Avispa Fukuoka 2-2 Shimizu S-Pulse

Barry writes

Fukuoka 2-2 S-Pulse
Ramazotti 66 -------------- Iwashita 61 (pen)
Nakamachi 68 ------------- Bosnar 64

Att. 12632

Line Up

GK K. Yamamoto

DF Tsujio
DF Iwashita
DF Bosnar
DF Ota

MF Jong a Pin
MF Ljungberg
MF Brosque (yellow 67)

FW Takahara
FW Takagi
FW Omae

Subs Used

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.

500 miles? Piece of cake

Nice screen

You almost can't see the joins :)

The other lot

Ghotbi says

Not his exact words but, ah, you know the drill by now.

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.

Videos

The only vid I've found so far - poor Ota. :(

Amazing J! A Red Card Record for the J. League

Well, it is one of the most exciting leagues in the world. It therefore wasn't too much of a surprise to see a new professional league record set on Wednesday night (April 15th, 2009).

The dubious honour of the fastest ever red card in professional football history goes to Tokyo Verdy midfielder Tomo Sugawara. The J2 game between Verdy and Sagan Tosu was barely nine seconds old when the referee blew for a deliberate foul on a Tosu striker through on goal.



A paltry 3043 fans were rattling around inside the 50000 seater Ajinomoto Stadium to witness the professional football record of Giuseppe Lorenzo's have a couple of seconds shaved off. Lorenzo had seen red after just ten seconds while playing for Bologna in 1990.

The fastest ever red card (professional or otherwise) came in a 2008 English non-league game when David Pratt got sent off after three seconds in the Southern Football League.

Despite the early bath for Sugawara, Verdy went on to run out 2-0 winners.

Emperor's Cup 1/4 Final Venues Confirmed

S-Pa v FC Tokyo: Yurtec Stadium, Sendai, December 20th, 1pm

The Emperor's Cup in all it's wonderful randomness today had the venues of the quarter finals confirmed. Unlike the English FA Cup, games from the 5th round in are played at neutral venues. Well, not all of them, just some. S-Pulse were one of the unlucky ones last round and got to play a team who were placed at their home ground. Some of the other games were at neutral venues, but not all. I not even going to begin to pretend I understand why this is, but there you have it.

Well, for the 1/4 finals it's all fair and square with all four games staged at venues nuetral to all teams. Or so I was expecting! As it turns out one of the games is a home game. The team in question are Sagan Tosu, and the full quarter final draw looks a little something like this:

Yokohama F. Marinos v Sagan Tosu: Best Amenity Stadium (home of Sagan Tosu)
S-Pa v FC Tokyo: Yurtec Stadium, Sendai (home of Vegalta Sendai)
Kashiwa Reysol v Sanfrecce Hiroshima: Momotaro Stadium (home of Fagiano Okayama)
Nagoya v Osaka or Jubilo Iwata: Kobe Universiade (occasional home of Vissel Kobe)

Well, S-Pulse and FC Tokyo's clash has had Sendai's impressive-looking, football-only Yurtec Stadium chosen to host it. A bit of a trek for all concerned, I'm sure you'll agree. That's the "magic" of the cup though, and for all we know a semi final could be at Ecopa, where we'd have played last year had we beat Gamba in the 1/4 final, so no complaints!

If anyone does know the rationale behind Sagan Tosu getting to play at home while all others play away (travelling hundreds of miles and spending thousand of yen in the process), then do please share it! It took nearly a week after the completion of the 5th round to announce these venues, so there are clearly anything but random, decided by the mythical "fixture computer".

Anyway, politics aside, here's out chance to make another cup final! Our league season is over, so let's have it! Win this one and we're 90 minutes from another BDO to Tokyo! Game on!