Vegalta and Sanfrecce shared the spoils in an entertaining encounter, where perhaps Sanfrecce had deserved to win. The match were quite evenly contested though, but Sanfrecce had the biggest chances and most of the possession. The first half didn’t provided too manty chances, and the ones that were were saved by the two teams GK’s. Sanfrecce seemed to have a slight advantage, but without turning that into goals. Ri Han Jae had the biggest chance for Sanfrecce, but his shot were saved by Vegalta’s GK. Closest came Vegalta’s Nakashima though who missed a sitter. 16 minutes into the 2nd half came the opening goal, when Hattori and Kashiwagi combined well to see the latter find Hisato Sato free in the box. Sato easily converted his chance, and with that scored his 16th goal of the season. But just a few minutes later Vegalta’s Sugai picked up a loose ball after a corner, and hammered in the equalizer. Vegalta actually looked the most dangerous side at the end, and pushed Sanfrecce back into their own half. No goals were scored though, and the match ended 1-1. Vegalta had 9 shots to Sanfrecce’s 16.
T: Goto 18’, Kikuoka 53’
Mito did well to earn a point against the draw-spesialists Thespa at home this round, in a match than ended 2-2. Both teams had a fair share of chances, but in the end Mito will think they deserved the win the most. Thespa got off to a good start though, when Goto gave them the lead after only 18 minutes. Thespa looked to be the team in charge for most of the first half, but didn’t get to that many chances. Instead Mito’s topscorer and in-form striker Arata equalized just before the break, with his 12th goal of the season. Impressive for a rookie player in such a small club. Mito continued where they left after the break, and Hiramatsu beautifully headed home the 2-1 goal 4 minutes into the 2nd half. But Thespa responded immediately, and with Yamazaki grabbing a goal the teams were deadlocked again. Near the end of the match Thespa got a man sent off, which led to some big chances for the home team that they failed to finish. All in all an entertaining match, and a draw wasn’t too bad for either teams. Mito looked slightly better though overall, with 13 shots to Thespa’s 9.
Montedio faced few difficulties when they met struggling Ehime at home, and in the end they ended up winning 3-0. Although Montedio took a somewhat cautious approach to this match, and never risked too muhc going forward, they always looked to be in control and also proved very effective. In fact, Ehime had the same amount of shots as Montedio did. Miyazawa gave the home team the lead after only 11 minutes, when he took a powerful shot from distance that flew in past Tada in Ehime’s goal. And just 4 minutes later, in-form striker Hasegawa scored on a counter attack to make it 2-0. After the early goals, Montedio slowed down a little, and Ehime tried their best to get back into the match. But they met a solid defence here, and never managed to threat their opponent. Hasegawa added a 2nd to his tally to make it 3-0 with 10-12 minutes left to play, after being set up micely by Akiba. Both teams had 11 shots on goals, but Montedio were by far the best team. They are showing they really mean business this season, and must be considered as one of the strongest candidates for promotion now with only 1/3 left of the season.
Y: Yamada 70’
Both Roasso and Yokohama will be happy with a point from this encounter, as it means they both are without a loss for 2 matches now which has been a rare thing this season.
Roasso got off to the best start though, and took an early lead after oly 3 minutes through a counter-attack in which Takahashi got the honour of finishing off. That was Takahashi’s 13th goal of the season, and only got Hisato Sato and Naoki Ishihara ahead of himselves in the goalscoring chart. Impressive. Yokohama for long seemed to struggle in their quest for the equalizer, with Roasso’s GK coming up with several top-notch saves. But after some offensive substitutions that proved very effective, Yokohama finally found their equalizer through a shot from Yamada, and that proved to be the last goal of the match as well. In the end Yokohama might have deserved the win, but considering their poor form of late they will probably be happy with just avoiding defeat too. Roasso had 11 shots to Yokohama’s 9.
Sagan will be disappointed with just a point at home vs Gifu, as they fighting for one of the 2 available promotion spots. They came from a loss against Sanfrecce, and might be heading into a bad streak now. Gifu did well to prevent them the win though, and with both teams looking more concerned about their defensive play than their offensive, no wonder it became a scoreless draw in the end. Gifu got off to a good start, and looked dangerous in the opening minutes, but it didn’t take long before Sagan had closed them down. Sagan only looked lively for parts in the 2nd half, and the introduction of Leandro midway through the half certainly made them look better up front. But it didn’t help in the end, and the match ended 0-0 with Sagan just outshooting Gifu 11-10.
Cerezo’s misery doesn’t seem to be having an end, and once again they ended up the losing side for the 3rd consecutive match, and for the 6th time in the last 8. But in difference to most of their other losses recently, they totally deserved to lose this time, as Shonan were by far the best team. Naoki Ishihara bagged a brace early in the match to give Shonan a 2-0 lead. First he headed home a cross from Sato, before picking up a spill-ball after a freekick before hammering it in. Ishihara is really on fire at the moment, and only Hisato Sato have scored more than him this season. Cerezo never really looked like threatening Shonan, and even when they swapped DF Ezoe for FW Kakitani they looked toothless in attack. To complete the misery for Cerezo, their former striker Careca added a 3rd with 10 minutes left to play. Careca were a big disappointment at Cerezo, but when he got the chance to play against them he managed for once to find the net. Shonan took a very deserved win in the end, and outshot Cerezo 13-7.
V:Akimoto 74’, Haji 81’, 90’
Tokushima were lucky only to lose 1-3 when they met Kofu this round, as it was a one-way street towards Tokushima’s goal for pretty much the entire match. Only in the opening few minutes did Tokushima manage to stay on level with the visitors, and it was in that early period they got their goal as well, through MF Andrezinho who scored his first ever goal for the club after a nice cross from fellow brazilian Sosa. But after that, it was all about Kofu, who bombarded Tokushima’s goal with shots. Andrezinho went from hero to villain too after only 26 minutes, when he were sent off for 2 yelow cards. It took a long time before they managed to get the equalizer though, as Tokushima’s GK stood like a living wall until the 74th minute. Akimoto where the man to break the deadlock through a set-piece. And within the last 9 minutes, substitute Haji bagged two goals to win the match for the visitors. Surely a well-deserved win, and if Kofu had been a bit more efficient, they would have won by a much bigger margin. They outshot Tokushima 23-3, who now got 5 straight defeats.
2 comments:
Poor old Cereso can't do anything right at the moment...
...but hey, even with their poor form of late they're still well in reach of the promotional spot.
Tokushima though, poor things. That send off was a real shame... they held on almost until the end but then couldnt hold on. I fear for the backlash against Gifu this weekend...
Thanks mate;) I still think we will be able to atleast get 3rd, as we surely are strong enough. Now, will be great to get Kagawa back, and if Furuhashi could get rid of his injury too perhaps we would start winning again;)
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