All that matters now

Right now to me all that matters is for the Reds to stay in the J1 in 2012. You know what I don't care how we do it! (Legally of cause...) This past weekend I must admit, I was cheering for the team in blue to defeat Kofu. No I'm not proud of it, but right now I must do what I need to do. Even if that means cheering for the team that defeated us 3-0 in our last league game over three weeks ago. Desperate times calls for desperate measures I guess.

The only other game that I was paying extra close attention to over the weekend was our own match against Sendai. The ideal result would have been a win, which would have almost certainly "secured" our J1 status for next year. But "WE ARE REDS" and we don't make things easy do we? The final result against Sendai was a nil-all draw, so couple that with Kofu's lost, it places us 3 points above the drop zone with two games left as well as a superior goal difference. It should be enough, but if any team can screw this up, yep that would be us. Sorry for any new Urawa Red Diamond fans out there, but that is the honest truth!

The match against Sendai was a scrappy affair, partly due to the rain which was bucketing down. Again though, like throughout 2011 it has been our ability to score goals that let us down. Things just aren't clicking on all cylinders. I wish I can say that things have improved enough during Hori's reign, but things just don't seem to come together in our attack. It just seems as though no ones on the same page. The thing that is hurting us the most though is our ability to score goals, more specifically we lack a striker who can score goals (I think you all should know this by now...)

The defence on the other hand has been solid 2011 and was solid against Sendai, but why is Tsuboi playing ahead of Spiranovic? Yes Tsuboi had a good outing for the Reds, but is the writing on the wall for Spiranovic or does he have ambitions to return to Europe during the January transfer window? Being an Aussie Red's fan, I do hope he stays, but for him to maintain his place in the Soccerroos' squad he would need playing time.

This is how we lined up against Sendai

GK: Kato

DF: Hirakawa, Nagata, Tsuboi, Noda

MF: Keita, Umesaki, Richardes, Kashiwagi, Haraguchi
FW: Sergio

Subs

73min Sergio > Tanaka

86min Umesaki > Hara

Onto the other game we had this past week, we did defeat Tokyo Verdy to advance in the Emperors' cup. Besides our J1 survival, I think winning the Emperors' Cup should be our focus for the remainder on this campaign. J2 side Ehime FC is who we will face in the 4th round of the Emperors' cup, so I'm fairly confident we can progress even though yes I know that a few years ago they knocked us out of the Emperors' Cup. Hopefully history doesn't repeat itself!

In our last two league games we play the bottom side Fukuoka away followed our showdown @ Saitama against Kashiwa; where they are fighting for the title and we are fighting for our J1 status. If you didn't know, you would have thought it was us in the J2 last season!

WE ARE REDS!