J. League leader Shimizu S-Pulse squandered a two-goal cushion and with it a golden opportunity to rebound from their first defeat of the season in a 2-2 draw away to FC Tokyo on Saturday.
A Yasuhiro Hiraoka header and a fabulous free kick from Jungo Fujimoto put S-Pulse in command but the visitors could not hold on and two goals in the last five minutes from Yuto Nagatomo and substitute Toshihiro Matsushita provided Tokyo with a share of the spoils.
"We would normally have taken three points from a game like today but we have only taken one and that is obviously a little disappointing," said Shimizu manager Kenta Hasegawa. "I thought we would be able to hold on as we didn't seem to be in any great danger.