J1 League
New season for Japan's 1st division. The first couple of matchdays for any league is a bit tricky. Fair amount of attractive play and parity make this an interesting league to follow.
Kawasaki v. Montedio
under 2.5
Kawasaki is a club in transition with a new manager for 2011, Soma, as well as the loss of ntl. squad no. 1 GK Kawashima (Lierse) & North Korean Chong Tese (Bochum) during last season. The high flying attack of the last couple of years will struggle to find the net as often.
Montedio is a club that will again struggle to avoid relegation. They can only hope to score from set pieces. This is club whose style of play is more like an MLS side, unfortunately.
Kashiwa v. Shimizu
Kashiwa 0
Kashiwa dominated J2. Nelsinho has a solid side to work with but may find immediate success like Cerezo from 2010 more elusive. Defensively sound but the Sun Kings may have some difficulty scoring.
Shimizu...well, this club has cleaned house. Losing Okazaki to Stuttgart may have been the last straw. New Iranian-Amer mgr. in Ghotbi, who was an asst. under Hiddink. Who knows what to expect from S-Pulse this year.
New season for Japan's 1st division. The first couple of matchdays for any league is a bit tricky. Fair amount of attractive play and parity make this an interesting league to follow.
Kawasaki v. Montedio
under 2.5
Kawasaki is a club in transition with a new manager for 2011, Soma, as well as the loss of ntl. squad no. 1 GK Kawashima (Lierse) & North Korean Chong Tese (Bochum) during last season. The high flying attack of the last couple of years will struggle to find the net as often.
Montedio is a club that will again struggle to avoid relegation. They can only hope to score from set pieces. This is club whose style of play is more like an MLS side, unfortunately.
Kashiwa v. Shimizu
Kashiwa 0
Kashiwa dominated J2. Nelsinho has a solid side to work with but may find immediate success like Cerezo from 2010 more elusive. Defensively sound but the Sun Kings may have some difficulty scoring.
Shimizu...well, this club has cleaned house. Losing Okazaki to Stuttgart may have been the last straw. New Iranian-Amer mgr. in Ghotbi, who was an asst. under Hiddink. Who knows what to expect from S-Pulse this year.
