Football: Late draw seals J1 return for Verdy at Shimizu's expense

Itsuki Someno scored a dramatic late penalty Saturday to secure Tokyo Verdy's return to the J-League top flight for the first time since 2008 with a 1-1 draw against Shimizu S-Pulse in the promotion playoff final.Hosting the final as the top-ranked side in the playoffs for teams finishing third through sixth in the J2, Verdy needed only a draw to clinch promotion at Tokyo's National Stadium.But the capital city club, who won the first two J-League championships as Verdy Kawasaki in 1993 and 1994, looked set for elimination in front of 53,264 before grabbing the vital equalizer in the sixth …READ FULL ARTICLE