S-Pulse 1-0 Urawa Red Diamonds

Barry writes:

S-Pulse 1-0 Urawa Red Diamonds
Omae 63

Att. 21524

Line Up

GK K. Yamamoto

DF Tsujio
DF Iwashita
DF Bosnar (yellow 15)
DF Ota

MF Jong-a-Pin (yellow 38)
MF Ono
MF Brosque

FW Omae
FW Takagi
FW Nabeta

Subs Used

Edamura on for Takagi (55)
Hiraoka on for Bosnar (65)
Nagai on for Ljungberg (76)

Report

Blistering heat, horrible jetlag, but at least we won and made it 4-0 against Saitama's two teams this year. I woke up less than three hours before kick off meaning a mad dash to make it out to Ecopa in time. For a home game, Ecopa's a mission, but it does make a change and means for the big games noone is left without a ticket. All told, less than 22000 is a disappointing gate, but at the end of the day we had 2000 more than could have fit in Nihondaira.

Anyway, we won. On the first half we deserved it. Urawa twice broke through one on one but lacked the quality to make them count. But for our part, Nabeta nearly opened the scoring, Genki would have done had he directed his shot better, and Jong a Pin crashed one shot against the bar, and another was only denied only by an excellent save by Kato.

The second half was much more evenly balanced, but Urawa lack teeth. Escudero kept falling over (diving) and otherwise making a mess of things. He either had a bad game or he's just crap. As time wore on, and especially after we took the lead, Urawa looked more and more desperate and rarely troubled Kaito for all their possession.

Tsujio's excellent trickery down the right wing and dart into the box was enough to give the breakthrough just past the hour. Genki was there to take it down and poke it home in one movement. Freddie had a good game. His vision is excellent and the only problem was his surrounding players not always anticipating him. We've seen this happen with Ono though, so give it time while everyone gets up to speed with the Swede's lightening decision making.

Next week we play Kawasaki who have just won their first game after nine defeats. Fingers crossed it's a mere blip in their otherwise disastrous season. :)

ADDITIONAL: It's worth mentioning this was a game without our captain or top scorer. That's all.

Pictures

The long road to Ecopa
They said it was for "children only" :(
Ole!

New look S-Pulse

You should be in good health and free from high blood pressure, heart, back, or neck problems, motion sickness, or other conditions that could be aggravated by this adventure. Expectant mothers should not ride.

Youngberry had a decent game

Videos

Highlights.