Sunday, March 23, 2008

R4 Magic


FC Gifu 2 - 1 Tokushima Vortis (ht 1-0)

A moment of magic from Forward Katayama gave FC Gifu their first ever home victory against Tokushima Vortis today. A small crowd of just over 2000 people witnessed the event on a cool cloudy night. FC Gifu started off the match well and took a 1-0 lead to the break after ex-Oita Midfeilder Takashi Umeda knocked in a goal after 34 minutes. In the second half after a succession of corner kicks, Tokushima struck back after Forward Doumbia kicked in a goal to give Vortis their first goal of 2008. Tokushima were looking like they could produce a come from behind win but one minute later, in the 76th minute, in a moment that defined the match, Gifu Striker Katayama vollyed in a cross pass from Atsushi past the keeper to put Gifu right back in front. After all their trying, this moment ultimately knocked the stuffing out of Tokushima, and Gifu were able to hold onto a famous victory.

Both teams provided plenty on attack, Tokushima looked especially invigorated after their embarrassing loss to Ehime FC last week. Both teams provided nine shots at goal each, but while Gifu had only three corner kicks, Tokushima had an amazing 12!

Two wins a row for Gifu, a first home win, and third on the table after round 4. Not a bad night out for the boys! But in the next two weeks they will have their first big tests of the year when they take on the might of Osaka and Hiroshima.

Get out there and support your troops!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another nice win for the boys in the green. It seems that Katayama is indeed Gifu's best striker, I have yet to see Atsushi grab a goal, but I guess he has made some valuable contributions already.

Who do you think'll get Player of the Year at the end of the season, richY?

richy said...

Hmmm... very hard to say right now after only four games. But at the moment DF Nasu is playing well, MF umeda too, and Katagiri, well, no goals yet but he's set up at least 3 so far so he's looking pretty good too.
Katayama has potential and it will be interesting to see if he can keep up the good work he's done in the last two games.
Interesting times ahead!