Flying Foot of Osaka will face Urawa Red Diamonds at home in the first leg of the J-League Cup Round of 8. Flying Foot's defense is unstable, and they have been conceding in every match recently, but Red Diamond, the "pioneer" of the game, will give the visitors the first goal, so we are going to bet on Red Diamond to be the "first team to score". (Wednesday 6pm kickoff)
Flying Foot's record is quite fluctuating, winning 3 out of their last 7 matches, including warm-up matches, mainly due to their defense, which has not been able to keep a clean sheet in all 7 matches, conceding a total of 13 goals, including a recent league match in which they conceded a total of 4 goals to Gonzaga Sapporo of Hokkaido. In the last 4 matches alone, Flying Foot have conceded in 3 of them, and even if we only take into account this year's JLF Cup, only 2 of their 6 matches have been clean sheets, so the defense is weak.
On the other hand, the Red Diamonds are back in form, with three wins, one draw and one loss in their last five matches in all competitions, including qualifying for the group stage of the AFC Champions League and defeating top-ranked Nagoya Whalers in the league, which has boosted the confidence of the players. The Red Diamonds are good at getting off to a good start, and they've started all five of their matches first, four of which they took the lead in the first half, so they're playing a very aggressive style of play, trying to stabilize the team with an early lead.
