Marino did indeed get back on track in midweek with a 5-1 beating of Yamaguchi ahead of which my notes included.....

 

Marinos will be desperate for a win and redemption after that frightful 6-2 defeat at Sanfrecce Hiroshima at the weekend, the numbers suggest that was flattering to the league leaders, but it came on the back of a 7-3 drubbing in Korea in their Champions League opener last midweek.  That was also statistically unfair, but to give up 13 goals in 180+ minutes of football and from 5 BC's doesn't say much about Marinos ability to defend, but we already know that about them. They have kept just one clean sheet in 17 starts, giving up 2+ goals in 11 of those. However, they have also scored in the last 13 in that sequence, 2+ in 10 , 3+ in 7 and that includes a 3-2 win at Nagasaki in the last round of this competition against another second tier team (like they face today).

 

It was an odd game as both scored early and each had a player sent off and the two teams went in 1-1 at the break, but this is Marinos and the goals can come at any time and quickly and, at either end of the pitch, basically, they are a fun watch and good for betting purposes.

 

FC Tokyo are three points ahead of Marinos having played a game more, so if the hosts are still looking for top 4, then the same has to apply to the visitors who have won as many games and scored more goals on the road as they have in the capital. I spoke prior to the start of the season about FCT likely to pose a big offensive threat and to be honest, they haven't, but all things come to he who waits and they have scored 8 goals in their last three starts and all were impressive to some degree, they lost 3-2 at Sanfrecce, which compares favourably to Marinos result there, beat up on Nagoya Grampus 4-1 and then won 2-0 at Urawa Reds and they have had a free midweek to rest up, recover and prepare and it is a short journey down to Yokohama (40 minutes).

 

1.75 units Yokohama F.Marinos to win and both teams to score @ 3.27 asian line.............. just too hard to pass at those odds (7 of Marinos last 8 wins have come with BTS)

 

But they have also conceded 2+ in 4 from 5 starts and good value too with ....1.75 units FC Tokyo to score "over" 1.5 goals @ 2.29 asian line.

 

3-2 will do nicely!

 

 

	14		Kyoto Sanga	30	10	8	12	37	48	-11	38	XWWW	14	3	4	7	18	27	16	7	4	5	19	21
	15		Kawasaki Frontale	30	9	10	11	45	44	+1	37	LWLL	15	6	5	4	26	18	15	3	5	7	19	26
	16		Kashiwa Reysol	30	8	10	12	34	44	-10	34	OLLL	15	4	4	7	16	22	15	4	6	5	18	22
	17		Shonan Bellmare	31	8	8	15	41	48	-7	32	LLWL	15	3	3	9	19	21	16	5	5	6	22	27
	18		Jubilo Iwata	30	8	8	14	36	49	-13	32	OWLL	15	5	4	6	17	18	15	3	4	8	19	31
	19		Consadole Sapporo	31	6	8	17	34	57	-23	26	OLWW	16	4	4	8	19	24	15	2	4	9	15	33
	20		Sagan Tosu	31	7	3	21	38	62	-24	24	LLLL	15	4	2	9	21	26	16	3	1	12	17	36

 

Kyoto have joined Consadole and Marinos recently as clubgowi regulars and have been on a great run, scoring for fun, started to pull away from the drop zone and are also in the Emperor's Cup semi finals, they featured twice last week, the second of which was a home game with Gamba Osaka .....

 

 

They drew that 2-2 which was ideal for our purposes, but they did give up a lot of chances ( 2.5 xGA, 7 BC's, 15 attempts ITB and 44 TIPA), those are all very big numbers, especially to a road team in this league and they now travel all the way up to a very hungry Sapporo, whom I have also been championing for many weeks.

 

The hosts have not scored in two games, but the second was a 0-0 draw at title chasing Machida Zelvia and that has to be seen as a great result and ahead of that I noted ....

 

The Consadole bubble burst last week with that 2-0 home defeat to Tokyo Verdy, however,they have been in such good form and so potent offensively, that I am prepared to just put that down as a bad day at the office and in fairness, not much went their way. They were forced into a change due to an injury inside the first 10 minutes and dominated the first half, but Verdy are not the type of team to be chasing against and once the visitors took the lead approaching the hour mark, it was a different game.

 

Today should be a very different contest to those two and both teams should get chances, but looking at the table and with just three home games remaining, this feels huge for Consadole. They have won the last four h2h meetings as host scoring 10 goals and there were signs last week that perhaps Sanga are starting to tire after an intense run of games and they are 1,400 km from home in a stadium where they traditionally struggle.

 

2 units Consadole Sapporo to score "over" 1.5 goals @ 2.31 asian line, they will surely need two to win this, best alternative and it was difficult to pick between the two options was -0.5 ball @ circa 2.80

 

Good luck!