Two teams at the opposing ends of the J1 League table will meet on Sunday when Yokohama FC play host to fifth-placed Urawa Red Diamonds.
While the visitors are thriving at the moment, the hosts are not able to say the same as they head into this match in the relegation zone at the bottom of the division.
Match preview
Yokohama FC have had a very difficult start to the campaign, which has seen them win just three out of 16 games to this point which has left them in 18th place.
A major reason for that has been their poor defensive performances with no team having conceded more goals at this stage after letting in 35 goals.
That is something that Shuhei Yomoda will be aiming to change this weekend as he continues to push his men to strengthen that aspect of their game in order to start progressing up the division.
While things have been hard for Yokohama FC, the team have managed to stay close to those just above them, and that is why a victory this weekend could potentially get them out of the relegation zone.
They will likely take confidence from the fact that they have been slightly stronger in form at home as well this season.
However, the visitors have only lost two away games in the J1 League at this point, and more impressively they have only conceded five goals across their eight games on the road.
That strong defensive unit will be hopeful of securing another clean sheet this weekend as they face a team that have struggled to find the back of the net so far.
Urawa Red Diamonds currently sit fifth in the division, but a win could see them leapfrog the team directly above into fourth place if other results go in their favour.
The visitors are undefeated in their past seven matches in all competitions, and that impressive run has led to some confident displays from the team.
With four clean sheets across that period, Urawa Red Diamonds should have the belief that they can replicate that and pick up three points.
Team News
The hosts are in a desperate need to improve their fortunes and that could result in plenty of changes this weekend as tweaks could be the answer to their early season problems.
Yuri Lara could be a player that gets called upon to be placed into the midfield from the start simply to provide a little more balance to the team.
Given how strong the visitors have been defensively as of late, it is unlikely that any changes will be getting made to the back four that featured in their most recent J1 League match.
Across the entire team there could be no changes for the Red Diamonds, simply to continue the impressive momentum they have shown.
Yokohama FC possible starting lineup:
Brodersen; Yoshino, Iwatake, Moraes; Hayashi, Lara, Milta, Takeda; Pinto, Sakamoto; Ryan
Urawa Red Diamonds possible starting lineup:
Nishikawa; Sakai, Scholz, Hobraten, Akimoto; Ito, Yasui; Okubo, Sekine, Linssen; Karlsson
We say: Yokohama FC 0-2 Urawa Red Diamonds
Considering the strong defensive performances of Urawa Red Diamonds this season, they should have a lot of belief that they can keep a clean sheet this weekend against the bottom of the league.
While Yokohama FC are going to push their opponents all the way due to the situation they find themselves in, this is likely going to be a tough test.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
