Consadole Sapporo 0-2 S-Pulse

Barry writes 

Consadole Sapporo 0-2 S-Pulse
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Takagi 38
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Omae 44

Att 11783

Line Up

GK Yamamoto

DF Kawai
DF Hiraoka
DF Jong-a-Pin
DF Lee

MF Muramatsu
MF Sugiyama
MF Hattanada (19)

FW Omae
FW Kim
FW Takagi

Subs Used

Ishige (85) on for Hattanda (65)
Miyoshi on for Omae (86)
Nabeta on for Takagi (91)

Report

Gorgeous stadium. Excellent city. Lovely food. Wide open countryside. Hundreds of travelling orange hordes. An away win. Aaaah, where to start? I could ramble on and on about what a great weekend that was, but I'll try and keep it concise. Firstly, apologies for the late update. As you know by now, I was up north and just got back this afternoon. It was a real struggle to drag myself back to Shizuoka. Three days not even nearly enough to see and do everything. Hokkaido - I'll be back!

Consadole Sapporo not as bad as their record suggests; the fact they beat Sendai and Nagoya recently testament to that. Their problem is a lack of discipline and focus which leads them to 1) fall apart when things are not going their way, and 2) start wading in with clumsy and narky challenges. They ended up a man down on Saturday as a result. Conceding 7 twice in the same year is another manifestation of their mental shortcomings. At least in the game against Kashima they pretty much just gave up at 3-0 and it became a farce.

So anyway, two first half goals did the job. The first a bad mistake by their keeper, but all credit to Kim. He pressured Sugiyama into dropping it from where Takagi was never going to miss. As for Kim, he is settling in well and went achingly close with his head more than once. He'll get his first goal very soon.

When he first joined there was some online moaning about the fact he's Korean given the recent political tensions. Seriously? Football is football and it shouldn't even be an issue. Glad to say it came across as a few lone voices in the dark, and he's getting excellent support from stands.

Our second goal, the winner, was from a Takagi cross to Genki's head (seen that a few times this year!), but the biggest credit has to go to Jong-a-Pin. He got in front of the striker on a dangerous Sapporo cross, and managed to head it out straight to our midfield. A pass or two later and it was in the back of the net. Jong-a-Pin made several crucial tackles, blocks and plays throughout the game and he deserves a mention as almost setting up Omae's goal.

Hattanda started and did great, new signing Miyoshi came on for the last few minutes and was a strong presence in that short time. Without Brosque through international duty and Yoshida still out with a knock, this was no easy game by any means, but we did the job right. Only 8 points off the top, 5 points off third, with ten games to go.

Interestingly, we've matched last season's amount of wins with ten games to go. Comparing last year's final table to the current standings, there are far fewer wins at the top. The champions won't need anything like the 23 wins Kashiwa had. So, yep! Everything to play for yet this season.

Not to mention the league cup is back on Wednesday with our semifinal first leg game against FC Tokyo. Then the second round of the Emperor's Cup against Arterivo Wakayama. From the Kansai regional leagues, but with J. League ambitions. The action keeps coming thick and fast!

Will answer some recent posts tomorrow - need my sleep first! Night night.

Pictures

 Spine-tingly beautiful stadium!

 

Just as impressive inside

 

 We are not amused. Sapporo fans display discontent at their teams' woeful season by hanging their flags upside down - a pretty big insult in these parts

  

1000km? No problem

Full time

 

New signing Miyoshi got a run out and looked happy to be here

Videos

A personal video of both goals.