Saturday, April 08, 2006

Ballhawk Down.........Sagan Tosu vs. VERDY

26 minutes. That's how long Verdy was on equal terms with the pale blue and pink warriors of Sagan Tosu. It's getting to be a pathological problem with Verdy. 26 minutes. Has nobody learned the damage that can be caused by making stupid tackles? 26 minutes. Two yellows in a 26 minute span....................

THE LINEUPS

Sagan Tosu

GK 31 Toshimitsu ASAI
DF 26 Toyoki HASEGAWA, 13 Megumu YOSHIDA, 4 Kazuya IIO, 16 Keiji TAKACHI
MF 7 Takeshi HAMADA, 14 Yoshiki TAKAHASHI,8 YOON Jong Hwan, 34 Junya YAMASHIRO
FW 25 Yoshihito FUJITA, 11 Tatsunori ARAI

SUBS: FW 9 Taakaki SUZUKI (54 min FUJITA), MF 20 Takayuki YAMAGUCHI (69 min TAKAHASHI), MF 30 Tatsuya KAMOHARA (75 min HAMADA)

TOKYO VERDY 1969
GK 21 TAKAGI
DF 13 YANAGISAWA, 5 DEDIMAR, 2 HAGIMURA, 27 AOBA
MF 8 NAGAI, 11 ONO, 15 KANAZAWA, 10 ANAILSON
9 BASILIO, 25 HIRAMOTO

BENCH: GK 1 MIZUHARA, 16 IIO, MF 20 HIROYAMA (45 min YANAGISAWA) , 32 KUBA (63 min KANAZAWA) , DF 23 NEJIME (28 min NAGAI)

After the Mito game, Saito was banished to the netherworld of satellite football and replaced by Iio, the rest of the lineup was similar to last week. As I alluded to in the opening, one of Verdy's illustrious defenders managed to get himself run after a mere 26 minutes. That man was the diabolical master of the muffed free kick, DEDIMAR. Dedimar got run after a late tackle, causing Ramos to change tactics on the fly. Out goes Nagai, In comes Nejime, who is starting to become a man down specialist. The tension built as the team went to a 3-4-2 formation, surviving an onslaught from Sagan striker Tatsunori Arai.

After a halftime switch of Hiroyama for Yanagisawa and later, Kuba for Kanazawa, Verdy amazingly broke through first on a Basilio strike in the 68th minute. Maybe this goal shocked Sagan awake, because Arai evened things up one minute later.

The 81st minute would bring the deciding goal. Now, I was all ready to curse the mess known as DEDIMAR for blowing the game. I was going to release Fujita from his Idiot boy name and heap abuse on #5. I was thouroughly prepared to do this...........but Hiramoto scored the deciding goal. That's right, even with a man out and the bald dandelion in goal, Hiramoto was able to score his second game winner in as many games. Remarkable! Amazing! Verdy wins again.......on the road.......10 men left. 64 minutes.

STARS OF THE GAME:

1. Shingo Nejime- The guy come in and solidifies the team for 64+ minutes. He has to be on the first team bench for the rest of the season.

2. Nozomi Hiroyama- Another guy who's solidifying his place on the first team. I believe he had the pass that led to the game winning goal.

3. The Dynamic Duo- Hiramoto and Basilio manage to get it done again, putting them first and fifth in the league leaders for goals (6 goals and 3 goals). The most amazing thing about Basilio's total is the accuracy.........6 goals on an economical 12 shots.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I'm about ready to drink the Ramos kool-aid. This guy has really good game instincts, I'm not crazy about his talent selection per se, but he did the right things to steal a win under trying circumstances. I don't enjoy the sideline antics and the media hogging, but his game calls have been spot on so far.

The one thing the team really needs to work on is team discipline. These constant flurries of yellows (and now reds) are really gonna come back and bite Verdy real soon. The back line isn't the deepest to begin with, now they have to go further down the depth chart. Maybe that's why Verdy keeps signing more DF's.

