From Flying Kiwis.
Woud didn’t play because Kyoto Sanga have about four senior first team goalies and he seems to be either the second or third choice. But it’s still very relevant to point out that KS were able to hang in there for a 1-1 draw against Roasso Kumamoto in their Relegation Playoff. A draw was enough to keep them in the top flight for another season. Relegation avoided... eventually.
Sanga scored first through Yuta Toyokawa in the 39th minute and they began the second half looking like they were about to bag another. But they didn’t, and then Osamu Henry Iyoha equalised in the 68th heading in off the post from a corner kick. Luckily Sanga saw it out from there. Didn’t have a lot of possession but for the next twenty minutes they restricted their opponents from anything notable.
There was still injury time on top of those twenty minutes though, during which Roasso Kumamoto sent everyone forward and it took a block to the face of a KS defender to prevent one shot before the next smashed off the post. That effort right there was the difference between relegation/promotion for these two teams. Such fine margins. But Kyoto Sanga came out on top so they’ll be back in the J-League in 2023.
Michael Woud never played a league game this year despite sitting on the bench 17 times. The 23 year old did make seven appearances across the various cup competitions with a run all the way to the Emperor’s Cup semi-finals gave him plenty of room to manoeuvre. Naoto Kamifukumoto played the majority of games. Tomoya Wakahara also made seven appearances (four in the league, three in the cups). As with most of the squad, Kamifukumoto and Wakahara’s contracts expire in January whereas Woud’s runs through until the end of 2024. Chances are there were a lot of club/player options involved which depended on whether or not they avoided relegation. Now that’s been sorted, we should start to see some player retaining movement.
