FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC!!!!

Fuz writes:

Bloody hell! What a game that was.I don't get to many games at all these days what with work, the fam and living in Gifu, but am I glad I went last night. More fool you, Barry, for not coming!

The first half we were by far the better team and I felt like it was just a matter of time waiting for a goal. I was a happy bunny when Brosque scored just before half time, and was sure we would hold a lead - especially when Taguchi missed a sitter.

As soon as we came back on it was obvious our lead had giving Grampus a kick up the arse and they were going for it. Tulio managed to equalise after his earlier offside attempt and I started to get antsy. We hadn't beat Grampus in a while and it was about time we rose to it. Jymmy Franca had a great shot before he managed to get it in - and nicely done it was too. At this point I really thought we had it in the bag, and was yelling for one more to put a lid on it - and one more goal came, but not from where I wanted.

3-2 to Grampus with five minutes to go and we needed two goals to come back. My mates, just over from Scotland for a week break looked at me and I said, "nah, it'll be alright. We came back the other week and we'll come back tonight".

Never truer words spoken. Less than a minute later, we had one in the back of the net thanks to Senuma and the orange end erupted. Hope renewed, we KNEW we could do it. Additional time 4 minutes.

 Come on!!!

Come on we did.

Toshiyuki managed to get it in, and we all went crazy. Beautiful! What a beautiful game football is! The remaining time seemed to go on forever, and Grampus tried to claw it back. I was fidgeting like a mad man praying for the final whistle and was so relieved when it was finally all over.

Wonderful. Brilliant. Amazing! What a fan-fucking-tastic game. Unlike Bazzer I wasn't prepared to concede; I thought we were by far the better team in the first half and we held it together in the second, even when the odds were against us.

We play Nagoya again on Saturday at home. I REALLY want to go!!

I love you Shimizu!

2009 New Kit Revealed

The new kit for 2009 was revealed today. Not a dramatic departure from last year, and while I'm not 100% with that funky collar thing just yet, it's still a big thumbs up from me!
The design of all three kits (away, home, keeper's) from the posterior:
Every time I see a new kit, I always ask myself if I can picture our heroes lifting a trophy while clad in their snazzy new threads. The answer this year, as always, is yes, yes I can.

No dates yet as to when the new shirts will be available.

In other news, this season's club slogan was announced. It's doesn't wildly differ from last year's We Believe. In fact, it's much the same with the year added to the end:
Well, why fix what ain't broke? :)

Jubilo decided against Hungrrrrrry (another r added to reflect yet another trophy-less season), instead opting for the predictably lame Speedy Action. This may be meant to reflect the rate at which they change managers. With Ooft off, they now have Masaaki Yanagishita at the helm; their seventh manager in five years, no less. They even went so far as to anounce their 2010 and 2011 catchphrases, with 2011 what would seem at face value a rather ambitious Road to Champion. I can only assume they're referring to their first J2 title.

Gutted.

I don't know about Shizza, but that one word explains exactly how I am feeling tonight, and I suspect I am not the only one.

I really don't get it this season. There have been so many games where I've watched safe in the knowledge that we were playing better football or were the better team and then later have headed home disappointed. Games that should have been victories turning into draws, and when we should get a point we often end up with nothing. Frustrating to say the least.

Oka-chan, my personal hero, got us off to a good start a brisk 6 minutes in and although it was one -all at half time I felt we were evenly matched and we had a good shot at winning the game, but I would have settled for a draw given that Grampus have been one of the better sides this year and that we were away from home. Yajima came on and blasted a beautiful little number into the top right-hand corner of the net and confirmed my belief - for yes, we STILL believe - that we could win.

And then what happens? Nishibe decides that he hasn't done his clown routine for a while and true to form, royally buggers it up and gifts Nagoya an equalizer. My fellow UK Ultras and I had a hard time believing it really happened, especially after a great save in the first half. (Speaking of saves, the Nagoya goalie had to go to some length to keep us out in the first, just catching a great little shot with the tips of his fingers, lucky git.) Unfortunately Grampus rapidly followed their equalizer with a free kick by Tamada and put themselves into the lead.

But still, we believers declared that all was not lost and there were a solid 30 minutes for us to equalize, possibly even take the lead again. And certainly we dominated the last half hour with Grampus only breaking away a few times, giving us one very hairy moment towards the end when it looked like being an extremely unjust result of 4-2. Honestly, I think I would have cried. Despite pounding the pressure and the addition of Hara, we just couldn't get the ball to hit the back of the net. Too many silly shots squandered, too many occasions when the ball was passed to the invisible man, and too many mistakes.

I guess that's football, and its just the way the cookie crumbles... but I would really like to see us playing the way I know we can. So much young talent in the team willing to score, so lets see them do it!

That said, good to see Okazaki in the starting line up again, he's clearly hungry for first team football and is getting the ball in the net regularly, hopefully a few more games will see him increase his goal tally, and Hara too if he gets on the park sooner in future.

Oh, and it has to be said - both Shizza and I were impressed with the way Nagoya didn't waste time messing around in the last ten minutes - so many other teams do, especially when there is real danger of your opponents getting that equalizer. Then again, maybe they didn't perceive any danger...