Nabisco Cup Opening. Seize the Chance!

　The Nabisco Cup also kicks off this season. This year, it will be held by 16 teams from J1, divided into 4 groups. The teams will first compete in a home and away qualifying league, with the top 2 teams from each group advancing to the final tournament. It will be a long tournament until autumn, but this qualifying league will be held during the J1 league's break period, alongside the activities of the Japan national team. This is truly a tournament where the emergence of "new heroes" is eagerly awaited.

　FC Tokyo, which enters Group B, will face Shimizu S-Pulse in the opening match. The starting members are DF=Kaji, Jean, Ito, and Fujiyama. In the midfield, Shimohira and Miyazawa. On the right MF, Ishikawa, who recently transferred from F. Marinos, and on the left, Toda. Kelly as the attacking midfielder, and Fukuda as the lone striker. Following the 7th round of the league, "I want to convey an attacking attitude to the players" (Manager Hara) and approached this match without a backup GK.

Tokyo shows an aggressive attitude and takes the lead with a powerful shot from Miyazawa!

　From the start, Kelly aggressively creates attacking opportunities from the right side. In the 3rd minute, a perfect cross is sent into the box, but just misses Toda. In the 6th minute, Miyazawa takes a shot after connecting a free kick from the right side. In the 11th minute, Kelly, Fukuda, and Miyazawa combine after a side change, with Miyazawa taking a shot from the middle. Their attacking determination shines through, showing a strong attacking presence.

　On the other hand, at 17 minutes, FW Yokoyama, who ran up to the front line, hit the post, and Baron, who ran in from behind, took a shot. It narrowly missed the left goal, but it showed the fear of taking even a momentary chance and turning it into a scoring opportunity.

　However, in the 19th minute, Tokyo's Fukuda accurately dropped the pass from Kelly on the right side in front of the goal, and Miyazawa ran in and swung his left foot, hitting the bar with a powerful shot, but the rebound hit the back of the keeper and went in! They took the lead, disrupting Shimizu's attempt to counterattack.

Ishikawa's great play shines shortly after his transfer, stealing an additional point!

　In the 20th minute just after the opening goal, Ishikawa dribbled in from the right side and took a shot. In the 22nd minute, this time Fujiyama attacked from the left side and earned a corner kick. In the 25th minute, a perfectly timed cross from Kaji flew over the defense and landed at the feet of Kelly, who ran in for a shot. The ball narrowly missed the crossbar, but threatened the Shizuoka goal.

　There were scenes where the ball was lost due to lack of coordination, but there were also numerous instances of combination plays, such as a through pass from Ishikawa to Fukuda, a cross from Toda to Ishikawa, and a pass from Kaji to Fukuda. The defense also remained focused, and even when Baron's header shot in the 42nd minute was saved by Tsuchi, it resulted in a corner kick.

　And in the 44th minute just before the end of the first half, Ishikawa broke through on the right side and received a pass from Toda, then dribbled with speed and faced the GK one-on-one. Finally, he drew the defender and sent a final pass to the center, where Kelly scored the goal. They added a goal at the best possible time and headed into the second half.

Baba and Fukuda get the third goal from the best combination! Furetto

　Shortly after the start of the second half, Shimizu MF Sawato took a chance and shot, boldly trying to counterattack. However, there was no "fear" for Shimizu, who had lost key players such as Mitsushu and Ichikawa, and Tokyo's defense remained calm and responded. They did not allow any decisive chances. In the 61st minute, Baron hit a header from a long air time from Shimizu's right side MF Hiramatsu's cross, but Doi made a save just before it could go in. Supported by the defense's great play, Tokyo controlled the ball.

　As the time spent keeping the ball increased, the chances for shots decreased. In the 68th minute, Toda was replaced by Baba, and in the 73rd minute, Ishikawa was replaced by Hoshi. By using substitutions effectively, the attacking mindset did not waver.

　And at the 78th minute, Bamba saw that there was no pressure in the midfield, so he dribbled up and sent a perfect through pass that seemed to guide Fukuda, who was trying to break through the defense. Fukuda calmly finished the ball and scored! The combination of Bamba, who had just returned from injury, and Fukuda created a much-needed additional goal, pushing Shimizu further behind.

　In stoppage time, Ito and Shimizu MF Sawato get tangled up in the penalty area and give away a penalty, but Sawato's shot hits the crossbar. Helped by the opponent's mistake, we achieve a comfortable 3-0 victory!

　In particular, young players who were given a chance by Manager Hara played freely and stretched themselves. And they produced "results" and made the best start in the first match of the Nabisco Cup.

[Summary of Manager Hara's Press Conference] "It feels like we finally won after a long time (bitter smile). We have many injured players, and even though our performance was not bad, we couldn't score and ended up conceding from counter attacks in our previous games. However, I have been telling my players that our direction is not wrong, and we should continue playing our current style of soccer and score when we have the chance. I also emphasized the need to be more persistent when defending against counter attacks. We didn't change our attacking style just because we lost or conceded, and we approached this Nabisco Cup with the intention of continuing to play attacking soccer. I was worried when we couldn't score in the first half, but Miyazawa scored one goal and Ishikawa scored another just before the end of the first half, which was a great way to add to our lead. I think we had a good game. It's true that Shimizu S-Pulse had many injured players and their performance may have been lower than usual. However, we won our first game, and especially with Ishikawa and Baba providing assists and Fukuda scoring a goal, our young players are growing and we were able to start the Nabisco Cup on a good note."