NishinomiyaLaurels 8 - 0 Pepelicans (386936660)

Clouds darkened the skies at KoshienStadium as 31567 spectators turned up for the match. Chad Corcoran was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Per Aspenlind and Leo Machatschek. A 2-5-3 alignment was the formation of choice for NishinomiyaLaurels. The following players had been chosen: Torriani - Lattanzio, Ozawa - Rizzuto, González Frías, Zachwieja, 中村 (Nakamura), Wlaźlik - de Moraes, Okano, 田村 (Tamura).

Pepelicans tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. They fielded: 本多 (Honda) - 山本 (Yamamoto), 浜崎 (Hamazaki), 小畑 (Kobata), 田中 (Tanaka) - 大西 (Onishi), 長谷川 (Hasegawa), 神山 (Kamiyama), 高橋 (Takahashi) - 桜井 (Sakurai), 高田 (Takada).

NishinomiyaLaurels took the lead 4 minutes into the match after a magnificent free kick by M. Okano that made the score 1 - 0. A great save by keeper 大. 本多 (Honda) after 7 minutes kept the visitors in the game after R. de Moraes struck from the left with a real cannonball. After 12 minutes, M. Okano put NishinomiyaLaurels ahead 2 - 0 when he rose to head in a cross from the right wing. A magnificent combination in the middle resulted in NishinomiyaLaurels's M. Okano increasing the lead to 3 - 0. By then M. Okano had scored three goals - a hat trick! By now, the players in NishinomiyaLaurels felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. 34 minutes in, Pepelicans's 剛. 桜井 (Sakurai) received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. NishinomiyaLaurels's R. de Moraes saw his fine effort strike the top of the bar following some good work up the middle by his teammates after 35 minutes. The teams went for the halftime break at 3 - 0. Possession in this half belonged to NishinomiyaLaurels, who controlled the ball 81 percent of the time.

Things were deteriorating for the away team as NishinomiyaLaurels scored another to make it 4 - 0 after a left side attack resulted in a goal for J. González Frías after 50 minutes. A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased the lead of NishinomiyaLaurels to 5 - 0 as 優. 中村 (Nakamura) finished it off competently, firing in from an acute angle. With 73 minutes played, NishinomiyaLaurels put themselves up 6 - 0 when the visiting defenders lost the ball to R. de Moraes, who came up from the left and proceeded to coolly round the keeper and knock the ball home. 81 minutes into the match, the visitors' central line of defence had to look on as D. Ozawa broke through, making the score 7 - 0 for NishinomiyaLaurels. Cheers filled the stadium as 良. 田村 (Tamura) broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 8 - 0 to NishinomiyaLaurels. NishinomiyaLaurels enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 85 percent of possession.

NishinomiyaLaurels's top performer was clearly M. Okano. However, J. González Frías made a disastrous appearance. 佐. 大西 (Onishi) performed admirably for Pepelicans. 大. 本多 (Honda) on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 8 - 0.