Match Review: FC Nippon vs Hotspurs FC

• GK Takaki NAKAMURA
• DF Akihiro HORI
• DF Tom Yoshida
• MD Seiji TACHIBANA
• MD Ryuhei IKEDA
• -- Ryuto KIRA
• -- Satoshi KABAYAMA
• -- Taku NAGAURA
• -- Ryota MURAKI
• -- Shoya MIYASHITA
• -- Wataru HASEGAWA

• -- Hiroki SONEHARA
• -- Minato HORIUCHI
• -- RYOSUKE Nozawa
• -- Tadahide Kawada

draw、、

FC Nippon missed out the first victory of the season, but managed to secure the first point. Opened by a penalty scored by Shoya Miyashita, first half went smooth and FC Nippon played their football with high possession. Failing to score an additional goal in the first half, Hotspurs started to threaten FC Nippon with counter attacks, which resulted in 2 consecutive goals in the first 20mins of the second half. After subbing a few players to freshen up the attacking structure, FC Nippon managed to level the game by a brilliant team effort, finished by Ryuhei Ikeda from Ryuto Kira’s assist. Despite creating a number of goal scoring opportunities later, the match finally finished as 2-2. Hotspurs was a tough opponent, and the match could have gone either way. Great effort lads and looking forward to play you guys again in the 2nd leg!

• Martyn U'ren GK
• Aaron Jones DF
• Tom Hine DF
• Lionel Kong MD
• Thomas Greene ST
• Jack Skinner ST
• Joe Quinn --
• Robert Gorczynski --
• Barry McVeigh --
• Mark Hadlow --
• Jonathan Drape-Comyn --

• James Keane DF
• Marc Westgate --
• Hugo Nickolds --

All Square On Opening Day

A roasting hot 3pm KO for Hotspurs at Turf City v Nippon, who had kindly agreed to play in white to allow Hotspurs to debut their brand new ‘3 Buns’ sponsored Blue kit (bye bye lovely Pink). The game settled into a pattern of Nippon having lots of possession and Hotspurs looking dangerous on the break. After a goal line scramble a penalty was awarded for handball and Nippon took the lead into half time. The second half saw Hotspurs up the intensity immediately and two fine team goals, with Tommy finishing well twice, saw Hotspurs take the lead. Unfortunately Nippon responded well to equalise, both sides had opportunities to snatch a win but it ended 2-2. An encouraging first outing of the season for Hotspurs with solid debuts for Rob, Jonny and Marc along with an MOM performance from Lionel.