Match Preview: J1 Week 8, Gamba Osaka vs. FC Tokyo

March 29th 2009, 7PM Kickoff at Expo ’70 “Banpaku” Stadium (Osaka City, Osaka)
J1 Competition Record: Osaka 8 wins, 2 draws, FCT 8 wins

Preview
Short and sweet because it’s Golden Week and I’ve got to pump out 3 or 4 more of these.

Tonight’s match at Banpaku finds both teams struggling; the home team has to play 7 matches in 22 days due to its ACL commitments while FC Tokyo has yet to score more than one goal in any match this season.

I’m going to repeat that because it sounds a little important.  FC Tokyo has yet to score more than one goal in any match this season.  That includes 7 league matches and 2 Nabisco Cup matches for a total of 9 goals in 9 games.  Compare to last season when in 9 games the team scored 14 goals (granted that includes 6 league matches and 3 Nabisco matches, but that’s splitting hairs).  The team has excelled in winning close matches it probably doesn’t deserve to win (see Iwata and Oita) but has set new standards for futility in losing matches everyone was expecting it to win (Chiba, Niigata, etc).

In the battle of the forwards, the big head to head is Yusuke Kondo for Tokyo against Gamba’s own former FCT squadmember Lucas.  Lucas scored in both matches against Tokyo last year (one of which was a draw, the other a win for the blue and red) and has stated his desire for a 3rd in a row.  Yusuke on the other hand has continued to get starts but hasn’t contributed enough in the scoring department to make the case for not being substituted.

If Tokyo can pull off another win in enemy territory, the team might return to Ajinomoto Stadium on Saturday with something resembling momentum.  If not, then the struggle will likely continue.  Tokyo squandered a great start to the 2008 season in last year’s Golden Week Sprint, maybe the team will find solid ground after a shaky start in this year’s.