No time with work to give you an in-depth report on both games so I'll just give you some quick hits.
Verdy came into the three game homestand coming off of 2 shutouts at the hands of Ulsan Horang-I (ACL 1-0 loss) and Ehime FC (0-0). The good news coming in to the week was that some of the injured players, including wonderboy Morimoto! The bad news is, this team is tired and dragging, having 4 games and an overseas trip in 11 days.
YOKOHAMA FC-THE RETURN OF THE KING
Verdy lineup- GK Takagi DF Ryo Nurishi, Hagimura, Togawa, RICKHIKI MF Nagai, Nejime, Ono, Anailson FW Basilio, Hiramoto Subs: Morimoto, Hiroyama, Kuba
Continuing the trend of an ever changing lineup, Ramos went with new guys Rickhiki and Nurishi in a bit of a baffler. I managed to catch a bit of the game at 2:30 am on NTV but long story short Tweed started the scoring on a quick hit from Kasu.........in the second half a front running (and dare I say offside? ) King of Verdy hit again for the miraculous Yokohama FC.
Surprisingly Verdy was the more agressive side, forcing the action against Yokohama. 15 shots were put up against my pick for early season J2 MVP, Takenori Sugeno.....the most dangerous shot was a bullet from Basilio that splintered the crossbar. 2-0 Yokohama FC
MAYDAY- MEDIOCRE MITO IN A MUDDLED MATCH
Verdy lineup- GK Takagi DF Dedimar, Uemura, Hagimura, Fujita MF Nagai, Nejime, Kanazawa,Anailson FW Basilio, Hiramoto Subs: Morimoto, Kuba, Kina
Ono was the last holdout from the original starting 11. his string of starts was put to rest after an early yellow disqualified him for today's match. Mito came in with a bit of confidence after knocking around Consadole Sapporo 3-1 off the fine foot of Anderson. Verdy's mission; Stop Anderson and get a goal. 9 minutes in, Anderson struck for Mito. 81 minutes of bunkering and few opportunities by both squads would cause Verdy to fail in the second part of their mission. 384 minutes of scoreless soccer for team green. It's slump time.
QUICK HITS
Takagi is playing well under a very difficult situation........you can't keep juggling the back line without a detrimental effect. It looks like the middle is starting to finally take shape with Nejime, Anailson, Nagai, and Ono. It also looks like Ruy is toying with a 3-3-4 setup with the addition of Morimoto. I wasn't crazy about the insertion of 2 new d-backs against a disciplined team like Yokohama FC......I think you do that against a Montedio or Tokushima Vortis, but not against the top team in the league.
Coming in next week is Montedio Yamagata, who is coming off a 2-1 victory over Thespa. Verdy needs to stop the fall that now sees them looking up at May 27th opponent Shonan Bellmare.
As always....reports are welcome!
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I saw both recent matches,Yokohama on TV and Mito at National Stadium. Pluses and minuses on both really. Starting with Yokohama,we really were unlucky against this lot. We took the game to them from the begining and over the 90 minutes a combination of (in this order) quality goalkeeping,woodwork,last ditch tackling, strange off side decisions and blatant handballs kept us from scoring. For the first 15 minutes we looked good which culminated in a goal mouth scramble whereby Nagai rifled an effort goalward only to see the Yokohama defender stick out an arm to stop it going in. Everybody shouted "Penalty!! " only for the ref to wave Play on...This seemed to bring Yokohama to life and pretty much for the rest of the game the play ebbed and flowed from one side to the other both teams creating and bringing plenty of excitement to the proceedings. Half way through the first half Jo and Kazu combined on the edge of the area and forced a corner.Amidst a cacophony of booing Kazu delivered a quality corner on to the noggin of the giant Tweed who proceeded to nod the ball unchallenged into the net from the edge of the six yard box.i think our defence needs a new radar system as the giants are sneaking through!! Short arses get picked up easily but somehow nobody notices the giants!!! The guy must be 6ft4 and weigh 14 stone!! No Takagi!! No challenge!! From anybody!!! Unmarked Unchallenged GRRRRRRR!!! The Verdy defence strikes again!! After Takagi had got rid of the dunce cap against Ehime he is now firmly back in the corner,sucking his thumb with the Big D cap on!!! Half time came and went and as the match wore on we seemed to be running out of ideas,we needed a score but we fell even further behind. When a former player returns the last thing you