Omiya Ardija welcome JEF United in round 13 of the J2. It took quite some time for Omiya to adapt to the new enviroment after being relegated from J1 but they look competent now. After 12 rounds Omiya has 5-2-5 and 17 points and are placed 10`th. At home Omiya has 3-2-1 and for sure looked better than away. From the last 3 matches Omiya took 9 points and made a nice match away against the first Oita. They won by 2:1 though the results was maybe to nice for Omiya as the win came from a big keeper mistake. Still a win against first Oita, third Avispa and a draw with the second Okayama show that the team is very much capable of getting to the direct promotion place. They have the second market value in the league and they have bought some potential game changing players. Simovic will for sure be the biggest threat coming from Nagoya after a great last season. Then there is also Caue from Moreirense, Mikado from Fukuoka and Toscano from Jeju.
JEF has spent some money and in fact have the biggest market value and some quality players but they are not showing it. They seem rock steady at home but to fragile when traveling. In fact JEF has conceded by far the most away goal this season -17. With only 5 goals scored in 6 away matches it maked for an unpleasant reading. So they are currently 16`th with 14 points and have 0-1-5 on away ground. The away loses came against Avispa, Oita, Tokushima, Kanazawa and Tokyo with the only draw was taken against 18`th Kofu. In all those loses JEF has conceded at least twice and mostly 3 or more goals.
The home side will be missing Daisuke Watabe (def.8-0), Nobuhiro Kato (keeper0-0), Shin Kanazawa (mid.0-0) while JEF is without Koki Honda (mid.0-0).
I see Omiya continue to rise up the table.