Struggling Grampus Stung in Final Seconds

A solid performance by a makeshift squad looked set to earn the visitor's a well-deserved share of the points, but was undone by an extra-time goal from Kano.

With several players missing through injury, suspension, or simply being rested ahead of Wednesday's ACL game in Saudi Arabia, there was a distinctly unfamiliar feel to the Grampus starting lineup for this game in Yokohama. This also extended to the bench, of course, where youngsters Sato, Hashimoto and Fukushima were all present.

The team made a good start, with Maya calmly chipping Enomoto after being put through by a good ball from Shohei Abe, after five minutes. Grampus continued to look the better team for much of the first half, but lost impetus after the influential Burzanovic had been stunned after a clash of heads in the penalty area. Although he continued to play for the remainder of the half, he became almost invisible. With Keita Sugimoto proving equally invisible on the right, the Marinos were able to gradually assume control. Sure enough, Tasaka leveled the scores with a well placed header after a well-timed run into space created by rookie striker Watanabe.

The second half saw Grampus regain some of its lost impetus with the addition of Ogawa at half time, and with the introduction of Kennedy midway through the half. However, they were unable fashion the clearcut chances needed to punish some indifferent play by the Marinos. The Aussie saw a couple of good efforts flash the wrong side of a post, but failed to add to his goal tally. They eventually paid for this failure, when Kano pounced on a loose ball to blast home the winner.



The game was also notable for seeing Pxie sent to the stands after a typically skillful kick not only sent the ball back onto the field, but also into the Marinos net. The officious prat in black (Itaru Hirose) feeling compelled to turn this light-hearted moment into a dismissal.



Yokohama Marinos
Tetsuya Enomoto
Takashi Amano (Masakazu Tashiro 74), Yuzo Kurihara, Yuji Nakazawa, Yusuke Tanaka
Naoki Matsuda, Ryuji Kawai, Ariajasuru Hasegawa (Norihisa Shimizu 82), Kenta Kano
Kazuma Watanabe (Kim Kun Hoan 71), Daisuke Watanabe
Scorers: Tasaka 30, Kano 90+2

Nagoya Grampus
Koichi Hirono
Hayuma Tanaka, Maya Yoshida, Akira Takeuchi, Shohei Abe
Keita Sugimoto (Tomohiro Tsuda 72), Keiji Yoshimura, Alex Santos, Magnum (Kennedy 63)
Igor Burzanovic (Yoshizumi Ogawa HT), Yuki Maki
Scorer: Yoshida 5