S-Pulse 1-0 Avispa Fukuoka

Barry writes:

S-Pulse 1-0 Avispa Fukuoka
Omae 80

Att. 11025

Line Up

GK K. Yamamoto

DF Tsujio
DF Iwashita
DF Hiraoka
DF Ota

MF Edamura
MF Muramatsu
MF Ono

FW Omae
FW Takahara
FW Ito

Subs Used

M. Yamamoto on for Muramatsu (HT)
Alex on for Ono (67)
Arata on for Takahara (91)

Report

The forgotten derby day of the J. League. Shimizu vs Fujieda, the two towns a mere 15 miles apart. Today's visitors were founded a decade before before S-Pulse but were beaten to the J. League punch in 1993 by us, and then in 94 by Iwata. This left Shizuoka prefecture pretty much saturated and in 1994 Fujieda Brux upped sticks and relocated to the southern island of Kyushu, becoming Fukuoka Brux in the process. One further name change and you get to today's Avispa. Enough history, but the huge banner at Nihondaira which read Fujieda Brux Forever 1994 was a nice touch.

30 Second Silent Prayer

The rain started overnight and persisted for 24 hours meaning there were 6000 people with tickets who chose to watch it on the box. I guess given that it was on free to air TV, the fact we had over 11000 standing in the rain for two hours was something of a miracle. Wonder if we'll ever get a roof behind the goal, or even a new covered stadium one day?

Anyway, the game was alright. Both teams struggled to created anything much in the slippery conditions, and we had to wait 80 minutes before a touch of class from Genki gave us the breakthrough. A handball right on the edge of the box and Omae stepped of to swing in a perfect strike past the despairing keeper.

Job done. Eventually

After that, Avispa started trying their luck from distance, which given the wet surface I was amazed we hadn't seen more of over the preceding 80 minutes. They even hit the outside of the bar, though not to be outdone, Takahara let loose with a thunderous shot of his own which came back off the cross bar.

So the game played out and and ended 1-0, which was three points well earned. It was one of those days you call character building but in reality was just bloody horrible. I hope it's sunny when we play Hiroshima next week. I really, really hope so.

Videos

Personal video of Omae's cracking freekick Includes the build up..