J.LEAGUE YBC Levain CUP

GROUP STAGE / 6th Sec

Shimizu S-Pulse 1-5 Yokohama F･Marinos

Wednesday May 19th 7 pm

NHK Spring MitsuzawaFootballStadium, Kanagawa

S-PULSE GOALS Eiichi Katayama(2)

YELLOW CARDS

RED CARDS

ATTENDANCE 4,363

LINE UP

GK Kengo Nagai

DF Ryo Okui, Naoya Fukumori, Valdo, Eiichi Katayama

MF Yugo Tatsuta, Kota Miyamoto, Shota Kaneko, Kenta Nishizawa

FW Yusuke Goto, Akira Silvano Disaro'

SUBSTITUTIONS

Yosuke Kawai on for Kota Miyamoto(46)

Katsuhiro Nakayama on for Eiichi Katayama(46)

Carlinhos Junior on for Kenta Nishizawa(56)

Hideki Ishige on for Akira Silvano Disaro'(56)

Keita Nakamura on for Valdo(69)

REPORT

We are lucky, are we not? We took our worst drubbing of the year, but we somehow managed to squeeze through to the playoffs thanks to our defense during the first 4 games before the latter collapsed in the last two games. Luckily enough, our nearest rivals, Hiroshima Sanfrecce, did even worse. Had they won their last game, we would have been kicked out of the competition once again!

We started well enough with Katayama surprising Marinos in the 2nd minute, having us think we might be in for a great day. Alas, Marinos finally managed to draw level just before half time.

Then the second half just became a shooting gallery, with Marinos ending up the game with no less than 19 shots at goal against our mere 5 attempts. Corner kicks were even worse, 16 against 4, and we even lost on fouls.

Some of our players will rue this game for a long time to be as this might have turned into their last opportunity to feature on a team list his year. Football/soccer is a cruel game, and the damage will be felt for a long time to be.

Ironically enough, we might be in for some glory as we will surely field our best team in the playoffs!

As an indication, Shimizu S-Pulse will face Kashima Antlers in the first round of the Levain Cup playoffs (8 teams) on a two-leg fixture:

Wednesday June 2nd, 7:00 pm, IAI Nihondaira Stadium, Shizuoka

Sunday June 6th, 3:00pm, Kashima Soccer Stadium, Kashima

But before that, we will have to travel this Saturday to Sapporo to face Consadole Sapporo at a venue made all the more difficult by restrictions caused by the pandemic. S-Pulse will have to show real guts and a new attitude if they wish to regain their fans’ respect!

NEXT GAME

Meiji Yasuda J1 League

Match 15

Shimizu S-Pulse vs Hokkaido Consadole sapporo

Saturday May 22nd 2:00pm

Sapporo Dome, Sapporo