Two teams fighting to escape the relegation zone in the J1 League table will do battle in a key contest on Sunday, as Shonan Bellmare welcome Kyoto Sanga to the Lemon Gas Stadium Hiratsuka. In the midst of a five-match winless streak, the hosts have dropped to 18th spot in Japan's top flight, one point ahead of their visitors and one adrift of safety. © Imago Shonan Bellmare return to action on Sunday with the aim of ending a recent rut and climbing out of the J1 League drop zone after a tough first half to the domestic campaign.
From their 20 top-flight outings thus far, the Hiratsuka outfit have earned just 16 points, winning three of those games while suffering 10 defeats, with the most recent victory coming at home to Albirex Niigata in mid-May. Since that latest triumph, Satoshi Yamaguchi 's side have collected just two more points from five further attempts, firstly suffering back-to-back defeats at the hands of Jubilo Iwata and Gamba Osaka. Then following a 1-1 draw away at Nagoya Grampus and a 1-0 loss at home to FC Tokyo, they most recently visited Kawasaki Frontale on Wednesday, and after falling behind to a Marcinho goal on the hour mark, they were at least able to leave with a share of the spoils as Satoshi Tanaka levelled the scores at a goal apiece 12 minutes from time.
That result saw Shonan Bellmare move back within a point of Sagan Tosu in 17th spot in the J1 League, and they will now be desperate to end their winless streak and move out of the bottom three .