Match Review: FC Nippon vs Singapore Football Club

• GK Takaki NAKAMURA
• DF Katsumi Oku
• DF Yuki Ichikawa
• DF Kotaro Hayashi
• MD Kengo Sawada
• MD Javier Calvo
• ST Kodai Ochi
• ST Takuya Hagino
• -- Kotaro Yamaguchi
• -- Shota Adachi
• -- Kazuyuki Tachibana

• DF Tomonari Abe
• MD Seiji TACHIBANA
• MD Ryosuke Matsui
• ST Mokchan Kim

The victory we craved

Nippon has recently been struggling to deliver results although the squad is playing good football. Therefore today was a match we craved for a win. The team started with their usual 4-4-2. The team's 1st half strategy was to play simple and win space. In the early 1st half, Kotaro on the left side, with some space to duel, managed to shoot a curly long shot which found the back of the right net. 1-0 The rest of the first half was more or less what we aimed, played simple and maintained tight pressure on SFC key players. In the half time, coach Tom ordered the team to play in the same way in the beginning of the second half and so did the team. A big surprise came in the first 15min, when Seiji put strong pressure on the defender's back pass. A slightly low feed was captured by the Japanese new face striker Ochi, who amazingly headed the ball directly into the side net. 2-0 This goal disappointed SFC, but they reacted strongly. SFC changed some players and started to create many threats near the goal of the Japanese team. There were a few free kicks near the penalty but Nippon was lucky enough and the efforts did not convert. However, SFC finally scored from a penalty kick which was given due to a hand in the area. It was beautifully scored and it became 2-1. This gave a lot of energy to SFC and soon after, from another corner kick, they managed to squeeze the ball into the net. 2-2 The momentum was on SFC, but today, Nippon pushed hard. In the final minutes, Katsumi delivered a cross from the right side and Ichi reflected it with a header. The pass was received by Mokchan who turned his body and executed (a rather mild) a shot which found the back net! 3-2 With this goal, Nippon acquired the victory it craved so much. Very tough game and we had a lot of luck to win this.

• Ronnie Smollett GK
• Jahan Rezai DF
• Roberto Bruce DF
• Michael Campion MD
• Sam Gravatt MD
• Joe Claridge MD
• Tim Walter MD
• Liam George ST
• Liam Shotton ST
• Patrick Beckford --
• Akil Pompey --

• Adam Wise DF
• Hiroki Akiyama DF
• Keith Goh DF
• Isaac Goh MD
• Nick Marsh MD

Tough battle

Nippon took an early lead with a smartly taken quick free-kick down the line, which was beautifully curled into the top corner from just outside the box. Chances were fairly limited for both sides during the first half, although Smollet made a decisive reaction save to keep the score at 1-0. Second half saw SFC gain more of a foothold in the game, but a strange second goal - hitting their striker in the face and flying into the net - meant Nippon went 2-0 up. SFC increased the pressure and were eventually awarded a penalty, which Campion dispatched emphatically. A tremendous save from a Claridge volley maintained Nippon's lead, but eventually, SFC equalised from a corner - Bruce cleverly flicking a header into the top corner. Despite SFC having the momentum, Nippon clinched the game at the end - a header down to their striker from a deep cross, who managed to swivel and accurately find the bottom corner. A great performance from Nippon and good battle all game.