S-Pulse 4-1 Mito Hollyhock (Emp Cup 3rd Rnd)

Barry writes:

S-Pulse 4-1 Mito Hollyhock
Iwashita 63-----------------Ohashi 53
Ono 66
Omae 91
Ota 94

Att. 3107

Line Up

GK Nishibe

DF Tsujio
DF Hiroi
DF Iwashita
DF Ota

MF Hyodo
MF Yamamoto M.
MF Ito T.

FW Ito S.
FW Nagai
FW Hara

Subs Used

Ono on for Ito T. (63)
Omae on for Yamamoto M. (79)
Nagasawa on for Hyodo (85)

Report

As I sit here scoffing the last of my S-Pulse birthday cake, finally I have some happy tidings to convey. We won a game! It feels like an age, and it's certainly been a while since we scored four. Yes, it was against J2 opposition, but boy does it relieve some of the gathering darkness of recent weeks.

It was all change after Sunday's aggregate defeat. Only Nishibe, Hyodo and Yamamoto remained, with Ito Sho making a first start. He was joined up top by Nagai and Hara. Not a bad front line by any means, and I was impressed with Sho's tricky dribbling game. He has a verve and confidence about him which I like, and want to see more of - especially against higher level opponents.

It looks like a comfortable enough scoreline on the face of it, but our four only came after an absolute howler by Nishibe to gift Mito a lead. Think Green's spillage for England in the World Cup and you've pretty much got it. A speculative effort from Ohashi should have been a straightforward collect, but the ball squirmed up and out of Yohei's hands and into the net. Not that it was the visitor's first attempt. Up to that point, Mito had hit us on the counter more than once and even had the ball in the net, but it was ruled out by the lineman's flag.

Mito's hardy travelling bunch

Nishibe's error kick started us somewhat, and after five corners in quick succession, we finally broke through via Iwashita. Three minutes later a penalty was put home by the just-brought-on Ono, whose introduction did the trick. He steadied the ship and helped sort out what creativity we'd been lacking in the centre of the park. After getting in front though, we did then tend to sit back and invite Mito onto us, which ensured a nervy end to the game. That was until the very end when a couple of swift moves resulted in goals for Omae and Ota, with Ota's being the last kick of the game.

Kick off

In the next round we play Yokohama F. Marinos. The game is scheduled for Wednesday November 17th, location to be confirmed.

Videos

Iwashita's equaliser.



Here's a vid I took of our second, Ono's penalty - his third goal in three games, no less!



Omae with our third.



Ota makes it four.