Kashima Antlers vs Yokohama FC 10/10/20

10 October 2020

Kashima Antlers will be looking to return to winning ways in J1 League when they take on out-of-sorts Yokohama FC at the Kashima Soccer Stadium.

The hosts have suffered a dip in form lately, going from seven straight J1 League wins to back-to-back defeats. Curiously, while each of Kashima’s win during that nine-game sequence came despite a -1 handicap, both their losses during the same period yielded the identical 2-0 scoreline. Yet, low scoring has been a theme for the ‘Antlers’ at home recently, as three of their previous four home league fixtures have featured under 2.5 goals. In turn, three of their last four competitive H2H meetings, home and away, have produced the identical 1-0 scoreline (W3, L1). Conceding the opening goal could, therefore, pose a major threat to Kashima’s hopes of winning, especially considering they’ve failed to pick up three points from four J1 League home games in which they conceded first (D2, L2).

Meanwhile, the visitors have suffered three defeats from their previous four league outings (W1, L3), with all but one of those results (win/losses) seeing the winner on the day keep a clean sheet. Indeed, there’s been no coming back for Yokohama when they conceded the opener on the road this term. Takahiro Shimotaira’s men have lost all five of their J1 League trips in which they allowed the opening goal. But, keeping a clean sheet has been an issue this term, as they’ve failed to shut out their opposition in nine of ten top-flight trips this term, conceding over 1.5 goals on six of those occasions.