Emperor's Cup opening, want to take the lead and show the difference in class

　The Emperor's Cup was held. The 4th round, which is the first match for J1 clubs, was played. Tokyo faced Bandeirante Kobe, the top team in the Kansai Society League, at Ajinomoto Stadium. They will face this season's final tournament with renewed determination. In the past, they have struggled against "lower-ranked" teams in the first match of the Emperor's Cup. Therefore, Manager Kuramata said that he wants to "fight with fresh players" in today's match, and he chose GK Shioda, left MF Abe, and right MF Kawaguchi as starters. "They have shown results in their usual training and training matches. It's not to rest the usual starters," he explained his intention. In addition, Ikegami was on the bench for the first time since the Nabisco Urawa match on May 17th. The DF line will be composed of Mochida and Jean, who are injured, and Masushima and Inonami as center backs.

　B Kobe, who won the Kansai Society League this season, will participate in the Emperor's Cup from the 1st round and have defeated V-Varen Nagasaki, Aichi Gakuin University, and J2 Yokohama FC one after another. There is no doubt that the team is in good shape. The two forwards to be wary of are FW Wada and Mori. They have speed and plenty of experience in the J-League. Morioka on the left side also used to play for G Osaka and has a strong presence. It is necessary to be careful of their attacks, which gather the ball to the two forwards from a solid defense and quickly launch a counterattack. Above all, they have nothing to lose and we want to fight without losing to their fighting spirit.

　Tokyo will need to break through B Kobe's defensive strategy. They will need to utilize the speed of players like Kawaguchi and Abe to challenge, and create a wave-like attack from the combination of Lucas and Baba without rushing. It will be a match where they must not lose in spirit, take control with their own style of soccer, and show the difference in class. The match started at exactly 1pm at Ajinomoto Stadium, where the weather was clear and the feeling of winter could be felt.

Starting with Masushima's goal, Lucas and Baba make the most of their chances!

　The game progressed at a Tokyo pace from the first half. However, B Kobe also pressed with a 4-4-2 formation, quickly turning to attack, and the start was not an easy development. In the second minute, B Kobe MF Kawasaki took a middle shot. In the fifth minute, B Kobe FW Mori crossed from the right side and FW Wada headed the shot. However, Tokyo dealt with it calmly. They also aggressively attacked after taking the ball, creating many chances from both sides. In the 11th minute, Kajiyama and Baba played a one-two, and Kajiyama passed a lob pass to the front line. Abe, who received it, shot overhead, but it narrowly missed to the right of the goal. In the 14th minute, from the right area, Tokunaga entered and changed sides to Lucas on the left side of the area. From here, Lucas aimed, but the shot went outside the frame.

　17 minutes have passed. When they got a left corner kick, Masushima hit the ball with his head and scored a goal! Tokyo, who scored the opening goal at the "desired time", calmed down and showed a stable game by avoiding the opponent's press. In the 19th minute, Baba's shot hit the bar. In the 23rd minute, B Kobe FW Mori entered the area and collided with Inonami, but this was a foul by FW Mori. In the 31st minute, a perfect through pass was sent from Baba to Abe, but the trap was too big and it went over the goal line.

　The second goal was scored in the 33rd minute. In the midfield, Imakono cut the ball and passed it to Abe, who dribbled into the open space. As soon as he saw the opponent's DF marking him, he made a good decision and passed it to Lucas, who was also moving up at the same time. Lucas then scored the second goal perfectly! In the 41st minute, B Kobe's MF Morioka intercepted a pass in the DF line and received a counter, but the last pass to FW Wada from MF Tsuyama was caught by Shioda. Then in the 43rd minute, Lucas on the right side persistently kept the ball. Abe, who received a pass in the center, boldly attacked and Baba, who followed up on the rebound, scored a goal! From Lucas on the side, Abe running into the center, Baba in the second row scored, and the lead was extended to a 3-point difference as the second half began.

Suzuki also scored 2 goals, leading to a massive 7-0 victory in the first game against a tough opponent!

　The second half also progressed in the B Kobe camp. Immediately after the start, Konno dribbled up and went to Kawaguchi on the right side of the area. Kawaguchi took advantage of his speed and took a shot, but it was saved by the opponent's GK. In the 48th minute, B Kobe was given two CKs, and Kamata took a middle shot from the loose ball, but it missed the frame. In the 50th minute, Baba, who had escaped from the front line, received a floating pass from Kajiyama and had a one-on-one with the GK, aiming for a shot from the left area and the ball went into the right side of the goal! They took the fourth goal to crush the morale of B Kobe's counterattack.

　Substituted Miyazawa for Kajiyama at 53 minutes. At 60 minutes, Miyazawa made a big side change from the left side of their own field. Received by Tokunaga, who dribbled up and shot, but the shot hit the bar...showing a dynamic attack. Immediately after this, Suzuki replaced Kawaguchi as left MF. Abe moved to the right. In the 62nd minute, from Tokunaga's right throw-in, Abe and Lucas connected with a header, and Suzuki, who followed up on the scramble in the area, calmly kicked it in for a goal!

