R28 vs Yokohama FC

FC Gifu 2 - 0 Yokohama FC (ht 0-0)

On the face of it a 2-0 win over Yokohama seems like it was a natural result.. but what happened on the field was quite different.
As the rain poured down on Nagaragawa this evened out the teams and it was Yokohama who almost scored in the first minute of play. This carried on throughout the first half as the rain came down, even into the second half. It looked like only a matter of time before Gifu would be down a point. But towards the end of the half Gifu were awarded a penalty when FW Satou was pulled down in the box. A very harsh penalty for Yokohama, and they were unlucky not to stop the PK after Satou's PK attempt slowly bobbled its way into the net. Five minutes later FW Oshitani struck a great ball into the back of the net and the game was sealed. (Oshitani and DF
Suzaki are both playing in Gifu on-loan from Jubilo Iwata). Yokohama outshot Gifu 15-10 and will be gutted that they came home empty handed. The problem epitimises their season though... no real gamebreaker, no goalscorer.
So Gifu, unbeaten after 9 games at home and up to 12th on the table. This wednesday's home game is against Thespa Kusatsu (away) who are only four points ahead on the table. Then it's back to Nagaragawa for the big game against Cerezo Osaka. Gifu's record against them is abismal: 0-1 (a), 0-5(h), 0-6(h), 0-1(a). They going to have to try hard to maintain their home unbeaten streak for this one...

For this game I met up with Cesare (aka Nanbanjingumi) and his mate Dominik, who came for the Kyoto-Nagoya game the night before. Was great to meet up with fellow fans from around the country... and great that we could show them a Gifu win! Even if the weather was horrible.
Cheers guys, hopefully see ya in Kyoto/Osaka!