J2 League

Game 34

Shimizu S-Pulse 2-2 Mito Hollyhock

Sunday October 6th, 2:00 pm

K7s Denki Stadium (Mito)

S-PULSE GOALS Kitagawa (49), Yajima (82)

YELLOW CARDS

RED CARDS

PENALTY KICK

ATTENDANCE 8346

LINE UP

GK Gonda

DF Yamahara, Hasukawa, Sumiyoshi, Hara

MF Carlinhos, Uno, Inui, Miyamoto, Braga

FW Kitagawa

SUBSTITUTIONS

Tanque on for Carlinhos (46)

Matsuzaki on for Braga (646

Nakamura on for Uno (67)

Yajima on for Inui (67)

Takagi on for Yamahara (90 +1)

REPORT

Frustrating draw, but nonetheless a great fight back after a nightmarish first half.

We completely dominated the second half in a one-way traffic but we were actually lucky to be only two down at half time.

We seem to suffer from a perennial problem in defense while having the best attack in the League. We definitely stand too far back allowing the opposition far too many mid-range shots at goal. It is all a bit static and flat-footed whereas we have the ability to be more aggressive and go for interceptions and quick counters instead of waiting the opposition to come to us.

We did create the first occasion of the day in the 2nd minute when after toying with the opposite defense on the edge of the box Carlinhos ended the move with a sharp shot which unfortunately flew over the bar by not much.

And we had to wait until the 22nd minute for clumsiness and bad luck to combine against us when a ball was too easily given away in midfield before being passed to a forward whose final shot from fairly close range should have missed the goal but Sumiyoshi deflected it past a hopelessly lobbed Gonda for a real sucker goal.

In the 37th minute thing went from good to worse when once again a flat-footed defense too easily allowed a cross that was too easily converted.

And we could have lost he game in the 52nd minute when the defense allowed a single opponent to tease us from outside the box without being countered until he unleashed a sharp shot from a somewhat closed angle which fortunately bounced off the near post. Mito had one more chance given away by our same flat-footed defense deep in extra time but the final shot barely went past the far post.

We started changing things at last in the first minute of the second half when a long clearance was controlled inside the box by substitute Kante who forced his way past the defense before passing to Kitagawa for a simple goal.

S-Pulse missed a golden chance in the 66th minute when a horrible blunder by Mito gave away the ball but the opposite goalkeeper redeemed himself with a fine save.

In the 76th minute a quick move ended up with the perfect cross for Kante to powerfully head from close range but unfortunately, the ball flew directly into the Mito keeper’s arms.

But in the 82nd minute luck came to our side for once when after good pressure outside the box ended with Yajima delivering a sharp shot from just outside the box that was deflected by a defender’s head into Mito’s goal past a helpless keeper.

The game ended with one close chance to each side in extra time but they had to content themselves with an exciting draw albeit a too small audience for such an important game.

Talking of audiences, the stadium will be sold out on Sunday October 20th afternoon when we hope to finally clinch direct promotion with 3 games left against a difficult Yamagata side who still have a chance to make the play-offs.

We will certainly need the extra help from our fans!

NEXT GAME

J2 League

Game 35

Shimizu S-Pulse vs Montedio Yamagata

Sunday October 20th, 1:10 pm

IAI Nihondaira Stadium (Shizuoka)