Fresh off the club's biggest-ever home win, a 5-0 battering of Kumamoto, FC Tokyo head down to Kyushu for the third time in eight weeks tomorrow, to face the surprise of the J2 season, fifth-placed Kitakyushu. The second-year club have shocked the world (well, maybe not quite) with their dogged performances thus far, and after 17 games sit in fifth, having almost doubled their points tally from their debut season (27 pts in '11 compared to 15 in all of '10).
This is the first game of a run of four of five away for The Gasmen, a potentially crucial period of the season that will take us beyond the halfway mark, and if we can tread water and at least stay in the top three during this stretch then our promotion push will be set up nicely.
US
We have the chance to break or match a couple of club records in this game:
- Consecutive league clean sheets - we equalled this mark (five, set in both 1999 & 2003) against Kumamoto, so Hitoshi Shiota will set a new record with another clean sheet here;
- Longest in-season league unbeaten run - we will match the longest run in club history with a win or draw, the record was set in the final 12 games of 2005.
No change (surprise, surprise!) |
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and Mr. Okuma will select the same XI for the eighth consecutive game here, provided Yuhei Tokunaga's niggling leg injury is ok.
Our 11-game unbeaten stretch, that began after the 2-1 loss at Kusatsu, has coincided with the number of consecutive starts for Roberto Cesar, Naotake Hanyu and Sotan Tanabe, and those three have developed an excellent rapport in our attacking third, as Kumamoto can attest after they tore the visitors to shreds last Sunday evening.
Tomokazu Nagira made his first appearance in red and blue last weekend, five minutes off the bench, and he's likely to keep his spot in the squad for this game with Jade North having just returned to training this Tuesday. North is a good bet to make the 18 for Gifu away a week on Sunday.