[igor5]

Another Absolute Must-Win Game - Kofu Preview
Another Saturday and another critical J1 fixture looms for struggling Omiya Ardija. And if Robert Verbeek's team are to stay in the top flight for another season, it is home games against the likes of Ventforet Kofu that simply must be won.

Last week saw a Squirrels XI missing arguably its four best players commit the heinous crime not of losing their clash with JEF United - it is not this as such that disappointed the travelling fans so much - but of appearing unforgivably disorganised and lacking in commitment.

Clearly, one does not need to field one's strongest team at least to make a decent attempt to win a match, but even these fundamental characteristics appeared to be missing from the eleven players selected by coach Verbeek. The Ardija supporters will therefore be hoping that two things have occurred during the intervening few days, which perhaps thankfully have not included a Nabisco Cup game in the schedule.

Firstly, that Kota Yoshihara and Daigo Kobayashi may at last be showing some signs of returning to fitness. Omiya may have gained their solitary J-League win without 2006 star Daigo and an apparently invigorated Yoshihara, but the side are now looking increasingly threadbare and lacking in focus without them.

Secondly, that Verbeek himself will have managed to instil in his players a sense of fighting spirit and engagement with the task in hand. It comes as something of a shock to have to write these words, given that shortly prior to his arrival in Japan the Dutchman was described in some quarters as being a clear-thinking and even aggressive coach in terms of communicating what he expected from the squad.

Nevertheless, it would appear as if an injection of urgency and passion is what is required to get to grips with a Ventforet Kofu side who have themselves started to turn around a poor start and have gone on to score nine goals in the last three matches. Following the loss to big guns Gamba Osaka of main striker Bare in the close season, many fans wondered where Kofu might get their goals and the answer has come from the slightly unexpected source of midfielder Takehito Shigehara.

The ex-Kashiwa Reysol man has found the net four times thus far - one more, of course, than the entire Ardija team - and so finds himself in third place in the Top Scorer list. But despite Bare's departure, Kofu have a workrate that has enabled them to record results like last week's 3-2 defeat of erstwhile leaders Kashiwa, with Kazunari Hosaka scoring twice in the last six minutes to claim the three points. What Ardija wouldn't give for some such never-say-die spirit.

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