J1 League

Game 15

Shimizu S-Pulse 0-1 Kashiwa Reysol

Date: Tuesday May 5th, 4:00 pm

SANKYO FRONTIER Kashiwa Stadium (Kashiwa)

S-PULSE GOALS

YELLOW CARDS Uno (19)

RED CARDS

PENALTY KICK

ATTENDANCE 11747

LINE UP

GK Oki

DF Hasukawa, Takahashi, Haneda, Kitazume

MF Capixaba, Bueno, Yajima, Uno, Nakahara

FW Ahmedov

SUBSTITUTIONS

Kitagawa on for Ahmedov (46)

Inui on for Yajima (58)

Takagi on for Haneda (58)

Matsuzaki on for Nakahara (68)

Tanque on for Uno (76)

Yumiba on for Takahashi )0 +11)

REPORT

Soccer is a cruel game!

All conditions were stacked against us: playing way, playing against one of the top teams in the League, playing after a sorry and heavy defeat.

We did actually better than expected even if we ended with nothing to show for it. We also slightly dominated in shots at goal, corner kicks and free kicks.

All in vain.

On top of that some decisions did not go in our direction. But we should not complain against the latter. We did show some naivete against a more down-to -earth adversary. Moreover, complaining or antagonizing the refereeing will only draw undue attention onto us. Bite the bit, play and score. Defense does not win matches!

In the 6th minute a flat-footed defense allowed too easily to be overrun past our left flank and were only lucky when the last two Kashiwa forwards first missed an easy heading and completely miscued a volley only meters from goal.

In the 10th minute we benefitted from a very dangerous free kick akin to a short corner kick but Takahashi’s header flew past the far post.

In the 34th minute we botched a half chance when a volley from just inside the box flew above the bar.

We were exposed again during extra time but the last Kashima forward’s attempt was barely deflected away by a desperate defense.

And in the 47th minute our first piece of gross bad luck struck when a good incursion in Kashima’s box ended with Buen striking a nice curling shot over the keeper’s head only to see the ball bounce off the bar.

Bad luck was followed by a sucker goal when an inattentive defense allowed an easy cross to be easily slotted in. Within two minutes we had lost a game we should won.

And bad luck was followed by clumsiness when we had done well to steal the ball from the opposite keeper only for Inui to weakly shoot directly at the last defender off his line.

In the 74th minute we wasted another good chance when following a corner kick Takahashi barely missed the goal from inside the box.

And finally, in the 86th minute bad luck kicked us underground. An excellent corner kick was headed home by Tanque. But the goal was disallowed after a VAR check. Tanque had pushed away a defender before heading but he had been stumped on his feet beforehand by the same defender. But only his “foul” was considered…

And things got worse 7 minutes in extra time when the last shot was bounced off a Kashiwa defender’s arm but no penalty was awarded

On the positive side S-Pulse never gave up, but on the negative side we gave away sucker goal and did not cash on more chances.

We have a better team than our seventh place would warrant, but we are still too “nice” about it all. Just a little more pragmatic attitude would have us in the top three by now…

Well, we know what to do next Sunday against Machida Zelvia at home in front of a bigger crowd than at this last venue!

NEXT GAME

J1 League

Game 16

Shimizu S-Pulse vs Machida Zelvia

Date: Sunday May 11th, 1:00 pm

IAI Nihondaira Stadium (Shizuoka)