Sunday, November 2, 2008

The Emperor's Cup Round 4


Nagoya Grampus 1 - 0 FC Gifu (ht 0-0)

Gifu lost this one, but at the same time they gave J1 Grampus a lesson in how to play football by dominating throughout the game, unfortunately just not on the scoreboard.
Nagoya came out firing and for the first 15 or so minutes and set up multiple chances but were let down by poor decision making in the end. After this point Gifu began to take control of the game through Umeda and Kitamura and by the second half were spending the majority of the play camped down in the Grampus half. They had their chances, and one Aikawa header hit the post, but it was grampus who five minutes into three minute injury time got the winner through Yoshida as GK Hino misjudged a cross kick allowing Grampus to advance and play Omiya next week.
Pixy, the Grampus coach summed it all up though when he effectively said afterwards "I'm sorry that we won. Gifu definitely played the better football today".
So I'm very proud of Gifu. Great effort but just fell short. Taught Grampus a lesson in football though, and that means alot to the people of Gifu.

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