Hiraoka replaced the suspended Calvin Jong-a-Pin at centre back, while Sho Ito got the central forward start, flanked by Omae and Takagi. Kakitani was given another start for Cerezo, with Branquinho on the bench. The away team opened the scoring when a long deep cross from Kurogi evaded S-Pulse keeper , coming out of his goal. Needless to say, Kempes could not even hit the wide open target with Hayashi in no-man’s land, but the ball came off the post for Kakitani to put it in from close range in the 15th minute. Sakemoto was next to feed the Brazilian “striker” and, again, he failed to even hit the target with a free header at the far post.

It was almost half time when Alex Brosque saw his free kick saved well – S-Pulse’s first attempt on goal! Moments later, Kim almost doubled the score, forcing Hayashi down low to his right to make up for his earlier error and keep the score down to 1-0 at the break.

In the 2nd half Shimizu did manage to get the ball in the away half a little more, and Brosque, Takahara and Takagi were all denied, while France emulated his countryman at the other end by missing the target with a header that looked easier to score as time ran out.

Just as it seemed Cerezo would take the points, a goalmouth scramble in the 96th minute saw the ball fall free for Brosque to pop it into an unguarded net from a yard out and earn S-Pulse a point.

Brosque noted that, “The goal was a little bit lucky, it just popped out… but I think we deserved a goal.”

S-Pulse coach Afshin Ghotbi said on his own web site that he could easily have changed nine players at half time, but was only limited to three subs – but held off until later in the 2nd half. His patience eventually paid dividends! His complete post-match report can be found below this report on the Home page and the Reports page.