🏏 Sat, 12 Sep 2026 19:00 JST
Machida Zelvia
vs
Yokohama F. Marinos
3-4-2-1 vs 4-2-3-1
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- League leaders Machida Zelvia, unbeaten with five wins and a draw from six games, 16 points and a league-best goal difference of +13 from 18 scored and five conceded, host eighth-placed Yokohama F. Marinos, who have 10 points from three wins, a draw and two defeats with a +2 difference. Vissel Kobe match Machida's 16 points but have played a game more, so three points here would tighten the hosts' grip on top spot.
- Machida won 4-0 at JEF United Chiba, beat Urawa 3-1 at home, edged Kawasaki Frontale 2-1 and won 3-1 at Nagoya last time out, their only slip a 1-1 draw at Mito. Marinos won 1-0 at Shimizu and 1-0 at home to Vissel Kobe, lost 3-2 at Urawa, drew 1-1 with Kyoto and then took a 2-0 win at Kashiwa Reysol in round six, arriving with momentum restored.
- Machida's Takuma Nishimura, 29, faces the club where he scored 10 goals in 27 league games. A second striker with a quick, no-backlift shot and an eye for runs from deep, he has also played abroad with CSKA Moscow and Servette. Another ex-Marinos man, 31-year-old technician Keiya Sento, waits on the home bench, giving the fixture a double reunion.
- The shape question is Machida's 3-4-2-1 against the Marinos 4-2-3-1, and it starts with the wing-backs. Takahiro Akimoto, 28, who was plucked from Tochigi SC by Urawa and later played for OH Leuven in Belgium, works one flank, while ex-FC Tokyo full-back Hotaka Nakamura, 29, covers the other. Marinos field Ryo Miyaichi and the rapid 25-year-old Yuki Kondo wide, with 22-year-old Kosuke Matsumura, still a Hosei University student on special designation, in the hole.
- In the middle Machida pair Hiroyuki Mae, the 31-year-old holding midfielder who captained Avispa Fukuoka for five seasons, with 33-year-old playmaker Ryohei Shirasaki, who has 21 goals in 176 J1 appearances. Marinos answer with academy graduate Riku Yamane, 23, a composed distributor, and Kei Chinen, 31, a former forward converted into a midfielder who once led J1 in duels won.
- Machida's focal point is 186cm striker Koki Ogawa, 29, a J2 MVP who scored 26 goals for Yokohama FC and later found the net regularly in the Eredivisie, strong in the air and quick from touch to shot. Marinos will try to handle him with 187cm Colombian Jeison Quinones and 186cm Kosei Suwama, 23, a product of the club's junior youth ranks — expect a long series of aerial duels.
- Set pieces could swing it. Henry Kaiki Mochizuki, the 24-year-old, 192cm defender in Machida's back three and a Japan call-up, owns a long throw measured close to 50 metres, and the hosts have targets in 33-year-old Gen Shoji, part of Japan's 2018 World Cup squad, plus their 188cm centre-back R. Kikuchi. At the other end, 40-year-old Daiki Iikura, past 16 years at Marinos, faces Machida's 190cm goalkeeper Kosei Tani, who played every match at the Tokyo Olympics.
- The benches offer size and know-how. Machida can introduce 197cm Australian striker Tete Yengi, 23, who helped Livingston into Scotland's top flight, and Neta Lavi, the former Gamba Osaka midfielder who captained Maccabi Haifa. Marinos hold club captain since 2019 Takuya Kida, 32, Belgian left-footed winger Jordy Croux, who cuts in from the right, and a 16-year-old academy midfielder in Miidera.