A RELATIVELY small, yet fervent sea of red clad support are set to oppose Newcastle Jets at the 20,000 capacity Mizuho Athletic Stadium tonight when the Hunter club takes on home town favourites Nagoya Grampus Eight.
Indeed, ever since Australian sides began participating in the Asian Champions League, away outings against strong J-League opposition and their synchronized, vociferous supporters have been considered the glamour occasions.
Whilst this is still the case, it is also perhaps true that an Australian club's ability can most accurately be measured against tough Japanese opponents..
At the start of the ACL all the talk was of how makeshift and hastily put together the Jets squad was. Two competitive games and almost a month have since passed, and there can no longer be any excuses from players, management or the media. They've had time to gel, they all know each others names...now what are they capable of?
And what a test tonight is. Lose and we'll almost certainly have to beat Beijing Guoan at home on match day four to keep our hopes of advancing to the Round of 16 alive. Draw, or do the almost unimaginable and beat the "Noble Barbarians" on their home patch and we'll be in a good position to advance to the knockout stage.
However the result isn't the only factor tonight that should be scrutinised. The performance should also address how strong team morale is following stories of team disharmony, largely involving and because of Ljubo Milicevic. It will also highlight to what effect the loss of Ante Covic will have on the rest of our group stage campaign. We should trust Ben Kennedy's ability, but this is an awfully big stage for such an inexperienced keeper.
Of course, Nagoya aren't going to be charitable to our cause. Win and they're all but assured a spot in the knockout stage. Experienced Serbian coach Dragan Stojkovic, himself a former Grampus player, will know this, and he's unlikely to show the mercy his Ulsan counterpart Kim Ho-gon did by fielding a second choice line up.
Nagoya's Brazilian stars Magnum (who scored in their 3-1 loss to Kawasaki Frontale on the weekend) and Davi (who has scored four times in as many J-League games this season) are obvious threats. Keiji Tamada, a regular for the Japanese National Team will also likely line up, while veteran goalkeeper Seigo Narazaki who has 64 Blue Samurai caps to his name will be hard to beat between the sticks.
Currently fourth in the J-League after four games, Nagoya have lost only one competitive game this season in all competitions. The Jets can perhaps take heart that this was last weekend, but even so this was a tricky road trip to Kawasaki Frontale. To put bluntly, they're in ominous form.
We'll need to be at our very best to get a result here.
Possible Lineups:
Nagoya Grampus Eight: S. Narazaki, H. Tanaka, T. Masukawa, S. Abe, M. Yoshida, Magnum, N. Nakamura, K. Yoshimura, Y. Ogawa, K. Tamada, Davi
Newcastle Jets: B. Kennedy, T. Elrich, A. Costanzo, L. Milicevic, N. Topor-Stanley, B. Kantarovski, A. Griffiths, M. Thompson, J. Wheelhouse, S. Petrovski, D. de Groot
Kick Off: 8pm AEST (LIVE on FOXSPORTS 3)
Prediction: Nagoya to be too strong at home.
