FC Gifu came from behind to take an extremely impressive three points from their trip to V-Varen Nagasaki last Sunday, by Stuart Smith.

FC Gifu starting XI (back row, from left): Kai, Tsukagawa, Fujitani, De Vries, Sievers, Junior Barros; (front row, from left) Baba, Yanagisawa, Miyamoto, Kawanishi, Takeda (c)

 

The game actually got off to the worst possible start for Gifu when Hiroto Goya headed Nagasaki in front after only two minutes, but Gifu hauled themselves back in the game and got their deserved equalizer just before half time when Kouki Tsukagawa’s perfect through pass found Shota Kawanishi, and he clipped the ball into the back of the net.

 

In the second half, it was Gifu’s turn to get off to a perfect start, Kawanishi smashing in his second goal after great midfield work from Kota Miyamoto. Gifu were playing well, and Ryan De Vries increased the lead when he curled the ball into the bottom corner after strong work from Kenji Baba. Nagasaki pushed forward, but Jan-Ole Sievers and the defence kept Nagasaki at bay and Gifu saw out the game to win 3-1.

 

After the game, manager Makoto Kitano said: “For the supporters that came to Nagasaki, and all the supporters that watched the game at home on TV, I’m sure they felt very nervous as the game went on, but I think we did well to come from behind and win this game. We didn’t have long to prepare for this game, so I think that the training plan and the scouting of Nagasaki played a huge role in this victory. The next game is at home, and so far I haven’t won at home and so I’d like to do that next week.

 

We had a lot of shots today, but the most important thing when we are devising our attacking strategy is that we focus on the build up and focus on getting the ball into dangerous positions. Once we get the ball there, I encourage the players to shoot.

 

Shota Kawanishi played very well today, but it wasn’t only Shota – it was the whole team. Everyone who stepped on that pitch today did their job and played well. It was a team performance.”

 

Two goal Shota Kawanishi told reporters: “For the first goal, it was a superb pass from “Tsuka” (Kouki Tsukagawa) and as the keeper came out, I just decided to try and float it past him, and it was very good to see the ball go in. For the second goal, Kota (Miyamoto) won the ball in a great area and it gave me the opportunity to shoot. I saw the near side of the goal was a bit more open and so I went for it.

 

We won’t always have as many chances to shoot as we did today, but our opponents left a little bit of space in front of their goal, so what do you do? You take your chances to shoot, and that is what we did a lot of today.”