2019/21 Junya Ito @ KRC Genk (BEL)

He provided the cross which led to Genk's penalty, from which Genk scored their winning goal.

 

He scored.

 

His goal:

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Nicknamed the "Japanese Ito" by Belgian media after the goal he scored yesterday.

 

Goal and assist for Ito as his team is leading 3-1 up to the 70th minute against KV Mechelen.

Genk sacked their head coach Hannes Wolf after last week's 2-5 defeat againse Beerschot, and appointed his assistant Domenico Oilivieri as interim head coach.

 

An assist by Ito, as Genk are leading 1-0 at HT against Morioka's Charleroi.

2 goals and 2 assists so far this season, not to mention 2 PKs he earned for the team. He is his team's most consistent and influential performer.

Today, he is very lively, having at least 2 shots on goal, and many runs down the right wing from which he delivered some dangerous crosees (from one of them he assisted the first goal).

 

Ito assisted the second goal too as he helped his team to a 2-1 win.

He was then sent off in the 82nd minute as he was chasing a ball down the right wing, which would give him a 1-on-1 on the opposing GK, but he hit the opposing defender face as both were challenging for the ball (with Ito trying to push it forward out of the defender, and the defender trying to cleared by a header).

 

Ito is back to action tonight with a nice backheel assist in the derby match against Sint Truiden.

Schmidt and Suzuki are starting for the opposite side.

 

Ito scored a goal and assisted other 2 goals as he helped his team to come from 0-1 behind to win 4-1.

He scored the equaliser just before the half-time whistle after a lovely solo run into the penalty box with some lovely dribbles and faints.

Then he assisted the 3rd goal, as his blocked shot was converted by Onuachu, and then assisted the 4th after some nice lovely short passing exchanges.

Ito and his teammates are really playing entertaining and effective football under their new head coach. Ito in particular has been cutting into the center from the right flank constantly to evade his markers and help with the build-up from the centre.

Ito deserves to be the MVP of this match, as Genk climbed to the 2nd place of the league table, tied with Beerschot and just 1 point behind the league leaders Club Brugge.

Overall, 4 out of the top 6 teams in the league table are teams with Japanese players playing for them, while Ueda's Cercle Brugge are in the 8th place (an achievement compared to their rankings and performances in the past few seasons), thanks to the work done by their English head coach Paul Clement. Sint Truiden are the only team with Japanese players who are struggling, but it seems they are witnessing a recovery lately. All in all, a promosing season so far for Japanese players in Belgium.

 

... and he was named as the man of the match:

 

1 goal and 1 assist by Ito, as his team are leading 0-3 at the first half of theirs match against Cercle Brugge.

Ito seems to play on the left side of the front three, and he is sometimes moves towards thr centre to exchange his place with the team's striker Onuachu.

 

Based on his form, consistency, and the improvement he is showing this season he is surely attracting interest from teams in bigger leagues.

Germany, Italy, or Spain will be great for him, but not England (not because he is not up to the EPL level, but because how bad EPL teams are when It comes to players adaptation).

He needs to aim for a top 4 league and avoid other higher leagues than Belgium's such as: France, Russia, Netherlands, and Ukraine.

 

Without counting some uncounted assists and scoring opportunities he created + 2 PKs he won.

By the way, Genk are currently first in the league table.

 

Just scored a wonderful goal by his heel in the top of the table clash against Club Brugge.