Nabisco Cup Opening. Seize the Opportunity!

　The Nabisco Cup kicks off this season as well. This year, it will be held with 16 teams from J1, divided into 4 groups, starting with a home-and-away preliminary league, where the top 2 teams from each group will advance to the knockout stage. It will be a long tournament lasting until autumn, but this preliminary league will take place during the break of the J1 league, alongside the activities of the Japan national team. It is truly a tournament where the emergence of "new heroes" is eagerly anticipated.

　FC Tokyo is in Group B, and their opening match will be against Shimizu S-Pulse. The starting members are DF = Kaji, Jean, Ito, Fujiyama. The defensive midfielders are Shimohira and Miyazawa. On the right, Ishikawa, who recently transferred from F. Marinos, and on the left, Toda. Kelly is positioned as an attacking midfielder, with Fukuda as the lone striker. Following the 7th round of the league, Coach Hara stated, "I want to convey an attacking mindset to the players," and approached this match without including a backup goalkeeper.

Tokyo shows an aggressive attitude, taking the lead with a powerful shot from Miyazawa!

　From the start, Kaji creates an attacking shape from the right side with aggressive movements. In the 3rd minute, he sends a superb cross in front of the goal, but it just misses Toda. In the 6th minute, Miyazawa connects a free kick earned on the right side and takes a shot. In the 11th minute, after a switch from Miyazawa, Kelly connects with Fukuda, and finally, Miyazawa takes a middle-range shot, showcasing their proactive attacking play and demonstrating a good attacking shape.

　On the other hand, in the 17th minute, forward Yokoyama surged forward to become the target, and Baron, who ran in from behind, took a shot. It narrowly missed to the left of the goal, but it showed the frightening ability to create a scoring opportunity in an instant.

　However, in the 19th minute, Tokyo's Kelly passed from the right side to Fukuda in front of the goal, who accurately redirected it to Miyazawa running in, and although his powerful left-footed shot hit the crossbar, the rebound struck the goalkeeper's back and went into the goal! Taking the lead, they thwarted Shimizu's attempt to counterattack.

Ishikawa's excellent play shortly after the transfer shines, scoring an additional goal!

　In the 20th minute, just after taking the lead, Ishikawa dribbled in from the right side and took a shot. In the 22nd minute, Fujiyama attacked from the left side and earned a corner kick. In the 25th minute, Kaji delivered a perfect cross to Fukuda, who broke through the defense at just the right moment, and Kelly ran in to take a shot. The ball went over the bar, but it threatened the Shimizu goal.

　There were moments when they lost the ball due to a lack of coordination, but there were also instances of combination play, such as the through pass from Ishikawa to Fukuda, the cross from Toda to Ishikawa, and the play from Kaji to Fukuda. The defense also maintained their focus, and in the 42nd minute, Baron’s headed shot was deflected by Doi for a corner kick.

　Then, just before the end of the first half, in the 44th minute, Ishikawa broke free on the right side, received a pass from Toda, and charged forward with a speedy dribble to go one-on-one with the goalkeeper. In the end, he drew the marker and sent a final pass to the center, where Kelly finished it off with a goal. They scored an additional point at the best possible moment and headed into the second half.

Baba and Fukuda scored the third goal from the best combination! Frett

　Shortly after the second half began, Shimizu MF Sawatari saw an opportunity and took a shot, bravely attempting to counterattack. However, without key players like Mito and Ichikawa, Shimizu lacked 'fear', and Tokyo's defense responded calmly, preventing any decisive chances. In the 61st minute, Shimizu's right-side MF Hiramatsu delivered a cross that Baron headed with a long hang time, but just before it could go in, Doih saved it. Supported by the solid performance of the defense, Tokyo maintained control of the ball.

　Conversely, while the time spent keeping possession has increased, the opportunities for shots have decreased. In the 68th minute, Baba was brought in to replace Toda, and in the 73rd minute, Hoshi was brought in to replace Ishikawa. By effectively utilizing substitutions, the attacking stance remains strong.

　Then, in the 78th minute, Baba, seeing that there was no pressure in the midfield, dribbled forward and sent a perfectly threaded through ball to Fukuda, who was trying to break behind the defense. Fukuda calmly finished this ball into the goal! The combination of Baba, returning from injury, and Fukuda produced a delightful additional goal, pulling away from Shimizu.

　In stoppage time, Ito and Shimizu MF Sawatobi got tangled in the penalty area, resulting in a penalty kick being awarded, but the ball kicked by Sawatobi went over the bar. Thanks to the opponent's mistake, we achieved a comfortable victory with a score of 3 to 0!

　In particular, the young players who were given opportunities by Coach Hara played freely. They produced solid "results" and made the best start in the first match of the Nabisco Cup.

[Summary of Coach Hara's Press Conference] "It feels like we finally won after a long time (bitter smile). We had many injuries, and even though the performance wasn't bad, we couldn't score and continued to concede goals from counterattacks. However, I told the players that the direction is not bad at all, and we should continue with our current style of football while being decisive in front of goal. Also, I mentioned that we need to be a bit more resilient when we are countered. We approached this Nabisco Cup with the mindset of continuing our attacking football, not changing just because we lost or conceded goals. Today, I was worried because we couldn't score in the first half, but Miyazawa scored one goal, and just before the end of the first half, Ishikawa broke free and scored another in a good situation, so I think we had a good match. It's true that Shimizu S-Pulse was weaker than usual due to missing national team players and having many injuries. However, winning the first match, especially with assists from Ishikawa and Baba, and Fukuda scoring, shows that our young players are developing, and I believe we had a good start in the Nabisco Cup."