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| A Green In Blue In the Red and Blue |
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| King Amar-ara-ara-arse |
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| The Good Guys |
Was a lovely day for it, sun cracking the flags and a sense of excitement in the air as i walked up Ajinomoto-way in a sea of blue and red. Inside the 35000 FC Tokyo fans seemed rather subdued as the patch of 1000 or so green and whites in the corner out-sang them. The Red and Blues quickly put a stop to that though with a hearty chant of "Oh Verdy Kawasaki!". That was like a Green rag to a bull but luckily the kid on away-fan steward duty managed to keep the riled Verdy supporters from spilling over onto the pitch.
Fantastic crowd and a cracking atmosphere for a J2 match though. I was sat among the hun and anticipating the game ahead as I sipped on my smuggled beer and nibbled on my eda mame before kick-off. My mood soon changed as a grey sky fell over the place and the FC Tokyo fans started up a full rendition of that hideous excuse for a song that is "You'll Never Walk Alone". My eda mame were starting to taste a little bitter.
Well that set the tone for a pretty dull first half. The only real highlights were those in the Verdy boys hair, boom boom! (with the exception of Tsuchiya of course). Couple of chances at each end but not much to get too excited about. Verdy's standard of play seemed pretty decent though. A lot better than I seem to remember but then again I can't seem to remeber much of Verdy's past play as my eyesight isn't what it used to be (my mum always said it would make me go blind) and I'm usually two sheets to the wind and nattering to Tokyo Nerdy when I watch the Boys in Green.
The first half finished with a bang, with Lucas rising above the Verdy defence to head in first half stoppage time. Don't know what it is about the name Lucas but it seems to be the most popular name in Brazil at the moment. Not the most glamorous of Brazilian names mind - just brings back memories of a smelly girl who was in my class at school. She had the "Lucas-mange" allegedly.
After going a goal behind just before the whistle, the second half promised fireworks from Verdy and did they deliver? Well they had a couple of excellent attempts at trying to hoof the ball out of the stadium when clean through on goal and also what looked like a stone wall penalty when a Verdy player was through on goal only to be brought down by the last man. In the end it resulted in a yellow card to the Verdy guy for simulation - the luck of an Evertonian some might say.
In the end Verdy got the point that they deserved. They put the pressure on with a couple of corners, one of which flew in to the top corner after deflecting off a Verdy/FC Tokyo leg, boot, arse or something. Still not sure who got the goal but Tokyo Nerdy reliably informs me that TV replays confirmed it was a Verdy goal.
The game petered out after that, the only point of note being the referee deciding to hand out his season's allocation of yellow cards in 2nd half stoppage time. Not sure what they were for. Maybe another one of those dodgy betting scams set up by Rooney's dad. Come to think of it, the referee did look a bit Scouse.
So J2's best defense against J2's best attack resulted in a possibly predictable draw. At least there was a couple of goals though and pretty decent day out all-in-all.
Boo's rang out at the full-time whistle - with the Verdy contingent going a bit mental in their corner. Tubs just sat there over-exaggeratedly applauding - slowly, loudly and proudly - showing his appreciation for the Boys in Green. Onwards and mid-tablewards!
Fantastic crowd and a cracking atmosphere for a J2 match though. I was sat among the hun and anticipating the game ahead as I sipped on my smuggled beer and nibbled on my eda mame before kick-off. My mood soon changed as a grey sky fell over the place and the FC Tokyo fans started up a full rendition of that hideous excuse for a song that is "You'll Never Walk Alone". My eda mame were starting to taste a little bitter.
Well that set the tone for a pretty dull first half. The only real highlights were those in the Verdy boys hair, boom boom! (with the exception of Tsuchiya of course). Couple of chances at each end but not much to get too excited about. Verdy's standard of play seemed pretty decent though. A lot better than I seem to remember but then again I can't seem to remeber much of Verdy's past play as my eyesight isn't what it used to be (my mum always said it would make me go blind) and I'm usually two sheets to the wind and nattering to Tokyo Nerdy when I watch the Boys in Green.
The first half finished with a bang, with Lucas rising above the Verdy defence to head in first half stoppage time. Don't know what it is about the name Lucas but it seems to be the most popular name in Brazil at the moment. Not the most glamorous of Brazilian names mind - just brings back memories of a smelly girl who was in my class at school. She had the "Lucas-mange" allegedly.
After going a goal behind just before the whistle, the second half promised fireworks from Verdy and did they deliver? Well they had a couple of excellent attempts at trying to hoof the ball out of the stadium when clean through on goal and also what looked like a stone wall penalty when a Verdy player was through on goal only to be brought down by the last man. In the end it resulted in a yellow card to the Verdy guy for simulation - the luck of an Evertonian some might say.
In the end Verdy got the point that they deserved. They put the pressure on with a couple of corners, one of which flew in to the top corner after deflecting off a Verdy/FC Tokyo leg, boot, arse or something. Still not sure who got the goal but Tokyo Nerdy reliably informs me that TV replays confirmed it was a Verdy goal.
The game petered out after that, the only point of note being the referee deciding to hand out his season's allocation of yellow cards in 2nd half stoppage time. Not sure what they were for. Maybe another one of those dodgy betting scams set up by Rooney's dad. Come to think of it, the referee did look a bit Scouse.
So J2's best defense against J2's best attack resulted in a possibly predictable draw. At least there was a couple of goals though and pretty decent day out all-in-all.
Boo's rang out at the full-time whistle - with the Verdy contingent going a bit mental in their corner. Tubs just sat there over-exaggeratedly applauding - slowly, loudly and proudly - showing his appreciation for the Boys in Green. Onwards and mid-tablewards!
The "Lucas Mange" came in the form of a kid called John Pritchard in my school or "Itchy Pritchy" as he was known. I will take the memory of him puking his breakfast all down himself in assembly to the grave.
ReplyDeletePoor Itchy Pritchy. Makes me wonder how kids like that ended up. Hopefully he found a girl as stinky as Lucas to live out his days with :)
ReplyDelete- Tubs.