Originally seen at:
http://fortressnozuta.wordpress.com/2014/08/25/matchday-22-fc-machida-zelvia-0-1-fc-ryukyu/

Sunday saw Zelvia’s second defeat of the season at the hands of a team we beat 7-1 the last time we met. What on earth happened?

by Eilean Kelly
Follow Eilean on Twitter @FortressNozuta

For me, there are two reasons. First, FC Ryuku came well-prepared. Having learned the lesson of their previous drubbing, they took no chances and came armed with a strong defensive strategy that saw Zelvia’s players frustrated almost every time they approached the goal. Time and time again Machida had the ball taken from them or kicked away to safety with the result that they had only a few good chances indeed for a clear shot on goal. While Ryukyu played a mainly defensive game, they didn’t waste the chance that they were given. After spending the first 25 minutes shutting down Zelvia’s efforts, they went on the attack with a long shot that was deflected onto Zelvia’s bar and rebounded back into the field, where it was eventually collected by Ryukyu and sent into the net. They later scored a second goal thanks to poor defending by Zelvia, but that one was ruled offside.

The second reason is that because of numerous injuries, Zelvia have not been at their best since the season resumed . In particular, we are sorely missing the tactical awareness and passing ability of our captain Ri Han Jae who, despite participating in training sessions of late, has yet to make an appearance proper since Matchday 17. Without his presence the team just can’t seem to get their act together, and gone are the days of the bold, decisive passing that characterised the first half of the season. Compounding this, other key players such as Keisuke Harada and Takafumi Suzuki were also out injured recently, and Ryuto Otake has been making irregular appearances after recovering from an injury earlier in the season. As a result, Zelvia’s style of play has been disrupted and they have lost their rhythm – when I look at the team now I am reminded of our performance in the 2013 season rather than that of earlier this year. Yesterday saw a lot of back passing, an unwelcome return to darker days for me, and Tetsuya Kijima (himself recovering from injury) is again not receiving the passes that he expects. For the first time this season, I’m starting to wonder about Naoki Soma’s choice of players: Zelvia may well be lacking strength in depth, but our manager doesn’t yet seem to have settled on or worked out his best back-up team.

To add to our woes, our nearest rivals AC Nagano Parceiro and Zweigen Kanazawa were both victorious yesterday, which means that Zelvia’s hitherto seven point lead has been reduced to just four.

We are now two-thirds of the way through the season and the championship is still Zelvia’s to lose. Next week sees us take a trip to the mountains of Nagano for our third and final clash with Parceiro, and I cannot emphasize enough how crucial this match is. While they have not been the powerhouse that they were last year, Parceiro are formidable opponents and a win over Zelvia would see them only 2 points shy of us (albeit with a whopping goal difference in our favour). If Kanazawa were also to win, that would leave us just one point clear at the top of the table. We have not had the best record against Parceiro, getting our first victory against them only this year, and I am not too confident about the outcome of this match given our current weakened state. Here’s hoping that my pessimism is misplaced.