Nabisco Cup Group B Round 6: FC Tokyo vs. Shimizu S-Pulse

Nabisco Cup Group B Round 6
	First Half 1 - 0Second Half 2 - 1 Final 3 - 1
June 13th 2009, 2PM Kickoff at Komazawa Stadium (Setagawa, Tokyo) Attendance 12,538
GK 20 Shuichi Gonda DF 33 Kenta Mukuhara DF 4 Bruno Quadros DF 15 Daishi Hiramatsu DF 25 Yuhei Tokunaga MF 28 Takuji Yonemoto MF 10 Yohei Kajiyama MF 18 Naohiro Ishikawa MF 27 Sotan Tanabe FW 9 Cabore FW 32 Yusuke Kondo	Starting Members	GK 21 Yohei Nishibe DF 25 Daisuke Ichikawa DF 3 Naoaki Aoyama DF 5 Keisuke Iwashita DF 2 Arata Kodama MF 10 Jungo Fujimoto MF 7 Teruyoshi Ito MF 16 Takuya Honda MF 13 Akihiro Hyodo FW 8 Takuma Edamura FW 11 Kazuki Hara
57′ 40Tatsuya Suzuki (for Yusuke Kondo) 66′ 24 Shingo Akamine (for Cabore) 75′ 19 Yohei Otake (for Sotan Tanabe)	Substitutes	Half 20 Shun Nagasawa (for Teruyoshi Ito) 68′ 22 Genki Omae (for Jungo Fujimoto) 68′ 4 Kosuke Ota (for Arata Kodama)
6′ Cabore 61′ Naohiro Ishikawa 73′ Shingo Akamine (PK)	Goals	83′ Genko Omae
34′ Kenta Mukuhara 58′ Yuhei Tokunaga	Cautions	70′ Naoaki Aoyama 71′ Naoaki Aoyama 73′ Keisuke Iwashita
	Ejections	71′ Naoaki Aoyama

Report

For what may be the first time this season, Tokyo played 90 minutes of exciting, fast-pced, attack-oriented football and managed to absolutely decimate Shimizu S-Pulse in what was essentially a dead-rubber game for the orange legion.  Shimizu had locked up a berth in the quarterfinals already; a win would guarantee first place and a matchup with Nagoya Grampus, while a loss or draw could possibly knock the team down to 2nd and result in a tieup with Group A’s first place squad (which turned out to be Urawa.  Tokyo, on the other hand, controlled its own destiny and could make it to the second round (and win Group B) with a win.

The match ws a wild back -and-forth affair from the start; topped with an early goal by Cabore that gave Tokyo a rare first-half lead.  Though Tokyo (particularly Kajiyama) made many silly passing mistakes, the lead held and the boys in blue and red went into the locker room feeling pretty good about themselves.

The second half featured drama, intrigue, and a rare officiating decision that favored Tokyo.  16 minutes into the second half, Naohiro Ishikwa let off a ripping shot that would prove to be the game winner.  10 minutes later, Akamine was pulled down inside the box by Shimizu defender Naoki Aoyama, who began protesting practically before the referee pointed to the penalty spot.  With the Tokyo fans egging him on, Aoyama continued to protest and was eventually showed a red card for his trouble.  Akamine’s first attempt was blocked, but the referee gave another Shimizu player a yellow for encroaching on the penalty area and called a redo.  Akamine didn’t miss the second time and Tokyo steamed on to a 3-1 victory despite getting a bit lazy on defense with a 3-goal lead and a 1-man advantage (hence the ’1′ in the equation.  Gonda proved his skills by stopping a penalty shot late in the second half that would have made it 3-2 and caused heart rates to go up behind the Tokyo goal, and from then on it was merely a question of which songs to sing until the final whistle.

Having captured Group B, Tokyo will now take on Nagoya Grampus in the quarterfinals of the Cup.  The home leg will be July 15th at Ajinomoto Stadium (4 days after the teams meet in J1 play at the same stadium), while the away leg will be on July 29th.  The winner will play the winner of the Urawa-Shimizu series in the semifinals.