If that rumor is true, NAGOYA really regrets that they failed to sign with a Danish striker. Their problems on lack of strikers remain. What’s more, Japan Teams has been worried about MARUYAMA’s fatigue and described concerns last article.
And that concern could happen. After the game against SHIMIZU, he announced his severe injuries. He will not come back to the team for a while. It will take 6-8 months. NAGOYA wants to show the captain that they can fight without him, especially they are required to concede no goals.
JUNKER netted goals for URAWA in consecutive 4 games, those goals are enough to prove his scoring skills. On the other hand, YAMASAKI didn’t score enough goals to win games and he hasn’t showed his strong points. I anticipated that this match would make me see their situation more clearly. But the result was clearly different. YAMASAKI won air battles against IWANAMI while JUNKER was silent in the area on NAGOYA side.
Urawa could not deliver passes into the center area, so they moved the ball from the defender line to the side area. But YOSHIDA and NARUSE were ready for intercepting URAWA’s ball, and SOMA and Mateus picked up a rebounding ball. But those passes were prevented by Yoshida and NARUSE of Nagoya who were waiting, and Soma and Mateus picked up the second ball. URAWA needed more tempo to make NAGOYA’s defender collapse. In the center area, they couldn’t escape big pressure from YONEMOTO and INAGAKI. TAKEDA, a young promising player, who people expected his potential, didn’t receive the ball there.
INAGAKI and YONEMOTO shut out all URAWA’s short counter attacks. KAKITANI and YAMASAKI created chances with their combination. But NAGOYA needed more accuracy to finish. There were some big chances but they didn’t net.
It’s not too much to say that URAWA had the initiative in the second half. ITO came on as a second-half substitute to replace Hidetoshi TAKEDA. KOIZUMI placed high place near NAGOYA area. His good positioning and skills made him receive the ball in the middle area, then it also made URAWA use side area efficiently. But they couldn’t delivered the ball to JUNKER at the good place after all.
On the other hand, NAGOYA lost their good rhythm because URAWA CB MAIKNO stopped YAMASAKI completely, then they couldn’t create any chances like ones in the first half. NAGOYA’s defenders showed their spirits and didn’t concede any goals. After NAGASAWA and SAITO came on, they started to create chances again though they didn’t net goals.
URAWA doesn’t often have a good start in their home game, and NAGOYA struggles to score goals. Both problems are much clearer than their good points after this game.
