J1 League

J1 100 YEAR VISION LEAGUE WESTERN GROUP

Game 15

Shimizu S-Pulse 1-1 Cerezo Osaka (6-4 on penalties shootout)

Date: Wednesday, May 6th, 1:00 pm

IAI Nihondaira Stadium (Shizuoka)

S-PULSE GOALS Bueno (90)

YELLOW CARDS Ahmedov (90 +1)

RED CARDS

PENALTY KICK Bueno )0)

ATTENDANCE 14668

LINE UP

GK Umeda

DF Kitazume, Sumiyoshi, Brunetti, Yoshida

MF Bueno, Uno, Shimamoto

FW Nakahara, Oh, Yoshiki Takahashi

SUBSTITUTIONS

Oki on for Umeda (46)

Capixaba on for Nakahara (46)

Honda on for Yoshida (62)

Chiba on for Yoshiki Takahashi (68)

Ahmedov on for Oh (76)

REPORT

It seems we play better away from our bases than in front of our home crowd.

Or are we more clumsy at home due to pressure to overplease our fans?

Let us hope this the second supposition.

The fact is that we did what was necessary to beat our opponents of the day.

Some will argue we got two points, 1 point better we played against the same opponent on their turf after the lottery of penalties shoot out. The bare fact though is that we lost 1 more point. We shared the possession and passes and were almost equal in accuracy. BUT we had 16 attempts at goal against their 8 and 8 shots on target while they had only 2, 1 in each half, with 1 goal, which we conceded through frazzled defense on a corner kick.

We had to wait until the 90th minute of regular time to benefit from a penalty kick that Bueno impeccably converted because of Oh’s substitution.

This draw is the more frustrating that we did everything to earn it but our strikers had a collective off day.

Truth be told we are fighting well in a very difficult group with only 9 points separating 10 teams whereas a massive 26 separate clubs in the other group.

We have simply inherited the death group, but on the positive side we will benefit from a good experience before starting the real League

We only need more consistency and clinical finishing.

Let us hope for a better result on Sunday against Fukuoka.

Our fans deserve it!

NEXT GAME

J1 League

J1 100 YEAR VISION LEAGUE WESTERN GROUP

Game 16

Shimizu S-Pulse vs Avispa Fukuoka

Date: Sunday, May 10th, 2:00 pm

IAI Nihondaira Stadium (Shizuoka)