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.
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!).
S-Pulse 2-0 Iwata Nagai 38 -------------------Park sent off 79 Hiraoka 62
Att. 17521 Line Up
GK Nishibe
DF Tsujio DF Hiraoka DF Bosnar DF Ota
MF Hyodo MF Honda MF Ono
FW Nagai FW Johnsen FW Fujimoto
Subs Used
M. Yamamoto on for Hyodo (75) Hara on for Nagai (82) Omae on for Fujimoto (84)
Report
Perfect day for a derby win
We comfortably beat Iwata at a packed Nihondaira Stadium to extend our run of unbeaten home fixtures against Jubilo into it's eighth year. The win leaves the Nabisco Cup group B looking like this:
#
Team
P
W
D
L
F
A
D
Pts
1
S-Pulse
6
3
2
1
6
3
+3
11
2
Yamagata
5
3
1
1
6
1
+5
10
3
Iwata
5
3
1
1
7
5
+2
10
4
Yokohama FM
5
2
2
1
6
3
+3
8
5
Urawa
5
2
1
2
6
6
+0
7
6
Kobe
5
1
1
3
5
8
-3
4
7
Shonan
5
0
0
5
2
12
-10
0
So all we need to hope on Wednesday is that Yokohama don't win. In that case anything can happen in the Iwata v Yamagata game. If Yokohama win, then we'd need the Iwata game to end in a draw to progress. (Not entirely true - see comments.)
As for today, we were the better team; sharper and quicker to the punch than the visitors who, despite getting far enough forward on a number of occasions to shoot, they wouldn't have hit the target if they were still playing now.
The freekick we extended our lead from
Both our goals came from the height of Bosnar and Johnsen creating havoc in the Jubilo penalty area. Johnsen, who admittedly didn't have a great game, was still the main reason we took the lead shortly before the break. A nicely weighted freekick floated in by Ono (who was effortlessly world class again. Okada's unfathomable decision to exclude him from the national team is our gain) was met by the towering Frode. He nodded it into the danger zone, and after another flick on, it was met by Nagai. 1-0.
In the second half it was another freekick which was met by the two metre Bosanr. His powerful header brought a good save from Hatta in the Iwata goal, but it was too much for him to do anything other than parry, and Hiraoka was on hand to smash the rebound home.
Unquestionably helped by the sending off of Park, Jubilo never really looked like scoring, and Nishibe, save for one near catastrophic error of judgement in the first half, was solid as a rock. To be fair, he recovered well from his one mistake and went on to have a great game. As mentioned, Johnsen wasn't at his best with his first touch letting him down more than once, but we all have off days, and his strength in the air was instrumental today.
I'm tired and sunburnt, so I'm going to call it a day. Just before I do, hello to Ken - excellent to meet someone with such a strong English accent!
Now it's all about Wednesday...
Videos
Nagai's goal from a personal cam. A hint of the offsides about it to say the least.
So all we can do tomorrow is win and hope. Kobe and Shonan are out, with Urawa as good as gone. If we win tomorrow we'll go top with a poor goal difference. On Wednesday the final round of games takes place:
Yokohama FM v Urawa Shonan v Kobe Iwata v Yamagata
So if we win tomorrow, we have to hope Yokohama don't win, and then either Iwata or Yamagata beat the other. Simple.
When you're a Brit living in Japan and a game like this arrives, the question is who to support. Here at UK Ultras HQ we're a bit divided on this, and it depends on which part of the UK we're from. Basically, the English lot support England, the Japanese lot support Japan, and I, as a Scot, follow my world cup plan of supporting Japan and whoever England happen to be playing. As Scotland have once again failed to qualify, you can bet that I'm not the only person doing so.
Anyway, pregame I really wanted Japan to win but had a sinking feeling that we would get humped three or four nil. Much as I hate to admit it, but England are actually quite good. Or so I thought...
I'd say we were robbed, but it was more like handing England a big present with a huge ribbon on top. Going ahead early in the first half the hubby and I thought it was too good to be true and sat holding our breath for the response.... which failed to materialize. Half time came, England were lacklustre and Japan were looking quite good. Kawashima was bloody AMAZING last night. He saved quite a few good on target shots with magnificent moves, and even saved a penalty after a silly handball by Endo defending a free kick. Honestly, when the free kick was awarded we cringed; and then when it became a penalty the Fuz household sank into gloomy dread, only to be whipped out of it by a fantastic Kawashima save. Excellent!
And then disaster struck.
Tulio, not a favourite of the UK Ultras at the best of times (indeed, I had cheekily emailed Barry asking how he would feel if Oka-chan scored seconds before Tulio did, and the reply was along the lines of "I'd prefer it to Tulio" but not so polite), quite giftedly headed the ball into his own goal. What a spanner. All is not lost we thought, Japan might get it back. Kawashima continued to be great. Morimoto had a great chance... and then the ball deflected of Nakazawa. A second own goal, and we gifted the game to England.
I'm pretty gutted to be honest, and although I''m sure Barry was happy with a win, there can't be a lot of pride for England in that victory.
Makes me feel better about Scotland getting beat by Japan last November though!
DF Tsujio DF Iwashita (yellow 48) DF Hiraoka DF Ota
MF Hyodo MF Honda MF Ono
FW Nagai FW Johnsen FW Fujimoto
Subs Used
M. Yamamoto on for Hyodo (65) Omae on for Honda (78) Hara on for Nagai (78)
Report
I was expecting to watch this one on the box, but as it wasn't on live anywhere I was reduced, like a savage, to listening on *spit* Reds Radio. Urgh. As if that wasn't bad enough, the commentator wasn't even trying to provide a balanced account of what was unfolding at the Saitama Stadium.
I just checked the stats and was genuinely surprised to see we had 12 shots; only two fewer than the home team. You wouldn't have known it. The commentator took any S-Pulse possession as opportunity to babble on about the fact Reds fans were booing Nagai, that three ex Urawa players started for us today, that we hadn't won in four, or the fact that a draw wouldn't really suit either team.
Timely
So it was a confusing / hilarious / surreal moment when, with the presenter off on another mindless rant about God only knows what, he, completely out of the blue, started shouting and yelping about a goal. I was paralysed with fear as I tried to figure out what had just happened, but to cut a long story short, it was Kazuki Hara who had reaffirmed his semi-legendary status as our very own super sub.
I'm yet to see it, but will add a video is and when one appears online. These three points put us back in the race to qualify for the knock out stages, but anything less than a win against those sky blue scumbags next week will see our hopes for another cup run as good as over. Even a victory may yet prove to be insufficient as you can see:
It's really too close to call. All we can do is win. See you at Nihondaira next week where there will be near on THREE TIMES more than was at jubilo's home game yesterday.
Yes, that's right. S-Pulse Beer. Coming to a supermarket near you. I'm not sure of the story behind this, but basically our local super has started stocking some very nice Sapporo beer branded by the Pulse.
It makes me happy, and it made the husband even happier, as he's the one getting to drink most of it.
Barry writes:
