National cups are something special for many teams and supporters. Today's match will decide whether it's Sagan Tosu or Kashiwa Reysol that keep their silverware dream alive.
Everyone involved with the away team has to get their travel gear ready for this match as there's a whopping 1100 kilometers to cover before arriving at the match.
There’s little time for restitution or working hard at the training pitch these days, with both teams having played their last game less than four days ago.
Sagan Tosu form and stats
Sagan Tosu was eliminated in the group stage last season in the Ybc Levain Cup.Sagan Tosu have collected seven points from their first three J-League games here at Ekimae Real Estate Stadium, a promising start.
In their previous game, the manager Kawai led his Sagan to a defeat away at Kyoto Sanga. The manager is hoping to put things right immediately here at Ekimae Real Estate Stadium. Midfielder Ono was the best player on the team with a rating of 7.1 (out of ten) in that game. Ono scored one goal and hit one key pass.
Before that game, the 5-0 home victory against Consadole Sapporo.This is expected to be a close game, with Sagan Tosu perhaps considered small favourites due to their home advantage. Looking back at earlier matches similar to this one (expected to be close with Sagan Tosu as a small favourite), we find 14 games. Sagan Tosu has won four of these, drawn five and lost five.
There's a new fixture coming up fairly quickly for Sagan, as the J-League home game vs Shimizu S-Pulse is only four days away.
The Sagan Tosu manager Kawai has got the team scoring with 7 from 3 home games in the league. Sagan Tosu have showed great defending skills in these home games, allowing the opposition to score only 1 goal.
Kashiwa Reysol form and stats
Kashiwa Reysol was sent out of Ybc Levain Cup in the group stage last season.2-1-2 is the win-draw-loss statistic for Kashiwa Reysol in their J-League matches away.
There might be some fixture complaints from Kashiwa as they are again playing away from home after losing on the road in their previous match, 0-1 against Kawasaki Frontale. Koga, who plays in defense, got the "man of the match" on his team with the rating 7.35. Koga won 7 of 10 duels.
Before that one, a nice away victory 1-0 at Cerezo Osaka.As mentioned above, this is an open game with no clear favourite. We have found ten similar matches played by Kashiwa Reysol in our archives, and the results are: seven wins for Kashiwa Reysol, two draws and one defeat.
A quick return to home after this game, as Kashiwa Reysol are hosting Kyoto Sanga in the J-League only four days away.
Many goals are not expected from the visiting Kashiwa as they have only managed to score 4 times from 5 away games in the league. It's not easy to score on Kashiwa Reysol as they have only conceded 3 goals from these away games.
Head 2 Head
It's not the first time these parties get together this season, as the history books show this recent match: Kashiwa Reysol - Sagan Tosu 1-1. Previous ten meetings with these squads: Sagan won six, Kashiwa Reysol were winners in one and we saw three draws. four games with more than 2,5 goals, six matches with less than 2,5 goals.Top Goalscorers
  Y. Kakita 3 goals |  M. Gonçalves Sávio 3 goals | M. Hosoya 3 goals |
Sagan Tosu missing players
Kashiwa Reysol missing players
| Sagan Tosu | Kashiwa Reysol | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 11 | Played | P | 14 | 25 | ||
| 7 | 5 | Won | W | 6 | 11 | ||
| 10 | 4 | Drew | D | 2 | 5 | ||
| 8 | 2 | Lost | L | 6 | 9 | ||
| 24 | 16 | Scored | S | 12 | 27 | ||
| 28 | 12 | Conceded | C | 16 | 29 | ||
| 80% | 91% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 100% | 96% | ||
| 60% | 73% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 50% | 60% | ||
| 40% | 45% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 21% | 32% | ||
| 24% | 36% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 14% | 20% | ||
| 4% | 9% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 7% | 12% | ||
| 40% | 45% | BTTS | BTTS | 36% | 44% | ||
| 36% | 36% | Clean Sheets | C S | 43% | 40% | ||
| 44% | 27% | Failed to Score | F T | 21% | 20% | ||
| 4.5 | 3.6 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 3.9 | 4.2 | ||
| 3.6 | 3.8 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 5.2 | 4.8 | ||
| 0.8 | 0.7 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 1.5 | 1.1 | ||
| 1 | 1 | Red cards | R C | 0 | 0 | ||
| 9.9 | 11.4 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 8.6 | 9.4 | ||
| 3.6 | 3.8 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 3.2 | 3.7 | ||
| 27% | 38% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 27% | 29% | ||
| 10.2 | 10.1 | Shots against (avg) | S A | 8.9 | 8.8 | ||
| 4 | 3.8 | Shots on Target against (avg) | S O | 3.7 | 3.7 | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Consadole Sapporo | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| 2 | Kyoto Sanga | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| 3 | Kashiwa Reysol | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 2 |
| 4 | Sagan Tosu | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 2 |
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Kawasaki Frontale | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 15 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 7 | 3 | 20 |
| 2 | Yokohama F. Marinos | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 11 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 18 |
| 3 | Kashima Antlers | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 18 |
| 4 | Kashiwa Reysol | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 16 |
| 5 | Tokyo | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 13 |
| 6 | Cerezo Osaka | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 12 |
| 7 | Kyoto Sanga | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
| 8 | Sanfrecce Hiroshima | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
| 9 | Sagan Tosu | 8 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 11 |
| 10 | Urawa Reds | 10 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 10 |
| 11 | Gamba Osaka | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 10 |
| 12 | Consadole Sapporo | 8 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 8 | -3 | 9 |
| 13 | Nagoya Grampus | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | -2 | 8 |
| 14 | Avispa Fukuoka | 8 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -2 | 7 |
| 15 | Júbilo Iwata | 8 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 8 | -3 | 7 |
| 16 | Shimizu S-Pulse | 8 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -4 | 7 |
| 17 | Vissel Kobe | 10 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 16 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 | -11 | 4 |
| 18 | Shonan Bellmare | 8 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 | -7 | 3 |
