Oitans 11

Oh god.......I've been waiting 3 years to unleash that stupid title and today is the day! Huzzah!

Anyhow, Verdy demolished a quickly sinking Consadole side 3-1. The scoring started early when Leandro finally got his name in the books with a goal. The two Brazilians, Diego and Hulk also chipped in goals to build a big lead before Claiton stole one back.

The mean green outshot their promotion brethren 25-4. Actually this has been a pattern for Consadole with games of 20-6 (versus Urawa in a 4-2 loss) and 20-4 (against Kyoto in a 1-0 defeat). To be fair to the little birds from the north, they have had a schedule which has taken them from Sapporo to Urawa, Urawa down to Kyoto, and back up to Sapporo in the span of 10 days. Compare that with a team like FC Tokyo, whose farthest trip was a two hour train ride down to Shizuoka during the 10 day span and you can see why some teams look much better than others. It also probably has to do with talent and management as well, but the schedule has done Sapporo no favors.

Speaking of favors, Verdy gets to now travel to the lowest depths of J hell when they venture to take on the malformed tortoises of Kyuushu, Oita Trinita. For their part, Oita followed up a home win against Yokohama F Marinos with ummm nothing. They had the holiday off because the team they play (Gamba?) will take part in a death match in the ACL. Oita has been one of the more, shall we say, physical teams in the J league and it's worked for them......especially at home. Look for them to smack a couple people in the pie hole before it's all said and done. MF Muu Kanazaki has been really good for Oita and they seem to play their best in front of the home mongrels so this one is gonna be very tough. Add to that the absence of central defender Daisuke Nasu (due to yellow accumulation) and we could see some big scoring in this one.

Hulk has to get off early and not let the antics of Hobert or Edmilson get him into some stupid cards. That will be the key to the game.