Shonan Bellmare will be taking on Urawa Red Diamonds for their first game in the J1 League. Shonan Bellmare will be looking to bounce back from last season after nearly getting off the relegation hook. Meanwhile, Urawa Reds is on the back off an underwhelming season as they finished 14th in the league the last time around. With both teams going through a poor run of form in the previous edition of the J1 League, Shonan Bellmare and Urawa Red Diamonds will be keen on starting the new season with maximum points.
Match Details
Date- Friday, February 21
Kick-Off- 4:00 PM (IST)
Venue- Shonan BMW Stadium Hiratsuka
Shonan Bellmare
Head coach Bin Ukishima will be pleased with his sides win in the J-League Cup last week as they went past Oita Trinita by a goal and kept a clean sheet which adds further confidence in the dressing room. Mitsuki Saito will be key in the midfield region along with recent signing Tarik Rlyounoussi.
Urawa Red Diamonds
The signing of the 22-year-old Leonardo from Albrirex Niigata can make a huge impact for the Diamonds throughout the season. Similar to Shonan Bellmare, Urawa Red Diamonds are also on the back of a 5-2 win over Vegalta Sendai in the cup competition, as Leonardo scored a brace on his debut. The Red Diamonds could only score 34 goals from 34 games last season but it seems like more goals will be netted this time around.
Shonan Bellmare
Squad- D Tomii, M Goto, K Tani, D Hotta K Tachi, K Oiwa, K Saka, K Ono, K Mawatari, H Ishihara, S Mori, T Hata, M Saito, A Barada, T Matsuda, H Miyuki, A Fukuta, D Kaneko, S Shibata, T Okamoto, S Kobayashi, T Suzuki, T Umesaki, H Nakagawa, N Yamada, Leleu, T Elyounoussi, Y Iwasaki, H Ibusuki, N Ishihahara, Y Ohashi
Urawa Red Diamonds
Squad- S Nishikawa, H Fukushima, Z Suzuki, R Ishii, T Makino, M Antonio, T Iwanami, T Deng, D Suzuki, R Yamanaka, T Ogiwara, D Hashioka, K Iwatake, H Takeda, T Aoki, K Shibato, Y Abe, Ewerton, T Sekine, T Ugajin, K Yuruki, Y Kashiwagi, K Nagasawa, R Ito, Q Martinus, Y Mutu, K Taketomi, Fabricio, S Koroki, K Sugimoto, Leorardo
Leonardo will be an absolute asset on the foraward line for Urawa Red Diamonds. Niigata has scored 28 goals in J2 League and 24 goals in the J3 league in the last two seasons.
Tarik Elyounoussi can pack a punch on the attack for Shonan Bellmare. Elyonoussi scored 19 goals from 52 appearances for Swedish club AIK last season.
Mitsuki Saito’s presence in midfield can be pivotal in terms of chance creation for Shonan Bellmare.
Goalkeeper: Tomii
Defenders: Oiwa, Suzuki, Hashioka
Midfielders: Fukuta, Elyounoussi, Kashiwagi, Martinus
Forwards: Iwasaki (VC) Leonard (C), Sugimoto