Cerezo Enjoy Two Game Cushion in J2

Cerezo Pete gives us his take on Cerezo's romp over Bellmare, as they open up a two game gap (six points) between themselves and the third place team. It is beginning to look like Real Osaka may be back playing derbies against that team from Suita next year. :-)

Cerezo have extended their lead over Bellmare to six points. Ventforet Koufu lost away to Kusatsu. 2nd-placed Vegalta Sendai won.

I watched the game and it was totally dominated by Cerezo. In the first half Cerezo had seven shots on target and eight shots off; Bellmare didn't manage a single shot. Cerezo had seven corners, Bellmare had none.

Bellmare showed a bit more in the second half, but never really offered much threat. They were disrupted by the sending off of ace defender Tamura after about 55 minutes for a second yellow card. The first one was stone cold but perhaps unavoidable--a late tackle just after the ball had gone; the second, in the circumstances was due to a really stupid and unnecessary foul--grabbing a forward by the shoulder and upper arm.

But watching Cerezo is a weird experience. They play this Brazilian style possession football with a lot of technical talent holding on to the ball; but they take a lot of risks playing very accurate passes and quite often give the ball away. And they sometimes give the impression of just playing for the sake of it.

Bellmare hardly got a look-in, with their goal, scored by a defender, coming from a corner in the 88th minute.

When Cerezo do score, it can be very impressive--playing intricate football and then finishing with aplomb--their first goal. Their second came from a beautiful deep cross headed in towards goal and then deflected by Kaio, bringing a brilliant strong block by the goalie at point blank range but unfortunately for him the ball rebounded straight to Fujimoto about 14 yards out, who made no mistake.

I'm still not sure whether Cerezo will have the physical presence and finishing power to survive in J1 if they go up. But they sure can dominate possession in J2.