After taking a surprising lead early in the second half, Vissel's unrealistic dream of silverware was shattered yet again yesterday when Kashima snatched victory with a last minute goal in the 4th round of the Emperor's Cup. In all fairness, Kashima were the better team for the majority of the match. They outplayed us in the midfield simply by keeping possession and their forwards played like forwards should play - making space and taking shots. They put pressure on us when we did have the ball, even in our own half, and this forced us into errors and we were always on the back foot. In contrast, we gave them a lot of space when they had possession, and it almost looked like the Vissel players had been told not to tackle. This lead to their first goal.
Their winner came from a straightforward header by Danilo in the 43rd minute. Our defending was just embarrassing. Take a look at the video for a lesson in how NOT to defend a set piece. Miyamoto & Komoto were on Marquinhos, Ishibitsu(178cm) marking Danilo(186cm) from behind and Kobayashi lost in the middle. Kobayashi, who completely misread the cross should have been all over Danilo, and Ishibitsu could have at least bumped him.
Oh well, there's always next year.
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