Sunday 7 March 2010

Grampus Make Bold Statement of Intent!

nagoyagrampus-s.gif
Nagoya got their 2010 season off to an impressive start. They edged an entertaining and closely-fought contest at Osaka's Banpaku Stadium 2-1. All our major new signings had good debuts, with Tulio and Mu Kanazaki making outstanding contributions to a winning cause.

An early Tamada goal, tucking home a Josh Kennedy cushioned header after 13 minutes, was cancelled out by a well placed shot into the top right corner by Futagawa in the 20th minute. (However, this goal came from a well-worked corner that should never have been. A Lucas header clipping Narazaki's bar on the previous play, but Blind Pew and co awarded a corner to Gamba.) The teams continued to be evenly matched for remainder of the half, with both teams displaying some slick passing under pressure. The deadlock was broken midway through the second half when Josh put way the loose ball after some more good work by Tamada.


































































































































































































Gamba 1 2 Grampus
Starters Starters
P. No. Name Name No. P.
GK 1 Yosuke Fujigaya Seigo Narazaki 1 GK
DF 21 Akira Kaji Hayuma Tanaka 32 DF
DF 2 Sota Nakazawa Tulio 4 DF
DF 4 Kazumichi Takagi Takahiro Masukawa 5 DF
DF 13 Michihiro Yasuda (OUT 80) Shohei Abe 6 DF
MF 27 Hideo Hashimoto (OUT 63) Keiji Yoshimura (OUT 64) 14 MF
MF 17 Tomokazu Myojin Yoshizumi Ogawa 10 MF
MF 7 Yasuhito Endo Magnum (OUT 90) 8 MF
MF 10 Takahiro Futagawa Mu Kanazaki yellow.gif (OUT 75) 25 MF
FW 9 Lucas yellow.gif Keiji Tamada 11 FW
FW 18 Cho Jae-Jin (OUT 88) Josh Kennedy yellow.gif 16 FW
Subs Bench Subs Bench
GK 29 Atsushi Kimura Yoshinaari Takagi 50 GK
DF 6 Takumi Shimohira Mitsuru Chiyotanda 3 DF
DF 28 Shunya Sugunuma Igor Burzanovic 9 MF
MF 8 Hayato Sasaki Danilson 20 FW
MF 23 Takuya Takei Alex Santos 38 MF
FW 14 Shoki Hirai Yuki Maki 17 FW
FW 16 Dodo Keita Sugimoto 19 FW










































































Futagawa 21'

Scorers

Tamada 14'

Kennedy 68'

Gamba

Timeline

Grampus

GOAL Keiji Tamada 14'
Takahiro Futagawa 21' Goal
Hashimoto > Sasaki 63' Substitution
Substitution Yoshimura > Danilson 64'
yellow.gif Card Mu Kanazaki 65' (For persistently embarrassing Yasuda.)
GOAL Josh Kennedy 68'
yellow.gif Card Josh Kennedy 73'
Substitution Kanazaki > Burzanovic 75'
Yasuda > Hirai 80' Substitution
Cho > Dodo 88' Substitution
Substitution Magnum > Chiyotanda 90'
Lucas 90+3' yellow.gif Card



Paired alongside Masukawa, rather than Chiyotanda, Japan stalwart Tulio had a commanding game. He marshaled the defence brilliantly and made a couple of vital tackles on the rare occasions Gamba did threaten to break through the ranks. The normally agitated Masukawa looked unflappable and had a equally impressive game, suggesting that late substitute CHiyotanda will find it hard to displace his former Avispa colleague for a regular place. More likely, the two of them will alternate in the second central position. Both side backs, Abe and Tanaka coped well with anything that Gamba threw at them, with Hayuma Tanaka free to make some dangerous advances down the right (since Mu dropped back to cover that side when he did so).

Offensively, Mu cruelly exposed Gamba's weakness on its left flank. His speed and power frequently threatening to overrun the outmatched Yasuda. The Gamba defender often relying on some generous protection from referee Okada to bail him out. This constant threat from the pacey youngster, left Ogawa and Magnum free to play more creatively than either managed last season. Both looking sharp and spraying passes to team mates quickly and accurately. Keiji Yoshimua has clearly been forced to raise his game by the arrival of Danilson, and was also far more positive in his play than last year, before making way for the Columbian midway through the second half.

Up front, Josh and Keiji worked tirelessly to deny Gamba time to dwell on the ball. And although the Suita team's crisp, one-touch passes were sharper and slightly more accurate, they were not decisively so as has been the case over the last few years. Indeed this is the first time that we have been equal matches for the Osakans, for a long time, even in games we have managed to win.

The rival fans prepare to usher in a new season
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2 comments:

JEF VIKING said...

Is a very good victory for us. Kennedy for me, is the hero of the match. Nagoya, this year, has a lot of forms of play, can play with touches with the small people, if this not found can play with Kennedy. Congratulations for your blog. I've a Nagoya Grampus blog too, if you like you can add me, but is in spanish.:)

Red Orca said...

Hi Angel,

A Spanish blog on Grampus? Please send details. I am sure there are Brazilian fans who will find that easier to read than my ENglish rants. :-)

Red