It seemed like that players of S-PULSE, especially the four of defender, didn’t have a capacity for learning. They failed to win by being equalized in the injury time of the second half in the game against Cerezo on the 20th of this month. And they presented a late-minute goal again in the game last night.

S-PULSE repeated mistakes again and again from the beginning, and helped Verdy get in control of the game. Ito, Iwashita, Choi, and Ichikawa did nothing but waste the ball. Feed passes from Morioka and Yamanishi were inaccurate. All the players fed the ball to their opponent. As a result, since Verdy possessed the ball all the time, S-PULSE couldn’t take a shoot in the first half. In the 41st minute, Verdy opened the scoring at last. S-PULSE gave them a free kick at the point of just outside the box. The free kick shot hit against an S-PULSE defender, and it deflected the trajectory of the shot. Goalkeeper Nishibe managed to save it. But, Hiramoto tapped in a rebound off the goalkeeper.

S-PULSE manager Kenta Hasegawa, who was interviewed right after the first half was over, looked very angry. He remarked that it was miracle that S-PULSE finished the first half by the closest margin. He replaced Iwashita and Choi with Sato and Marquinhos in the halftime――It really worked.

In contrast to the first half performance, they got more aggressive and created a number of opportunities to equalize. Although counter attacks of Verdy often threatened the goal, it was S-PULSE that dominated the second half. After they missed some good chances, Marquinhos, who made his debut as a player of S-PULSE in this game, equalized in the 74th minutes. Cho headed the fed ball to Marquinhos, and it created one-on-one situation against a keeper. Marquinhos hit softly the ball with the outside of his right foot. The ball passed by the keeper, who had closed up, and got sucked into the goal net.

If a powerful team had been in the same situation, it could have completed a come-from-behind victory. But S-PULSE was not. They proved that they were just a pushover. In the 87th minute, they leaked a goal easily. It looked as if it were a present for Verdy. After all, a win was postponed again.

It seems like that they have lost perseverance on defense. Actually luck brought about their tenacity. Now that they have given out the luck, they have to make up for it by ability and strategy. Otherwise, they will keep on going down to J2. Anyway, we supporter seem to be required to have perseverance for the time being.