J2 League

Match 33

Shimizu S-Pulse 0-0 Tokushima Vortis

Sunday September 3rd 6:00pm

IAI Stadium Nihondaira (Shizuoka)

S-PULSE GOALS

YELLOW CARDS Hara (24), Carlinhos (30), Ronaldo (43)

RED CARDS

PENALTY KICK

ATTENDANCE 13418

LINE UP

GK Gonda

DF Yamahara, Suzuki, Takahashi, Hara

MF Carlinhos, Ronaldo, Kamiya, Shirasaki, Nakayama

FW Santana

SUBSTITUTIONS

Kololli on for Carlinhos (47)

Yoshida on for Yamahara (65)

Kitazume on for Nakayama (65)

Kitagawa for Santana (77)

Miyamoto on for Kamiya (75)

REPORT

Games follow each other and drearily keep to the same results.

A draw again, and at home to boot, meaning we have already thrown away 24 points through failing to break so many teams deemed weaker than us in a League replete with negative drawn games.

On a day when we shared possession but had more corner kicks, shots at goal and shots on target, we simply missed many aspects of a team who had grittily reached that point after a horrendous season start.

We started well enough in the 5th minute when a long pass found Carlinhos who sent a sharp low attempt barely past the far post.

In the 12th minute our indifferent defense was saved by a poor shot flying over the bar.

In the next minute some good work around Tokushima’s right side of the box ended with a poor shot by Kamiya flying helplessly over the bar.

The game drearily went on until the 39th minute when a cross from Santana was barely saved away by Tokushima before it reached Carlinhos in the perfect point-blank position.

2 minutes into extra time Nakayama could have done better with a low cross failing to reach a lurking Carlinhos again.

In the 50th minute a dangerous corner kick by Nishizawa was wasted again due to poor finish with the ball once again helplessly flying over the bar thanks to a weak volley meters away from goal.

In the 55th minute Yamahara will wonder for a long time why he missed another chance a couple of meters away from goal after some very fine pass work by Kololli and Ronaldo.

In the 55th minute a cross from the same Yamahara should have brought a goal but Suzuki’s fierce shot unfortunately flew directly to the Tokushima goal keeper.

After missing all those chances we started to live dangerously: in the 65th minute a dangerous cross was met a few meters away from our goal but Gonda pulled another class save. In the 78th minute Tokushima could scored against the run of play following some woeful defense by Shimizu but this time we were saved by the left post and ensuing poor finish.

Frankly speaking, all in all it was a very disappointing game we could have ended up losing. The absence of our game maker Inui left us with little imagination in the middle.

Inui will be back on Saturday against the dangerous Yamagata but it will be the turn of Carlinhos to be absent for accumulating too many yellow cards.

WE will certainly need all the support of our fans in spite of their frustration if we want to keep in contact with that fateful second spot!

NEXT GAME

J2 League

Match 34

Shimizu S-Pulse vs Montedia Yamagata

Saturday September 9th 6:00pm

IAI Stadium Nihondaira (Shizuoka)