J2 League

Play off 1st Round

Shimizu S-Pulse vs Montedio Yamagata

Saturday November 25th 1:00pm

IAI Stadium Nihondaira (Shizuoka)

S-PULSE GOALS

YELLOW CARDS Inui (38), Yamahara (52)

RED CARDS

PENALTY KICK

ATTENDANCE 15742

LINE UP

GK Okubo

DF Yamahara, Suzuki, Takahashi, Hara

MF Kishimoto, Ronaldo, Inui, Shirasaki, Nakayama

FW Santana

SUBSTITUTIONS

Carlinhos on for Nakayama (58)

Yoshida on for Nakayama (58)

Kitagawa on for Kishimoto (67)

Kitazume on for Santana (84)

Miyamoto on for Inui (85)

REPORT

By the skin of our teeth!

Against it is a draw, but arguably the only one w can be happy about in the whole season as it was enough to qualify for the second and final play off round!

Alamost as usual we ended up making things more difficult when we could have killed the game in the second half against a gritty Yamagata team, a perennial participant to League 2 play offs.

Goal keeper Gonda had to declare being unfit at the last moment to replaced by veteran Okubo whose it was his first League 1 appearance this year. And it certainly proved to be a momentous occurrence!

Yamagata dominated most of the first half starting with Okubo making his first save against a long range shot in the 3rd minute which luckily flew directly to him.

3 minutes later the S-Pulse’s defense was caught sleeping and run past its left flank ending with a very dangerous cross that produced two successive saves from Okubo first with a heading he had to dive at and palm away and again dive to block a shot which came immediately on the rebound. These two saves arguably saved the game for us.

In the 12th minute we had our very first chance when Yamahara ran along the left side before passing to Inui whose log range shot was barely palmed away by the Yamagata goal keeper.

In the 19th minute Okubo saved his team again by parrying a short range shot with his legs after the S-Pulse’s defense had been run out on a long forward ball. The rebound could still have been sored on but the ball was headed centimeters above the bar.

In the 22nd minute Ronaldo saw a good effort from long range flying close above the bar.

In the 26th minute Hara sent Kishimoto past Yamagata’s left flank but his excellent cross could not only volley it past the near post.

In the 42nd minute Santana could only shoot centimeters past the left post after his fellow forwards had stolen the ball from the Yamagata’s defense.

The second half started with Yamagata attacking and again in the 48th minute Okubo had to reach high above himself to parry a short rang shot that had been offered by a sleeping S-Pulse’s defense.

In the 68th minute Carlinhos was very unlucky shooting against the far post after intercepting the ball and running with it for more than 20 meters.

In the 72nd minute we lived dangerously again by a allowing a corner kick being headed barely past our right post.

In the 77th minute Santana could have done better after the ball had once again been intercepted but his close range rolled centimeters past the near post.

In the 85th minute S-Pulse simply managed to somehow miss a goal offered on a plate when Kitagawa’s corner kick saw his perfect ball headed over the bar by a diving Hara only two meters away from goal.

In the 90th minute it was the turn of Yamagata to miss another great chance offered by a timid S-Pulse’s defense but the last shot rolled barely past our left post.

In the 95th minute S-Pulse had their last chance with Kitazume’s long range attempt but the ball agonizingly bounced on the bar.

For all the job done we did not perform in attack and Okubo had to prove the game of his life to save us along.

We certainly will have to produce a better performance if we want to beat Tokyo Verdy next Saturday at the Japan National Stadium in Tokyo, a place we have never won in! Time to change history!

NEXT GAME

J2 League

Play off 2nd Round

Shimizu S-Pulse vs Tokyo Verdy

Saturday December 2nd 2:00pm

Japan National Stadium (Tokyo)