Ah, Machida Zelvia and Nagoya Grampus, two titans clashing in the J1 League, folks-- oh wait, there's no need for that novelty. Guarding the net for Nagoya is Mitchell Langerak, who's been about as reliable as my ex-wife's cooking with a 6.66 rating and 10 saves, while Machida is looking to Kosei Tani. He's running a respectable 7.35 average rating with 9 saves, and a better rating than my dry jokes.
Nagoya Grampus has some notable players including the hard-hitting Chang-rae Ha with one goal and two shots on the goal; Tsukasa Morishima, an accurate passer with 79.7%; and Yuya Yamagishi, who despite no goals seems to love a shot given the 5 attempts. Flashbacks of my high school prom night, friends. On the other side of the pitch, Machida's got Gen Shoji as the centerpiece, who notched a goal and maintained a passing accuracy of 82.2%. Lets not forget Hokuto Shimoda, another formidable offensive force, sporting a goal and two shots on the goal.
If we uncork the history bottle between these two teams, the most recent face-off led to a 1-0 victory for Machida Zelvia which brings me back to the time I-- nevermind, we aren't going down that rabbit hole.
Season records are the elephant in the room. Nagoya Grampus is looking like a struggling JV team with an 8-3-10 record, while Machida Zelvia is looking more like the homecoming king with a 13-4-4 standing. Nagoya’s latest games have been a string of disappointments, like my stand-up career, with one draw and four losses. Juxtaposed with Machida Zelvia who seem to have found their mojo recently, scoring 3 wins, 2 draws and only a single loss, it's painting quite a picture.
This tossup reminds me of the struggle I face every morning deciding whether to get out of bed. But, enough about my mundane existence. The prediction is -
Albert’s Prediction: Machida Zelvia by 1