Kashima Antlers

Today’s featured game is the J-League encounter between giants Kashima Antlers and Kawasaki Frontale. In recent years, Kawasaki Frontale have become a much more consistent threat to the giants of Japanese football and this year is no exception so we should see a good game here today, hence the good odds.

However, my interest lies in the home win today. Kashima Antlers are the best side in the country, in my opinion, and I expect them to win the J-League. They’ve not been as prolific at home as they should be but four wins and one draw from five home games this season is not a bad record at all, particularly having only conceded twice during that run. They don’t even have a massively convincing record at home to Kawasaki Frontale, which is understandable, but also aids my bet odds-wise. They do always score at home to Frontale and they tend to play out some great games so going over 2.5 goals looks worthy of consideration too. Kashima scored twice in this fixture last season but failed to win the game. Not only does that tell me that they’re capable of beating the handicap today from a goalscoring perspective but also that they will want revenge for the result.

What sways me towards the home win (as well as the handicap) is the fact that Kawasaki Frontale are still supposedly missing Renatinho. Without him, they just don’t score goals, as was exemplified in their poor 0-0 draw at home to lowly Omiya Ardija last match. They’re still a good side in essence but it’s like they miss a limb without him playing. He’s their leading goalscorer with seven goals so his absence is naturally noticeable. One statistic that Kawasaki Frontale like to gloss over by scoring a lot of goals is that they’re poor in defence. Despite being fourth in the table, they’ve leaked more goals than every J-League side barring the bottom two clubs, which are Kyoto Sanga and newly-promoted Shonan Bellmare respectively. However, one statistic that they cannot escape is that nobody in the J-League can match how many goals they’ve leaked this season – a total of sixteen conceded in six games, which is an average of nearly three goals per away game! They’ve won two out of their six away games during that time and lost three of them but it’s a miracle that they’ve not lost more, really! The only way that they take points on the road is by outscoring their opponents – how are they going to do that without Renatinho? That’s the question that is ever-present in my mind for this game.

Summarised – Kashima Antlers are the better side and have a great chance to prove it, as well as take revenge for last season’s defeat against their opponents today. Kawasaki are horrendous defensively, particularly on the road, and they could be on the receiving end of a heavy defeat today unless they put in a miraculous display. I like the home win an awful lot here but I’d only endorse the handicap if Renatinho does indeed miss the game. Either way, there are some great odds on this game today, in my opinion!

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