Yokohama F·Marinos continue their quest for a return to the J1 summit on Saturday at 16:00 JST when they travel to play Nagoya Grampus in a match that will be streamed live on JLeague.co.

It’s been a busy start to the season for the Tricolor, who entered the year with ambitions of winning not just one trophy, but several. Thus far, things are going swimmingly.

Marinos advanced to the AFC Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in club history and then they prevailed once more to book their spot in the final four of the continental championship.

Meanwhile, they’ve won two of their first three matches in the Meiji Yasuda J1 League, where they hope to regain the crown they won in 2021. They find themselves down in ninth place, in large part due to having played one fewer game than the rest of the field, but that does put the pressure on them to start racking up points to climb the table.

As is always the case, Yokohama will look to Anderson Lopes to lead the way. The Brazilian was joint Top Scorer in J1 last season and he’s already off to a quick start in 2024; he has three goals in as many league matches, with another trio of tallies in the AFC Champions League.

The attack is rarely the issue in Yokohama, but the defense can be at times and conceding two goals to a 10-man Kyoto Sanga in their last time out won’t exactly assuage those concerns. Things won’t be much easier this week either, with William Popp serving a red card suspension.

On the other side of the field will be a team eager to take full advantage as Grampus aim to rebound from struggles early in the campaign that saw them lose each of their first three matches.

Things turned around in Grampus’ last match, though. Ha Chang-rae got his first goal for the club and Nagoya beat Kashiwa Reysol, 2-0. Now they have some points under their belt, their newcomers are starting to produce, and they are hoping that their worst for is behind them.

Beating Marinos would certainly be quite the statement that Grampus are, in fact, up to the level of the J1 elite. Will Nagoya be able to do just that, or will the Tricolor’s march to multiple trophies continue as planned?

Find out on Saturday, live JLeague.co!