Match Report: J1 Week 4, Jubilo Iwata vs. FC Tokyo

J.League Division 1 Week 4
	First Half 0 – 0 Second Half 0 – 1 Final 0 – 1
April 4th 2009, 7PM Kickoff at (Iwata City, Shizuoka) Attendance 8,716
GK 1 Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi DF 5 Yuichi Komano DF 6 Daisuke Nasu DF 3 Takayuki Chano DF 20 Shuto Yamamoto MF 23 Kosuke Yamamoto MF 16 Rodrigo MF 7 Yoshiaki Ota MF 14 Shinji Murai FW 18 Ryoichi Maeda FW 8 Gilsinho	Starting Members	GK 20 Shuichi Gonda DF 5 Yuto Nagatomo DF 3 Hideki Sahara DF 6 Yasayuki Konno DF 25 Yuhei Tokunaga MF 7 Satoru Asari MF 22 Naotake Hanyu MF 10 Yohei Kajiyama MF 19 Yohei Otake FW 9 Cabore FW 24 Shingo Akamine
70′ 13 Hiroki Bandai (for Gilsinho)	Substitutes	65′ 18 Naohiro Ishikawa (for Yohei Otake) 71′ 40 Tatsuya Suzuki (for Cabore)
	Goals	82′ Shingo Akamine
15′ Gilsinho37′ Daisuke Nasu 38′ Takayuki Chano	Cautions	42′ Yohei Otake 73′ Tatsuya Suzuki 77′ Naotake Hanyu 89′ Yuto Nagatomo
	Ejections

Report

By all accounts, this was an ugly game.  I only watched on TV (and I missed some play here and there as I had to finesse my cracked copy of EyeTV into not being a bitch), but given how hard the rain was pouring I’m not altogether surprised.

Again, a tale of two halves.  Jubilo challenged a lot in the first half (and looked very threatening most of the time) while Tokyo found its form and took control in the second half, finally deciding it with a beautiful one-touch goal by Akamine off a pass by Tatsuya Suzuki… the kind of goal that everyone’s been waiting for him to make.

So what was the difference this week?  Other than the fact that Jubilo apparently can’t hit the side of a barn even if a bullseye was painted on the side, Gonda showed some incredible reflexes, blocking several shots at nearly point-blank range with an outstretched hand, as if he were catching a fly with chopsticks.  The boy’s finally settled down and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

It was not the greatest game of all, but it was a win and 3 points (I seem to be saying this a lot, don’t I).  Tokyo will not win their next game against Kashima unless they level up a lot in the next 6 days, but two league wins in a row will hopefully continue to boost their confidence.