Josh Bounces Back with Opening Goal

Our Aussie forward returns from injury to get back on the scoreboard within minutes of the start, nodding home a Mu cross from close range. We again dominated possession, even more so than against Cerezo last week, but it still took us until a minute from time to add to our tally. In the meantime Kitamura had equalized, so Pixie has yet to get his wish of the team wrapping up its wins with plenty of time to spare. :-)

However, unlike last week's game, this was a good performance by the team, apart from the lack of finishing. We ran Yamagata ragged, and should have won far more comfortably than we did. THe only concern from the game was the loss of Kanazaki for what looks like a couple of games. The former Oita winger has been one of our most consistent player this season, and is likely to be missed against Urawa, as will the suspended Tulio. We will have to hope that Masukawa looks equally unflustered playing alongside Chiyotanda as he has with Tulio.

Grampus		2		1	Montedio
Starters				Starters
P.	No.	Name		Name	No.	P.
GK	1	Seigo Narazaki		Kenta Shimizu	1	GK
DF	32	Hayuma Tanaka		Takuya Miyamoto	14	DF
DF	4	Tulio		Takuya Shinoda	22	DF
DF	5	Takahiro Masukawa		Hidenori Ishii	3	DF
DF	6	Shohei Abe		Tatsuya Ishikawa	13	DF
MF	7	Naoshi Nakamura		Tomotaka Kitamura	11	MF
MF	10	Yoshizumi Ogawa		Tomi Shimomura	5	MF
MF	9	Igor Burzanovic		Kentaro Sato	17	MF
FW	25	Mu Kanazaki		Kim Byung Suk	16	FW
FW	16	Josh Kennedy		Yuzo Tashiro	10	FW
FW	11	Keiji Tamada		Tatsuya Furuhashi	9	FW
Subs Bench				Subs Bench
GK	50	Yoshinari Takagi		Yuki Uekusa	20	GK
DF	2	Akira Takeuchi		Shugo Nishikawa	4	DF
DF	3	Mitsuru Chiyotanda		Takumi Yamada	26	DF
MF	10	Yoshizumi Ogawa		Katsuyuki Miyazawa Jo	7	MF
MF	14	Keiji Yoshimura		Masaru Akiba	19	MF
MF	20	Danilson		Tetsuro Ota	28	MF
FW	19	Keita Sugimoto		Han Dong Won	21	FW

Kennedy 7' Tulio 89'	Scorers	Kitamura 49'
Grampus	Timeline	Montedio
Kennedy 7'	GOAL
Tulio 15'	Card
	Card	Ishikawa 38'
	Goal	Kitamura 41'
Abe 54'	Card
Kanazaki > Ogawa 54'	Substitution
	Card	Tashiro 58'
	Substitution	Ban > Miyazawa 59'
	Card	Sato 60'
	Substitution	Shimomura > Akiba 65'
Burzanovic > Chiyotanda 81'	Substitution
Nakamura > Yoshimura 85'	Substitution
	Substitution	Kitamura > Han 65'
Tulio 89'	GOAL

We pressed forward from the opening whistle, and this helped lead to the opening goal. Nakamura closed-down and dispossessed a Yamagata player deep in their own half, Josh quickly pounced on the loose ball to release Mu into space in the area and the winger returned the compliment be sending in an inch-perfect cross to give the towering Aussie a simple nod home from three yards out.

Tulio picked up his fourth yellow of the season after the ball struck his hand from a corner. It looked entirely accidental as his arms were entangled with those of his covering defender as they both jumped for the ball, but there is no doubt that the ball made contact with his elbow. This corner came as the result of a raking cross-field ball from the Brazilian-born defender that almost gave Josh another goal. However, the overstretched Montedio defence made just enough of a challenge to send the ball wide for the corner.

The Yamagata defence continued to live dangerously, as a neat buildup saw　Hayuma knock the ball back for Tamada to tap home from close range, but the effort was ruled out for offside. Mu Kanazaki then sent a header wide after a neat pull-back from the bye-line from Tamada. The Japan forward then made a typically speedy burst into the box, but sent his powerful shot flashing wide. Meanwhile, the Montedio attack was limited to a couple of wild long-range shots.

Alex also had another good game as one of the two defensive midfielders. His accurate crosses frequently had the blue and yellow line at full stretch and even managed to send in a trademark curling shot that flew just over the bar. Indeed both he and Naoshi were able to make frequent forays forward, such was our level of control during the half.

Having spent most of the half desperately hanging on, the visitors got back into the game shortly before the interval. Kitamura turning on a sixpence in the six-yard box to send the ball past the wrong-footed Narazaki. The Japan custodian was then called into action again, as he was forced to tip over a strong Tashiro header.

HT: 1-1

Montedio keeper Shimizu was called into action immediately in the half, as a shrewd Burzanovic pass sent Nakamura in with a clear sight of goal. The young keeper doing well to turn the midfielder’s angled shot round the post for a corner. Next, it as Kanazaki’s turn to go close, as his effort under close challenge went just wide. Unfortunately, the young winger was injured in his next surge forward, in which his neat pull-back for Nakamura was bundled wide by a defender. However, he hurt his right thigh in the process and is out for a couple of weeks. Ogawa coming on in his place.

The loss of his co-tormentor down the right flank saw Hayuma struggle to be as influential in this half as he had been over the opening 45 minutes. As a result, it was Abe and Alex who started to look the more likely to stretch the Yamagata defence. As for our volante’s, both Alex and Naoshi continued to get forward, but failed to make a decisive break. Indeed, Alex was hardly needed in a defensive role, leaving those duties to the snapping Naoshi.

On the other hand, Tamada was clearly reveling in the space that he was able to exploit in his withdrawn midfield position. Another typical surge through the middle again forcing Shimizu into a fine save as the Tamada’s shot looked destined to find the top left corner of his goal. Josh was also looking as though he was not feeling any effects from his recent back injury and was strong in the air and also able to make his surprisingly sharp turn on the ground, one of each saw him fire in another strong shot to test Shimizu. The Montedio defence often forced to resort to dubious means to try and keep the Aussie from getting in his powerful headers.

As the game wore on and we still had not added to our tally, Tulio and Masukawa both made surges into the opposition ares, but could not find the composure to get a clean shot on goal. Manager Stojkovic was able to further bolster the attack, by bringing on Chiyotanda, which allowed Tulio to operate as an additional centre forward. Having seen Ogawa send a shot fizzing over from his neat pass, the big defender crashed home the winning goal after more neat work by Alex and Tamada.