Betting on victory! Match against Shimizu S-Pulse

　1st stage of the 13th section. Today, we will play against Shimizu S-Pulse, who is currently in 12th place, at home at Ajinomoto Stadium. Tokyo is in high spirits after a splendid come-from-behind victory in the Nabisco Cup held on the 16th of last week (Wednesday). Although there are concerns about fatigue from consecutive matches, everyone understands that we cannot afford to lose a single victory as we approach the climax of the stage.

　However, this time Amaral is suspended, so Abé will start as the top player. On the bench, we have Kajiyama, who continued from last week's Nabisco Cup, as well as Wu, who will make his league debut, and other young members. We will all come together and strive for victory. On the other hand, Shimizu had a rough start in the league, struggling with system experiments, but in the Kashima game after the break, their 3-back defense kept a clean sheet, and former Tokyo FW TUTO scored 2 goals for a complete victory. It should be a big blow to be without TUTO due to injury this time, but they have a reputation for their attacks centered around FW An Jung-hwan and using the wings of MF Mitsuo and Ichikawa. They will also come to the Nabisco Cup with a fully prepared stance. This important game for both teams to climb up the rankings started at 7:04 PM with Shimizu's kickoff.

Both unable to seize the opportunity

　3 minutes into the game, Tokunaga and Ishikawa start a series of crosses from the right side, but Toda and Kelly fail to finish the attack inside the penalty area. In the 5th minute, Shimizu launches an attack. Doi deflects Mito's early cross, and Yasu picks up the loose ball, passes it to the right side, and advances into the area, but his header misses the target. In the 13th minute, a long pass from the intercept by Shimizu's defense line to Yasu on the right side. Ito, who joined the attack, receives the ball and sends a cross to the center, but no one can finish it. In the 18th minute, Mito clears a sharp cross from the left side. In the 19th minute, Tokunaga sends a cross after exchanging passes with Ishikawa, but no one can connect with it. In the 20th minute, Jean jumps into the box to meet a free kick obtained outside the right area, but it is offside. Conversely, in the 23rd minute, Yasu takes a direct shot in front of the goal area from Shimizu's forward Kitajima's cross, but it goes over the goal.

　Shimizu's attack, which connects carefully and puts passes into the front line, is defended safely by the DF, but Tokyo struggles to bring the ball into fast developments due to the lack of coordination between the combination after winning the ball. In the 25th minute, Miyazawa's through pass after a central breakthrough seemed like a chance between Toda and Abe in front of the goal, but the opponent's DF cleared it and escaped to a corner kick. In the 26th minute, Ishikawa cut inside to the center and passed to the front line. Abe, who received the ball, took a shot while being marked by two DFs, becoming the first shot of the day.

Although aiming for a goal from a stable defense

　In the 31st minute, Shimizu DF Emerson's clear ball passed through the front line, and Doi cleared it outside the penalty area. Mitomo, who picked up the loose ball, aimed for the goal with a floating ball, but Shigeki covered it perfectly and cleared it. Tokyo gradually gained rhythm from solid defense, and in the 33rd minute, Kanazawa overlapped with a pass from Miyazawa to the left side and shot directly. In the 35th minute, Toda jumped in near the FK from the right side, but couldn't capture the goal. In the 41st minute, Abbe chest-trapped a cross sent by Shigeki, and shot directly, but it was saved by the goalkeeper. In the attack, both teams occasionally showed their strengths, but overall it was a low-key performance, and they headed into the second half.

　In the 47th minute of the second half, a pass was sent to Toda, who broke through the back of the Kanazawa DF, and Abe → Ishikawa connected the return pass, but no shot was made. In the 48th minute, Kelly regained the ball in the opponent's territory and received a yellow card for rough play (accumulated suspension for the next 2 matches). However, without being discouraged, immediately in the 49th minute, Toda intercepted the ball in his own territory. A quick attack was launched and a pass from Abe on the left side for a big side change was sent to Ishikawa on the right. Kelly and Toda combined in the center with Ishikawa's cross, but unfortunately, they were blocked by the DF and GK.

Kajiyama and Wu are brought in as substitutes to try to break the deadlock, but...

