R2 Unlucky

FC Gifu 0 - 1 Vegalta Sendai (ht 0-1)

On a beautiful summers day in Gifu (a disappointing) 5000 odd people turned out to watch Gifu battle J2 big-guns Sendai in an entertaining match. Both teams played positive soccer, with Vegalta looking the more settled team as perhaps nerves once again led to a slow for Gifu. The solitary point of the match came after 23 minutes when Vegalta's Ryan Yon Gi on the counter attack took a shot from ten metres out, only for it to be headed into the goal by Gifu's Masamichi Yamada whilst trying to clear the ball.

On the whole, the defence from both teams was impressive, as the end result showed. Vegalta had 14 shots at goal but amazingly no corner kicks, whereas FC Gifu had only a mere five shots at goal and one paltry corner kick. So in a way, it was very similar to last weeks game with Kofu, although this time the standard of play was alot better in general than last week. There were chances to draw the game, one shot by Katayama hit the posts, and Moriyama also came close to putting in a last minute goal. In the end the score was probably a fair reflection of the game, but Gifu were unlucky to concede the own goal, and it's debatable as to whether Vegalta would have been able to win if they hadn't been gifted that goal.

Looking onto this thursdays game away to Yamagata, I think that after Yamagata's dismantling of Cerezo Osaka on saturday, and after the long journey up north, Gifu will probably be hoping to come out of that game with pride in tact but not expecting too much. The fact of the matter is that they will be probably concentrating most of their efforts on the home game against Tokushima Vortis on sunday 23rd. But it will be very interesting to see what happens next. We are all waiting for them to follow Roasso's footsteps and get their first three points of 2008.

FC Gifu vs Ventforet Kofu review

Click here to read the review written about the round one clash by Jsgoal. The reporter told us in the preview that unfortunately for Gifu, we would lose this game...

R1 Rapture

Ventforet Kofu 1 - 1 FC Gifu (ht 1-0)

Gifu fought back from a goal down to draw level 1-all with Kofu in Yamanashi today. The goal was scored by Hiromi Kojima who came on the field as a replacement after 55 minutes and made his presence felt immediately as he popped a goal past the keeper 5 minutes later to put Gifu back on level peggings and at the same time give them a sniff of victory with 20 minutes remaining. The final five minutes had fans from both sides on the edges of their seats as both teams set up scoring chances, but in the end the whistle was blown, and while Gifu were celebrating their first first point in the J2 league, Kofu were heads down as the boos started raining in from their disgruntled supporters.

In the first half Gifu were dominated up front, defence was sturdy but in the 38th minute Kofu striker Haji knocked in a goal from a corner kick to give Kofu a one point lead going into halftime. Gifu were not looking too out of place but their inability to set up scoring chances was in turn putting pressure on their defence. A 1-0 scoreline was a fair reflection of the half.

In the second half, as they did in the Grampus game, Gifu came out with more passion and confidence began to rise in the team. It wasn't till the injection of Kojima though that they started to look threatening. In the 61st minute FW Katagiri faked a goal kick and passed to Kojima who kicked the ball sweetly past the GK Abe for Gifu's first goal in the J-league. Local Gifu hero Moriyama was then subbed-in 10 minutes later and came tantalisingly close to stealing the match winner for Gifu. But the game ended 1-1 with Gifu looking the most likely of the teams to post a winner if only they had an extra five minutes to work with.

The game summary stats though were a different story. Shots at goal 11 - 3 to Kofu. Corner kickes 9 - 2 to Kofu. Kofu will be kicking themselves for lacking the finishing touches to put Gifu away. Gifu though, will be pleased with a draw in their first J2 outing, away and in front of 13000 passionate Yamanashi fans. They showed patience and made the most of their limited chances.

Hold your heads high Gifu! The journey though, starts from here...

Welcome to a new era! ....and survey results

So yes, it's finally time. The 2008 J.League starts tomorrow when we get to see fellow J2 debutants Roasso Kumamoto take on Ehime FC away. FC Gifu fans will be watching this with eager eyes, hoping that whatever Roasso manage on saturday, FC Gifu will better on sunday against Kofu. Because after all, apart from fellow neighbours Grampus, Roasso are the biggest rivals for FC Gifu as they are both the new kids on the (chopping) block. At the end of the season, if Gifu can manage only to stay above Roasso on the table, then there will be a sense of satisfaction among the green fans, for that in a sense is the minimum goal for the team this year in the supporters eyes.

As the survey on where you thought Gifu would finish in 2008 showed, over half of you guys thought that Gifu would fall into the lower table, between 9th and 14th place. A few people thought that Gifu would take the wooden spoon home with them come december, one person the top three, and one (drunk) voter thought that Gifu would go all the way to the top and J1 honors for 2009! In reality, Gifu will be happy to finish off the bottom of the table, and that may be the biggest challenge for them. The goal for Manager Matsunaga is for a 6th to 9th place finish. This of course is a very (over) optimistic goal perhaps for a team in its first year in the J2, but at the same time, the manager should be targeting a reasonable high goal shouldn't they!

But in the end, place us above Roasso at the end of 2008 and us greens will be at least managing a little grin to ourselves.

Practice match update 6

March 6th
FC Gifu 3 - 1 Runesu Gakuin (ht 2-0)
March 2nd
FC Gifu 7 - 0 Gifu keizai University (ht 2-0)

Jsgoal - Nagoya vs Gifu

By clicking the link below you can read an article translated into English about the Nagoya Grampus vs FC Gifu match as written by J-league site http://www.jsgoal.jp.
To read it click here.

Practice match update 5

February 28
FC Gifu 2 - 2 Tsueegen Kanazawa