J1 League

Game 36

Shimizu S-Pulse 1-4 Cerezo Osaka

Date: Sunday November 9th, 3:00 pm

IAI Nihondaira Stadium (Shizuoka)

S-PULSE GOALS Inui (84)

YELLOW CARDS

RED CARDS

PENALTY KICK

ATTENDANCE 15910

LINE UP

GK Umeda

DF Yamahara, Hasukawa, Sumiyoshi, Takagi

MF Capixaba, Shimamoto, Bueno, Matsuzaki

FW Toshiki Takahashi, Kitagawa

SUBSTITUTIONS

Yoshida on for Takagi (27)

Yajima on for Shimamoto (27)

Inui on for Matsuzaki (46)

Stephens on for Kitagawa (70)

Nakahara on for Capixaba (77)

REPORT

They taught us a hard lesson, did they not?

We seem to play better away from our base, but this very home defeat was nothing short from woeful, and that in front of our fans who graced us with a big crowd as usual.

The whole setup was (had to be) changed, reverting to an unfamiliar 4-4-2 formation which simply did not work.

The data were bordering the ridiculous:

We had almost two thirds of the possession with almost twice as many passes and this at 94% accuracy, the highest percentage of the season. For what?

We managed 17 attempts at goal with only 7 on target for a miserly single goal, but our opponents had only 6 on target for 14 attempts but killed us with 4 goals. Talk about efficiency! 7 corners to 2 in a demonstration of waste.

Even so, we had to commit twice as many fouls in a futile defense when we had to.

There were two teams on the field, both secure in mid table and with nothing to lose, but one was clever and efficient, the other pedestrian and wasteful.

Truth be told, we had to deal with another long list of injuries and had to work with what we had.

Let us hope this will serve as a good lesson for the future we can nevertheless prepare with less pressure.

Next game will take us to relegated Shonan Belmare after the longest break of the season. Time to study and improve. We have the players, but the competition will be tough for the double season coming next year!

NEXT GAME

J1 League

Game 37

Shimizu S-Pulse vs Shonan Belmare

Date: Sunday November 30th, 2:00 pm

Lemon Gas Stadium Hiratsuka (Kanagawa)