J2 League

Match 31

Shimizu S-Pulse 3-2 Machida Zelvia

Saturday August 19th 6:00pm

IAI Stadium Nihondaira (Shizuoka)

S-PULSE GOALS Carlinhos (44), Inui (61), Santana (84)

YELLOW CARDS Santana (10), Ronaldo (17), Inui (38)

RED CARDS

PENALTY KICK

ATTENDANCE 17986

LINE UP

GK Gonda

DF Yamahara, Suzuki, Takahashi, Hara

MF Carlinhos, Ronaldo, Inui, Shirasaki, Nakayama

FW Santana

SUBSTITUTIONS

Kitazume on for Nakayama (46)

Yoshida on for Yamahara (55)

Oh Se-Hun on for Shirasaki (70)

Nishizawa for Carlinhos (81)

Miyamoto on for Inui (81)

REPORT

A vital win, and the first 4-winning matches series of the season!

A sweet revenge on the contentious defeat in Machida.

But we also needed some good luck to compensate the back luck suffered during the first leg.

In front of the largest home crowd of the season we managed a feat that nobody had done against Machida this season by overcoming a 0-2 deficit given away during the first quarter of the match.

WE started too slowly and were caught off guard right from the 4th minute when a line throw was not protected at all with the whole defense sleeping into damning inattention and leaving all the time for Machida to find an unmarked forward firing the ball at point blank.

It got worse in the 23rd minute when the defense could not clear a weak attack with the ball being finally passed on our left flank with the ensuing cross being casually slotted in like at practice.

In the 31st minute we could have lost the game for good when poor defense again allowed an unmarked Machida forward firing from long range which required a world class save by Gonda to keep away.

The game started to become rough with finally S-Pulse obtaining a free kick outside the box after another ugly foul in the 44th minute.

Inui passed the ball to Yamahara who ran around the Machida right flank before sending the perfect cross for Takahashi to head but the ball was first repelled by the Machida Keeper before a lurking Carlinhos scored almost unopposed.

The first half finished with an S-pulse again being lazy in defense to allow a inside the box hot that needed another great save from Gonda

Nonetheless S-Pulse put more pressure and Kitazume came very near to equalize in the 49th minute following another great pass from Inui.

At last in the 61st minute luck on our side when Inui’s long shot range was half blocked with the ball flying into the right top corner of Machida over a helpless opposite keeper.

Deliverance came in the 84th minute after some good control which ended up to Nishizawa who ran around Machida’s left flank before sending the perfect cross for Santana to head a bullet past a helpless opposite keeper.

S-Pulse could and should have scored a 4th goal in the last seconds of extra time when a last chance free kick for Machida with their goalkeeper joining his forwards inside S-Pulse box was repulsed by S-Pulse before the last pass sent Oh Se-Hun inside the box who somehow managed to miss the empty goal

The next game will take us to Akita on Sunday. A game we will have to take very seriously like all the remaining games if we want to build on the good work that brought us within 2 points of the 2nd automatic promotion spot!

NEXT GAME

J2 League

Match 32

Shimizu S-Pulse vs Baublitz Akita

Sunday August 27th 6:00pm

Soyu Stadium (Akita)