The true identity of excitement and his interior
When I finished watching the debut of "Albert Tokyo", who overwhelmed the J1 champion Kawasaki Frontale, I suddenly felt a nostalgic sensation.
Huh? I remember feeling this excited during the new coach's first game before.
I remembered it was an event that happened exactly 20 years ago. In the opening match of the 2002 season against Kashima Antlers, "Harato Tokyo" led by new coach Hiromi HARA, astonishingly defeated the championship contender with a score of 4-2.
However, to be precise, the contents of excitement are different.
The excitement of "Harato Tokyo" was a mysterious excitement of "What will happen to this team?", but in the case of "Albert Tokyo", it is a sense of exhilaration that comes from being able to imagine the future of the team.
With a clear design plan, the team is designed so that the final form can be imagined. That design plan is none other than the positional play promoted by Coach Albert PUIG ORTONEDA.
Take the appropriate position while watching the opponent, and dominate the ball and the game with an advantage on both offense and defense.
If center back Henrique Trevisan can repeatedly take advantage of gaps in the opponent's defensive block and carry the ball, both Ryoma Watanabe and Ryoya Ogawa on the fullback positions can sneak into the spaces left open on the inside of the opponent's defensive block, becoming key points in the attack. In the second half, it was the impression that Tokyo dominated the game throughout.
Love the ball——.
The slogan raised by Coach Albert PUIG ORTONEDA is this: "Treat the ball gently like a lover."
If you love someone, you must treat them with care. That means trapping carefully and delivering accurately to your teammate's feet.
Of course, loving the ball is not only during attacks, but also in situations where the ball is not held. Is there a man who, after having his beloved taken away, just stands there and watches? If you love it, take it back immediately!
The mechanism for efficient ball recovery has already been implemented. The standing position when holding the ball leads directly to the standing position when immediately regaining possession - that is also the advantage of positional play. The awareness of quick recovery was already instilled in the previous system. The reason why Tokyo pushed Kawasaki back, despite some mistakes in "stopping and kicking", lies here.
If Leandro had scored, there could have been a big victory. If I had to pick one player who felt the potential in this game, it would be him from Interiol.
18-year-old rookie, Kuryu MATSUKI? No no, it's Shuto ABE.
Always be where you should be, and show your face where you want to be. Although there is a tendency to move too much due to past habits, he has just started to learn positional play. It seems that he is already able to watch the opponent and play soccer, and grasp the key points of his position.
The scene at the 40th minute was impressive, where they took advantage of the opponent's defensive line and drew out Diego OLIVEIRA's through pass, but even more spectacular was the attack at the 72nd minute.
This scene started with a goal kick from goalkeeper Jakub Slowik. Ogawa → Henrique Trevisan → Slowik → Leandro → Hirotaka Mita → Abe → Takuya Aoki → Ogawa → Kensuke Nagai → Diego Oliveira → Abe, brilliantly connecting and conquering the opponent's penalty area pocket.
During the sequence, Abe regained his position while securing his field of vision with a back step, and then ran up to the half space and jumped into the area to call for a pass.
Of course, the positioning and judgment of players like Ogawa and Nagai cannot be overlooked. In the scene where Abe was brought down, it appears that the opponent's defender, Shogo Taniguchi, had a hand in it, but there is no point in complaining about what has already happened.
<77th minute scene where the opponent's penalty area was conquered>
Pocket strategy from the half space is a specialty of Kawasaki, Yokohama F.Marinos, and even Manchester City. It can be said that this is the ideal attack that Albert Tokyo aims for.
Imagining the near future and getting excited is not just about the team.
Did you imagine it while watching the Kawasaki game? There may be fans and supporters who did. As Abe, who learned to play soccer by watching the opponent, enters the scene with Terry and Tanaka, who serve as interior players for the Japan national team.
The unfortunate thing is that despite playing such a good game, the result did not follow. For example, when looking back at the record collection 10 years later, this match will only be remembered as a 0-1 loss. That's why I want to keep the excitement I felt at Todoroki that night in my heart.
It was a night where it was conveyed that above all, the players were playing energetically and having fun.
Text by Atsushi Iio (Sports Writer)
