Cerezo Osaka – DF Fujimoto is suspended, MFs Yamaguchi and Ogihara are with Olympic team and MF B K Kim is with Korea’s Olympic team.FW Sugimoto has officially returned to the club from a loan period at Tokyo.

Five wins for Sapporo, three for Cerezo. All games were in J2 until this season’s Sapporo win.

Cerezo Osaka were, until last week anyway, the only team to allow Consadole Sapporo three points this season and, after an inconsistent start to the season are now becoming consistent. Consistently bad, that is! Without a win in their last five games and having trouble scoring, they are also losing players left, right and centre…. Kiyotake and Kim will both not be returning after the Olympics and, but for the recent goals of Kakitani they would be even lower than the 16th place that they see themselves in this week.

This game is a MUST win for the Osaka team but Consadole Sapporo – having beaten Nagoya Grampus last weekend – will have gained hope and confidence, while Cerezo are slumping big time. With Gamba Osaka on the horizon next week, a loss here will put enormous pressure on Cerezo but performing without their Olympic duo of defensive midfielders – Yamaguchi and Ogihara – will give Consadole even more hope. If Jade North and his Sapporo defenders can put on another decent display there is no reason why Consadole can’t do the double over Cerezo for this season.
EXPECT a WIN for CONSADOLE SAPPORO!