Meiji Yasuda J2 League

Match 11

Shimizu S-Pulse 3-0 Omiya Ardija

Saturday April 22ndh 2:00pm

NACK5 Stadium, Saitama

S-PULSE GOALS Inui (16), Carlinhos (56), Kamiya (87)

YELLOW CARDS Suzuki (17), Disaro (70), Kishimoto (79), Shirasaki (85)

RED CARDS

PENALTY KICK

ATTENDANCE 9316

LINE UP

GK Gonda

DF Kishimoto, Ibayashi, Suzuki, Yoshida

MF Nakayama, Ronaldo, Inui, Shirasaki, Carlinhos

FW Santana

SUBSTITUTIONS

Kitagawa on for Santana (57)

Kamiya on for Carlinhos (58)

Disara on for Nakayama (65)

Oh SE-un on for Inui (65)

Takahashi on for Ibayashi (76)

REPORT

At last, the engine is running properly!

S-Pulse’s new all-attacking approach is paying dividends.

Whatever the score or lead the whole team tries to score again and even forwards help their defense not to protect their goal but for a better chance to steal ball from the opposite forwards and expose their defense with speed and straight forward passes.

The whole balance has finally vastly improved but there still is plenty of room for improvement.

An enormous (over 2000!) S-Pulse fans contingent were there for incredible support and they were not disappointed! Head Coach Akiba was keen to mention that the “S-Pulse Family” was here to fight all together!

From the very 3rd minute Nakayama extended the opposite goal keeper from just outside the box after a quick counter.

In the 7th minute Santana should have scored from a few meters point blank after Omiya failed to clear the ball.

In the 10th minute some poor passing from Shimizu gave away a chance which Omiya wasted from middle range.

In the 13th minute a long pass found Nakayama inside the opposite box but once again the Omiya goal keeper did well to block away his close-range shot.

In the 17th minute it was Inui’s turn to be blocked from close range after a middle range shot by Carlinhos had not been cleared.

S-Pulse were dominating the game but could not breach Omiya’s defense.

But in the 20th minute they at last succeeded after some passing outside the box with Inui finally passing across the field to Kishimoto who immediately sent the ball high into the box where it was met near the far post by a diving Inui who scored his first ever heading in J League competitions.

But at half time Coach Akiba pointed out that they should have been leading by at least 4 goals and was a little worried about the lack of efficiency

The second half started fairly slowly when in the 56th minute some good pass work found Kishimoto again alone on the right flank who sent a looping cross that Santana first headed onto the bar but Carlinhos had followed well to volley the ball back into the net.

S-Pulse did not let the pressure down and the introduction of substitute Kamiya even increased it.

Even so Omiya did not give up and almost scored in the 65th minute but for some lucky defense from S-Pulse.

But Omiya got more and more tired under S-Pulse’s constant all pitch pressure and their occasional shots went too far astray.

In the 84th minute S-Pulse missed a golden chance when Kamiya passed to Kitagawa through a completely opened defense but the latter could not reach the ball for a sure goal by a finger span.

But in the 86th minute the same Kitagawa did well to chase an Omiya forward to steal the ball for Kamiya to run down half the pitch to finally pass it back to Kitagawa running on his left. The latter’s low cross shot could be only palmed away by the Omiya keeper and Kamiya who had done well to follow through tapped in an opportunistic goal that sealed the game.

All in all, a good game, but some improvement is left to be done as far as the finishing is concerned. There are still some silly passes to erase.

So many yellow cards will probably see a different starting team against Tochigi at home on Saturday but there are plenty of players waiting on the sidelines!

NEXT GAME

Meiji Yasuda J2 League

Match 12

Shimizu S-Pulse vs Tochigi

Saturday April 29th 2:00pm

IAI Stadium Nihondaira, Shizuoka