Good Game Feeling

J1, J2 All 26 teams participate in the '99 J-League Yamazaki Nabisco Cup. Tokyo played a competitive match against J1 Vissel Kobe in the first round (4/7, 14), and eventually advanced to the second round with Amaral's extra time goal. The opponent for the second round, which will be held today, is J1's JEF United Chiba. Although they struggled in the J-League last year with a ranking of 16th, they showed strength in tournaments by finishing as runners-up in the Nabisco Cup. This year, they welcomed Engels, who led Yokohama Flugels to victory in the Emperor's Cup, as their new coach and aimed to revitalize the team by actively promoting young players. However, they have not achieved results so far, ranking 15th in the 1st stage. On this day, Ichihara had a difficult lineup as three players selected for the Japan national team in the Sydney Olympics preliminary round were absent, and they also suffered from the absence of the current J1 top scorer, FW Baron, and the "guardian" GK Shimokawa due to injuries. However, they have strong players in key positions, such as striker Takeda, who is a former Japan national team member, rookie Hayashi, who performed well in this year's National High School Soccer Championship, and 17-year-old Abe, who has become a regular in the midfield, as well as Nakani, who recently returned to the Japan national team, in defense. Tokyo, on the other hand, was missing key players in "the backbone of offense and defense" Almir, midfielder Shinjo, and stopper Komine due to injuries, but Yukihiro, who has been playing well recently, leading the attack, and the rapidly improving midfielder Koike, as well as the experienced stopper Furukawa, were able to cover those gaps sufficiently, so there was no anxiety. The highly anticipated match was kicked off at 19:00, when the home ground Nishigaoka gathered the second highest attendance of the season, 4,130 people, and the intense support from both teams' "goal end" reached its peak.

In the first half, Tokyo dominated the game!

The match started with Tokyo launching a fierce attack. Tokyo's aggressive attacking involvement from both fullbacks, Yukihiko SATO and Amaral, created chances. Left fullback Fujiyama delivered a sharp vertical pass from his dribble, while right fullback Umayama provided accurate crosses from well-timed overlaps. SATO created multiple chances with his sharp play and dribbling, while Amaral struggled against the intense charge from Japan national team defender Nakaniishi but showed faithful post-play and established the rhythm of the attack. On the other hand, JEF kept possession of the ball in the midfield with MF Gabriel HENRIQUE and distributed accurate passes to both sides and the front line. Up front, lone striker Takeda and MF Muto drifted left and right to receive the ball, but Tokyo's defense remained solid, making it difficult to establish a rhythm in front of their faithful and tight marking. In the 38th minute, Tokyo kept the ball on the right side with Amaral, who timely passed it to Umayama, who had moved up. Umayama delivered an exquisite cross. The ball was cleared by the Ichihara DF, but it ended up in front of Amaral. Amaral unleashed a powerful shot, which was saved by the Ichihara GK, but SATO calmly followed up and scored, giving Tokyo the lead. Tokyo continued to attack and dominated the game, with 12 shots compared to Ichihara's 3 in the first half.

Difference in finishing ability

In the second half, Tokyo's fierce attack gained momentum. In the 7th minute, Yukihiko, who broke through deeply on the right side, passed to Okamoto in the center. Okamoto took a free shot, but unfortunately, it didn't go in. In the 14th minute, Kagami skillfully evaded the opponent on the right side and crossed, but once again, Okamoto's header shot, completely free, was saved by the goalkeeper's fantastic reaction. Unable to score in decisive chances, a heavy atmosphere began to settle. In the 17th minute, Tokyo was caught off guard and equalized. Ichihara MF Enrique broke through the left side with a skillful feint and crossed. Lin, who came on in the second half, jumped in and scored with a powerful volley. Tokyo, who had been overwhelmingly pushing forward, scored in just one chance. After this, the momentum shifted to Ichihara. In the 24th minute, Ichihara FW Takeda easily passed Tokyo DF Furukawa, who had been completely held back until then, with one touch and scored from an angleless position. In the end, Takeda's only job of the day was this, but I felt like I was reminded of the word "striker" once again. After that, Wada, who came on as a substitute, was sent off in just 2 minutes, and the game was in Ichihara's pace. However, Tokyo fought with intense fighting spirit without showing any signs of being one player short until the end. The game ended with a score of 1-2, and Tokyo shed tears of lack of scoring ability despite shooting more than twice as much as Ichihara. In the second game (away) on 6/19, they want to win by a difference of two goals or more and advance to the third round at once. (Engels coach's comment) We lost in terms of the game content, and it was not satisfactory in terms of technique, but I am satisfied that they played a spirited game. It is certainly tough without 5 regular players, but the players fought well. (Coach Ookuma's comment) We were able to play the soccer we wanted to some extent, but it was painful that we couldn't score in scoring opportunities. Both goals were due to not being able to fully grasp the marking, so I want to study it this week for next week. I think the players did their best until the end without giving up.