S-Pulse 3-2 C. Osaka

Barry writes:

S-Pulse 3-2 C. Osaka
Hyodo 17 ----------------- Own Goal 82
Fujimoto 37 -------------- Martinez 94
Okazaki 57

Att. 13317

Line Up

GK Nishibe (yellow 73)

DF Tsujio (yellow 50)
DF Iwashita
DF Hiraoka (yellow 9)
DF Ota

MF Hyodo
MF Honda (yellow 93)
MF Ono (yellow 46)

FW Fujimoto
FW Johnsen
FW Okazaki (yellow 41)

Subs Used

Ito on for Ono (66)
Nagai on for Johnsen (82)

Report

Stuart Atwell. Remember that name if you don't already know it. He's the referee who single handedly tore the heart and soul out of this game. In a match with not one memorably dirty tackle to speak of, the 27 year old Englishman dished out card after card after card after card. Ten, count 'em, TEN yellow cards.

This is the fellow who is the subject of an article titled: Is Atwell the Worst Referee in the History of the Premier League? and is the chap with a list of "controversies" (a polite way of saying "King Kong sized fuck ups") as long as your arm. And let's be clear: today was no fluke - he showed eight yellows in his last J. League match. He's in the country under an FA / JFA exchange program, and the sooner his three weeks are up, the better for everyone. I can't believe anyone is benefiting from this arrangement (apart from the FA, who have got shot of him for a month).

Kick off

It's a shame when a report must start with two paragraphs of moaning about the referee, so I'll leave it there. As for the game, watching Cerezo's swift, tricky passing game, their off the ball movement and deadly final ball into the box, it's no surprise they have won four of their last five, including a 5-0 away demolition of Hiroshima and a 2-1 defeat of Kashima. We could have been 2-0 down by the time we were 1-0 up.

Goooooooooal!

At 2-0 down their game started coming apart I felt, but were still causing problems right up to the end. Their two goals came from free kicks on the edge of the area. After 85 minutes of Mr Atwell playing the most infuriating pedant you can imagine, the players clearly realised they could flop to the ground at any slight contact with a high chance of being rewarded with a free kick. And so flop the players did with predictable results. The two late goals took the sheen off the result, but in a game torn to shreds by the goon in black, I'm just happy that 1) we won, and 2) noone got sent off.

We went close to making it four several times

I'll write a little more tomorrow, but I gotta get some kip - work on the morrow!

THURSDAY EDIT: I never got to write more about this, so I'll hand over to Matsu at The Rising Sun with his report. Click here.

Videos

Highlights.

Nagoya 3-3 S-Pulse

Barry writes:

Nagoya 3-3 S-Pulse
Tamada 9 -----------------Johnsen 20
Tamada 45 ---------------Okazaki 68
Kanazaki 76 --------------Bosnar 79

Att. 17534

Line Up

GK Nishibe

DF Tsujio
DF Iwashita
DF Bosnar (yellow 60)
DF Arata

MF Hyodo
MF Honda
MF Ono

FW Okazaki
FW Johnsen
FW Fujimoto

Subs Used

Ota on for Arata (HT)
Edamura on for Ono (64)
M. Yamamoto on for Hyodo (78)

Report

I didn't watch this, instead going to a huge fireworks festival, and it looks like I missed a cracker.

Videos

Long highlights, part one:



Part two:

S-Pulse 0-0 iwata

Barry writes:

Shimizu S-Pulse 0-0 iwata

Att. 19968

There you have it, folks. The first ever no score draw in a league Shizuoka Derby. It took 17 years and 40 games to come, but come it did. It takes our unbeaten run at home against iwata to seven years.

Line Up

GK Nishibe

DF Tsujio
DF Iwashita
DF Bosnar
DF Arata (yellow 36)

MF Fujimoto
MF Honda
MF Ono

FW Okazaki
FW Johnsen
FW Nagai

Subs Used

Nagai on for M. Yamamoto (HT)
Ota on for Arata (77)
Omae on for Fujimoto (85)

Videos

The game was sold out and the place was rocking.



Not S-Pulse related, but here's a video of a game this weekend with goals. Gamba Osaka beating Urawa after Urawa had equalised in the 93rd minute. Brilliant stuff.

Okazaki to Plymouth is Bollocks (Unsurprisingly)

Barry writes:

According to a poster on a Plymouth Argyle fans forum, the proposed bid for Okazaki is rubbish. From the mouth of the Pilgrims' manager himself, it's not going to happen.

Kinda nice that Okachan's name is being bandied about abroad, though. When a serious bid from a team worth considering comes in I'll be the first to wish him all the best, but first things first: the 2010 J. League championship. :)

Yokohama FM 2-6 S-Pulse (Satellite) / Plymouth Argyle???

