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Hachioji Park, Saturday 21st April, Saitama Jets produced a stirring second half comeback to grab a point from last season’s champions, Hibs, at Hachioji Park on a hot Saturday afternoon. Hibs led 2 – 0 at half time thanks to two quality strikes, but perpetual substitute Shimizu laid claim to a starting place in the Jets’ attack with two superb finishes late in the second half to continue the Jets’ recent good run of form.
The Hibs started brightly, winning a free kick on the edge of the box within the first minute, whilst the Jets, mentally, still seemed to be in the car park, where both sides had waited obediently for the appointed time to step onto the Hachioji plastic. The Hibs dictated the first 10 minutes and were allowed to knock the ball around unopposed, making significant in-roads into the Jets’ defence. Slowly the Jets came into the game and fashioned two good shooting opportunities from neat passing moves down their right hand side involving Hembise, Hayashi, Gildart and Loren. The game was more even now and provided an interesting contrast of styles – the Hibs’ slick pass and move football, supplemented by tricky dribbling, versus the Jets’ more direct approach of getting the ball to the forwards early and having the midfielders get up to support them.
The Hibs’ first goal was a text book example of the art of passing, carving up the Jets’ right side with a series of one touch passes. They worked the into the box where, instead of shooting on sight, the ball was kept moving as Hibs continued to find spare men and eventually someone in a green and black shirt knocked it in from 8 yards. 1-0 Hibs. Almost immediately the Saitama team found themselves two down, although this one was more fortunate, it was finished well. A Hibs attack was foiled, but failure to clear properly was costly. As the ball bounced around on the edge of the box it fell nicely for a Hib and he sent a volley looping over Harada and just under the crossbar. 2 – 0 Hibs and a mountain to climb in the second half for the Jets.
The arrival of South African mauler, Ryan Botta, at half time, brought some much needed relief and energy to a Saitama midfield stretched by injury and no-shows. After the two goals the latter stages of the first half seemed slightly aimless and the opening exchanges of the second period were in a similar vein. Having done enough to stay up already, the Jets were lacking a little of the intensity of recent matches, whilst the Hibs were in their comfort zone at 2 – 0, perhaps pondering a late punt at the title.
As the half wore on the Jets began to look the stronger as the Hibs seemed to tire a little in the heat and started dwelling on the ball a bit too long. Strikers Gildart and Loren continued to chase down the Hibs back three when they had the ball and eventually with 20 minutes to go it paid dividends. Gildart harried a defender into surrendering possession and the arch-goalscorer turned provider, crossing from the right for Shimizu to stun everyone by bringing a difficult ball down with his first touch and lashing it into the net with his second. 2-1 and the Jets had their tails up. Suddenly the Hibs were in a game, but having taken their foot off the gas couldn’t quite shift gears and were now looking decidedly jittery. The Jets continued to press and equalized soon after with an almost exact copy of the first goal. Gildart again supplied the ammunition from the right and Shimizu, perfectly positioned at the far post, bravely stuck his head in amongst a few high boots and sent the ball into the back of the net. 2-2! But could there be more?
The last 10 minutes probably saw more action than previous 70, as the Hibs threw men forward, desperate to rescue three points that they had surely thought were in the bag. Whilst the Jets, having come from two down, suddenly lost a bit of tactical discipline and were effectively playing with three strikers and what had been a somewhat pedestrian affair was transformed into and end-to-end thrill-fest. On no less than three occasions the Jets broke away and should have scored as they found themselves in three-on-three and even three-on-two situations but wasted all of them. It was the Hibs, however, who came closest to winning it. A floated ball into the box was misjudged by Harada and the ball drifted over him as well as an onrushing striker and a Jets defender before dropping onto the top of the bar and back into play, appearing to bounce off a defender’s back, before being frantically clawed away by a back-peddling Harada. A few more half chances came and went for both sides before the final whistle, at which the Jets were understandably the happier of the two sides.
Report by Rob Keating
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