Tokyo's fierce counterattack!

In the second half, as expected, Omiya's movements dropped sharply. It's not surprising considering how intense their pressing was in the first half. On the contrary, Tokyo's energy increased. With Omiya's pressing weakening, Kabuki and Yukihiko were able to keep the ball in the front, and a good passing rhythm centered around Almir was revived. From the left side, Fujiyama dribbled skillfully into the center, creating chances as if to say, "Leave it to me!" Additionally, Koike, who came on as a substitute in the 15th minute of the second half, showed accurate distribution in the defensive midfield position, covering the space left by Almir moving forward and improving the overall rhythm. Defensively, Shinkai, also in the defensive midfield position, aggressively marked Jorn, who Sandro had been tightly marking since the first half, and prevented him from doing his job. Tokyo, with a rhythm established in both attack and defense, repeatedly attacked Omiya's goal and created scoring opportunities.

Yukihiko Misetani, Furukata! Beautiful goal, two goals!!

In the 20th minute of the second half, the balance is finally broken. Yukihiko, who received the ball from Almir in the center in front of the goal, turned forward with one touch, passed through the opponent's defender's legs with two touches, and scored a goal by passing the goalkeeper who came out with three touches. It was a beautiful goal unique to Yukihiko, born from a series of very high-level techniques. The game continued to be dominated by Tokyo. Omiya, who had been playing compact soccer with a shallow defensive line since the first half, became impatient with this goal and started to attack recklessly, causing their balance to collapse and exposing themselves to Tokyo's counterattacks. In the 24th minute of the second half, Yukihiko sent a cross from the right, and Furube, who came on as a substitute, scored a spectacular header that changed course in front of the goalkeeper, sealing the game. Furube has only played about 10 minutes in official matches in the past two games this season, and even on this day, there were moments of confusion after coming on as a substitute, but as a man who has played 80 official matches in the J-League, he did a great job in the crucial moment. In the 40th minute of the second half, Kagamiki broke through from a vertical pass from Almir and had a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper. In the end, it didn't result in a goal, but Tokyo held on and the game ended. They achieved their first three consecutive wins of the season.

Struggling with intense pressing

Omiya had studied Tokyo well on this day. They kept their defensive line shallow, applied thorough pressure from the front to the midfield, and completely shut down Almir, who is the starting point of Tokyo's attacks, to prevent them from establishing a rhythm. They placed Ukiki, who had played for Tokyo Gas FC until last year, on the final line, and Edwin, who had also played until two years ago, in the midfield, ensuring they were fully prepared for Tokyo's tactics. Tokyo struggled to connect in the midfield and repeatedly resorted to monotonous attacks by simply kicking the ball forward. On the other hand, Omiya swiftly counterattacked after winning the ball by keeping their defensive line shallow, and delivered early cross balls to the 190cm tall forward, Jorn, from both sides. Sandro, who is 184cm tall, marked Jorn closely, but there were dangerous situations where he lost the aerial duels and the ball was shot by Omiya's forward. However, this was something that Coach Okuma had anticipated before the match, and he had instructed the players to focus on dealing with situations where they lost the aerial duels, so the players remained calm and composed. In the first half, Omiya was completely dominated, with a shot count of 4 to 8, but Omiya's intense pressure was not expected to last long, and the players endured calmly.