　In the 56th minute, BABA was substituted for TODA. In the 60th minute, a counterattack was launched from JEAN to KELLY, and a pass was made to ISHIKAWA who broke through the back of the right side with excellent timing. ABE jumped into the cross, but couldn't make the shot. In the 61st minute, SHIMIZU substituted HIRAMATSU for KITAJIMA. In the 67th minute, from a free kick near the right side goal line, defender TAKAGI shot from far, but JEAN blocked it and escaped with a corner kick. From this corner kick, TAKAGI headed for a shot inside the right area. However, it was blocked by the crossbar and TOKYO escaped the danger.

　Tokyo, which does not allow goals with stable defense, tends to have monotonous attacks and cannot finish. In the 68th minute, Kajiyama replaced Abe and placed Kelly at the top, hoping for a rhythm change with the introduction of fresh players. In the 72nd minute, Kelly received a throw-in from Baba on the left side of the field and attempted an overhead kick, but it went wide to the right of the goal. In the 73rd minute, Shimizu's cross from the right side was cut off by Ichikawa. Shimizu tried to break through from the side with consecutive crosses from Hiramatsu after a throw-in, but Doi bravely came out and made a save.

　Shimizu continued to be pushed back, but in the 77th minute, Kelly persevered in front of the goal and passed to Kajiyama on the right side. Kajiyama sent a through pass to Kelly who had moved up in the area, and Kelly passed to Miyazawa on the left side. However, Miyazawa's shot, taken freely, missed the goal and did not result in a score.

　Tokyo, which bet on the remaining time, replaced Miyazawa with Wu in the 83rd minute. In the 86th minute, Kelly received a side change from Asari on the left side and dribbled towards the front line. However, the shot that cut back the defender inside the penalty area grazed the post and crossed the line, changing the cheers from the stands to sighs. Amidst the counterattacks, in the 89th minute, Kajiyama ran alone with the ball, but his final pass did not reach Ishikawa. In the end, both teams failed to capitalize on their chances and the match ended in a scoreless draw. Although they updated their record of being undefeated in 9 home games this season, including cup matches, it was a great opportunity to make a claim in the championship race if they had won, but they could only take a disappointing 1 point.

【Player Comments】《Kajiyama》"Before the game, all the players talked about the possibility of winning the championship if we win, and we approached the game with the determination to win. When I came on as a substitute, I tried to attack while keeping the ball with Kelly, but I was also nervous. I felt that we had to make the most of every chance."《Jean》"Regarding the defense, I was able to have good coordination with Shigemori on the side and in the midfield, and the balance was good. As for the attack, I was trying my best to take advantage of the chances even though the opponent's marking was tough. It's disappointing that we couldn't win, but we will continue to fight with all our strength until the end of the remaining matches and strive to improve so that we can connect more in the future."

[Summary of Manager Hara's Press Conference] "Since Amaral is suspended, we aimed to have players like Abe, Toda, and Ishikawa, who have speed, continuously make runs and tire out the opponents. Then, we would bring in players like Baba and Kajiyama, who have technique, to connect and score goals when the opponents are tired. We wanted to attack from both sides while spreading the ball more, but we couldn't. Shimizu also had tricky plays from An Jung-hwan, who appeared unexpectedly, and Kuboyama has been in good form since the previous match, so we had to be cautious of them. Mitsutomo and Ichikawa are strong players who can make the team move forward, so it was difficult to break through. We thought that if we tried to defend too much, we would be beaten, so we tried to use young players like Baba, Kajiyama, and Chan (Wu) and move forward. They showed signs of tension and made mistakes, but we also felt their potential. We wanted to get 3 points in this kind of game and somehow catch up with the top teams along with the players. It's disappointing that we couldn't do that. I realize once again that Amaral is a key player, but we need to score even without him and develop patterns. We have to improve our accuracy to reach the next level."

[Summary of Shimizu Ogi's press conference] "We couldn't win with a 0-0 score, but I think it was a very good game. From now on, I want to win games like this. The players worked hard and had the desire to win. I think what we have been doing so far is gradually paying off. The reason we couldn't score was because the precision, strength, and timing of the final play were off. We had a plan, but there were situations where we didn't enter near the cross, and there were inconsistencies. It's very disappointing to have a deficit in the 1st stage, but it's not over yet."