Ishii & Co Hold on for Valuable Point (Redux)

Here is the Orca's take on the incredible draw against the bigger and older AC Milan lads on Tuesday.

This game seems to have been very similar to the recent Japan - Australia game in the Asian Cup final. The AC Milan youth team started well and much the better of the opening minutes. However, Grampus custodian Ishii and his defence held firm during a torrid opening 10 minutes. This allowed the team to find their own rhythm, which saw them start to probe the Milan defence. As you might expect of an Italian team, they proved hard to break down and the first half ended with Nagoya having been outshot 5:1.

The second half was a more one-sided affair. MIlan got another seven shots off, one of which came back off the crossbar. Despite struggling to cope with the greater physical presence of their opponents, our U-18s showed the resilience and concentration to hold on for an encouraging draw. They should have learned much from this game. Now we will have to wait and see if the lessons have been learned. Nagoya Grampus U-i8s:

                      Ishii 
Kato     Kawamoto   (Nicky) Havenaar      Kashio  (Iwata)
                     Okuyama
      Tsuzuku          Sato          Mizuno
            Kawamura (Tomita)   Adachi (Nakane)