Gamba Osaka 1-0 S-Pulse
IAI Stadium Nihondaira, Shizuoka

S-PULSE GOALS None
YELLOW CARDS None
RED CARDS None
ATTENDANCE 15333


LINE UP

GK Sugiyama R
DF Kamata, Kakuda, Jong-a-Pin, Musaka
MF Edamura, Honda, Duke
FW Shirasaki, Omae, Tese


SUBSTITUTES

Takeuchi on for Honda (56)
Utaka on for Shirasaki (74)
Sugiyama K on for Edamura (82)


REPORT

It was all over in a moment. In the 31^st minute, started from throwing the ball to Endo by Gamba’s goalkeeper Higashiguchi, it was passed to Kurata and Usami successively. Usami found a space behind S-PULSE’s defense line, and Patric, connected well with this Usami’s 4^th pass, scored opener by dribbling Sugiyama past. “We were seized upon the unguarded moment.” Team manager Tasaka regretfully said. S-PULSE fully kept guard on Patric, but conceded a goal from this striker.

For lobbing the ball to Patric, S-PULSE put this Osaka’s striker between Jong-A-Pin and Kakuda and held down him. However, Gamba Osaka found another way to stagger defense with short passes not only long pass and to let Patric to attack into the space. GK Sugiyama said, “Gamba Osaka’s attacking was so simple, just long pass to Patric.”, but S-PULSE conceded a severe goal from a few attacking patterns.

However, the game was not at opponent’s pace still. In the 34^th minute just after conceding the goal, Shirasaki dropped the vertical pass from Mitchell Duke, and then Tese made a strong shot. The whole team still had the attitude to ‘give tit for tat’.

On the other hand, like Tese’s shot, S-PULSE could not penetrate into the box against the solid defense of Gamba. They stopped S-PULSE at crucial positions by making a block in front of the goal, although S-PULSE freely possessed the ball relatively.

The opportunity came in the 72^nd minute at last. From Omae’s freekick, Tese flicked the ball behind and Duke made it back in front of the goal. The man jumped to that ball was Edamura. The attacking reminded us of the scene that S-PULSE took the important PK in the last game against Niigata, but Higashiguchi caught Edamura’s header.

“We did not feel much scariness against Gamba Osaka, but we could not give it to them as well.” Kakuda said. This comment might show today’s game itself. S-PULSE showed the desire to get goals in this game as well so that Tese and Duke made impact shots from outside of the box. But we could not score any goals as a result even though S-PULSE continued scoring in every game from 3^rd match of the 2^nd stage and could get equalizer after conceding the first goal.

On the day before the game, Manager Tasaka taught how important to make fans happy as professional players by using a metaphor of a theme park. So that is why all players showed chagrin to a lot of supporters who came to even away game.

The next battle has already started. Tese showed his aspiration for the next game against FC TOKYO and said, “We should meet fans’ cheering definitely.” Team comes back to our home stadium ISTA again, and players should be able to turn this chagrin to the result we hope for the next game.

“Surely, what we play on the pitch has become better.” (GK Sugiyama)
S-PULSE is going towards the Victory with working out details.

Keep the faith!


NEXT GAME

Meiji Yasuda J1 League
2nd Stage, 9th Sec
S-PULSE v FC Tokyo
Saturday August 29th, 6:30pm
IAI Stadium Nihondaira