Barry writes Nagoya 3-4 S-Pulse
Tulio 54 --------------------- Brosque 42
Fujimoto 76, 87 ---------- França 69
---------------------------------- Senuma 88
---------------------------------- Toshiyuki 93
4-4 on aggregate, S-Pulse win on away goals
Att. 7313
Line Up
GK Yamamoto
DF Kawai (89)
DF Hiraoka (84)
DF Jong a Pin
DF Kang
DF Yoshida
MF Sugiyama
MF Brosque
FW França (45)
FW Omae
FW Toshiyuki
Subs Used
Ishige on for Kang (66)
Senuma on for Yoshida (84)
Report - The Miracle at Mizuho
Probably best to let my tweets to the talking. We started 1-0 down after the home first leg.
Kick off!
S-Pulse enjoying greater possession.
Genki has a fizzing shot pushed round the post. Ref gives a goal kick.
GOAL!! 1-0! Brosque from a Genki FK. GAME ON!! (1-1 on agg)
Unstoppable header from the Australian who got behind his marker. That's the massive away goal.
And but for Taguchi firing wide at an open goal, we would be at 1-1.
It came after Yamamoto hesitated and let him steal in. Even I'd have put that away.
HT!
2nd half underway!
Nagoya scramble it in, but it's offside.
França with a belting shot on the turn. Keeper just about deals with it.
Why the long face, Tulio? You just equalised! 1-1. (2-1 Nagoya on agg)
Ishige on for Kang (66)
JYMMY FRANCA!!! Just as I was about to say there's still goals in this,
Bollocks! 2-2, 3-2 on aggregate to Nagoya. 15m still to go!
Débutante FW Senuma on for Yoshida (84)
Game over. Nagoya with the long ball and score. 3-2 Nagoya. (4-2 Nagoya on agg)
Débutante Senuma pulls one back. 3-3, 4-3 to Nagoya on aggregate
1m plus stoppage time.
4m stoppage time.
GOAL!
OMFG!
UNFUCKINGBELIEVABLE!
4-3 to us, 4-4 on aggregate. We go through on away goals.
88th and 93rd minute goals. Just crazy scenes!
I hold my hands up - when Fujimoto put the game seemingly out of reach in the 87th minute, I slumped back deep in my seat. Even when Senuma scored our 3rd, I didn't react at all. I've been watching football long enough to know miracles don't happen that often.
I really should know better by now. In the 3rd minute of stoppage time, in a moment reminiscent of Johnsen's against Urawa, Toshiyuki raced to meet a deflected cross at the far post and somehow squeeze it home. 4-3 to us on the night, 4-4 on aggregate, the bar exploded in orange, and we go through on away goals.
What spirit, what guts, what fight - and all with 11 men! :-D Very glad to report we didn't have anyone sent off today! It really was a cracking cup game. One of the best I've seen in my time in Japan, and either team could have won it. Make no mistake, both teams wanted it. Even had we gone out 4-3 I was ready to concede Nagoya deserved the win. They defended deep when they had to, but when needed they posed a very real threat, and it came to fruition in the form of three goals.
As for us, Brosque's goal was a belting header, and very well taken to lose his marker. Jymmy finally got some reward for his real hard work of late. New signing Senuma made a dream start to his S-Pulse career putting a loose ball away after a concerted S-Pulse attack. Then Toshiyuki pops up to complete a remarkable, and very improbably fightback, and send the travelling masses delirious.
Man of the moment - Yuji Senuma
The semi final will be against FC Tokyo. The 1st, away leg will be at Ajinomoto Stadium on Wednesday September 5th, kick off 7pm.The 2nd leg, at home, will be on Saturday October 13th at 2pm. I'll miss the home leg because I'm a complete spanner and didn't think to check the League Cup fixture list when buying a plane ticket home this week. Schoolboy error. :(
Videos
Highlights, with words from both managers at the end.
And the full time whistle in White Ize, Shizuoka. You should have seen it for Takagi's goal...
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