Sagan Tosu – FW Toyoda is suspended, will be missed. DF Otani and MF Takahashi are long term injuries.
Toyoda will be a big miss for Sagan Tosu (P10 W4 D4 L2 GD +4), sitting pretty in 5th place and confounding the critics so far. But they must fancy their chances against an inconsistent Omiya Ardija (P10 W4 D2 L4 GD -5) who have already seen ups and downs in this short season! Home advantage may well be the key point in this match and Tosu are still unbeaten at home in J1 and will be hoping to keep that statistic intact today.
Omiya Ardija last week made it three home wins in a row since, well, forever, but on their travels they succumbed to Vissel Kobe 3-0 last week and looked very ordinary. The likes of Cho and Higashi have to pull their weight if Omiya are to rise to mid-table safety this season and Brazilian import Carlinhos has to do more to justify keeping Kota Ueda on the bench. Despite the missing Toyoda I am going to tell you to EXPECT a WIN for SAGAN TOSU!
Six wins for Omiya over the last decade, one win for Tosu and a draw in eight meetings, all in J2. This will be their first meeting in J1.