March 9th will serve us with a match between Jubilo Iwata and Oita Trinita, which will take place in the 3rd round of J-League and will be played at Yamaha Stadium, Iwata.
Jubilo Iwata are coming into this match with 2 league draws and a YBC Levain Cup win behind them. In the opening two rounds of J-League, Jubilo Iwata were faced off against Yamaga and Hiroshima. The opening match against Yamaga ended with only 1 goal per side, despite a total of 30 goal attempts from both teams combined. The next fixture against Hiroshima ended scoreless, despite Jubilo Iwata being the more active side in the offensive end. They accumulated 11 goal attempts and 5 shots on goal but failed to utilize any of them. All in all, the results Iwata put up this season are not impressive, and I do believe they will end up as one of the relegation zone candidates if they do not improve. As for their Cup match, Iwata managed to win against G-Osaka (0:1), which should give them some morale boost as they await Oita at home ground.
Oita Trinita on the other side sit at 7th place in the league with a win and a defeat behind them. In the opening match of the season, Oita defeated Kashima (1:2) but failed to perform up to par against Yamaga on March 2nd, when they were defeated (0:1). They, however, managed to bounce back with an impressive win against C-Osaka. While I was impressed by their 1:2 win against Kashima, Oita showed their real colors in the 2nd league match when they were powerless against Yamaga. Much like Jubilo Iwata, I am not to impressed by Oita and their performances, despite holding a 2-0-1 record in all competitions.
Iwata will enter the match without Moriyy, while Oita Trinita will only miss Tone.
I have expressed my opinion about these two teams, and I am not too impressed, which is why I believe we will be looking at a match between two relegation zone candidates tonight. Picking out a winner here is though, as both have shown their strengths and weaknesses in recent matches, and if we weight them against each other, teams seem equally strong. Bookmakers seem to agree Iwata is a slight favourite to win here, which is due to their home ground advantage. Historically, Iwata are a better team when these two play at Yamaha Stadium. Out of three H2H matches, Iwata won twice, while one ended in a draw. However, most of the results are fairly old, which does not give us a good insight into how this one will go. Instead of picking out a winner, we will predict this match to finish with at least 2 goals. Both teams have shown they are capable of scoring goals, with Oita netting 5 in the last 3 matches. Despite not being too convincing against Yamaga, I believe Oita will be capable of scoring a goal or two against Iwata while conceding at least one in the process.
Prediction: Over 2.50 goals
Odds: 2.20 Pinnacle