Barry writes:

Over in Yokohama, S-Pulse's satellite team played Marinos' equivalent today. Two games were played, the first ending 1-0 to the home team, the second 5-1 to us.

The satellite line up differs from regular J. League in that it's a mixture of first teamers and reserves with unlimited substitutions available. Over the first 90 minutes 14 different players took to the field, and in the second game we tried out 18 different players.

Our goals came from:

Fujimoto
Okazaki (2)
Johnsen
Ito
Nagai

Great to see both new singing Ito getting on the score sheet, and Okazaki showing he's raring to go after his World Cup adventure. Click here for full line ups (in Japanese). Speaking of Okachan:

Plymouth Argyle - Are You High?

It was reported on Suponichi via the Daily Mail that Plymouth Argyle hope to sign our Okazaki.

Yes, that's Plymouth Argyle, currently in the third tier of English football alongside the likes of Exeter City and Walsall. And, yes, that's Okazaki, the Japanese international who just held his own in the World Cup against the best Dutch, Danish and Paraguayan defenders, and who was the highest scorer in international football in 2009.

It remains to be seen if Okachan, who has stated in the past his hope to move abroad one day, will be enticed by the prospect of playing in front of 5000 people away at Carlisle, or, even better, 2500 at Dagenham and Redbridge.

Seriously, Shinji - you're playing at a higher level than England's third division already. Much like Jubilo's Robert Cullen snubbed Plymouth last year, don't even think about it. I've nothing personal against the Pilgrims, (I'd say the same thing if my beloved Albion made a bid), but for an international striker hitting the peak of his career, a move to England has to be at least to Championship level.

World Cup monopolises my life - Sho Ito Signs

Barry writes:

S-Pulse are off in Gotemba (minus Okazaki who is busy firing Japan into the last 16 in South Africa) for their mid-season camp and I, like the rest of you, am existing on a substantial and enduring lack of sleep. The eight hour time difference, and the resulting sleep deprivation incurred when watching games live, means this website is very much in World Cup hibernation mode.

However, in the preceding fortnight it was announced that a new addition to the Orange Machine is 21 year old Sho Ito from French team Grenoble Foot 38. The former under 20 national team member is the first Japanese player to have gone straight to Europe from high school, and counts Arsenal manger Arsene Wenger amongst his fans.

I'm looking forward to seeing some of the 184cm striker in action.

Yokohama FM 0-0 Urawa (Nabisco Cup)

Barry writes:

Yokohama FM 0-0 Urawa

Att. 13463

Report

And with that display of sheer bloody mindedness, Urawa (who were already out of the competition), gleefully dragged their old rivals down with them. The Saitama reds knew they had more to play for then just their pride - there was of course the chance to royally screw over a bitter enemy.

And screw them over they did, doggedly defending, rushing them on the counter attack, and wasting time at every opportunity until the ref finally blew his whistle deep into the 95th minute. A single goal would have put Yokohama through to the knock out stage at our expense, but Urawa made it their mission to see it didn't happen.

So all that works out just dandy for us, as the group B final standings look a little like this:

#		Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	D	Pts
1		iwata	6	4	1	1	12	5	+7	13
2		S-PULSE	6	3	2	1	6	3	+3	11
3		Yamagata	6	3	1	2	6	6	+0	10
4		Yokohama FM	6	2	3	1	6	3	+3	9
5		Urawa	6	2	2	2	6	6	+0	8
6		Kobe	6	2	1	3	8	10	-2	7
7		Shonan	6	0	0	6	4	15	-11	0

Iwata's impotence in front of goal clearly came to a head at the Yamaha Stadium tonight, as they released Sunday's frustrations all over Yamagata's face in a veritable ejaculation of goals. A 5-0 win for the sky blues (their largest victory for roughly 152 years) sent the visitors out. Given all they needed was a draw to progress, any Mountain Kings who made the journey to iwata tonight will have just cause to be a little peeved at their team's capitulation.

So the next round of fixtures lines up thusly:

Quarter Finals 1st Leg
September 1st 2010 (Wed)

Kashima v Kawasaki
iwata v Sendai
G. Osaka v Hiroshima
FC Tokyo v S-PULSE

Quarter Finals 2nd Leg
September 8th 2010 (Wed)

Kawasaki v Kashima
Sendai v iwata
Hiroshima v G. Osaka
S-PULSE v FC Tokyo

These games happen to fall when I'm back in England for a week, so it pains me to report I'll be missing my first home game of the season. That said, I'll be there for the semi final first leg against either Hiroshima or G. Osaka on September 29th should we make it. The return leg on October 10th I may or may not treat myself to (it's the day before my birthday after all!).