　Vissel Kobe, with a stretched midfield and no pressure, completely dominated by Tokyo. In the 66th minute, Ikegami made his first appearance in an official match, replacing Baba. With Ikegami in the defensive midfield and Miyazawa moving up a line, they calmly passed the ball and threatened the goal multiple times. In the 69th minute, Vissel Kobe countered and MF Morioka took a shot, but Shioda caught it. Immediately after, Tokyo quickly connected passes and Suzuki moved up to the left side of the penalty area and took a shot with his left foot. The ball bounced in front of the goalkeeper and went in! Suzuki also scored two goals.

　Still not letting up on the attack, in the 72nd minute, Tokunaga cuts inside and from the chaos in front of the goal, Ikeda takes a bold shot from just outside the box. In the 76th minute, from a free kick in their own half, Abe quickly breaks through the front line and takes a shot. Although neither were able to find the target, they continued to actively push the game forward. In the 81st minute, B Kobe's MF Tsuyama sends a through pass to MF Shibasaki, but Inaba and Shioda work together to defend without any danger. Immediately after, Tsuyama's clearance is picked up and he takes a shot from outside the box, but Shioda saves it and it goes out for a corner kick.

　When they shut out B Kobe's attack, in the 85th minute, Lucas received a pass from Suzuki on the left and saw no pressure in front of him, so he took a middle shot from outside the area. The ball drew a beautiful arc and was sucked into the net, getting their 7th goal. Lucas finished it off with a beautiful goal, securing their first victory with a massive 7 goals. They safely advanced to the 5th round. In the next Emperor's Cup match, they will face Shimizu S-Pulse on December 9th (Sat) at Okayama Prefectural Athletics Stadium Momotaro Stadium.

　【Player Comments】《Shioda》"The score opened up, but it wasn't an easy game. I thought Tokyo would have more attacking time, so I focused on taking care of counters and balancing the holes left by attacking players. We were able to end the game without conceding, but it wasn't just me, the defense line worked hard and the forwards chased, which made it possible. We have struggled in the first round of the Emperor's Cup in the past, so we were only thinking about making it a solid win. Our form hasn't been great in the league and Nabisco Cup, so the only title left is the Emperor's Cup, and we want to go all out to win it."《Mashima》"In these types of games, the pattern is often that the opponent defends and scores on the counter. I had a long injury, but I finally got a chance and wanted to leave a result. Inaba and I were communicating and trying to cover for each other. (The opening goal) was a good ball, so I just had to finish it. I think we were able to relax and play after getting that goal. But the goal was like a bonus, I'm happy we were able to win without conceding."

　[Summary of Manager Kuramata's Press Conference] "I told the players that no matter who the opponent is, we have to enter the game firmly. We wanted to score early in the first half and play at our own pace. To be honest, we had chances to score earlier, so we wanted to take them and play at our own rhythm. However, we were leading 3-0 at halftime, so mentally it was easy. In the second half, the opponent would come out more aggressively to score, so we thought we could win if we scored a fourth goal. In the past, we always had a tough game in the first round of the Emperor's Cup. We ended up scoring 7 goals, and it was the biggest margin of victory, so I am satisfied. (Substitutions) Regarding Suzuki, I planned to bring him on in the middle of the second half. He has a powerful shot, so I wanted to give him some time to play. He ended up scoring 2 goals. Kajiyama had a slight injury to his thigh, so I didn't want to push him too hard. Baba also had an injury to his adductor muscle, so I brought on Ikegami and pushed Miyazawa forward. We have been practicing for this kind of situation since last week. (Did you spread out wide?) We wanted to create an attacking style where Lucas would be the focal point and run into the spaces on the left and right, and then make runs from the second line. The third goal was exactly that. We have been practicing this style all season and it resulted in a goal. Of course, we are aiming to win the Emperor's Cup. In that sense, the next game against Shimizu will be a hurdle. We have lost 6 games in a row since losing to Shimizu in the league, so we have some regrets. We want to beat Shimizu no matter what and aim for the top."

　[Summary of Bandionse Kobe Hashimoto's press conference] "We were shown the reality. Both myself and the players cannot make excuses, and we were clearly shown the difference in level. We want to sincerely accept the results. Our initial plan was to continue without conceding goals, just like the previous match against Yokohama FC. However, we conceded a goal from a mistake and couldn't recover. We talked about how mistakes will always lead to goals in J1 level, and we tried to approach the game with our own plan, but we ended up with this result. We created some decisive chances in our attack, but it's still lacking. We need more depth, so we want to make it a future challenge. In defense, there were some unclear situations regarding which side the full-backs and wing-backs should cover when FC Tokyo's players came inside or spread out. There were also communication issues and slow reactions, which caused confusion when the opponent came at us with such speed. We gave instructions to stay calm and improve the quality and accuracy of our play. Communication issues have been a challenge for our team so far. We have a corporate tournament in two weeks, so we want to make adjustments. Our team's plan is based on the individual skills, mentality, and physical condition of each player. We believe that individual improvement leads to a strong team. Today, we made a lot of mistakes. The difference in quality and decision-making when stopping, kicking, and running was evident. In the match against Yokohama FC, we were able to compete in terms of quality and accuracy, but today, we have a plan to reach the JFL stage. This game made us realize that we need to work harder. We want to take this as a good experience and make adjustments so that we can look back on today's game as a good one."