Yokohama F. Marinos 1-1 S-Pulse

Barry writes:

Yokohama F. Marinos 1-1 S-Pulse
Hyodo 86 ------------------------------------------------------- Omae 80 (pen)

Att. 33436

Line Up

GK K. Yamamoto (yellow 86)

DF Tsujio
DF Iwashita
DF Hiraoka
DF Bosnar
DF Ota

MF M. Yamamoto
MF Edamura
MF Ono

FW Omae
FW Ito

Subs Used

Brosque on for M. Yamamoto (66)
Takahara on for Ono (76)
Arata on for Ito (83)

Report

Probably our best performance so far, but tempered by some cheap loss of possession and in the closing stages the inability to maintain the ball. This lead to a very nervy last ten minutes, but ultimately we held on for a point. The ref, Mr Hajime Matsuo, was blowing for everything that moved, especially giving Ono a hard time. Omae's second goal in two games came from a dive in the box which fooled the ref. Less of this please, Genki! Maybe he was getting frustrated as he'd rattled off a few decent shots over the game but hadn't found the net. The decision was soft, but fair play to him on despatching a perfect kick past Iikura.

Brosque had a big and immediate impact when he came on and very nearly opened the scoring after a swift one two with Ono. His introduction coincided with the game sparking into a frantic last quarter. Nakamura was a hassle throughout, and this was typified when one of his trademark freekicks was only denied by the crossbar.

In the final play of the afternoon, Brosque turned a defender to put himself clean through on goal, but Mr Matsuo once again blew his whistle having deemed the minimal body contact a foul. Maybe he'd realised his mistake on the penalty call and wasn't about to let us win it at the death. I would not be surprised.

Ono was played high up on the left in more of a free role to take advantage of his attacking and creative abilities. With five at the back Iwashita played just in front of a back four as an anchor. After the opening week's battering, the good ship Ghotbi seems to be steadying somewhat as the team beds in and the best system is figured out. With Daigo Kobayashi on the mend, I'm looking forward to the months ahead.

Videos

I grabbed this off the TV just now, so until something better turns up, here you go. Genki's goal against Fukuoka is included at the start.



Iw*ta Watch

Last week we got 11025 in the driving rain for a game that was live on free TV. Less than three hundred more than that turned up the Yamaha this evening for Iw*ta's opening home game. Bare in mind it's the first day of a long weekend, the game wasn't on free TV, and the weather could not have been better. The apathy in the west of Shizuoka is little short of MIND BOGGLING.