After a somewhat unexpected defeat against Tokyo, Hiroshima started to play well and took that defeat very well as a warning sign. There are still seven rounds left until the end of the championship in Japan, and Hiroshima is currently in third place in the table. In order to get the second or possibly the first place, it is necessary that their rivals who are in those positions, Kawasaki and Yokohama, make some mistake. They have two games more than Kawasaki and three more than Yokohama, and the eventual progress in the standings clearly does not depend only on them. But what is up to them, they do it in the best possible way. After the already mentioned defeat against Tokyo, they managed to tie even six victories. They achieved two victories in the cup, and four in the championship against not at all low-quality opponents. What most characterized Hiroshima's game in those games, as well as during the whole season, was the excellent transition from defense to attack, as well as the fantastic performance of the counter attack. They play very efficient football, as the results of the last matches show. In only one of the last five league games, more than 2.5 goals were not seen. When it comes to home games, they are there almost without fail. They have played 14 games at their stadium and have only three defeats. In addition to Tokyo, two more teams from the top of the table, Kashiwa and Kawasaki, won from their stadium. With teams from the middle of the table, to which Shimizu also belongs, they had no major problems at home.

Similar to Hiroshima, it can be said that Shimizu is in good shape. But the difference between their results and the results achieved by Hiroshima is that Shimizu was lucky when it comes to the schedule of matches, almost all matches were played with teams that are only two or three places above or below them and are of very similar quality. It can be said that they have a solid attack, but their problem this season is that they concede more goals than they score. Their top scorer, Thiago Santana, has scored ten goals so far, but the problem is that there is no player in the team who would join him in the number of goals scored. The absence of players of a similar caliber is probably one of the reasons for the current placement in the table. Honestly, I don't expect an easy game for Hiroshima, but I think that at the moment they are a much better team than Shimizu and that the players are aware of the importance of this match and I expect that they will show their quality in this match.