In the first half, there were scoring opportunities, but...

FC Tokyo, riding high on two consecutive opening wins, boldly launches attacks from both full-backs right from the start. In the 5th minute, a sharp interception by Umeyama leads to a cross from the right side by Sato Yu. Kagawa meets it with his head, but unfortunately misses the target. Then, in the 10th minute, a pass from Fujiyama, who held on well on the left side, goes to Amaral. Amaral delivers a superb looping pass that falls between the opposing goalkeeper and defense, allowing Sato Yu to break free and skillfully evade the goalkeeper to shoot. However, a fine play by the opposing defender prevented the goal. After that, Amaral's powerful left-footed shot hits the post, and they were unable to capitalize on several decisive chances, resulting in a back-and-forth battle.

Disrupting the rhythm against Niigata's solid defense

Niigata, also with two consecutive opening wins like Tokyo, responded with a sharp start and intense checking, using a style of solid defense followed by quick counterattacks. Especially, the two newly joined defensive midfielders this season tightly marked Almir, the key to the attack, and Sato Yuu, preventing them from connecting passes and gaining rhythm. As a result, their attacks became monotonous, often aiming long balls to Amaral's head. However, Amaral was closely marked by a newly joined large defender, and the goalkeeper had a wide defensive range and was strong against high balls, so the monotonous long-ball attacks did not unsettle the opponent. In the second half, the momentum shifted further to Niigata. Niigata thoroughly pressed in midfield, stealing the ball and launching quick counterattacks, quickly spreading to the sides to create chances with crosses. At the 33rd minute of the second half, the deadlock was finally broken. From a midfield scramble, a ball behind Tokyo's defense was contested by Komine and a Niigata forward, then passed to goalkeeper Horiike. This became a careless weak pass, and when the Niigata forward touched it a moment earlier, Horiike tackled and conceded a penalty kick. The penalty was easily converted, and Niigata finally took the lead.

Desperate attack at the end did not bear fruit...

Awakened by this, Tokyo switched to an all-out attack. In the 36th minute of the second half, they brought in the highly offensive MF Shinjo, creating a new starting point for attacks. Furthermore, they pushed DF Sandro up to the front line to try to gain control of the airspace. In the 41st minute of the second half, substitute Go KABURAKI took a powerful right-footed shot. However, the goalkeeper made a fine save, and no goal was scored. During stoppage time, they earned consecutive corner kicks and pressed close to the goal. Near the end, from a corner kick rebound, Yuu Sato took a shot but narrowly missed. Finally, the whistle blew to end the match. Although Tokyo outshot their opponent, they could not break through Niigata's well-organized defense and suffered their first home loss of the season. In the post-match press conference, Coach Okuma said, "We missed a clear chance in the first half, and when the mood turned sour, we unfortunately caused a self-inflicted (penalty kick). It's not about Niigata being strong or weak; in J2, the skill gap between teams is small, and no team should be considered special. I emphasize to the players the importance of fighting hard in every single match. We want to quickly fix the issues exposed in today's game before the next match against Kawasaki Frontale and move forward." Indeed, it is a painful loss, but only 3 of the 36 matches have been played so far. It is important to reset mentally.