My big mistake last week in J-League was leaving out FC Tokyo, after
following them for several weeks, notes from their home game with
Vegalta Sendai are reproduced below the" good luck " sign off, they won
that 3-0 and followed up last week when Shimizu came a calling, 4-0. In
both they were three up at the break and could step off the gas in the
second period. My reason for not backing them last week was down to
value (they were very short in the betting) and also because of the low
percentage of home wins this season, something we discussed last week
.....
Goals
are still hanging around the 2.45 pg mark and home wins are almost at
an all time low for this stage of the season at 35.29%, this is between
6.5% and 10% lower for each of the last five seasons at the midway
point. Those numbers are , of course, not unrelated and if there are
fewer home wins, we can expect fewer goals and vice versa, but is this
just a blip and can we expect more of both in the second half of the
campaign, or will the trend continue ?
At the moment, I am still leaning towards the former, but with current numbers, more action traditionally taking place after the break and only an average of 3 matches per round ending in home wins, I think we should be very wary of taking low pre match odds about any home team.
Our regular contributor FCT coach Massimo Ficcadenti (pictured) said :
"The first half was very similar to the first half of the game against
Vegalta Sendai last week in that it was a near flawless performance. We
denied the opposition space almost entirely, kept a compact shape yet
attacked aggressively and pressed hard despite the extreme heat. We
showed great quality in the chances we created and it was very pleasing
to score three times. After we scored the fourth goal the opposition had
a couple of dangerous counter attacks and shots from distance but it
was our game overall. I'm very satisfied with the bravery and confidence
the players are showing right now and want it to continue".
Key Stat: Cerezo are unbeaten at home in the FH ( 3-6-0), FCT are unbeaten on the road (2-6-0), good chance for a first half draw I suppose, encouragingly for us, the hosts have not won one of those six draws after the break and dropped points in two of the three in which they led !