VERDY gets their bell rung

After coming off a tough and gutty loss to Korean superteam Ulsan Horang I in the opening game of ACL qualifiers, a slightly tired Verdy team headed east to Kanagawa to take on Shonan Bellmare in the home opener for the mermen. Bellmare was coming off a hard fought 1-1 tie with Verdy's fellow relegation victim Kashiwa Reysol.

The lineups

Shonan Bellmare

GK 1 Tomohiko Ito
DF 30 Kosuke Suda
DF 3 Yuzo Tamura
DF 2 Shinji Jojo
DF 21 Hiroyuki Omata
MF 5 Nivald
MF 7 Yusuke Sato
MF 10 Adiel (89 min 8-Sakamoto)
MF 24 Nozomu Kato (56 min 28-Nakamachi)
FW 11 Fabio (88 min 6- Tonoike)
FW 29 Satoshi Yokoyama

VERDY
GK 1-Mizuhara
DF 13-Yanagisawa (82 min- 5-DEDIMAR OHMYGOD a Dedi sighting!)
DF 4-Togawa
DF 2-Hagimura
DF-6 Sugawara
MF 7-Ohashi (70 min 16-Iio)
MF 15-Kanazawa (70 min 8-Nagai)
MF 11-Ono
MF 10- Anailson
MF 9- Basilio
MF 25-Hiramoto

THE REPORT (Caution.......this is being taken from Verdy's website via babelfish so I'm feeling my way through this report. NOT an eyewitness account)

From what I gather by looking at the report, stats and other accounts, Verdy was the agressor early on. Verdy got it's first real chance at a score in the 8th minute, when Hiramoto got stoned by Bellmare's Ito on a shot in the 8th minute, Verdy would be continually frustrated by Ito the whole day. Most of the shots in today's game were taken by the duo of Ono and Ohashi, with nice support from the back 4 on passes and ball control. In about the 24th minute Nivald of Bellmare was given a yellow card. Two minutes later, an agressive Kanazawa saw yellow as well. Finally in the 32nd minute, Bellmare broke through on a cross from Sato to a breaking Yokoyama for a header off the post and in. Near the end of the half, Fabio tried to break for a goal but was stopped by Kobe refugee Sugawara to keep the game 1-0 at the half.

The second half saw an aggressive Verdy side go after Bellmare again. However Ito was up to the task and stopped everything that came his way. Verdy brought in Iio and Nagai for Kanazawa and Ohashi. From what I gleaned from Ramos interviews, it looked like the team completely went away from set plays and combinations and just kicked away, tking panicked shot after shot. Ono picked up his second yellow in as many games (possibly a new awful trend) and the team stopped functioning in a productive manner. Bellmare pulled it's three Brazilian imports late, believing the game was in hand. Surprisingly the scoring was not finished, Satoshi Yokoyama was fed a nice pass to get his brace and end the scoring in the 89th minute.

Final score 2-0 Bellmare

THREE STARS:

3. Tomo Sugawara-Nice stop near the end of the half to keep Verdy in the game. 2-0 and the team might have really imploded, ala 2005.

2. Satoshi Yokoyama (Shonan Bellmare)-2 goals on three shots is a nice way to introduce yourself to your new fans.

1. Tomohiko Ito (Shonan Bellmare)- Faced more shots than his opposite number(10-6) in goal and fought back every challenge. Quiet acquisition from Cerezo who is having a nice beginning in J2.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Just speculating here, but it looked like defense and the keeper killed us on this. I think there was some frustration in being stonewalled for the second game in a row and it showed with the (possible?) breakdown in the second half. If it's true, it stinks. I'm kind of tempted to lay this on Mizuhara after letting up 2 goals on only 6 shots, but I'm not sure what happened. I also think he might be tired after doing three games in 7 days.

I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get to see the birth of the Dedimar generation up close. Oh well........maybe some prime time next week against Ehime FC.

Coming up: Ehime FC (1 win 1 loss 0 ties)
Ehime lost today to Vissel Kobe 1-0.....this will be the first meeting between the clubs.

TIME DATE and PLACE 2:00pm March 18th at Komozawa stadium (Tokyo)

I got my ticket already so I'll see for myself!