want obviously is for him to score....especially when its a 38 year old,greasy slimeball with an ego the size of Ronaldinhos teeth!! So surprise,surprise who pops up with the second,Kazu!!! Git! double git!! Treble Git!! Fair play to the slimester,he had a good game,provided the goal for Tweed and knocked in one himself. More importantly his hair looked great for the whole 80 odd minutes he was on the field. Anyway last 15 minutes Verdy pressed and pressed for a goal,Morimoto had a chance again after a scramble in the box,leathered the ball straight at the keeper unfortunately. Hiramoto climbed well on two occasions for headers only to see the Yokohama keeper react superbly to tip one round the post and the other over the bar. On any other day,we would have either won or drawn but on this day it just wasnt meant to be. Brasilio as stated nearly broke the crossbar with an effort on the edge of the box,Tweed dived in with a last ditch tackle and seemed to do enough to put brasilio off just that little bit.Unfortunately he got injured in the process and had to be taken off.I think one of the reasons behind Yokohamas stingy defence is definately this Giant Hairy Scotsman. He was very comanding in his own box and dangerous at corners/set plays going forward.If hes out for a while I reckon Yokohama defence will definately open up a bit.Togawa also had a fierce drive in the second half,the ball fizzed from about 35 yards out just taking the paint off the left hand post....
This brings us to yesterdays debacle... nice day out,dull game,poor result,we are s(t)inking fast at the minute. We offered very little yesterday,dare I say it Mito were worth their victory!! Anderson as in the last game was dangerous and lively and like Bambi on ice!! If anyone came near he was over in a second.Not good to see and completely annoying.A good deal of gamesmanship (cheating) was displayed by the boys from Ibaraki but if you want to wins games that way....Anyway,we struggled to make a worthwhile chance for the entire first half whilst Anderson scored in the ninth minute. He broke free on the left galloped into acres of space was completely unchallenged all the way to the box.Takagi seemed to take an age to come out to close down the angle and by the time he did,Anderson easily slotted the ball home. 10 minutes in 1-0 down 80 minutes to go...not a big deal. However, both teams were to slug it out in the centre of the park,rarely threatening either goal. in the last five minutes we finally managed to put together a period of concerted pressure. Morimoto fluffed an easy chance where his control let him down badly,Hiramoto hesitated criminally with goal at his mercy.He nearly made up for it with the last kick of the match though,forcing a superb,one handed save from the visiting keeper. After this,the whistle blew and it was game over...Then the real interest began!!! Football violence in Japan!! I know there have been a couple of very minor scuffles at Reysol and Verdy after their 7-0,7-1,6-0 sequence last year but yesterday was the first time I had been there to witness it. As the players came over to and accept there customary and deserved booing a scuffle broke out amongst the Verdy supporters. I think maybe somebody was venting their spleen a bit too much,booing a bit too long and too loud and the others took offence. Anyway about 15 people got involved,throwing punches,diving in until a couple of stewards jumped in and the other people around jumped in to calm things down. If you are reading this Ramos the boys arent happy!! Those boys certainly werent anyway. We are so erratic at the moment and if we dont start putting a run together starting next week then Yokohama and Reysol will run away with it and we will have to be content with trying to get in the play offs.At the moment the prospect of another season in J2 is looming very large. 4,076 turned up yesterday,very poor indeed. I think thats the lowest crowd Ive ever seen at Verdy in five years. On yestrdays performance,thr crowds will only get lower as well.Troubled times. Nevermind,on the plus side I managed to sneak in a load of beers in and the weather held together,my daughter had a great time,the wife is scared she`ll turn into a Verdy geek when shes older.Another J2 sign was that the snack bar ran out of food just after half time and closed completely before the end,doesnt pay to stay open for the few people who are actually there...Onwards and upwards The Boys Stumble On!!!
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