Tag Archives: Sugimoto

Previews

J.League J1 Preview Matchday 32 – 17:00 Cerezo Osaka vs Omiya Ardija at Kincho

Leave a comment

Team News
Cerezo Osaka – FW Bando is suspended. MF Yoshino out until next season. FWs Sugimoto and Kakitani are injury doubts.
Omiya Ardija report no injuries, and there are no suspensions.

Head to Head
6 wins for Ardija, 4 for Cerezo and 2 draws in 12 meetings between these teams since 2004.

Match Preview
Cerezo are all but mathematically certain of safety and have rewarded coach Culpi with a new and improved contract for 2013, even though he left for a break earlier this season! The fact that they have little to play for may see them surprised by the ferocity of the away team here today, who will be fighting for survival. The most hardcore of Cerezo fans might even be wishing for a defeat today, in order to put their Osaka city rivals – Gamba – under more relegation pressure! But that surely wouldn’t spread to the feelings of the players!? Although their last three games have been draws, there were two wins preceding those so their five game unbeaten run looks to have given them confidence. Will it be enough today?

Omiya Ardija have pulled off some excellent, and somewhat surprising results recently, after many thought they were dead, buried and J2-bound and are also – like Cerezo – unbeaten in five matches, all be it with four of them draws! Whatever! Every point helps in the battle against relegation but they will struggle to find three points here today. London Olympian HIgashi’s form has suffered since his return from London and big signing Cho has not done it at all this season. If they win this, and escape J2 it will be a miracle, but their fans are used to this!! EXPECT a WIN for CEREZO OSAKA!

Previews

J1 Preview Aug.25th – 19:00 Cerezo Osaka vs Yokohama F.Marinos at Kincho

Leave a comment

Cerezo Osaka have no injuries or suspensions to report.
Yokohama F.Marinos – DF Amano out for the season.

Head to Head – 6 wins for Marinos, 2 for Cerezo and 5 draws, since 2003, all in J1 competition.

Cerezo Osaka looked on course for a win away at Jubilo Iwata before they conceded two late goals to Maeda and took a loss at 4-3. The dynamic duo of defensive midfielders Ogihara and Yamaguchi returned from London 2012 – along with Sugimoto, who had confirmed the end of his loan period at Verdy just before the Olympics – but these players, along with new incoming are yet to gel and they do not have much time to form a team. Having to replace two players of the calibre of Kiyotake and Kim will be hard but the team need 2 or 3 wins in the next month or so to ensure that a team of promising individuals can grow together in J1 next season. They have to start that against a team who have not lost since … can anyone remember?!
Two draws in the last three games have seen Yokohama F.Marinos sustain their unbeaten run but they must feel that they should have taken all three points last week after being up 2-0 over Kawasaki Frontale. Despite having scored only 29 goals in their 22 games, they find themselves in 5th position, poised for a run at an ACL place. To confirm that – or better – they have to win games like this, and they need someone other than Marquinos to share the goal burden. Whatever happened to the promise of Yuji Ono? Oguro will always score goals, but will miss many chances while doing it, and have his dry patches. This game could be one of them. EXPECT a WIN for CEREZO OSAKA!

Previews

J1 Preview Aug.18th – 19:00 Jubilo Iwata vs Cerezo Osaka at Yamaha

Leave a comment

Jubilo Iwata – GK Kawaguchi is out for the season. FW Kanazono is out for at least another two months. MF Matsuoka is out for the season. MF Yamamoto out for a month, DF Cho out for at least another two weeks. FW Han out for a month or so.

Cerezo Osaka – MFs Yamaguchi and Ogihara and FW Sugimoto have returned from Olympic duty.

7 wins for Jubilo, 6 for Cerezo and 2 draws since 2003 – all in J1, of course. Jubilo have never been relegated.

Jubilo are suffering from a long injury list and are starting to tire and drop points when they really would like to be winning games. Influential Korean MF/FW Baek will be back from the Olympics and I feel he is a key man in the machine at Jubilo and may help turn things around for them but they must tighten up their defence – outside the bottom three they have the worst defensive record in J1. Having said that they have scored almost two goals per game on average so expect goals one way or another! They have won just one of the last five, and that was against bottom club Sapporo, and, if they are to stay in touch with the top 3 this is a must win for them.

Cerezo Osaka have been hit from all sides this season and must be wondering what they have to do to keep a fixed team. With Yamaguchi and Ogihara at London 2012 and Kim and Kiyotake shipped out, they have been playing with an entirely new midfield for the last few games and it’s only due to some timely goals from Kakitani that they are not deeper in trouble. The player, who signed with Cerezo before he was ten years old, but then spent the best part of three seasons at Tokushima Vortis developing his game, returned just in time to help the team get over the losses of Kagawa and Inui, and then saw Ienaga, Kim and Kiyotake also leave the team. He is the man to watch, a rising star, but how long will Cerezo be able to hold onto him? Jubilo injuries and players returning to Cerezo will swing it towards a WIN for CEREZO OSAKA!