Iwata 3-0 S-Pulse SHIMIZU: SHAME ON YOU

I'm tired, sunburnt, hoarse, but most of all I'm absolutely fucking disgusted. Getting turned over by second-rate relegation fodder is one thing, but letting your biggest rivals have the time of their lives at your expense is completely bloody unforgivable.

I forget my exact words, but they weren't very polite

One question, Kenta: what the FUCK was that? We're one of the better teams in this league. We've got talent - you only have to look to Iwashita, Paulo, Jungo, Okazaki, Hara, or Nagai for evidence of that. If you're not able to mould these players into a threatening team, one which doesn't get given the run around by a team which hadn't won in nine league games, then you've got to start asking yourself if you're the right man for the job.

Nishibe was at fault for the first (how many times have we said that?), but even at 1-0 we had nothing. Twelve shots for Iwata in the second half to our three. And that was with four strikers on for a good portion of it. Johnsen was ineffective, so why leave him on? It was instead Jungo who was removed for Hara. Then when 2-0 down a defender was taken off for another striker. Minutes later our now non-existent defence was breached to make it three. Game over.

Kenta, the fans gave you and your team - our team - a hell of a barrage of abuse at the end, and I'm hoping you've been pulled up in front of the board to explain what went wrong. I hope you can, and I hope you can fix it, because nothing less than a win at home against Kashiwa (one of only two teams with less points that Iwata) on Saturday is now acceptable. No three points and those who were calling for your head last season will be back loud and clear.

S-Pulse - hang your heads in shame. The whole of Iwata is having one big party tonight while the ten thousand oranges are back at home kicking the cat, throwing the remote control and generally feeling ASHAMED and EMBARRASSED of their team, and it's YOUR fault.

While I'm ranting, Jubilo, you don't get off scot free. Oh, no. Look at the two pictures below taken at exactly the same time and tell me what you see:

What is it that immediately springs out at you? Is there double, triple?, the number of away fans? Come on Jubilo - we had to travel the best part of an hour for this. You're ten minutes - TEN MINUTES - down the line. We had trouble getting seats in the bottom tier over two hours before kick off. An Iwata friend waltzed in at 12:15 and found swathes of empty seating behind their goal. "Embarrassing" was her precise wording.

We did our part by taking thousands of fans to Fukuroi, but if you can barely muster ten thousand of your own number, it's no wonder we're left with a half empty stadium and a measly crowd of 22152. Yeah, you were bottom of the table, but have some freaking pride in your team.

Yeah, we sucked, blew, were generally a steaming shower of shit on the day, but it's patently obvious who Shizuoka's premier supported, and all round classier and superior outfit are. Jubilo, you knows it! Reysol, watch out next week - someone is due a battering, and Kenta's job security may now depend on it.



Read a rather more measured, but no less scathing, report by Mike Tuckerman here.