Meiji Yasuda J2 League

Match 5

Shimizu S-Pulse 2-2 Jubilo Iwata

Saturday March 18th 2:00pm

Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa, Fukuroi

S-PULSE GOALS Santana (42, 87)

YELLOW CARDS Ronaldo (83), Santana (87)

RED CARDS

PENALTY KICK

ATTENDANCE 22937

LINE UP

GK Gonda

DF Kishimoto, Takahashi, Suzuki, Yamahara

MF Kitagawa, Ronaldo, Shirasaki, Nishizawa

FW Disaro, Santana

SUBSTITUTIONS

Nakayama on for Kitagawa (67)

Oh Se-Hun on for Disaro (77)

Inui on for for Nishizawa (77)

Yoshida on for Yamahara (77)

Miyamoto on for Ronaldo (86)

REPORT

Another draw…

We had 19 shots to their 6, 8 corner kicks to their 3 and 13 free kicks to their 7…

And we still had to chase after the score all game long…

But at least we did not give up as shown by late goals in both halves.

We were caught cold in the 2nd minute on a quick counter that Gonda could not do much to prevent as the defense had been completely beaten by a long pass through.

And a day of frustration continued when in the 24th minute a corner kick saw Santana’s superb heading hit the post.

In the 34th minute Santana’s long shot barely cleared the bar after the ball had been given away by Jubilo defenders.

In the 36th minute we were lucky to see Jubilo waste a golden chance on a quick counter.

The 42nd minute finally saw Santana scored a nice goal after some good passing and incisive work midfield to bring the striker within easy distance from the opposite goal.

Shimizu starting to dominate the game in the second half but a horrible defense mix-up gave away one of the softest goals once again in the 67th minute.

Shimizu went all out in attack and Jubilo really needed luck to survive the continuous assaults panicking their defense.

Finally in the 87th minute the pressure paid off when an overstretched Jubilo defense could not clear one more cross and Santana did not make any mistake shooting from short range. The same Santana came very close to winning the game in extra time, but once again fate had decided for another draw.

Truth be told, Shimizu deserved to win but they paid cash for the few mistakes they made.

Anyhow the machine is about to start for real and we can hope for better results in the future!

We will take a momentary break from the J 2 League to travel to Urawa Reds for the second match of the Ybc Levain Cup Group B on Sunday.

Who knows? The second team seems good enough to create surprises!

NEXT GAME

Ybc Levain Cup Group B

Match 2

Shimizu S-Pulse vs Urawa Reds

Sunday April 26th 3:00pm

Urawa Komaba Stadium, Saitama