FC Gifu made it two wins from two home games in 2019 as they beat Fagiano Okayama 2-1 at a sunny Nagaragawa Memorial Center last Saturday.

FC Gifu starting XI: Victor, Yanagisawa, Abe, Takeda, Aizu, Mishima, Miyamoto, Nagashima, Kazama, Yamagishi, De Vries

Manager Takeshi Oki made some changes to the team that lost so dramatically in Tokushima last weekend. Fumitaka Kitatani – who has been ruled for two months with the knee injury sustained in Tokushima last week – was replaced in central defence by Tadashi Takeda. On the left side of defence, Yuki Aizu stepped in for Hayate Nagakura while Shohei Mishima came in for Kensei Nakashima in midfield. The visiting Fagiano Okayama side boasted ex-Gifu forward Leo Mineiro in their starting lineup.

The first real chance to open the scoring came midway through the first half, when Fagiano forward Hayato Nakama had a shooting opportunity in Gifu’s penalty area, but young defender Ko Yanagisawa did really well to get across and block Nakama’s goalbound shot. It was a fairly even first period, if Okayama shaded the possession stats, but it was FC Gifu that eventually opened the scoring. On the right side of the pitch, Yuya Yamahgishi pressured Okayama defender Choi Jung-won into a short back pass, a pass which left his ‘keeper Junki Kanayama well away from his goal. Yamagishi picked out his strike partner Ryan De Vries with a pinpoint cross, and the New Zealander had the relatively simple task of putting his header into the back of the net.

It was a goal made by the tenacious running & pressuring of Yamagishi, something that he has become very, very good at.

Fagiano tried to respond to Gifu’s opening goal, and they came very close to equalizing through ex-FC Gifu favourite Leo Mineiro, but his shot on the turn went just wide of Victor’s right-hand post. As it was, half time came with Gifu having a narrow 1-0 lead.

Soon after half time though, the visitors were level. Masanori Abe’s attempted clearance hit the unfortunately placed Kota Miyamoto with the ball eventually making its way to Okayama’s Korean forward Lee Yong-jae, and his shot swerved past Victor, giving Gifu’s goalkeeper no chance at all.

From then on, it was a to and fro affair, with both teams trying to go for the win. Hayato Nakama’s long range shot went just wide, but it was Gifu that grabbed the all-important next goal, and once again it owed a lot to the tireless work of forward Yuya Yamagishi. Yamagishi won the ball from an Okayama defender on the right side, and his excellent cross was turned into his own net by a Fagiano defender, with De Vries in very close attendance. It originally looked to most spectators that De Vries himself had grabbed his second of the game, but unfortunately for Ryza, the replays confirmed that it was an own goal.

Okayama pushed forward in search of an equalizer, bringing on experienced forwards Kazuki Saito & Shigno Akamine, but it was Gifu that came closest to adding a goal in additional time. De Vries’ through pass found substitute Yuta Togashi running clean through on goal, but his shot was well saved by Kanayama. That was to be the last action of the game though, and the final whistle went, with it bringing another FC Gifu home win.

After the game, Takeshi Oki said: “There were things that didn’t go so well for us during the game, but the fact that we came away with three points is a good sign. I’ll have to watch this game again and think “Why did we win today?” and look to learn the lessons ahead of the next game. We defended well, and also thought we probably should have scored another goal. I look forward to training this week as we prepare for next week’s game.”

Ryan De Vries told the media: “It is always a relief when you get your first goal, but today we won, so that is more important. We let ourselves down at the beginning (of the second half) and gave them a chance to get back into the game, but when we scored it just showed how strong we are. This is our home ground and we play for, and work hard for, everyone that comes here and that showed today.”

So, another good home win for FC Gifu, and we will look to try and make it hat-trick of home wins when we welcome J2 newcomers Kagoshima United to Gifu on Sunday March 17th.