S-Pulse 3-0 Kofu

Barry writes:

S-Pulse 3-0 Kofu
Takagi 36
Ono 45+1
Omae 66

Att. 19832

Line Up

GK K. Yamamoto (yellow 78)

DF Tsujio (yellow 71)
DF Iwashita
DF Bosnar
DF Ota

MF Hiraoka (yellow 28)
MF Ono
MF Brosque

FW Takagi
FW Takahara
FW Omae

Subs Used

Ljungberg (yellow 71) on for Takagi (HT)
Sugiyama on for Ono (71)
Ito on for Hiraoka (85)

Report

How did I spend my weekend? Not at Nihondaira, sadly, but there is certain 80s fun to be had on a Saturday night in Nagoya.

Prior to David Coverdale and his shiny white teeth (it was the girlfriend's idea- honest!), we found an English boozer by the glorious name of Booby's. A Grampus bar through and through, I'm more than happy to give it a plug. Good booze and scran and several big screens for the football. It took a monumental effort of will not to smack the table and shout the place down when Omiya banged in two in two minutes to go in front, but self preservation is a powerful thing. The better team won out in the end, and fair play, they're up there going for the title and are in for a more exciting climax this year than we are.

But we're not without our own goals, and sweeping aside a resurgent Kofu who won 4-0 away last week wasn't the sign of a team lacking motivation. Highlights are attached below, and as I didn't see it, I can't say too much about the performance, but we seemed to do well without Jong a Pin. Brosque was back in midfield with Ono and Hiraoka.

Takahara started again and nearly added to his season haul on a number of occasions, most notably after latching onto an inspired overhead pass from Ono, but it was rightly ruled out for offside. Our third goal was a thing of beauty and watching it for the first time I perhaps rashly proclaimed it as one of the best goals I've ever seen us score, but you know what? I think I might stand by that. Ono stokes it to Ljungberg who rounds two players, exchanges a swift one two with Omae, then passes it back to Ono who lays off the perfect through pass for Genki to strike it home. Liquid football.

Ghotbi Says

Not his exact words, but translated back from the Japanese, so the general gist.

We scored three special goals today. We could play some great football, but there are still areas for improvement. Especially after out third goal, we stopped playing football. We started the game badly, but started playing after around half an hour. I'm satisfied with Takahara's progress, and I'm happy that Hiraoka covered Jong a Pin's absence very well.

Highlights

Highlights of the game. Takahara offside for his goal, but only just. He was behind the keeper, with the defender the final man when Ono played it.