Match Report: Nabisco Cup Quarterfinals First Leg: FC Tokyo vs. Nagoya Grampus

J.League Yamazaki Nabisco Cup Quarterfinal Round Game 1
	First Half 4 – 0 Second Half 1 – 1 Final 5 – 1
July 15th 2009, 7:30PM Kickoff at Ajinomoto Stadium (Chofu, Tokyo) Attendance 12,226
GK 20 Shuichi Gonda DF 25 Yuhei Tokunaga DF 4 Bruno Quadros DF 6 Yasuyuki Konno DF 5 Yuto Nagatomo MF 28 Takuji Yonemoto MF 10 Yohei Kajiyama MF 18 Naohiro Ishikawa MF 22 Naotake Hanyu FW 9 Cabore FW 13 Sota Hirayama	Starting Members	GK 21 Koji Nishimura DF 32 Hayuma Tanaka DF 2 Akira Takeuchi DF 5 Takahiro Masukawa DF 26 Masaya Sato MF 10 Yoshizumi Ogawa MF 7 Naoshi Nakamura MF 14 Keiji Yoshimura MF 8 Magnum FW 19 Keita Sugimoto FW 9 Davi
Half 24 Shingo Akamine (for Cabore) 68′ 40 Tatsuya Suzuki (for Takuji Yonemoto) 71′ 27 Sotan Tanabe (for Naohiro Ishikawa)	Substitutes	Half 11 Keiji Tamada (for Davi) 61′ 13 Kei Yamaguchi (for Keiji Yoshimura) 70′ 18 Tomohiro Tsuda (for Keita Sugimoto)
3′ Sota Hirayama 10′ Takuji Yonemoto 11′ Naohiro Ishikawa 26′ Yuto Nagatomo 75′ Own Goal	Goals	53′ Yoshizumi Ogawa
	Cautions	26′ Akira Takeuchi 88′ Hayuma Tanaka
	Ejections

Report

Those of you who are familiar with the legendary Blizzard game Starcraft probably remember the one time you played against a Korean player.  You shoulders immediately tensed, the hairs on your arm stuck straight up, a fine line of sweat formed across your brow; all of this before the game even started.  While you attempted to build up your noble Terran army and began to construct factories and even a few bunkers, your opponent already had an army under his command.  Then, out of nowhere, a wave of zerglings overruns you as if you were the last Tickle-Me-Elmo on Black Friday, and they leave behind them a twisted mass of wreckage akin to New Orleans, post-Katrina.  You sat at your computer, desolate, perhaps a small wet spot spreading on the front of your pants, wondering why you’d even bothered showing up in the first place.

That’s more or less what it must have felt like to be a Nagoya fan in Ajinomoto Stadium last night.

Nagoya, stung by a 3-0 defeat on Sunday, attempted to barrel their way to the Tokyo goal and get a couple goals that would, at the very least, help them in the event of a tiebreaker.  Tokyo had other intentions, however, and the first goal was so quick that some fans were probably still pouring into the stadium.  10 minutes later the score was 3-0 courtesy of an incredibly well-placed shot by Yonemoto and yet another score by Ishikawa, bringing his streak to 6 games in a row which sets a new team record.  Nagatomo contributed a score of his own at 26′, and the team basically spent the rest of the first half in incredibly intricate passing sequences, much like bullies passing a stuffed animal back and forth to keep it away from a little kid.  Nagoya’s players were visibly frustrated, as were the fans who hoisted a banner exclaiming “Fight back if you’re man enough! behind their goal.  Pixi looked like he wanted to impale himself on the corner kick flag and end it all right then and there.

The second half featured a lot more miscues, errors, and generally sloppy play by Tokyo; not enough to turn the game to Nagoya’s favor but just enough to wipe out the afterglow of an amazing first half.  One could argue that playing 2 games in 4 days against the same opponent is quite tiring, especially when Nagoya played some dirty football in an attempt to derail Tokyo’s concentration, but some of these mistakes were facepalm-worthy.  Poor clearing choices, missed passes, hesitations on the attack… you name it, they screwed it up.  Fortunately this lapse only lasted long enough to give away one goal, and Tokyo went back to kicking ass and taking names for the rest of the match until newly-signed striker Owen Gouru, appearing on a one-day contract, knocked in the 5th goal.

With the win, Tokyo takes a 4-goal difference into Nagoya in two weeks.  A 3-goal loss or a better result would be enough to send Tokyo into the semifinals, where it will face either Shimizu or Urawa (who won their first match 2-1 at home).