BARRY WRITES... It's been a whiiiiiiile. 18 months. Time flies! It was inevitable that this site's usage would fall off as Twitter took over, but it's still a bit of a shame. Reviews of random games over the years are a great little time capsule (that crazy Kashima 4-3, having gone 2 down after 6 minutes? Don't mind if I do!), and you just don't get that scanning old tweets. Twitter is of course fantastic for real-time connections, and I can't now imagine watching games without following along with my S-Pulse brothers and sisters around the world. Love you all!
Certain occasions require a good old fashioned blog post though, and today's match is well worth remembering in a bit more depth. So here we go!
Attendance still limited to 20k and no singing
After Iwata's (2nd) extended break in J2, they returned this season to reignite one of the oldest, and best, rivalries in the J. League. We've missed it, and I'm sure they've missed it. A rivaly can be fierce, rough, and hard-fought, yet still be respectful and good natured. I mentioned this on Twitter, but it's worth expanding on. I see people getting upset when they see banter flying around, saying it's stoking hatred, not in the spirit of fair play. I'm not going to flat out tell someone they're wrong, but I wholeheartedly disagree.
I know plenty of S-Pulse and Jubilo fans who love winding each other up and talking shit about their rivals, but they're the same people who will share a drink after, and work together when the chips are down. Yes, you get knobheads who use football as an excuse to be shitty people, but Derby Day banter is not the same thing. I only labour the point because while it may seem obvious to most people here, anybody else reading this will hopefully understand I'm not just some arsehole fanning the flames. Understand, even if they don't agree.
So what a fucking derby that was!!! Booooooom!!!!! Honestly, I may have been 7000 miles away, watching in silence (as much as humanly possible) at 4:30am, but I felt every moment of it.
Suzuki's 9th minute belter had echos of his finish in last week's season opener. Placing the ball high over the keeper, while under pressure from a defender? He makes it look easy. Most would have shot low, or tried to go round, but Suzuki (Yuito) has a confidence he can back up with results. Top goal.
Not to be outdone, Nakayama's winner was something special. I could waffle, but just check it out above. Before that, Iwata had drawn level more though luck than judgement. As the saying goes, you often make your own. When their Suzuki (Yuto) stretched out his leg to get on a long ball, it could have gone anywhere. It went in, over a wrong-footed, flapping Gonda. That took us to the break all square, which on balance was probably fair.
By the end of the second 45, we were deservedly in front, and had even blown a couple of chances to put the game to bed. Not that we needed to really worry. What the game will be remembered for after those two fine strikes and the S-Pulse win, will be Jubilo spectacularly imploding following Nakayama's goal.
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