Double dose of late drama
April 21, 2009: The writing was on the wall at the National Stadium on Saturday night.
FC Tokyo -- quiet, subdued, not their usual selves. JEF -- vibrant, confident, in great spirits.
And that was just the fans.
Before kick-off, the yellow army from Chiba was the one making all the noise in the away end, while the Tokyo fans seemed uncomfortable out of their familiar home surroundings of Ajinomoto Stadium. There was almost a sense of foreboding among them.
In a way it set the scene for the match about to take place, and gave a hint to the final outcome; an away win.
But no one could have predicted that quite incredible finish -- my second of the day, having earlier attended the Reysol-Grampus game at Hitachi-dai and witnessed Davi's injury-time, right-footed winner.
Even though Tokyo led through Ishikawa's silky strike on 18 minutes, they never looked sure of themselves or convinced they could go on to win. They lacked confidence and motivation, and allowed the match to drift away from them.
In contrast, JEF grew stronger as the game wore on and raised the tempo considerably, especially in the last 15 minutes.
A great little run from Alex to receive Yazawa's left-wing throw-in completely caught out the Tokyo defence, and enabled the Brazilian to cross the ball low for Maki to finish expertly. It was the 87th minute, and I was expecting scenes of jubilation on the pitch at scoring a late equaliser, but no; Maki collected the ball from the back of the net and raced back to the halfway line eager for the restart.
This positive attitude was rewarded when play opened up for Fukai, in the inside-right channel and on his favoured left foot, to clip the ball past Gonda and inside the far post for the winner. He never looked like he'd miss, did he?
After the game, JEF manager Alex Miller praised the "magnificent" Sakamoto, who had switched from right back to central defence for the second half and "never put a foot wrong" in plugging the gaps along the back line.
All in all, then, a double dose of J.League drama on Saturday -- and yet another reminder of what a wonderful, unpredictable game football really is.
ends
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