J2 League

Match 35

Shimizu S-Pulse 3-0 Zweigen Kanazawa

Saturday September 17th 6:00pm

Ishikawa Seibu Stadium (Kanazawa)

S-PULSE GOALS Carlinhos (8), own goal (35), Santana (79)

YELLOW CARDS Shirasaki (25), Takahashi (27)

RED CARDS

PENALTY KICK

ATTENDANCE 9277

LINE UP

GK Gonda

DF Yamahara, Suzuki, Takahashi, Hara

MF Carlinhos, Takeuchi, Inui, Shirasaki, Kishimoto

FW Santana

SUBSTITUTIONS

Kitazume on for Yamahara (55)

Miyamoto on for Takeuchi (55)

Nakyama on for Carlinhos (69)

Nishizawa for Inui (75)

Oh Se-Hun on for Santana (77)

REPORT

Gotcha!

We finally grabbed the Number 2 direct promotion spot!

In spite of facing a team threatened with relegation it was a scrappy game and we were somewhat fortunate to achieve such a big win even with 60% of the possession. We were gifted at least two goals but still missed the easiest goal of all. Moreover, collecting two more yellow cards is becoming a sorry habit as personified with Carlinhos just coming back from a ban.

Ronaldo was rested and it meant some uncertainty in midfield.

The game started with an enormous blunder by Kanazawa in the 8th minute. Takeuchi completely missed a through pass ahead which was easily collected by the opposite right back who passed it lazily to his keeper who in turn lazily relayed it to his center back who somehow managed to be robbed by a chasing Kishimoto who just had to knock it toward a chasing Carlinhos alone in front of goal.

In the 16th minute Kanazawa sent a cross into the middle of the box where Kishimoto hopelessly fumbled it to towards another Kanazawa forward whose powerful shot fortunately hit the framework.

In the 23rd minute Carlinhos wasted the first of two chances after Inui had sent Kishimoto around Kanazawa’s left flank whose perfect cross was hopelessly shot over the bar.

In the 35th minute S-Pulse were gifted their second goal when after a short corner kick Shirasaki sent a cross flying in front of the goal where a flat-footed Kanawaza goal keeper could not get near to parry it. The ball went on to strike one of the two defenders running back towards their goal who could do nothing but to tap it in for an own goal with Inui lurking just behind him.

In the 68th minute, some time after Carlinhos had managed to entangle himself leaving the ball pass him away a few meters in front of an open goal, a counter ended up with the Kanazawa defense unable to clear a Santana-Inui combination with Santana stealing the ball to shoot it inside the far post in a replica of last Sunday’s goal against Akita.

In the 84th minute Hara came near to score a fourth goal but his splendid mid-range shot was barely palmed over the bar.

Kanazawa had their last chance to score in extra time only to see their last shot hopelessly caught by Gonda.

Now we have to confirm and secure this second spot at least, but we certainly will have to show a better performance at home against a difficult team in the name of Ventforet Kofu in what is called the Mount Fuji Derby before the last two legs of the Shizuoka Triple Derby!

NEXT GAME

J2 League

Match 36

Shimizu S-Pulse vs Ventforet Kofu

Sunday September 24th 1:00pm

IAI Stadium Nihondaira (Shizuoka)