Kawasaki 1-1 S-Pulse

Barry writes:

Kawasaki 1-1 S-Pulse
Own Goal 65 -------------------Brosque 56

Att. 20973

Line Up

GK K. Yamamoto

DF Tsujio
DF Iwashita
DF Bosnar
DF Ota

MF Jong-a-Pin (yellow 22)
MF Edamura (yellow 18)
MF Brosque (yellow 82)

FW Omae
FW Nabeta
FW Takagi

Subs Used

Muramatsu on for Edamura (65)
Ljungberg on for Nabeta (74)

Report

Under the cosh for the first half, much better in the second. Ljungberg had a big impact again, starting moves and also being there on the end of others, but the 15 minutes he was on wasn't enough to create a winner. Nearly, but not quite. Bare in mind he's still some way off full fitness, but his rapid integration bodes well for the future.

Kawasaki were not playing like a team who had lost 9 of their last 10, and might have grabbed a winner. But they had no hope of dealing with Takagi who just won't allow himself to be denied. A surging run down the left, he beat two players before darting into the heart of the penalty area and poking a shot into the bottom corner. Sugiyama could only parry it out to a waiting Brisque. 1-0 to the good guys.

At 1-0 down the home team were really going for it and when Juninho's stab was deflected home by Jong a Pin's leg to level the score it was deserved. A draw was probably fair, and given our injury reduced team, not an altogether bad result. An even better result was Kofu doing Gamba 2-0 - especially because I had a few quid on it. :)

Next up, relegation threatened Niigata in the second leg of our League Cup 2nd round game. We lead 2-1 from the first leg.

Goal!

Ghotbi Says

To be honest, I though the 1st half was very sloppy for both teams. We created a few half chances and a penalty that wasn't called. But I thought the 2nd half we started better and created a nice goal, but our reaction after the goal was poor. Kawasaki created some good opportunities and we were not in control, and they equalised.

But after they equalised, especially after Freddie came on, we controlled the game and had some wonderful chances to win. There are some positives to take out of the game, Nabeta had a good game.

We are playing without some of our key players and without your more experienced players you make mistakes. The important thing is getting Ono and Takahara back and Ljungberg fully fit. Once those three players are back you'll see a different team.

Our fans were wonderful from the beginning to the end, they cheered us on and I'm grateful for them.

Videos

Personal video of Brosque's goal.