Sagan Tosu – Midfielder Takahashi is expected to be out for three months.
Albirex Niigata – Midfielder Nakamura is out for at least another month.

Sagan Tosu (P6 W3 D1 L2 GD -2) have surprised J.League watchers with three wins out of six so far and are not having the problems that fellow promoted team Consadole Sapporo are having. Sagan’s three wins have come against struggling Marinos, on a roll downhill Kobe and a surprised Sanfrecce Hiroshima. So having done well against teams in various stages of form will Albirex (P6 W1 D2 L3 GD -2) make them struggle, seeing as how the away team finally got a win last week?
Albirex’s next three games are against Vegalta, Sanfrecce, FC Tokyo and Reds and they should probably not expect any wins there, so really need another win to stop the slide towards J2 that many are already predicting. Expect them to, yes, make it a tough game for Tosu today and be looking for at least a point to take home.
Tosu look forward to their next two games against Vegalta and Reysol, so they, also, have a tough schedule ahead. Toyoda is looking like a J1 player and their teamwork and effort is helping them settle into J1, although they will probably have to rely on other teams being worse than them to stay up! With Sapporo, Albirex, Marinos and Ardija looking in trouble already (let’s face it Gamba and Antlers ARE going to move up the table), Tosu will be a relegation struggle with 5 or 6 other teams and will need all the points they can get. But you can EXPECT a DRAW today!

The teams have never met in J1 and all four meetings in J2 in 2003 went to Albirex, but times they are-a-changing. Sagan’s confidence is up, Niigata are struggling, or did they finally turn the corner last week?