Vissel 0 - 0 Shonan

Vissel dropped 2 points at home yesterday against Shonan Bellmare. For the first time in ages, I actually thought we were the far better team in the opening minutes, and this confidence showed in the players as well, as they were playing free flowing football and taking chances. It only seemed like a matter of time before we would get our goal(s), but they never came.

Even though we controlled the majority of the first half, Shonan had the best chance when Matsuoka brought down one of their players about 5cm inside the box. Enomoto went the right way to stop the PK, preventing them from taking a lead they didn't deserve. Soon after, Okubo got on the end of a swift counter and found himself one on one with the keeper. He went around him but the shot was blocked by a desperate lunge from one of their defenders. It was a very embarrassing miss, and turned out to be costly.

The second half was more even. Shonan showed a bit more spark in their attacks and actually had 2 goals disallowed for offsides. Vissel, however, no longer appeared to be the superior team, and we produced very few chances. The 0-0 scoreline really did feel like a defeat and the home fans vented their disapproval with about 5 minutes of booing after the final whistle.

Let's forget about this result for now and hope it doesn't have an bearing on our status next year.