Unfortunately I was away from home and could neither attend the match or watch it on TV. Following the results online was harrowing as I could not see the quality of play to know if the match leaned in either team's favor, and once injury time started I found myself refreshing the web page continuously.
After Kento Hori was first being credited with a goal late in the first half, it was then displayed as being an own goal. Hori seemed disappointed in his post-match interview so perhaps the decision was a tough one. In any case, Mito headed into the second half with the one goal advantage.
The second half saw Tosu's Leonardo score the 6500th goal in J2 to bring the game even. Soon afterward manager Kiyama would bring out the rookie Endo and replace him with Nishino who returns from injury. Soon afterward, Nishino would prove his worth by scoring the winning goal.
Nishino's goal brings him to six on the year, tying him for 8th place in the league, and only having played 2/3 of the games or so and having few shots. Interestingly fellow forward Arata has 5 goals (tied for 12th) after taking more shots than anyone else in Japanese pro soccer.
The win brings Mito up to 11thon the table, and marks Mito's first 3-game win streak since 2003, as well as an important 3-game home win streak. It was a good day for north Kanto as the other team in the region, Thespa Kusatsu, attained the first 3-game win streak in its history as a pro team at the same time. Both teams will look for a 4-game streak with Mito's looking like a big possibility, facing Ehime. Mito hasn't had such a streak since its first professional year, 8 years back.
Masahiro Chono was at the game but unfortunately the number of people in attendance didn't rise as a result. It will probably take something ridiculous like a 10 game win streak or J1 promotion contention to bring the crowd up to big levels...
3 comments:
Congrats mate, did it again!
Urayamashii....
That first goal I thought was an own-goal but it's quite often a 50-50 decision ain't it!
Anyway good luck against Ehime. Don't under-estimate them though, they have an uncanny ability of posting 3-0 scores at random...
btw What is Mitos longest winning streak??
4 games in a row in the year 2000, the first year of pro play, but of course longer ones in both editions of the JFL.
amazing win vendo :-) This is what makes J2 so interesting, seeing the "smaller" teams beating the big ones, and no matches really are safe bets. Clubs like Tokushima,Mito and Gifu all have shown great play over a period of time this season, and it seems the skills are there, but perhaps the bigger clubs are stronger mentally.
anyway, interesting!
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