Soilent Green-Behind Enemy Lines 2......A Family Affair

Ahhh, my second Verdy roadtrip......this time it was an almost 2 hour jaunt to the monstrosity that is Nissan Stadium.


















Actually, it's a beautiful stadium and quite a place to hold a reunion between former teammates Rui Ramos, Satoshi Tsunami, Takuya Takagi, and King Kazu as well as former Verdy youth Takanori Sugeno. Yokohama FC welcomed the addition of Kyoto refugee Alemao while Verdy brought in former Kawasaki bomber Marcus. Verdy came in playing some of the worst soccer of the season dropping 3 straight to Kashiwa, Vissel, and Consadole. Yokohama FC went to battle for the first time since the departure of Steven Tweed.

VERDY LINEUP

GK Takagi
DF Ishikawa, Ichiyanagi, Aoba, Fujita
MF Kuba (Hiroyama), Nejime, Marcus (Kanazawa), Sugawara
FW Basilio (Saito), Hiramoto

GAME REPORT/RANKINGS

The first signs of disenchantment have reared their heads as Brigata Verde and Verdista flew their flags upside down (the International symbol of distress). There also was a gentleman who wore a "RUY RAMOS FAREWELL MATCH" t-shirt and displayed a banner that read SARABA RAMOS.......loosely translated, GO AWAY RAMOS. The game took place in a constant drizzle, so play was ragged and sloppy.

For about 65 to 70 minutes, Verdy's defense was rock solid. Kind of amazing when you think that 3 of last weeks starters were out for poor play or suspension. The offense was hideous. Basilio was a non-factor and Hiramoto was an offense killer. Arguably this was the worst performance by the offense all season. No dangerous chances and the passing was porous. It got even worse when Hiroyama came in for Kuba. Yokohama got alot of chances but couldn't capitalize.

YES, it was my first 0-0 tie. I hope never to see another one again. BORING, piss poor soccer. The highlight was Fujita hustling to break up a cross in the box and the dancing prowess of the King.

My rankings are as followed

GK- Not many dangerous chances, Takagi had a couple of nice saves so I'll give him a 6. He handled the back line well and was vocal as always.

DF- I would have given them a 7 except they started breaking down and making sloppy clears. Fujita was truly the bright spot in the back 4. Ichiyanagi and Aoba filled in nicely, Ishikawa was ok on defense but not great on offense..........6.25

MF- Ahhhhh, not great. Marcus had a few flashes but really offered nothing better than what Anailson was giving. Hopefully it just will take time to connect with teammates and it's not the reason he left Frontale. Sugawara and Nejime were solid defensively, Kuba was ineffective. Shin had a good little run when he came in. Hiroyama was poor..........5.3

FW- WOW.........they were really bad tonight. I don't think Basilio is quite right. He's not flashing the speed that he had before the side injury. Hiramoto was constantly out of position and didn't look like he was too interested in being in Yokohama. I'm starting to believe he is less than sophisticated when it comes to the beautiful game. He managed to pick up another yellow at the end of the game. Which means he is well on the way to picking up yet another suspension. Good thinking! Way to go! Maybe you can join Tamano in Tokushima. Saito came in well tonight but kinda got bogged down when he partnered with Hiramoto................4.25

RUI..............He didn't have the magic touch tonight. I think the pressure is starting to come. It probably doesn't help that former teammate Takagi and last year's interim skipper Nobuhiro Ishizaki have Yokohama and Kashiwa in promotion position halfway through the season. He stole a point on the road after having his team get dominated so.........5.5

QUICK HITS

If Mito beats Vegalta today.......Verdy drops to 8th with Montedio right behind them. No Ze Luis yet. God that was a boring game. Yokohama FC does know how to treat their customers right, though. The taiko drums were pretty cool, there was no pet bottle gestapo, the cheerleaders were hardly wearing any clothes, and the staff was very polite. Contrast that to the garbage that goes on at National and you can see why Verdy gets 4000 a game and not 11,000 like last night. I also was able to find a Nakazawa F Marinos figure to go with my Vissel Patrick Mboma and my Verdy Rui Ramos figures. I'm looking for collectible figures that have connections to Verdy. If anyone has any idea how to get the Atsuhiro Miura Verdy figure, a Bismarck Kashima Antler, or Vissel Kazu, please let me know. Time for sleep! As always, if you have any eyewitness accounts of the game, send in a report.

5th place Sagan Tosu visits the National on the 8th. It will be my first trip to a home game since the Vegalta red card rodeo in June.

Good night!