Shimizu S-Pulse 3-2 NAGOYA GRAMPUS
IAI Stadium Nihondaira, Shizuoka

S-PULSE GOALS Nishizawa(14), Kawai(54), Nishizawa(59)
YELLOW CARDS
RED CARDS
ATTENDANCE 15019

LINE UP
GK Okubo
DF Elsinho, Seok Ho, Futami, Matsubara
MF Renato, Takeuchi, Kaneko, Nishizawa
FW Kawai, Douglas

SUBSTITUTIONS
Musaka on for Kawai (78)
Dutra on for Nishizawa (86)
Tatsuta on for Kaneko (89)

REPORT
Massive, massive win!
And Lady Luck was at last attending! Mind you, she dispensed her good will to both teams who played their best to the last second all in very good spirit as proven by not a single card and exhausted players from both teams falling on the deck at the last whistle!

For once S-Pulse started slowly and defended well enough until the almost usual soft goal conceded in the 14^th minute when a poor clearance heading was headed in by a lurking Nagoya right back who had joined the attack developing on S-Pulse’ right flank.

Nishizawa replied early enough in the 24^th minute when the Nagoya looked at him curling a screamer from outside the box into the far right corner of the goal mouth.

Although S-Pulse conceded twice as much possession for the rest of the game it is one data base completely irrelevant in such a game as they knew their best chances lay in patient defense and quick counters. But in the 54^th minute S-Pulse’s second goal was not a counter but Elsinho’s mid-range effort being deflected in the net thanks to Kawai who was not quick enough to evade his team mate’s shot!

Only 5 minutes later the third goal did come through a quick counter finished by Kaneko with a fine pass to Nishizawa whose fine strike was nonetheless slightly deflected when it shot through an opponent’s legs.

S-Pulse thought they had done the job and were easily enough containing Nagoya when another sucker punch goal found its way into Okubo’s nets when a Grampus attacker had the reflex to throw his heel back when a wide shot just happened to fly by him.

The last 16 minutes + 5 minute additional time witnessed a trench war when anything could have happened although it must be said that either team had equal opportunities with one penalty claim and two clear scoring chances each! The difference was that for once the home advantage probably worked for S-Pulse (who had previously beaten their opponents in Nagoya!)! S-Pulse do not have big crowds watching their games but their fans do make the difference!

The next game happening during a short recess in the J 1 League will count for the 4^th Round of the Emperor’s played in Iwata for the 4^th derby game of the year! It promises another passionate game!

NEXT GAME
Emperor's Cup JFA 99th Japan Football Championship 4th round
Jubilo Iwata vs Shimizu S-Pulse
Wednesday September 18th, 7pm
Yamaha Stadium, Iwata