Mama said knock you out....THESPA vs VERDY

Ahhh, a rare Friday night slugfest in lovely Gunma as Verdy takes a trip to the spa in Kusatsu to do battle with the bottom dwellers from the North. Verdy broke an abysmal 499 minute scoreless streak to hand Shonan Bellmare a 2-0 loss.

VERDY LINEUP

GK Takagi
DF Fujita, Hagimura, Togawa, Sugawara
MF Kuba, Nejime, Kanazawa, Ono
FW Hiramoto, Saito

SUBS: Nagai 61, Anailson 66, Yuhei Ono 80, Maatsura, Mizuhara

Exact same 15 as the Bellmare match......Maatsura was benched for Hiramoto but consistency was the name of this game....did it pay off?

OH HELL YEAH! Ono started off the scoring with a free kick from 18 meters out....Soilent Greens favorite player Masa Saito netted one in the 40th minute. In stoppage time of the first half, Ono pulled a brace. The second half saw Thespa FW Masami sato get sent off with his second yellow in the 25th minute. Verdy wasn't able to take advantage until stoppage time when Hiramot notched his second goal in 2 games. 4-0 Verdy.............Takagi faced 13 shots and didn't flinch.

QUICK THOUGHTS

HMM, so the midfield, the back 4, and the keeper play 2 games in a row and are successful.....BRILLIANT! Same lineup next game, no changes. I know it won't last with the additions of Ishikawa and Kaimoto but it was nice to finally see some consistency. My guess is that Ishikawa will replace Sugawara on the wing and Kaimoto will take the place of Nejime eventually. If Ze Luis is signed, Kanazawa will see his place go as well. I'll be kind of curious to see if one of the big three Brazilians is sent back to the land of flamboyant soccer. All three have fallen out of the starting lineup, Anailson was Ze Luis' former midfield partner at San Caetano, Basilio doesn't seem completely fit right now, and Dedimar is awful.........OK, I'll be curious to see if Dedimar is sent packing tomorrow. Really doesn't bode well for the future of the guy when Ruy brings in a D Mid and a branch defender known for distribution and free kicks.

As always, If you have an eyewitness account, send it in and I will give you the floor. I might go to Tachikawa to check out the Verdy display, it's going on until the 30th.

Midweek match against Vegalta at the National, must win game for Verdy. It's also Beer Day so a bad performance could be really ugly.

FORMER PLAYER WATCH

Washington scored 4 goals today against Kawasaki Frontale today to lead Urawa to a 4-3 victory in the first leg of their Nabisco Cup quarterfinal. He now has a total of 18 goals in Nabisco cup and regular season matches for the season. Unbelievable!