Davi Strikes to Relaunch Grampus Title Challenge

An injury-time strike by Davi secured three vital away points at Kashiwa, to get Nagoya's season back in track. This was a game that saw Nakamura moved to a more familiar, attacking role, since Magnum played nominally up front in place of the rested Tamada. Although in practice, Nakamura still played in a fairly central position, just more advanced when part of the twin terrier combination with Yoshimura. Yesterday, that role was delegated to Kei Yamaguchi.

This revised formation started the game brightly and the team created several scoring chances. However, they did not take the lead until the 30th minute, when Nakamura and Ogawa combined to give Davi a simple nod-in from close range. Nakamura quickly released a thru ball for Ogawa down the right flank, and Ogawa's instant cross under pressure left the Brazilian with an easy finish.

Even with four forwards in their starting lineup, Kashiwa did not ever really look like troubling Narazaki, and it took an exocet strike from distance to bring Reysol back on level terms, 15 minutes into the second half. Naoshi Nakamura picked up a knock in the opening half and did not emerge for the second, but is expected to play against the Jets on Wednesday. The second half also saw yet another shuffling of the Grampus pack, when Maya Yoshida came on for Kei Yamaguchi. This saw the team switch to a 3-5-2 formation, with the three central defenders across the back and both Abe and Tanaka pushed forward.

Despite Nagoya having the bulk of possession and chances, it looked as though Kashiwa would hold out for a draw, but in the dying moments Davi latched on to rebound to fire home the winner. This puts the team back in the frame for a title challenge, and more importantly will give the team a much needed boost in confidence.

Kashiwa Reysol
Takanori Sugeno
Masahiro Koga, Yuzo Kobayashi, Naoki Ishikawa
Iwao Yamane (Jiro Kamata 78), Ryoichi Kurisawa,
Keisuke Ota (Yuki Otsu HT > Jun Yanagisawa 65), Tadanari Lee, Minoru Suganuma
Popo,
Scorer: Suganuma

Grampus
Seigo Narazaki
Hayuma Tanaka, Milos Bajalica, Takahiro Masukawa, Shohei Abe
Kei Yamaguchi (Maya Yoshida 81), Naoshi Nakamura (Keita Sugimoto HT), Keiji Yoshimura, Yoshizumi Ogawa
Magnum, Davi
Scorers: Davi 31, 90+3

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Japan Times Davi delivers winner for Grampus against Reysol