J1 League

Game 5

Shimizu S-Pulse 0-1 Gamba Osaka

Date: Saturday March 8th, 3 pm

Venue: Panasonic Stadium Suita (Suita)

S-PULSE GOALS

YELLOW CARDS Uno (67)

RED CARDS

PENALTY KICK

ATTENDANCE 29071

LINE UP

GK Oki

DF Takagi, Hasukawa, Sumiyoshi

MF Yamahara, Shimamoto, Bueno, Uno

FW Inui, Nakahara, Kitagawa

SUBSTITUTIONS

Kitazume on for Yamahara (15)

Kozuka on for Shimamoto (46)

Ahmedoz on for Inui (66)

Nishihara on for Uno (80)

Tanque on for Kitagawa (80)

REPORT

Very disappointing loss, and that by the smallest margin possible!

Defense does not win matches! You cannot expect the defense to be both at the mill and the oven day in day out. Opposite teams have been warned and know that little performance will be enough, notwithstanding some rough play as witnessed by no less than 4 yellow cards by Gamba Osaka, a team which has struggled so far tis year. Moreover, our overworked defense is starting suffering from undue injuries as witnessed by the early exit of Yamahara, a key player in the team strategy. In spite of some new blood, our defense is ageing and increasingly jaded. It is grand time for younger players to make their case and more actively compete for spots, otherwise we might be for a long season even in this year widely open League.

We did not started ell and right from the 5th minute goalkeeper had to parry a long-range attempt the defense was too slow to counter.

In the 8th minute we again lived dangerously and only a clumsy shot by an almost unmarked Osaka attacker saved us from an early conceded goal

2 minutes later Oki had to produce another save to parry away another long-range attempt.

WE had to wait until the 23rd minute when a dangerous cross was only half cleared but Bueno’s long-range attempt missed the far post by only a small margin.

What was going to happen happened in the 37th minute when a flat-footed S-Pulse defense allowed all the time to an Osaka to calmy curve the ball past Oki into the far upper corner of our goal with two of our defenders defending with their backsides instead of their legs.

In the 41st minute an indecisive Osaka’s defense allowed Kitagawa to trry his luck from outside the box but the ball flew away without much worry for the Gamba keeper.

Gamba started the second half in our camp and had a shot at us in the 52nd minute but their last close-range shot was too far wide.

1 minute later S-Pulse produced a dangerous enough move but the last shot flew directly into the Gamba keeper’s arms.

In the 61st minute Oki had to produce a great save to dive and push a dangerous kick ending a sharp Gamba’s attack inside our box.

In the 66th minute we were lucky enough to survive a blunder by our defense passing directly in the path of a Gamba forward whose poor attempt saved us from more blushes.

In the 75th minute we almost scored an own goal but were saved by the bar.

In the 88th minute only clumsy offense from Osaka saved us after yet another incursion inside our box.

We played well enough until the very last seconds of extra time but Gamba were too happy to do with such a small margin win.

Honestly, all in all, we had only ourselves to blame.

Time to rebound and the more quickly the better!

The two next games will be at home with one Levain Cup in between starting with an encounter with Kyoto Sanga on Sunday.

Ous fans deserve and better and we have all the tools to please them!

NEXT GAME

J1 League

Game 6

Shimizu S-Pulse vs Kyoto Sanga

Date: Sunday March 16th, 1 pm

IAI Stadium Hihondaira (Shizuoka)