Not even level - when Brosque nudged the ball on, Takahara was being played WELL onside by Alex. Horrific decision that wrecked an entire game.
It's clear Alex (No. 5) knew he was playing Taka onside by his hasty (but woefully too late) stepping up. To be fair, the ref's line of sight was blocked, but God only knows what the linesman's positioning was like to make such an elementary mistake.
Ineptitude
The goal in full.
Was this discussed on TV? No. Will the officials admit to the error? No. Will refereeing standards improve by sweeping horrendous mistakes under the carpet and / or simply pretending they didn't happen? No.
Edamura on for Sugiyama (55) Takagi on for Takahara (73) Ota on for Tsujio (85)
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Can't read too much into this result. No Jong a Pin, no Ono, no Ota at leftback (Masaki instead), a referee who called a clearly onside goal as offside in the opening stages and waved yellow cards around like confetti (at our players).
Aaah, sorry - never had the time to write much more than this and as time is moving on I'll just leave it here.
Takagi on for Edamura (57) Sugiyama on for Takahara (67) Nagai on for Ota (85)
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Them: Hard to play against, highly motivated, firing on all cylinders, potentially just two wins from the title. Us: winding down, missing our captain, looking towards the cup, nothing but pride to play for. And that was that. They won, we lost and we all went home in foul moods.
Despite all the above, it was very tight game, with the first half especially on a knife edge. The visitors in particular were largely restricted to long range efforts. The second was far more open, no doubt due to Bosnar's unstoppable free kick just before the break. It made Reysol throw everything they had at us to get back in it. They don't play very attractive football, but look at the table - it's been getting the job done.
They penetrated our defences on several occasions with some slick passing, and it was from a swift bit of overlapping that a shot drew a parry from Kaito. That was then headed home by the completely free Leandro to give them the lead. At 2-1 we kept having a go, but the look of a team playing for the title and one playing for pride is impossible to mistake. A late free kick from Bosnar went wide and that was pretty much that.
Kashiwa are now a whisker from the title and it'll be hard too see them blow it against either Cerezo or Urawa. If Nagoya fail to beat Yamagata on Saturday and Kashiwa win, it's all over. This time next year, it'll be us. #optimism
While I'm here, today S-Pulse became only the 5th team in the country to welcome its 5 millionth supporter through the gates. Top work.
I have to choose my words wisely. I'm a little disappointed with some of the ref's decision making today. Omae was in the area and got surrounded by two players and pulled down. I'm 1000% percent certain that was a penalty kick. If that had been given it would have been a different game.
We made a mistake for Kashiwa to equalise, and the second goal too came about from a mistake. After their second we changed the system and went with two up front. We created some chances to equalise.
I think Leandro is one of the best foreigners in the J. League, but with his diving he was trying to get a second yellow card for Jong a Pin, and that's disappointing.
Never mind the game, look at this instead
Videos
Eddy's belter. You really don't need to see anything else.
But if you want to put yourself through it, here you go:
The next round of the cup is at Nihondaira versus JEF United. Kick off is at 3pm, December 17th. If we get through the 1/4 final (24th) and 1/2 final (29th) are both in Osaka at the Nagai Stadium.
Kashiwa Game
The game tomorrow with Kashiwa is completely sold out, and it looks like sunshine. :)
Globe
After six years in the wilderness, S-Pulse have announced a glorious return to the globe motif on their shirts for next season. You have no idea how happy this makes me. I might even buy one. :)
Hiraoka on for Bosnar (HT) Nagai on for Takahara (71) Ito on for Takagi (84)
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Job done, in what was evidently one of the smoothest progressions for a J1 side this evening. Niigata lost to JFL opposition, Gamba Osaka lost to Mito Hollyhock, and most hilariously of all, Jubilo also lost at home to a J2 side in the form of JEF United.
Is that all you take away?
No, actually. :) Respect to the Tottori travelling support
By far the biggest cheer of the night came when Nagai slammed home our 4th. It was recently reported that he'll be leaving at the end of the year, and despite his rather sparse goal record, he's a popular man at Nihondaira.
Tottori played with a whole lot of heart but not a great deal of skill. They approached the game well but were never really in it. After we scored our third they completely went topoeces and we were just running rings round them for the final twenty minutes.
Round 4 is against JEF United, December 17th at Nihondaira. Kick off at 3pm.
Videos
Thanks to the awesome work of YouTube user Spulfly, all the goals.
Sugiyama (yellow 93) on for Takagi (68) Ito on for Takahara (90)
Report
Late, as promised. Fukuoka is a belting city, and they have a cracking stadium, but my one minor gripe is that the incline of the seats behind the goal just isn't steep enough to make out the far end properly. Apart from that, top marks. I also went down to (most probably) next season's Kyushu J1 representatives, and Sagan Tosu too boast a stunning football only ground with access Nihondaira would kill for (if stadiums could kill for things).
Give it time and we could see Kyushu rising as a power in J1. The all pervasive baseball consumes most sporting conciousness, but they have the infrastructure in place for footer. A good couple of years with some momentum built up there could be a power shift in Japanese football.
As for the game, I can only imagine how hard it must be motivating yourself for a meaningless game against relegated opposition, but the travelling fans deserved a bit more. We created few chances in the first half (I just checked the stats and we had one shot on goal) and Ono's (who was rested) captaincy and leadership were missed. Jong a Pin, as has often been the case, was a stand out, though. He's been a great signing.
The second half was better, but until the goal we weren't especially looking the more likely to score. A handball off a Ljungberg shot led to a penalty which for some reason Iwashita took. He made no mistake, but it was an unexpected choice, and were we in the running for anything other than prize money I doubt he'd have taken it. Two minutes later Bosnar walloped a freekick home which we've not seen for a while, and we had just long enough to think that was job done before a header came off Ota's head and looped over Kaito into the net. 2-1.
Two minutes later and we'd lost our lead and the game's explosive seven minutes were over. A couple of half chances for the home team was all that was really left, and it was game over. Hardly vintage S-Pulse, but it means we've only lost one in our last eleven. No league game now until the 20th when we have a chance to throw a spanner into Kashiwa's works but before that Gainare Tottori in the cup on the evening of the 16th.
Firstly, I'm been really impressed with such a beautiful city as Fukuoka and am happy to have come here. And this stadium is maybe the most beautiful in Japan. I want to congratulate Fukuoka. The ran and fought for 90 minutes.
I thought if we could get the first goal we could then control the game, and we did. After we got the second, I thought that we'd be in complete control, but we let in a strange goal. The opponent's header came off the top of Ota's head and floated in over Kaito. At 2-1 the stadium came back to life and with that momentum they made it 2-2.
In other news, there's going to be no match report or update of any substance for Thursday's game until the weekend as I'm off down to Fukuoka tomorrow and leaving my laptop in Shiz. We've sold out nearly four planes on the Shizuoka --> Fukuoka route and I can't bloody wait! Look for me on the box. :)
Finally, in case you're not aware there's an Asian U19 something or other tournament going on right now. Japan played Guam yesterday and this happened:
:-D
Not sure if any S-Pulse youth are in there, but whoever Minami plays for must be pretty pleased with that performance. Comes on at half time and scores SEVEN. :)
Barry writes
