Meiji Yasuda J1 League
Match 5
Shimizu S-Pulse 1-3 Vissel Kobe
Saturday July 18th 7 pm
NOEVIR Stadium Kobe, HyogoS-PULSE GOALS Nishizawa(75)

YELLOW CARDS Nakamura(77), Okazaki(88)
RED CARDS
ATTENDANCE 3,494

LINE UP
GK Umeda
DF Elsinho, Valdo, Hwang Seok Ho, Okui
MF Nakamura, Takeuchi, Goto
FW Kaneko, Teerasil, Carlinhos

SUBSTITUTIONS
Okazaki on for Elsinho (60)
Renato on for Takeuchi (60)
Suzuki on for Teerasil (71)
Nishizawa on for Kaneko (71)
Musaka on for Nakamura (84)

REPORT
A comedy of errors. A game where all the goals were soft and unbecoming of such a league level. Truth to tell S-Pulse never gave up but this is not how you win games.

In the 5th minute for the third game in a row an S-Pulse player managed to stop a great shot from a teammate this time Carlinhos found himself in the way of Elsinho’s shot after a great counter.

In the second minute of extra time in the first half, S-Pulse conceded a soft goal when two players could not stop a corner kick to the near post somehow allowing an opposite forward to squeeze it between post and keeper just when it seemed the first half had been safely done with.

In the 54th minute S-Pulse conceded another soft goal when a defender interfered with an advancing goalkeeper allowing a Kobe forward to squeeze the ball past both. In the 64th minute Goto should have scored finding himself almost alone in front of the goal after a great pass from Kaneko.

Less than two minutes later a flat-footed S-Pulse’s defense conceded yet another soft goal looking at their opponents’ cross, shoot against the post and shoot again in all impunity.

In the 74th minute Nishizawa exploited a silly blunder from a Kobe defender to save blushes to S-Pulse. The will is there but the click isn’t.

Let us hope S-Pulse will prove its true potential in mid-week at Tosu!

NEXT GAME
Meiji Yasuda J1 League
Match day 6
Shimizu S-Pulse vs SAGANTOSU
Wednesday July 22th, 7pm
Ekimae Real Estate StadiumI, Saga