Saturday morning brought around the next round of J2 games, and luckily enough, one of the two games shown on Bet365 was Shonan, which made me happy. It was less good that the stream kept going black for a few seconds every half-minute or so, but I persevered until half-time.
So, what happened? As one expects from Shonan (and again, I implore you to watch them before the end of the season) it was a real festival of attacking football. Long balls from midfield spreading the play before the wide men tried to put balls onto the Wellington’s head. Mito were stubborn enough throughout the first half, and had a few actual attacks, where they managed to make the ball stick in the Shonan half, but it always felt like they were putting their fingers in the dyke.
I actually missed the first goal, which came in the opening minute, so most of my watching was just green-shirted pressure. It was obviously going to tell in the end, and the fact Mito managed to get away with a scything challenge on Wellington midway through the first half just as he was about to pull the trigger.
J2 is a division of 22 teams, so there’s 40 games. With eight still to play, Shonan have amassed 83 points, meaning they could potentially get up to 107 points. My only hope is that when they get up to J1 they manage to maintain the same level of performance and attacking verve. They won this one 4-2 – having gone 2-0 up early on in the second half (I’d given up on the patchy stream) Mito pulled it back to 2-2, before pulling clear late on.
Excitement value? 8/10
From Inside, Right 