This game reminded me of the game against Urawa Reds in April in 2004. S-PULSE’s situation is the other way around at that time, though. Both of them were terrific come-from-behind games.

S-PULSE took the initiative from the start in this game, and opened the scoring as early as the 9th minute. Cho received the ball from throw-in in front of the Ardija goal. He barely passed it to Kuboyama in spite of Ardija defender's tight pressure, and Kuboyama took a shoot. Finally, Sato scored with a volley on the rebound with his left foot. In the 43rd minute, Hyodo, who appeared in the starting lineup for the first time, scored his first goal in J-League with a fierce drive. S-PULSE did well in the first half although we have to take into consideration that the opponents' performance was really poor.

Most supporters must have thought that there was little possibility that S-PULSE would be defeated. It was natural because they had leaked three goals in a game only once before. The conceit brought about the disaster in the second half. They gave away a penalty kick right after they leaked a goal in the 48th minute accidentally. Tutto equalized with the penalty shot. Manager Kenta Hasegawa tried to stem the tide of Ardija by changing players. But they couldn't make even a scoring opportunity until the last.

As a result, S-PULSE moved down on the standings. They are steadily heading for J2. Now they are almost there!