Aiming to end a run of four games without a victory, Kashiwa Reysol welcome Shonan Bellmare to the Sankyo Frontier Kashiwa Stadium on Saturday morning.
On the other hand, the away side also head into this weekend's clash on a rough patch having lost each of their last five outings across all competitions.
Match preview
Kashiwa Reysol were on the receiving end of a narrow 1-0 defeat against FC Tokyo when the teams went head-to-head at the Ajinomoto Stadium on Saturday.
Diego Oliveira's opener 10 minutes from the half-time whistle was enough to put Masami Ihara's men to the sword in a largely one-sided affair.
As a result, the Sun Kings have dropped down to 17th place in the J1 League table, one point off the foot of the table just past the midway point of the campaign.
Awaiting them next is the challenge of an opposing outfit who have come out on top in just one of the last seven editions of this fixture since 2021.
Currently with the second worst home record in the division so far, Saturday's hosts will need to turn things around in front of their fans if they are to steer clear of relegation danger.
Shonan Bellmare went down without a whimper against Yokohama Marinos in Sunday's meeting at Nissan Stadium, which ended in a disappointing 4-1 defeat.
Satoshi Yamaguchi's men found themselves three down in less than an hour following Ken Matsubara's opener and a double from Anderson Lopes, after which Shuto Machino pulled one back, only for Asahi Uenaka to put the final nail in the coffin 13 minutes from time.
With 12 points picked up from 19 matches, the Hiratsuka-based side sit bottom of the standings having also conceded a league-high 42 goals.
Off the back of six straight away losses leading up to Saturday's contest, the visitors have it all to do in what is expected to be another tough assignment on the road.
Team News
Shuto Machino has been directly involved in 12 of Shonan's 25 goals this term, and the forward will be looking to come up with the goods once again.
Takuya Okamoto is set to miss a fifth straight game due to a muscle problem which he picked up in a 1-0 defeat to Kashima Antlers last month.
Given his side's current woes in front of goal, it would be no surprise to see Masami Ihara make some changes to his attacking setup for this one.
This could see Douglas return to the starting lineup here after the Brazilian had to make do with a place on the substitutes' bench last time out.
Kashiwa Reysol possible starting lineup:
Matsumoto; Mitsumaru, Koga, Tatsuta, Kawaguchi; Ochiai, Takamine, Shiihashi, Matheus; Hosoya, Douglas
Shonan Bellmare possible starting lineup:
Song; Sugioka, Oiwa, Tachi; Barada, Nakano, Hiraoka, Onose, Ishihara; Machino, Ohashi
We say: Kashiwa Reysol 1-0 Shonan Bellmare
Shonan Bellmare are the only side in the Japanese top flight without a clean sheet so far, and we expect that to continue here. We are also backing Kashiwa Reysol to narrowly edge out their visitors and come away with all three points in the end.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Adepoju Marvellous
