Let's restart the J-League!

After about a month, the J1 League resumed. Sec. 11 will be an away game against Yokohama F.Marinos. During this break, F.Marinos changed their coach and new coach Shimozono took over from Mr. Ardiles. However, today they will be missing Nakamura, Komura, Shiroyama who is suspended, and Tahara who is participating in the World Youth Championship. Tokyo, on the other hand, only managed a "typical" draw with 3 goals scored and 3 goals conceded in the previous Nabisco Cup game against Hiroshima. They will want to show the results of the break here. Although it may be an unexpected match between 12th place Tokyo and 13th place F.Marinos, both teams will want to use this as an opportunity to climb up the rankings. It is expected to be an intense game.

F. Marinos continue to struggle in attack...

Tokyo creates chances early on. Right after kickoff, Kelly steals the ball in midfield and passes it to Seigo Kobayashi on the left. Kobayashi overtakes Kelly and runs behind the DF line, receiving the ball again and cutting back to shoot. Although the shot is caught by F. Marinos GK Kawaguchi, it was an impressive attack.

However, it was F. Marinos who took control of the pace from there. They quickly connected passes with fast vertical passes after stealing the ball with intense pressure, and MF Hirama frequently broke through Tokyo's right side. In the 13th minute, after a direct pass from Hato to Nagayama on the right side, Hato once again charged into the penalty area to try and take a shot. The Tokyo DF persistently closed in, but MF Ueno came up from behind to provide support and send in a cross, showing a strong attack.

Tokyo also launched a counterattack in the 14th minute, with Kelly leading the way and Sato running up the left side and crossing it into the middle. Kelly ran into the goal area and took a shot, which could have been a decisive moment, but was stopped by a nice save from GK Kawaguchi, foreshadowing the difficulty of scoring in today's game.

After that, Tokyo struggled with FW Kishima's speed and committed multiple fouls. In the 20th minute, Kobayashi accurately judged the offside line and reacted to a pass from Asari behind him, crossing the ball and earning a corner kick. However, Naito's header missed the goal. Tokyo tried to counterattack with Amaral dropping back to create opportunities, but they were unable to create any chances. F. Marinos continued to push Tokyo back with their aggressive attacking style.

Don't miss the chance! 2 goals with Amaral's skills!!

However, the goal came in an unexpected way. In the 29th minute, a long back pass from the shallow defensive line of F. Marinos reached GK Kawaguchi, but Amaral quickly chased after it and stole the ball from under Kawaguchi's feet. Although Amaral was initially pushed out to the goal line and Kawaguchi returned to his position, there was no one to stop Amaral and he scored from a difficult angle, shaking the back of the net!

Tokyo gains momentum with this. In the 32nd minute, Naito sends a long pass from the back and Kelly heads it back, Amaral traps it with his chest, evades the approaching defender and takes a volley shot! It was an artistic super shot by Amaral, but it goes straight to Kawaguchi. However, the shot was so powerful that Kawaguchi had to push it forward, and Amaral takes another shot at the rebound. But Kawaguchi's quick reaction prevents a chance for an additional goal. In the 40th minute, Sato breaks through the left side and Kelly, who is free in the center, tries a forceful shot, but the ball narrowly misses the goal to the left.

It was a tense period, but as the remaining time decreased, both teams slowed down their pace. In the 43rd minute, when it seemed like the game would end as it was, Naito sent a long ball and the opponent's defender headed it back to the goalkeeper. Once again, Amaral predicted the drop point of the ball and ran in, easily scoring with his right foot. Although Kawaguchi managed to touch the ball, it still went into the goal, drawing a big arc. Following his first goal, Amaral's sharp reading and good positioning led to another goal, showing his ability to not miss a single chance.

Keep a clean sheet and grab a shutout victory!

In the second half, F. Marinos, who launched a counterattack, had a drive shot from Kijima in the 48th minute. However, Tokyo also showed an attacking form where Kobayashi on the left dribbled and rushed into the middle after a big side change from Sato, and Asari followed up in the space. F. Marinos, who had shown intense movement from the first half, tried to break through with substitutions, but with Nagayama moving to the left, the left side of Tokyo, which had been struggling with the combination of Hayato in the first half, "became easier (Kobayashi)".

Still, F.Marinos kept pushing with Kishima leading the way and in the 62nd minute, he cut through the DF multiple times in the penalty area and took a shot. One of them was deflected by Doi, but Asari, who was covering, calmly cleared it. After that, Kishima repeatedly attempted to break through the penalty area, but Tokyo's final line of defense remained strong and did not give any decisive chances. However, even when they managed to steal the ball, Tokyo's overall push was slow and they struggled to move the ball forward. In the 66th minute, they substituted Kaga for the injured Sato, and in the 75th minute, they brought in Tetsuya Ito for Naito.

F. Marinos also put in FW Leandro in the 78th minute, replacing Kijima who had decreased in physicality, in an attempt to gather the ball at the top.

In response, Tokyo made a substitution in the 83rd minute, replacing Shimodaira with Kina. The rhythm improved and in the 85th minute, Kina caught up to a ball played wide to the left and crossed it. Kaga was lured in front of the goal, and Lori made a run and took a shot, but the ball unfortunately hit the post.

In the end, without any decisive factor, neither team was able to score a goal and the time was up. However, it was not a satisfactory performance, but they were able to defeat the start of the counterattack by the new F.Marinos and take 3 points with their first win since May 12th. They were unable to score in the flow of the game, but keeping a clean sheet was a great achievement. With this, they have moved up to 7th place in the rankings. There is no shortcut to rising up in the future, but this game showed that they must seize their chances and accumulate points to move forward.

[Coach Shimokou's comments] "The result was disappointing, but I think we were able to execute what we trained for in this short amount of time and get off to a good start. If we had scored during this time... Unfortunately, we conceded a goal from a mistake and lost our rhythm afterwards, which shows that we still have a lot to learn as a young team."

[Coach Okuma's comment] "At the beginning, I was worried that the team's concentration was lacking, but we gained momentum with the first goal and our physicality improved on both offense and defense. We want to aim for a team that can maintain this style of soccer, running long distances and beyond the front line, for the full 90 minutes, including the substitute members."