The 2022 JFL season is now in its final week, and after this week's matches, the Japanese soccer world will enter a break to prepare for the final week of the Qatar World Cup, which starts on November 20th. Although it's the last week of the season, the J-League is still full of suspense in terms of both the championship and relegation, so today we'll look at the J-League's final situation.
Yokohama Mariners, Kawasaki Frontale fight for the ultimate bidding position
Kawasaki Strikers and Yokohama Mariners, the runners-up in the 2021 season, are once again on the wrong side of each other, and will have to fight it out until the last week of the season to find out who the champion will be. The Yokohama Mariners have been at the top of the table all season, and at one point they were 8 points ahead of the Kawasaki Frontale, but when the title was on the line, the Yokohama Mariners lost to relegation contenders Flying Foot of Osaka and Iwata Yamaha, and the lead was wiped out in one fell swoop. The good news is that the Yokohama Mariners finally got back on track in the last round of matches, beating Urawa Red Diamonds 4-1 at home to maintain their two-point lead at the top of the table.
Kawasaki Strikers, who are striving for a third consecutive title, have lost key players such as Tanaka Bea, Kaoru Mitaka, and Reio Hatate, but still managed to maintain their dominant position. This year, most of the team's key players remain in the team, and there are also high hopes for Thailand's number one player Chai Nadip Sangsing (Chai Nadip) to join the team. However, Kawasaki's performance has been on the decline since the start of the season, and after playing in the AFC Champions League in the middle of the season and being plagued by injuries, the team's chances of competing for the title were cut short for a while, but fortunately the team recovered in the late stages of the season and eventually recovered to only a two-point gap.
The Yokohama Mariners will visit fading rivals Kobe Marinos this week, while Kawasaki Frontale will visit FC Tokyo. The Yokohama Mariners are 11 goals ahead of the Kawasaki Strikers in terms of goal difference, and the latter have no chance of regaining the lead, so Yokohama Mariners will be able to seal the deal if they don't lose against Kobe this week, which is a slightly better situation. Kawasaki's Akio Taniguchi and Yoshinori Yamane have already been selected for the World Cup in Japan, so let's see if the team can make a miracle out of their good fortune!
Sango Hiroshima Sanfrecce's AFC Championship spot in doubt
Although Sanfrecce lost in the last round of the league, due to the failure of fourth-placed Sakura Osaka to win, Sanfrecce managed to stay in the third place at the end of the season, and together with the previous League Cup winners and Emperor Cup runners-up, this season can be considered to be a fruitful one for Sanfrecce.
In the past, the third-place finishers in the Nippon Professional Football League (NPFL) have been able to qualify for the AFC Champions League (AFC Cup) qualifying rounds, but the AFC will reserve one of the spots for the defending champions starting from the next edition of the AFC Champions League, so Sanfrecce Hiroshima's participation in the next edition of the AFC Champions League is still dependent on Urawa Red Diamonds winning the AFC Champions League final in the coming year, and if they fail to do so, Sanfrecce Hiroshima could return to the Asian stage in the near future.
Confusion over relegation protection, Shimizu heartbeat fights for survival
In terms of relegation, the bottom two teams in the JLF will be directly relegated, while the bottom three teams will have to compete with the winners of the JB promotion play-offs in the play-offs for relegation. Therefore, apart from the bottom team, Iwata Yamaiba, who is certain to be relegated, the bottom two to six teams are not yet out of the woods yet, and the relegation protection situation in the last week can be expected to be quite exciting.
Shonan Bima, who is in the bottom six, has 3 points more than Kyoto Budaiko, who is in the bottom three, and as long as they don't lose, they can avoid the threat of the play-offs in their last week's visit to Kashiwa Reysol.
As for the bottom five, Fukuoka Hornets have one point less than Shonan Bima and have already avoided direct relegation, but the team does not have an advantage in terms of goals scored or conceded. If they lose a point to Urawa Red Diamonds this week, and if Kyoto Indomitable and Osaka Flyers both win at the same time, they will fall to the bottom three to fight for the play-offs, so they can't be sure of a place in the top six this week.
Shizuoka City is a city of sadness at all times.
After a disappointing season, Flying Eyeballs Osaka beat Iwata Yamaha 2-0 in their last home game, with Paul Endo as their first guest, to move up to the bottom four and drop their rivals to the second division of the Nippon B. The team has a very tough game against Kashima Antlers in the last week. Fortunately, Osaka has a three-point gap with Shimizu S Pulse, which is in the bottom two, so if they can get one more point this week, they can definitely avoid relegation, so the pressure is relatively small.
The last three of the Kyoto Budapest is this season's promotion horse, the performance is mediocre is not surprising, the team can only be home last week and Sakura Osaka stalemate on the protection of relegation situation is not helpful; Budapest this week, Iwata Yamaha has a clear goal, as long as the win will certainly not directly relegated, and can always be pushed back to Osaka Hida foot or even the Department of Fukuoka Hornets to avoid the play-offs, so the most important thing is to do well in the first win in the first week of the Kyoto Budapest! Therefore, the most important thing for Kyoto Budapest this week is to do their part in winning the match.
Shizuoka Prefecture team Iwata Yamaha has been relegated, and Shimizu S Pulse, also from Shizuoka Prefecture, is in a tough situation. With 33 points, they are 2 points behind Kyoto Budokujin, who are in the bottom 3, and Osaka Flyers, who are in the bottom 4. Therefore, this week's visit to Gonzaga Sapporo, Hokkaido, is not only a win for the team itself, but also a loss of points for Kyoto Budokujin and Osaka Flyers, so that the team can avoid relegation and look at the candidates for the World Cup! It will also be interesting to see if goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda, who has been selected for the World Cup in Japan, can lead the team to create a miracle!
As you can see from the above, this week's Nippon Professional Football League (NPFL) Fury Week is still full of topics, and it is definitely worthwhile for the fans to watch it till the end; besides Akira Taniguchi, Sirai Yamane, and Shuichi Gonda, Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo), Hiroki Sakai (Urawa Red Diamonds), and Isamu Soma (Nagoya Whale) are also included in the Japan World Cup squad, so if you would like to see how their form is, just remember to keep an eye out for this week's matches!
This week's JLF live streaming schedule:
November 5, 2:00 pm: Kobe Marinos vs. Yokohama Marinos Cable TV 602/662
November 5, 2:00 pm FC Tokyo vs Kawasaki Frontale Cable 604/664
#November 5, 3:00 p.m. Osaka Sakura vs. Nagoya Whale Cable 602/662
#November 5, 7:00 p.m. Hokkaido Sapporo Gonzaga vs. Shimizu Heartbeat Cable 602/662
