Emperor's Cup JFA 101st Japan Football Championship

3rd Round

Shimizu S-Pulse 2-1 Iwate Grulla Morioka

Wednesday July 7th 6:30 pm

Iwagin Stadium, Iwate

S-PULSE GOALS Hiroshi Ibusuki(54), Yuta Taki(83)

YELLOW CARDS Akira Silvano Disaro'(86), Yuta Taki(90+2)

RED CARDS

ATTENDANCE 1,976

LINE UP

GK Nagai

DF Ryo Okui, Valdo, Naoya Fukumori, Kenta Nishizawa

MF Yosuke Kawai, Kota Miyamoto, Shota Kaneko, Katsuhiro Nakayama

FW Yusuke Goto, Hiroshi Ibusuki

SUBSTITUTIONS

Ryo Takeuchi on for Kota Miyamoto(54)

Yugo Tatsuta on for Valdo(54)

Yuta Taki on for Ryo Okui(70)

Akira Silvano Disaro' on for Yusuke Goto(70)

Noriega Erick on for Shota Kaneko(88)

REPORT

Another gritty win on an Emperor’s Cup night which witnessed two more giant killings (Consadole Sapporo and Kashiwa Reysol)!

But before we proceed any further, we would like to convey our heartfelt thanks to all the players, staff and fans of Grulla Morioka (Iwate) who collected money before, during and after the game to help the victims of the landslides in Atami City!

Shimizu S-Pulse started the game with no less than 9 changes among last Sunday’s starting members. A rare occasion for second-string players to shine but a very risky way to play against opponents featuring their best team and having nothing to lose. Truth to tell at the end of the first half when Morioka had taken the lead with a fine long-range shot in the 38th minute, we were starting to really worry.

But the second half witnessed more attacking and in the 54th minute Ibusuki helped calm the nerves of his team mates when he slotted in a long range shot after the ball had been cleared on a corner kick.

But S-Pulse had to wait until the 83rd minute to finally take the lead thanks to Taki who had just come in to replace defender Okui to reinforce the attack and given his first touch of the ball halfway down the pitch he carried it forward before unleashing a long range shot which found its target a bit out of the blue. Then, it was the turn for S-Pulse to put up a defense wall to preserve the result.

Second year Eric Noriega was incidentally given his first chance when asked to help the defense in the last minutes of the game. We should see him again soon or later!

Next, it is back to the J1 League on Sunday on a long trip to Shikoku Island against Tokushima Vortis. If we win that game, we will definitely be able to concentrate on going up the tables!

NEXT GAME

Meiji Yasuda J1 League

Match 22

Shimizu S-Pulse vs Toshima Vortis

Sunday July 11th 6:00pm

Pocari Sweat Stadium, Naruto