I'm not crazy about DEDIMAR to begin with, and when he's paired with my nemisis, Yanagisawa, it scares me. Add the lackluster talent in goal and I fear the worst is coming. That being said, I think Takagi has cemented his position in goal.

Next game is against Thespa Kusatsu at the National. I'll be there with a report. As always.........send in what you saw!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice victory!! Hiramoto and Basilio are a great strikers, but the midfielders... are they as good as this two strikers? Nagai, Kanazawa, Anailson, Ono, Kuba, Ohashi, Hiroyama... what defenders do you include in the 11? Yanagisawa, Fujita, Nejime, Aoba, Togawa, Dedimar, Hagimura, Hiki, Killoran... I think Takagi is better than Mizuhara, I don't know how is Kurokawa. Sorry for this questions but I can't watch the matches of Verdy :-(... I read here that the midfield is coming better, what about the defense? Thanks a lot for this blog!!

GANBARE VERDY! VAMOS VERDY!! Road to J1!!

SMB said...

the mids are starting to get more solid.....I like the 4 he's starting with Hiroyaman and Nejime off the bench.

My favorite 4 was dedi,hagimura, togawa, and fujita but this new 4 played well. I don't think hiki or killoran can play with the 3 brazilians on the field.......foreigner limit.

keep writing in.......thanks for reading. Nick can tell you as well who should be in the back

Anonymous said...

Back four......Togawa a cert, seems the most reliable for me. Dedimar is is ok if he can keep his head, don`t know what the hell he was doing in Sagan game. First one was an attempt to slice his opponent in two the second yellow a clumsy trip on the edge of the box.He has yet to convince. Yanagisawa is a muppet/dwarf who is surely only there to keep the other guys spirits up in an at least we aren`t as bad as him way.Hagimura also blows hot and cold,Nejime has been solid in his limited opportunities.Aoba also has looked ok and also scored the winner against Montedio.
to be honest I can`t name our best back four! We don`t have 4 good defenders on the eveidence so far. Togawa can go in for me,plus Nejime and Aoba. These guys haven`t had any reasons for criticism so far but that could be because Nejime and Aoba havent seen much action. The fourth spot goes to a cardboard cut out of a lion with cassette recorder taped on to it.Appropriately it roars whenever a striker comes near. It might just work for the first minute of the game which is about as long as the ball seems to stay out of our net recently.

SMB said...

Hey anonymous.....

Thanks for the post. I totally agree with the assesment on Togawa and Yanagisawa (I still think it's the CyberAgent blog conspiracy). I like Hagimura but he is inconsistent.

Kuba actually scored the winning goal in the Montedio game but Aoba has been decent. I just kinda like to see younger guys get in there. I really hope Hiki shines so we can send the diabolical Dedimar back home. His "specialty" has been ugly, He killed the clock and shot a weak dribbler into the middle of the Kashiwa wall when Verdy still had a chance. The 2 cards in 26 minutes is inexcusable for a veteran and I think he's gonna cost the team down the road.

Come back again and post whenever you like........just let us know your name.

Anonymous said...

apologies.anonymous is me clicked the wrong button.

Anonymous said...

Again the Boys make us sweat for the win!! Its never easy with Verdy,they like to tease you,pretend they don`t want the points and are completely contented to stay in this crap division!! Game of about three and a half halfs if you get what I mean. Anyway,to begin with first 20 minutes Verdy looked like Rocky Ballboa`s Golden XL v A Particularly Inept Ashmatic Lactose Intolerant Inhaler Wielding Flat Foot Invitational AllStars B Team. The passes were zinging around,nice build up plays, a couple of chances, Hiramoto forcing a great save from the keeper after a quality ball in from a free kick by Anailson.After about 10 minutes of concerted Verdy pressure a Kustsu defender was carefully sheperding a seemingly harmless ball out for a goal kick,when from nowhere Ono (of all people!!) sneaked in behind and robbed the hapless numpty of the ball.Ono whipped in a perfect cross onto the head of Hiramoto who knocked it passed the keeper. The keeper managed to get a bit of a hand to it,but Hiramoto had just enough on it to send it trundling into the net. Great work from our often (by me a lot at least) derided Captain. Great goal,a goal that came from chasing a lost cause,the man Ono earned a good number of brownie points with this set up. Superb. Anyway,at this point I was considering by how many goals Verdy would win by, Kusatsu hadnt offered a thing apart from a skied effort which Furita probably blasted for a home run in Jingu Stadium next door.As always though, these easy victorys are never that easy. Slowly as the half wore on,Verdys previously explosive attacking play became more and more laboured and slowly Kusatsu began to creep back into the match. A period of midfield stalemate ensued with few chances at either end.However Kusatsu began to force the issue just before half time with some considerable pressure especially down Fujitas right side. They forced Takagi into a neat one handed save just before the break and worse was to follow....
The twp teams lined up second half the same as the first. Agian, as seems to be so often this year Verdy were caught napping after the break. The ball had gone for a corner after a neat move from Kusatsu on the left, the corner came in and nobody seemed to notice the GIANT Kusatsu forward lurking around the penalty spot. The commentaters informed me (about 500 times throughout the game) that the said forward measuerd 196cm. Now Im not an expert on the average size of forwards,but is it only me or is this guy massive?? You`d think someone in the defence would think "Ah! this guys huge, better keep an eye out for him lurking around the box area....." nope! free header and the ball in the back of the net.Again, the old Ah well! d`unt matter,we`ll still do `em mentality kicked in....for about five minutes till the same GIANT steamed past Fujita ,(who had his hand up for offside,and in doing so lost about 3 yards on the said Bohemuth)and smashed the ball into the roof of the net at Takagis near post. (No blame for the guy in pink here, but Fujita....play to the whistle for pitys sake,schoolboy coaching). So,once again the Boys had it all to do. Ramos brought on Hiki and Ohashi for Nagai and Kanazawa (I think). They both made good contributions today,Hashi in particular looked dangerous going forward and was the man for the job. Hiki took a while to get into the game and had a few wayward passes,particularly one for Basillio when he was in a great position,but he also had his moments. Ramos put the attacking guys in when needed and no doubt hes not scared to give it a shot,when we are behind. His philosophy seems to be, if we are gonna lose then at least we are gonna do it attacking!! he is Verdy through and through!! Losing 5-4 is better than drawing 0-0!"!As a spectater I fully agree. Anyway,after a scrambled corner, to which Ono had a goalward bound header cleared off the line, Hiramoto bundled in the rebound to make it 2-2.We were back in the game and going by results so far this season concerning come from behind wins,there was only ever gonna be one winner.And so it was, in the 80th (ish) minute Hiramoto broke clear on the left after being found by Anailson(i think) and headed off towards goal, the Kusatsu full backs valiantly raising their arms in the hope of offside (until they saw the centre back virtually playing Takagi onside!!) Basillio was calling for the ball in the middle but there was only ever one place Hiramoto was going to go for when on a hat trick.....the bottom corner of the onion bag for three points. Neat finish from a quality pass from Anailson (i think again).Ramos hailed Hiramoto as The Master from the touchline and it was game over from here on in. Again The Boys had done their very best to try and lose but they just couldnt do it!! How the hell have we won so many games when we could have had no complaints if we had lost them all!! Black Magic?? Voodoo?? The secret must be Ramos` Lucky Perm. Im not joking, if he ever has a haircut we will sink like a stone.Im convinced. Onwards and Upwards. The Boys March On.All Hail The Do!!!

Stars for the day. Hiramoto,Hiramoto and Hiramoto.

(thought Aoba looked solid.played ok,Fujita is a D=O-N-K-E-Y).

ps got my tickets for Consadole match today.Defo on for a few beers,its my first day of Golden Week holidays.