Vegalta/Rising Sun News/Nicks views

No time for the Vegalta preview.........I have a bad feeling about this game tomorrow.

Matsu at Rising Sun News gave me an update on his website.......seems the server went down and he is trying mightily to resurrect the site. Hopefully it won't last too long, there are only a handful of reputable sites on J League shenanigans and I count RSN among the top (I do like Lost in Translation and G!G!OA is my second home). Anyhow, keep your fingers crossed!

Finally, The Notorious N.I.C. (Nick actually) has graced us with some pearls of wisdom and yes we will have beer at Consadole game.

Nick has left a new comment on your post "Ballhawk Down.........Sagan Tosu vs. VERDY": 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.