Cerezo 3-1 Sanga

Peter chimes in with news of Cerezo's first win of the season.

No changes. Last week I wrote, "Cerezo's loss resulted from giving the ball away too often and trying to walk the ball into the net. Two of the statistics confirm the story, which anyway stood out like a sore thumb to the game's observers: Cerezo had 53% of the possession, but the Reds outshot them 14 to 7." Well, Cerezo certainly learnt their lesson: today they outshot Sanga 19-9, although the possession was only 55% to 45%.

Today, Cerezo justified Culpi's team selection and philosophy and played some very good Brazilian-style football. (Although I still think Uemoto, Amaral and Omata are the weakest links.)

The first goal resulted originally from cool play by goalie Kim who came out of his penalty area and made a shortish pass when you wished he had given it a good boot. But after nearly a dozen passes Kim's decision was vindicated as Inui put in a beautiful through-pass assist with the outside of his boot and Kagawa cleverly chipped it over the goalie and into the net from about 15 metres. (30')

The second goal also resulted from good football and a great first-time lob over the goalie from Martinez which would have probably gone in off the far post, but the goalie and Adriano both went for the ball, the goalie got a hand to it and couldn't hold it and the ball bounced loose for Kagawa to tap it into the net with a volley. (36')

The third goal also came from some good Brazilian-style stuff and several passes with sub Ienaga providing the assist and the joyful sub Bando banging it into the net first time under pressure. (90')

In between Kagawa's second and Bando's goals, Sanga's 17-year-old sub Miyayoshi, making his first appearance, scored with a deflection off a Cerezo defender which wrong-footed Kim, who had a very good game today.

Yanagisawa of Sanga looks a class act to me. He has matured and expanded his range of play.

But today one has to finish with praise for Cerezo's football, which at certain times can be stunning.