S-Pulse 2-0 Shonan Bellmare (Nabisco Cup)

Barry writes:

S-Pulse 2-0 Shonan Bellmare
Fujimoto 85 (pen)
Hara 93

Att. 9015

Line Up

GK Takeda

DF Ichikawa
DF Hiraoka
DF Arata
DF Ota

MF Ito
MF Yamamoto
MF Fujimoto

FW Nagai
FW Johnsen
FW Omae

Subs Used

Hara on for Nagai (72)
Tsujio on for Ichikawa (72)
Honda on for Ito (79)

Report

Football. Well it's a funny old game. :) You wait 85 minutes for something to happen and then all hell breaks loose.

The Bellmare faithful in full voice

Our 2010 Nabisco Cup campaign got off to a victorious start, but it was far from as clear cut as the 2-0 scoreline suggests. The first 85 minutes were pretty uneventful truth be told, although a bright spot was 22 year old débutante Yohei Takeda's performance between the sticks. He had a good game and will surely be seen more of in the future.

But yeah, like I said, the first 85 minutes were no classic by any means. Neither team really looked like scoring, and if anything the visitors had the better chances. We had only M. Yamamoto, Hiraoka and Arata in the team from Saturday's game with Kawasaki, and it showed. We lacked fluency and were hesitant in our play. Heading into the final five minutes, the nil nil scoreline didn't look much like changing.

Ha.

Starting with Johnsen being bundled over in the penalty area in the 85th minute, things suddenly got interesting. Jungo duly dispatched the spot kick, and with the wind in our sails we were surging forward looking for a second. We got our chance when we were fouled in the box again. I'll be honest with you; I missed the offence, checking, as I was, my phone for latest scores elsewhere. Hara it was who stepped up to seal the victory, and...

Excellent save

But the story didn't end there. With the last attack of the game we won a corner. The kick was swung into the danger zone and who was there to get his head on it and make amends for his penalty miss? Hara made it two nil, the whistle went shortly after and suddenly an unsatisfactory goalless draw is a 2-0 win.

Well, it's a funny old game.

Videos

Till anything betters comes along, here's a personal cam of Jungo's penalty:




And one of Hara's penalty miss five minutes later:



Hara's goal, from a different cam: