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【MATCH REPORT】 S-PULSE 2-3 ARBIREX NIIGATA

©︎︎︎S-PULSE

SHIMIZU S-PULSE 2-3 ARBIREX NIIGATA
IAI Stadium Stadium, Shizuoka


S-PULSE GOALS
Kaneko 14, Kitagawa 29
YELLOW CARDS Tese 23, Futami 45+2
RED CARDS None
SHOTS 11
CORNER KICKS 2
FREE KICKS 23
ATTENDANCE 17091


LINE UP

GK Rokutan
DF Shimizu, Inukai, Futami, Matsubara
MF Masuda, Takeuchi, Kaneko, Duke
FW Kitagawa, Tese


SUBSTITUTIONS

Kamata on for Kitagawa (65)
Hasegawa on for Kamata (76)
Tiago on for Tese (88)


REPORT

Football/Soccer is a cruel goddess…

The moment you think you had finally tamed her she crashes on you with renewed glee to push you down back in hell…

S-Pulse, a team and a club with their backs against a wall were facing a demoted team, Arbirex Niigata with a new head coach and players playing for their new contracts next year.

The game started with an unusual and crafted move by the Niigata Captain who, upon winning the toss, elected to play the first half facing his own fans.

It became a “day and night game”.

In spite of another makeshift team including players not fully recovering from injuries, S-Pulse did well enough to permanently attack their opponents and two goals by Kaneko and Kitagawa awarded their efforts, but what most people ailed to take notice of is that they wasted at least four more golden opportunities, which gave an unhoped for lifeline to their opponents instead of folding the game by half time. Rony, the only Niigata to have found his way through the Shimizu defense on a couple of dangerous occasions knew too well that his direct opponent Matsubara must have been tired by half time with his enormous contributions in attack.

And the very man Rony proved the nemesis of the whole S-Pulse team who instead of keeping on attacking their opponents sat back in a deluded sense of a safety lead. Rony soon scored two goals and it was already too late by then. The coup de grace came when Niigata forced the exhausted S-Pulse defense a free kick right in front of goal on the very box line. S-Pulse instead of putting three men in front of the kicker and the taller players behind the goal keeper docilely lined up altogether in a single line this offering a quasi-penalty kick which was dutifully slot in with sickening ease.

I have seen the S-Pulse fans (and I am a staunched one of them!) in many kinds of mood this year, but this was the first time I witnessed a whole station struck into dumb silence, the fans still sitting in their seats unbelieving.

Now, S-Pulse is left with one game they probably will have to win in Kobe.

If they somehow manage to stay in the top tier of the Japanese League (and I sincerely hope so) they will have to rethink their whole strategy to start with. If they are demoted I expect a needed revolution in the club at all levels.

But I am of an optimistic sort and I still believe in our players!



NEXT LEAGUE GAME

Meiji Yasuda J1 League
Match day 34
S-PULSE vs Vissel Kobe
Saturday, December2nd, 2pm
Kobe Universiade Memorial Stadium, Kobe

 

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