J.League resumes from the Nabisco Cup! Challenging Kashiwa away

　J.League, which has been suspended since May 24th, will resume from today's Nabisco Cup. The Nabisco Cup is entering its 5th round, and the qualifying league is also reaching its climax. Tokyo is currently leading Group B, but they are tied with Yokohama F.Marinos in 2nd place and Vegalta Sendai in 3rd place, all with 7 points. It is a crucial match that they cannot afford to lose in order to advance to the knockout stage. On the other hand, Kashiwa is in 4th place with only 1 point. It is a difficult situation to aim for a top 2 finish, but depending on today's result, there is also a possibility of elimination from the qualifying league, so they will surely show their determination not to easily lose.

　In addition to focusing on the outcome, it is also a highlight of today's match to see how much we can demonstrate our achievements during the break period. It is also important in order to enter the league matches in a good shape. The long-awaited game took place at the away Kashiwa Soccer Field in the cold rainy season, and kicked off at 7:00 PM.

Shoot aggressively, but...

　Tokyo is lined up in a 4-4-2 formation. Amaral is up front, Abe is in the center, and Kelly is positioned on the left side, freely moving around. On the other hand, although the lineup for Kashiwa is also a 4-4-2, Marcinho is at the top, and Tamada and Ju Se-jong are positioned on the sides, forming a formation close to a 4-3-3.

　Both teams aggressively go for the ball from the start. In the 1st minute, Amaral of Tokyo heads in a cross from Ishikawa on the right side. In the 3rd minute, Marcio of Kashiwa receives a cross from Nagai, the right back, and attempts a header shot. However, both teams end up floating the ball. Tokyo gradually finds its rhythm from direct passes and in the 9th minute, Miura sends a through pass to Amaral who breaks through the front line, but is called offside. In the 11th minute, Amaral steals the ball on the right side of the midfield and quickly launches a counter-attack. Kelly passes a through ball to Abe in front of the goal with a good tempo. Abe takes a powerful shot from outside the penalty area, but it is saved by the Kashiwa goalkeeper, Minami, and goes out for a corner kick. In the 13th minute, Ishikawa passes to Kelly in the center, who then passes to the side, and Kaji delivers an early cross. Kelly again connects in the center, creating a decisive scene, but the shot goes over the goal. In the 15th minute, Miura and Kelly link up in front of the goal and Amaral runs in to take a middle shot, but it is caught by the goalkeeper.

Intense back and forth play

　Both teams fiercely contested the midfield, and in the 23rd minute, Kashiwa's left back Tanoue received a yellow card for stopping Kagawa's breakthrough. With this play, Kashiwa earned a free kick, and midfielder Ricardinho attacked the goal with a powerful kick from just outside the penalty area on the left. In the 26th minute, Marcio dribbled up from the halfway line and Juicie took the final pass and shot. In the 27th minute, Ricardinho took a shot from a free kick. Although none of these shots resulted in a goal due to excellent saves by Doi, Kashiwa's shots were accurately aimed at the goal and showed high precision.

　Tokyo approaches the Kashiwa goal with a wide pass play from the central Ishikawa to the right Kelly to the left side Kanazawa, but there are also scenes where they struggle to attack against the Kashiwa DF who solidly defends the goal front with Shimodaira, the defensive midfielder, dropping back. From around this time, the position was changed by (Manager Hara) to "Kelly in the center, Abe on the left" because "Abe often lost the ball in the center."

　In the midfield battle, both teams continued to attack and defend, with neither side gaining an advantage. In the 34th minute, Ishikawa showed strong defense and stole the ball, with Miura providing support. Miura sent a strong ball to the front, but the opponent's defender blocked it. Miyazawa picked up the loose ball and took a free shot, but it missed the target. In the 34th minute, Shigeki received a yellow card for intense play against Mobata. In the 35th minute, Amalao trapped Kaji's early cross and took a shot, but it went wide to the right of the goal. In the 39th minute, Kashiwa connected a right corner kick, and Jusie entered the right area and took a shot. It hit a defender and resulted in another corner kick. From the chaos in front of the goal, Marcio attempted an overhead shot, but Tsuchi caught it firmly, and the first half ended with both teams scoreless.

Unable to create decisive scenes together, ending in a draw

　The instructions from Manager Hara towards the second half were "Compact the midfield more and don't let the opponent have an easy time with the ball. When we regain possession, let's connect simply and use the spaces on both sides. Let's send in fast balls from the sides." However, they were unable to dominate the ball easily due to the aggressive attacks from Tamada and Marcio, who were lured by Ricardinho's passes. In the 49th minute, they cut off Kashiwa's attack at the defensive line and quickly brought the ball forward, but Kelly's shot was blocked by the defender. In the 52nd minute, Abe intercepted the ball in the enemy's territory and took a shot after dribbling himself. In the 56th minute, Ishikawa dribbled from the right side and entered the area to take a shot, but both shots were caught by the goalkeeper.

　It became a back and forth of interceptions and missed passes, gradually leading to a game with many fouls. In the 71st minute, Kashiwa connected with Jushie and Ricardinho through quick passing in front of the goal, and then to Tanoue on the left side. From here, Marcio headed the ball into the far side of the goal from a cross. It was a decisive moment, but Jean cleared the ball and the danger was averted. Tokyo, who had been unable to create chances as Kashiwa picked up loose balls, made substitutions in the 72nd minute, replacing Abe with Toda, and in the 77th minute, replacing Amaral with Suzuki. They took the strategy of stirring up the front line with fresh players.

　However, the development was interrupted by fouls, and both teams lacked the finishing touch. In the 84th minute, Miyazawa made an early cross from the left side, and Toda headed the ball in on the far side. In the 88th minute, Suzuki sprinted down the left side and Kelly had a free header from the cross, but both shots missed the target. In stoppage time, Kelly passed the ball to Kaji on the right side after receiving it from Ishikawa. Suzuki headed the cross, but it was not a clean hit, and the game ended. It ended in a scoreless draw. Tokyo took 1 point away from home, but their qualification for the knockout stage will be carried over to the 6th round of the qualifying league against Sendai.

【Player Comments】《Doi》"Before the first game after the break, we talked as a team about playing as usual and keeping it simple. We knew we had to be careful with Ricardinho, who we faced for the first time this season. As expected, they attacked us through him, but Tokyo's defense held their ground and played decisively. I think we defended well."《Miyazawa》"As a defensive midfielder, I had to push forward to break through. However, in the second half, the overall performance became sluggish and we couldn't pick up loose balls. The opponent's one-on-one marking was strong, but even so, I felt that we needed to move the ball faster and use the center and sides effectively. I want to correct our weaknesses and approach the league matches."

[Summary of Manager Hara's Press Conference] "After a long break, the key was how we could get into the game. We have also prepared well, but Kashiwa came at us aggressively. In particular, their forwards - Marcinho, Jucilei, and Tamada - made frequent movements in and out of the front line, making it difficult for us to develop the game as we wanted. In the first half, we were able to create good opportunities from one-twos and counterattacks, and Kelly and Abe had a few chances. As a team, we want to score goals in those situations. We wanted to get 3 points, but we will take the 1 point positively and make adjustments to prepare for the league matches."

[Summary of Kashiwa Aurelio's press conference] "Both Kashiwa and FC Tokyo gave their all and it was a very balanced and good game. Kashiwa was able to mark well, took advantage of few chances and created opportunities, and moved well. The two fullbacks are players who don't usually play in this position, but they worked hard. The team also played well together. It was a game that FC Tokyo absolutely had to win, but Kashiwa also stuck to their game and I think it was a very good game."