Match Preview 2nd Sec : VS JEF United Chiba at City Light Stadium on March 6

JEF is the former division 1 club and also one of the top choices for the promotion to the division 1. Last season Chiba finished in the nineth place, that was the worst performance since the club was demoted to the division 2 in 2010.


Before this season, Chiba's head coach, Sekizuka and his club undertook bold reforms, releasing most of the club's players and acquiring lots of new players. Needless to say, the team has dramatically changed so that they are completely different from the last year's team.


It should be noted that an ace forward, Morimoto left Chiba so that the club acquired an attacker, Funayama from the division 1 club, Kawasaki Frontale. He is expected to play as a new ace forward. A young midfielder, Nagasawa is also remarkable. He has played for FC Koln in Germany until last year since he graduated from his university in 2013. He is from Chiba Prefecture.


At the opening match of this season, Chiba made a dramatic victory against Tokushima Vortis at Fukuda Denshi arena. At the end of the game, JEF is one goal behind the rival, however, during the added time, Yoshida and Nagaswa scored a goal respectively and successfully roared back.