Emperor's Cup 2nd Round vs Montedio Yamagata

Branquinho looked up for it last night with a point to prove as he's currently on loan from us. His corner was nodded in by Montedio's Maeda as our 2^nd choice keeper Matsui came of his line and achieved nothing but helping to give away a soft goal. After a dreadfully flat first half where if you didn't know beforehand you would be hard pressed to figure out which team was in J1 or J2 Culpi threw on Sugimoto and Edamura for Kempes who was awful today and the lively but ineffectual Heberty. I was expecting these two to start today as it would've given them a chance to prove themselves. As it is despite Sugimoto's goal sadly I don't expect he will get a decent run in the team while Kempes is about. It's a shameful waste of talent especially seens as in the league we have nothing much to play for, start with them Culpi! Captain Kota Fujimoto's belter sees us in the hat for the next round, a goal from an unexpected source and likely to be the best he'll ever score, fabulous winning goal but overall a poor performance. 

 

More transfers!

Well we sold Kiyotake to Nuremberg for a pittance considering his status but we got a fair price for Bo Kyung from cash rich Cardiff City and their rebranding Malaysian owners. Branqhuino who has been average at best has gone on loan to Montedio Yamagata in J2. Also this week we signed Brazilian midfeilder Heberty on loan from Thespa Kusatsu in J2. He joins fellow newbies Yokoyama, Edamura and Simplicio. Here are a few of Heberty's goals in J2, don't get too excited, remember anyone can look good on a Youtube highlights compilation but here's hoping he can be good enough to help us avoid relegation.

6 goals from 6 different players...Yamagata were poor

Earlier this year we drew with Montedio in Yamagata but this was a completely different set of teams. In terms of the players and confidence. Even though Cerezo were missing Kiyotake, injured in the Olympic qualifier, this game had the biggest gulf in class between two J-League teams I've ever seen. I hope for the Montedio supporters this was a one off display from them! That man Bando opened the scoring with his 9th goal in J1 this season. Fujimoto added the next with a header. Yamagata showed no resistance or fight in the 2nd half and we soon added two more within 5 minutes of the restart from Sakemoto and Ogihara, who came through the Japan Olympic qualifier unscathed. With the match won Culpi made some changes looking to rest some players before the ACL quarter final in Korea on Tuesday. The creative Fabio scored his first goal for us followed by our new number 7, Yohei Otake scoring a penalty to end a miserable night for Montedio. We face a much bigger challenge next in Korea to keep our 4-3 advantage from the first leg against Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.

Spirits still high with the away fans

Now realising this won't be a good away trip?

Ogihara being congratulated

Creativity and now goals...looks a bit like Ronaldinho?

Otake's penalty