Tuesday, January 19, 2010

2010 Opening Games!!

March 3 vs Kataller Toyama (home)

March 14 vs Oita Trinita (away)

For the first time we get a home opener. This time against neighbouring Toyama, who will be a tough first up opponent for (well, they probably all would be!). In the last two seasons we drew 1-1 away to Kofu, and won 1-0 away at Tochigi so we usually start off not too bad. Hopefully we can get that all important first win out of the way in this game. Still not sure where it will be played, Gifu Meadow or in Ichinomiya, but should be a tight game.
The first away game is against the demoted Oita Trinita. I can't miss that one. Will be interesting to see how Oita play in the J2 and what kind of support they'll get. It will also ex-FC Gifu midfielder Takeshi Umeda play against his old club for the first time.
Probably the four must see away games for any Gifu supporter are Oita, Kashiwa, Chiba and the newly promoted Kitakyuushuu. Hopefully, if the schedule is friendly to me, I'll get to all these games this year. Who knows, we may only get one chance to visit them away if they gain promotion at the end of the year.

2 comments:

Stuart said...

A nice home start, with us only playing each team twice it is vitally important to win the home games this year.

As for Oita, I don't think it is a bad time to play them. Their squad has been completely decimated by their financial troubles - 'keeper Nishikawa has gone to Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Mu Kanazaki to Nagoya and the majority of the squad has been replaced with Uni graduates and youth team players. If we can catch them cold while they are still trying to blend as a team, a precious away win might be on the cards!

richy said...

Yeah, could be a good chance.
The result could go either way for Oita though.
Many teams that drop down usually face a rough start only to find their feet later on in the season, although there are some teams that play with expectation on their shoulders and past J1 pride, starting off quickly, only to have everything catch up on them and then they crash halfway through the season.

Anyway, will be fun either way!