Football: Sapporo battle past Gamba for 1st win of J-League season

SAPPORO (Kyoto) — Consadole Sapporo saw off Gamba Osaka 1-0 to secure their first win of the season in the J-League top flight on Saturday, ending the visitors’ unbeaten start to the campaign.

Midfielder Hiroki Miyazawa headed in the 73rd-minute winner at Sapporo Dome for Mihailo Petrovic’s side, who had lost five straight since drawing their opener and were rooted to the foot of the table as the only winless team.

Gamba had won two and drawn three of their previous five, but the defeat leaves them without a victory in three matches.

“I put my soul into that header,” said the 34-year-old Miyazawa, who has missed four games this season due to injury. “We can do more. We are a team who shouldn’t be where we are. We’ll aim higher, taking one step at a time.”

In an evenly-contested first half, Gamba came close to scoring on the half-hour mark when Tunisia forward Issam Jebali struck the right-hand post with a close-range free kick before Shota Fukuoka’s goal off a corner was ruled out for offside.

Jebali’s shot from a tight angle was blocked on the line three minutes after the break, while Sapporo captain Takuma Arano’s curling drive from the edge of the box cannoned off the bar in the 64th minute before the hosts turned their good spell into a crucial goal.

Yuya Asano threaded a short pass through for Tatsuya Hasegawa inside the box and the attacker’s right-wing cross to the far post found Miyazawa, whose towering header was touched by Gamba keeper Jun Ichimori but had enough power to find its way over the line.