J2 League

Match 24

Shimizu S-Pulse 3-0 Vegalta Sendai

Wednesday July 5th 7:00pm

Yurtec Stadium Sendai (Sendai)

S-PULSE GOALS Carlinhos (11, 55), Inui (20),

YELLOW CARDS Kamiya (90 + 4)

RED CARDS

PENALTY KICK

ATTENDANCE 9124

LINE UP

GK Gonda

DF Nishizawa, Suzuki, takahashi, Kitazume

MF Carlinhos, Ronaldo, Inui, Shirasaki, Nakayama

FW Kitagawa

SUBSTITUTIONS

Kishimoto on for Carlinhos (59)

Miyamoto on for Shirasaki (59)

Kamiya on for Inui (66)

Santana on for Kitagawa (66)

Oh Se-Hun on for Nakayama (76)

REPORT

A very important win prized out away from our bases on Wednesday (first win on a Wednesday game this season!) when you consider that now 7 teams are within 5 points of the 2nd automatic promotion spot!

Possession was shared all game long but we made our good moments count with the whole team aggressively defending before mounting decisive counters and attacks.

It all started in the 11th minute when Nishizawa’s left side corner kick was perfectly deflected at the near post by Kitagawa’s head for Carlinhos to score a simple goal with a volley tap cleverly executed with the outside of his right foot beating a flat-footed defense.

In the 19th minute Kitagawa produced one of his interceptions by pressing the opposite defense before passing to Ibayashi whose fine shot from outside the box was well caught by an extended Sendai goalkeeper.

One minute later Kitagawa again intercepted a poor Sendai’s defense pass before passing it to Inui who calmly slid the ball between the goalkeeper and the right post.

In the 22nd minute Sendai had their chance from a corner kick but the ball was weakly headed toward Gonda.

In the 46th minute a low shot after another corner kick directly rolled to Gonda.

In the 49th minute some good passing ended up with Kitagawa heading directly to the opposite keeper.

In the 49th minute a good counter ended with Oh Se-Hun trying to score across the goal but it was well read by the opposite keeper who somehow pushed the ball away from oner lurking S-Pulse forward before it was kicked too weakly directly to the keeper who had had the time to stand up back on his feet.

But in the 54th minute S-Pulse put the game on ice starting with a long pass by Takahashi to Carlinhos who ran along the opposition’s right flank before passing to Inui on his right who ran inside the box before crossing back to the same Carlinhos who scored a simple enough goal.

In the 69th minute Sendai had the first of their two best chances of the day but determined defense somehow repulsed their attempts.

In the 88th minute Sendai again came very close to score but Gonda’s superb save kept them at bay.

In extra time a good move ended up with Kishimoto unluckily hitting the cross bar and Santana firing the rebound centimeters above the same bar.

In the last minute of extra time Sendai had another chance but the last shot hopelessly flew far above the bar.

Now the next venue of this unending Cup Final games will have us move to Oita on Sunday against a direct rival for promotion. Let us hope we will continue on the same note and progress further!

NEXT GAME

J2 League

Match 25

Shimizu S-Pulse vs Oita Trinita

Sunday July 9th 7:00pm

Resonac Dome Oita (Oita)