Nagoya Extend Unbeaten Run to Six to Go Top

Nagoya ease past one of their recent bogey teams, Shimizu S-Pulse, with a 2-0 away win at Nihondaira Stadium. This is our first win against Shimizu for four years, and saw the team head the J1 standings pending the result of the Urawa vs Kashima game. With Urawa handing the Antlers their first defeat of the season, Grampus remain a point clear at the top. If the teams keeps this sort of form up, even the Fortress Kashima will hold no fear. :-)

This game saw Nagoya repeat their feat of catching the home team napping in the first half, playing aggressive, confident football that allowed them to control the opening 45 minutes. Ogawa opened the scoring, racing in to slot home a slide-rule pass from Keiji Yosimura after some good work by Tamada in midfield. Grampus continued to control the game until half time, and Shimizu only got into the game in the second half. However, they were unable turn their slight improvement into a goal, and Sugimoto scored for the second game in a row to seal the points.

Team Lineups

Pos.	Shimizu S-Pulse	Nagoya Grampus	Pos.
GK	Kaito Yamamoto	Seigo Narazaki	GK
DF	Daisuke Ichikawa	Akira Takeuchi	DF
DF	Naoaki Aoyama	Milos Bajalica	DF
DF	Kazumichi Takagi	Maya Yoshida	DF
DF	Arata Kodama	Shohei Abe	DF
MF	Takuma Edamura	Yoshizumi Ogawa	MF
MF	Teruyoshi Ito	Naoshi Nakamura	MF
MF	Takuya Honda	Keiji Yoshimura	MF
MF	Fernandinho	Magnun	MF
FW	Takuro Yajima	Keiji Tamada	FW
FW	Marcos Paulo	Frode Johnsen	FW

Other J1 results for April 12/13:
Consadole Sapporo 2-1 Jubilo Iwata
Yokohama Marinos 2-0 Kashiwa Reysol
JEF Chiba 2-4 Omiya Ardija
Tokyo Verdy 1-2 FC Tokyo
Oita Trinita 0-0 Kawasaki Frontale
Kyoto Sanga 2-1 Vissel Kobe
Urawa Reds 2-0 Kashima Antlers
Gamba Osaka 2-2 Albirex Niigata