The table says 6th against 14th, but this match comes down to who has the ball. Vanraure have been at their best when they let the opponent have it, and Yokohama FC on the road are a team that takes the ball and then struggles to turn it into goals. That makes this a better spot for the home side than the gap in the table suggests.
Look at how Vanraure's league results came. They beat Toyama 2-0 with 34% of the ball, drew 0-0 at Fujieda with 39%, and won 2-1 at Iwata last time out with just 32.5% while still getting 18 shots away. When they had to run the game at home, it went badly: 0-2 against Sendai with 58.8% possession and 0-3 against Miyazaki with 52.6%.
Yokohama FC are the kind of opponent that hands Vanraure the game they like. Away from home they had 60.9% of the ball at Yamagata and 68.2% at Iwaki, and lost both 0-2. Across their four away league games they have scored 4 goals from 74 shots, and they conceded in three of them. At home it is a different story (12 goals in four), and that is a big part of why they look so strong on paper.
Daisuke Sudo's side push numbers forward, centre-backs included, and he said after the 3-3 at Toyama that his team had been stretched. Against a home side that is happy to sit and break, that leaves space behind.
Vanraure also come in with more than a week's rest, and when these two met in Hachinohe in March it finished 1-1.
